yourself more usefully than in adjusting the laws of disputation in coffee-houses and accidental companies, as well as in more formal debates. Among many other things which your own experience must suggest to you, it will be very obliging if you please to take notice of wagerers. I will not here repeat what Hudibras says of such disputants, which is so true, that it is almost proverbial; but shall only acquaint you with a set of young fellows of the inns of court, whose fathers have provided for them so plentifully, that they need not be very anxious to get law into their heads for the service of their country at the bar; but are of those who are sent (as the phrase of parents is,) to the Temple to know how to keep their own.' One of these gentlemen is very loud and captious at a coffee-house which I frequent, and being in his nature troubled with a humour of contradiction, though withal excessively ignorant, he has found a way to indulge this temper, go on in idleness and ignorance, and yet still give himself the air of a very learned and knowing man, by the strength of his pocket. The misfortune of the thing is, I have, as it happens sometimes, a greater stock of learning than of money. The gentleman I am speaking of takes advantage of the narrowness of my circumstances in such a manner, that he has read all that I can pretend to, and runs me down with such a positive air, and with such powerful arguments, that from a very learned person I am thought a mere pretender. Not long ago I was relating that I had read such a passage in Tacitus, up starts my young gentleman in a full company, and pulling out his purse offered to lay me ten guineas, to be staked immediately in that gentleman's hands, (pointing to one smoking at another table,) that I was utterly mistaken. I was dumb for want of ten guineas; he went on unmercifully to triumph over my ignorance how to take him up, and told the whole room he had read Tacitus twenty times over, and such a remarkable incident as that could not escape him. He has at this time three considerable wagers depending between him and some of his companions, who are rich enough to hold an argument with him. He has five guineas upon questions in geography, two that the Isle of Wight is a peninsula, and three guineas to one that the world is round. We have a gentleman comes to our No. 145.] Thursday, August 16, 1711. Stultitiam patiuntur opesHor. Lib. 1. Ep. xviii. 29. Their folly pleads the privilege of wealth. IF the following enormities are not amended upon the first mentioning, I de-coffee-house, who deals mightily in ansire further notice from my correspon-twenty pieces upon a point of history, to tique scandal; my disputant has laid him dents. wit, that Cæsar never lay with Cato's sister, as is scandalously reported by some people. "There are several of this sort of fellows in town, who wager themselves into statesmen, historians, geographers, mathematicians, and every other art, when the persons with whom they talk have not wealth equal to their learning. I beg of you to prevent, in these youngsters, this compendious way to wisdom, which costs other describe a right woman in a laudable sense, she should have gentle softness, tender fear, and all those parts of life which distinguish her from the other sex; with some subordination to it, but such an inferiority that makes her still more lovely. Eucratia is that creature, she is all over woman, kindness is all her art, and beauty all her arms. Her look, her voice, her gesture, and whole behaviour is truly feminine. A goodness mixed with fear gives a tincture to all her behaviour. It would be savage to offend her, and cruelty to use art to gain her. Others are beautiful, but, Eucratia, thou art beauty! Omniamante is made for deceit, she has an aspect as innocent as the famed Lucrece, but a mind as wild as the more famed Cleopatra. Her face speaks a vestal, but her heart a Messalina. Who that beheld Omniamante's negligent unobserving air, would believe that she hid under that regardless manner the witty prostitute, the rapacious wench, the prodigal courtesan? She can, when she pleases, adorn those eyes with tears like an infant that is chid; she can cast down that pretty face in confusion, while you rage with jealousy, and storm at her perfidiousness; she can wipe her eyes, tremble and look frighted, until you think yourself a brute for your rage, own yourself an offender, beg pardon, and make her new presents. But I go too far in reporting only the dangers in beholding the beauteous, which I design for the instruction of the fair as well as their beholders; and shall end this rhapsody with mentioning what I thought was well enough said of an ancient sage to a beautiful youth, whom he saw admiring his own figure in brass. What,' said the philosopher, 'could that image of yours say for itself if it could speak? It might say, (answered the youth,) that it is very beautiful. And are not you ashamed,' replied the cynic, to value yourself upon that only of which a piece of brass is capable?' T. 6 MR. SPECTATOR,-I am obliged to you for your discourse the other day upon frivolous disputants, who, with great warmth and enumeration of many circumstances and authorities, undertake to prove matters which nobody living denies. You cannot employ * Antisthenes, the founder of the sect of Cynic philo sophers. people so much time and pains: and you will | wire, to increase and sustain the bunch of oblige your humble servant. fold that hangs down on each side; and the hat, I perceive is decreased in just propor tion to our head-dresses. We make a regu Coffee-house near the Temple, Aug. 12, 1711. T. 