lovely, are Chearfulness and Good-nature. Thefe generally go together, as a Man cannot be agreeable to others who is not eafy within himself. They are both very requifite in a virtuous Mind, to keep out Melancholy from the many serious Thoughts it is engaged in, and to hinder its natural Hatred of Vice from fouring into Severity and Cenforiousness.

IF Virtue is of this amiable Nature,what can we think of those who can look upon it with an Eye of Hatred and Ill-will, or can fuffer their Averfion for a Party to blot out all the Merit of the Perfon who is engaged in it. A Man must be exceffively ftupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes that there is no Virtue but on his own Side, and that there are not Men as honeft as himself who may differ from him in Political Principles. Men may oppose one another in fome Particulars, but ought not to carry their Hatred to those Qualities which are of so amiable a Nature in themselves, and have nothing to do with the Points in Difpute. Men of Virtue, though of different Interefts, ought to confider themselves as more nearly united with one another, than with the vicious Part of Mankind, who embark with them in the fame civil Concerns. We fhould bear the fame Love towards a Man of Honour, who is a living Antagonist, which Tully tells us in the forementioned Paffage every one naturally does to an Enemy that is dead. In fhort, we should efteem Virtue though in a Foe, and abhor Vice though in a Friend.

I fpeak this with an Eye to those crual Treatments which Men of all fides are apt to give the Characters of those who do not agree with them. How many Perfons of undoubted Probity, and exemplary Virtue, on either Side, are blackened and defamed? How many Men of Honour expofed to publick Obloquy and Reproach ? Those therefore who are either the Inftruments or Abettors in fuch Infernal Dealings, ought to be looked upon as Perfons who make ufe of Religion to promote their Caufe, not of their Caufe to promote Religion.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Judex & callidus audis. Hor. Sat. 7. 1. 2. v. 101. A judge of Painting you, and Man of Skill. CREECH. Covent-Garden, Decemb. 7. CANNOT, without a double Injuftice, forbear expreffing to you the Satisfaction which a whole Clan of Virtuofos have received from thofe Hints which you have lately given the Town on the Cartons of the inimitable Raphael. It should be methinks the Business of a SPECTATOR to improve the Pleasures of Sight, ⚫ and there cannot be a more immediate Way to it than recommending the Study and Obfervation of excellent Drawings and Pictures. When I first went to view those of Raphael which you have celebrated, I must confess I was but barely pleased; the next time I liked them better, but at laft as I grew better acquainted with them, I fell deeply in Love with them, like wife Speeches they funk deep into my Heart; for you know, Mr. SPECTATOR, that a Man of Wit may extremely affect one for the Prefent, but if he has not Difcretion, his Merit foon • vanishes away, while a wife Man that has not fo great a • Stock of Wit, fhall nevertheless give you a far greater and more lafting Satisfaction; Juft fo it is in a Picture that is fiartly touched but not well ftudied; one may call it a witty Picture, tho' the Painter in the mean time may be in Danger of being called a Fool. On the other hand, a Picture that is thoroughly understood in the Whole, and ⚫ well performed in the Particulars, that is begun on the Foundation of Geometry, carried on by the Rules of Perspective, Architecture, and Anatomy, and perfected by a good Harmony, a juft and natural Colouring, and ⚫ fuch Paffions, and Expreffions of the Mind as are almost peculiar to Raphael; this is what you may justly ftile a wife Picture, and which feldom fails to ftrike us Dumb, 'till we can affemble all our Faculties to make but a ⚫ tolerable Judgment upon it. Other Pictures are made

for

for the Eyes only, as Rattles are made for Childrens Ears; and certainly that Picture that only pleases the Eye, without reprefenting fome well-chofen Part of Nature or other, does but fhew what fine Colours are to be fold at the Colour-fhop, and mocks the Works of the Creator. If the best Imitator of Nature, is not to be ⚫efteemed the best Painter, but he that makes the greatest Show and Glare of Colours; it will neceffarily follow, that he who can array himself in the most gaudy Draperies is best drest, and he that can speak loudeft the best Orator. Every Man when he looks on a Picture fhould examine it according to that share of Reafon he is Mafter ⚫ of, or he will be in Danger of making a wrong Judgment. If Men as they walk abroad would make more frequent Obfervations on thofe Beauties of Nature which ⚫ every Moment prefent themselves to their View, they would be better judges when they faw her well imitated at home: This would help to correct thofe Errors which moft Pretenders fall into, who are over-hafty in their Judgments, and will not stay to let Reafon come in for a fhare in the Decifion. 'Tis for want of this that Men 'mistake in this Cafe, and in common Life, a wild extravagant Pencil for one that is truly bold and great, an impudent Fellow for a Man of true Courage and Bravery, hafty and unreasonable Actions for Enterprizes of Spirit and Refolution, gaudy Colouring for that which is truly beautiful, a falfe and infinuating Difcourfe for fimple Truth elegantly recommended. The Parallel will hold through all the Parts of Life and Painting too; and the Virtuofos abovementioned will be glad to fee you draw it with your Terms of Art. As the Shadows in Picture represent the serious or melancholy, fo the Lights do the bright and lively Thoughts: As there fhould be but one 'forcible Light in a Picture which fhould catch the Eye and fall on the Hero, fo there fhould be but one Objec ⚫ of our Love, even the Author of Nature. These and the ⚫ like Reflexions well improved, might very much contribnte to open the Beauty of that Art, and prevent young People from being poisoned by the ill Gufto of an extravagant Workman that should be impofed upon us.

