of his merry Monarch in Stocks-Market, and did the crown many and great services; and it was owing to this humor of the King, that his family had so great a fortune shut up in the exchequer of their pleasant Sovereign. The many good-natured condescensions of this Prince are vulgarly known; and it is excellently said of him by a great hand which writ his character,* That he was not a King a quarter of an hour together in his whole reign. He would receive visits even from fools and half madmen; and at times I have met with people who have boxed, fought at back-sword, and taken poison before King Charles II. In a word, he was so pleasant a man, that no one could be sorrowful under his government. This made him capable of baffling, with the greatest ease imaginable, all suggestions of jealousy; and the people could not entertain notions of any thing terrible in him, whom they saw every way agreeable. This scrap of the familiar part of that Prince's history I thought fit to send you, in compliance to the request you lately made to your correspondents.

T

"I am, Sir,

"Your most humble servant."

The Duke of Buckingham,

No. 463. THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1712.

BY ADDISON.

Omnia quæ sensu volvuntur vota diurno,
Pectore sopito reddit amica quies.
Venator defessa toro cum membra reponit
Mens tamen ad sylvas et sua lustra redit:
Judicibus lites, aurigis somnia currus,

Vanaque nocturnis meta cavetur equis.
Me quoque musarum studium sub nocte silenti
Artibus assuetis solicitare solet.

In sleep, when fancy is let loose to play,
Qur dreams repeat the wishes of the day.
Tho' farther toil his tired limbs refuse,
The dreaming hunter still the chace pursues;
The judge abed dispensed still the laws,
And sleeps again o'er the unfinish'd cause :
The dozing racer hears his chariot roll,
Smacks the vain whip, and shuns the fancy'd goal.
Me too the muses in the silent night,

With wonted chimes of gingling verse delight.

CLAUD

I WAS lately entertaining myself with comparing

Homer's balance, in which Jupiter is represented as weighing the fates of Hector and Achilles, with a passage of Virgil, wherein that deity is introduced as weighing the fates of Turnus and Æneas. I then considered how the same way of thinking prevailed in the eastern parts of the world, as in those noble passages of scripture, wherein we are told, that the great King of Babylon, the day before his death, had been weighed in the balance, and been found wanting. In other places of the holy writings, the Almighty is described as weighing the mountains in scales, making

the weight for the winds, knowing the balancings of the clouds; and, in others, as weighing the actions of men, and laying their calamities together in a balance. Milton, as I have observed in a former paper (No. 321,) had an eye to several of these foregoing instances, in that beautiful description wherein he represents the archangel and the evil spirit as addressing themselves for the combat, but parted by the balance which appeared in the heavens, and weighed the consequences of such a battle.

'Th' Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray,
'Hung orth in heav'n his golden scales, yet seen
"Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign,
"Wherein all things created first he weighed,
'The pendulous round earth, with balanc'd air
'In counterpoise, now ponders all events,
'Battles and realms: in these he puts two weights;
The sequel each of parting and of fight;

The latter quick up flew, and kick'd the beam :
‹ Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the fiend:
'Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'st mine,
Neither our own, but giv'n: what folly then

To boast what arms can do? since thine no more 'Than heav'n permits, nor mine, tho' doubled now, 'To trample thee as mire; for proof look up, And read thy lot in yon celestial sign,

'Where thou art weigh'd, and shewn how light, how weak, If thou resist. The fiend look'd up, and knew

His mounted scale aloft; nor more; but fled

'Murm'ring, and with him fled the shades of night.'

These several amusing thoughts having taken possession of my mind some time before I went to sleep, and mingling themselves with my ordinary ideas, raised in my imagination a very odd kind of vision. I was, methought, replaced in my study, and seated in

my elbow-chair, where I had indulged the foregoing speculations, with my lamp burning by me as usual. Whilst I was here meditating on several subjects of morality, and considering the nature of many virtues and vices, as materials for those discourses with which I daily entertain the public, I saw, methought, a pair of golden scales hanging by a chain of the same metal over the table that stood before me; when on a sudden there were great heaps of weights thrown down on each side of them. I found, upon examining these weights, they showed the value of every thing that is in esteem among men. I made an essay of them by putting the weight of wisdom in one scale, and that of riches in another; upon which the latter, to show its comparative lightness, immediately flew up, and

kicked the beam.

But, before I proceed, I must inform my reader, that these weights do not exert their natural gravity till they were laid in the golden balance, insomuch that I could not guess which was light or heavy whilst I held them in my hand. This I found by several instances; for, upon my laying a weight in one of the scales which was inscribed by the word Eternity, though I threw in that of time, prosperity, affliction, wealth, poverty, interest, success, with many other weights which in my hand seemed very ponderous, they were not able to stir the opposite balance, nor could they have prevailed, though assisted with the weight of the sun, the stars, and the earth.

Upon emptying the scales, I laid several titles and honors, with pomp, triumphs, and many weights of the like nature, in one of them, and seeing a little glittering weight lie by me, I threw it accidentally into the other scale, when, to my great surprise, it

proved so exact a counterpoise, that it kept the balance in an equilibrium. This little glittering weight was inscribed upon the edges of it with the word Vanity. I found there were several other weights which were equally heavy, and exact counterpoises to one another; a few of them I tried, as avarice, and poverty, riches and content, with some others.

There were likewise several weights that were of the same figure, and seemed to correspond with each other, but were entirely different when thrown into the scales; as religion and hypocrisy, pedantry and learning, wit and vivacity, superstition and devotion, gravity and wisdom, with many others.

I observed one particular weight lettered on both sides, and upon applying myself to the reading of it, I found on one side written, In the dialect of men, and underneath it, CALAMITIES; on the other side was written, In the language of the gods, and under neath, BLESSINGS. I found the intrinsic value of this weight to be much greater than I imagined; for it overpowered health, wealth, good-fortune, and many other weights, which were much more ponderous in my hand than the other.

There is a saying among the Scots, that an ounce of mother-wit is worth a pound of clergy; I was sensible of the truth of this saying, when I saw the difference between the weight of natural parts and that of learning. The observations which I made upon these two weights opened to me a new field of discoveries; for notwithstanding the weight of the natural parts was much heavier than that of learning, I observed that it weighed VOL. VIII.

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