tresses with which we see him surrounded. And |
whoever believes in the immortality of the soul, will
not need a better argument for the dignity of his na-
ture, nor a stronger incitement to actions suitable toit.
I am naturally led by this reflection to a subject
I have already touched upon in a former letter, and
cannot without pleasure call to mind the thoughts
of Cicero to this purpose, in the close of his book
concerning old age. Every one who is acquainted
with his writings will remember, that the elder Cato
is introduced in that discourse as the speaker, and
Scipio and Lælius as his auditors. This venerable
person is represented looking forward as it were
from the verge of extreme old age into a future state,
and rising into a contemplation on the unperishable
part of his nature, and its existence after death. I
shall collect part of his discourse. And as you have
formerly offered some arguments for the soul's im-
mortality, agreeable both to reason and the Christian
doctrine, I believe your readers will not be dis-
pleased to see how the same great truth shines in
the pomp of Roman eloquence.

"This,' says Cato, is my firm persuasion, that since the human soul exerts itself with so great activity; since it has such a remembrance of the past, such a concern for the future; since it is enriched with so many arts, sciences, and discoveries; it is impossible but the Being which contains all these must be immortal.'

***What besides this is the cause that the wisest men die with the greatest equanimity, the ignorant with the greatest concern? Does it not seem that those minds which have the most extensive views foresee they are removing to a happier condition, which those of a narrow sight do not perceive? I, for my part, am transported with the hope of seeing your ancestors, whom I have honoured and loved; and am earnestly desirous of meeting not only those excellent persons whom I have known, but those, too, of whom I have heard and read, and of whom I myself have written; nor would I be detained from so pleasing a journey. O happy day, when I shall escape from this crowd, this heap of pollution, and be admitted to that divine assembly of exalted spirits! when I shall go not only to those great persous I have named, but to my Cato, my son, than whom a better man was never born, and whose funeral rites I myself performed, whereas he ought rather to have attended mine. Yet has not his soul deserted me, but, seeming to cast back a look on me, is gone before to those habitations to which it was sensible I should follow him. And though I might appear to have borne my loss with courage, I was not unaffected with it; but I comforted myself in the assurance, that it would not be long before we should meet again, and be divorced no more.'

Ultra

"I am, Sir," &c.

Finem tendere opus.—— HOR. 2 Sat. i. 1.
To launch beyond all bounds.

"The elder Cyrus, just before his death, is re- No. 538.] MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1712 presented by Xenophon speaking after this manner: Think not, my dearest children, that when I depart from you I shall be no more; but remember, that my soul, even while I lived among you, was invisible to you; yet by my actions you were sensible it existed in this body. Believe it therefore existing still, though it be still unseen. How quickly would the honours of illustrious men perish after death, if their souls performed nothing to preserve their fame! For my own part, I never could think that the soul while in a mortal body lives, but when departed out of it, it dies; or that its consciousness is lost when it discharged out of an unconscious habitation. But when it is freed from all corporeal alliance, then it truly exists. Further, since the human frame is broken by death, tell us what becomes of its parts? It is visible whither the materials of other beings are translated; namely, to the source from whence they had their birth. The soul alone, neither present nor departed, is the object of our eyes.'

SURPRISE is so much the life of stories, that every one aims at it who endeavours to please by telling them. Smooth delivery, an elegant choice of words, and a sweet arrangement, are all beautifying graces, but not the particulars in this point of conversation which either long command the attention, or strike with the violence of a sudden passion, or occasion the burst of laughter which accompanies hemour. I have sometimes fancied that the mind is in this case like a traveller who sees a fine seat in haste; he acknowledges the delightfulness of a walk set with regularity, but would be uneasy if he were obliged to pace it over, when the first view had let him into all its beauties from one end to the other

However, a knowledge of the success which stories will have when they are attended with a turn of surprise, as it has happily made the characters of some, so has it also been the ruin of the characters of others. There is a set of men who outrage truth, instead of affecting us with a manner in telling it; who overleap the line of probability, that they may be seen to move out of the common road; and endeavour only to make their hearers stare by impo sing upon them with a kind of nonsense against the philosophy of nature, or such a heap of wonders told upon their own knowledge, as it is not likely one man should have ever met with.

