No 110. FRIDAY, JULY 6. Horror ubique animos, fimul ipfa filentia terrent. DRYDEN. A Ta little diftance from Sir Roger's houfe, among the ruins of an old abbey, there is a long walk of aged elms; which are thot up fo very high, that when one paffes under them, the rooks and crows that reft upon the tops of them feem to be cawing in another region. I am very much delighted with this fort of noife, which I confider as a kind of natural prayer to that Being who fupplies the wants of his whole creation, and who, in the beautiful language of the Pfalms, "feedeth the young ravens that call upon him." I like this retirement the better, because of an ill report it lies under of being haunted; for which reafon, as I have been told in the family, no living creature ever walks in it befides the chaplain. My good friend the butler defired me with a very grave face not to venture myfelf in it after fun-fet, for that one of the footmen had been almost frighted out of his wits by a fpirit that appeared to him in the shape of a black horfe without an head; to which he added, that about a month ago one of the maids coming home late that way with a pail of milk upon her head, heard fuch a rustling among the bufaes that he let it fall. tr I was taking a walk in this place last night between the hours of nine and ten, and could not but fancy it one of the moft proper fcenes in the world for a ghost to appear in. The ruins of the abbey are fcattered up and down on every fide, and half covered with ivy and elder buflies, and the harbours of several folitary birds which feldom make their appearance until the dufk of the evening. The place was formerly a church-yard, and has still several marks in it of graves and burying-places. There is fuch an echo among the old ruins and vaults, that if you tamp but a little louder than ordinary, you hear the found repeated. At the fame time the walk of elms, with the croaking of the ravens which from time to time are heard from the tops of them, looks exceeding folemn and venerable. Thefe objects naturally raise ferioufnefs and attention; and when night heightens the awfulnefs of the place, and pours out her fupernumerary horrors upon every thing in it, I do not at all wonder that weak minds fill it with fpectres and apparitions. Mr. Locke, in his chapter of the affociation of ideas, has very curious remarks to fhew how by the prejudice of education one idea often introduces into the mind a whole fet that bear no refemblance to one another in the nature of things. Among feveral examples of this kind he produces the following inftance. "The ideas of goblins and fprites have really no more to do with darknefs than light: yet let but a "foolish maid inculcate thefe often on the mind As I was walking in this folitude, where the dufk of the evening confpired with fo many other occafions of terror, I obferved a cow grazing not far from me, which an imagination that was apt to ftartle might eafily have conftrued into a black horfe without an head; and I dare fay the poor footman loft his wits upon fome fuch trivial occafion. 3 of a child, and raise them there together, poffibly he fhall never be able to feparate them "again fo long as he lives; but darkness fhall "ever afterwards bring with it thofe frightful "ideas, and they fhall be fo joined, that he can no more bear the one than the other." My friend Sir Roger has often told me with a good deal of mirth, that at his firft coming to his eftate he found three parts of his houfe alto gether useless; that the best room in it had the reputation of being haunted, and by that means was locked up; that noifes had been heard in his long gallery, fo that he could not get a feryant to enter it after eight of the clock at night; that the door of one of his chambers was nailed up, because there went a ftory in the family that a butler had formerly hanged himself in it; and that his mother, who lived to a great age, had fhut up half the rooms in the houfe, in which either her husband, a fon, or daughter had died. The knight feeing his habitation reduced to fo fmall a compafs, and himself in a manner fhut out of his own houfe, upon the death of his mother ordered all the apartments to be flung open, and exorcifed by his chaplain, who lay in every room one after another, and by that means diffipated the fears which had fo long reigned in the family. I fhould not have been thus particular upon thefe ridiculous horrors, did not I find them fo very much prevail in all parts of the country. At the fame time I think a perfon who is thus terrified with the imagination of ghosts and spectres much more reafonable than one who, contrary to the reports of all hiftorians facred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of fpirits fabulous and groundless. Could not give myself up to this general teftimony of man kind, I fhould to the relations of particular perfons who are now living, and whom I cannot diftrust in other matters of fact. I might here add, that not only the hiftorians, to whom we may join the poets, but likewife the philofophers of antiquity have favoured this opinion. Lucretius himself, though by the courfe of his philofophy he was obliged to maintain that the foul did not exift feparate from the body, makes no doubt of the reality of apparitions, and that men have often appeared after their death. This I think very remarkable; he was fo preffed with the matter of fact which he could not have the confidence