THE Quality of Fortune, tho' a Man has lefs Reason to value himself upon it than on that of the Body or Mind, is however the kind of Quality which makes the most fhining Figure in the Eye of the World.

AS Virtue is the most reasonable and genuine Source of Honour, we generally find in Titles an Intimation of some particular Merit that should recommend Men to the high Stations which they poffefs. Holiness is afcribed to the Pope; Majefty to Kings; Serenity or Mildness of Temper to Princes; Excellence or Perfection to Ambasfadors; Grace to Archbishops; Honour to Peers; Worship or Venerable Behaviour to Magiftrates; and Reverence, which is of the fame Import as the former, to the inferior Clergy.

IN the Founders of great Families, fuch Attributes of Honour are generally correfpondent with the Virtues of the Perfon to whom they are applied; but in the Defcendents they are too often the Marks rather of Grandeur than of Merit. The Stamp and Denomination ftill continues, but the intrinfick Value is frequently loft..

THE Death-bed fhews the Emptiness of Titles in a true Light. A poor difpirited Sinner lies trembling under the Apprehenfions of the State he is entring on; and is asked by a grave Attendant how his Holiness does? Another hears himself addressed to under the Title of Highness or Excellency, who lies under fuch mean Circumftances of Mortality as are the Disgrace of human Nature. Titles at fuch a time look rather like Infults and Mockery than Respect.

THE Truth of it is, Honours are in this World under no Regulation; true Quality is neglected, Virtue is oppreffed, and Vice triumphant. The laft Day will rectify this Disorder, and affign to every one a Station fuitable to the Dignity of his Character; Ranks will be then adjusted, and Precedency set right.

METHINKS we should have an Ambition, if not to advance our felves in another World, at least to preferve our Poft in it, and outfhine our Inferiors in Virtue here, that they may not be put above us in a State which is to fettle the Distinction for Eternity.

MEN

MEN in Scripture are called Strangers and Sojourners upon Earth, and Life a Pilgrimage. Several Heathen, as well as Chriftian Authors, under the fame kind of Metaphor, have represented the World as an Inn, which was only defigned to furnish us with Accommodations in this our Paffage. It is therefore very abfurd to think of fetting up our Reft before we come to our Journey's End, and not rather to take care of the Reception we fhall there meet, than to fix our Thoughts on the little Conveniences and Advantages which we enjoy one above another in the Way to it.

EPICTETUS makes ufe of another Kind of Allufion, which is very beautiful, and wonderfully proper to incline us to be fatisfied with the Poft in which Providence has placed us. We are here, fays 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 fay, that our Part does not fuit us, and that we could act another better. But this (fays the Philofopher) 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 caft our feveral Parts, and is the great Difpofer of the Drama.

THE Part that was acted by this Philofopher himfelf was but a very indifferent one, for he lived and died a Slave. His Motive to Contentment in this Particular receives a very great Enforcement from the above-mentioned Confideration, if we remember that our Parts in the other World will be new caft, and that Mankind will be there ranged in different Stations of Superiority and Pre-eminence, in Proportion as they have here excelled one another in Virtue, and performed in their feveral Pofts of Life the Duties which belong to them.

THERE are many beautiful Paffages in the little Apocryphal Book, entituled, The Wisdom of Solomon, to fet forth the Vanity of Honour, and the like temporal Bleffings which are in fo great Repute among Men, and to comfort those who have not the Poffef fion of them. It represents in very warm and noble Terms this Advancement of a good Man in the other

World,

World, and the great Surprise which it will produce among those who are his Superiors in this. • Then fhall 'the righteous Man ftand in great Boldness before the • Face of fuch as have afflicted him, and made no Ac'count of his Labours. When they fee it, they fhall ⚫ be troubled with terrible Fear, and fhall be amazed at 'the Strangeness of his Salvation, fo far beyond all that they looked for. And they repenting and groaning for Anguish of Spirit, fhall fay within themselves; This was he whom we had fometime in Derifion, and a Pro⚫ verb of Reproach. We Fools accounted his Life Mad'nefs, 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 fee the Description of a Life that is paffed away in Vanity and among the Shadows of Pomp and Greatness, he may fee it very finely drawn in the fame Place. In the mean time, fince it is necessary in the prefent Conftitution of Things, that Order and Distinction fhould be kept in the World, we fhould be happy, if those who enjoy the upper Stations in it, would endeavour to furpass others in Virtue, as much as in Rank, and by their Humanity and Condescension make their Superiority eafy and acceptable to those who are beneath them; and if, on the contrary, those who are in meaner Pofts of Life, would confider how they may better their Condition hereafter, and by a just Deference and Submiffion to their Superiors, make them happy in thofe Bleffings with which Providence has thought fit to diftinguish them.

Monday,

*******

No. 220. Monday, November 12.

Rumorefque ferit varios

A thousand Rumours Spread.

SIR,

Virg. Æn. 12. v. 228.

WHY will you apply to my Father for my Love?

I cannot help it if he will give you my Person; • but I affure you it is not in his Power, nor even in my ⚫own, to give you my Heart. Dear Sir, do but confi⚫der the ill Confequence of fuch a Match; you are Fif ty-five, I Twenty-one. You are a Man of Business, and mightly converfant in Arithmetick and making Calculations; be pleased therefore to confider what Proportion your Spirits bear to mine, and when you have made a juft Estimate of the neceffary Decay on one Side, and the Redundance on the other, you will act accordingly. This perhaps is fuch Language as you may not expect from a young Lady; but my Happi⚫ nefs is at Stake, and I muft talk plainly. I mortally hate you; and fo, as you and my Father agree, you may take me or leave me: But if you will be so good as never to fee me more, you will for ever oblige,

·

Mr. SPECTATOR,

SIR, Your most humble Servant,

HENRIETTA.

HERE are fo many Artifices and Modes of false

⚫it felf among its Votaries, that it would be impoffible to exhaust fo fertile a Subject, if you would think fit to ⚫refume it. The following Inftances 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 while he stood upon one Leg, has been imitated

(as

199 ⚫ (as I have heard) by a modernWriter; who priding him felf 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 coft him in the Compofition. He could tafte no Praise till he had acquainted you in how fhort Space of time he had deserved it; and was not fo much led to an Oftentation <of his Art, as of his Dispatch.

Accipe fi vis, Accipiam tabulas; detur nobis locus, bora, Cuftodes: videamus uter plus fcribere poffit.

Hor. Sat. 4. 1. 1. v. 14. Here's Pen and Ink, and Time, and Place; let's try, Who can write most, and fastest, you or I. CREECH.

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 thofe laborious. Nothings which you have obferved 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, defpifing 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 confiderable Poet upon. Glafs. He had a very good Epigrammatick Wit; and there " was not a Parlour or Tavern-Window where he 'vifited or dined for fome Years, which did not re'ceive fome Sketches or Memorials of it. It was his 'Misfortune at laft to lose his Genius and his Ring to a Sharper at Play, and he has not attempted to make a • Verse fince.

"BUT of all Contractions or Expedients for Wit, I 'admire that of an ingenious Projector whofe Book I ' have seen. This Virtuofo being a Mathematician, has, according to his Tafte, thrown the Art of Poetry into a fhort Problem, and contrived Tables by which any < one without knowing a Word of Grammar or Sense, may, to his great Comfort, be able to compofe, or rather to erect Latin Verfes. His Tables are a Kind of • Poetical