Thus Cyrus. But to proceed: No one shall persuade me, Scipio, that your worthy father, or your grandfathers Paulus and Africanus, or Africanus his father or uncle, or many other excellent men whom I need not name, performed so many actions to be remembered by posterity, without being sensible that futurity was their right. And, if I may be allowed an old man's privilege to speak of myself, do you think I would have endured the fatigue of so many wearisome days and nights, both at home and abroad, if I imagined that the same boundary which is set to my life must terminate my I have been led to this observation by a company glory? Were it not more desirable to have worn into which I fell accidentally. The subject of antiout my days in ease and tranquillity, free from la-pathies was a proper field wherein such false sur bour, and without emulation? But, I know not how, my soul has always raised itself, and looked forward on futurity, in this view and expectation, that when it shall depart out of life it shall then live for ever; and if this were not true, that the mind is immortal, the souls of the most worthy would not above all others have the strongest inpulse to giory.

prises might expatiate, and there were those present who appeared very fond to show it in its full extent of traditional history. Some of them, in a learned manner, offered to our consideration the miraculous powers which the effluviums of cheese have over bodies whose pores are disposed to receive them ia a noxious manner; others gave an account of such who could indeed bear the sight of cheese, but x.•

on.

the taste; for which they brought a reason from the even go no further) silence, or a negligent indifmilk of their nurses. Others again discoursed, with ference, has a deeper way of wounding than oppoout endeavouring at reasons, concerning an uncon-sition, because opposition proceeds from an anger querable aversion which some stomachs have against that has a sort of generous sentiment for the adver a joint of meat when it is whole, and the eager in-sary mingling along with it, while it shows that there clination they have for it when, by its being cut up, is some esteem in your mind for him; in short, that the shape which had affected them is altered. From you think him worth while to contest with. But sihence they passed to eels, then to parsnips, and so lence, or a negligent indifference, proceeds from from one aversion to another, until we had worked anger, mixed with a scorn that shows another he is up ourselves to such a pitch of complaisance, that thought by you too contemptible to be regarded. when the dinner was to come in we inquired the The other method which the world has taken for name of every dish, and hoped it would be no offence correcting this practice of false surprise, is to overto any company, before it was admitted. When we shoot such talkers in their own bow, or to raise the had sat down, this civility among us turned the dis- story with further degrees of impossibility, and set course from eatables to other sorts of aversions; and up for a voucher to them in such a manner as must the eternal cat, which plagues every conversation of let them see they stand detected. Thus I have this nature, began then to engross the subject. One heard a discourse was once managed upon the effects had sweated at the sight of it, another had smelled of fear. One of the company had given an account it out as it lay concealed in a very distant cupboard; how it had turned his friend's hair gray in a night, and he who crowned the whole set of these stories, while the terrors of a shipwreck encompassed him, reckoned up the number of times in which it had oc- Another, taking the hint from hence, began upon casioned him to swoon away. "At last," says he, his own knowledge to enlarge his instances of the "that you may all be satisfied of my invincible aver-like nature to such a number, that it was not prosion to a cat, I shall give an unanswerable instance. bable he could ever have met with them; and as he As I was going through a street of London, where I still grounded these upon different causes for the had never been until then, I felt a general damp sake of variety, it might seem at last, from his share and faintness all over me, which I could not tell how of the conversation, almost impossible that any one to account for, until I chanced to cast my eyes up- who can feel the passion of fear should all his life wards, and found that I was passing under a sign- escape so common an effect of it. By this time, post on which the picture of a cat was hung." some of the company grew negligent, or desirous to contradict him: but one rebuked the rest with an appearance of severity, and, with the known old story in his head, assured them they need not scruple to believe that the fear of any thing can make a man's hair gray, since he knew one whose periwig had suffered so by it. Thus he stopped the talk, and made them easy. Thus is the same method taken to bring us to shame, which we fondly take to increase our character. It is indeed a kind of mimicry, by which another puts on our air of conversation to show us to ourselves. He seems to look ridiculous before, that you may remember how near a resemblance you bear to him, or that you may know he will not lie under the imputation of be lieving you. Then it is that you are struck dumb immediately with a conscientious shame for what you have been saying. Then it is that you are inwardly grieved at the sentiments which you cannot but perceive others entertain concerning you. In short, you are against yourself; the laugh of the company runs against you; the censuring world is The first of these is a general silence, which I obliged to you for that triumph which you have alwould not advise any one to interpret in his own be-lowed them at your own expense; and truth, which half. It is often the effect of prudence in avoiding a quarrel, when they see another drive so fast that there is no stopping him without being run against; and but very seldom the effect of weakness in believing suddenly. The generality of mankind are not so grossly ignorant, as some overbearing spirits "The other day, walking in Pancras churchyard, would persuade themselves; and if the authority of I thought of your paper wherein you mention epia character or a caution against danger make us taphs, and am of opinion this has a thought in it suppress our opinions, yet neither of these are of worth being communicated to your readers. force enough to suppress our thoughts of them. If a man who has endeavoured to amuse his company with improbabilities could but look into their minds, he would find that they imagine be lightly esteems of their sense when he thinks to impose upon them, and that he is less esteemed by them in his attempt in doing so. His endeavour to glory at their expense becomes a ground of quarrel, and the scorn and indifference with which they entertain it begins the immediate punishment: and indeed (if we should

