every thing that is within reach of his cane. I where it is darkened and eclipsed by a I once prevailed upon him never to carry a hundred other irregular passions. stick in his hand, but this saved me nothing; for upon seeing me do something that did not please him, he kicked down a great jar that cost him above ten pounds but the week before. I then laid the fragments together in a heap, and gave him his cane again, desiring him that, if he chanced to be in anger, he would spend his passion upon the china that was broke to his hand; but the very next day, upon my giving a wrong message to one of the servants, he flew into such a rage, that he swept down a dozen tea-dishes, which to my misfortune stood very convenient for a side blow. 'I then removed all my china into a room which he never frequents; but I got nothing by this neither, for my looking-glasses immediately went to rack. Men have either no character at all, says a celebrated author, or it is that of being inconsistent with themselves. They find it easier to join extremities, than to be uni-' form and of a piece. This is finely illustrated in Xenophon's life of Cyrus the Great. That author tells us, that Cyrus having taken a most beautiful lady, named Panthea, the wife of Abradatas, committed her to the custody of Araspas, a young Persian nobleman, who had a little before maintained in discourse that a mind truly virtuous was incapable of entertaining an unlawful passion. The young gentleman had not long been in possession of his fair captive, when a complaint was made to Cyrus, that he not only solicited the lady Panthea to receive him in the room of her absent husband, but that, finding his entreaties had no effect, he was preparing to make use of force. Cyrus, who loved the In short, sir, whenever he is in a passion he is angry at every thing that is brittle; and if on such occasions he hath nothing to vent his rage upon, I do not know whe-young man, immediately sent for him, and ther my bones would be in safety. Let me beg of you, sir, to let me know whether there be any cure for this unaccountable distemper; or if not, that you will be pleased to publish this letter: for my husband having a great veneration for your writings, will by that means know you do not approve of his conduct. I am, &c.' Regula, peccatis quæ penas irroget æquas, IT is the work of a philosopher to be every day subduing his passions, and laying aside his prejudices. I endeavour at least to look upon men and their actions only as an impartial Spectator, without any regard to them as they happen to advance or cross my own private interest. But while I am thus employed myself, I cannot help observing how those about me suffer themselves to be blinded by prejudice and inclination, how readily they pronounce on every man's character, which they can give in two words, and make him either good for nothing, or qualified for every thing. On the contrary, those who search thoroughly into human nature will find it much more difficult to determine the value of their fellow-creatures, and that men's characters are not thus to be given in general words. ! There is indeed no such thing as a person entirely good or bad; virtue and vice are blended and mixed together, in a great or less proportion, in every one; and if you would search for some particular good quality in its most eminent degree of perfection, you will often find it in a mind in a gentle manner representing to him his fault, and putting him in mind of his former assertion, the unhappy youth, confounded with a quick sense of his guilt and shame, burst out into a flood of tears, and spoke as follows: 'Oh Cyrus, I am convinced that I have two souls. Love has taught me this piece of philosophy. If I had but one soul, it could not at the same time pant after virtue and vice, wish and abhor the same thing. It is certain therefore we have two souls: when the good soul rules, I undertake noble and virtuous actions; but, when the bad soul predominates, I am forced to do evil. All can say at present is, that I find my good soul, encouraged by your presence, has got the better of my bad.' I know not whether my readers will allow of this piece of philosophy; but if they will not, they must confess we meet with as different passions in one and the same soul as can be supposed in two. We can hardly read the life of a great man who lived in former ages, or converse with any who is eminent among our contemporaries, that is not an instance of what I am saying. But as I have hitherto only argued against the partiality and injustice of giving our judgment upon men in gross, who are such a composition of virtues and vices, of good and evil, I might carry this reflection still farther, and make it extend to most of their actions. If on the one hand we fairly weighed every circumstance, we should frequently find them obliged to do that action we at first sight condemn, in order to avoid another we should have been much more displeased with. If on the other hand we nicely examined such actions as appear most dazzling to the eye, we should find most of them either deficient and lame in several parts, produced by a bad ambition, or directed to an ill end. The very same action may sometimes be so oddly circum Deum namque ire per omnes stanced, that it is difficult to determine | No. 565.] Friday, July 9, 1714. whether it ought to be rewarded or punished. Those who compiled the laws of England were so sensible of this, that they have laid it down as one of their first max- For God the whole created mass inspires: ims, "It is better suffering a mischief than Thro' heaven and earth, and ocean's depths he throws His influence round, and kindles as he goes.