to deny, that he was forced to account for it by one of the most abfurd unphilo fophical notions that ever was ftarted. He tells us, that the furfaces of all bodies are perpetually flying off from their respective bodies, one after another; and that thefe furfaces or thin cafes that included each other whilft they were joined in the body like the coats of an onion, are some times feen entire when they are feparated from it; by which means we often behold the fhapes and fhadows of perfons who are either dead or abfent. I fhall difmifs this paper with a story out of Jofephus, not fo much for the fake of the ftory tfelf, as the moral reflections with which the author concludes it, and which I fhall here fet down in his own words. "Glaphyra, the "daughter of king Archelaus, after the death of her two firft husbands,' being married to a ἐ; <i "third, who was brother to her firft husband, and fo paffionately in love with her that he turned off his former wife to make room for, this marriage, had a very odd kind of a dream. She fancied that the faw her firft hufband coming towards her, and that the embraced him with great tendernefs; when in the midft of the pleasure which the expreffed at the fight "of him, he reproached her after the following manner: Glaphyra, fays he, thou haft made "good the old faying, that women are not to be trufted. Was not I the husband of thy "virginity? Have I not children by thee? How couldst thou forget our loves fo far as to enter "into a fecond marriage, and after that into a third, nay to take for thy husband a man who has fo fhamefully crept into the bed of his "brother? However, for the fake of our paffed "loves, I fhall free thee from thy prefent re"proach, and make thee mine for ever. Glaσε phyra told this dream to several women of her me to carry a great weight with it. How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that the foul, which is capable of fuch immenfe perfections, and of receiving new improvements to all eternity, fhall fall away into nothing almost as foon as it is created? Are fuch abilities made for no purpose? A brute arrives at a point of perfection that he can never pafs; in a few years he has all the endowments he is capable of; and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the fame thing that he is at present. Were a human foul thus at a stand in her accomplishments, were her faculties to be full blown, and incapable of farther enlargements, I could imagine it might fall away infenfibly, and drop at once into a ftate of annihilation. But can we believe a thinking being that is in a perpetual progrefs of improvements, and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after having juft looked abroad into the works of his Creator, and made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, wisdom and power, muft perifh at her first fetting out, and in the very beginning of her inquiries? A man, confidered in his prefent state, seems only fent into the world to propagate his kind. He provides himself with a fucceffor, and imme dlately quits his poft to make room for him. Hæres Haeredem alterius, velut unda fupervenit undam. into a fubject I come up to perfection of his nature, acquaintance, and died foon after. I thought "this ftory might not be impertinent in this "place, wherein I speak of those kings: befides that the example deferves to be taken notice of, as it contains a moft certain proof of the "immortality of the foul, and of Divine Providence. If any man thinks these facts incredi"ble, let him enjoy his own opinion to himself, "but let him not endeavour to disturb the belief of others, who by inftances of this nature are excited to the ftudy of vi.tue." L Not. SATURDAY, JULY 7. -Inter filva's Academi quærere verum. HE course of my laft fpeculation led me ways meditate with great delight, I mean the immortality of the foul. I was yesterday walkalone in one of my friend's woods, and loft my felf in it very agreeably, as I was running over in my mind the feveral arguments that establish this great point, which is the bafis of morality, and the fource of all the pleafing hopes and fecret joys that can arife in the heart of a reafonable creature. I confidered those several proofs, drawn; First, From the nature of the foul itself, and particularly its immateriality; which though not abfolutely neceffary to the eternity of its dufation, has, I think, been evinced to almost a demonstration. Secondly, From its paffions and fentiments, as particularly from its love of existence, its hortor of annihilation, and its hopes of immortality, with that fecret fatisfaction which it finds in the practice of virtue, and that uneafiness which follows in it upon the commiffion of vice. Thirdly, From the nature of the fupreme Being, whose justice, goodness, wisdom and veracity are all concerned in this point. But among thefe and other excellent argufor the immortality of the foul, there is one drawn from the perpetual progrefs of the foul to its perfection without a poffibility of ever ar riving at it; which is a hint I do not remember to have feen opened and improved by others who have written on this fubject, though it feems to fore he is hurried off the stage. Would an infinitely wife Being make fuch glorious creatures for fo mean a purpofe? Can he delight in the production of fuch abortive intelligences, fuch short lived reasonable beings? Would he give us talents that are not to be exerted? Capacities