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was all the World to her, and the thought the ought to be all the World to me. If, faid fhe, my Dear loves me as much as I love him, he will never be tired of my Company. This Declaration was followed by my being denied to all my Acquaintance; and it very foon came to that pafs, that to give an Anfwer ' at the Door before my Face, the Servants would ask her whether I was within or not; and the would anfwer No with great Fondness, and tell me I was a good Dear. I will not enumerate more little Circumftances to give you a livelier Senfe of my Condition; but tell you in general, that from fuch Steps as these at firit, I now live the Life of a Prifoner of State; my Letters are opened, and I have not the Ufe of Pen, Ink, and Paper but in her Prefence. I never go abroad except the fometimes takes me with her in her Coach to take the Air, if it may be called fo, when we • drive, as we generally do, with the Glaffes up. I have overheard my Servants lament my Condition, but they dare not bring me Meffages without her Knowledge, becaufe they doubt my Refolution to ftand by em. In the midft of this infipid Way of Life, an old Acquaintance of mine, Tom Meggot, who is a Fa*vourite with her, and allowed to vifit me in her Company because he fings prettily, has roufed me to rebell, ⚫ and conveyed his Intelligence to me in the following Manner. My Wife is a great Pretender to Mufick, ⚫ and very ignorant of it; but far gone in the Italian • Tafle. Tom goes to Armstrong, the famous fine Wri ter of Musick, and defires him to put this Sentence of Tully in the Scale of an Italian Air, and write it out for my Spouse from him. An ille mihi liber cui mulier imperat? Cui leges imponit, prafcribit, jubet, vetat quod vi detur? Qui nihil imperanti negare, nihil recufare audet? Pofcit? dandum eft. Vocat? veniendum. Éjicit? abe⚫undum. Minitatur? extimifcendum. Does he live like a Gentleman who is commanded by a Woman? He to whom She gives Law, grants and denies what she pleases? who • can neither deny her any thing she asks, or refuse to do any Thing fhe commands?

ΤΟ

TO be fhort, my Wife was extremely pleased with it, faid the Italian was the only Language for Musick; and admired how wonderfully tender the Sentiment was, and how pretty the Accent is of that Language, ← with the reft that is faid by Rote on that Occafion. Mr. Meggot is fent for to fing this Air, which he performs with mighty Applaufe; and my Wife is in Ecftacy on the Occafion, and glad to find, by my being fo much pleased, that I was at laft come into the No ⚫tion of the Italian; for, faid he, it grows upon one • when one once come to know a little of the Language; and pray, Mr. Meggot, fing again thofe Notes, • Nihil Imperanti negare, nihil recufare. You may believe I was not a little delighted with my Friend • Tom's Expedient to alarm me, and in Obedience to his Summons I give all this Story thus at large; and • I am resolved, when this appears in the Spectator, to • declare for my felf. The Manner of the Infurrection I contrive by your Means, which fhall be no other • than that Tom Meggot, who is at our Tea-Table every Morning, fhall read it to us; and if my Dear can take the Hint, and fay not one Word, but let this be the beginning of a new Life without further Explanation; it is very well; for as foon as the Spectator < is read out, I fhall, without more ado, call for the Coach, name the Hour when I fhall be at home, if I ⚫ come at all, if I do not, they may go to Dinner. If my Spouse only fwells and fays nothing, Tom and I go out together, and all is well, as I faid before; but if he begins to command or expoftulate, you fhall in my next to you receive a full Account of her Refi • ftance and Submission, for fubmit the dear Thing • mult to,

SIR,

Your most obedient humble Servant,
Anthony Freeman.

I hope I need not tell you that I defire this may be

in your very next.

I 2

T

Saturday,

N° 213. Saturday, November 3.

I

-Mens fibi confcia recti.

Virg.

T is the great Art and Secret of Christianity, if I may ufe that Phrafe, to manage our Actions to the best Advantage, and direct them in fuch a manner, that every thing we do may turn to Account at that great Day, when every thing we have done will be fet before us.

IN order to give this Confideration its full Weight, we may caft all our Actions under the Divifion of fuch as are in themselves either Good, Evil, or Indifferent. If we divide our Intentions after the fame Manner, and confider them with regard to our Actions, we may discover that great Art and Secret of Religion which I have here

mentioned.