་

I am, SIR, Your most humble Servant.

Mr.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

HOUGH I am a Woman, yet I am one of thofe who confefs themselves highly pleased with a Speculation you obliged the World with fometime ago, from an old Greek Poet you call Simonides, in relation to ⚫ the several Natures and Distinctions of our own Sex. I 'could not but admire how justly the Characters of Women of this Age, fall in with the times of Simonides, there being no one of thofe Sorts I have not at fome time or other of my Life met with a Sample of. But, • Sir, the Subject of this prefent Addrefs, are a Set of Women comprehended, I think, in the Ninth Specie of that Speculation, called the Apes; the Defcription of whom I find to be, "That they are fuch as are both ugly and "ill-natured, who have nothing beautiful themselves, "and endeavour to detract from or ridicule every thing *that appears fo in others." Now, Sir, this Sect, as I have been told, is very frequent in the great Town where you live; but as my Círcumstance of Life obliges me to refide altogether in the Country, though not many Miles from London, I can't have met with a great Number of 'em, nor indeed is it a defirable Acquain⚫tance, as I have lately found by Experience. You must know, Sir, that at the Beginning of this Summer a Fa*mily of thefe Apes came and fettled for the Seafon not I far from the Place where I live. As they were Stran gers in the Country, they were vifited by the Ladies a bout 'em, of whom I was, with an Humanity ufual in thofe that pafs, moft of their Time in Solitude.

R

The

Apes lived with us very agreeably our own Way till to wards the End of the Summer, when they began to be * think themselves of returning to Town; then it was, Mr. SPECTATOR, that they began to fet themselves about the proper and distinguishing Bufinefs of their Character; and, as 'tis said of evil Spirits, that they are apt to carry away a Piece of the House they are about to leave, the Apes without Regard to common Mercy, Civility, or Gratitude, thought fit to mimick and fall foul on the Faces, Drefs, and Behaviour of their innocent Neighbours, beftowing abominable Cenfures and difgraceful Appellations commonly called Nick names, on all of them; and in short, like true fine Ladies, made

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⚫ their honest Plainness and Sincerity Matter of Ridicule. I could not but acquaint you with thefe Grievances, as well at the Defire of all the Parties injured, as from my own Inclination. I hope, Sir, if you can't propose 'intirely to reform this Evil, you will take fuch Notice of it in fome of your future Speculations, as may put the deferving Part of our Sex on their Guard against these < Creatures; and at the fame time the Apes may be fenfible, that this fort of Mirth is fo far from an innocent • Diversion, that it is in the highest Degree that Vice which is faid to comprehend all others.

T

I a
I am, SIR, Your humble Servant,

Conftantia Field.

No. 245.

Tuesday, December 11.

Fitta Voluptatis causâ fint proxima veris.

Hor. Ars Poet. v. 338.

Fiations, to pleafe, fhou'd wear the Face of Truth.

HERE is nothing which one regards so much with

an Eye of Mirth and Pity as Innocence, when it has in it a Dash of Folly. At the fame time that one efteems the Virtue, one is tempted to laugh at the Simplicity which accompanies it. When a Man is made up wholly of the Dove, without the least Grain of the Serpent in his Compofition, he becomes ridiculous in many Circumstances of Life, and very often difcredits his best Actions. The Cordeliers tell a Story of their Founder St. Francis, that as he paffed the Streets in the Dusk of the Evening, he discovered a young Fellow with a Maid in a Corner; upon which the good Man, fay they, lifted up his Hands to Heaven with a fecret Thanksgiving, that there was ftill fo much Chriftian Charity in the World. The Innocence of the Saint made him mistake the Kifs of a Lover for a Salute of Charity. I am heartily concerned when I fee a virtuous Man without a competent Knowledge of the World; and if there be any Ufe in

thefe