which did at once perfuade and command, it would appear as clearly to thofe to come, as it does to his contemporaries, that all the great events which were brought to pafs under the conduct of fo well-governed a fpirit, were the bleffings of heaven upon wisdom and valour; and all which seem adverfe fell out by divine permiffion, which we are not to fearch into. You have paffed that year of life wherein the most able and fortunate captain, before your time, declared he had lived enough both to nature and to glory; and your Grace may make that reflexion with much more juftice. He spoke it after he had arrived at empire by an ufurpation upon thofe whom he had enflaved; but the prince of Mindleheim may rejoice in a fovereignty which was the gift of him whofe dominions he had preferved. " Glory eftablished upon the uninterrupted fuccefs of honourable defigns and actions is not fubject to diminution; nor can any at tempts prevail against it, but in the proportion which the narrow circuit of rumour bears to the unlimited extent of fame. We may congratulate your Grace not only upon your high atchievements, but likewife upon the happy expiration of your com mand, by which your glory is put out of the power of fortune and when your person fhall be fo too, that the author and difpofer of all things may place you in that higher manfion of blifs and immor tality which is prepared for good princes, law-givers, and heroes, when HE in HIS due time removes them from the envy of mankind, is the hearty prayer of, My LORD, Your Grace's moft obedient, moft devoted, humble Servant, The SPECTATOR. THE SPECTAT O R. · ? your correfpondent had confulted me in your difcourfe on the eye, I could have told you that the eye of Leonora is flily watchful while it looks negligent; fhe looks round her with6 out the help of the glaffes you fpeak of, and 6 yet feems to be employed on objects directly before her. This eye is what affects chance-medley, and on a fudden, as if it attended to another thing, turns all its charms against an ogler. The eye of Lufitania is an inftrument of premeditated murder; but the defign being visible, deftroys the execution of it; and with much more beauty than that of Leonora, it is not half so mifchievous. There is a brave foldier's daughter in town, that by her eye has been the death of more than ever her father made fly before him. A beautiful eye makes filence eloquent, a kind eye makes contradiction an affent, an enraged eye makes beauty deformed. This little member gives life to every other part about us, and I believe the ftory of Argus implies no more than that the eye is in every part, that is to fay, every other part would be mutilated, were not its force reprefented more by the eye than even by itself. But this is heathen Greek to thofe who have not converfed by glances. This, Sir, is a language "in which there can be no deceit, nor can a skilobferver be impofed upon by looks even 6 among politicians and courtiers. If you do me the honour to print this among your fpeculations, I fhall in my next make you a prefent of fecret hiftory, by tranflating all the looks of the next affembly of ladies and gen'tlemen into words, to adorn fome future paper. I am, N° 252, WEDNESDAY, DEC.19,1711. 38 Erranti, paffimque oculos per cunéta ferenti. THE • Mr. Spectator, yo A M very forry to find by your difcourfe upon the eye, that you have not thoroughly ftudied the nature and force of that · part of a beauteous face. Had you ever been in love, you would have faid ten thousand things, which it seems did not occur to you": ⚫ do but reflect upon the nonfenfe it makes men talk, the flames which it is faid to kindle, the transport it raifes, the dejection it caufes in the braveft men; and if you do believe those things are expreffed to an extravagance, yet you will own, that the influence of it is very great which moves men to that extravagance. Certain it is, that the whole ftrength of the mind is fometimes feated there; that a kind look imparts all, that a year's difcourfe could give you, in one moment. What matters it what the fays to you? fee how the looksis the language of all who know what love is, When the mind is thus fummed up and expreffed in a glance, did you never obferve a ⚫ fudden joy arise in the countenance of a lover?ful Did you never fee the attendance of years paid, over-paid, in an inftant? You a Spectator, and not know that the intelligence of affection is carried on by the eye only; that good-breeding has made the tongue falfify the heart, and act a part of continual constraint, while nature has preferved the eyes to herfelf, that she may not be disguised or mifreprefented. The poor bride can give her hand, and fay, "I do," with a lánguishing air, to the man fhe is obliged by cruel parents to take for mercenary reasons, but at the fame time the cannot look as if the loved; her eye is full of forrow, and reluctance fits in a tear, while the offering of a facrifice is ⚫ performed in what we call the marriage ceremony. Do you never go to plays? Cannot you diftinguish between the eyes of thofe who go to fee, from thofe who come to be feen? I am a woman turned of thirty, and am on the obfervation a little; therefore if you or I Sir, your faithful friend, Dear Mr. Spectator, Have a fot of a husband that lives a very, fcandalous life, and waftes away his body and fortune in debaucheries; and is immoveable to all the arguments I can urge to him. I would gladly know whether in fome