46

broke the glass which contained it. It shot up happiness to know the person to whom it beand down, with incredible swiftness, through longs." He then put into my hand a large the liquor in which it swam, and very fre-chrystal glass, that enclosed an heart, in quently bounced against the side of the phial. which, though I examined it with the utmost The fomes, or spot in the middle of it, was not nicety, I could not perceive any blemish. I large, but of a red fiery colour, and seemed made no scruple to affirm that it must be the to be the cause of these violent agitations. heart of Seraphina; and was glad, but not "That," says my instructor, "is the heart of surprised, to find that it was so. "She is inTom Dreadnought, who behaved himself well deed," continued my guide, "the ornament, in the late wars, but has for these ten years as well as the envy, of her sex.' At these last last past been aiming at some post of honour words he pointed to the hearts of several of to no purpose. He is lately retired into the her female acquaintance which lay in different country, where, quite choked up with spleen phials, and had very large spots in them, all and choler, he rails at better men than him- of a deep blue. "You are not to wonder," self, and will be for ever uneasy, because it says he, "that you see no spot in an heart is impossible he should think his merits suffi-whose innocence has been proof against all ciently rewarded." The next heart that I ex- the corruptions of a depraved age. If it has amined was remarkable for its smallness; it any blemish, it is too small to be discovered lay still at the bottom of the phial, and I could by human eyes. →

hardly perceive that it beat at all. The fomes 'I laid it down, and took up the hearts of was quite black, and had almost diffused itself other females, in all of which the fomes ran over the whole heart. "This," says my in- in several veins, which were twisted together, terpreter, "is the heart of Dick Gloomy, who and made a very perplexed figure. I asked never thirsted after any thing but money. Not- the meaning of it, and was told it represented withstanding all his endeavours, he is still deceit.

poor. This has flung him into a most de- 'I should have been glad to have examined plorable state of melancholy and despair. the hearts of several of my acquaintance, He is a composition of envy and idleness; whom I knew to be particularly addicted to hates mankind, but gives them their revenge drinking, gaming, intriguing, &c. but my interby being more uneasy to himself than to any preter told me, I must let that alone until anone else." other opportunity, and flung down the cover 'The phial I looked upon next contained a of the chest with so much violence as immedilarge fair heart, which beat very strongly.ately awoke me.'

The fomes or spot in it was exceedingly small;

Dicitis, omnis in imbecilitate est et gratia, et caritas.

Cicero.

but I could not help observing that, which way No. 588.] Wednesday, September 1, 1714. soever I turned the phial, it always appeared uppermost, and in the strongest point of light "The heart you are examining," says my companion, "belongs to Will Worthy. He has, indeed, a most noble soul, and is posses-ed in weakness. sed of a thousand good qualities. The speck which you discover is vanity.'

66

You pretend that all kindness and benevolence is found

MAN may be considered in two views, as a

Here," says the angel," is the heart of reasonable and as a social being; capable of Freelove, your intimate friend." "Freelove becoming himself either happy or miserable, and I," said I, “are at present very cold to and of contributing to the happiness or misery one another, and I do dot care for looking on of his fellow-creatures. Suitably to this douthe heart of a man which I fear is overcast ble capacity, the Contriver of human nature with rancour. 11 My teacher commanded me hath wisely furnished it with two principles of to look upon it; I did so, and, to my unspeak-action, self-love and benevolence; designed able surprise, found that a small swelling spot, one of them to render man wakeful to his own which I at first took to be ill-will towards me, personal interest, the other to dispose him for was only passion; and that upon my nearer giving his utmost assistance to all engaged in inspection it wholly disappeared; upon which the same pursuit. This is such an account the phantom told me Freelove was one of the of our frame, so agreeable to reason, so much best-natured men alive. for the honour of our Maker, and the credit "This," says my teacher, "is a female of our species, that it may appear somewhat heart of your acquaintance." I found the unaccountable what should induce men to refomes in it of the largest size, and of an hun- present human nature as they do, under chadred different colours, which were still vary-[racters of disadvantage; or having drawn it ing every moment. Upon my asking to whom with a little sordid aspect, what pleasure they it belonged, I was informed that it was the can possibly take in such a picture. Do they heart of Coquetilla. reflect that it is their own; and, if we would

