Human Nature, Titles at such a time look rather like No. 219. Insults and Mockery than Respect. Methinks we should have an Ambition, if not to advance our selves in another World, at least to preserve our Post in it, and outshine our Inferiors in Virtue here, that they may not be put above us in a State which is to settle the Distinction for Eternity, Men in Scripture are called Strangers and Sojourners upon Earth, and Life a Pilgrimage. Several Heathen as well as Christian Authors, under the same kind of Metaphor, have represented the World as an Inn, which was only designed to furnish us with Accommodations in this our Passage. It is therefore very absurd to think of setting up our Rest before we come to our Journey's End, and not rather to take care of the Recep tion we shall there meet, than to fix our Thoughts on the little Conveniencies and Advantages which we enjoy one above another in the Way to it Epictetus makes use of another kind of Allusion, which is very beautiful, and wonderfully proper to incline us to be satisfyed with the Post in which Pro vidence has placed us. We are here, says he, as in a Theatre, where every one has a Part allotted to him. The great Duty which lies upon a Man is to act his Part in Perfection. We may, indeed, say that our Part does not suit us, and that we could act another better, But this (says the Philosopher) is not our Business. All that we are concerned in is to excel in the Part which is given us. If it be an improper one the Fault is not in us, but in him who has cast our several Parts, and is the great Disposer of the Drama, The Part that was acted by this Philosopher himself was but a very indifferent one, for he lived and died a Slave, His Motive to Contentment in this particular receives a very great Inforcement from the above mentioned Saturday, 1711. 1711. No. 219, mentioned Consideration, if we remember that our Saturday, Parts in the other World will be new cast, and that Nov. 10, Mankind will be there ranged in different Stations of Superiority and Præeminence, in Proportion as they have here excelled one another in Virtue, and per formed in their several Posts of Life the Duties which belong to them. There are many beautiful Passages in the little Apo cryphal Book, entituled The Wisdom of Solomon, to set forth the Vanity of Honour, and the like Temporal Blessings, which are in so great Repute among Men, and to comfort those who have not the Possession of them. It represents in very warm and noble Terms this Advancement of a good Man in the other World, and the great Surprize which it will produce among those who are his Superiors in this. Then shall the Righteous Man stand in great Boldness before the Face of such as have afflicted him, and made no Account of his Labours. When they see it they shall be troubled with terrible Fear, and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his Salvation, so far beyond all that they looked for. And they repenting, and groaning for Anguish of Spirit, shall say within themselves, This was he whom we had sometime in Derision, and a Proverb of Reproach We Fools accounted his Life Madness, and his End to be without Honour. How is he numbered among the Children of God, and his Lot is among the Saints!' If the Reader would see the Description of a Life that is passed away in Vanity, and among the Shadows of Pomp and Greatness, he may see it very finely drawn in the same Place. In the mean time, since it is necessary, in the present Constitution of things, that Order and Distinction should be kept up in the World, we should be happy if those who enjoy the upper Stations in it would endeavour to surpass others in Virtue, as much as in Rank, and by their Humanity and Condescension make their Superiority easie and acceptable to those who are beneath them; and if, on the contrary, those who are in meaner Posts of Life, would consider how they may better their Condition hereafter, and by a just Deference and Submission to Blessings No. 219. their Superiors, make them happy in those with which Providence has thought fit to distinguish Saturday, them. C Nov. 10, 1711. No. 220, Monday, November 12, Rumoresque serit varios --Virg. • Sir, WHY will he will give you my Person HY will you apply to my Father for my Love? but I assure you it is not in his Power, nor even in Sir, 'Mr. SPECTATOR, Your most humble Servant, HENRIETTA There are so many Artifices and Modes of false Wit, and such a Variety of Humour discovers it self among its Votaries, that it would be impossible to exhaust so fertile a Subject if you would think fit to resume it. The following Instances may, if you think fit, be added by Way of Appendix to your Discourses on that Subject That Feat of poetical Activity, mentioned by Horace, of an Author who could compose two hundred Verses Nov. 12, 1711. No. 220. while he stood upon one Leg, has been imitated Monday, (as I have heard) by a modern Writer; who priding himself on the Hurry of his Invention, thought it no small Addition to his Fame to have each Piece minuted with the exact Number of Hours or Days it cost him in the Composition. He could taste no Praise till he had acquainted you in how short Space of Time he had deserved it; and was not so much led to an Osten tation of his Art, as of his Dispatch. -Accipe si vis, Accipe jam tabulas, detur nobis locus, hora, Custodes videamus uter plus scribere possit.-Hor, This was the whole of his Ambition; and there fore 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 Epigrammatick 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 ad mire that of an ingenious Projector whose Book I have seen: This Virtuoso being a Mathematician, has, accord ing to his Taste, thrown the Art of Poetry in a short Problem, and contriv'd 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 Logarathms, which being divided into several Squares, and all inscribed with so many incoherent Words, appear to the Eye somewhat like a Fortune-telling Screen 1711 Screen, What a Joy must it be to the unlearned No. 220. Operator, to find that these Words, being carefully Monday, collected and writ down in order according to the Pro- Nov. 12, blem, start of themselves into Hexameter and Penta meter Verses? A Friend of mine, who is a Student in Astrology, meeting with this Book, perform'd the Operation by the Rules there set down; he shew'd his Verses to the next of his Acquaintance, who happened to understand Latin; and being informed they described a Tempest of Wind, very luckily prefix'd them, together with a Translation, to an Almanack he was just then printing, and was supposed to have foretold the last great Storm, I think the only Improvement beyond this, would be that which the late Duke of Buckingham mention'd to a stupid Pretender to Poetry, as the Project of a Dutch Mechanick, víz, a Mill to make Verses. This being the most compendious Method of all which have yet been propos'd, may deserve the Thoughts of our modern Virtuosi who are employ'd in new Discoveries for the publick 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, 'Mr. SPECTATOR, Your humble Servant, &c' 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 under stand 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.' II 165 *G 'Mr. |