cafes a cudgel may not be allowed as a good figure of fpeech, and whether it may not be lawfully ufed by a female orator. Your humble fervant, • Mr. • Mr. Spectator, T * Hough I am a practitioner in the law of of fome standing, and have heard many eminent pleaders in my time, as well as other * eloquent fpeakers of both univerfities, yet I agree with you, that women are better qualified to fucceed in oratory than the men, and believe this is to be refolved into natural • causes. You have mentioned only the volubility of their tongue; but what do you think of the Alent flattery of their pretty faces, and the perfuafion which even an infipid difcourfe carries with it when flowing from beautiful lips, to which it would be cruel to deny any thing? It is certain too, that they are poffeffed of fome fprings of rhetoric which men want, fuch as tears, fainting fits, and the like, which I have feen employed upon occafion with good • fuccefs. You must know I am a plain man and love my money; yet I have a fpoufe who is fo great an orator in this way, that he draws ⚫ from me what fums he pleases. Every room in my houfe is furnished with trophies of her eloquence, rich cabinets, piles of china, Japan • fcreens, and coftly jars; and if you were to come into my great partour, you would fancy yourfelf in an India warehoufe: befides this, • fhe keeps a squirrel, and I am doubly taxed to pay for the china he breaks. She is feized with periodical fits about the time of the fubfcriptions to a new opera, and is drowned in tears after having feen any woman there in * finer cloaths than herfelf: these are arts of perfuafion purely feminine, and which a tenders heart cannot refft. What I would therefore defire of you, is, to prevail with your friend who has promifed to diffect a female tongue, that he would at the fame time give us the anatomy of a female eye, and explain the fprings and Quices which feed it with fuch ⚫ ready fupplies of moisture; and likewise fhew by what means, if poffible, they may be stopped at a reasonable expence: or indeed, fince * there is fomething fo moving in the very image ⚫ of weeping beauty, it would be worthy his art to provide, that thefe eloquent drops may no more be lavished on trifies, or employed as ⚫ fervants to their wayward wills; but referved for ferious occafions in life, to adorn generous pity, true penitence, or real forrow. I am, &c.' " • T No 253. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20. would ftill keep themfelves upon a level with them. The greatest wits that ever were produced in one age, lived together in fo good an underftanding, and celebrated one another with fo much generofity, that each of them receives an additional luftre from his contemporaries, and is more famous for having lived with men of fo extraordinary a genius, than if he had himself been the fole wonder of the age. I need not tell my reader, that I here point at the reign of Auguftus, and I believe he will be of my opinion, that neither Virgil nor Horace would have gained fo great a reputation in the world, had they not been the friends and admirers of each other. Indeed all the great writers of that age, for whom fingly we have fo great an efteem, stand up together as vouchers for one another's reputation. But at the fame time that Virgil was celebrated by Gallus, Propertius, Horace, Varius, Tucca and Ovid, we know that Bavius and Mævius were his declared foes and calumniators. In our own country a man feldom fets up for a poet, without attacking the reputation of all his brothers in the art. The ignorance of the moderns, the fcribblers of the age, the decay of poetry, are the topics of detraction, with which he makes his entrance into the world; but how much more noble is the fame that is built on candour and ingenuity, according to thofe beautiful lines of Sir John Denham, in his poem on Fletcher's works! But whither am I ftray'd? I need not raise "Trophies to thee from other men's difpraise Nor is thy fame on leffer ruins built, Nor needs thy jufter title the foul guilt "Of castern kings, who, to fecure their reign, Must have their brothers, fons, and kindred "Bain," I am forry to find that an author, who is very juftly esteemed among the best judges, has admitted fome frokes of this nature into a very fine poem; I mean The Art of Criticism, which was published fome months fince, and is a mafter-piece in its kind. The observations follow one another like thofe in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical regularity which would be requifite in a profe author. They are fome of them uncommon, but fuch as the reader muft affent to, when he fees them explained with that elegance and perfpicuity in which they are delivered. As for thofe which are the most known, and the most received, they are placed in fo beautiful a light, and illuftrated with fuch apt illufions, that they have in them all the graces of novelty, and make the reader, who was before acquainted with them, ftill more convinced of their truth and folidity. And here give me leave to mention what Monfieur Boileau has fo very well enlarged upen in the preface to his works, that wit and fine writing do not confift fo much in advancing things that are new, as in giving things that are known an agreeable turn. It is impoffible for us, who live in the later ages of the world, to make obfervations in criticifin, morality, or in any art or fcience, which have not been touched upon by others, We have l'ttle elfe