made him take, how that agreed with him, how afterwards he came to his ftomach, and his exercife, or any the like impertinence; and be as well pleafed as if you talked to him on the most important truchs. This hu mour is far from making a man unhappy, though it anay fubject him to raillery; for he generally falls in with a perfon who feems to be born for him, which is your talkative fellow. It is fo ordered, that there is a fecret bent, as natural as the meeting of different fexes, in these two characters, to fupply each other's wants. I had the honour the other day to fit in a public room, and faw an inquifitive man look with an air of fatisfaction upon the approach of one of thefe talkers. The man of ready utterance fat down by him, and rubbing his head, leaning on his arm, and making an uneafy countenance, he began; There is no manner of news today. I cannot tell what is the matter with me, but I lept very ill last night; whether I caught cold or no, I know not, but I fancy I do not wear fhoes thick enough for the weather, and I have coughed all this week. It must be fo, for the cuftom of washing my head winter and fummer with cold water, prevents any injury from the feafon entering that way; fo it muft come in at my feet; but I take no notice of it: as it comes for it goes. Most of our evils proceed from too much tenderness; and our faces are naturally as little able to refift the cold as other parts. The Indian anfwered very well to an European, who asked him how he could go naked; ' I am all face,'

6

I obferved this difcourfe was as welcome to my general inquirer as any other of more confequence could have been; but fomebody calling our talker to another part of the room, the inquirer told the next man who fat by him, that Mr. fuch-a-one, who was juft gone from him, ufed to wash his head in cold water every morn» ing; and fo repeated almoft verbatim all that had been faid to him. The truth is, the inquifitive are the funnels of converfation; they do not take in any thing for their own ufe, but merely to pafs it to another. They are the channels through which all the good and evil at is ípoken in town are conveyed. Such as are ofaded at them, or think they fuffer by their behaviour,

may themselves mend that inconvenience; for they are not a malicious people, and if you will fupply them, you may contradi&t any thing they have faid before by their own mouths. A farther account of a thing is one of the gratefulleft goods that can arrive to them; and it is feldom that they are more particular than to fay, The town will have it, or I have it from a good hand: fo that there is room for the town to know the matter more particularly, and for a better hand to contradict what was faid by a good one.

I have not known this humour more ridiculous than in a father, who has been earn eftly folicitous to have an account how his fon has paffed his leisure hours; if it be in a way thoroughly infignificant, there cannot be a greater joy than an inquirer difcovers in feeing him follow fo hopefully his own fleps. But this humour among men is most pleasant when they are faying fomething which is not wholly proper for a third perfon_to hear, and yet is in itself indifferent. The other day there came in a well-dreffed young fellow, and two gentlemen of this fpecies immediately fell a whifpering his pedigree. I could overhear, by breaks, She was his aunt; then an answer, Ay, he was of the mother's fide; then again in a little lower voice, His father wore generally a darker wig; Anfwer, Not much, but this gentleman wears higher heels to his fhoes.

As the inquifitive, in my opinion, are fuch merely from a vacancy in their own imaginations, there is nothing, methinks, fo dangerous as to communicate fecrets to them; for the fame temper of inquiry makes them as impertinently communicative: but no man, though he converfes with them, need put himfelf in their power, for they will be contented with matters-of lefs moment as well. When there is fuel enough, no, matter what it is-Thus the ends of fentences in the news papers, as, "This wants confirmation,""This occafions many fpeculations," and "Time will "discover the event," are read by them, and confidered not as mere expletives.

One may fee now and then this humour accompanied with an infatiable defire of knowing what paffes, without turning it to any ufe in the world but merely their

M 2

own entertainment. A mind which is gratified this way is adapted to humour and pleafantry, and formed for an unconcerned character in the world; and, like myself, to be a mere Spectator. This curiofity, without malice or felf-intereft, lays up in the imagination a magazine of circumftances which cannot but entertain when they are produced in converfation. If one were to know, from the man of the firft quality to the meaneft fervants, the different intrigues, fentiments, pleafures, and interests of mankind, would it not be the most pleasing entertainment imaginable to enjoy fo conftant a farce, as the obferving mankind much more different from themfelves in their fecret thoughts and public actions, than in their night-caps and long periwigs * ?

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Lutarch tells us, thatCaius Gracchus, the Roman,

was frequently hurried by his paffions into fo loud and tumultuous a way of speaking, and so strained his voice as not to be able to proceed. To remedy this excefs, he had an ingenious fervant, by name Licinius, always attending him with a pitch-pipe, or inftrument to regulate the voice; who, whenever he heard his mafter begin to be high, immediately touched a foft note; at which, 'tis faid, Caius would prefently ⚫abate and grow calm.

