nion, that giving his cast clothes to be worn by figure resembled my friend Sir Roger; and looking valets has a very ill effect upon little minds, and at the butler who stood by me, for an account of creates a silly sense of equality between the par-it, he informed me that the person in the livery ties, in persons affected only with outward things. was a servant of Sir Rogers, who stood on the I have heard him often pleasant on this occasion, shore while his master was swimming, and observ. and describe a young gentleman abusing his man ing him taken with some sudden illness, and sink in that coat, which a month or two before was the under water, jumped in and saved him. He told most pleasing distinction he was conscious of in me, Sir Roger took off the dress he was in as soon himself. He would turn his discourse still more as he came home, and by a great bounty at that pleasantly upon the bounties of the ladies in this time, followed by his favour ever since, had made kind; and I have heard him say, he knew a fine him master of that pretty seat which we saw at a woman, who distributed rewards and punishments distance as we came to this house. I remembered in giving becoming or unbecoming dresses to her indeed Sir Roger said, there lived a very worthy maids. gentleman, to whom he was highly obliged, without But my good friend is above these little instances mentioning any thing further. Upon my looking a of good-will, in bestowing only trifles on his ser- little dissatisfied at some part of the picture, my vants; a good servant to him is sure of having it attendant informed me, that it was against Sir in his choice very soon of being no servant at all. Roger's will, and at the earnest request of the As I before observed, he is so good a husband, and gentleman himself, that he was drawn in the habit knows so thoroughly that the skill of the purse is in which he had saved his master. the cardinal virtue of this life; I say he knows so well that frugality is the support of generosity, that he can often spare a large fine when a tenement falls, and give that settlement to a good servant who has a mind to go into the world, or make a stranger pay the fine to that servant, for his more comfortable maintenance, if he stays in his service. STEELE. No 108. WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 1711. R. Gratis anhelans, multa agendo nihil agens. PHEDR. Fab. v. 2. A man of honour and generosity considers it Out of breath to no purpose, and very busy about nothing, would be miserable to himself to have no will but that of another, though it were of the best person As I was yesterday morning walking with Sir breathing, and for that reason goes on as fast as Roger before his house, a country-fellow brought he is able to put his servants into independent him a huge fish, which, he told him, Mr. William livelihoods. The greatest part of Sir Roger's Wimble* had caught that very morning; and that estate is tenanted by persons who have served him- he presented it with his service to him, and inself or his ancestors. It was to me extremely plea- tended to come and dine with him. At the same sant to observe the visitants from several parts to time he delivered a letter, which my friend read welcome his arrival into the country: and all the to me as soon as the messenger left him. difference that I could take notice of between the late servants who came to see him, and those who staid in the family, was, that these latter were looked upon as finer gentlemen and better courtiers. 'SIR ROGER, DESIRE you to accept of a jack, which is the best I have caught this season. I intend to come and stay with you a week, and see how the perch This manumission and placing them in a way of bite in the Black river. I observed with some livelihood, I look upon as only what is due to a concern, the last time I saw you upon the bowling. good servant; which encouragement will make green, that your whip wanted a lash to it; I will his successor be as diligent, as humble, and as bring half a dozen with me that I twisted last ready as he was. There is something wonderful in the narrowness of those minds, which can be pleased, and be barren of bounty to those who please them. week, which I hope will serve you all the time Eton with Sir John's eldest son. He takes to his ་ One might, on this occasion, recount the sense 'I am SIR, "Your humble servant, that great persons in all ages have had of the merit 'WILL WIMBLE.' of their dependants, and the heroic services which men have done their masters in the extremity of This extraordinary letter, and message that ac their fortunes: and shown to their undone patrons, companied it, made me very curious to know the that fortune was all the difference between them; character and quality of the gentleman who sent but as I design this my speculation only as a gentle them; which I found to be as follow: Will admonition to thankless masters, I shall not go out Wimble is younger brother to a baronet, and deof the occurrences of common life, but assert it as scended of the ancient family of the Wimbles. He a general observation, that I never saw, but in Sir is now between forty and fifty; but being bred to Roger's family and one or two more, good servants no business, and born to no estate, he generally treated as they ought to