A good Intention joined to a good Action, gives it its proper Force and Efficacy; joined to an Evil Action, extenuates its Malignity, and in fome Cafes may take it wholly away; and joined to an indifferent Action, turns it to Virtue, and makes it meritorious as far as humane Actions can be fo.

. IN the next Place, to confider in the fame manner the Influence of an Evil Intention upon our Actions. An evil Intention perverts the best of Actions, and makes them in reality what the Fathers with a witty kind of Zeal have termed the Virtues of the Heathen World, fo many fhining Sins. It deftroys the Innocence of an indifferent Action, and gives an evil Action all poffible Blackness and Horrour, or in the emphatical Language of Sacred Writ, makes Sin exceeding finful.

1F, in the laft Place, we confider the Nature of an indifferent Intention, we fhall find that it destroys the Merit of a good Action; abates, but never takes away, the Malignity of an evil Action; and leaves

an

an indifferent Action in its natural State of Indifference.

IT is therefore of unfpeakable Advantage to poffefs our Minds with an habitual good Intention, and to aim all our Thoughts, Words, and Actions at fome laudable End, whether it be the Glory of our Maker,, the Good of Mankind, or the Benefit of our own Souls.

THIS is a fort of Thrift or Good-Husbandry in moral Life, which does not throw away any fingle Action, but makes every one go as far as it can. multiplies the Means of Salvation, encreases the Number of our Virtues, and diminishes that of our Vi

ces.

THERE is fomething very devout, though not fo folid, in Acofta's Anfwer to Limborch, who objects to him the Multiplicity of Ceremonies in the Jewish Religion, as Wafhings, Dreffes, Meats, Purgations, and the like. The Reply which the Jew makes upon this Occa-fion, is, to the best of my Remembrance, as follows: There are not Duties enough (fays he) in the effential Parts of the Law for a zealous and active Obedience. • Time, Place, and Perfon are requifite, before you have an Opportunity of putting a moral Virtue into Practice. We have therefore, fays he, enlarged the Sphere of our Duty, and made many Things which are in themselves indifferent a Part of our Religion, that we may have more Occafion of fhewing our Love to God, and in • all the Circumstances of Life be doing something to please • him.

·

MONSIEUR St. Evremont has endeavoured to palliate the Superftitions of the Roman Catholick Religion with the fame kind of Apology, where he pretends to confider the different Spirit of the Papists and the Calvinifts, as to the great Points wherein they difagree. He tells us, that the former are

actuated by Love, and the other by Fear; and that in their Expreffions of Duty and Devotion towards the Supreme Being, the former feem particularly careful to do every thing which may poffibly pleafe him,

and

and the other to abstain from every thing that may pos fibly difplease him.

BUT notwithstanding this plausible Reafon with which both the Jew and the Roman Catholick would excufe their refpective Superftitions, it is certain there is fomething in them very pernicious to Mankind, and deftructive to Religion; because the Injunction of fuperAuous Ceremonies makes fuch Actions Duties, as were before indifferent, and by that means renders Religion more burthenfome and difficult than it is in its own Nature, betrays many into Sins of Omiffion which they could not otherwife be guilty of, and fixes the Minds of the Vulgar to the fhadowy uneffential Points, instead of the more weighty and more important Matters of the

Law.

THIS zealous and active Obedience however takes Place in the great Point we are recommending; for if, inftead of prefcribing to our felves indifferent Actions as Duties, we apply a good Intention to all our most indifferent Actions, we make our very Exiftence one continued Act of Obedience, we turn our. Diverfions and Amufements to our eternal Advantage, and are pleafing him (whom we are made to pleafc) in all the Circumftances and Occurrences of Life.

IT is this excellent Frame of Mind, this holy Officiousness (if I may be allowed to call it fuch) which is recommended to us by the Apostle in that uncommon Precept, wherein he directs us to propofe to our felves the Glory of our Creator in all our most indifferent Actions, whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we

do.

A Perfon therefore who is poffeffed with fuch an habitual good Intention, as that which I have been here fpeaking of, enters upon no fingle Circumstance of Life, without confidering it as well pleafing to the great Author of his Being, conformable to the Ditates of Reafon, fuitable to human Nature in general, or to the particular Station in which Providence has placed him. He lives in a perpetual Senfe of the Divine Prefence, regards himfelf as acting, in the whole Courfe of his Exiftence, under the Öbfervation

and