r, are reform the taste of a profane age; and per bears to our indeed proper behaviour in theatres, may be some instance of its incongruity in the above-mentioned places. In Roman-catholic churches and chapels abroad, I myself have observed, more than once, persons of the first quality, of the nearest relation, and intimatest acquaintance, passing by one another unknowing as it were, and unknown, and with so little notice of each other, that it looked like having their minds more suitably and more solemnly engaged; at least it was an acknowledgment that they ought to have been so. I have been told the same even of Mahometans, with relation to the propriety of their demeanour in the conventions of Upon reading the hymns that you have their erroneous worship; and I cannot but published in some late papers. I had a mind think either of them sufficient laudable to try yesterday whether I could write coe. patterns for our imitation in this particular. The cxivth psalm appears to me an adI cannot help, upon this occasion, re- mirable ode, and I began to turn it inte cur marking on the excellent memories of language. As I was describing the journey those devotionists, who upon returning from of Israel from Egypt, and added the Divine church shall give a particular account how Presence amongst them, I perceived a two or three hundred people were dressed: beauty in this psalm which was entirely a thing, by reason of its variety, so difficult new to me, and which I was going to lose: to be digested and fixed in the head, that and that is that the poet utterly conceals it is a miracle to me how two poor hours the presence of God in the beginning of 8, of divine service can be time sufficient for and rather lets a possessive pronom e so elaborate an undertaking, the duty of without a substantive, than he will so much the place too being jointly, and no doubt as mention any thing of divinity there. oft pathetically, performed along with it."Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his Where it is said in sacred writ, that "the dominion or kingdom." The reason woman ought to have a covering on her seems evident, and this conduct necessary: head because of the angels," the last word for, if God had appeared before, there is by some thought to be metaphorically could be no wonder why the mountains used, and to signify young men. Allowing should leap and the sea retire: therefore, this interpretation to be right, the text that this convulsion of nature may be may not appear to be wholly foreign to our brought in with due surprise, his name is present purpose. not mentioned till afterward; and thea, with a very agreeable turn of thought, God is introduced at once in all his majesty. This is what I have attempted to imitate in a translation without paraphrase, and to preserve what I could of the spirit of the sacred author. When you are in a disposition proper for writing on such a subject, I earnestly recommend this to you; and am, sir, your humble servant.' T. No. 461.] Tuesday, August 19, 1712. Dryden. FOR want of time to substitute something else in the room of them, I am at present obliged to publish compliments above my desert in the following letters. It is no small satisfaction to have given occasion to ingenious men to employ their thoughts upon sacred subjects from the approbation of such pieces of poetry as they have seen in my Saturday's papers. I shall never publish verse on that day but what is written by the same hand:* yet I shall not accompany those writings with eulogiums, but leave them to speak for themselves. For the Spectator. 'MR. SPECTATOR,-You very much promote the interests of virtue, while you * Addison. w If the following essay be not tor incorrigible, bestow upon it a few brightenings from your genius, that I may learn how to write better, or to write no more. Your daily admirer and humble servant, * &c.* PSALM CXIV. "When Israel, freed from Pharaoh's band, "Across the deep their journer lay. III IV. "What power could make the rep divide Dr. Isaac Watts, ↑ Jordan beheld their march, and fad With backward current to his head.—Wats's Pr. Why did ye leap, ye little hills? 'Let every mountain, every flood, "He thunders-and all nature mourns; certain carelessness, that constantly at tends all his actions, carries him on with greater success than diligence and assiduity does others who have no share in this endowment. Dacinthus breaks his word upon all occasions, both trivial and important; and, when he is sufficiently railed at for that abominable quality, they who talk of him end with, After all, he is a very pleasant fellow.' Dacinthus is an ill-natured husband, and yet the very women end their freedom of discourse upon this subject, But, after all, he is very pleasant Dacinthus is neither, in point company." MR. SPECTATOR,-There are those who take the advantage of your putting a halfpenny value upon yourself, above the rest of our daily writers, to defame you in public conversation, and strive to make you of honour, civility, good-breeding, or goodunpopular upon the account of this said nature, unexceptionable; and yet all is anhalfpenny. But, if I were you, I would in-swered, For he is a very pleasant fellow.' sist upon that small acknowledgment for When this quality is conspicuous in a man the superior merit of yours, as being a work of invention. Give me leave, therefore, to do you justice, and say in your behalf, what you cannot yourself, which is, that your writings have made learning a more necessary part of good-breeding than it was before you appeared; that modesty is become fashionable, and impudence stands in need of some wit, since you have put them both in their proper lights. Profaneness, lewdness, and debauchery, are not now qualifications; and a man may be a very fine gentleman, though he is neither a keeper nor an infidel. I would have you tell the town the story of the Sibyls, if they deny giving you two pence. Let them know, that those sacred papers were valued at the same rate after two thirds of them were destroyed, as when there was the whole set. There are so many of us who will give you your own price, that you may acquaint your non-conformist readers, that they shall not have it, except they come in within such a day, under three pence. I do not know but you might bring in the Date Obolum Belisario with a good grace. The witlings come in clusters to two or three coffee-houses which have left you off; and I hope you will make us, who