'MR. SPECTATOR,-Here is a young gentleman that sings opera-tunes or whis-lar figure, but I defy your mathematics to tles in a full house. Pray let him know give name to the form you appear in. Your that he has no right to act here as if he architecture is mere gothic, and betrays a were in an empty room. Be pleased to worse genius than ours; therefore if you are divide the spaces of a public room, and cer- partial to your own sex, I shall be less than tify whistlers, singers, and common orators, am now, your humble servant.' that are heard farther than their portion of the room comes to, that the law is open, and that there is an equity which will relieve us from such as interrupt us in our lawful discourse, as much as against such who stop us on the road. I take these persons, Mr. Spectator, to be such trespassers as the officer in your stage-coach, and am of the same sentiment with counsellor Ephraim. It is true the young man is rich, and, as the vulgar say, needs not care for any body; but sure that is no authority for him to go whistle where he pleases. I am, sir, your most humble servant. No. 146.] Friday, August 17, 1711. Nemo vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit. WE know the highest pleasure our minds are capable of enjoying with composure, when we read sublime thoughts communicated to us by men of great genius and eloquence. Such is the entertainment we meet with in the philosophic parts of Cicero's writings. Truth and good sense have there so charming a dress, that they could hardly be more agreeably represented with the of numbers. This ancient author, and a addition of poetical fiction, and the power modern one, have fallen into my hands within these few days; and the impressions they have left upon me have at the present quite spoiled me for a merry fellow. The 'MR. SPECTATOR,-We are a company of young women who pass our time very much together, and obliged by the mercenary humour of the men to be as merce-modern is that admirable writer the author narily inclined as they are. There visits of the Theory of the Earth. The subjects among us an old bachelor whom each of with which I have lately been entertained us has a mind to. The fellow is rich, and in them both bear a near affinity; they knows he may have any of us, therefore are upon inquiries into hereafter, and the is particular to none, but excessively ill-thoughts of the latter seem to me to be bred. His pleasantry consists in romping, raised above those of the former, in proporhe snatches kisses by surprise, puts his tion to his advantages, Scripture and revelahands in our necks, tears our fans, robs us tion. If I had a mind to it, I could not at of ribands, forces letters out of our hands, present talk of any thing else; therefore I looks into any of our papers, and a thou-shall translate a passage in the one, and sand other rudenesses. Now what will transcribe a paragraph out of the other, for desire of you is, to acquaint him, by print- the speculation of this day. Cicero tells us,* ing this, that if he does not marry one of that Plato reports Socrates, upon receiving us very suddenly, we have all agreed, the his sentence, to have spoken to his judges next time he pretends to be merry, to in the following manner: affront him, and use him like a clown as he is. In the name of the sisterhood I take my leave of you, and am, as they all are, your constant reader and well-wisher.' I have great hopes, O my judges, that it is infinitely to my advantage that I am sent to death: for it must of necessity be, that one of these two things must be the consequence. Death must take away all these senses, 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 sometimes buried, P.S. I have chambers in the Temple, and here are students that learn upon the hautboy: pray desire the benchers that all lawyers who are proficients in wind-music may lodge to the Thames.' 'MR. SPECTATOR,-I and several others of your female readers have conformed ourselves to your rules, even to our very dress. There is not one of us but has reduced our outward petticoat to its ancient sizeable cir-oh, cumference, though indeed we retain still a quilted one underneath; which makes us not altogether unconformable to the fashion; but it is on condition Mr. Spectator extends not his censure too far. But we find you men secretly approve our practice, by imitating our pyramidical form. The skirt of your fashionable coats forms as large a circumference as our petticoats; as these are set out with whalebone, so are those with heavens! how desirable it is to die! How many days do we know in life preferable to such a state? But if it be true that death is but a passage to places which they who lived before us do now inhabit, how much still happier is it to go from those who call themselves judges to appear before those who are really such; before Minos, Rhadamanthus, acus, and Trip Tusculan. Quæstion. lib. 1. tolemus, and to meet nen who have lived All that we admired and adored before as great and magnificent, is obliterated or vanished; and another form and face of things, plain, simple, and every where the same, overspreads the whole earth. Where are now the great empires of the world, and thei great imperial cities? their pillars, trophies, and monuments of glory? show me where they stood, read the inscription, tell me the victor's name. What remains, what impressions, what difference or distinction do you see in this mass of fire? Rome itself, eternal Rome, the great city, the empress of the world, whose domination and superstition, ancient and modern, make a great part of the history of the carth, what is become of her now? 