The extravagance of this turn in the way of surprise gave a stop to the talk we had been carrying Some were silent because they doubted, and others because they were conquered in their own way; so that the gentleman had an opportunity to press the belief of it upon us, and let us see that he was rather exposing himself than ridiculing others. I must freely own that I did not all this while disbelieve every thing that was said; but yet I thought some in the company had been endeavouring who should pitch the bar furthest; that it had for some time been a measuring cast, and at last my friend of the cat and sign-post had thrown beyond

them all.

I then considered the manner in which this story had been received, and the possibility that it might have passed for a jest upon others, if he had not laboured against himself. From hence, thought I, there are two ways which the well-bred world generally takes to correct such a practice, when they do not think fit to contradict it flatly.

you have injured, nas a near way of being revenged on you, when by the bare repetition of your story you become a frequent diversion for the public.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

Here innocence and beauty lies, whose breath
Was snatch'd by early, not untimely, death,
Hence she did go, just as she did begin
Sorrow to know, before she knew to sin.
Death, that does sin and sorrow thus prevent,
Is the next blessing to a life well spent.

"I am, Sir, your Servant.

No. 539.] TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1712. in hopes it would give the parties concerned some

Heteroclita sunto.-QUA GENUS.

Be they heteroclites.

MR. SPECTATOR,

"I AM a young widow of a good fortune and
family, and just come to town; where I find I have
clusters of pretty fellows come already to visit me,
some dying with hopes, others with fears, though they
never saw me. Now, what I would beg of you would
be to know whether I may venture to use these pert
fellows with the same freedom as I did my country
acquaintance. I desire your leave to use them as
to me shall seem meet, without imputation of a jilt:
for since I make declaration that not one of them
shall have me, I think I ought to be allowed the li-
berty of insulting those who have the vanity to be-
lieve it is in their power to make me break that re-
solution. There are schools for learning to use foils,
frequented by those who never design to fight; and
this useless way of aiming at the heart, without de-
sign to wound it on either side, is the play with which
I am resolved to divert myself. The man who pre-
tends to win, I shall use like him who comes into a
fencing-school to pick a quarrel. I hope upon this
foundation you will give me the free use of the na-
tural and artificial force of my eyes, looks, and ges-
tures. As for verbal promises, I will make none,
but shall have no mercy on the conceited interpreters
of glances and motions. I am particularly skilled
in the downcast eye, and the recovery into a sudden
full aspect and away again, as you may have seen
sometimes practised by us country beauties beyond
all that you have observed in courts and cities. Add
to this, Šir, that I have a ruddy heedless look, which
covers artifice the best of any thing. Though I can
dance very well, I affect a tottering untaught way of
walking, by which I appear an easy prey and
never exert my instructed charms, until I find I
have engaged a pursuer. Be pleased, Sir, to print
this letter, which will certainly begin the chase of a
rich widow. The many foldings, escapes, returns,
and doublings, which I make, I shall from time to
time communicate to you, for the better instruction
of all females, who set up, like me, for reducing the
present exorbitant power and insolence of man.
"I am, Sir,

"Your faithful Correspondent,
"RELICTA LOVELY."

