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Accordingly the method this philofopher took, of instructing his fcholars, by feveral interrogatories or questions, was only helping the birth, and bringing their own thoughts to light.

The Spanish doctor above-mentioned, as his fpeculations grow more refined, afferts, that · every kind of wit has a particular science correfponding to it, and in which alone it can be truly excellent. As to thofe geniuses, which may feem to have an equal aptitude for feveral things, he regards them as fo many unfinished 'pieces of nature wrought off in' hafte.

There are indeed but very few to whom na" ture has been fo unkind, that they are not capable of fhining in fome fcience or other. There is a certain bias towards knowledge in every mind, which may be strengthened and improved by proper applications.

The ftory of Clavius is very well known; he was entered in a college of Jefuits, and after having been tried at several parts of learning, was upon the point of being difmiffed as an hopeless blockhead, until one of the fathers took it into his head to make an effay of his parts in geometry, which it seems hit his genius fo luckily, that he afterwards became one of the greatest mathematicians of the age. It is commonly thought that the fagacity of thefe fathers, in difcovering the talent of a young ftudent, has not a little contributed to the figure which their order has made in the world.

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I have known a corn-cutter, who with a right education would have made an excellent phyfician.

To defcend lower, are not our streets filled ' with fagacious draymen, and politicians in liveries? We have feveral tailors of fix feet high, and meet with many a broad pair of 'fhoulders that are thrown away upon a barber, when perhaps at the fame time we fee a pigmy porter reeling under a burden, who might have managed a needle with much dexterity, or have fnapped his fingers with great cafe to himself and advantage to the public.

The Spartans, though they acted with the fpirit which I am here fpeaking of, carried it much farther than what I propofe: among them it was not lawful for the father himself to bring up his children after his own fancy. As foon as they were feven years old, they < were all lifted in feveral companies and difciplined by the public. The old men were fpectators of their performances, who often raifed quarrels among them, and fet them at ftrife with one another, that by thofe early 'difcoveries they might fee how their feveral talents lay, and without any regard to their quality, difpofe of them accordingly for the fervice of the common-wealth. By this means Sparta foon became the mistress of Greece, and famous through the whole world for her 'civil and military difcipline.

How different from this manner of education is that which prevails in our own country? Where nothing is more ufual than to fee forty or fifty boys of feveral ages, tempers, and inclinations, ranged together in the fame clafs, employed upon the fame authors, and enjoined the fame tasks? Whatever their na⚫tural genius may be, they are all to be made poets, hiftorians, and orators alike. They are all obliged to have the fame capacity, to bring in the fame tale of verfe, and to furnish out the fame portion of profe. Every boy is bound to have as good a memory as the captain of the form. To be brief, instead of adapting studies to the particular genius of a youth, we expect from the young man, that he fhould adapt his genius to his ftudies. This, I must confefs, is not so much to be imputed to the instructor, as to the parent, who will never be brought to believe, that his fon No 308. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22. is not capable of performing as much as his neighbour's, and that he may not make him whatever he has a mind to.

If the prefent age is more laudable than thofe which have gone before it in any fingle particular, it is in that generous care which feveral well-difpofed perfons have taken in the education of poor children; and as in thefe charity schools there is no place left for the over-weening fondness of a parent, the directors of them would make them beneficial to the public, if they confidered the precept which I have been thus long inculcating. They might eafily, by well examining the parts of thofe under their infpection, make a juft diftribution of them into proper claffes and divifions, and allot to them this or that particular ftudy, as their genius qualifies them for profeffion, trades, handicrafts, or service by fea or land.

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If you think this letter deferves a place among your fpeculations, I may perhaps trou'ble you with fome other thoughts on the fame • fubject. X 'I am, &c.

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Jam pro erva
Fronte peice Lalage maritum.

Hor. Od. 5. lib. 2. ver. 15,

--Lalage will foon proclaim
Her love, nor blush to own her flame.

• Mr. Spectator,

CREECH.

