perience, we exceed them as much in doggerel, humour, burlesque, and all the trivial arts of ridicule. We meet with more raillery among the moderns, but more good sense among the ancients. The two great branches of ridicule in writing are comedy and burlesque. The first ridicules persons by drawing them in their proper characters, the other by drawing them quite unlike themselves. Burlesque is therefore of two kinds, the first represents mean persons in the accoutrements of heroes; the other describes great persons acting and speaking like the basest among the people. Don Quixote is an instance of the first, and Lucian's gods of the second. It is a dispute among the critics, whether burlesque poetry runs best in heroic verse, like that of the Dispensary,'' or in doggerel like that of 'Hudibras.' I think where the low character is to be raised the heroic is the proper measure, but when an hero is to be pulled down and degraded, it is done best in doggerel. 2 If Hudibras had been set out with as much wit and humour in heroic verse as he is in doggerel, he would have made a much more agreeable figure than he does; though the generality of his readers are so wonderfully pleased with the double rhymes, that I do not expect many will be of my opinion in this particular. I shall conclude this essay upon laughter with observing that the metaphor of laughing, applied to fields and meadows when they are in flower, or to trees when they are in blossom, runs through all languages; which I have not observed of any other 1 A satire by Sir Samuel Garth, published in 1699. 2 This seems inconsistent with the preceding paragraph; for Butler's object was to pull down and degrade' the Puritans. metaphor, excepting that of fire and burning when they are applied to love. This shows that we naturally regard laughter as what is both in itself amiable and beautiful. For this reason likewise Venus has gained the title of piouμeids (the laughter-loving dame, as Waller has translated it),' and is represented by Horace as the goddess who delights in laughter.2 Milton, in a joyous assembly of imaginary persons, has given us a very poetical figure of laughter. His whole band of mirth is so finely described that I shall set down the passage at length: ' But come thou goddess fair and free, Jest and youthful jollity, Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and becks, and wreathèd smiles, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And in thy right hand lead with thee, Mirth, admit me of thy crew, To live with her, and live with thee, In unreproved pleasures free. L. 1 In the lines on The Countess of Carlisle in mourning' :— • We find not that the laughter-loving dame Mourned for Anchises.' 2 I Od. ii. 33. Set it down at length' (folio). 3. L'Allegro.' 3 No. 250. Monday, Dec. 17, 1711 Disce, docendus adhuc quæ censet amiculus, ut si 'Mr. SPECTATOR, 'YOU OU see the nature of my request by the Latin motto which I address to you. I am very sensible I ought not to use many words to you, who are one of but few; but the following piece, as it relates to speculation in propriety of speech, being a curiosity in its kind, begs your patience it was found in a poetical virtuoso's closet among his rarities; and since the several treatises of thumbs, ears, and noses have obliged the world, this of eyes is at your service. 'The first eye of consequence (under the invisible Author of all) is the visible luminary of the universe: this glorious spectator is said never to open his eyes at his rising in a morning without having a whole kingdom of adorers in Persian silk waiting at his levée. Millions of creatures derive their sight from this original, who, besides his being the great director of optics, is the surest test whether eyes be of the same species with that of an eagle or that of an owl the one he emboldens with a manly assurance to look, speak, act, or plead before the faces of a numerous assembly; the other he dazzles out of countenance into a sheepish dejectedness. The sunproof eye dares lead up a dance in a full court; and without blinking at the lustre of beauty, can distribute an eye of proper complaisance to a room crowded with company, each of which deserves particular regard; while the other sneaks from conversation, like a fearful debtor, who never dares look out but when he can see nobody, and nobody him. 'The next instance of optics is the famous Argus, who (to speak in the language of Cambridge) was one of an hundred; and being used as a spy in the affairs of jealousy, was obliged to have all his eyes about him. We have no account of the particular colours, casts, and turns of this body of eyes; but as he was pimp for his mistress Juno, 'tis probable he used all the modern leers, sly glances, and other ocular activities to serve his purpose. Some look upon him as the then king-at-arms to the heathenish deities, and make no more of his eyes than as so many spangles of his herald's coat. 'The next upon the optic list is old Janus, who stood in a double-sighted capacity like a person placed betwixt two opposite looking-glasses, and so took a sort of retrospective cast at one view. Copies of this double-faced way are not yet out of fashion with many professions, and the ingenious artists pretend to keep up this species by doubleheaded canes and spoons; but there is no mark of this faculty except in the emblematical way of a wise general having an eye to both front and rear, or a pious man taking a review and prospect of his past and future state at the same time. 'I must own that the names, colours, qualities, and turns of eyes vary almost in every head; for, not to mention the common appellations of the black, the blue, the white, the grey, and the like, the most remarkable are those that borrow their title from animals, by virtue of some peculiar quality or resemblance they bear to the eyes of the respective creature; as that of a greedy rapacious aspect takes its name from the cat, that of a sharp piercing nature from the hawk, those of an amorous roguish look derive their title even from the sheep, and we say such a one has a sheep's eye, not so much to denote the innocence as the simple slyness of the cast. Nor is this metaphorical inoculation a modern invention, for we find Homer taking the freedom to place the eye of an ox, bull, or cow in one of his principal goddesses, by that frequent expression of Βοώπις πότνια "Ηρη.1 'Now as to the peculiar qualities of the eye, that fine part of our constitution seems as much the receptacle and seat of our passions, appetites, and inclinations, as the mind itself; at least 'tis as the outward portal to introduce them to the house within, or rather the common thoroughfare to let our affections pass in and out; love, anger, pride, and avarice, all visibly move in those little orbs. I know a young lady that can't see a certain gentleman pass by, without showing a secret desire of seeing him again by a dance in her eyeballs; nay, she can't for the heart of her help looking half a street's length after any man in a gay dress. You cannot behold a covetous spirit walk by a goldsmith's shop, without casting a wishful eye at the heaps upon the counter. Does not an haughty person show the temper of his soul in the supercilious roll of his eye? and how frequently in the height of passion does that moving picture in our head start and stare, gather a redness and quick 1 The ox-eyed, venerable Juno (Iliad, iv. 50). |