Upon recollecting this ftory, I have frequently • wondered that this useful instrument should have been fo long difcontinued; efpecially fince we find that this good office of Licinius has preferved his memory for many hundred years, which, methinks, fhould have * When the Spectator wrote, large full-bottomed Wigs were worn by all men of fashion. They feem to have answered the high Commodes mentioned in Vol. II. N° 98. It is faid thofe long perukes were the invention of a French barber, whose name was Duviller, in order to conceal a deformity in the shoulder either of the Dauphin, or the Duke of Burgundy; hence they were likewise called Duvillers.

There was also a fort of peruke in fafhion at that time called NIGHT-CAP-WIGS: which had fhort tyes, with very small clofe round heads.-Thefe however are not meant in the text, but fimply Night-caps. See TATLER with notes, No 26 and note.

encouraged fome one to have revived it, if not for the publick good, yet for his own credit. It may be objected, that our loud talkers are fo fond of their own noife, that they would not take it well to be checked by their fervants. But granting this to be true, furely any of their hearers have a very good title to play a foft note in their own defence. To be 'fhort, no Licinius appearing and the noife increafing, I was refolved to give this late long vacation to the good of my country; and I have at length, by the affiftance of an ingenious artift, (who works for the • Royal Society) almost compleated my defign, and fhall. be ready in a fhort time to furnish the public with ⚫ what number of these inftruments they please, either to lodge at coffee-houses, or carry for their own private ufe. In the mean time I fhall pay that respect to feveral gentlemen, who I know will be in danger of offending against this inftrument, to give them notice of it by private letters, in which I fhall only write, • Get a LICINIUS.

I should now trouble you no longer, but that I must not conclude without defiring you to accept one of thefe pipes, which fhall be left for you with Buckley; and which I hope will be ferviceable to you, fince as you are filent yourself, you are moft open to the in• fults of the noify. I am, SIR, &c. W. B.'

• I had almoft forgot to inform you, that as an improvement in this inftrument, there will be a parti'cular note, which I call a Huth-Note; and this is to ⚫ be made use of against a long story, fwearing, obfcenenefs, and the like.'

*By STEELE.

T*

+++ At Drury Lane, Nov. 22. The last revived play called "Philafter, or Love lies a bleeding." Philafter, by Mr. Wilks; Bellario, by Mifs Sherborn; the King, by Mr. Keene; Arethufa, by Mrs. Porter; Pharamond, by Mr. Cibber; Lord Dion, by Mr. Mills; Citizens, by Meffrs. Bullock, Pack, Norris, Lee, Burkhead, and Spiller. SPECT. in folio.

++ At the Hay-Market, Nov. 21. The Opera called "Hydafpes." Darius, by Signora Maria Rofa Pifcina; the benches in the pit railed in at the price of the boxes. None admitted without tickets Ibid.

N° 229 Thursday, November 22, 1711.

-Spirat adhuc amor, Vivuntque commifs calores

Eolie fidibus puellæ.

Hor. 4

Od. ix. 10.

"Nor Sappho's amorous flames decay

"Her living fongs preferve their charming art "Her 'verfe' ftill breathes the paffions of her heart."

FRANCIS.

are ftill to be feen at Rome, there is the trunk of a statue which has loft the arms, legs and head; but difcovers fuch an exquifite workmanship in what remains of it, that Michael Angelo declared he had learned his whole art from it. Indeed he studied it fo attentively, that he made most of his ftatues, and even his pictures in that Gufto, to make ufe of the Italian phrafe; for which reafon this maimed ftatue is fill called Michael Angelo's School.

A fragment of Sappho, which I defign for the fubject of this Paper, is in as great reputation among the poets and critics, as the mutilated figure abovementioned is among the ftatuaries and painters. Several of our countrymen, and Mr. Dryden in particular, feem very often to have copied after it in their dramatic writings, and in their poems upon love.

Whatever might have been the occafion of this Ode, the English reader will enter into the beauties of it, if he fuppofes it to have been written in the perfon of a lover fitting by his miftrefs. I fhall fet to view three. different copies of this beautiful original: The first is a tranflation by Catullus, the fecond by Monfieur Boileau, and the laft by a gentleman whofe tranflation of the HYMN TO VENUS has been fo defervedly admired *.

*Ambrofe Philips. See above N° 223. and note, Vol. v. No 366, and TATLER with notes, Vol. i. N° 12.

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