Give you this trouble in order to propofe

I you un affiftant in the

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⚫ by seeing women come hither, and afterwards ⚫ obferving them conducted by their counfel to judges chambers, that there is a custom in cafe of making conveyance of a wife's eftate, that she is carried to a judge's apartment and ⚫ left alone with him, to be examined in private whether she has not been frightened or fweetened by her spouse into the act he is going to do, or whether it is of her own free will. Now if this be a method founded upon reafon and equity, why should there not be alfo a proper officer for examining fuch as are entering into the state of matrimony, whether they are forced by parents on one fide, or moved by intereft only on the other, to come together, and bring forth fuch aukward heirs as are the product of half love and constrained compliances? There is no body, though I fay it myself, would be fitter for this office than I am: for I am an ugly fellow of great wit and fagacity. My father was an hale country 'fquire, my mother a witty beauty of no for· tune: the match was made by confent of my 'mother's parents against her own, and I am the child of the rape on the wedding night; fo that I am as healthy and as homely as my father, but as fprightly and agreeable as my mother. It would be of great cafe to you if you would ufe me under you, that matches might be better regulated for the future, and we might have no more children of fquabbles. 1 fhall not reveal all my pretenfions until I receive your answer; and am

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Sir,

Mr. Spectator,

Your moft humble fervant, Mules Palfrey.'

Am one of thofe unfortunate men within the city-walls, who am married to a woman of quality, but her temper is fomething different from that of lady Anvil. My lady's whole time and thoughts are spent in keeping up to the mode both in apparel and furniture. All the goods in my houfe have been changed three times in feven years. I have had feven children by her and by our marriage articles he was to have her apartment new furnished as often as the lay in. Nothing in our house is ufeful but what is fashionable; my pewter <holds out generally half a year, my plate a full ' twelvemonth; chairs are not fit to fit in that " were made two years fince, nor beds fit for any thing but to fleep in that have stood up above that time. My dear is of opinion that an old-fashioned grate confumes coals, but gives no heat if the drinks out of glaffes of laft year, he cannot diftinguish wine from fmallbeer, Oh, dear Sir, you may guefs at all the reft,

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• Your's.

P. S. 1 could bear even all this, if I were not obliged alfo to eat fashionably. I have a plain ftomach, and have a conftant loathing of 'whatever comes to my own table; for which reafon 1 dine at the chop-house three days in a week: where the good company wonders they never see you of late. I am fure by your un prejudiced difsourses you love broth better than foup.'

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I am one of your best friends in this house, and have laid a wager you are fo candid a man and fo honeft a fellow, that you will print this letter, though it is in recommendation of

a new paper called the Hiftorian. I have 'read it carefully, and find it written with skill, ' good fenfe, modesty and fire. You must allow the town is kinder to you than you deserve; and I doubt not but you have so much fenfe of the world, change of humour, and instability of all human things, as to understand, that the only way to preferve favour is to communicate it to others with good-nature and judg'ment. You are fo generally read, that what you speak of will be read. This with men of

fenfe and tafte is all that is wanting to recommend the Historian.

I am, Sir,

Your daily Advocate,

Reader Gentle."

I was very much furprised this morning, that any one should find out my lodging, and know it fo well, as to come directly at my closet-door, When I came out I opened it, and saw by à and knock at it, to give me the following letter. very ftrong pair of fhoes and a warm coat the bearer had on, that he walked all the way to bring it me, though dated from York. My misfortune is that I cannot talk, and found the meffenger had fo much of me, that he could think better than fpeak. He had, I obferved, a polite difcerning hid under a fhrewd rufticity; he delivered the paper with a Yorkshire tone

and a town leer.

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Mr. Spectator,

ΤΗ

HE privilege you have indulged John Trot has proved of very bad confe· quence to our illuftrious affembly, which, befides the many excellent maxims it is founded › upon, is remarkable for the extraordinary decorum always obferved in it. One inftance of which is that the carders, who are always of 'the first quality, never begin to play until the French-dances are finished, and the countrydances begin: but John Trot having now got your commiffion in his pocket, which every one here has a profound refpect for, has the ⚫ affurance to fet up for a minuct-dancer. Not only fo, but he has brought down upon us the whole body of the Trots, which are very numerous, with their auxiliaries the hobblers ⚫ and the skippers, by which means the time is fo much wafted, that unless we break all rules of government, it must redound to the utter fubverfion of the brag-table, the difcreet mem'bers of which value time, as Fribble's wife does her pin-money. We are pretty well afsured that your indulgence to Trct was only in relation to country dances; however, we have <deferred iffuing an order of council upon the

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I

Never meant any other than that Mr. Trot fhould confine himself to country-dances. And I further direct, that he shall take out none but his own relations according to their nearness of blood, but any gentlewoman may take out him.

Τ

London, Feb. 21.

The Spectator.

N°. 309. SATURDAY, FEB. 23.

