Besides, I see no Occasion for this Charity to common No. 232, Beggars, since every Beggar is an Inhabitant of a Monday, Nov. 26, Parish, and every Parish is taxed to the Maintenance 1711 of their own Poor. For my own Part, I cannot be mightily pleas'd with the Laws which have done this, which have provided better to feed than employ the Poor, We have a Tradition from our Forefathers, that after the first of those Laws was made, they were insulted with that famous Song; Hang Sorrow, and cast away Care, And if we will be so good-natured as to maintain them What then? am I against all Acts of Charity? God forbid I know of no Virtue in the Gospel that is in more pathetical Expressions recommended to our Practice, I was hungry and you gave me no Meat, thirsty and you gave me no Drink; naked and ye cloathed me not, a Stranger and you took me not in; sick and in Prison and you visited me not. Our Blessed Saviour treats the Exercise or Neglect of Charity towards a poor Man, as the Performance or Breach of this Duty towards him self. I shall endeavour to obey the Will of my Lord and Master. And therefore if an industrious Man shall submit to the hardest Labour and coarsest Fare, rather than endure the Shame of taking Relief from the Parish or asking it in the Street, this is the Hungry, the Thirsty, the Naked; and I ought to believe if any Man is come hither for Shelter against Persecution or Oppression, this is the Stranger and I ought to take him in. If any Countryman of our own is fallen into the Hands of Infidels, and lives in a State of miserable Captivity, this is the Man in Prison, and I should contribute to his Ransom. I ought to give to an Hospital of Invalids, to recover as many useful Subjects as I can; but I shall bestow none of my Bounties upon an Alms-house of idle People; and for the same Reason I shall not think it a Reproach to me if I had with-held my Charity from those common Beggars. But we prescribe better Rules than 1711. No. 232. than we are able to practise; we are ashamed not_to Monday, give into the mistaken Customs of our Country: But Nov. 26, at the same Time I cannot but think it a Reproach worse than that of common Swearing, that the Idle and the Abandoned are suffered in the Name of Heaven and all that is sacred, to extort from christian and tender Minds a Supply to a profligate Way of Life, that is always to be supported but never relieved.' Z No. 233. Tuesday, November 27, Tanquam haec sint nostrí medicína furoris, Aut Deus ille malis hominum mitescere discat.-Virg. SHALL, in this Paper, discharge my self of the Pro mise I have made to the Publick, by obliging them with a Translation of the little Greek Manuscript, which is said to have been a Piece of those Records that were preserved in the Temple of Apollo, upon the Promon tory of Leucate: It is a short History of the Lover's Leap and is inscribed, An Account of Persons Male and Female, who offered up their Vows in the Temple of the Pythian Apollo, in the Forty sixth Olympiad, and leaped from the Promontory of Leucate into the Ionian Sea, in order to cure themselves of the Passion of Love. This Account is very dry in many Parts, as only mentioning the Name of the Lover who leaped, the Person he leaped for, and relating in short, that he was either cured, or killed, or maimed, by the Fall. It indeed gives the Names of so many who died by it, that it would have looked like a Bill of Mortality, had I translated it at full length; I have therefore made an Abridgment of it, and only extracted such particular Passages as have something extraordinary, either in the Case, or in the Cure, or in the Fate of the Person who is mentioned in it. After this short Preface, take the Account as follows. Battus, the Son of Menalcas the Sicilian, leaped for Bombyca the Musician: Got rid of his Passion with the Loss of his Right Leg and Arm, which were broken in the Fall. Melissa 1711 Melissa, in Love with Daphnis, very much bruised, No. 233, but escaped with Life, Tuesday, Cynisca, the Wife of Eschines, being in Love with Nov. 27, Lycus; and Eschines her Husband being in Love with Eurilla; (which had made this Married Couple very uneasie to one another for several Years) both the Husband and the Wife took the Leap by consent; they both of them escaped, and have lived very happily together ever since, Larissa, a Virgin of Thessaly, deserted by Plexippus, after a Courtship of Three Years; She stood upon the Brow of the Promontory for some time, and after having thrown down a Ring, a Bracelet, and a little Picture, with other Presents which she had received from Plex ippus, she threw her self into the Sea, and was taken up alive. N.B. Larissa, before she leaped, made an Offering of