No 146. Friday August 17.

Nemo Vir Magnus fine aliquo Afflatu divino unquam fuit.

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Tull.

E know the higheft Pleasure our Minds are capable of enjoying with Compofure, when we read fublime Thoughts communicated to us by Men of Great Genius and Eloquence. Such is the Entertainment we meet with in the philofophick Parts of Cicero's. Writings, Truth and good Sense have there so charming a Drefs, that they could hardly be more agreeably repres fented with the. Addition of poetical Fiction and the Power of Numbers. This ancient Author, and a modern one, have fallen into my Hands within these few Days; and the Impreffions they have left upon me, have at the prefent quite fpoiled me for a merry Fellow. The Modern is that admirable Writer the Author of the Theory of the Earth. The Subjects with which I have lately been entertained in them both bear a near Affinity; they are upon Enquiries into Hereafter, and the Thoughts of the latter feem to me to be raised above thofe of the former in proportion to his Advantages of Scripture and Revelation. If I had a Mind to it, I could not at prefent talk of any thing elfe; therefore I fhall tranflate a Paffage in the one, and tranfcribe a Paragraph out of the other, for the Speculation of this Day. Cicero tells us, that Plate reports Socrates, upon receiving his Sentence, to have fpoken to his Judges in the following Manner.

I have great Hope, oh my Judges, that it is infinitely to my Advantage that I am fent to Death: For it must of Neceffity be, that one of these two things must be ⚫ the Confequence. Death muft take away all thefe Senfes, or convey me to another Life. If all Sense is to be taken away, and Death is no more than that profound Sleep without Dreams, in which we are fometimes buried, oh Heavens! how defirable is it to die? how many Days do we know in Life preferrable to

fuch

fuch a State? But if it be true that Death is but a Paffage to Places which they who lived before us do now inha bit, how much still happier is it to go from thofe who call themselves Judges, to appear before those that really are fuch; before Minos, Rhadamanthus, acus and Iriptolemus, and to meet Men who have lived with Juftice and Truth? Is this, do you think, no. happy Journey? Do you think it nothing to speak with Orpheus, Mufaus, Homer and Hefiod? I would, indeed, fuffer many Deaths to enjoy thefe Things. With what particular Delight fhould. I talk to Palamedes, Ajax, and others who like me have fuffered by the Iniquity ⚫ of their Judges. I fhould examine the Wisdom of that great Prince, who carried fuch mighty Forces against Troy; and argue with Ulyffes and Sisyphus, upon diffi. cult Points, as I have in Converfation here, without being in Danger of being condemned. But let not thofe among you who have pronounced me an inno· cent Man be afraid of Death. No Harm can arrive at a good Man whether dead or living; his Affairs are always under the Direction of the Gods; nor will I be lieve the Fate which is allotted to me my felf this Day to have arrived by Chance; nor have I ought to fay either against my Judges or Accufers, but that they thought they did me an Injury. But I detain you too long, it is Time that I retire to Death, and you to your Affairs of Life; which of us has the Better is • known to the Gods, but to no mortal Man.

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THE divine Sotrates is here reprefented in a Figure worthy his great Wisdom and Philofophy, worthy the greatest mere Man that ever breathed. But the modern Difcourfe is written upon a Subject no less than the Diffolu tion of Nature it felt. Oh how glorious is the old Age of that great Man, who has spent his Time in fuch Contemplations as has made this Being, what only it should be, an Education for Heaven! He has, according to the Lights of Reafon and Revelation, which feemed to him cleareft, traced the Steps of Omnipotence: He has, with a Celestial Ambition, as far as it is confiftent with Humility and Devotion, examined the Ways of Providence, from the Creation to the Diffolution of the visible World. How pleasing must have been the Speculation,

to obferve Nature and Providence move together, the phyfical and moral World march the fame Pace: To obferve Paradife and eternal Spring the Seat of Innocence, troubled Seafons and angry Skies the Portion of Wickedness and Vice. When this admirable Author has reviewed all that has paft, or is to come, which relates to the habitable World. and run through the whole Face of it, how could a Guardian Angel, that has attended it through all its Courfes or Changes, ípeak more emphatically at the End of his Charge, than does our Author when he makes, as it were, a Funeral Oration over this Globe, looking to the Point where it once stood?

