nencies of the like nature make me very un⚫eafy; and if your remonferences have no more effect upon her than mine, I am afraid I shall be obliged to ruin myself to procure her a fettlement at Oxford with her tutor, for fhe is already too mad for Bedlam. Now, Sir, you fee the danger my family is expofed to, and the likelihood of my wife's becoming both troublesome and ufelefs, unless her reading herself in your paper may make her reflect. She is fo very learned that I cannot pretend by word of mouth to argue with her. She laughed out at your ending a paper in Greek, and faid it was a hint to women of literature, and very civil not to tranflate it to expose them to the vulgar. You fee how it is with, Sir, your humble fervant.'

• Mr. Spectator,
IF you have that humanity and compaffion in

your nature that you take fuch pains to make one think you have, you will not deny your advice to a diftreffed damfel, who intends to be determined by your judgment in a matter of great importance to her. You must know then, there is an agreeable young fellow · to whofe perfon, wit, and humour no body makes any objection, that pretends to have 'been long in love with me. To this I must

add, whether it proceeds from the vanity of my nature, or the feeming fincerity of my lover, I will not pretend to fay, that I verily believe he has a real value for me; which, if true, you will allow may juftly augment his merit with his miftrefs. In short, I am fo fenfible of his good qualities, and what I " owe to his paffion, that I think I could fooner ⚫ refolve to give up my liberty to him than any body elfe, were there not an objection to be made to his fortunes, in regard they do not anfwer the utmoft mine may expect, and are not fufficient to fecure me from undergoing ⚫ the reproachful phrafe, fo commonly used, that he has played the fool. Now, though I · am one of thofe few who heartily defpife equipage, diamonds, and a coxcomb, yet fince fuch oppofite notions from mine prevail in the world, even amongst the best, and such as are esteemed the most prudent people, I cannot find in my heart to refolve upon incurring the cenfure of thofe wife folks, which I am confcious I fhall do, if when I enter into a < married state, I difcover a thought beyond that of equalling, if not advancing my forUnder this difficulty I now labour, ❝ not being in the leaft determined whether I 'fhall be governed by the vain world, and the frequent examples I met with, or hearken to the voice of my lover, and the motions I find in my heart in favour of him. Sir, your ⚫ opinion and advice in this affair, is the only thing I know can turn the balance; and which I earnestly entreat I may receive foon; for until I have your thoughts upon it, I am engaged not to give my fwain a final dif⚫ charge.

tunes.

P. S. To tell you the truth, I am married to him already, but pray fay fomething to 'justify me.'

Mr. Spectator,

Y

YOU will forgive us profeffors of music if we make a fecond application to you, in order to promote our defign of exhibiting entertainments of mufic in York-buildings. 'It is industriously infinuated that our intention is to destroy operas in general, but we beg of " you to infert this plain explanation of our'felves in your paper. Our purpose is only to 'improve our circumftances, by improving the art which we profefs. We fee it utterly destroyed at present, and as we were the perfons who introduced operas, we think it a 'groundless imputation that we fhould fet up against the opera itself. What we pretend to affert is, that the fongs of different authors 'injudiciously put together, and a foreign tone and manner which are expected in every thing · now performed amongst us, has put mufic ' itself to a stand; infomuch that the ears of. 'the people cannot now be entertained with · any thing but what has an impertinent gaiety, without any just spirit, or a lànguish'ment of notes, without any paffion or common fenfe. We hope thofe perfons of fenfe and quality who have done us the honour to 'fubfcribe, will not be afhamed of their pa'tronage towards us, and not receive impreffi, " ons that patronifing us is being for or against the opera, but truly promoting their own diverfions in a more juft and elegant mariner than has been hitherto performed.

• We are, Sir,

Your moft obedient fervants, • Thomas Clayto

Nicolino Haym,

Charles Dieupart

There will be no performance in Yorkbuildings until after that of the fubfcription.'