-Dryden. an inconvenience;' which is as much as to say, in other words, that since no law can I was yesterday, about sun-set, walking take in or provide for all cases, it is better in the open fields, until the night insensibly private men should have some injustice fell upon me. I at first amused myself with done them than that a public grievance all the richness and variety of colours which should not be redressed. This is usually appeared in the western parts of heaven; pleaded in defence of all those hardships in proportion as they faded away and went which fall on particular persons on particu-out, several stars and planets appeared one lar occasions, which could not be foreseen after another, until the whole firmament when a law was made. To remedy this however as much as possible, the court of chancery was erected, which frequently mitigates and breaks the teeth of the common law, in cases of men's properties, while in criminal cases there is a power of par-ful white. To complete the scene, the full doning still lodged in the crown. Notwithstanding this, it is perhaps impossible in a large government to distribute rewards and punishments strictly proportioned to the merits of every action. The Spartan commonwealth was indeed wonderfully exact in this particular; and I do not remember in all my reading to have met with so nice an example of justice as that recorded by Plutarch, with which I shall close my paper of this day. was in a glow. The blueness of the ether was exceedingly heightened and enlivened by the season of the year, and by the rays of all those luminaries that passed through it. The galaxy appeared in its most beauti moon rose at length in that clouded majesty which Milton takes notice of, and opened to the eye a new picture of nature, which was more finely shaded, and disposed among softer lights than that which the sun had before discovered to us. As I was surveying the moon walking in her brightness, and taking her progress among the constellations, a thought rose in me which I believe very often perplexes and disturbs men of serious and contem The city of Sparta being unexpectedly plative natures. David himself fell into it attacked by a powerful army of Thebans, in that reflection, when I consider the was in very great danger of falling into the heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon hands of their enemies. The citizens sud- and the stars which thou hast ordained; denly gathered themselves into a body, what is man that thou art mindful of him, fought with a resolution equal to the neces- and the son of man that thou regardest sity of their affairs, yet no one so remark- him!' In the same manner, when I conably distinguished himself on this occasion, sidered that infinite host of stars, or, to to the amazement of both armies, as Isidas speak more philosophically, of suns which the son of Phoebidas, who was at that time were then shining upon me, with those inin the bloom of his youth, and very remark-numerable sets of planets or worlds which able for the comeliness of his person. He was coming out of the bath when the alarm was given, so that he had not time to put on his clothes, much less his armour; however transported with a desire to serve his country in so great an exigency, snatching up a spear in one hand and a sword in the other, he flung himself into the thickest ranks of his enemies. Nothing could withstand his fury: in what part soever he fought he put the enemies to flight without receiving a single wound.-Whether, says Plutarch, he was the particular care of some god, who rewarded his valour that day with an extraordinary protection, or that his enemies, struck with the unusualness of his dress, and beauty of his shape, supposed him something more than man, I shall not determine. The gallantry of this action was judged so great by the Spartans, that the ephori, or chief magistrates, decreed he should be presented with a garland; but, as soon as they had done so, fined him a thousand drachmas for going out to the battle unarmed. were moving round their respective suns; when I still enlarged the idea, and supposed another heaven of suns and worlds rising still above this which we discovered, and these still enlightened by a superior firmament of luminaries, which are planted at so great a distance, that they may appear to the inhabitants of the former as the stars do to us; in short, while I pursued this thought, I could not but reflect on that little insignificant figure which I myself bore amidst the immensity of God's works. Were the sun, which enlightens this part of the creation, with all the host of planetary worlds that move about him, utterly extinguished and annihilated, they would not be missed more than a grain