that are never to be gratified? How can we find that wisdom which fhines through all his works, in the formation of man, without looking on this world as only a nursery for the next, and believing that the feveral generations of rational creatures, which rife up and difappear in fuch quick fucceffions, are only to receive their first rudiments of existence here, and afterwards to be tranfplanted into a more friendly climate, where they may spread and flourish to all eternity? There is not, in my opinion, a more pleasing and triumphant confideration in religion than this of the perpetual progrefs which the foul makes towards the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at a period in it. To look upon the foul as going on from strength to strength: to confider that she is to fhine for ever with new acceffions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that fhe will be ftill adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowiedge; carries in it fomething wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man. Nay, it must be a prospect plea❤ fing to God himself, to fee his creation for ever beautifying in his eyes, and drawing nearer to him, by greater degrees of refemblance. T 2 Methinks country for that purpofe, to inftruct them rightly in the tunes of the pfalms; upon which they now very much value themfelves; and indeed out-do most of the country churches that I have ever heard. As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in very good order, and will fuffer nobody to fleep in it befides himself; for if by chance he has been furprized into a fhort nap at fermion, upon recovering out of it he ftands up and looks about him, and if he fees any body elfe nodding, either wakes them himself, or fends his fervant to them. Several other of the old knight's particularities break out upon these occafions: Sometimes he will be lengthening out a verfe in the finging-pfalms, half a minute after the rest of the congregation have done with it'; fometimes, when he is pleafed with the matter of his devotion, he pronounces "Amen" three or four times to the fame prayer; and sometimes ftands up when every body elfe is upon their knees, to count the congregation, or fee if any of his tenants are miffing. I was yesterday very much furprized to hear my old friend, in the midst of the fervice, calling out to one John Matthews to mind what he was about, and not difturb the congregation. This John Matthews it feems is remarkable for being an idle fellow, and at that time was kickLing his heels for his diverfion. This authority of the knight, though exerted in that odd manner which accompanies him in all circumstances of life, has a very good effect upon the parish, who are not polite enough to fee any thing ridiculous in his behaviour; befides that the general good fenfe and worthinefs of his character makes his friends obferve thefe little fingularities as foils that rather fet off than blemish his good qualities. As foon as the fermon is finished, nobody prefumes to ftir until Sir Roger is gone out of the church. The knight walks down from his feat in the chancel between a double row of his tenants, that stand bowing to him on each fide: and every now and then inquires how fuch an one's wife, or mother, or fon, or father do, whom he does not fee at church; which is understood as a fecret reprimand to the perfon that is abfent. Methinks this fingle confideration, of the progrefs of a finite spirit to perfection, will be fufficient to extinguith all envy in inferior natures, and all contempt in fuperior. That cherubim, which now appears as a god to a human foul, knows very well that the period will come about in eternity, when the human foul fhall be as perfect as he himself now is: nay, when the fhall look down upon that degree of perfection, as much as the now falls fhort of it. It is true the higher nature ftill advances, and by that means preferves his diftance and fuperiority in the fcale of being; but he knows that, how high foever the ftation is of which he ftands poffeffed at prefent, the inferior nature will at length mount up to it, and fhine forth in the fame degree of glory. 1 With what aftonishment and veneration may we look into our own fouls, where there are fuch hidden ftores of virtue and knowledge, fuch inex haufted fources of perfection? We know not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart of man to conceive the glory that will be al ways in referve for him. The foul, confidered with its Creator, is like one of thofe mathematical lines that may draw nearer to another for all eternity without a poffibility of touching it: and can there be a thought fo tranfporting, as to confider ourselves in thefe perpetual approaches to Him, who is not only the standard of perfection but of happiness! N° 112. MONDAY, JULY 9. ̓Αθανάτες μὲν πρῶτα Θεὺς, νόμῳ ὡς διάκειται, AM always very well pleafed with a country Sunday, and think, if keeping holy the feventh day were only a human inftitution, it would be the best method that could have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind. It is certain the country people would foon degenerate into a kind of favages and barbarians, were there not fuch frequent returns of a ftated time, in which the whole village meet together with their best faces, and in their cleanlieft habits, to converse with one another upon indifferent fubjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join