'She laid her foundations deep, and her palaces were strong and sumptuous. "She glorified herself, and lived deliciously, and said in her heart, I sit a queen, and shall see no sorrow:" But her hour is come, she is wiped away from the face of the earth, and buried in everlasting oblivion. But it is not cities only, and works of men's 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 stood the Alps, the load of the earth, that covered many countries, and reached their arms from the ocean to the Black Sea; this huge mass of stone is softened and dissolved as a tender cloud into rain. Here stood the African mountains, and Atlas with his top above the clouds; there was frozen Caucasus, and Taurus, and Imaus, and the mountains of Asia; and yonder towards the north, stood the Riphaan hills clothed in ice and snow. All these are vanished, dropt away as the snow upon their heads. "Great and marvellous are thy works, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints! Hallelujah. T. """* with justice and truth? Is this, do you think, no happy journey? Do you think it nothing to speak with Orpheus, Musæus, Homer, and Hesiod? I would, indeed, suffer many deaths to enjoy these things. With what particular delight should I talk to Palamedes, Ajax, and others who like me have suffered by the iniquity of their judges. I should examine the wisdom of that great prince, who carried such mighty forces against Troy; and argue with Ulysses and Sisyphus upon difficult points, as I have in conversation here, without being in danger of being condemned. But let not those among you who have pronounced me an innocent 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 believe the fate which is allotted to me myself this day to have arrived by chance; nor have I aught to say either against my judges or accusers, 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.' The divine Socrates is here represented in a figure worthy his great wisdom and philosophy, worthy the greatest mere man that ever breathed. But the modern discourse is written upon a subject no less than the dissolution of nature itself. Oh how glorious is the old age of that great man, who has spent his time in such contemplations as has made this being, what only it should be, an education for heaven! He has, according to the lights of reason and revelation, which seemed to him clearest, traced the steps of Omnipotence. He has with a celestial ambition, as far as it is consistent with humility and devotion, examined the ways of Providence, from the creation to the dissolution of the visible world. How pleasing must have been the No. 147.] Saturday, August 18, 1711. speculation, to observe Nature and Providence move together, the physical and moral world march the same pace: to observe paradise and eternal spring the seat of innocence, troubled seasons and angry skies the portion of wickedness and vice. 'MR. SPECTATOR,-The well reading of When this admirable author has reviewed the Common Prayer is of so great imporall that has past, or is to come, which re-tance, and so much neglected, that I take lates to the habitable world, and run through the liberty to offer to your consideration the whole face of it, how could a guardian some particulars on that subject. And what angel, that had attended it through all its more worthy your observation than this? courses or changes, speak more emphati- A thing so public, and of so high consecally at the end of his charge, than does our quence. It is indeed wonderful, that the author when he makes, as it were, a funeral frequent exercise of it should not make the oration over this globe, looking to the point performers of that duty more expert in it. where it once stood? 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 English, the reading of which is 'Let us only, if you please, to take leave of this subject, reflect upon this occasion on the vanity and transient glory of this habitable world. How by the force of one element breaking loose upon the rest, all the varieties of nature, all the works of art, all the labours of men are reduced to nothing. Pronunciatio est vocis, et vultus et gestus moderatio Tull. Good delivery is a graceful management of the voice, countenance, and gesture. cum venustate. * Burnet's Theory of the Earth, 1684. fol. Book III. Chap. 12. p. 110, 111. wholly neglected, or at least read to very little purpose, without any due observations made to them of the proper accent and manner of reading; by this means they have acquired such ill habits as will not easily be removed. The only way that I know of to remedy this, is to propose some person of great ability that way as a pattern for them; example being most effectual to convince the learned, as