king without offending it, and to bring the man after God's own heart to a right fenfe of his guilt and his duty. We find Æfop in the most diftant ages of Greece; and if we look into the very beginnings of the commonwealth of Rome we fee a mutiny among the common people appeafed by a Fable of the Belly and the Limbs, which was indeed very proper to gain the attention of an incensed rabble, at a time when perhaps they would have torn to pieces any man who had preached the fame doctrine to them in an open and direct manner. As Fables took their birth in the very infancy of learning, they never flourished more than when learning was at its greatest height. To juftify this affertion, I fhall put my reader in mind of Horace, the greatest wit and critic in the Auguftan age; and of Boileau, the most correct poet among the moderns: not to mention La Fontaine, who by this way of writing is come more into vogue than any other author of our times.

The Fables I have here mentioned are raifed altoge ther upon brutes and vegetables, with fome of our own fpecies mixt among them, when the moral hath fo required. But befides this kind of Fable, there is another in which the actors are paffions, virtues, vices, and other imaginary perfons of the like nature. Some of the ancient critics will have it, that the Iliad and Odyffey of Homer are Fables of this nature; and that the feveral names of gods and heroes are nothing else but the affections of the mind in a vifible fhape and character. Thus they tell us, that Achilles, in the first Iliad, reprefents Anger, or the irafcible part of human nature; That upon drawing his fword against his fuperior in a full affembly, Pallas is only another name for Reafon, which checks and advises him upon that occafion; and at her first appearance touches him upon the head, that part of the man being looked upon as the feat of reafon. And thus of the rest of the poem, As for the Cdyffey, I think it is plain that Horace confidered it as one of these allegorical fables, by the moral which he has given us of feveral parts of it. The greatest Italian wits have applied themselves to the

Liv. Hift. lib. 2. fect. 32, &c. Florus, lib. 1. c. 23.

writing

writing of this latter kind of Fables. Spencer's FairyQueen is one continued feries of them from the beginning to the end of that admirable work. If we look into the fineft profe-authors of antiquity, fuch as Cicero, Plato, Xenophon, and many others, we shall find that this was likewife their favourite kind of Fable. I fhall only farther obferve upon it, that the first of this fort that made any confiderable figure in the world, was that of Hercules meeting with Pleasure and Virtue; which was invented by Prodicus, who lived before Socrates, and in the first dawnings of philophy. He ufed to travel through Greece by virtue of this fable, which procured him a kind reception in all the market-towns, where he never failed telling it as foon as he had gathered an audience about him.

After this fhort preface, which I have made up of fuch materials as my memory does at prefent fuggeft to me, before I prefent my reader with a Fable of this kind, which I defign as the entertainment of the prefent Paper, I muft in a few words open the occafion

of it.

In the account which Plato gives us of the converfation and behaviour of Socrates, the morning he was, to die, he tells the following circumstance.

When Socrates his fetters were knocked off (as was ufual to be done on the day that the condemned perfon was to be executed) being feated in the midst of his difciples, and laying one of his legs over the other, in. a very unconcerned pofture, he began to rub it where it had been galled by the iron; and whether it was to fhew the indifference with which he entertained the thoughts of his approaching death, or (after his ufual manner) to take every occafion of philofophizing upon fome ufeful fubject, he obferved the pleasure of that

* Lord Shaftebury wrote a differtation on this fubject, which did not appear in English till after his death, in the laft edition of his works. It was published in the Dutch edition of the Journal des Sçavans, Nov. 1712, p. 483, and tranflated by Mr. Cofte, under the title of "The Judgment of Hercules," or a Differtation on a Painting, the defign of which is taken from the hiftory of Prodicus, which we find in XENOPHON'S "Memorabilia Socratis." Lib. II. Fr. SPECT. T. II. p. 337. Dis. LIII. fenfation

fenfation which now arofe in thofe very parts of his leg, that just before had been fo much pained by the fetter. Upon this he reflected on the nature of Pleafure and Pain in general and how conftantly they fucceed one another. To this he added, That if a man of a good genius for a fable were to reprefent the nature of pleasure and pain in that way of writing, he would probably join them together after fuch a man-ner, that it would be impoffible for the one to come into any place without being followed by the other.

