and when completed. The whole examination was summed up with one short question, namely, whether he was prepared for death? The boy, who had been bred up by honest parents, was frighted out of his wits at the solemnity of the proceeding, and by the last dreadful interrogatory; so that, upon making his escape out of this house of mourning, he could never be brought a second time, to the examination, as not being able to go through the terrors of it.

Notwithstanding this general form and outside of religion is pretty well worn out among us, there are many persons who, by a natural uncheerfulness of heart, mistaken notions of piety, or weakness of understanding, love to indulge this uncomfortable way of life, and give up themselves a prey to grief and melancholy. Superstitious fears and groundless scruples cut them off from the pleasures of conversation, and all those social entertainments, which are not only innocent, but laudable: as if mirth was made for reprobates, and cheerfulness of heart denied those who are the only persons that have a proper title to it.

thought religious to throw as much sanctity as possible into his face, and in particular to abstain from all appearances of mirth and pleasantry, which were looked upon as the marks of a carnal mind. The saint was of a sorrowful countenance, and generally eaten up with spleen and melancholy. A gentleman, who was lately a great ornament to the learned world, has diverted me more than once with an account of the reception which he met with from a very famous independent minister, who was head of a college in those times. This gentleman was then a young adventurer in the republic of letters, and just fitted out for the university with a good cargo of Latin and Greek. His friends were resolved that he should try his fortune at an election which was drawing near in the college, of which the independent minister whom I have before mentioned was governor. The youth, according to custom, waited on him in order to be examined. He was received at the door by a servant who was one of that gloomy generation that were then in fashion. He conducted him with great silence and seriousness, to a long gallery, which was darkened at noon-day, and had Sombrius is one of these sons of sorrow. only a single candle burning in it. After a He thinks himself obliged in duty to be sad short stay in this melancholy apartment, and disconsolate. He looks on a sudden fit he was led into a chamber hung with black, of laughter as a breach of his baptismal where he entertained himself for some time vow. An innocent jest startles him like by the glimmering of a taper, until at blasphemy. Tell him of one who is adlength the head of the college came out to vanced to a title of honour, he lifts up his him from an inner room, with half a dozen hands and eyes: describe a public ceremonight-caps upon his head, and religious ny, he shakes his head; show him a gay horror in his countenance. The young man equipage, he blesses himself. All the little trembled: but his fears increased, when in- ornaments of life are pomps and vanities. stead of being asked what progress he had Mirth is wanton, and wit profane. He is made in learning, he was examined how he scandalized at youth for being lively, and abounded in grace. His Latin and Greek at childhood for being playful. He sits at stood him in little stead; he was to give an a christening, or marriage-feast, as at a fuaccount only of the state of his soul; whe-neral; sighs at the convulsion of a merry ther he was of the number of the elect; what was the occasion of the conversion, upon what day of the month, and hour of the day it happened; how it was carried on,

*The gentleman alluded to was Anthony Henley, Esq. son of Sir Robert Henley, of the Grange, in Hampshire. He was the intimate friend of the most consider able wits of the time, and is believed to have been an

ample contributor to the Tatler. Dr. Garth entertained so high an opinion of him, that he dedicated his Dispensary to him" in terms which must lead the reader to form a very exalted idea of his virtues and accomplishments." Mr. Henley died in August, 1711.

This was Dr. Thomas Goodwin, S. T P. President of Magdalen College, Oxford, and one of the assembly of divines that sat at Westminster. Wood styles him dependency." In the character prefixed to his works, he is described as a man "much addicted to retirement and deep contemplation; that he had been much exercised in the controversies agitated in the age in which he lived, and had a deep insight into the grace of God, and the covenant of grace." He attended Cromwell, his friend and patron, upon his death-bed, and was very confident he would not die, from a supposed revelation communicated to him in prayer, but a few minutes before his death. When he found himself mistaken, in a subsequent address to God, he exclaimed, "Thou hast deceived us, and we were deceived." He died in Feb.

and Dr. Owen "the two Atlasses and Patriarchs of in

1679, in the eightieth year of his age.-See Granger

vol. ii.

story, and grows devout when the rest of the company grow pleasant. After all, Sombrius is a religious man, and would have behaved himself very properly, had he lived when christianity was under a general persecution.