Di, quibus imperium eft animarum, umbræque filentes,

-Where the might of Gabriel fought,
And with fierce enfigns pierc'd the deep array
Of Moloch, furious king, who him defy'd,
And at his chariot-wheels to drag him bound
Threaten'd, nor from the holy one of heav'n
Refrain'd his tongue blafphemous: but an on
Down cloven to the waift, with fhatter'd arms
And uncouth pain fed bellowing.—

It may be worth while to obferve, that Milton has reprefented this violent impetuous fpirit, who is hurried on by fuch precipitate paffions, as the first that rifes in that affembly, to give his opinion upon their prefent pofture of affairs. Accordingly he declares himself abruptly for war, and appears incenfed at his companions, for lofing fo much time as even to deliberate upon it. All his fentiments are rafh, audaciVirg. Æn. 6. ver. 264. ous, and defperate. Such is that of arming themselves with their tortures, and turning their punishments upon him who inflicted them.

Et Chaos, & Phlegethon, loca nocte filentia late 5
Sit mbi fas audita loqui! fit numine veftro
Pandere res alta terra & caligine merfas.

Ye realms, yet unreveal'd to human fight,
Ye gods who rule the regions of the night,
Ye gliding ghofts, permit me to relate
The myftic wonders of your filent state.

I

DRYDEN.

Have before obferved in general, that the perions whom Milton introduces into his poem always difcover fuch fentiments and behaviour as are in a peculiar manner conformable to their respective characters. Every circumftance in their speeches and actions is with great. juftness and delicacy adapted to the persons who fpeak and act. As the poet very much excels in this confiftency of his characters, I fhall beg leave to confider feveral paffages of the fecond book in this light. That fuperior greatness and mock-majefty, which is afcribed to the prince of the fallen angels, is admirably preferved in the beginning of this book. His opening and closing the debate his taking on himself that great enterprise at the thought of which the whole in fernal affembly trembled: his encountering the hideous phantom who guarded the gates of hell, and appeared to him in all his terrors; are in ftances of that proud and daring mind which could not brook fubmiffion even to omnipo

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The fame boldnefs and intrepidity of behaviour difcovers itfelf in the feveral adventures which he meets with during his paffage through the regions of unformed matter, and particularly in his addrefs to thofe tremendous powers who are defcribed as prefiding over it.

The part of Moloch is likewife in all its circumftances full of that fire and fury which diftinguish this fpirit from the rest of the fallen angels. He is defcribed in the first book as befmeared with the blood of human facrifices, and delighted with the tears of parents and the cries of children. In the fecond book he is marked out as the fiercest fpirit that fought in heaven and if we confider the figure which he makes in the fixth book, where the battle of the angels is defcribed, we find it every way anwerable to the fame furious enraged character.

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No, let us rather choose,

Arm'd with heli flames and fury, all at once
O'er heaven's high tow'rs to force resistless way,
Turning our tortures into horrid arms
Against the tort'rer; when to meet the noise
Of his almighty engine he shall hear
Infernal thunder, and for lightning fee
Black fire and horror fhot with equal rage
Among his angels; and his throne itself
His own invented torments➡➡
Mixt with Tartarean fulphur, and ftrange fire,

His preferring annihilation to fhame or misery, is alfo highly fuitable to his character: as the comfort he draws from their disturbing the peace of heaven, that if it be not victory is revenge, is a fentiment truly diabolical, and becoming the bitterness of this implacable spirit.

Belial is described in the first book, as the idol of the lewd and luxurious. He is in the fecond book, pursuant to that description, characterised as timorous and flothful; and if we look in the fixth book, we find him celebrated in the battle of angels for nothing but that fcoffing speech which he makes to Satan, on their fuppofed advantage over the enemy. As his appearance is uniform, and of a piece, in these three feveral views, we find his fentiments in the infernal affembly every way conformable to his character. Such are his apprehenfions of a fecond battle, his horrors of annihilation, his preferring to be miferable rather than "not to be." I need not obferve, that the contrast of thought in this fpeech, and that which precedes it, gives an agreeable variety to the debate.

Mammon's character is fo fully drawn in the first book, that the poet adds nothing to it in the fecond. We were before told, that he was the firft who taught mankind to ranfack the earth for gold and filver, and that he was the architect of Pandemonium, or the infernal palace where the evil fpirits were to meet in council. His fpeech in this book is every way fuitable to fo depraved a character. How proper is that reflexion, of their being unable to tafte the happinefs of heaven were they actually there, in the mouth of one, who, while he was in heaven, is faid to have had his mind dazzled with the outward pomps and glories of the place, and to have been more intent on the riches of the pavement, than on the beatific vifion. I fhall only leave the reader to judge how agreeable the following fentiments are to the fame character.