It is poffible, that if Plato had thought it proper at: fuch a time to defcribe Socrates launching out into a difcourfe which was not of a piece with the bufiness of the day, he would have enlarged upon this hint, and have drawn it out into fome beautiful allegory or fable. But fince he has not done it, I fhall attempt to write: one myself in the fpirit of that divine author.

68

"THERE were two Families which from the begin"ning of the world were as oppofite to each other as light and darknefs. The one of them lived in Hea-ven, and the other in Hell. The youngest defcendant of the firft family was Pleasure, who was the daughter "of Happiness, who was the child of Virtue, who was the offspring of the Gods. Thefe, as I faid before, had their habitation in Heaven. The youngest of the oppofite family was Pain, who was the son of "Mifery, who was the child of Vice, who was the offspring of the Furies. The habitation of this race of beings was in Hell.

"The middle station of nature between thefe two "oppofite extremes was the Earth, which was inhabited by creatures of a middle kind, neither fo virtuous as the one, nor fo vicious as the other, but partaking: "of the good and bad qualities of these two oppofite

families. Jupiter confidering that this fpecies, com"monly called Man, was too virtuous to be miferable, "and too vicious to be happy; that he might make a "diftinction between the good and the bad, ordered

the two youngest of the above-mentioned families, "Pleasure who was the daughter of Happiness, and "Pain who was the fon of Mifery, to meet one an"other

"other upon this part of nature which lay in the "half-way between them, having promised to fettle "it upon them both, provided they could agree upon "the divifion of it, fo as to fhare mankind between "them.

"Pleasure and Pain were no fooner met in their new "habitation, but they immediately agreed upon this "point, that Pleafure fhould take poffeffion of the virtuous, and Pain of the vicious part of that fpecies "which was given up to them. But upon examining "to which of them any individual they met with be longed, they found each of them had a right to him; "for that, contrary to what they had feen in their old places of refidence, there was no person so vicious "who had not fome good in him, nor any perfon fo "virtuous who had not in him fome evil. The truth "of it is, they generally found upon fearch, that in "the moft vicious man Pleasure might lay claim to

an hundredth part, and that in the most virtuous man "Pain might come in for at least two thirds. This they "faw would occafion endless disputes between them, "unless they could come to fome accommodation. "To this end there was a marriage proposed between "them, and at length concluded. By this means it is "that we find Pleasure and Pain are fuch conftant yokefellows, and that they either make their vifits "together, or are never far afunder. If Pain comes "into a heart, he is quickly followed by Pleafure; " and if Pleasure enters, you may be fure Pain is not "far off.

"

"But notwithstanding this marriage was very con"venient for the two parties, it did not feem to anfwer "the intention of Jupiter in fending them among "mankind. To remedy therefore this inconvenience, "it was ftipulated between them by article, and con"firmed by the confent of each family, that notwith"ftanding they here poffeffed the fpecies indifferently;

upon the death of every single perfon, if he was "found to have in him a certain proportion of evil, "he fhould be difpatched into the infernal regions by a paffport from Pain, there to dwell with Mifery, "Vice, and the Furies. On the contrary, if he had

"in

in him a certain proportion of good, he fhould be dispatched into Heaven by a paffport from Pleasure, "there to dwell with Happiness, Virtue, and the "Gods."

By ABDISON. London.

L*

N° 184

Monday, October 1, 1711.

Opere in longo fas eft obrepere fomnum.

W

Hor. Ars Poet. v. 360.

Who labours long, may be allow'd to fleep."

HEN a man has difcovered a new vein of humour, it often carries him much farther than he expected from it. My correfpondents take the hint I gave them, and purfue it into Speculation which I never thought of at my first starting it. This has been the fate of my Paper on the Match of Grinning, which has already produced a fecond Paper on parallel fubjects †, and brought me the following letter by the laft poft. I fhall not premife any thing to it farther, than that it is built on matter of fact, and is as follows.

. SIR,

YOU have already obliged the world with a dif

courfe upon Grinning, and have fince proceeded to Whistling, from whence you at length came to Yawning; from this, I think, you may make a very natural tranfition to Sleeping. I therefore recommend to you for the fubject of a Paper the following Advertisement, which about two months ago was given into every body's hands, and may be feen with fome additions in the Daily Courant of August the ninth.

SPECT. NO 173.

†SPECT. N° 179.

"NICHOLAS