I may take fome other opportunity of confidering thofe particular forms and methods of devotion which are taught us by chriftianity; but shall here obferve into what errors even this divine principle may fometimes lead us, when it is not moderated by that right reafon which was given us as the guide of all our actions.

The two great errors into which a mistaken devotion may betray us, are enthusiasm and fuperftition.

There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthufiafm. A perfon that is crazed, though with pride or malice, is a fight very mortifying to human nature; but when the diftemper arifes from any indifcreet fervours of devotion, or too intenfe an application of the mind to its mistaken duties, it deferves our compaffion in a more particular manner. We may however learn this leffon from it, that fince devotion itself (which one would be apt to think could not be too warm, may diforder the mind, unless its heats are tempered with caution and prudence, we should be particularly careful to keep our reafon as cool as poffible, and to guard ourselves in all parts of life against the inuence of paffion, imagination, and conftitution.

Devotion, when it does not lie under the check of reason, is very apt to degenerate into enthufiafm. When the mind finds herfelf very much inflamed with her devotions, the is too much inclined to think they are not of her own kindling, but blown up by fomething divine within her. If the indulges this thought too far, and humours the growing paffion, fhe at laft flings herself into imaginary raptures and ecftafies; and when once the fancies herfelf under the influence of a divine impulfe, it is no wonder if she flights human ordinances, and refuses to comply with any eftablished form of religion, as thinking herfelf directed by a much fuperior guide.

As enthusiasm is a kind of excefs in devotion, fuperftition is the excefs not only of devotion, but of religion in general, according to an old heathen faying, quoted by Aulus Gellius, Religentem effe oportet, religiofum nefas; a man fhould be religious, not fuperftitious; for as the author tells us, Nigidius obferved upon this paffage, that the Latin words which terminate in ofus generally imply vicious characters, and the having of any quality to an excefs.

the whole office has degenerated into an empty fhow.

Their fucceffors fee the vanity and inconvenience of thefe ceremonies; but instead of reforming, perhaps add others, which they think more fignificant, and which take poffeffion in the fame manner, and are never to be driven out after they have been once admitted. I have seen the pope officiate at St. Peter's, where, for two hours together, he was bufied in putting on or off his different accoutrements, according to the different parts he was to act in them.

Nothing is fo glorious in the eyes of mankind, and ornamental to human nature, fetting afide the infinite advantages which arife from it, as a ftrong, fteady, mafculine piety; but enthusiasm and fuperftition are the weaknesses of human reafon, that expofe us to the derifion and scorn of infidels, and fink us even below the beafts that perish.

Idolatry may be looked upon as another error arifing from mistaken devotion; but because reflexions on that fubject would be of no use to an English reader, I fhall not enlarge upon it. L

No 202. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22.
Sæpe decem vitiis inftructior & borret.

HOR. Ep. 18. lib. 1. ver. 25. Many, though faultier much themfeives, pretend Their lefs offending neighbours faults to mend.

T

HE other day as I paffed along the street, I faw a sturdy 'prentice-boy difputing with an hackney-coachman; and in an instant, upon fome word of provocation, throw off his hat and periwig, clench his fift, and ftrike the fellow a flap on the face; at the fame time calling him rafcal, and telling him he was a gentleman's fon. The young gentleman was, it seems, bound to a blacksmith; and the debate arofe about payment for fome work done about a coach, near which they fought. His mafter, during the combat, was full of his boy's praifes; and as he called to him to play with his hand and foot, and throw in his head, he made all us who stood round himì of his party, by declaring the boy had very good friends, and he could truft him with untold gold. As I am generally in the theory of mankind, I could not but make my reflexions upon the fudden popularity which was raifed about the lad; and perhaps with my friend Tacitus, fell into obfervations upon it, which were too great for the occafion; or afcribed this general favour to caufes which had nothing to do towards it. But the young blacksmith's being a gentleman was, methought, what created him good-will from his prefent equality with the mob about him, add to this, that he was not fo much a gentleman, as not, at the fame time that he called him felf fuch, to ufe as rough methods for his defence as his antagonist. The advantage of his having good friends, as his mafter expreffed it, was not lazily urged; but he fhewed himself fuperior to the coachman in the perfonal qualities of courage and activity, to confirm that of his being well allied, before his birth was of any fervice to him.

If one might moralize from this filly fiory, a man would fay, that whatever advantages of fortune, birth, or any other good, people poffels above the rest of the world, they should fhew collateral eminences befides thofe diftinctions; or thofe diflinctions will avail only to keep up common decencies and ceremonies, and not to

proferve

preferve a real place of favour or eftcem in the opinion and common fenfe of their fellow-crea

tures.