be. Sir Roger's kindness lives with his elder brother as superintendant of extends to their children's children, and this very his game. He hunts a pack of dogs better than morning be sent his coachman's grandson to pren- any man in the country, and is very famous for tice. I shall conclude this paper with an account finding out a hare. He is extremely well versed of a picture in his gallery, where there are many in all the little handicrafts of an idle man. He which will deserve my future observation. makes a May-fly to a miracle; and furnishes the At the very upper end of this handsome struc- whole country with angle-rods. As he is a good ture I saw the portraiture of two young men stand-natured officious fellow, and very much esteemed ing in a river, the one naked, the other in a livery. upon account of his family, he is a welcome guest The person supported seemed half dead, but still so much alive as to show in his face exquisite joy and love towards the other. I thought the fainting *Sketched from Mr. Thomas Morecraft, a Yorkshire gentle See Nos. 196, 131, and 269, man, younger son of a baronet. He died at Dublin, July 2, 1742 in the re Stood a , and coun ess, and im. He As 159 cunts & e, had pa We gav r remer Very ged, any look Dictur agas quest In the at every house, and keeps up a good correspond-in such a way of life, as may perhaps enable them ADDISON, N° 109. THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1711. Abnormis sapiens HOR. Sat. 2. 1. 2. v. 3. Of plain good sense, untutor❜d in the schools. L. Sir Roger was proceeding in the character of him, when we saw him make up to us with two or three hazle twigs in his hand that he had cut in Sir Roger's woods, as he came through them, in his way to the house. I was very much pleased to observe on one side the hearty and sincere welcome with which Sir Roger received him, and on the other, the secret joy which his guest discovered at sight of the good old knight. After the first salutes were over, Will desired Sir Roger to lend him one of his servants to carry a set of shuttlecocks he had with him in a little box, to a lady that I was this morning walking in the gallery, when lived about a mile off, to whom it seems he had Sir Roger entered at the end opposite to me, and promised such a present for above this half year. advancing towards me, said he was glad to meet Sir Roger's back was no sooner turned but honest me among his relations the de Coverleys, and Will began to tell me of a large cock pheasant that hoped I liked the conversation of so much good he had sprung in one of the neighbouring woods, company, who were as silent as myself. I knew he with two or three other adventures of the same alluded to the pictures; and as he is a gentleman nature. Odd and uncommon characters are the who does not a little value himself upon his angame that I look for, and most delight in; for cient descent, I expected he would give me some which reason I was as much pleased with the no- account of them. We were now arrived at the upvelty of the person that talked to me, as he could per end of the gallery, when the knight faced be for his life with the springing of a pheasant, towards one of the pictures; and as we stood beand therefore listened to him with more than or-fore it, he entered into the matter, after his blunt dinary attention. way of saying things as they occur to his imaginaIn the midst of his discourse the bell rung to din-tion, without regular introduction, or care to prener, where the gentleman I have been speaking of serve the appearance of chain of thought. had the pleasure of seeing the huge jack he had 'It is,' said he, worth while to consider the caught, served up for the first dish in a most sump-force of dress; and how the persons of one age uous manner. Upon our sitting down to it he gave differ from those of another, merely by that only. as a long account how he had hooked it, played One may observe also, that the general fashion of with it, foiled it, and at length drew it out upon one age has been followed by one particular set of the bank, with several other particulars that lasted people in another, and by them preserved from one all the first course. A dish of wild fowl that came generation to another. Thus the vast jetting coat afterwards, furnished conversation for the rest of and small bonnet, which was the habit in Henry the the dinner, which concluded with a late invention Seventh's time, is kept on in the yeomen of the of Will's for improving the quail-pipe. guard; not without a good and politic view, beUpon withdrawing into my room after dinner, I cause they look a foot taller, and a foot and a half was secretly touched with compassion towards the broader: besides, that the cap leaves the face exonest gentleman that had dined with us; and could panded, and consequently more terrible, and fitter hot but consider with a great deal of concern, how to stand at the entrance of palaces. so good an heart and such busy hands, were wholly 'This predecessor of ours, you see, is dressed employed in trifles; that so much humanity should after this manner, and his cheeks would be no je so little beneficial to others, and so much indus- larger than mine, were he in a hat as I am. He Ty so little advantageous to himself. The same was the last man that won a