well as instruct the ignorant. to place the emphasis, and give the proper accent to each word, and how to vary the voice according to the nature of the sentence. There is certainly a very great difference between the reading a prayer and a Gazette, which I beg of you to inform a set of readers, who affect, forsooth, a certain gentleman-like familiarity of tone, and mend the language as they go on, crying, instead of pardoneth and absolyeth,' pardons and absolves. These are often pretty classical scholars, and would think it an unpardonable sin to read Virgil or Martial with so little taste as they do divine service. You must know, sir, I have been a constant frequenter of the service of the church of England for above these four years last past, and until Sunday was seven-night never discovered to so great a degree, the "This indifferency seems to me to rise from excellency of the Common Praver. When, the endeavour of avoiding the imputation being at St. James's Garlick-Hill church, of cant, and the false notion of it. It will be I heard the service read so distinctly, so proper therefore to trace the original and emphatically, and so fervently, that it was signification of this word. "Cant" is, by next to an impossibility to be unattentive. some people, derived from one Andrew My eyes and my thoughts could not wander Cant, who, they say, was a Presbyterian as usual, but were confined to my prayers. minister in some illiterate part of Scotland, I then considered I addressed myself to the who by exercise and use had obtained the Almighty, and not to a beautiful face. And faculty, alias gift, of talking in the pulpit in when I reflected on my former perform- such a dialect, that it is said he was underances of that duty, I found I had run it over stood by nene but his own congregation, and as a matter of form, in comparison to the not by all of them. Since master Cant's manner in which I then discharged it. My time, it has been understood in a larger mind was really affected, and fervent wishes sense, and signifies all sudden exclamations, accompanied my words. The Confession whinings, unusual tones, and in fine all praywas read with such a resigned humility, ing and preaching, like the unlearned of the the Absolution with such a comfortable au- Presbyterians. But I hope a proper elevathority, the Thanksgivings with such a re-tion of voice, a due emphasis and accent, ligious joy, as made me feel those affections are not to come within this description. So of the mind in a manner I never did before. that our readers may still be as unlike the To remedy therefore the grievance above Presbyterians as they please. The discomplained of, I humbly propose, that this senters (I mean such as I have heard,) do excellent reader, upon the next, and every indeed elevate their voices, but it is with annual assembly of the clergy of Sion-col- sudden jumps from the lower to the higher lege, and all other conventions, should read part of them; and that with so little sense prayers before them. For then those that or skill, that their elevation and cadence is are afraid of stretching their mouths, and bawling and muttering. They make use spoiling their soft voices, will learn to read of an emphasis, but so improperly, that it with clearness, loudness, and strength. is often placed on some very insignificant Others that affect a rakish, negligent air, particle, as upon 'if' or 'and.' Now if by folding their arms and lolling on their these improprieties have so great an effect books, will be taught a decent behaviour, on the people, as we see they have, how and comely erection of body. Those that great an influence would the service of our read so fast, as if impatient of their work, church, containing the best prayers that may learn to speak deliberately. There is ever were composed, and that in terms another sort of persons, whom I call Pin- most affecting, most humble, and most exdaric readers, as being confined to no set pressive of our wants, and dependence on measure; these pronounce five or six words the object of our worship, disposed in most with great deliberation, and the five or six proper order, and void of all confusion; subsequent ones with as great celerity: the what influence, I say, would these prayers first part of a sentence with a very exalted have, were they delivered with a due emvoice, and the latter part with a submissive phasis, and apposite rising and variation of one: sometimes again with one sort of a voice, the sentence concluded with a gentle tone, and immediately after with a very cadence, and in a word, with such an accent different one. These gentlemen will learn and turn of speech as is peculiar to prayer. of my admired reader an evenness of voice and delivery, and all who are innocent of these affectations, but read with such an indifferency as if they did not understand the language, may then be informed of the art of reading movingly and fervently, how 'As the matter of worship is now managed, in dissenting congregations, you find insignificant words and phrases raised by a lively vehemence; in our own churches, the most exalted sense depreciated, by a dispassionate_indolence. I remember to have heard Doctor Set say in his † Probably Dr. Smallridge. •The rector of this parish at that time was Mr. Philip Stubbs, afterwards archdeacon of St. Alban's. pulpit, of