N° 279. SATURDAY, JANUARY 19.

Reddere perfonæ fcit convenientia cuique.

"Befides the particular obligation you will lay on me, by giving this fubject room in one of your papers, it is poffible it may be of use to fome others of my fex, who will be as grateful for the favour as, " Sir, your humble servant,

Hor. Ars Poet. ver. 316. He knows what beft befits each character. E have already taken a general furvey of the fable and characters of Milton's Paradife Loft. The parts which remain to be confidered, according to Ariftotle's method, are the fentiments and language. Before I enter upon the firft of thefe, I must advertise my reader, that it is my defign, as foon as I have finished my general reflexions on thefe four several heads, to give particular inftances out of the poem which is now before us of beauties. and imperfections which may be observed under each of them, as alfo of fuch other particulars as may not properly fall under any of them. This I thought fit to premife, that the reader may not judge too haftily of this picce of criticifm, or look upon it as imperfect, before he has feen the whole extent of it.

The fentiments in an epic poem are the thoughts and behaviour which the author afcribes to the perfons whom he introduces, and

are

are just when they are conformable to the cha racters of the feveral perfons. The fentiments have likewife a relation to things as well as perfons, and are then perfect when they are fuch as are adapted to the fubject. If in either of thefe cafes the poet endeavours to argue or cxplain, to magnify or diminifh, to raise love or hatred, pity or terror, or any other paffion, we ought to confider whether the fentiments he makes ufe of are proper for thofe ends. Homer is cenfured by the critics for his defect as to this particular in feveral parts of the Iliad and Odyffey, though at the fame time thofe, who have treated this great poet with candour, have attributed this defect to the times in which he lived. It was the fault of the age, and not of Homer, if there wants that delicacy in fome of his fentiments, which now appears in the works of men of a much inferior genius. Be fides, if there are blemishes in any particular thoughts, there is an infinite beauty in the greatest part of them. In fhort, if there are many poets who would not have fallen into the meanness of fome of his fentiments, there are none who could have rifen up to the greatnefs of others. Virgil has excelled all others in the propriety of his fentiments. Milton fhines likewife very much in this particular nor muft we omit one confideration which adds to his honour and reputation. Homer and Vir gil introduced perfons whofe characters are commonly known among men, and fuch as are to be met with either in hiftory, or in ordinary converfation. Milton's characters, moft of. them lie out of nature, and were to be formed purely by his own invention. It fhews a great er genius in Shakespear to have drawn his Calyban, than his Hotipur or Julius Cæfar: the ehe was to be fupplicd out of his own imagination, whereas the other might have been formed upon tradition, history and obfervation. It was much easier therefore for Homer to find proper fentiments for an affembly of Grecian generals, than for Milton to diverfify his infernal council with proper characters, and inspire them with a variety of fentiments. The loves of Dido and Æneas are only copies of what has paffed between other perfons. Adam and Eve, before the fall, are a different fpecies from that of mankind, who are defcended from them; and none but a poet of the most unbounded invention, and the most exquifite judgment could have filled their converfation and behaviour with fo many apt circumftances during their ftate of innocence.

Nor is it fufficient for an epic poem to be filled with fuch thoughts as are natural, unless it abound alío with fuch as are fublime. Virgil in this particular falls fhort of Homer.. He has not indeed to many thoughts that are low and vulgar: but at the fame time has not fo many thoughts that are fublime and noble. The truth of it is, Virgil feidom rifes into very aftonishing fentiments, where he is not fired by the Iliad. He every where charms and pleates us by the force of his own genius; but feldom elevates and tranfports us where he does not fetch his hints from Homer.