-5

The folly of people's procedure, in imagining that nothing more is neceffary than property and fuperior circumftances to fupport them in di·ftinction, appears in no way fo much as in the domeftic part of life. It is ordinary to feed their humours into unnatural excrefcences, if I may fo fpeak, and make their whole being a wayward and uneafy condition, for want of the obvious reflexion that all parts of human life is a commerce. It is not only paying wages and giving · commands, that conftitutes a mafter of a family; but prudence, equal behaviour, with readiness to protect and cherish them, is what entitles a man to that character in their very hearts and fentiments. It is pleafant enough to obferve, that men expect from their dependents, from their fole motive of fear, all the good effects which a liberal education, and affluent fortune, and every other advantage, cannot produce in themselves. A man will have his fervant juft, diligent, fober and chafte, for no other reafon but the terror of Jofing his mafter's favour; when all the laws divine and human cannot keep him whom he ferves within, bounds, with relation to any one of thofe virtues. But both in great and ordinary affairs, all fuperiority, which is not founded on merit and virtue, is fupported only by artifice and ftratagem. Thus you fee flatterers are the agents in families of humourifts, and those who ; govern themselves by any thing but reafon. Make bares, diftant relations, poor kinfmen, and indigent followers, are the fry which fupport the œconomy of an humourfome rich man. He is eternally whispered with intelligence of who are true or falfe to him in matters of no confequence, and he maintains twenty friends to defend him against the infinuations of on who would perhaps cheat him of an old coat.

2

I fhall not enter into further fpeculation upon this fubject at prefent, but think the following letters and petition are made up of proper fentiments on this occafion.

f

Mr. Spectator,

I

"

AM a fervant to an old lady who is governed by one the calls her friend: who is fo familiar an one, that he takes upon her to advise her without being called to it, and makes her uneafy with all about her. Pray, Sir, be pleased to give us fome remarks upon voluntary counsellors; and let thefe people know that to give any body advice, is to say to that 'perfon, I am your betters. Pray, Sir, as near as you can, defcribe that eternal flirt and difturber of families, Mrs. Taperty, who is al'ways vifiting, and putting people in a way, as they call it. If you can make her ftay at home one evening, you will be a general benefactor to all the ladies women in town, and particularly to

<

Your loving friend, SUSAN CIVIL,' Mr. Spectator, AM a footman, and live with one of thofe men, each of whom is faid to be one of the best humoured men in the world, but that he is paffionate. Pray be pleafed to inform them, that he who is paffionate, and takes no care to command his haftinefs, does more injury to his £ friends and fervants in one half hour, than whole years can atong for. This mafter of mine, who is Į

the best man alive in common fame, difobliges 'fomebody every day he lives; and ftrikes me for the next thing I do, because he is out of 'humour at it. If thefe gentlemen knew that they do all the mifchief that is ever done in 'conversation, they would reform; and I who have been a spectator of gentlemen at dinner for many years, have feen that indifcretion does ten times more mifchief than ill-nature. "But you will represent this better than Your abused humble fervant, THOMAS SMOKY.

6

To the Spectator.

The humble Petition of John Steward, Robert Butler, Harry Cook, and Abigail Chambers, in behalf of themfelves and their relations, belonging to and difperfed in the feveral fervices of most of the great families within the cities of London and Westminster.

Sheweth,

HAT in many of the families in which and are the feveral heads of them are wholly unacquainted with what is bufinefs, and are very little judges when they are well or ill ufed by us your faid petitioners.

·

That for want of fuch kill in their own af'fairs, and by indulgence of their own lazinefs and pride, they continually keep about them certain mifchievous animals called fpies.

That whenever a spy is entertained, the peace of that houfe is from that moment banished.

That fpies never give an account of good 'fervices, but reprefent our mirth and freedom by the words, wantonnefs and diforder.

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That in all families where there are fpies, there is a general jealoufy and mifunderstanding.

That the mafters and miftreffes of fuch houfes live in. continual fufpicion of their ingenuous and true fervants, and are given up to the management of thofe who are falfe and ' perfidious.

That fuch mafters and miftreffes who entertain fpies, are no longer more than cyphers in their own families; and that we your petitioners are with great difdain obliged to pay all our refpe&t, and expect all our maintenance from fuch fpies.

walks. Thefe abandoned profligates raife up ifiue in every quarter of the town, and very often, for a valuable confideration, father it upon the church warden. By this means there are feveral married men who have a little family in moft of the parishes of London and Westminster, and feveral bachelors who are undone by a charge of children.