the Common Prayer, that, at whatsoever any thing above mere necesleast, it was as perfect as any thing of hu-saries. man institution. If the gentlemen who err in this kind would please to recollect the many pleasantries they have read upon those who recite good things with an ill grace, they would go on to think that what in that case is only ridiculous, in themselves is impious. But leaving this to their own reflections, I shall conclude this trouble with what Cæsar said upon the irregularity of tone in one who read before him. "Do you read or sing? If you sing, you sing very ill." Your most humble servant.' T. As we in England are a sober people, and generally inclined rather to a certain bashfulness of behaviour in public, it is amazing whence some fellows come whom one meets with in this town; they do not at all seem to be the growth of our island; the pert, the talkative, all such as have no sense, of the observation of others, are certainly of foreign extraction. As for my part, I am as much surprised when I see a talkative Englishman, as I should be to see the Indian pine growing on one of our quickset hedges. Where these creatures get sun enough, to make them such lively animals and dull men, is above my philosophy. There are another kind of impertinents which a man is perplexed with in mixed company, and those are your loud speakers. These treat mankind as if we were all deaf; they do not express but declare themselves. of vanity, because they think all they say is Many of these are guilty of this outrage out well; or that they have their own persons in such veneration, that they believe nothing which concerns them can be insignificant to any body else. For these people's My correspondents assure me that the enormities which they lately complained of, and I published an account of, are so far from being amended, that new evils arise every day to interrupt their conversation, in contempt of my reproofs. My friend who sake, I have often lamented that we cannot writes from the coffee-house near the Tem-close our ears with as much ease as we can ple, informs me that the gentleman who constantly sings a voluntary in spite of the our eyes. It is very uneasy that we must whole company, was more musical than these bawlers, is a troublesome creature necessarily be under persecution. Next to ordinary after reading my paper; and has who comes with the air of your friend and not been contented with that, but has danced your intimate, and that is your whisperer. up to the glass in the middle of the room, There is one of them at a coffee-house and practised minuet-steps to his own hum- which I myself frequent, who observing me ming. The incorrigible creature has gone to be a man pretty well made for secrets, still farther, and in the open coffee-house, gets by me, and with a whisper tells me with one hand extended as leading a lady things which all the town knows. It is no in it, he has danced both French and coun- very hard matter to guess at the source of try-dances, and admonished his supposed this impertinence, which is nothing else but partner by smiles and nods to hold up her a method or mechanic art of being wise. head, and fall back, according to the re- You never see any frequent in it, whom you spective facings and evolutions of the dance. Before this gentleman began this his exer- to do. These persons are worse than bawcan suppose to have any thing in the world cise, he was pleased to clear his throat by lers, as much as a secret enemy is more dancoughing and spitting a full half hour; and gerous than a declared one. I wish this my as soon as he struck up, he appealed to an coffee-house friend would take this for an attorney's clerk in the room, whether he intimation, that I have not heard one word hit as he ought, Since you from death he has told me for these several years; have saved me?' and then asked the young whereas he now thinks me the most trusty fellow (pointing to a chancery-bill under repository of his secrets. The whisperers his arm, whether that was an opera-score have a pleasant way of ending the close he carried or not? Without staying for an conversation, with saying aloud, 'Do not answer, he fell into the exercise abovementioned, and practised his airs to the full you think so? Then whisper again, and then aloud, But you know that person;' house who were turned upon him, without then whisper again. The thing would be the least shame or repentance for his for-well enough, if they whispered to keep the folly of what they say among friends; but, alas, they do it to preserve the importance of their thoughts. I am sure I could name you more than one person whom no man living ever heard talk upon any subject in nature, or ever saw in his whole life with a book in his hand, that, I know not how, can whisper something like knowledge of what has and does pass in the world: which you would think he learned from some fa No. 148.] Monday, August 20, 1711. -Exempta juvat spinis e pluribus una. mer transgressions. I am to the last degree at a loss what to do with this young fellow, except I declare him an outlaw, and pronounce it penal for any one to speak to him in the said house which he frequents, and direct that he be obliged to drink his tea and coffee without sugar, and not receive from any person • Si legis, cantas: si cantas, male cantas. |