I would by no means presume to tax such characters with hypocrisy, as is done too frequently; that being a vice which I think none but He who knows the secrets of men's hearts should pretend to discover in another, where the proofs of it do not amount to a demonstration. On the contrary, as there are many excellent persons who are weighed down by this habitual Sorrow of heart, they rather deserve our compassion than our reproaches. I think, however, they would do well to consider Whether such a behaviour does not deter men from a religious life, by representing it as an unsociable state, that extinguishes all joy and gladness, darkens the face of nature, and destroys the relish of being itself. I have, in former papers, shown how great a tendency there is to cheerfulness in religion, and how such a frame of mind is

not only the most lovely, but the most commendable in a virtuous person. In short, those who represent religion in so unamiable a light, are like the spies sent by Moses to make a discovery of the Land of Promise, when by their reports they discouraged the people from entering upon it. Those who show us the joy, the cheerfulness, the good humour, that naturally spring up in this happy state, are like the spies bringing along with them the clusters of grapes, and delicious fruits, that might invite their companions into the pleasant country which produced them.

An eminent pagan writer has made a discourse to show that the atheist, who denies a God, does him less dishonour than the man who owns his being; but at the same time believes him to be cruel, hard to please, and terrible to human nature. For my own part,' says he, I would rather it should be said of me, that there was never any such man as Plutarch, than that Plutarch was ill-natured, capricious, or inhuman.'

race of people called Jews, many of whom I have met with in most of the considerable towns which I have passed through in the course of my travels. They are, indeed, so disseminated through all the trading parts of the world, that they are become the instruments by which the most distant nations converse with one another, and by which mankind are knit together in a general correspondence. They are like the pegs and nails in a great building, which, though they are but little valued in themselves, are absolutely necessary to keep the whole frame together.

That I may not fall into any common beaten tracks of observation, I shall consider this people in three views: First, with regard to their number; secondly, their dispersion; and thirdly their adherence to their religion: and afterwards endeavour to show first, what natural reasons, and secondly, what providential reasons, may be assigned for these three remarkable particulars.

The Jews are looked upon by many to be as numerous at present, as they were formerly in the land of Canaan.

This is wonderful, considering the dreadful slaughter made of them under some of the Roman emperors, which historians describe by the death of many hundred thousands in a war; and the innumerable massacres and persecutions they have undergone in Turkey, as well as in all Chris tian nations of the world. The rabbins, to express the great havoc which has been sometimes made of them, tell us, after their usual manner of hyperbole, that there were such torrents of holy blood shed, as carried rocks of a hundred yards in circumference above three miles into the sea.

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it. It is not the business of virtue to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regufate them. It may moderate and restrain, but was not designed to banish gladness from the heart of man. Religion contracts the circle of our pleasures, but leaves it wide enough for her votaries to expatiate in. The contemplation of the divine Being, and the exercise of virtue, are in their own nature, so far from excluding all gladness of heart, that they are perpetually sources of it. In a word, the true spirit of religion cheers, as well as composes, the soul; it Their dispersion is the second remarkbanishes indeed all levity of behaviour, all able particular in this people. They swarm vicious and dissolute mirth; but in exchange over all the East, and are settled in the refills the mind with a perpetual serenity, motest parts of China. They are spread uninterrupted cheerfulness, and an habi-through most of the nations in Europe and tual inclination to please others, as well as to be pleased in itself.

0.

Africa, and many families of them are established in the West Indies: not to mention whole nations bordering on PresterJohn's country, and some discovered in the

No. 495.] Saturday, September 27, 1712. inner parts of America, if we may give any

credit to their own writers.

Their firm adherence to their religion is no less remarkable than their numbers and dispersion, especially considering it as persecuted or contemned over the face of the whole earth. This is likewise the more remarkable, if we consider the frequent apostacies of this people, when they lived under their kings in the land of promise, and within sight of the temple.

If in the next place we examine what may be the natural reasons of these three particulars which we find in the Jews, and which are not to be found in any other religion or people, I can, in the first place, attribute their numbers to nothing but their constant employment, their abstinence, their exemption from wars, and, above all,

their frequent marriages; for they look on celibacy as an accursed state, and generally are married before twenty, as hoping the Messiah may descend from them.