Milton's chief talent, and indeed his diftinguifhing excelence, lies in the fublimity of his thoughts. There are others of the moderns who rival him in every other part of poetry; but in the grea.nf of his fentiments he tri

umphs over all the poets both modern and ancient, Homer only excepted. It is impoffible for the imagination of man to diftend itself with greater ideas, than thofe which he has laid together in his firft, fecond, and fixth books. The feventh, which defcribes the creation of the world, is likewife wonderfully fublime, though not fo apt to ftir up emotion in the mind of the reader, nor confequently fo perfect in the epic way of writing, because it is filled with less action. Let the judicious reader compare what Longinus has obferved on feveral paffages in Homer, and he will find parallels, for most of them in the Paradise Loft.

From what has been faid we may infer, that as there are two kinds of fentiments, the natural and the fublime, which are always to be purfued in an heroic poem, there are alfo two kinds of thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The firft are fuch as are affected and unnatural; the fecond fuch as are mean and vulgar. As for the firft kind of thoughts, we meet with little or nothing that is like them in Virgil: he has none of thofe trifling points and puerilities that are fo often to be met with in Ovid, none of the epigrammatic turns of Lucan, none of thofe fwelling fentiments which are fo frequent in Statius and Claudian, none of those mixed embellishments of Taffo. Every thing is just and natural. His fentiments fhew that he had a perfect infight into human nature, and that he knew every thing which was the most proper to affect it.

Mr. Dryden has in fome places, which I may hereafter take notice of, mifrepresented Virgil's way of thinking as to this particular, in the tranflation he has given us of the Æneid. I do not remember that Homer any where falls into the faults above mentioned, which were indeed the falfe refinements of later ages. Milton, it must be confeft, has fometimes crred in this refpect, as I fhall fhow more at large in ano. ther paper; though confidering how all the poets of the age in which he writ were infected with this wrong way of thinking, he is rather to be admired that he did not give more into it, than that he did fometimes comply with the vicious tafte which ftill prevails fo much among modern writers.

But fince feveral thoughts may be natural which are low and groveling, an epic poet fhould not only avoid fuch fentiments as are unnatural or affected, but alfo fuch as are mean and vulgar. Homer has opened a great field of raillery to men of more delicacy than greatnefs of genius, by the homeliness of fome of his fentiments. But, as I have before faid, thefe are rather to be imputed to the fimplicity of the age in which he lived, to which I may also add, of that which he defcribed, than to any imperfection in that divine poet. Zoilus, among the ancients, and Monfieur Perrault, among the moderns, pufhed their ridicule very far upon him, on account of fome fuch fentiments. There is no blemish to be obferved in Virgil under this head, and but a very few in Milton.

I fhall give but one inftance of this impropriety of thought in Homer, and at the fame time compare it with an inftance of the fame nature, both in Virgil and Milton. Sentiments, which raife laughter, can very feldom be admitted with any decency into an heroic poem, whose bufinefs it is to excite paffions of a much nobler na

ture.

ture. Homer, however, in his characters of Vulcan and Therfites, in his ftory of Mars and Venus, in his behaviour of Irus, and in other paffages, has been obferved to have lapfed into the burlesque character and to have departed from that ferious air which feems effential to the magnificence of an epic poem. I remember but one laugh in the whole neid, which rifes in the fifth book, upon Monetes, where he is reprefented as thrown overboard, and drying himself upon a rock. But this piece of mirth is fo well timed, that the fevereft critic can have nothing to fay against it; for it is in the book of games and diverfions, where the reader's mind may be fuppofed to be fufficiently relaxed for fuch an entertainment. The only piece of pleafantry in Paradife Loft, is where the evil fpirits are defcribed as rallying the angels upon the fuccefs of their new-invented artillery. This paffage I look npon to be the moft exceptionable in the whole poem, as be ing nothing else but a string of puns, and thofe too very indifferent ones.