together in adoration of the fupreme Being. Sunday clears away the ruft of the whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds the notions of religion, but as it puts both the fexes upon appearing in their most agreeable forms, and exerting all fuch qualities as are apt to give them a figure in the eye of the village. A country fellow diftinguishes himfelf as much in the church-yard, as a citizen does upon the 'Change, the whole parifh-politics being generally difcuffed in that place either after fermon or before the bell rings. My friend Sir Roger, being a good church-man, has beautified the infide of his church with feveral texts of his own chooting; he has likewife given a handfome pulpit-cloth, and railed in the communion-table at his own expence. He has often told me, that at his coming to his eftate he found his parishioners very irregular; and that in order to make them kneel and join in the refponfes, he gave every one of them a haffoc and a commonprayer book; and at the fame time employed an itinerant finging-mafter, who goes about the The chaplain has often told me, that upon a catechifing-day, when Sir Roger has been pleased with a boy that anfwers well, he has ordered a bible to be given him the next day for his encouragement; and fometimes accompanies it with a flitch of bacon to his mother. Sir Roger has likewife added five pounds a year to the clerk's place; and that he may encourage the young fellows to make themselves perfect in the church-service, has promifed upon the death of the prefent incumbent, who is very old, to beftow it according to merit. The fair underftanding between Sir Roger and his chaplain, and their mutual concurrence in doing good, is the more remarkable, because the very next village is famous for the differences and contentions that rife between the parfon and the 'fquire, who live in a perpetual state of war. The parfon is always preaching at the 'fquire, and the 'fquire, to be revenged on the parfon, never comes to church. The fquire has made all his tenants atheifts and tithe-itealers; while the parfon inftru&ts them every Sunday in the dignity of his crder, and infinuates to them in almoft every fermon, that he is a better man than year; his patron. In fhort, matters are come to fuch " Feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the country, are very fatal to the ordinary people; who are so used to be dazzled with riches, that they pay as much deference to the underftanding of a man of an eftate, as of a man of learning; and are very hardly brought to regard any truth, how important foever it may be, that is preached to them, when they know there are feveral men of five hundred a year who do not believe it. L I N° 113. TUESDAY, JULY 10. -Hærent infixi pectore vultus. VIRG. Æn. 4. v. 4. Her looks were deep imprinted in his heart. 'N my first description of the comany in which pafs most of my time, it may be remembered that I mentioned a great affliction which my friend Sir Roger had met with in his youth; which was no less than a disappointment in love. It happened this evening that we fell into a very pleafing walk at a distance from his houfe; a. foon as we came into it, "It is, quoth the good "old man, looking round him with a smile, ve❝ry hard, that any part of my land should be fet"tled upon one who has ufed me fo ill as the 'perverse widow did; and yet I am fure I could 66 not fee a sprig of any bough of this whole "walk of trees, but I fhould reflect upon her " and her feverity. She has certainly the finest "hand of any woman in the world. You are "to know this was the place wherein I ufed to "mufe upon her; and by that cuftom I can never come into it, but the fame tender fenti"ments revive in my mind, as if I had actually "walked with that beautiful creature under the "fhades. I have been fool enough to carve her name on the bark of several of thefe trees; fo "unhappy is the condition of men in love, to at"tempt the removing of their paffions by the "methods which ferve only to imprint it deeper. "She has certainly the finest hand of any wo"man in the world." "the pleafure of a young man, who did not "think ill of his own perfon, in taking that pub"lic occafion of fhewing my figure and beha"viour to advantage. You may easily imagine to yourself what appearance I made, who am pretty tall, rid well, and was very well dreffed, "at the head of a whole county, with mufic be "fore me, a feather in my hat, and my horse "well bitted. I can affure you I was not a lit"tle pleased with the kind looks and glances I "had from all the balconies and windows as rode to the hall where the affizes were held. "But when I came there, a beautiful creature in 66 a widow's habit fat in court, to hear the event "of a caufe concerning her dower. This com"manding creature, who was born for the de"ftruction of all who behold her, put on fuch a "refignation in her countenance, and bore the "whifpers of all around the court with fuch a "pretty uneafinefs, I warrant you, and then re"covered herself from one eye to another, until "fhe was perfectly confufed by meeting fome"thing fo wiftful in all the encountered, that at "laft, with a murrain to her, the caft her be"witching eye upon me. I no fooner met it, "but I bowed like a great furprised booby; and "knowing her caufe to be the firft which came "on, I cried, like a captivated calf as I was, "Make way for the defendant's witneffes. This "fudden partiality made