left us, but to reprefent the common fenfe of mankind in more ftrong, more beautiful, or more uncommon lights. If a reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but very few precepts In in it, which he may not meet with in Ariftotle, and which were not commonly known by all the poets of the Auguftan age. His way of expreff ing and applying them, not his invention of them, is what we are chiefly to admire. For this reafon I think there is nothing in the world fo tiresome as the works of thofe critics who write in a pofitive dogmatic way, without either language, genius, or imagination. If the reader would fee how the best of the Latin critics writ, he may find their manner very beautifully defcribed in the characters of Horace, Petronius, Quintillian, and Longinus, as they are drawn in the effay of which I am now fpeaking. Since I have mentioned Longinus, who in his reflexions has given us the fame kind of fublime, which he obferves in the feveral paffages that occafioned them; I cannot but take notice, that our English author has after the fame manner exemplified feveral of his precepts in the very precepts themselves. I fhall produce two or three inftances of this kind. Speaking of the infipid smoothnefs which fome readers are fo much in love with, he has the following verses. "Thefe equal fyllables alone require, “ And ten low words oft creep in one dull "line." The gaping of the vowels in the fecond line, the expletive do in the third, and the ten monofyllables in the fourth, give fuch a beauty to this paffage, as would have been very much admired in an ancient poet. The reader may obferve the following lines in the fame view. "'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, N° 254, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21. On love of virtue reverence attends, But fenfual pleasure in our ruin ends. W HEN I confider the falfe impreffions which are received by the generality of the world, I am troubled at none more than a certain levity of thought, which many young women of quality have entertained, to the hazard of their characters, and the certain misfortune of "A needlefs Alexandrine ends the fong, "That like a wounded snake drags its flow length their lives. The firft of the following letters may best represent the faults I would now point at, and the answer to it the temper of mind in a contrary character. " along." And afterwards, "flows; But when loud furges lafh the founding fhore, "The hoarfe rough verfe fhou'd like the torrent "roar. "When Ajax strives fome rock's vaft weight to "throw, My dear Harriot, I thou art fhe, but oh how fallen, how changed, what an apoftate! how lost to all that is gay and agreeable! To be married I find is to be buried alive; I cannot conceive it more 'difmal to be fhut up in a vault to converfe with the fhades of my ancestors, than to be carried down to an old manor-houfe in the country, and confined to the converfation of a fober hufband and an aukward chamber-maid. For variety I fuppofe you may entertain yourself with madam in her grogram gown, the fpoufe of your parish vicar, who has by this time I am fure well furnished you with receipts for fnaking falves and poffets, diftilling cordial-waters, The beautiful diftich upon Ajax in the forego-making fyrups, and applying poultices. ing lines, puts me in mind of a defcription in Homer's Odyffey, which none of the critics have taken notice of. It is where Sifyphus is reprefented lifting his ftone up the hill, which is no fooner carried to the top of it, but it immediately tumbles to the bottom. This double motion of the ftone is admirably defcribed in the numbers of these verses; as in the four firft it is heaved up by feveral Spondees intermixed with proper breathing places, and at last trundles down in a continual line of Dactyls. Bleft folitude! I with thee joy, my dear, of thy loved retirement, which indeed you would perfuade me is very agreeable, and dif'ferent enough from what I have here defcribed: but, child, I am afraid thy brains are a little difordered with romances and novels: after fix months marriage to hear thee talk of love, and paint the country fcenes fo foftly, is a little extravagant; one would think you lived the lives of fylvan deities, or roved among the walks of paradife like the firft happy pair. But pr'ythee leave thefe whimfies, and come to town in order to live and talk like other mortals. However, as I am extremely interested in your reputation, I would willingly give you T t 6 a lit "The line too labours, and the words move. "now; "Not fo, when fwift Camilla fcours the plain, "Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along "the main," Καὶ μὴν Σίσυφον, εἰσεῖδον, κρατές' ἄλγε' ἔχοντα, I 기 Λὰαν ἄνω ὤθεσκε ποτὶ λόφον, ἀλλ ̓ ὅτε μέλλοι Odyff. 1. 