N° 162. great End as the chief and ultimate Aim of all our Purfuits. If we are firmly refolved to live up to the Dictates of Reafon, without any Regard to Wealth, Reputation, or the like Confiderations, any more than as they fall in with our principal Defign, we may go through Life with Steadiness and Pleafure, but if we act by feveral broken Views, and will not only be virtuous, but wealthy, popular, and every thing that has a Value fet upon it by the World, we shall live and die in Mifery and Repentance.

ONE would take more than ordinary Care to guard ones felf against this particular Imperfection, because it is that which our Nature very ftrongly inclines us to; for if we examine our felves throughly, we fhall find that we are the most changeable Beings in the Universe. In Refpect of our Understanding, we often embrace and reject the very fame Opinions; whereas Beings above and beneath us have probably no Opinions at all, or at least no Wavering and Uncertainties in thofe they have. Our Superiors are guided by Intuition, and our Inferiors by Inftinet. In Refpect of our Wills, we fall into Crimes and recover out of them, are amiable or odious in the Eyes of our great Judge, and pafs our whole Life in offending and asking Pardon. On the contrary, the Beings underneath us are not capable of finning, nor thofe above us of repenting. The one is out of the Poffibilites of Duty, and the other fixed in an eternal Course of Sin, or an eternal Course of Virtue.

THERE is fcarce a State of Life, or Stage in it, which does not produce Changes and Revolutions in the Mind of Man. Our Schemes of Thought in Infancy are loft in those of Youth; these too take a different Turn in Manhood, 'till old Age often leads us back into our former Infancy. A new Title or an unexpected Succefs throws us out of our felves, and in a manner deftroys our Identity. A cloudy Day, or a little Sun-fhine, have as great an Influence on many Conftitutions, as the most real Bleffings or Misfortunes. ADream varies our Being,and changes our Condition while it lafts; and every Paffion, not to mention Health and Sicknefs, and the greater Alterations in Body and Mind, makes us appear almost different Creatures. If a Man is so distinguifhed among other Beings by this Infirmity, what can we think of fuch as make themselves remarkable for it even among their own Species? It is a very trifling Character

racter to be one of the most variable Beings of the most variable Kind, especially if we confider that He who is the great Standard of Perfection has in him no Shadow of Change, but is the fame Yesterday, To-day, and for ever,

AS this Mutability of Temper and Inconfiftency with our felves is the greatest Weakness of human Nature, fo it makes the Perfon who is remarkable for it in a very particular Manner more ridiculous than any other Infirmity whatsoever, as it fets him in a greater Variety of foolish Lights, and diftinguishes him from himself by an Oppofition of party-coloured Characters. The moft humourous Character in Horace is founded upon this Unevennefs of Temper and Irregularity of Conduct..

Sardus habebat

Ille Tigellius hoc. Cafar, qui cogere poffet
Si peteret per amicitiam patris, atque fuam, non
Quidquam proficeret: Si collibuiffet, ab ovo
Ufque ad mala citaret. To Bacche, modo fummâ:
Voce, modo hâc refonat qua chordis quatuor ima..
Ne aquale homini fuit illi: Sape velut qui
Currebat fugiens hoftem: Perfape velut qui
Junonis facra ferret. Habebat fape ducentos,
Sape decem fervos. Modò, reges atque tetrarchas,
Omnia magna loquens. Modò fit mihi menfa tripes, ..
Concha falis puri, & toga, qua defendere frigus,
Quamvis craffa, queat. Decies centena dediffes
Huic parco paucis contento, quinque diebus:
Nill erat in loculis. Nottes vigilabat ad ipfum
Mane: Diem totam ftertebat. Nil fuit unquam
Sit impar fibi - Hor. Sat. 3. Lib. 1.

INSTEAD of tranflating this Paffage in Horace, I fhall entertain my English Reader with the Defcription of a Parallel Character, that is wonderfully well finifhed by Mr. Dryden, and raised upon the fame Foundation.

IN the firft Rank of thefe did Zimri ftand:

A Man fo various, that he feem'd to be
Not one, but all Mankind's Epitome..
Stiff in Opinions, always in the wrong;
Was every thing by Starts, and Nothing long;
But, in the Courfe of one revolving Moon,
Was Chymift, Fidler, Statesman, and Buffoon:

Then.

Then all for Women, Painting, Rhiming, Drinking:
Befides ten thousand Freaks that dy'd in thinking.
Bleft Madman, who could every Hour employ,
With fomething New to wish, or to enjoy!

E

C:

Si quid ego adjuero, curamve levaffo, Que nunc te coquit, & verfat fub pectore fixa, Ecquid erit pretii? Enn. ap. Tullium. NQUIRIES after Happiness, and Rules for attaining it, are not fo neceffary and useful to Mankind as the Arts of Confolation, and fupporting ones felf under Affliction. The utmost we can hope for in this World is Contentment; if we aim at any thing higher, we fhall meet with nothing but Grief and Difappointments. A Man fhould direct all his Studies and Endeavours at making himself eafie now, and happy hereafter.