all the county imme"diately fee the theriff alfo was become a flave "to the fine widow. During the time her caufe 66 ' cc was upon trial, fhe behaved herself, I warrant you, with fuch a deep attention to her business, "took opportunities to have little billets handed "to her counfel, then would be in fuch a pretty "confufion, occafioned, you must know, by act"ing before fo much company, that not only I "but the whole court was prejudiced in her favour; and all that the next heir to her husband "had to urge, was thought fo groundless and fri"volous, that when it came to her counsel to "reply, there was not half fo much faid as every "one befides in the court thought he could have "urged to her advantage. You muft under"ftand, Sir, this perverfe woman is one of those "unaccountable creatures, that fecretly rejoice "in the admiration of men, but indulge them"felves in no farther confequences. Hence it is "that he has ever had a train of admirers, and "The removes from her flaves in town to those in "the country, according to the feafons of the "year. She is a reading lady, and far gone in "the pleafures of friendship: fhe is always ac"companied by a confident, who is witnefs to "her daily proteftations against our fex, and con"fequently a bar to her firit fteps towards love, "upon the ftrength of her own maxims and de Here followed a profound filence: and I was not displeased to obferve my friend falling fo naturally into a difcourfe, which I had ever before taken notice he induftrioufly avoided. After a very long pause he entered upon an account of this great circumftance in his life, with an air which I thought raised my idea of him above what I had ever had before; and gave me the picture of that chearful mind of his, before it received that ftroke which has ever fince affected his words and actions. But he went on as follows. 66 "I came to my estate in my twenty-fecond year, and refolved to follow the fteps of the "moft worthy of my ancestors who have inha"bited this fpot of earth before me, in all the "methods of hospitality and good neighbour"hood, for the fake of my fame; and in coun"try fports and recreations, for the fake of my "health. In my twenty-third year I was obliged to ferve as theriff of the county; and in my fervants, officers, and whole equipage, indulged 66 66 clarations. "However, I muft needs fay this accomplished "miftrefs of mine has diftinguished me above "the reft, and has been known to declare Sir Ro <c ger de Coverly was the tameft and most humane "of all the brutes in the country. I was told the faid fo, by one who thought he rallied me; but upon the strength of this flender encourage"ment of being thought leaft deteftable, Imade "new liveries, new-paired my coach-horfe, fent "them all to town to be bitted, and taught to "throw their legs well, and move all together, "before I pretended to crofs the country, and "wait upon her. As foon as I thought my reti"nue fuitable to the character of my fortule and "Youth. 6c "youth, I fet out from hence to make my ad- 66 as the best philofopher in Europe could poffibly make, the asked me whether he was fo happy as to fall in with my fentiments on thefe "important particulars. Her confident fat by ❝her, and upon my being in the laft confufion "and filence, this malicious aid of hers turning "to her fays, I am very glad to obferve Sir Roger "paufes upon this fubject, and feems refolved to "deliver all his fentiments upon the matter "when he pleafes to fpeak. They both kept "their countenances, and after I had fat half an "hour meditating how to behave before fuch "profound cafuifts, I rofe up and took my leave. "Chance has fince that time thrown me very of"ten in her way, and the as often has directed a "difcourfe to me which I do not understand. "This barbarity has kept me ever at a distance "from the most beautiful object my eyes ever «beheld. It is thus alfo the deals with all man"kind, and you must make love to her, as you "would conquer the fphinx, by poting her. But "were the like other women, and that there were "any talking to her, how conftant muft the plea"fure of that man be, who could converfe with "a creature-But, after all, you may be fure her "heart is fixed on fome one or other; and yet I "have been credibly informed; but who can be"lieve half that is faid! After he had done "fpeaking to me, fhe put her hand to her bofom and adjusted her tucker. Then the caft her eyes a little dowa, upon my beholding her too earneftly. They fay the fings excellently! her "voice in her ordinary fpeech has fomething in it "inexpreffibly fweet. You must know I dined "with her at a public table the day after I first "faw her, and the helped me to fome taníy in "the eye of all the gentlemen in the country. "She has certainly the finest hand of any wo<< man in the world. can affure you, Sir, were you to behold her, you would be in the fame (6 condition; for as her speech is mufic, her form << "is angelic. But I find I grow irregular while "I am talking of her; but indeed it would "be ftupidity to be unconcerned at fuch perfec"tion. Oh the excellent creature! The is as inimitable to all women, as the is inaccesible to "all men." I found my friend begin to rave, and infenfibly Navia fi non fit Nevia, mutus erit. Epig. 69. 1. ta No 114. WEDNESDAY, JULY 11. ·Paupertatis pudor & fuga HOR. Ep. 18. 1. 1. V. 24, POOL Y. Economy in our affairs has the fame effect has upon our converfations. There is a pretend- lefs |