prize in the Tilt-yard emper of mind and application to affairs might (which is now a common street before Whitehall). ave recommended him to the public esteem, and You see the broken lance that lies there by his right have raised his fortune in another station of life. foot. He shivered that lance of his adversary all to What good to his country or himself might not a pieces; and bearing himself, look you, sir, in this ader or merchant have done with such useful manner, at the same time he came within the tarthough ordinary qualifications! get of the gentleman who rode against him, and Will Wimble's is the case of many a younger taking him with incredible force before him on rother of a great family, who had rather see their the pommel of his saddle, he in that manner rid hildren starve like gentlemen, than thrive in a the tournament over, with an air that showed he trade or profession that is beneath their quality. did it rather to perform the rule of the lists, than This humour fills several parts of Europe with pride expose his enemy; however, it appeared he knew and beggary. It is the happiness of a trading na-how to make use of a victory, and with a gentle on like ours, that the younger sons, though inca-trot he marched up to a gallery where their mispable of any liberal art or profession, may be placed tress sate (for they were rivals,) and let him down S with laudable courtesy and pardonable insolence. | self as much undone by breaking his word, as if it I do not know but it might be exactly where the were to be followed by bankruptcy. He served coffee-house is now. his country as knight of the shire to his dying day. 'You are to know, this my ancestor was not only He found it no easy matter to maintain an integrity of a military genius, but fit also for the arts of in his words and actions, even in things that repeace, for he played on the bass-viol as well as any garded the offices which were incumbent upon gentleman at court; you see where his viol hangs him, in the care of his own affairs and relations of by his basket-hilt sword. The action at the Tilt-life, and therefore dreaded (though he had great yard you may be sure won the fair lady, who was talents) to go into employments of state, where he a maid of honour, and the greatest beauty of her must be exposed to the snares of ambition. Innotime; here she stands the next picture. You see, cence of life and great ability were the distiguish. sir, my great great great grandmother has on the ing parts of his character; the latter, he had often new-fashioned petticoat, except that the modern is observed, had led to the destruction of the former, gathered at the waist; my grandmother appears and he used frequently to lament that great and as if she stood in a large drum, whereas the ladies good had not the same signification. He was an now walk as if they were in a go-cart. For all this excellent husbandman, but had resolved not to exlady was bred at court, she became an excellent ceed such a degree of wealth; all above it he becountry-wife, she brought ten children, and when stowed in secret bounties many years after the I show you the library, you shall see in her own sum be aimed at for his own use was attained. Yet hand (allowing for the difference of the language) he did not slacken his industry, but to a decent the best receipt now in England both for an hasty-old age spent the life and fortune, which was su pudding and a white-pot. perfluous to himself, in the service of his friends and neighbours.' STEELE. R. 'If you please to fall back a little, because it is necessary to look at the three next pictures at one Here we were called to dinner, and Sir Roger view; these are three sisters. She on the right ended the discourse of this gentleman, by telling hand, who is so very beautiful, died a maid; the me, as we followed the servant, that this his ances next to her, still handsomer, had the same fate, tor was a brave man, and narrowly escaped being against her will; this homely thing in the middle killed in the civil wars; For,' said he, he was had both their portions added to her own, and was sent out of the field upon a private message, the stolen by a neighbouring gentleman, a man of day before the battle of Worcester.' The whim of stratagem and resolution, for he poisoned three narrowly escaping by having been within a day of mastiffs to come at her, and knocked down two danger, with other matters above mentioned, deer-stealers in carrying her off. Misfortunes hap-mixed with good sense, left me at a loss whether pen in all families. The theft of this romp, and so I was more delighted with my friend's wisdom or much money, was no great matter to our estate. simplicity. But the next heir that possessed it was this soft gentleman, whom you see there. Observe the small buttons, the little boots, the laces, the slashes about his clothes, and above all the posture he is drawn in (which to be sure was his own choosing); you see he sits with one hand on a desk writing, and looking as it were another way, like an easy writer, or a sonneteer. He was one of those that had too much wit to know how to live in the world; he was a man of no justice, but great good-manAT a little distance from Sir Roger's house, among ners; he ruined every body that had any thing to do with him, but never said a rude thing in his life; the ruins of an old abbey, there is a long walk of the most indolent person in the world, he would aged elms; which are shot up so very high, that sign a deed that passed away half his estate with his that rest upon the tops of them seem to be cawing when one passes under them, the rooks and crows gloves on, but would not put on his hat before a No 110. FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1711. Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa selentia terrent. lady if it were to save his country. He is said to in another region. I am very much delighted with be the first that made love by squeezing the hand. this sort of noise, which I consider as a kind of He left the estate with ten thousand pounds debt natural prayer to that Being who supplies the wants upon it; but, however, by all hands I have been of his whole creation, and who, in the beautiful informed that he was every way the finest gentle-vens that call upon him. I like this retirement language of the Psalms, feedeth the young ra man in the world. That debt lay heavy on our house the better, because of an ill report it lies under of for one generation; but it was retrieved by a gift from that honest man you see there, a citizen of our being haunted; for which reason (as I have been name, but nothing at all akin to us. I know Sir told in the family) no living creature ever walks in Andrew Freeport has said behind my back, that it besides the chaplain. My good friend the but this man was descended from one of the ten chiller desired me with a very grave face not to vendren of the maid of honour I showed you above; ture myself in it after sun-set, for that one of the but it was never made out. We winked at the thing, footmen had been almost frighted out of his wits indeed, because money was wanting at that time. by a spirit that appeared to him in the shape of a Here I saw my friend a little embarrassed, and turned my face to the next portraiture. black horse without a head; to which he added, that about a month ago one of the maids coming head, heard such a rustling among the bushes that home late that way with a pail of milk upon her she let it fall. Sir Roger went on with his account of the gallery in the following manner. This man (pointing to him I looked at) I take to be the honour of our house. Sir Humphrey de Coverley; he was in his I was taking a walk in this place last night be dealings as punctual as a tradesman, and as gene. tween the hours of nine and ten, and could not but rous as a gentleman. He would have thought him- fancy it one of the most proper scenes in the world for a ghost to appear in. The ruins of the abbey The Tilt-yard coffee-house is still in being at Whitehall. *Psalm cxlvii. 9. ord, wit He served dying th n integ Es that bent up -elations a had gre here on. I distig had of be forme great He was a not to are scattered up and down on every side, and half ticular persons who are now living, and whom I covered with ivy and elder-bushes, the harbours of cannot distrust in other matters of fact. I might several solitary birds which seldom make their ap-here add, that not only the historians, to whom we pearance till the dusk of the evening. The place may join the poets, but likewise the philosophers was formerly a church-yard, and has still several of antiquity, have favoured this opinion. Lucremarks in it of graves and burying-places. There tius, though by the course of his philosophy he is such an echo among the old ruins and vaults, that was obliged to maintain that the soul did not exist if you stamp but a little louder than ordinary, you separate from the body, makes no doubt of the hear the sound repeated. At the same time the reality of apparitions, and that men have often walk of elins, with the croaking of the ravens appeared after their death. This I think very rewhich from time to time are heard from the tops markable: he was so pressed with the matter of of them, looks exceeding solemn and venerable. fact which he could not have the confidence to These objects naturally raise seriousness and atten- deny, that he was forced to account for it by one tion; and when night heightens the awfulness of of the most absurd unphilosophical notions that was the place, and pours out her supernumerary horrors ever started. He tell us, that the surfaces of all upon every thing in it, I do not at all wonder that bodies are perpetually flying off from their respecweak minds fill it with spectres and apparitions. tive bodies, one after another; and that these surMr. Locke, in his chapter of the Association of faces, or thin cases, that included each other whilst Ideas, has very curious remarks to show how by the they were joined in the body like the coats of an prejudice of education one idea often introduces onion, are sometimes seen entire when they are into the mind a whole set that bear no resemblance separated from it; by which means we often beto one another in the nature of things. Among se. hold the shapes and shadows of persons who are veral examples of this kind, he produces the fol- either dead or absent. lowing instance. The ideas of goblins and sprites I shall dismiss this paper with a story out of Johave really no more to do with darkness than light: sephus,† not so much for the sake of the story ityet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on self as for the moral reflections with which the authe mind of a child, and raise them there together, thor concludes it, and which I shall here set down possibly he shall never be able to separate them in his own words: Glaphyra, the daughter of again so long as he lives; but darkness shall ever King Archelaus, after the death of her two first afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and husbands (being married to a third, who was brothey shall be so joined, that he can no more bear ther to her first husband, and so passionately in the one than the other."