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Muftering their rage, and heav'n resembles hell? As he our darkness, cannot we his light Imitate when we please? this defart foil Wants not her hidden luftre, gems and gold; Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise Magnificence; and what can heav'n fhew more? Beelzebub, who is reckoned the fecond in dig nity that fell, and is in the first book, the fecond that awakens out of the trance, and confers with Satan upon the fituation of their affairs, maintains his rank in the book now before us. There is a wonderful majesty described in his rifing up to speak. He acts as a kind of a moderator between the two oppofite parties, and propofes a third undertaking, which the whole affembly gives into. The motion he makes of detaching

one of their body in fearch of a new world is grounded upon a project devifed by Satan, and curforily propofed by him in the following lines

of the first book.

Space may produce new worlds, whereof fo rife
There went a fame in heav'n, that he ere long
Intended to create, and therein plant
A generation, whom his choice regard
Sould favour equal to the fons of heav'n;
Thither, if but to pry, fhall be perhaps
Our firft eruption, thither or elsewhere:
For this infernal pit fhall never hold
Celestial fpirits in bondage, nor th' abyfs
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full counfel muft mature :-

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he gives us a glimpse of them even before they are in being,

The rifing of this great affembly is described in a very fublime and poetical manner. of thunder heard remote Their rifing all at once was as the found

The diverfions of the fallen angels, with the particular account of their place of habitation, are defcribed with great pregnancy of thought, and copioufnefs of invention. The diverfions are every way fuitable to beings who had nothing left them but ftrength and knowledge mifap and in feats of arms with their entertainment in plied. Such are their contentions at the race, the following lines,

Others with vaft Typhaan rage more fell
Rend up both rock and hills, and ride the air
In whirlwind: hell scarce holds the wild uproar,

Their mafic is employed in celebrating their founding the unfathomable depths of fate, freeown criminal exploits, and their difcourfe in will, and fore-knowledge.

The feveral circumftances in the defcription which difgorge themselves into the fea of fire, of hell are finely imagined; as the four rivers the extremes of cold and heat, and the river of that infernal world are repefented by a fingle oblivion. The monstrous animals produced in line, which gives us a more horrid idea of them, than a much longer defcription would have done.

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This epifode of the fallen fpirits, and their

It is on this project that Beelzebub grounds place of habitation, comes in very happily to his propofal,

-What if we find

Some eager enterprife? there is a place
If ancient and prophetic fame in heav'n
Err not, another world, the happy feat

Of fome new race call'd Man, about this time
To be created like to us, though less
In power and excellence, but favour'd more
Of him who rules above; fo was his will
Pronounc'd among the gods, and by an oath,
That shook heay'n's whole circumference, con,
firm'd.

The reader may obferve how juft it was not to omit in the first book the project upon which the whole poem turns: as alfo that the prince of the fallen angels was the only proper perfon to give it birth, and that the next to him in dignity was the fittest to second and support it.

There is befides, I think, something wonder, fully beautiful, and very apt to affect the reader's imagination in this ancient prophecy or report in heaven, concerning the creation of man. Nothing could fhew more the dignity of the fpe, cies, than this tradition which ran of them be. fore their existence. They are reprefented to have been the talk of heaven before they were created. Virgil, in compliment to the Roman commonwealth, makes the heroes of it appear in their state of pre-existence; but Milton does a far greater honour to mankind in general, as

unbend the mind of the reader from its attention to the debate. An ordinary poet would indeed have fpun out fo many circumftances to a great length, and by that means have weakened, inftead of illustrated, the principal fable.

The flight of Satan to the gates of hell is finely imaged.

I have already declared my opinion of the allegory concerning Sin and Death, which is however a very finished piece in its kind, when it is not confidered as a part of an epic poem. The genealogy of the feveral perfons is contrived with great delicacy. Sin is the daughter of Satan, and Death the offspring of Sin. The inceftuous mixture between Sin and Death produces thofe monfters and hell-hounds which from time to time enter into their mother, and tear the bowels of her who gave them birth, These are the terrors of an evil conscience, and the proper fruits of Sin, which naturally rife from the apprehenfions of Death. This laft beautiful moral is, I think, clearly intimated in the fpeech of Sin, where complaining of this her dreadful issue, she adds,

Before mine eyes in oppofition fits
Grim Death my fon and foe, who fets them on,
And me his parent would full foon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows
His end with mine involv’d--

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'I need not mention to the reader the beautiful circumftance in the last part of this quotation. He will likewife obferve how naturally the three perfons concerned in this allegory are tempted by one common interest to enter into a confederacy together, and how properly Sin is made the portrefs of hell, and the only being that can open the gates to that world of torture.

