No. 556. FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1714. Qualis ubi in lucem coluber, mala gramina pastus, So shines, renew'd in youth, the crested snake, DRYDEN. UPON laying down the office of SPECTATOR, I acquainted the world with my design of electing a new club," and of opening my mouth in it after a most solemn manner. Both the election and the ceremony are now past; but not finding it so easy as I at first imagined, to break through a fifty years' silence, I would not venture into the world under the character of a man who pretends to talk like other people, until I had arrived at a full freedom of speech. I shall reserve for another time the history of such club or clubs of which I am now a talkative, but unworthy member; and shall here give an account of this surprising change which has been produced in me, and which I look upon to be as remarkable an accident as any recorded in history, since that which happened to the son of Croesus, after having been many years as much tongue-tied as myself. Upon the first opening of my mouth, I made a speech con a A new club would never be endured, after the old one: and, without a club, to what end is his mouth opened? Every thing shews that Mr. Addison was much embarrassed in contriving how to protract this paper be yond its natural term. We find him, therefore, after much expence of humour in describing this ceremony of opening his mouth, obliged to pro ceed in his old way, that is, of formal essay, instead of conversation. See the conclusion of this paper.-H. and a Whig at Child's: a friend to the Englishman, or an advo cate for the Examiner, as it best served my turn; some fancy me a great enemy to the French king, though in reality, I only make use of him for a help to discourse. In short, I wrangle and dispute for exercise; and I have carried this point so far, that I was once like to have been run through the body for making a little too free with my betters. In a word, I am quite another man to what I was." -Nil fuit unquam Tam dispar sibi HOR. Sat. 3, v. 18. Nothing was ever so unlike itself. My old acquaintance scarce know me; nay, I was asked the other day by a Jew- at Jonathan's, whether I was not related to a dumb gentleman, who used to come to that coffee house? But I think I never was better pleased in my life than about a week ago, when, as I was battling it across the table with a young Templar, his companion gave him a pull by the sleeve, begging him to come away, for that the old prig would talk him to death. Being now a very good proficient in discourse, I shall appear in the world with this addition to my character, that my countrymen may reap the fruits of my new acquired loquacity. Those who have been present at public disputes in the university, know, that it is usual to maintain heresies for argument's sake. I have heard a man a most impudent Socinian for half an hour, who has been an orthodox divine all his life after. I have taken the same method to accomplish myself in the gift of utter a Another man to what I was. To account for this construction, an other-to, we are to fill up the sentence thus: "I am quite another man [compared] to what I was." But another, as here used, having the sense of different, we borrow its construction, and say, without scruple,—another man from-as we should do, if the word different was employed. This forin of expression is now generally followed, and is plainly better than the other elliptical one.-H. VOL. VI. 25* recommending to him the principles of truth and honour, religion and virtue; and so long as he acts with an eye to these principles, whatever party he is of, he cannot fail of being a good Englishman, and a lover of his country. As for the persons concerned in this work, the names of all of them, or at least of such as desire it, shall be published hereafter till which time I must entreat the courteous reader to suspend his curiosity, and rather to consider what is written, than who they are that write it. Having thus adjusted all necessary preliminaries with my reader, I shall not trouble him with any more prefatory dis courses, but proceed in my old method, and entertain him with speculations on every useful subject that falls in my way.' No. 557. MONDAY, JUNE 30. Quippe domum timet ambiguam, Tyriosque bilingues. VIRG. Æn. i. 665. He fears th' ambiguous race, and Tyrians double-tongu'd. THERE is nothing, (says Plato,) so delightful, as the hearing or the speaking of truth.' For this reason there is no conversation so agreeable as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and speaks without any intention to deceive. Among all the accounts which are given of Cato, I do not remember one that more redounds to his honour than the following passage related by Plutarch. As an advocate was pleading the cause of his client before one of the prætors, he could only produce a single witness in a point where the law required the tes 1 This continuation of the Spectator was printed without any signatur to distinguish the author.-G |