fine to your wit, merry with their characters who stand out against it. I am your most humble servant. P. S. I have lately got the ingenious authors of blacking for shoes, powder for colouring the hair, pomatum for the hands, cosmetic for the face, to be your constant customers; so that your advertisements will as much adorn the outward man, as your paper does the inward.' T. No. 462.] Wednesday, August 20, 1712. who has, to accompany it, manly and virtuous sentiments, there cannot certainly be any thing which can give so pleasing a gratification as the gayety of such a person; but when it is alone, and serves only to gild a crowd of ill qualities, there is no man so much to be avoided as your pleasant fellow. A very pleasant fellow shall turn your good name to a jest, make your character contemptible, debauch your wife or daughter, and yet be received by the rest of the world with welcome wherever he appears. It is very ordinary with those of this character to be attentive only to their own satisfactions, and have very little bowels for the concerns or sorrows of other men; nay, they are capable of purchasing their own pleasures at the expense of giving pain to others. But they who do not consider this sort of men thus carefully, are irresistibly exposed to their insinuations. The author of the following letter carries the matter so high, as to intimate that the liberties of England have been at the mercy of a prince, merely as he was of this pleasant character. one 'MR. SPECTATOR,-There is no passion which all mankind so naturally give into as pride, or any other passion which appears in such different disguises: it is to be found in all habits and complexions. It is not a question, whether it does more harm or good in the world; and if there be not such a thing as what we may call a virtuous and laudable pride? It is this passion alone, when misapplied, that lays us so open to flatterers; and he who can agreeably condescend to soothe our humour or temper, finds always an open avenue to our soul; especially if the flatterer happen to be our superior. 'One might give many instances of this in a late English monarch, under the title Hor. Sat. v. Lib. 1. 44. of "The gayeties of king Charles II." Nothing so grateful as a pleasant friend. This prince was by nature extremely faPEOPLE are not aware of the very great miliar, of very easy access, and much deforce which pleasantry in company has lighted to see and be seen; and this happy upon all those with whom a man of that temper, which in the highest degree gratalent converses. His faults are generally tified his people's vanity, did him more overlooked by all his acquaintance; and a service with his loving subjects than all his other virtues, though it must be con- and did the crown many and great services; fessed he had many. He delighted, though and it was owing to this humour of the king a mighty king, to give and take a jest, as that his family had so great a fortune shut they say: and a prince of this fortunate dis-up in the exchequer of their pleasant position, who were inclined to make an ill sovereign. The many good-natured condeuse of his power, may have any thing of scensions of this prince are vulgarly known; his people, be it never so much to their and it is excellently said of him, by a great prejudice. But this good king made gene- hand which writ his character, "That he rally a very innocent use, as to the public was not a king a quarter of an hour togeof this ensnaring temper; for, it is well ther in his whole reign." He would reknown he pursued pleasure more than am-ceive visits even from fools and half madbition. He seemed to glory in being the first man at cock-matches, horse-races, balls, and plays; he appeared highly delighted on those occasions, and never failed to warm and gladden the heart of every spectator. He more than once dined with his good citizens of London on their lordmayor's day, and did so the year that Sir Robert Viner was mayor. Sir Robert was a very loyal man, and, if you will allow the expression, very fond of his sovereign; but, what with the joy he felt at heart for the honour done him by his prince, and through the warmth he was in with continual toasting healths to the royal family, his lordship grew a little fond of his majesty, and entered into a familiarity not altogether so graceful in so public a place. The king understood very well how to extricate him- No. 463.] Thursday, August 21, 1712 self in all kinds of difficulties, and, with a hint to the company to avoid ceremony, stole off and made towards his coach, which stood ready for him in Guildhallyard. But the mayor liked his company so well, and was grown so intimate, that he pursued him hastily, and catching him fast by the hand, cried out with a vehement oath and accent, "Sir, you shall stay and take t'other bottle." The airy monarch looked kindly at him over his shoulder, and with a smile and graceful air (for I saw him at the time, and do now) repeated this line of the old song: "He that is drunk is as great as a king ;" and immediately turned back and complied with his landlord. 'I give you this story, Mr. Spectator, because, as I said, I saw the passage; and I assure you it is very true, and yet no common one; and when I tell you the sequel, you will say I have a better reason for it. This very mayor, afterwards erected a statue of his merry monarch in Stocks-market, The Mansion-house and many adjacent buildings, stand on the site of Stocks-market; which took its name from a pair of stocks for the punishment of of fenders, erected in an open place near this spot, as the city during many centuries. In it stood the famous equestrian statue erected in honour of Charles II. by Fortunately his lordship discovered one (made at Leg horn) of John Sobieski, King of Poland, trampling on a Turk. The good knight caused some alterations to be early as the year 1281. This was the great market of his most loyal subject sir Robert Viner, lord-mayor. made, and christened the Polish Monarch by the name of Charles, and bestowed on the turbaned Turk that of Oliver Cromwell; and thus, new-named, it arose on this spot in honour of his convivial monarch. The statue was removed in 1738, to make room for the Mansion house. It remained many years afterward in an inn-yard; and in 1779 it was bestowed, by the men, and at times I have met with people Omnia quæ sensu volvuntur vota diurno, Pectore sopito reddit amica quies. In sleep when fancy is let loose to play. common-council, on Robert Viner, Esq, who removed it to grace his country seat.