The dispersion of the Jews into all the nations of the earth, is the second remarkable particular of that people, though not so hard to be accounted for. They were always in rebellions and tumults while they had the temple and holy city in view, for which reason they have often been driven out of their old habitations in the land of promise. They have as often been banished out of most other places where they have settled, which must very much disperse and scatter a people, and oblige them to seek a livelihood where they can find it. Besides, the whole people is now a race of such merchants as are wanderers by profession, and, at the same time, are in most, if not all places, incapable of either lands or offices, that might engage them to make any part of the world their home.

on the genius and temper of mankind, by considering the various bent and scope of our actions throughout the progress of life, have with great exactness allotted inclinations and objects of desire particular to every stage, according to the different circumstances of our conversation and fortune, through the several periods of it. Hence they were disposed easily to excuse those excesses which might possibly arise from a too eager pursuit of the affections more immediately proper to each state. They indulged the levity of childhood with tenderness, overlooked the gayety of youth with good-nature, tempered the forward ambition and impatience of ripened manhood with discretion, and kindly imputed the tenacious avarice of old men to their want of relish for any other enjoyment. Such allowances as these were no less advantageous to common society than obliging to particular persons; for, by maintaining a decency and regularity in the course of This dispersion would probably have lost life, they supported the dignity of human their religion, had it not been secured by nature, which then suffers the greatest viothe strength of its constitution: for they are lence when the order of things is inverted; to live all in a body, and generally within and in nothing is it more remarkably vilithe same enclosure; to marry among them-fied and ridiculous, than when feebleness selves, and to eat no meats that are not preposterously attempts to adorn itself killed or prepared their own way. This shuts them out from all table conversation, and the most agreeable intercourses of life; and, by consequence, excludes them from the most probable means of conversion.

If, in the last place, we consider what providential reasons may be assigned for these three particulars, we shall find that their numbers, dispersion, and adherence to their religion, have furnished every age, and every nation of the world, with the strongest arguments for the Christian faith, not only as these very particulars are foretold of them, but as they themselves are the depositaries of these, and all the other prophecies, which tend to their own confusion. Their number furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of witnesses that attest the truth of the old Bible. Their dispersion spreads these witnesses through all parts of the world. The adherence to their religion makes their testimony unquestionable. Had the whole body of the Jews been converted to Christianity, we should certainly have thought all the prophecies of the Old Testament, that relate to the coming and history of our blessed Saviour, forged by Christians, and have looked upon them with the prophecies of the Sybils, as

with that outward pomp and lustre, which serve only to set off the bloom of youth with better advantage. I was insensibly carried into reflections of this nature, by just now meeting Paulino (who is in his climacteric) bedecked with the utmost splendour of dress and equipage, and giving an unbounded loose to all manner of pleasure, whilst his only son is debarred all innocent diversion, and may be seen frequently solacing himself in the Mall with no other attendance than one antiquated servant of his father's for a companion and director.

It is a monstrous want of reflection, that a man cannot consider, that when he cannot resign the pleasures of life in his decay of appetite and inclination to them, his son must have a much uneasier task to resist the impetuosity of growing desires. The skill therefore should methinks be, to let a son want no lawful diversion, in proportion to his future fortune, and the figure he is to make in the world. The first step towards virtue that I have observed, in young men of condition that have run into excesses, has been that they had a regard to their quality and reputation in the management of their vices. Narrowness in their circumstances has made many youths, to

made many years after the events they pre-cupply themselves as debauchees, com

tended to foretell.

No. 496.] Monday, September 29, 1712.
Gnatum pariter uti his decuit aut etiam amplius,
Quod illa ætas magis ad hæc utenda idonea est.
Terent. Heaut. Act. i. Sc. 1.

Your son ought to have shared in these things, because youth is best suited to the enjoyment of them.

'MR. SPECTATOR,-Those ancients who were the most accurate in their remarks

mence cheats and rascals. The father who allows his son to the utmost ability avoids this latter evil, which as to the world is much greater than the former. But the contrary practice has prevailed so much among some men, that I have known them deny them what was merely necessary for education suitable to their quality. Poor young Antonio is a lamentable instance of

ill conduct in this kind. The young man | all her nice airs and her crooked legs. Pray did not want natural talents; but the father be sure to put her in for both those two of him was a coxcomb, who affected being things, and you will oblige every body here, a fine gentleman so unmercifully, that he especially, your humble servant, could not endure in his sight, or the freALICE BLUEGARTER.' quent mention of one, who was his son, growing into manhood, and thrusting him

out of the gay world. I have often thought No. 497.] Tuesday, September 30, 1712. the father took a secret pleasure in reflecting that, when that fine house and seat came into the next hands, it would revive his memory, as a person who knew how to enjoy them, from observation of the rusticity and ignorance of his successor. Cer-him who receives it. What indeed makes tain it is, that a man may, if he will, let his heart close to the having no regard to any thing but his dear self, even with exclusion of his very children. I recommend this subject to your consideration, and am, sir, your most humble servant, T. B.'