The

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Have loved a lady entirely for this year and half, though for a great part of the time, which has contributed not a little to my pain, I have been debarred the liberty of converfing with her. The grounds of our difference was this; that when we had inquired into each other's circumftances, we found that at our 'first setting out into the world, we fhould owe five hundred pounds more than her fortune

The defcriptive part of this allegory is likewife very ftrong, and full of fublime ideas. figure of Death, the regal crown upon his head, his menace of Satan, his advancing to the combat, the outcry at his birth, are circumstances too noble to be paft over in filence, and extremely fuitable to this king of terrors. I need not mention the juftnefs of thought, which is obferved in the generation of thefe feveral fym-would pay off. My eftate is feven hundred bolical perfons; that Sin was produced upon the first revolt of Satan, that Death appeared foon after he was caft into hell, and that the terrors of confcience were conceived at the gate of this place of tornionts. The defcription of the gates is very poetical, as the opening of them is full of Milton's fpirit.

———On a fudden open fly

With impetuous recoil and jarring found

Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harth thunder, that the loweft bottom shook
Of Erebus, She open'd, but to fhut
Excell'd her pow'r; the gates wide open flood,
That with extended wings a banner`d host
Under fpread enfigns marching might pafs
through

With horfe and chariots rank'd in loofe array;
So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth
Caft forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.

In Satan's voyage through the Chaos there are feveral imaginary perfons defcribed, as refiding in that immenfe wafte of matter. This may perhaps be conformable to the taste of thofe critics who are pleafed with nothing in a poet which has not life and manners afcribed to it; but for my own part, I am pleased most with thofe paffages in this defcription which carry in them a greater measure of probability, and are fuch as might poffibly have happened. Of this kind is his first mounting in the fmoke that rifes from the infernal pit, his falling into a cloud of nitre, and the like combustible materials, that by their explosion still hurried him forward in his voyage; his fpringing upward like a pyramid of fire, with his laborious paffage through that confufion of elements which the poet calls

The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave.. The glimmering light which shot into the Chaos from the utmoft verge of the creation, with the diftant difcovery of the earth that hung clofe by the moon, are wonderfully beautiful and poetical.

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pounds a year, befides the benefit of tin mines. Now, dear Spec, upon this ftate of the cafe, and the lady's pofitive declaration that there is ftill no other objection, I beg you will not fail to infert this, with your opinion, as foon as poffible, whether this ought to be esteemed a juft caufe or impediment why we should not be joined, and you will for ever oblige

'Your's fincerely,
'Dick Lovefick.

P. S. Sir, if I marry this lady by the affift ance of your opinion, you may expect a fa'your for it.'

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• Mr. Spectator,

I

Have the misfortune to be one of thofe unhappy men who are diftinguished by the " name of difcarded lovers; but I am the lefs mortified at my difgrace, because the young lady is one of those creatures who fet up for 'negligence of men, are forfooth the most rigidly virtuous in the world, and yet their nicety will permit them at the command of parents to go to bed to the most utter ftranger that can be propofed to them. As to me myfelf, I was introduced by the father of my miftrefs; but find I owe my being at first re'ceived to a comparison of my estate with that of a former lover, and that I am now in like 'manner turned off to give way to an humble fervant ftill richer than I am. What makes this treatment the more extravagant is, that the young lady is in the management of this way of fraud, and obeys her father's orders on thofe occafions without any manner of reluctance, but does it with the fame air that one of your men of the world would fignify the neceffity of affairs for turning another out of office. When I came home last night, I found this letter from my mistress.

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will not think it is any manner of

I difrefpect to your perfon or merit, that

"the intended nuptials between us are inter"rupted. My father fays he has a much better "offer for me than you can make, and has or"dered me to break off the treaty between us. "If it had proceeded, I fhould have behaved "myfelf with all fuitable regard to you, but as "it is, I beg we may be strangers for the future. "Adieu.

"Lydia.”

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