IT happened at Athens, during a public reprefen⚫tation of fome play exhibited in honour of the commonwealth, that an old gentleman came too late for ⚫ a place fuitable to his age and quality. Many of the young gentlemen who obferved the difficulty and confufion he was in, made figns to him that they would • accommodate him if he came where they fat: the good man buftled through the croud accordingly; but when he came to the feats to which he was invited, the jeft was to fit close, and expofe him, as he ftood out of countenance, to the whole audience. The frolic went round all the Athenian benches. But on those occafions, there were alfo particular places affigned for foreigners; when the good man • fculked towards the boxes appointed for the Lacedæ• monians, that honeft people, more virtuous than po⚫lite, rose up all to a man, and with the greatest respect • received him among them. The Athenians being fuddenly touched with a fenfe of the Spartan virtue, and ⚫ their own degeneracy, gave a thunder of applaufe ; and the old man cried out, The Athenians underftand what is good, but the Lacedæmonians practise it. R No 7. Thursday, MARCH 8. Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, fagas, Hor. Ep. 2. 1. z. v. 208. Vifions, and magic spells, can you defpife, G OING yesterday to dine with an old acquaintance, I had the misfortune to find his whole family very much dejected. Upon asking him the occafion of it, he told me, that his wife had dreamed a ftrange dream the night before, which they were afraid portended fome misfortune to themselves, or to their children. At her coming into the room, I obferved a fettled melancholy in her countenance, which I fhould have been troubled for, had I not heard from whence it proceeded. We were no fooner fat down, but after having looked upon me a little while, My dear, says fhe, turning to her husband, you may now fee the firanger that was in the candle laft night. Soon after this, as they began to talk of family affairs, a little boy at the lower end of the table told her, that he was to go into join-hand on Thursday. Thursday? fays fhe, No, child, if it pleafe God, you shall not begin upon Childermasday; tell your writing-mafter that Friday will be foon enough. I was reflecting with myfelf on the oddnefs of her fancy, and wondering that any body would establish it as a rule to lofe a day in every week. In the midft of these my mufings, the defired me to reach her a little falt upon the point of my knife, which I did in such a trepidation and hurry of obedience, that I let it drop by the way; at which the immediately ftartled, and faid it fell towards her. Upon this I looked very blank; and obferving the concern of the whole table, began to confider myfelf, with fome confufion, as a perfon that had brought a difafter upon the family. The lady, however, recovering herself after a little space, faid to her husband, with a figh, My dear, misfortunes never come fingle. My friend, I found, acted but an underpart at his table, and being a man of more good nature than understanding, thinks himself obliged to fall in with all the paffions and humours of his yokefellow Do not you remember, child, fays fhe, that the pigeon-house fell the very afternoon that our careless wench Spilt the falt upon the table? Yes, fays he, my dear, and the next poft brought us an account of the battle of Almanza. The reader may guefs at the figure I made, after having done all this mischief. I difpatched my dinner, as foon as I could, with my ufual taciturnity; when to my utter confufion, the lady feeing me quitting my knife and fork, and laying them across one another upon my plate, defired me that I would humour her fo far as to take them out of that figure, and place them fide by fide. What the abfurdity was which I had committed I did not know, but I fuppofe there was fome traditionary fuperftition in it; and therefore, in obedience to the lady of the house, I difpofed of my knife and fork in two parallel lines, which is the figure I fhall always lay them in for the future, though I do not know any reafon for it. It is not difficult for a man to fee that a perfon has conceived an averfion to him. For my own part, I quickly found, by the lady's looks, that the regarded me as a very odd kind of fellow, with an unfortunate afpect. For which reafon I took my leave immediately after dinner, and withdrew to my own lodgings. Upon my return home, I fell into a profound contemplation on the evils that attend these fuperftitious follies of mankind; how they fubject us to imaginary afflictions, and additional forrows, that do not properly come within our lot. As if the natural calamities of life were not fufficient for it, we turn the most indifferent circumstances into misfortunes, and fuffer as much from trifling