where he was; and the general's presence | himself and servants, that the whole court was never necessary any where, but where were in an emulation who should first introhe had placed himself at the first disposi- duce him to his holiness. What added to tion, except that accident happened from extraordinary efforts of the enemy which he could not foresee; but it was remarkable that it never fell out from failure in his own troops. It must be confessed the world is just so much out of order, as an unworthy person possesses what should be in the direction of him who has better pretensions to it.

the expectation his holiness had of the pleasure he should have in his follies, was, that this fellow, in a dress the most exquisitely ridiculous, desired he might speak to him alone, for he had matters of the highest importance, upon which he wanted a conference. Nothing could be denied to a coxcomb of so great hope; but when they were apart, the impostor revealed himself, and spoke as follows:

Instead of such a conduct as this old fellow used to describe in his general, all the evils which have ever happened among 'Do not be surprised, most holy father, mankind have arose from the wanton dis- at seeing, instead of a coxcomb to laugh at, position of the favours of the powerful. It your old friend, who has taken this way of is generally all that men of modesty and access to admonish you of your own folly. virtue can do, to fall in with some whimsi- Can any thing show your holiness how uncal turn in a great man, to make way for worthy you treat mankind, more than my things of real and absolute service. In the being put upon this difficulty to speak with time of Don Sebastian of Portugal, or some you? It is a degree of folly to delight to see time since, the first minister would let no- it in others, and it is the greatest insolence thing come near him but what bore the imaginable to rejoice in the disgrace of human nature. It is a criminal humility in a most profound face of wisdom and gravity. They carried it so far, that, for the greater person of your holiness's understanding, to show of their profound knowledge, a pair believe you cannot excel but in the conversation of half-wits, humourists, coxof spectacles tied on their noses with a black riband round their heads, was what combs, and buffoons. If your holiness has completed the dress of those who made a mind to be diverted like a rational man, their court at his levee, and none with you have a great opportunity for it, in disnaked noses were admitted to his presence. robing all the impertinents you have faA blunt honest fellow, who had a com-voured, of all their riches and trappings at mand in the train of artillery, had attempted to make an impression upon the porter, day after day in vain, until at length he made his appearance in a very thoughtful dark suit of clothes, and two pair of spectacles on at once. He was conducted from room to room, with great deference, to the minister; and, carrying on the farce of the place, he told his excellency that he had pretended in this manner to be wiser than he really was, but with no ill intention: but he was honest Such-a-one of the train, and he came to tell him that they wanted wheelbarrows and pick-axes. The thing happened not to displease, the great man was seen to smile, and the successful officer was re-conducted with the same profound ceremony out of the house.

once, and bestowing them on the humble, the virtuous, and the meek. If your holiness is not concerned for the sake of virtue and religion, be pleased to reflect, that for the sake of your own safety it is not proper to be so very much in jest. When the pope is thus merry, the people will in time begin to think many things, which they have hitherto beheld with great veneration, are in themselves objects of scorn and derision. If they once get a trick of knowing how to laugh, your holiness's saying this sentence in one night cap, and the other with the other, the change of your slippers, bringing you your staff in the midst of a prayer, then stripping you of one vest, and clapping on a second during divine service, will be found out to have nothing in it. Consider, sir, that at this rate a head will be reckoned never the wiser for being bald, and the ignorant will be apt to say, that going bare-foot does not at all help on the way to heaven. The red cap and the cowl will fall under the same contempt; and the vulgar will tell us to our faces, that we shall have no authority over them but from the force of our arguments and the sanctity of our lives.'

When Leo X. reigned pope of Rome, his holiness, though a man of sense, and of an excellent taste of letters, of all things affected fools, buffoons, humourists, and coxcombs. Whether it were from vanity, and that he enjoyed no talents in other men but what were inferior to him, or whatever it was, he carried it so far, that his whole delight was in finding out new fools, and as our phrase is, playing them off, and making them show themselves to advantage. A priest of his former acquaintance, suffered No. 498.] Wednesday, October 1, 1712. a great many disappointments in attempting to find access to him in a regular character, until at last in despair he retired from Rome, and returned in an equipage so very fantastical, both as to the dress of

T.

-Frustra retinacula tendens,
Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas.
Virg. Georg. i. 514
Nor reins, nor curbs, nor cries the horses fear,
But force along the trembling charioteer.-Dryden.