Símatha, in Love with Daphnis the Myndían, perished in the Fall, Charixus, the Brother of Sappho, in Love_with Rhodope the Courtezan, having spent his whole Estate upon her, was advised by his Sister to Leap in the beginning of his Amour, but would not hearken to her 'till he was reduced to his last Talent; being forsaken by Rhodope, at length resolved to take the Leap, Perished in it. Aridæus, a beautiful Youth of Epirus, in Love with Praxinoe, the Wife of Thespis, escaped without Damage, saving only that two of his fore Teeth were struck out, and his Nose a little flatted. Cleora, a Widow of Ephesus, being inconsolable for the Death of her Husband, was resolved to take this Leap, in order to get rid of her Passion for his Memory; but being arrived at the Promontory, she there met with Dimmachus the Miletian, and after a short Conversation with him, laid aside the Thoughts of her Leap, and Married him in the Temple of Apollo, N.B. Her Widow's Weeds are still to be seen hanging up in the Western Corner of the Temple, Olphis, the Fisherman, having received a Box on the Ear No. 233. Ear from Thestylis the Day before, and being determined Atalanta, an old Maid, whose Cruelty had several Years before driven two or three despairing Lovers to this Leap; being now in the Fifty fifth Year of her Age, and in Love with an Officer of Sparta. Broke her Neck in the Fall. Hipparchus being passionately fond of his own Wife, who was Enamour'd of Bathyllus, leaped and died of his Fall; upon which his Wife married her Gallant, Tettyx, the Dancing-Master, in Love with Olympia, an Athenian Matron, threw himself from the Rock with great Agility, but was crippled in the Fall. Diagoras, the Usurer, in Love with his Cook-Maid; he peeped several times over the Precipice, but his Heart misgiving him, he went back, and Married her that Evening. Cinadus, after having entred his own Name in the Pythian Records, being asked the Name of the Person whom he leaped for, and being ashamed to discover it, he was set aside, and not suffered to Leap, Eunica, a Maid of Paphos, aged Nineteen, in Love with Eurybates. Hurt in the Fall, but recovered. N.B. This was her second Time of Leaping. Hesperus, a young Man of Tarentum, in Love with his Master's Daughter. Drowned, the Boats not coming in soon enough to his Relief. Sappho, the Lesbian, in Love with Phaon, arrived at the Temple of Apollo, habited like a Bride in Garments as white as Snow. She wore a Garland of Mirtle on her Head, and carried in her Hand the little Musical Instrument of her own Invention. After having Sung an Hymn to Apollo, she hung up her Garland on one side of his Altar, and her Harp on the other. She then tucked up her Vestments like a Spartan Virgin, and amidst thousands of Spectators, who were anxious for her Safety, and offered up Vows for her Deliverance, marched directly forwards to the utmost Summit of the Promontory, where after having repeated a Stanza of her own Verses, which we could not hear, she threw her 1711. her self off the Rock with such an Intrepidity, as was No. 233, never before observed in any who had attempted that Tuesday, dangerous Leap. Many, who were present, related, that Nov. 27, they saw her fall into the Sea, from whence she never rose again; though there were others who affirmed, that she never came to the bottom of her Leap; but that she was changed into a Swan as she fell, and that they saw her hovering in the Air under that Shape, But whether or no the whiteness and fluttering of her Garments might not deceive those who looked upon her, or whether she might not really be Metamorphosed into that Musical and Melancholy Bird, is still a Doubt among the Lesbians. Alcæus, the famous Lyrick Poet, who had for some time been passionately in Love with Sappho, arrived at the Promontory of Leucate that very Evening, in order to take the Leap upon her Account; but hearing that Sappho had been there before him, and that her Body could be no where found, he very generously lamented her Fall, and is said to have written his Hundred and twenty fifth Ode upon that Occasion. Leaped in this Olympiad 350. Males Females Cured Males Females No. 234, 124 126 120 51 69 Wednesday, November 28, Vellem in amicitia sic erraremus YOU very often hear People, after a Story has been told with some entertaining Circumstances, tell it over again with Particulars that destroy the Jest, but give Light into the Truth of the Narration. This sort of Veracity, though it is impertinent, has something amiable in it, because it proceeds from the Love of Truth even in frivolous Occasions, If such honest Amend ments do not promise an agreeable Companion, they do a sincere Friend; for which Reason one should allow them |