* love with her that he turned off his former wife to As I was walking in this solitude, where the make room for this marriage) had a very odd kind dusk of the evening conspired with so many other of dream. She fancied that she saw her first husoccasions of terror, I observed a cow grazing not band coming towards her, and that she embraced far from me, which an imagination that was apt to him with great tenderness; when in the midst of startle might easily have construed into a black the pleasure which she expressed at the sight of horse without a head: and I dare say the poor him, he reproached her after the following manfootman lost his wits upon some such trivial occa-ner: "Glaphyra," says he, "thou hast made good the old saying, That women are not to be trusted. sion. My friend Sir Roger has told me with a great Was not I the husband of thy virginity? Have I deal of mirth, that at his first coming to his estate not children by thee? How couldst thou forget our he found three parts of his house altogether useless; loves so far as to enter into a second marriage, and that the best room in it had the reputation of be-after that into a third, nay to take for thy husband ing haunted, and by that means was locked up; a man who has so shamelessly crept into the bed of that noises had been heard in his long gallery, so his brother? However, for the sake of our past that he could not get a servant to enter it after loves, I shall free thee from thy present reproach, eight o'clock at night; that the door of one of his and make thee mine for ever" Glaphyra told this chambers was nailed up, because there went astory dream to several women of her acquaintance, and in the family that a butler had formerly hanged died soon after. I thought this story might not be himself in it; and that his mother, who lived to a impertinent in this place wherein I speak of those great age, had shut up half the rooms in the house, things. Besides that the example deserves to be in which either her husband, a son, or daughter taken notice of as it contains a most certain proof had died. The knight seeing his habitation re- of the immortality of the soul, and of Divine Produced to so small a compass, and himself in a man-vidence. If any man thinks these facts incredible, ner shut out of his own house, upon the death of let him enjoy his own opinion to himself, but let his mother ordered all the apartments to be flung him not endeavour to disturb the belief of others, open, and exorcised by his chaplain, who lay in who by instances of this nature are excited to the every room one after another, and by that means study of virtue.' dissipated the fears which had so long reigned in the family. I should not thus have been particular upon these ridiculous horrors, did not I find them so very much prevail in all parts of the country. At the same time I think a person who is thus terrified with the imagination of ghosts and spectres much more reasonable than one, who, contrary to the reports of all historians, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks ADDISON, No 111. SATURDAY, JULY 7, 1711. Inter silvas Academi quærere verum. L. HOR. Ep. 2. 1. 2. v. 45. the appearance of spirits fabulous and groundless. THE course of my last speculation led me insensibly Could not I give myself up to this general testi-into a subject upon which I always meditate with mony of mankind, I should to the relations of par- great delight, I mean the immortality of the soul. * Essay on Human Understanding, b, ii, ch. 33, sect, 10. Book iv. ver. 34, &c. † Jewish Antiquities, book xvii. chap. 15. First, from the nature of the soul itself, and particularly its immateriality; which, though not absolutely necessary to the eternity of its duration, has, I think, been evinced to almost a demonstration. Secondly, from its passions and sentiments, as particularly from its love of existence, its horror of annihilation, and its hopes of immortality, with that sweet satisfaction which it finds in the practice of virtue, and that uneasiness which follows in it upon the commission of vice. Thirdly, from the nature of the Supreme Being, whose justice, goodness, wisdom, and veracity are all concerned in this great point. I was yesterday walking alone in one of my friend's beings? Would he give us talents that are not to woods, and lost myself in it very agreeably, as I be exerted? Capacities that are never to be gratiwas running over in my mind the several argu-fied? How can we find that wisdom which shines ments that established this great point, which is through all his works in the formation of man, the basis of morality, and the source of all the without