When a man once gives himself this liberty of preying at large, and living upon the common, he finds fo much game in a populous city, that it is furprifing to confider the numbers which he fometimes propagates. We fee many a young fellow who is fcarce of age, that could lay his claim to the jus trium liberarum, or the privileges which were granted by the Roman laws to all fuch as were fathers of three children: nay, I have heard a rake, who was not quite five and twenty, declare himself the father of a feventh fon, and very prudently determine to breed him up a phyfician. In fhort, the town is full of thefe young patriarchs, not to mention feveral battered beaux, who, like heedlefs fpendthrifts that fquander away their eftates before they are mafters of them, have raised up their whole ftock of children before marriage.

I must not here omit the particular whim of an impudent libertine, that had a little fmattering of heraldry; and obferving how the genealogies of great families were often drawn up in the shape of trees, had taken a fancy to difpofe of his own illegitimate iffue in a figure of the fame kind.

-Nec longum tempus ingens Exit ad calm ramis felicibus arbos, Miraturque novas frondes, & non fua poma. Virg. Georg. 2. ver. 80. And in short space the laden boughs arife, With happy fruit advancing to the skies: The mother plant admires the leaves unknown Of alien trees, and apples not her own.

DRYDEN,

The trunk of the tree was marked with his own name, Will Maple. Out of the fide of it grew a large barren branch, infcribed Mary Maple, the name of his unhappy wife. The head was adorned with five huge boughs. On the bottom of the firft was written in capital characters Kate Cole, who branched out into three fprigs, viz. William, Richard, and Rebecca. Sal. Twiford gave birth to another bough that shot up into Sarah, Tom, Will, and Frank. The third arm of the tree had only a single infant on it, with a space left for a fecond, the parent from whom it fprung being near her time when the author took this ingenious device into his head. The two other great boughs were very plentifully loaden with fruit of the fame kind; besides which there were many ornamental branches that did not bear. In short, a more flourishing tree never came out of the herald's office.

Nor is the invention of these men lefs to be admired than their industry and vigilance. There is a fragment of Apollodorus the comic poet, who was contemporary with Menander, which is full of humour, as follows: "Thou mayest shut up "thy doors," fays he, "with bars and bolts: it "will be impoffible for the blacksmith to make "them fo faft, but a cat and a whoremaster will "find a way through them." In a word, there is no head so full of stratagems as that of a libiḍi

nous man.

What makes this generation of vermin fo very prolific, is the indefatigable diligence with which they apply themfelves to their bufinefs. A man does not undergo more watchings and fatigues in a campaign, than in the courfe of a vicious amour. As it is faid of fome men, that they make their business their pleasure, these fons of darkness may be faid to make their pleasure their businefs. They might conquer their corrupt inclinations with half the pains they are at in gratifying them.

Were I to propose a punishment for this infamous race of propagators, it should be to fend them, after the fecond or third offence, into our American colonies, in order to people these parts of her Majesty's dominious where there is a want of inhabitants, and in the phrase of Diogenes, to "plant men." "Some countries punish this crime with death; but I think such a banishment would be fufficient, and might turn this generative faculty to the advantage of the public.

In the mean time, until these gentlemen may be thus difpofed of, I would earnestly exhort them to take care of those unfortunate creatures whom they have brought into the world by these indirect methods, and to give their spurious children fuch an education as may render them more virtuous than their parents. This is the best atonement they can make for their own crimes, and indeed the only method that is left them to repair their paft mifcarriages.

I would likewife defire them to confider, whether they are not bound in common humanity, as well as by all the obligations of religion and nature, to make some provision for those whom they have not only given life to, but entailed upon them, though very unreasonably, a degree of fhame and difgrace. And here I cannot but take notice of thofe depraved notions which prevail among us, and which must have taken rife from our natural inclination to favour a vice to which we are so very prone, namely, that baftardy and cuckoldom fhould be looked upon as reproaches, and that the ignominy, which is only due to lewdnefs and falfhood, fhould fall in fo unreasonable a manner upon the perfons who are innocent.

I have been infenfibly drawn into this difcourfe by the following letter, which is drawn up with fuch a fpirit of fincerity, that I queftion not but the writer of it has reprefented his case in a true and genuine light.

SIR,

AM one of thofe people who by the general opinion of the world are counted both infamous and unhappy.

I

'My father is a very eminent man in this king'dom, and one who bears confiderable offices in it. I am his fon, but my misfortune is, that I dare not call him father, nor he without fhame own me as his iffue, I being illegitimate, and therefore deprived of that endearing tenderness and unparalleled fatisfaction which a good man finds in the love and conversation of a parent: neither have I the opportunities to render him the duties of a fon, he having always carried himself at fo vaft a distance, and with fuch fuperiority towards me, that by long ufe I have 'contracted a timorousness when before him, which hinders me from declaring my own neceffities, and giving him to understand the in• conveniencies I undergo.

It is my misfortune to have been neither bred a fcholar, a foldier, nor to any kind of bufinefs,