HE defire of pleafing makes a man agreeable or unwelcome to thofe with whom he converfes, according to the motive from which that inclination appears to flow. If your concern for pleafing others arifes from innate benevolence, it never fails of fuccefs: if from a vanity to excel, its difappointment is no lefs certain. What we call an agreeable man, is he who is endowed with the natural bent to do acceptable things from a delight he takes in them merely as fuch; and the affectation of that character is what conftitutes a fop. Under thefe

:

leaders one may draw up all thofe who make any manner of figure, except in dumb show. A rational and felect converfation is compofed of perfons, who have the talents of pleafing with delicacy of fentiments flowing from habitual chastity of thought; but mixed company is frequently made up of pretenders to mirth, and is ufually peftered with constrained, obscene and painful witticifms. Now and then you meet with a man, fo exactly formed for pleafing, that it is no matter what he is doing or faying, that is to fay, that there need no manner of importance in it, to make him gain upon every body who hears or beholds him. This felicity is not the gift of nature only, but must be attended with happy circumftances, which add a dignity to the familiar behaviour which diftinguishes him whom we call an agreeable man. It is from this that every body loves and efteems Polycarpus. He is in the vigor of his age and the gaiety of life, but has paffed through very confpicuous fcenes in it; though no foldier, he has fhared the danger, and acted with great gallantry and generofity on a decifive day of battle. To have those qualities which only make other men confpicuous in the world as it were fupernumerary to him, is a circumstance which gives weight to his most indifferent ac tions; for as a known credit is ready cash to a trader, fo is acknowledged merit immediate diftinction, and ferves in the place of equipage to a gentleman. This renders Polycarpus grace. ful in mirth, important in bufinefs, and regarded with love, in every ordinary occurrence. But not to dwell upon characters which have fuch particular recommendations to our hearts, let us turn our thought rather to the methods of pleafing which must carry men through the world who cannot pretend to such advantages. Falling in with the particular humour or manner of one above you, abftracted from the general rules of good behaviour, is a life of a flave. A parafite differs in nothing from the meanest fervant, but that the footman hires himfelf for bodily labour, fubjected to go and come at the will of his mafter, but the other gives up his very foul: he is proftituted to fpeak, and profeffes to think after the mode of him whom he courts. This fervitude to a paz tron, in an honeft nature, would be more grievous than that of wearing his livery; therefore we will speak of thofe methods only, which are worthy and ingenuous.

The happy talent of pleasing either those above you or below you, feems to be wholly owing to the opinion they have of your fincerity. This quality is to attend the agreeable man in all the actions of his life; and I think there need no more be faid in honour of it, than that it is what forces the approbation even of your opponents. The guilty man has an honour for the judge who with juftice pronounces against him the fentence of death itfelf. The author of the fentence at the head of this paper, was an excellent judge of human life, and paffed his own in company the most agreeable that ever was in the world. Auguftus lived amongst his friends as if he had his fortune to make in his own court: candour and affability, accompanied with as much power as ever mortal was vefted with, were what made him in the utmost manner agreeable among a fet of admirable men, who had thoughts too high for ambition,

and

and views too large to be gratified by what he could give them in the difpofal of an empire, without the pleasures of their mutual conver fation. A certain unanimity of tafte and judg-` ment, which is natural to all of the fame order in the fpecies, was the band of this fociety; but

affumed no figure in

No 281. TUESDAY, JANUARY 22.
Pecoribus inbians fpirantia confulit exta.
Virg. Æn. 4. ver. 64.
Anxious the reeking entrails he confults.
AVING

talents and qualifications, as they contributed to advance the pleafures and fentiments of the

company..

Cunning people, hypocrites, all who are but half virtuous, or half wife, are incapable of taning the refined pleasure of fuch an equal company as could wholly exclude the regard of Fortune in their converfations. Horace, in the difcourfe from whence I take the hint of the prefent fpeculation, lays down excellent rules for conduct in converfation with men of power; but he speaks it with an air of one who had no need of fuch an application for any thing which related to himself. It fhews he understood what it was to be a skilful courtier, by just admonitions against importunity, and fhewing how forcible it was to speak modeftly of your own wants. There is indeed fomething fo fhameless in taking all opportunities to speak of your own affairs, that he who is guilty of it towards him on whom he depends, fares like the beggar, who expofes his fores, which instead of moving compaffion makes the man he begs of turn away from the object.