11. "I turn'd my eye, and as I turn'd furvey'd "A mournful vifion! the Sifyphian fhade: "With many a weary ftep, and many a groan, "Up the high hill he heaves a huge round ftone: "The huge round ftone, refulting with a bound, "Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along "the ground." POPE. It would be endless to quote verfes out of Virgil which have this particular kind of beauty in the numbers; but I may take an occafion in a future paper to fhew feveral of them which have efcaped the obfervation of others. I cannot conclude this paper without taking notice that we have three poems in our tongue, which are of the fame nature, and each of them a mafter-piece in its kind; the effay on tranflated verfe, the effay on the art of poetry, and the effay upon criticism. < a little good advice at your first appearance, under the character of a married woman: it is a little infolent in me perhaps to advise a maC tron; but I am fo afraid you will make fo filly · a figure as a fond wife, that I cannot help warn< ing you not to appear in any public places with € your husband, and never to faunter about St. James's Park together: if you prefume to enter the ring at Hyde Park together, you are ruined for ever; nor must you take the leaft * notice of one another at the play-houfe or < opera, unless you would be laughed at for a < very loving couple moft happily, paired in the " yoke of wedlock. I would recommend the K example of an acquaintance of ours to your " imitation; he is the moft ncgligent and fa'fhionable wife in the world; fhe is hardly ever feen in the fame place with her husband, and if ४ they happen to meet, you would think them " C C perfect ftrangers: the never was heard to name him in his abfence, and takes care he fhall never be the subject of any discourse she has a share in. I hope you will propofe this lady as a pattern, though I am very much afraid you will be fo filly to think Portia, &c. Sabine and Roman wives much bighter examples. I wish it may never come into your head to imitate thofe antiquated creatures fo far, as to come into public in the habit as well as air of a Roman matron. You make already the entertainment at Mrs. Modifh's tea-table; the says, The always thought you a discreet perfon, and qualified to manage a family with admirable prudence: the dies to fee what demure and ferious airs wedlock has given you, but fhe fays, fhe fhall never forgive your choice of fo gallant a man as Bellamour to transform him to a mere " fober husband; it was unpardonable: you fee, my dear, we all envy your happiness, and no 'perfon more than • Your humble fervant, ¿ < 'pious woman; I wish she had the handling of you and Mrs. Modifh; you would find, if you were too free with her, the would foon make you as charming as ever you were, he would 'make you blush as much as if you never had 'been fine ladies. The vicar, madam, is fo kind C as to vifit my husband, and his agreeable converfation has brought him to enjoy many fober happy hours when even I am shut out, and my dear mafter is entertained only with his ' own thoughts, These things, dear madam, will be lafting fatisfactions, when the fine la'dies, and the coxcombs by whom they form 'themselves, are irreparably ridiculous, ridiculous in old age. I am, madam, 6 Your most humble fervant, B E not in. pain, good madam, for my appearance in town; I fhall frequent no public places, or make any vifits where the character of a modeft wife is ridiculous. As < < for your wild raillery on matrimony, it is all hypocrify you, and all the handfome young . women of your acquaintance, fhew yourselves to no other purpofe than to gain a conqueft < over fome man of worth, in order to bestow your charms and fortune on him. There is no indecency in the confeffion, the defign is modeft and honourable, and all your affectation cannot difguife it. C I am married, and have no other concern but to please the man I love; he is the end of every < care I have; if I drefs it is for him; if I read a poem or a play, it is to qualify myself for a converfation agreeable to his tafte: he is almost the end of my devotions; half my prayers are for his happiness-I love to talk of him, and never hear him named but with pleasure and emotion. I am your friend, and with you happinefs, but am forry to fee by the air of your letter that there are a fet of women who are got into the common-place raillery of every thing that is fober, decent, and proper: matrimony and the clergy are the topics of people of little wit and no understanding. I own to you, I have learned of the vicar's wife all you tax me with: he is a diferect, ingenious, pleafant Dear Mr. Spectator, OU have no goodnefs in the world, and are not in earnest in any thing you fay that is ferious, if you do not fend me a plain anfwer to this: I happened fome days paft to 'be at the play, where during the time of per'formance, I could not keep my eyes off from 6 a beautiful young creature who fat juft before · 6 me, and who I have been fince informed has no fortune. It would utterly ruin my reputation for difcretion to marry fuch-a-one, and by what I can learn she has a character of great modefty, fo that there is nothing to be thought on any other way. My mind has ever fince 'been fo wholly bent on her, that I am much in 'danger of doing fomething very extravagant 'without your speedy advice to, Sir, Your most humble fervant,' Yo tleman, but by another question. ture, flow in its refolves, and languishing in its executions. The ufe therefore of the paffions is to ftir it up, and to put it upon action, to awaken the understanding, to enforce the will, and to make the whole man more vigorous and attentive in the profecution of his defigns. As this is the end of the paffions in general, fo it is particularly of ambition, which pushes the foul to fuch actions as are apt to procure honour and reputation to the actor. But if we carry our reflexions higher, we may difcover farther ends of Providence in implanting this paffion in mankind. It was neceffary for the world, that arts fhould be invented and improved, books written and tranf |
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