THE Truth of it is, if all the Happiness that is difperfed through the whole Race of Mankind in this World were drawn together, and put into the Poffeffion of any fingle Man, it would not make a very happy Being. Though, on the contrary, if the Miferies of the whole Spectes were fixed in a fingle Perfon, they would make a very miferable one.

I am engaged in this Subject by the following Letter, which, though Subscribed by a fictitious Name, I have reason to believe is not Imaginary.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I Am one of your Difciples, and endeavour to live up to your Rules, which I hope will encline you to pity my Condition: I fhall open it to you in a very few Words. About three Years fince a Gentleman, whom, I am fure, you your felf would have approved, made his Addreffes to me. He had every thing to recommend him but an Eftate, fo that my Friends, who all of them applauded his Perfon,would not for the fake of both of us favour his Paffion. For my own part I refigned my felf up entirely to the Direction of those who knew the World much

⚫ better

• better than my felf, but ftill lived in hopes that fome Juni cture or other would make me happy in the Man whom, in my Heart, I preferred to all the World; being deter mined if I could not have him, to have no Body else. About three Months ago I received a Letter from him, acquainting me, that by the Death of an Uncle he had a • confiderable Estate left him, which he said was welcome to him upon no other Account, but as he hoped it would remove all Difficulties that lay in the Way to our mutual Happiness. You may well fuppofe, Sir, with how much Joy I received this Letter, which was followed by feve ⚫ral others filled with thofe Expreffions of Love and Joy, which I verily believe no Body felt more fincerely; nor knew better how to defcribe, than the Gentleman I am fpeaking of. But, Sir, how fhall I be able to tell it you! by the last Week's Poft I received a Letter from an intimate Friend of this unhappy Gentleman, acquainting me, that as he had just fettled his Affairs, and was preparing for his Journey, he fell fick of a Fever and died. It is impoffible to exprefs to you the Diftrefs I am in upon this Occafion. I can only have recourfe to my De votions, and to the reading of good Books for my Confolation; and as I always take a particular Delight in thofe frequent Advices and Admonitions which you give the Publick, it would be a very great Piece of Charity in you to lend me your Affiftance in this Conjuncture. If after the reading of this Letter you find your felf in a Humour, rather to Rally and Ridicule, than to Comfort me, I defire you would throw it into the Fire, and think no more of it; but if you are touched with my Misfortune, which is greater than I know how to bear, your Counfels may very much Support, and will infi nitely Oblige the afflicted

6

LEONORA, .

A Difappointment in Love is more hard to get over than any other; the Paffion it felf fo foftens and fubdues the Heart, that it difables it from ftruggling or bearing up against the Woes and Diftreffes which befal it. The Mind meets with other Misfortunes in her whole Srength; fhe ftands collected within her felf, and sustains the Shock with all the Force which is natural to her; but a Heart

J

in Love has its Foundations fapped, and immediately Links under the Weight of Accidents that are disagreeable to its Favourite Paffion.

IN Afflictions Men generally draw their Confolations out of Books of Morality, which indeed are of great ufe to fortifie and ftrengthen the Mind against the Impreffions of Sorrow. Monfieur St. Evremont, who does not approve of this Method, recommends Authors who are apt to ftir up Mirth in the Mind of the Readers, and fancies Don Quixote can give more Relief to an heavy Heart than Plutarch or Seneca, as it much easier to divert Grief than to conquer it. This doubtless inay have its Effects on fome Tempers. I should rather have recourfe to Authors of a quite contrary kind, that give us Inftances of Calamities and Miffortunes, and fhew human Nature in its greatest Distresses.

IF the Affliction we groan under be very heavy, we fhall find fome Confolation in the Society of as great Sufferers as our felves, especially when we find our Companions Men of Virtue and Merit. If our Afflictions are light, we shall be comforted by the Comparison we make between our felves and our Fellow Sufferers. A Lofs at Sea, a Fit of Sickness, or the Death of a Friend, are fuch Trifles when we confider whole Kingdoms laid in Afhes, Families put to the Sword, Wretches fhut up in Dungeons, and the like Calamities of Mankind, that we are out of Countenance for our own Weakness, if we fink under fuch little Strokes of Fortune.

LET the Difconfolate Leonora confider, that at the very time in which fhe languishes for the Lofs of her deceafed Lover, there are Perfons in feveral parts of the World juft perifhing in a Shipwreck; others crying out for Mercy in the Terrors of a Death-bed Repentance; others lying under the Tortures of an infamous Execution, or the like dreadful Calamities; and fhe will find her Sorrows vanish at the Appearance of those which are so much greater and more aftonishing...

I would further propofe to the Confideration of my afflicted Difciple, that poffibly what fhe now looks upon as the greatest Misfortune, is not really fuch in it felf. For my own part, I queftion not but our Souls in a feparate State will look back on their Lives in quite another View, than what they had of them in the Body; and that what they

now