of sand upon the sea-shore. The space they possess is so exceedingly little in comparison of the whole, that it would scarce make a blank in the creation. The chasm would be imperceptible to an eye that could take in the whole compass of nature, and pass from one end of the creation to the other; as it is possible there may be such a sense in ourselves hereafter, or in creatures which are at pre sent more exalted than ourselves. We see supports the whole frame of nature. Hi many stars by the help of glasses, which creation, and every part of it, is full of him. we do not discover with our naked eyes; There is nothing he has made that is either and the finer our telescopes are, the more so distant, so little, or so inconsiderable still are our discoveries. Huygenius carries which he does not essentially inhabit. His this thought so far, that he does not think substance is within the substance of every it impossible there may be stars whose light being, whether material or immaterial, and is not yet travelled down to us since their as intimately present to it as that being is first creation. There is no question but the to itself. It would be an imperfection in universe has certain bounds set to it; but him, were he able to remove out of one when we consider that it is the work of in- place into another, or to withdraw himself finite power, prompted by infinite goodness, from any thing he has created, or from any with an infinite space to exert itself in, how part of that space which is diffused and can our imagination set any bounds to it? spread abroad to infinity. In short, to speak To return therefore to my first thought: of him in the language of the old philosoI could not but look upon myself with secret pher, he is a Being whose centre is every horror, as a being that was not worth the where, and his circumference no where. smallest regard of one who had so great a work under his care and superintendency. I was afraid of being overlooked amidst the immensity of nature, and lost among that infinite variety of creatures, which in all probability swarm through all these immeasurable regions of matter. In the second place, he is omniscient as well as omnipresent. His omniscience indeed necessarily and naturally flows from his omnipresence; he cannot but be conscious of every motion that arises in the whole material world, which he thus essentially pervades, and of every thought In order to recover myself from this mor- that is stirring in the intellectual world, to tifying thought, I considered that it took its every part of which he is thus intimately rise from those narrow conceptions which united. Several moralists have considered we are apt to entertain of the divine nature. the creation as the temple of God, which We ourselves cannot attend to many differ- he has built with his own hands, and which ent objects at the same time. If we are is filled with his presence. Others have careful to inspect some things, we must of considered infinite space as the receptacle, course neglect others. This imperfection, or rather the habitation, of the Almighty: which we observe in ourselves, is an im- but the noblest and most exalted way of perfection that cleaves in some degree to considering this infinite space is that of Sir creatures of the highest capacities, as they Isaac Newton, who calls it the sensorium are creatures, that is, beings of finite and of the Godhead. Brutes and men have limited natures. The presence of every their sensoriola, or little sensoriums, by created being is confined to a certain mea- which they apprehend the presence and sure of space, and consequently his observa- perceive the actions of a few objects that tion is stinted to a certain number of objects. lie contiguous to them. Their knowledge The sphere in which we move, and act, and observation turn within a very narrow and understand, is of a wider circumfer- circle. But as God Almighty cannot but ence to one creature than another, accord-perceive and know every thing in which ing as we rise one above another in the he resides, infinite space gives room to inscale of existence. But the widest of these finite knowledge, and is, as it were, an orour spheres has its circumference. When, gan to omniscience. therefore, we reflect on the divine nature, we are so used and accustomed to this imperfection in ourselves, that we cannot forbear in some measure ascribing it to him in whom there is no shadow of imperfection. Our reason indeed assures us that his attributes are infinite; but the poorness of our conceptions is such, that it cannot forbear setting bounds to every thing it contemplates, until our reason comes again to our succour, and throws down all those little prejudices which rise in us unawares, and are natural to the mind of man. We shall therefore utterly extinguish this melancholy thought, of our being overlooked by our Maker in the multiplicity of his works, and the infinity of those objects among which he seems to be incessantly employed, if we consider, in the first place, that he is omnipresent; and, in the second, that he is omniscient. If we consider him in his omnipresence, his being passes through, actuates, and Were the soul separate from the body, and