-Pennant's London, p ZE † Shetheld duke of Buckingham, who said, that, om a premeditation, Charles II. could not act the part of king for a moment. Milton, as I have observed in a former pa- | and many weights of the like nature, in one per, 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, Than heav'n permits; nor mine, though doubled now 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 cor respond 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 underneath 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 Scotch, 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 Natural Parts was much heavier than that of Learning, I observed that it weighed a hundred times heavier than it did before, when I put Learning into the same scale with it. I made the same observation upon Faith and Morality; for, notwithstanding the latter outweighed the former separately, it received a thousand times more additional weight from its conjunction with the former, than what it had by itself. This odd phenomenon showed itself in other particulars, as in Wit and Judgment, Philosophy and Religion, Justice and Humanity, Zeal and Charity, depth of Sense and perspicuity of Style, with innumerable other particulars too long to be mentioned in this paper. But, before I proceed, I must inform my reader, that these weights did 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 As a dream seldom fails of dashing serithrew in that of Time, Prosperity, Afflic-ousness with impertinence, mirth with tion, Wealth, Poverty, Interest, Success, gravity, methought I made several other with many other weights, which in my experiments of a more ludicrous nature, by hand seemed very ponderous, they were one of which I found that an English octavo not able to stir the opposite balance; nor was very often heavier than a French could they have prevailed, though assisted folio; and, by another, that an old Greek with the weight of the Sun, the Stars, and or Latin author weighed down a whole lithe Earth. brary of moderns. Seeing one of my Spectators lying by me, I laid it into one of the scales, and flung a two-penny piece into Upon emptying the scales, I laid several titles and honours, with Pomp, Triumphs, VCL. II. 27 too much upon the supplying of our wants, the other. The reader will not inquire | ing of wisdom. Poverty turns our thoughts into the event, if he remembers the first trial which I have recorded in this paper. I afterwards threw both the sexes into the balance; but as it is not for my interest to disoblige either of them, I shall desire to be excused from telling the result of this experiment. Having an opportunity of this nature in my hands, I could not forbear throwing into one scale the principles of a Tory, and into the other those of a Whig; but, as I have all along declared this to be a neutral paper, I shall likewise desire to be silent under this head also, though upon | examining one of the weights, I saw the word 'TEKEL' engraven on it in capital letters. If we regard poverty and wealth, as they are apt to produce virtues or vices in the mind of man, one may observe that there is a set of each of these growing out of poverty, quite different from that which rises out of wealth. Humility and patience, industry and temperance, are very often the good qualities of a poor man. Hemanity, and good-nature, magnanimity and a sense of honour, are as often the qualications of the rich. On the contrary, peverty is apt to betray a man into envy, riches into arrogance; poverty is too often attended with fraud, vicious compliance, repining, murmur and discontent. Riches expose a man to pride and luxury, a foolish elation of heart, and too great a fondness for the present world. In short, the middle condition is most eligible to the man who would improve himself in virtue; as l have before shown it is the most advan tageous for the gaining of knowledge. It was upon this consideration that Agur founded his prayer, which, for the wisdom of it, is recorded in holy writ. 'Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.' I AM wonderfully pleased when I meet I shall fill the remaining part of my pewith any passage in an old Greek or Latin per with a very pretty allegory, which is author that is not blown upon, and which wrought into a play by Aristophanes the I have never met with in a quotation. Of Greek comedian. It seems originally dethis kind is a beautiful saying in Theognis: signed as a satire upon the rich, though, in Vice is covered by wealth, and virtue by some parts of it, it is like the foregoing dispoverty; or to give it in the verbal trans-course, a kind of comparison between fation, Among men there are some who wealth and poverty. have their vices concealed by wealth, and others who have their virtues concealed by poverty.' Every man's observation will supply him with instances of rich men, who have several faults and defects that are overlooked, if not entirely hidden, by means of their riches; and I think, we cannot find a more natural description of a poor man, whose merits are lost in his poverty, than that in the words of the wise man: There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he, by his wisdom, delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then, said I, wisdom is better than strength; nevertheless, the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.' The middle condition seems to be the most advantageously situated for the gain Chremylus, who was an old and a good man, and withal exceeding poor, being desirous to leave some riches to his son, consults the oracle of Apollo upon the subject. The oracle bids him follow the first man he should see upon his going out of the temple. The person he chanced to see was to appearance an old sordid blind man, but, upon his following him from place to place, he at last found, by his own confession, that he was Plutus the god of riches, and that he was just come out of the house of a miser. Plutus farther told him, that when he was a boy, he used to declare, that as soon as he came to age he would distribute wealth to none but virtuous and just men; upon which Jupiter considering the pernicious consequences of such a resolution, took his sight away from him, and left him to stroll about the world in the blind condition wherein Chremylus beheld him. With much ado Chremylus prevailed upon him to go to his |