No. 308. Feb. 22, 1712. Friends in this House, and have laid a Wager you are so candid a Man and so honest a Fellow, that you will print this Letter, tho' it is in Recommendation of a new Paper called The Historian. I have read it carefully, and find it written with Skill, good Sense, Modesty, and Fire. You must allow the Town is kinder to you than you deserve; and I doubt not but you have so much Sense of the World, Change of Humour, and Instability of all humane Things, as to understand, that the only Way to preserve Favour, is to communicate it to others with Good-Nature and Judgment. You are so generally read, that what you speak of will be read. This with Men of Sense and Taste is all that is wanting to re commend The Historian. I am, Sir, Your daily Advocate, Reader Gentle.' I was very much surprized this Morning, that any one should find out my Lodging, and know it so well, as to come directly to my Closet Door, and knock at it, to give me the following Letter. When I came out I opened it, and saw by a very strong Pair of Shooes and a warm Coat the Bearer had on, that he walked all the Way to bring it me, tho' dated from York. My Misfortune is that I cannot talk, and I found the Mes senger had so much of me, that he could think better than speak. He had, I observed, a polite Discerning hid under a shrewd Rusticity: He delivered the Paper with a Yorkshire Tone and a Town Leer. 'Mr. SPECTATOR, The Privilege you have indulg'd John Trot has prov'd of very bad Consequence to our illustrious Assembly, which, besides the many excellent Maxims it is founded upon, is remarkable for the extraordinary Decorum always observed in it. One Instance of which is, that the Carders, (who are always of the first Quality) never begin to play 'till the French-Dances are finish'd and the Country-Dances begin: But John Trot having now got got your Commission in his Pocket, (which every one No. 308. here has a profound Respect for) has the Assurance to Friday, Feb. 22, set up for a Minuit-Dancer, Not only so, but he has 1712. brought down upon us the whole Body of the Trots, which are very numerous, with their Auxiliaries the Hobblers and the Skippers; by which Means the Time is so much wasted, that unless we break all Rules of Government, it must redound to the utter Subversion of the Brag-table, the discreet Members of which value Time as Fribble's Wife does her Pin-Money. We are pretty well assur'd that your Indulgence to Trot was only in Relation to Country-Dances; however we have deferred the issuing an Order of Council upon the Premisses, hoping to get you to joyn with us, that Trot, nor any of his Clan, presume for the future to dance any but Country-Dances, unless a Horn Pipe upon a Festival Day. If you will do this you will oblige a great many Ladies, and particularly #York, Feb. 16. Your most humble Servant, I never meant any other than that Mr. Trot should confine himself to Country-Dances: And I further direct, that he shall take out none but his own Relations accord/ ing to their Nearness of Blood; but any Gentlewoman may take out him. London, Feb. 21. No. 309, V [ADDISON.] The SPECTATOR, T Saturday, February 23. Di, quibus imperium est animarum, umbraeque silentes, Sit mihi fas audita loquis sit numine vestro HAVE before observed in general, that the Persons whom Milton introduces into his Poem always discover such Sentiments and Behaviour, as are in a peculiar Manner conformable to their respective Char acters, Every Circumstance in their Speeches and Actions, is with great Justness and Delicacy adapted to 1712, No. 309, to the Persons who speak and act. As the Poet very Satan was now at Hand, and from his Seat The same Boldness and Intrepidity of Behaviour dis covers it self in the several Adventures which he meets with during his Passage through the Regions of un formed Matter, and particularly in his Address to those tremendous Powers who are described as presiding over it. The Part of Moloch is likewise in all its Circumstances full of that Fire and Fury which distinguish this Spirit from the rest of the fallen Angels. He is described in the first Book as besmeared with the Blood of humane Sacrifices, and delighted with the Tears of Parents and the Cries of Children. In the second Book he is marked out as the fiercest Spirit that fought in Heaven; and if we consider the Figure which he makes in the sixth Book, where the Battel of the Angels is described, we find it every Way answerable to the same furious enraged Character, Where the might of Gabriel fought, 1712. It may be worth while to observe, that Milton has No. 309. represented this violent impetuous Spirit, who is hurried Saturday, Feb. 23, on by such precipitate Passions, as the first that rises in the Assembly, to give his Opinion upon their present Posture of Affairs. Accordingly he declares himself abruptly for War, and appears incensed at his Com panions, for losing so much Time as even to deliberate upon it. All his Sentiments are rash, audacious, and desperate. Such is that of arming themselves with their Tortures, and turning their Punishments upon him who inflicted them. -No, let us rather chuse, Arm'd with Hell-flames and fury, all at once His preferring Annihilation to Shame or Misery, is also highly suitable to his Character; as the Comfort he draws from their disturbing the Peace of Heaven, that if it be not Victory is Revenge, is a Sentiment truly diabolical, and becoming the Bitterness of this implac able Spirit. Belial is described, in the first Book, as the Idol of the lewd and luxurious. He is in the second Book, pursuant to that Description, characterised as timorous and slothful; and if we look in the sixth Book, we find him celebrated in the Battel of Angels for Nothing but that Scoffing Speech which he makes to Satan, on their supposed Advantage over the Enemy. As his Appear ance is uniform, and of a Piece, in these three several Views, we find his Sentiments in the infernal Assembly every Way conformable to his Character. Such are his Apprehensions of a second Battel, his Horrors of Annihilation, his preferring to be miserable not to be. I need not observe, that the rather than Contrast of Thought No. 309. Thought in this Speech, and that which precedes it, Mammon's Character is so fully drawn in the first Book, that the Poet adds Nothing to it in the Second. We were before told, that he was the first who taught Mankind to ransack the Earth for Gold and Silver, and that he was the Architect of Pandaemonium, or the infernal Palace, where the evil Spirits were to meet in Council. His Speech in this Book is every where suitable to so depraved a Character. How proper is that Reflection, of their being unable to taste the Happiness of Heaven were they actually there, in the Mouth of one, who while he was in Heaven, is said to have had his Mind dazled with the outward Pomps and Glories of the Place, and to have been more intent on the Riches of the Pavement, than on the beatifick Vision. I shall also leave the Reader to judge how agreeable the following Sentiments are to the same Character, This deep World Of Darkness do we dread? How oft amidst And with the Majesty of Darkness round Covers his Throne; from whence deep Thunders roar Beelzebub, who is reckon'd the second in Dignity that fell, and is, in the first Book, the second that awakens out of the Trance, and confers with Satan upon the Situation of their Affairs, maintains his Rank in the Book now before us, There is a wonderful Majesty described in his rising up to speak. He acts as a Kind of Moderator between the two opposite Parties, and proposes a third Undertaking, which the whole Assembly gives into, The Motion he makes of detaching one of their Body in Search of a new World is grounded upon a Project devised by Satan, and |