with one glance of thought should start beyond the bounds of the creation, should it for millions of years continue its progress through infinite space with the same activity, it would still find itself within the embrace of its Creator, and encompassed round with the immensity of the Godhead. Whilst we are in the body he is not less present with us because he is concealed from us. O that I knew where I might find him,' says Job. Behold I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand, where he does work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him.' In short, reason, as well as revelation assures us, that he cannot be absent from us, notwithstanding he is undiscovered by us. In this consideration of God Almighty's omnipresence and omniscience, every un comfortable thought vanishes. He cannot out regard every thing that has being, it is one of the best schools in the world to especially such of his creatures who fear receive a general notion of mankind in, and they are not regarded by him. He is privy a certain freedom of behaviour, which is to all their thoughts, and to that anxiety of not so easily acquired in any other place. heart in particular, which is apt to trouble At the same time I must own, that some them on this occasion: for, as it is impos-military airs are pretty extraordinary, and sible he should overlook any of his creatures, so we may be confident that he regards with an eye of mercy, those who endeavour to recommend themselves to his notice, and in an unfeigned humility of heart think themselves unworthy that he should be mindful of them. No. 566.] Monday, July 12, 1714. Militia species amor est.-Ovid Ars Am. ii. 233. As my correspondents begin to grow men say for themselves. 'MR. SPECTATOR,-Though it may look somewhat perverse amidst the arts of peace to talk too much of war, it is but gratitude to pay the last office to its manes, since even peace itself, is, in some measure, obliged to it for its being. 'You have, in your former papers, always recommended the accomplished to the favour of the fair; and I hope you will allow me to represent some part of a military life not altogether unnecessary to the forming a gentleman. I need not tell you that in France, whose fashions we have been formerly so fond of, almost every one derives his pretences to merit from the sword; and that a man has scarce the face to make his court to a lady, without some credentials from the service to recommend him. As the profession is very ancient, we have reason to think some of the greatest men among the old Romans derived many of their virtues from it, the commanders being frequently in other respects some of the most shining characters of the age. The army not only gives a man opportunities of exercising those two great virtues, patience and courage, but often produces them in minds where they had scarce any footing before. I must add, that that a man who goes into the army a coxcomb, will come out of it a sort of public nuisance: but a man of sense, or one who before had not been sufficiently used to a mixed conversation, generally takes the true turn. The court has in all ages been allowed to be the standard of good-breeding; and I believe there is not a juster observation in Monsieur Rochefoucault, than that "a man who has been bred up wholly to business, can never get the air of a courtier at court, but will immediately catch it in the camp." The reason of this most certainly is, that the very essence of goodbreeding and politeness consists in several niceties, which are so minute that they escape his observation, and he falls short of the original he would copy after; but when he sees the same things charged and aggravated to a fault, he no sooner endeavours to come up to the pattern which is set before him, than, though he stops somewhat short of that, he naturally rests where in reality he ought. I was, two or three days ago, mightily pleased with the observation of a humorous gentleman upon one of his friends, who was in other respects every way an accomplished person, that "he wanted nothing but a dash of the coxcomb in him;" by which he understood a little of that alertness and unconcern in the common actions of life, which is usually so visible among gentlemen of the army, and which a campaign or two would infallibly have given him. You will easily guess, sir, by this my panegyric upon a military education, that I am myself a soldier, and indeed I am so. I remember, within three years after I had been in the army, I was ordered into the country a recruiting. I had very particular success in this part of the service, and was over and above assured, at my going away, that I might have taken a young lady, who was the most considerable fortune in the country, along with me. I preferred the pursuit of fame at that time to all other considerations, and though I was not absolutely bent on a wooden leg, resolved at least to get a scar or two for the good of Europe. I have at present as much as I desire of this sort of honour, and if you could recommend me effectually, should be well enough contented to pass the remainder of my days in the arms of some dear kind creature, and upon a pretty estate in the country. This, as I take it, would be following the example of Lucius Cincinnatus, the old Roman dictator, who, at the end of a war left the camp to follow the plough. I am, sir, with all imaginable respect, your most obedient, humble servant, 'WILL WARLEY.' 