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No. 263, which serve to bind these Sort of Relations faster, and
Tuesday, endear the Tyes of Blood with those of Good-will, Pro-
January 1, tection, Observance, Indulgence and Veneration.
1712.

I

would, methinks, have this done after an uncommon Method, and do not think any one, who is not capable of writing a good Play, fit to undertake a Work wherein there will necessarily occur so many secret Instincts, and Biasses of humane Nature, which would pass unob served by common Eyes, I thank Heaven I have no outragious Offence against my own excellent Parents to answer for, but when I am now and then alone, and look back upon my past Life, from my earliest Infancy to this Time, there are many Faults which I committed that did not appear to me, even till I my self became a Father, I had not till then a Notion of the Earnings of Heart, which a Man has when he sees his Child do a laudable Thing, or the sudden Damp which seizes him when he fears he will act something unworthy, It is not to be imagined, what a Remorse touched me for a long Train of childish Negligences of my Mother, when I saw my Wife the other Day look out of the Window, and turn as pale as Ashes upon seeing my younger Boy sliding upon the Ice. These slight Intimations will give you to understand, that there are numberless little Crimes, which Children take no Notice of while they are doing, which, upon Reflection, when they shall themselves become Fathers, they will look upon with the utmost Sorrow and Contrition that they did not regard, before those whom they offended were to be no more seen. How many thousand Things do I remember, which would have highly pleased my Father, and I omitted for no other Reason, but that I thought what he proposed the Effect of Humour and old Age, which I am now convinced had Reason and good Sense in it. I cannot now go into the Parlour to him, and make his Heart glad with an Account of a Matter which was of no Consequence, but that I told it, and acted in it. The good Man and Woman are long since in their Graves, who used to sit and plot the Welfare of us their Children, while, perhaps, we were sometimes laughing at the old Folks at another

End

End of the House, The Truth of it is, were we merely No. 263. to follow Nature in these great Duties of Life, tho' we Tuesday, have a strong Instinct towards the performing of them, January 1712. we should be on both Sides very deficient. Age is so unwelcome to the Generality of Mankind, and Growth towards Manhood so desirable to all, that Resignation to Decay is too difficult a Task in the Father; and Deference, amidst the Impulse of gay Desires, appears unreasonable to the Son. There are so few who can grow old with a good Grace, and yet fewer who can come slow enough into the World, that a Father, were he to be actuated by his Desires, and a Son, were he to consult himself only, could neither of them behave himself as he ought to the other. But when Reason interposes against Instinct, where it would carry either out of the Interests of the other, there arises that happiest Intercourse of good Offices between those dearest Relations of humane Life. The Father, according to the Opportunities which are offered to him, is throwing down Blessings on the Son, and the Son endeavouring to appear the worthy Offspring of such a Father. It is after this Manner that Camillus and his first-born dwell together. Camillus enjoys a pleasing and indolent old Age, in which Passion is subdued, and Reason exalted. He waits the Day of his Dissolution with a Resignation mixed with Delight, and the Son fears the Accession of his Father's Fortune with Diffidence, least he should not enjoy or become it as well as his Predecessor. Add to this, that the Father knows he leaves a Friend to the Children of his Friends, an easie Landlord to his Tenants, and an Agreeable Companion to his Ac quaintance, He believes his Son's Behaviour will make him frequently remembred, but never wanted. This Commerce is so well cemented, that without the Pomp of saying, Son, be a Friend to such a one when I am gone, Camillus knows, being in his Favour, is Direction enough to the grateful Youth who is to succeed him, without the Admonition of his mentioning it. These Gentlemen are honoured in all their Neighbourhood, and the same Effect which a Court has on the Manners of a Kingdom, their Characters

No. 263. Characters have on all who live within the Influence Tuesday, of them.

January 1,

1712.

My Son and I are not of Fortune to communicate our good Actions or Intentions to so many as these Gentlemen do; but I will be bold to say, my Son has, by the Applause and Approbation which his Behaviour towards me has gained him, occasioned that many an old Man, besides my self, has rejoiced. Other Men's Children follow the Example of mine, and I have the inexpressible Happiness of over-hearing our Neighbours, as we ride by, point to their Children, and say with a Voice of Joy, There they go.