I cannot tell what is become of him, but I remember about fixteen years ago an honest fellow, who fo justly understood how disagreeable the mention or appearance of his wants would make him, that I have often reflected upon him as a counterpart of Irus, whom I have formerly mentioned. This man, whom I have miffed for fome years in my walks, and have heard was fome way employed about the army, made it a maxim, that good wigs, delicate linen, and a chearful air, were to a poor dependent the fame that working tools are to a poor artificer. It was no fmall entertainment to me, who knew his circumstances, to fee him who had fafted two days, attribute the thinnefs they told him of, to the violence of fome gallantries he had lately been guilty of. The skilful diffembler carried this on with the utmost addrefs and if any fufpected his affairs were narrow, it was attributed to indulging himself in fome fashionable vice rather than an irreproachable poverty, which faved his credit with thofe on whom he depended.

:

The main art is to be as little troublesome as you can, and make all you hope for come rather as a favour from your patron than claim from you. But I am here prating of what is the method of pleafing fo as to fucceed in the world, when there are crowds who have, in city, town, court, and country, arrived at confiderable acquifitions, and yet feem incapable of acting in any conftant tenor of life, but have gone on from one fuccefsful error to another; therefore I think I may shorten this inquiry after the method of pleasing; and as the old Leau faid to his fon, once for all, "Pray, Jack, be a "fine gentleman," fo may I, to my reader, abridge my inftructions, and finish the art of pleafing, in a word, "Be rich

T

veral difcoveries made on that occafion; I shall here, according to my promise, enter upon the diffection of a coquette's heart, and communicate to the public fuch particularities as we obferved in that curious piece of anatomy.

I fhould perhaps have waved this undertaking, had not I been put in mind of my promise by feveral of my unknown correfpondents, who are very importunate with me to make an example of the coquette, as I have already done of the beau. It is therefore in compliance with the request of friends, that I have looked over the minutes of my former dream, in order to give the public an exact relation of it, which I fhall enter upon without farther preface.

Our operator, before he engaged in this vifionary diffection, told us, that there was nothing in his art more difficult than to lay open the heart of a coquette, by reafon of the many labyrinths and receffes which are to be found in it, and which do not appear in the heart of any other animal.

He defired us first of all to obferve the pericardium, or outward cafe of the heart, which we did very attentively; and by the help of our glaffes difcerned in it millions of little fcars, which feemed to have been occafioned by the points of innumerable darts and arrows, that from time to time had glanced upon the outward coat: though we could not discover the smallest orifice, by which any of them had entered and pierced the inward fubftance.

Every fmatterer in anatomy knows that this pericardium, or cafe of the heart, contains in it a thin reddish liquor, fuppofed to be bred from the vapours which exhale out of the heart, and being stopped here, are condenfed into this watery fubitance. Upon examining this liquor, we found that it had in it all the qualities of that fpirit which is made ufe of in the thermometer, to fhew the change of weather.

Nor muft I here omit an experiment one of the company affured us he himself had made with this liquor, which he found in great quantity about the heart of a coquette whom he had formerly diffected. He affirmed to us, that he had actually inclosed it in a small tube made after the manner of a weather-glass; but thất instead of acquainting him with the variations of the atmosphere, it fhewed him the qualities of thofe perfons who entered the room where it ftood. He affirmed alfo, that it rofe at the approach of a plume of feathers, an embroidered coat, or a pair of fringed gloves; and that it fell as foon as an ill-shaped periwig, a clumsy pair of fhoes, or an unfashionable coat came into his houfe: nay, he proceeded fo far as to affure us, that upon his laughing aloud when he ftood by it, the liquor mounted very fenfibly, and immediately funk again upon his looking ferious. In short, he told us, that he knew very well by this invention whenever he had a man of fenfe or a coxcomb in his room.