'MR. SPECTATOR,-I am a half-pay of- | Frenchman, papist, plunderer," and the ficer, and am at present with a friend in like significant terms, in an italic character, the country. Here is a rich widow in the have also a very good effect upon the neighbourhood, who has made fools of all eye of the purchaser, not to mention the fox-hunters within fifty miles of her. She scribbler, liar, rogue, rascal, knave, and declares she intends to marry, but has not villain," without which it is impossible to yet been asked by the man she could like. carry on a modern controversy. She usually admits her humble admirers to an audience or two; but, after she has once given them denial, will never see them more. I am assured by a female relation that I shall have fair play at her; but as my whole success depends on my first approaches, I desire your advice, whether I had best storm, or proceed by way of sap. I am, sir, yours, &c. 'P. S. I had forgot to tell you, that I have already carried one of her outworks, that is, secured her maid.' Our party writers are so sensible of the secret virtue of an innuendo to recommend their productions, that of late they never mention the Q-n or P―t at length, though they speak of them with honour, and with the deference which is due to them from every private person. It gives a secret satisfaction to a pursuer of these mysterious works, that he is able to decyher them without help, and by the strength of his own natural parts, to fill up a blank space, or make out a word that has only the first and last letter to it. 'MR. SPECTATOR, -I have assisted in se- Some of our authors indeed, when they veral sieges in the Low Countries, and being would be more satirical than ordinary, omit still willing to employ my talents as a soldier only the vowels of a great man's name, and and engineer, lay down this morning at seven fall most unmercifully upon all the consoo'clock before the door of an obstinate fe- nants. This way of writing was first of all male, who had for some time refused me introduced by T-m B-wn,t of facetious admittance. I made a lodgement in an memory, who, after having gutted a proper outer parlour about twelve: the enemy rename of all its intermediate vowels, used to tired to her bed-chamber, yet I still pur-plant it in his works, and make as free with sued, and about two o'clock this afternoon it as he pleased, without any danger of the she thought fit to capitulate. Her demands statute. are indeed somewhat high, in relation to the settlement of her fortune. But, being in possession of the house, I intend to insist upon carte blanche, and am in hopes, by keeping off all other pretenders for the space of twenty-four hours, to starve her into a compliance. I beg your speedy advice, and am, sir, yours, 'PETER PUSH. I HAVE received private advice from some of my correspondents, that if I would give my paper a general run, I should take care to season it with scandal. I have indeed observed of late that few writings sell which are not filled with great names and illustrious titles. The reader generally casts his eye upon a new book, and, if he finds several letters separated from one another by a dash, he buys it up, and pursues it with great satisfaction. An M and an h, a T and an r, with a short line between them, has sold many insipid pamphlets. Nay, I have known a whole edition go off by virtue of two or three well-written &c-s. A sprinkling of the words "faction, • Marlborough. Treasurer That I may imitate these celebrated authors, and publish a paper which shall be more taking than ordinary, I have here drawn up a very curious libel, in which a reader of penetration will find a great deal of concealed satire, and, if he be acquainted with the present posture of affairs, will easily discover the meaning of it. If there are four persons in the nation who endeavour to bring all things into confusion, and ruin their native country, I think every honest Englishman ought to be upon his guard. That there are such, every one will agree with me who hears me name ***, with his first friend and favourite ***, not to mention *** nor ***. These people may cry ch-rch, ch-rch as long as they please; but, to make use of a homely proverb, "The proof of the p-dd-ng is in the eating.” This I am sure of, that if a certain prince should concur with a certain prelate, (and we have Monsieur Z-n's word for it) our posterity would be in a sweet p-ckle. Must the British nation suffer, forsooth, because my lady Q-p-t-s has been disobliged? Or is it reasonable that our English fleet, which used to be the terror of the ocean, should lie wind-bound for the sake of a? I love to speak out, and declare my mind clearly, when I am talking for the good of my country. I will not make my court to an ill man, though he were a By cr a T--t. Nay, I would not stick to call so wretched a politician a traitor, an enemy to his country: and a bl-nd-rd-ss, &c. &c.' The remaining part of this political trea † Tom Brown |