taste no praise till he had acquainted you in how short a space of time he had deserved it; and was not so much led to an ostentation of his art, as of his despatch. -Accipe si vis, -HOR.1 'This was the whole of his ambition; and therefore I cannot but think the flights of this rapid author very proper to be opposed to those long laborious nothings which you have observed were the delight of the German wits, and in which they so happily got rid of such a tedious quantity of their time. 'I have known a gentleman of another turn of humour, who, despising the name of an author, never printed his works, but contracted his talent, and by the help of a very fine diamond which he wore on his little finger, was a considerable poet upon glass. He had a very good epigrammatic wit; and there was not a parlour or tavern window where he visited or dined for some years, which did not receive some sketches or memorials of it. It was his misfortune at last to lose his genius and his ring to a sharper at play; and he has not attempted to make a verse since. 'But of all contractions or expedients for wit, I admire that of an ingenious projector whose book I have seen this virtuoso being a mathematician, has, according to his taste, thrown the art of poetry 1 2 I Sat. iv. 14. 2 John Peter published in 1678 a pamphlet, Artificial Versifying, a new way to make Latin verses.' Swift described a machine used in Laputa for making books (Gulliver's Travels,' part iii. chap. 5). in a short problem, and contrived tables by which any one, without knowing a word of grammar or sense, may, to his great comfort, be able to compose or rather to erect Latin verses. His tables are a kind of poetical logarithms, which being divided into several squares, and all inscribed with so many incoherent words, appear to the eye somewhat like a fortune-telling screen. What a joy must it be to the unlearned operator, to find that these words, being carefully collected and writ down in order according to the problem, start of themselves into hexameter and pentameter verses? A friend of mine, who is a student in astrology, meeting with this book, performed the operation by the rules there set down; he showed his verses to the next of his acquaintance, who happened to understand Latin; and being informed they described a tempest of wind, very luckily prefixed them, together with a translation, to an almanac he was just then printing, and was supposed to have foretold the last great storm.1 'I think the only improvement beyond this, would be that which the late Duke of Buckingham mentioned to a stupid pretender to poetry, as the project of a Dutch mechanic, viz. a mill to make verses. This being the most compendious method of all which have yet been proposed, may deserve the thought of our modern virtuosi who are employed in new discoveries for the public good; and it may be worth the while to consider whether, in an island where few are content without being thought wits, it will not be a common benefit that wit as well as labour should be made cheap. I am, SIR, Your humble Servant, &c.' 1 The storm of Nov. 26, 1703, whose effects were described in a book published by Defoe in 1704. 'Mr. SPECTATOR, 'I OFTEN dine at a gentleman's house, where there are two young ladies, in themselves very agreeable, but very cold in their behaviour, because they understand me for a person that is to break my mind, as the phrase is, very suddenly to one of them. But I take this way to acquaint them that I am not in love with either of them, in hopes they will use me with that agreeable freedom and indifference which they do all the rest of the world, and not to drink to one another, but sometimes cast a kind look, with their service to, SIR, Your humble Servant.' 'Mr. SPECTATOR, I AM a young gentleman, and take it for a piece of good breeding to pull off my hat when I see anything peculiarly charming in any woman, whether I know her or not. I take care that there is nothing ludicrous or arch in my manner, as if I were to betray a woman into a salutation by way of jest or humour; and yet except I am acquainted with her, I find she ever takes it for a rule, that she is to look upon this civility and homage I pay to her supposed merit as an impertinence or forwardness which she is to observe and neglect. I wish, sir, you would settle the business of salutation; and please to inform me how I shall resist the sudden impulse I have to be civil to what gives an idea of merit; or tell these creatures how to behave themselves in return to the esteem I have for them. My affairs are such, that your decision will be a favour to me, if it be only to save the unnecessary expense of wearing out my hat so fast as I do at present. I am, SIR, Yours, T. D. 'P.S.-There are some that do know me and won't bow to me.' T. No. 221. Tuesday, Nov. 13, 1711 W1 Usque ad mala [ADDISON. -ab ovo -HOR., I Sat. iii. 6. HEN I have finished any of my speculations, it is my method to consider which of the ancient authors have touched upon the sub ject that I treat of. By this means I meet with some celebrated thought upon it, or a thought of my own expressed in better words, or some similitude for the illustration of my subject. This is what gives birth to the motto of a speculation, which I rather choose to take out of the poets than the prose writers, as the former generally give a finer turn to a thought than the latter, and by couching it in few words and in harmonious numbers, make it more portable to the memory. My reader is therefore sure to meet with at least one good line in every paper, and very often finds his imagination entertained by a hint that awakens in his memory some beautiful passage of a classic author. It was a saying of an ancient philosopher,' which I 1 Diog. Laert., Book v. chap. 1. 251 find some of our writers have ascribed to Queen Elizabeth, who perhaps might have taken occasion to repeat it, that a good face is a letter of recommendation. It naturally makes the beholders inquisitive into the person who is the owner of it, and generally prepossesses them in his favour. A handsome motto has the same effect. Besides that, it always gives a supernumerary beauty to a paper, and is sometimes in a manner necessary when the writer is engaged in what may appear a paradox to vulgar minds, as it shows that he is supported by good authorities, and is not singular in his opinion. I must confess the motto is of little use to an unlearned reader. For which reason I consider it only as 'a word to the wise.' But as for my unlearned friends, if they cannot relish the motto, I take care to make provision for them in the body of my paper. If they do not understand the sign that is hung out, they know very well by it, that they may meet with entertainment in the house; and I think I was never better pleased than with a plain man's compliment, who, upon his friend's telling him that he would like the Spectator much better if he understood the motto, replied that good wine needs no bush. I have heard of a couple of preachers in a country town, who endeavoured which should outshine one another, and draw together the greatest congregation. One of them, being well versed in the Fathers, used to quote every now and then a Latin sentence to his illiterate hearers, who it seems found themselves so edified by it, that they flocked in greater numbers to this learned man than to his rival. other, finding his congregation mouldering every Sunday, and hearing at length what was the occasion The |