delivered with a religious seriousness or a philosophic gravity. They are ensnared into sentiments of wisdom and virtue when they do not think of it; and if by that means they arrive only at such a degree of consideration as may dispose them to listen to more studied and elaborate discourses, I shall not think my speculations useless. I might likewise observe, that the gloominess in which sometimes the minds of the best men are involved very often stands in need of such little incitements to mirth and laughter as are apt to disperse melancholy and put our faculties in good humour. To which some will add, that the British climate, more than any other, makes entertainments of this nature in a manner necessary.

If what I have here said does not recommend, it will at least excuse, the variety of my speculations. I would not willingly laugh but in order to instruct, or if I sometimes fail in this point, when my mirth ceases to be instructive, it shall never cease to be innocent. A scrupulous conduct in this particular has, perhaps, more merit in it than the generality of readers imagine; did they know how many thoughts occur in a point of humour, which a discreet author in modesty suppresses; how many strokes of raillery present themselves, which could not fail to please the ordinary taste of mankind, but are stifled in their birth by reason of some remote tendency which they carry in them to corrupt the minds of those who read them; did they know how many glances of ill-nature are industriously avoided for fear of doing injury to the reputation of another, they would be apt to think kindly of those writers who endeavour to make themselves diverting without being immoral.

One may apply to these authors that passage in Waller :-1

1

Poets lose half the praise they would have got,
Were it but known what they discreetly blot.

As nothing is more easy than to be a wit with all the above-mentioned liberties, it requires some genius and invention to appear such without them.

What I have here said is not only in regard to the public, but with an eye to my particular correspondent who has sent me the following letter, which I have castrated in some places upon these considerations:

'SIR,

2

'HAVING lately seen your discourse upon a match of grinning, I cannot forbear giving you an account of a whistling match which, with many others, I was entertained with about three years since at the Bath. The prize was a guinea, to be conferred upon the ablest whistler, that is, on him who could whistle clearest, and go through his tune without laughing, to which at the same time he was provoked by the antic postures of a merry-andrew, who was to stand upon the stage and play his tricks in the eye of the performer. There were three competitors for the ring. first was a ploughman of a very promising aspect; his features were steady, and his muscles composed in so inflexible a stupidity, that upon his first

The

1 Upon Lord Roscommon's Translation of Horace's Art of Poetry.' Waller's words are, they should have got, Could it be known,' &c.

2 No. 173.

appearance every one gave the guinea for lost. The pickled herring, however, found the way to shake him, for upon his whistling a country jig this unlucky wag danced to it with such a variety of distortions and grimaces, that the countryman could not forbear smiling upon him, and by that means spoiled his whistle and lost the prize.

'The next that mounted the stage was an undercitizen of the Bath, a person remarkable among the inferior people of that place for his great wisdom and his broad band. He contracted his mouth with much gravity, and, that he might dispose his mind to be more serious than ordinary, begun the tune of The Children in the Wood,' and went through part of it with good success, when on a sudden the wit at his elbow, who had appeared wonderfully grave and attentive for some time, gave him a touch upon the left shoulder, and stared him in the face with so bewitching a grin, that the whistler relaxed his fibres into a kind of simper, and at length burst out into an open laugh. The third who entered the lists was a footman, who, in defiance of the merry-andrew and all his arts, whistled a Scotch tune and an Italian sonata, with so settled a countenance, that he bore away the prize, to the great admiration of some hundreds of persons who, as well as myself, were present at this trial of skill. Now, sir, I humbly conceive, whatever you have determined of the grinners, the whistlers ought to be encouraged, not only as their art is practised without distortion, but as it improves country music, promotes gravity, and teaches ordinary people to keep their countenances, if they see anything ridiculous in their betters; besides that it seems an entertainment very particu

larly adapted to the Bath, as it is usual for a rider to whistle to his horse when he would make his waters pass. I am, SIR, &c.

POSTSCRIPT.

'After having despatched these two important points of grinning and whistling, I hope you will oblige the world with some reflections upon yawning, as I have seen it practised on a Twelfth-night, among other Christmas gambols, at the house of a very worthy gentleman, who always entertains his tenants at that time of the year. They yawn for a Cheshire cheese, and begin about midnight, when the whole company is disposed to be drowsy. He that yawns widest, and at the same time so naturally as to produce the most yawns among his spectators, carries home the cheese. If you handle this subject as you ought, I question not but your paper will set half the kingdom a yawning, though I dare promise you it will never make anybody fall asleep.'

No. 180.

TH

L.

Wednesday, Sept. 26, 1711

-Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi.

[STEELE.

-HOR., 1 Ep. ii. 14.

HE following letter1 has so much weight and good sense, that I cannot forbear inserting it, though it relates to an hardened sinner, whom I have very little hopes of reforming, viz. Lewis XIV. of France.

1 This letter is by Henry Martyn, eldest son of Edward Martyn, of Upham, Alborne, Wiltshire. He was bred to the bar, but ill

'Mr. SPECTATOR,

'AMIDST the variety of subjects of which you

have treated, I could wish it had fallen in your way to expose the vanity of conquests. This thought would naturally lead one to the French king, who has been generally esteemed the greatest conqueror of our age, till her Majesty's armies had torn from him so many of his countries, and deprived him of the fruit of all his former victories. For my own part, if I were to draw his picture, I should be for taking him no lower than to the Peace of Ryswick, just at the end of his triumphs, and before his reverse of fortune; and even then I should not forbear thinking his ambition had been vain and unprofitable to himself and his people.

As for himself, it is certain he can have gained nothing by his conquests, if they have not rendered him master of more subjects, more riches, or greater power. What I shall be able to offer upon these heads, I resolve to submit to your consideration.

'To begin then with his increase of subjects.

health prevented him from practising. In No. 555 Steele mentions Martyn first in a list of occasional contributors; the first I am going to name,' he says, 'can hardly be mentioned in a list wherein he would not deserve the precedence.' In 1713 Martyn opposed the ratification of the Treaty of Commerce made with France at the Peace of Utrecht, in a paper called 'The British Merchant; or, Commerce Preserved,' which was a reply to Defoe's 'Mercator; or, Commerce Retrieved.' The treaty was rejected, and Martyn was appointed Inspector-General of Imports and Exports. He died at Blackheath, March 25, 1721, leaving one son, who became Secretary to the Commissioners of Excise. It has been thought that Henry Martyn suggested a trait or two in the Sir Andrew Freeport of the Spectator's club; and he has been identified with Cotillus (No. 143).

1 September 20, 1696.

1