LET us only, if you please, to take Leave of this • Subject, reflect upon this Occafion on the Vanity and ⚫ tranfient Glory of this habitable World. How by the 'Force of one Element breaking loofe upon the reft, all 'the Vanities of Nature, all the Works of Art, all the

Labours of Men, are reduced to Nothing. All that we • admired and adored before as great and magnificent, ⚫ is obliterated or vanished; and an another Form and Face of things, plain, fimple, and every where the fame, overspreads the whole Earth. Where are now the great Empires of the World, and their great Imperial Cities? Their Pillars, Trophies, aud Monuments of Glory? Shew me where they ftood, read the Infcription, tell me the Victor's Name. What Remains, what Impreffions, what Difference, or Diftinction, do you fee in this Mafs of Fire? Rome it felf, eternal Rome, the great City, the Empress of the World, whofe Domination and Superftition, ancient and modern, make a great Part of the Hiftory of this Earth, what is become of her now? She laid her Foundations deep, and her Palaces were ftrong and fumptuous; She glorified her felf, and lived deliciously, and faid in her Heart I fit a Queen, and fhall fee no for row: But her Hour is come, fhe is wiped away from the Face of the Earth, and buried in everlasting Oblivion. But it is not Cities only, and Works of Mens Hands, but the everlasting Hills, the Mountains and Rocks of the Earth are melted as Wax before the Sun, and their Place is no where found. Here ftood the Alpes, the Load of the Earth, that covered many ⚫ Countries,

Countries, and reached their Arms from the Ocean to the Black Sea; this huge Mafs of Stone is foftned and diffolved as a tender Cloud into Rain. Here stood the African Mountains, and Atlas with his Top above the Clouds; there was frozen Caucafus, and Taurus, and "Imaus, and the Mountains of Afia; and yonder towards "the North, ftood the Riphean Hills, cloath'd in Ice and • Snow. All these are Vanifhed, dropt away as the • Snow upon their Heads. Great and marvellous are thy Works, juft and true are thy Ways, thou King of Saints! Hallelujah.

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N° 147

Saturday, August 18.

Pronuntiatio eft vocis & Vultus & Geftus moderatio cum venuftate.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

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Tull.

HE well reading of the Common-Prayer is of fo great Importance, and fo much neglected, that I take the Liberty to offer to your Confideration • fome Particulars on that Subject: And what more wor→ thy your Obfervation than this? A thing fo Publick, and of fo high Confequence. It is indeed wonderful, that the frequent Exercife of it should not make the Performers of that Duty more expert in it. This Inability, as I conceive, proceeds from the little Care that is taken of their Reading, while Boys and at School, where when they are got into Latin, they are looked upon as above Eng glish, the Reading of which is wholly neglected, or at leaft read to very little Purpofe, without any due Obfer⚫vations made to them of the proper Accent and manner of Reading; by this means they have acquired fuch ill Habits as won't easily be removed. The only way that I know of to remedy this, is to propofe fome Perfon of great Ability that way as a Pattern for them; Exam. ple being moft effectual to convince the Learned, as < well as inftruct the Ignorant,

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YOU must know, Sir, I've been a constant Frequenter of the Service of the Church of England for above thefe four Years last past, and 'till Sunday was Sevennight never difcovered, to fo great a Degree, the Excellency of the Common-Prayer. When being at St. James's • Garlick-bill Church, I heard the Service read fo diftinctly, fo emphatically, and fo fervently, that it was next to an Impoffibility to be unattentive. My Eyes and my Thoughts could not wander as ufual, but were confin'd to my Prayers: I then confidered I addreffed my felf to the Almighty, and not to a beautiful Face. And ⚫ when I reflected on my former Performances of that Duty, I found I had run it over as a matter of Form, in comparison to the Manner in which I then discharged it. My Mind was really affected,, and fervent Wishes accompanied my Words. The Confeffion was read with fuch a refigned Humility, the Abfolution with 'fuch a comfortable Authority, the Thanksgivings with fuch a Religious joy, as made me feel thofe Affections of the Mind in a manner I never did before. To remedy therefore the Grievance above complained of, I humbly propofe, that this excellent Reader, upon the next and every Annual Affembly of the Clergy of Sion College, and all other Conventions, fhould read Prayers • before them. For then those, that are afraid of stretching their Mouths, and fpoiling their foft Voice; will learn to Read with Clearnefs, Loudnefs, and Strength. Others that affect a rakish negligent Air by folding their • Arms, and lolling on their Book, will be taught a decent Behaviour, and comely Erection of Body. Those that Read fo faft as if impatient of their Work, may learn to fpeak Deliberately. There is another fort of Perfons whom I call Pindarick Readers, as being confined to no fet measure; these Pronounce five or fix Words with great Deliberation, and the five or fix Subfequent ones with as great Celerity: The firft part of a Sentence with a very exalted Voice, and the latter part with a Submif• five one: Sometimes again with one fort of Tone, and immediately after with a very different one. Thefe Gentlemen will learn of my admired Reader an Evenness of Voice and Delivery. And all who are innocent of these Affectations, but read with fuch an Indifferency as if

they