looking on this world as only a nursery for pleasing hopes and secret joys that can arise in the the next, and believing that the several generations heart of a reasonable creature. I considered those of rational creatures, which rise up and disappear several proofs, drawn: in such quick successions, are only to receive their first rudiments of existence here, and afterwards to be transplanted into a more friendly climate, where they may spread and flourish to all eternity? There is not, in my opinion, a more pleasing and triumphant consideration in religion, than this of the perpetual progress which the soul makes towards the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at a period in it. To look upon the soul as going on from strength to strength, to consider that she is to shine for ever with new accessions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that she will be still adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge; carries in it something wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the But among these and other excellent arguments mind of man. Nay, it must be a prospect pleasing for the immortality of the soul, there is one drawn to God himself, to see his creation for ever beauti from the perpetual progress of the soul to its per-fying in his eyes, and drawing nearer to him, by fection, without a possibility of ever arriving at it; greater degrees of resemblance. which is a hint that I do not remember to have seen Methinks this single consideration, of the proopened and improved by others who have written gress of a finite spirit to perfection, will be suffi on this subject, though it seems to me to carry a cient to extinguish all envy in inferior natures, and great weight with it. How can it enter into the all contempt in superior. That cherubim, which thoughts of man, that the soul, which is capable of now appears as a God to a human soul, knows very such immense perfections, and of receiving new well that the period will come about in eternity, improvements to all eternity, shall fall away into when the human soul shall be as perfect as he him nothing almost as soon as it is created? Are such self now is: nay, when she shall look down upon abilities made for no purpose? A brute arrives at that degree of perfection, as much as she now falls a point of perfection that he can never pass: in a short of it. It is true, the higher nature still adfew years he has all the endowments he is capable vances, and by that means preserves his distance of; and were he to live ten thousand more, would and superiority in the scale of being; but he be the same thing he is at present. Were a human knows that how high soever the station is of which soul thus at a stand in her accomplishments, were he stands possessed at present, the inferior nature her faculties to be full blown, and incapable of will at length mount up to it, and shine forth in the further enlargements, I could imagine it might fall same degree of glory. away insensibly, and drop at once into a state of With what astonishment and veneration may we annihilation. But can we believe a thinking being, look into our own souls, where there are such hidthat is in a perpetual progress of improvements, den stores of virtue and knowledge, such inex and travelling on from perfection to perfection, hausted sources of perfection? We know not yet after having just looked abroad into the works of what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the its Creator, and made a few discoveries of his infi- heart of man to conceive the glory that will be nite goodness, wisdom, and power, must perish at always in reserve for him. The soul, considered her first setting out, and in the very beginning of with its Creator, is like one of those mathematical her inquiries? lines that may draw nearer to another for all Aman, considered in his present state, seems eternity without a possibility of touching it: and only sent into the world to propagate his kind. can there be a thought so transporting, as to conHe provides himself with a successor, and imme-sider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to diately quits his post to make room for him. him, who is not only the standard of perfection, but of happiness! Hares CREECH. He does not seem born to enjoy life, but to deliver it down to others. This is not surprising to consi. der in animals, which are formed for our use, and can finish their business in a short life. The silkworm, after having spun her task, lays her eggs and dies. But a man can never have taken in his I. Αθανατους μεν πρωτα Θεός, νομω ως διακείται, Τιμή First, in obedience to thy country's rights, PYTHAG: full measure of knowledge, has not time to subdue I AM always very well pleased with a country Sunhis passions, establish his soul in virtue, and come day, and think, if keeping holy the seventh day up to the perfection of his nature, before he is hur- were only a human institution, it would be the best ried off the stage. Would an infinitely wise Being method that could have been thought of for the make such glorious creatures for so mean a pur-polishing and civilizing of mankind. It is certain, pose? Can he delight in the production of such abortive intelligences, such short-lived reasonable The asymptotes of the byperbola. |