"DEAR MR. SPECTATOR,

"I depend upon your professed respect for virtuous love for your immediately answering the design of this letter; which is no other than to lay before the world the severity of certain parents, who desire to suspend the marriage of a discreet young woman of eighteen three years longer, for no other reason but that of her being too young to enter into that state. As to the consideration of riches, my circumstances are such, that I cannot be suspected to make my addresses to her on such low motives as avarice or ambition. If ever innocence, wit, and beauty, united their utmost charms, they have in her. I wish you would expatiate a little on this subject, and admonish her parents that it may be from the very imperfection of human nature itself, and not any personal frailty of her or me, that our inclinations, baffled at present, may alter; and while we are arguing with ourselves to put off the enjoyment of our present passions, our affections may change their objects in the operation. It is a very delicate subject to talk upon; but if it were but hinted, I am

reflection that might expedite our happiness. There
is a possibility, and I hope I may say it without im-
putation of immodesty to her I love with the highest
honour: I say there is a possibility this delay may
be as painful to her as it is to me; if it be as much,
it must be more, by reason of the severe rules the
sex are under, in being denied even the relief of
complaint. If you oblige me in this, and I succeed,
I promise you a place at my wedding, and a treat
ment suitable to your spectatorial dignity
"Your most humble Servant,

"SIR,

“EUSTACE."

"I yesterday heard a young gentleman, that looked as if he was just come to the gown and a scarf, upon evil speaking: which subject, you know Archbishop Tillotson has so nobly handled in a sermon in bis folio. As soon as ever he had named his text, and had opened a little the drift of his discourse, I was in great hopes he had been one of Sir Roger's chan lains. I have conceived so great an idea of the charming discourse above, that I should have thought one part of my Sabbath very well spent in hearing a repetition of it. But, alas! Mr. Spectator, this re verend divine gave us his grace's sermon, and yet I do not know how; even I, that I am sure have read it at least twenty times, could not tell what to make of it, and was at a loss sometimes to guess what the man aimed at. He was so just indeed, as to give us all the heads and the sub-divisions of the sermon, and further I think there was not one beautiful thought in it but what we had. But then, Sir, this gentleman made so many pretty additions; and he could never give us a paragraph of the sermon, but he introduced it with something which methought looked more like a design to show his own inge nuity, than to instruct the people. In short, hẹ added and curtailed in such a manner, that he vexed me; insomuch that I could not forbear thinking (what I confess I ought not to have thought of in so holy a place), that this young spark was as justly blameable as Bullock or Penkethman, when they mend a noble play of Shakspeare or Jonson. Pray, Sir, take this into your consideration; and, if we must be entertained with the works of any of those great men, desire these gentlemen to give them us as they find them, that so when we read them to our families at home, they may the better remember that they have beard them at church

'Sir, your humble Servant."

No. 540.] WEDNESDAY, NOV. 19, 1712
-Non deficit alter.-VIRG. Æn. vi. 143.
A second is not wanting.
"MR. SPECTATOR,

"THERE is no part of your writings which I have in more esteem than your criticism upon Milton. R is an honourable and candid endeavour to set the works of our noble writers in the graceful light which they deserve. You will lose much of my kind inclination towards you, if you do not attempt the encomium of Spenser also, or at least indulge my passion for that charming author so far as to print the loose hints I now give you on that subject.

66

Spenser's general plan is the representation of six virtues-holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice, and courtesy-in six legends by sis persons. The six personages are supposed, under proper

allegories suitable to their respective characters, to do all that is necessary for the full manifestation of the respective virtues which they are to exert.

"These one might undertake to show under the several heads are admirably drawn; no images improper, and most surprisingly beautiful. The Redcross Knight runs through the whole steps of the Christian life; Guyon does all that temperance can possibly require; Britomartis (a woman) observes the true rules of unaffected chastity; Arthegal is in every respect of life strictly and wisely just; Calidore is rightly courteous.

"In short, in Fairy land, where knights-errant have a full scope to range, and to do even what Ariostos or Orlandos could not do in the world without breaking into credibility, Spenser's knights have, quity: see what great justness and variety there "Homer's epithets were much admired by antiunder those six heads, a full and truly poetical sys-are in these epithets of the trees in the forest, where tem of Christian, public, and low life. the Redcross Knight lost Truth. Stan. 8, 9.

Causeless jealousy in Britomartis, v. 6. 14, in its rest- No. 541.] THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1712.