accidents, as from real evils. I have known the shooting of a star spoil a night's reft; and have seen a man in love grow pale and lose his appetite, upon the plucking of a merry thought. A fcreechowl at midnight has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers; nay, the voice of a cricket hath struck more terror than the roring of a lion. There is nothing fo inconfiderable, which may not appear dreadful to an imagination that is filled with omens and prognoftics. A rufty nail, or a crooked pin, fhoot up into prodigies. I remember I was once in a mixed affembly, that was full of noife and mirth, when, on a fudden an old woman unluckily observed there were thirteen of us in company. This remark ftruck a panic terror into feveral who were present, infomuch that one or two of the ladies were going to leave the room; but a friend of mine taking notice, that one of our female companions was big with child, affirmed there were fourteen in the room, and that, inftead of portending one of the company fhould die, it plainly foretold one of them fhould be born. Had not my friend found out this expedient to break the omen, I queftion not but half the women in the company would have fallen fick that very night. AN An old maid, that is troubled with the vapours, produces infinite difturbances of this kind among her friends and neighbours. I know a maiden aunt, of a great family, who is one of thefe antiquated Sibyls, that forebodes and prophefies from one end of the year to the other. She is always feeing apparitions, and hearing death-watches; and was the other day almoft frighted out of her wits by the great houfe-dog, that howled in the stable, at a time when the lay ill of the tooth-ach. Such an extravagant cast of mind engages multitudes of people, not only in impertinent terrors, but in fupernumerary duties of life; and arifes from that fear and ignorance which are natural to the foul of man. The horror with which we entertain the thoughts of death, or indeed of any future evil, and the uncertainty of its approach, fill a melancholy mind with innumerable apprehenfions and fufpicions, and confequently difpofe it to the obfervation of fuch groundlefs prodigies and predictions. For as it is the chief concern of wife men, to retrench the evils of life, by the reafonings of philofophy; it is the employment of fools to multiply them by the fentiments of fuperftition. FOR my own part, I fhould be very much troubled were I endued with this divining quality, though it fhould inform me truly of every thing that can befal me. I would not anticipate the relifh of any happiness, nor feel the weight of any mifery, before it actually arrives. I know but one way of fortifying my foul against thefe gloomy prefages and terrors of mind, and that is, by fecuring to myself the friendship and protection of that being who difpofes of events, and governs futurity. He fees, at one view, the whole thread of my existence, not only that part of it which I have already paffed through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of eternity. When I lay me down to fleep, I recommend myself to his care; when I awake, I give myself up to his direction. Amidst all the evils that threaten me, I will look up to him for help, and queftion not but he will either avert them, or turn them to my advantage. Though I know neither the time nor the manner of the death I am to die, I am not at VOL. I. D all all folicitous about it; because I am fure that he knows them both, and that he will not fail to comfort and Support me under them. C No 8. Friday, MARCH 9. I At Venus obfcuro gradientes aëre fepfit, Virg. Æn. 1. v. 415. They march obfcure, for Venus kindly shrouds DRYDEN. SHALL here communicate to the world a couple of letters, which, I believe, will give the reader as good an entertainment as any that I am able to furnish him with, and therefore fhall make no apology for them. SIR, I TO THE SPECTATOR, &c. AM one of the directors of the fociety for the reformation of manners; and therefore think myfelf a proper perfon for your correfpondence. I have thoroughly examined the prefent ftate of religion in Great Britain, and am able to acquaint you with the predominant vice of every market-town in the whole ifland. I can tell you the progrefs that virtue has made in all our cities, boroughs, and corporations; and know as well the evil practices that are committed in Berwick or Exeter, as what is done in my own family. In a word, Sir, I have my correfpondents in the remoteft parts of the nation, who fend me up punctual accounts, from time to time, of all the little irregularities that fall under their notice in their feveral diftricts and divifions. I am no lefs acquainted with the particular quarters and regions of this great town, than with the 3 • dif |