You cannot, Mr. SPECTATOR, pass your Time better, than in insinuating the Delights which these Relations well regarded bestow upon each other. Ordinary Passages are no longer such, but mutual Love gives an Importance to the most indifferent Things, and a Merit to Actions the most insignificant. When we look round the World, and observe the many Misunder standings which are created by the Malice and Insinua tion of the meanest Servants between People thus related, how necessary will it appear that it were inculcated that Men would be upon their Guard to support a Constancy of Affection, and that grounded upon the Principles of Reason, not the Impulses of Instinct.

It is from the common Prejudices which Men receive from their Parents, that Hatreds are kept alive from one Generation to another; and when Men act by Instinct, Hatreds will descend when good Offices are forgotten For the Degeneracy of humane Life is such, that our Anger is more easily transferred to our Children than our Love, Love always gives something to the Object it delights in, and Anger spoils the Person against whom it is moved of Something laudable in him: From this Degeneracy therefore, and a Sort of Self-Love, we are more prone to take up the Ill-will of our Parents, than to follow them in their Friendships,

One would think there should need no more to make Men keep up this Sort of Relation with the utmost Sanctity, than to examine their own Hearts. If every Father remembered his own Thoughts and Inclinations

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when he was a Son, and every Son remembered what No. 263. *he expected from his Father, when he himself was in Tuesday, a State of Dependance, this one Reflection would pre January 1 1712. serve Men from being dissolute or rigid in these several Capacities. The Power and Subjection between them when broken, make them more emphatically Tyrants and Rebels against each other, with greater Cruelty of Heart than the Disruption of States and Empires can possibly produce. I shall end this Applica tion to you with two Letters which passed between a * Mother and Son very lately, and are as follows.

"Dear FRANK,

If the Pleasures, which I have the Grief to hear you pursue in Town, do not take up all your Time, do not deny your Mother so much of it, as to read seriously this Letter. You said before Mr. Letacre, that an old Woman might live very well in the Country upon half my Jointure, and that your Father was a fond Fool to give me a Rent-Charge of Eight hundred a Year to the * Prejudice of his Son What Letacre said to you upon that Occasion, you ought to have born with more - Decency, as he was your Father's well-beloved Servant, than to have called him Country putt. In the first Place, Frank, I must tell you I will have my Rent duly paid, for I will make up to your Sisters for the Partiality was guilty of, in making your Father do so much as he has done for you, I may, it seems, live upon half =my Jointure! I lived upon much less, Frank, when I carried you from Place to Place in these Arms, and could neither eat, dress, or mind any Thing for Feeding and Tending you a weakly Child, and shedding Tears when the Convulsions you were then troubled with returned upon you. By my Care you outgrew them, to throw away the Vigour of your Youth in the Arms of Harlots, and deny your Mother what is not yours to detain. Both your sisters are crying to see the Passion which I smother; but if you please to go on thus like a Gentleman of the Town, and forget all Regards to your self and Family, I shall immediately enter upon your Estate for the Arrear due to me, and without

No. 263. without one Tear more contemn you for forgetting the Tuesday, Fondness of your Mother, as much as you have the January 1, Example of your Father. O Frank, do I live to omit

1712.

writing my self,

"Madam,

Your Affectionate Mother,

A. T."

I will come down to Morrow and pay the Mony on my Knees, Pray write so no more, I will take care you never shall, for I will be for ever hereafter Your most Dutiful Son,

F. T.

I will bring down new Heads for my Sisters. Pray let all be forgotten.""

No. 264,
[STEELE.]

Τ

1

T

Wednesday, January 2,

Secretum iter & fallentis semíta vitae.-Hor.

IT been among

has been from Age to Age an Affectation to love the Pleasure of Solitude, among those who cannot possibly be supposed qualified for passing Life in that Manner. This People have taken up from reading the many agreeable Things which have been writ on that Subject, for which we are beholden to excellent Persons who delighted in being retired and abstracted from the Pleasures that enchant the Generality of the World. This Way of Life is recommended indeed with great Beauty, and in such a Manner as disposes the Reader for the Time to a pleasing Forgetfulness, or Negligence of the particular Hurry of Life in which he is engaged, together with a longing for that State which he is charmed with in Description. But when we consider the World it self, and how few there are capable of a religious, learned, or philosophick Solitude, we shall be apt to change a Regard to that Sort of Solitude, for being a little singular in enjoying Time after the Way a Man himself likes best in the World, without going so far as wholly to withdraw from it. I have often observed, there is not a Man breathing who does not

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