I set it down, and drew out another, in believe themselves, is not more odious than the which I took the fomes at first sight to be very original? One of the first that talked in this small, but was amazed to find that, as I looked lofty strain of our nature was Epicurus. Benesteadfastly upon it, it grew still larger. It ficence, would his followers say, is all founded was the heart of Melissa, a noted prude, who in weakness; and, whatever be pretended, the lives the next door to me. kindness that passeth between men and men "I show you this," says the phantom, "be-is by every man directed to himself. This, it cause it is indeed a rarity, and you have the must be confessed, is of a piece with the rest

of that hopeful philosophy, which, having its affections and its understanding? Or could patched man up out of the four elements, at- a society of such creatures, with no other bottributes his being to chance, and derives all tom but self-love on which to maintain a comhis actions from an unintelligible declination merce, ever flourish? Reason, it is certain, of atoms. And for these glorious discoveries, would oblige every man to pursue the general the poet is beyond measure transported in happiness as the means to procure and estabthe praises of his hero, as if he must needs be lish his own; and yet, if, besides this consisomething more than man, only for an en-deration, there were not a natural instinct endeavour to prove than man is in nothing prompting men to desire the welfare and sasuperior to beasts. In this school was Mr. tisfaction of others, self-love, in defiance of Hobbes instructed to speak after the same the admonitions of reason, would quickly run manner, if he did not rather draw his know- all things into a state of war and confusion. ledge from an observation of his own tem- As nearly interested as the soul is in the fate per; for he somewhere unluckily lays down of the body, our provident Creator saw it nethis as a rule, That from the similitudes of cessary, by the constant returns of hunger thoughts and passions of one man to the and thirst, those importunate appetites, to thoughts and passions of another, whosoever put it in mind of its charge: knowing that if looks into himself, and considers what he doth we should eat and drink no oftener than cold when he thinks, hopes, fears, &c. and upon abstracted speculation should put us upon these what grounds, he shall hereby read and know exercises, and then leave it to reason to prewhat are the thoughts and passions of all scribe the quantity, we should soon refine ourother men upon the like occasions. Now selves out of this bodily life. And, indeed, we will allow Mr. Hobbes to know best how it is obvious to remark, that we follow nothing he was inclined; but, in earnest, I should be heartily unless carried to it by inclinations heartily out of conceit with myself, if I thought which anticipate our reason, and, like a bias, myself of this unamiable temper, as he affirms, draw the mind strongly towards it. In order, and should have as little kindness for myself therefore, to establish a perpetual intercourse as for any body in the world. Hitherto al- of benefits amongst mankind, their Maker ways imagined that kind and benevolent would not fail to give them this generous prepropensions were the original growth of the possession of benevolence, if, as I have said, heart of man; and, however checked and it were possible. And from whence can we overtopped by counter inclinations, that have go about to argue its impossibility? Is it insince sprung up within us, have still some consistent with self-love? Are their motions force in the worst of tempers, and a conside- contrary? No more than the diurnal rotation rable influence on the best. And, methinks, of the earth is opposed to its annual, or, its it is a fair step towards the proof of this, that the most beneficent of all beings is he who hath an absolute fulness of perfection in himself; who gave existence to the universe, and so cannot be supposed to want that which he communicated, without diminishing from the plenitude of his own power and happiness. The philosophers before mentioned have indeed done all that in them lay to invalidate this argument; for, placing the gods in a state of signed. the most elevated blessedness, they describe But, to descend from reason to matter of them as selfish as we poor miserable mortals fact; the pity which arises on sight of persons can be, and shut them out from all concern in distress, and the satisfaction of mind which for mankind, upon the score of their having is the consequence of having removed them no need of us. But if He that sitteth in the into a happier state, are instead of a thousand heavens wants not us, we stand in continual arguments to prove such a thing as a disinteneed of him; and surely, next to the survey rested benevolence. Did pity proceed from a of the immense treasures of his own mind, reflection we make upon our liableness to the the most exalted pleasures he receives is from same ill accidents we see befall others, it were beholding millions of creatures, lately drawn nothing to the present purpose; but this is asout of the gulf of non-existence, rejoicing in signing an artificial cause of a natural passion, the various degrees of being and happiness and can by no means be admitted as a toler. imparted to them. And as this is the true, able account of it, because children and perthe glorious character of the Deity, so in for- sons most thoughtless about their own condiming a reasonable creature he would not, if tion, and incapable of entering into the prospossible, suffer his image to pass out of his pects of futurity, feel the most violent touches hands unadorned with a resemblance of him- of compassion. And then, as to that charming self in this most lovely part of his nature. For delight which immediately follows the giving what complacency could a mind, whose love joy to another, as relieving his sorrow, and is, is as unbounded as his knowledge, have in a when the objects are numerous, and the kindwork so unlike himself; a creature that should ness of importance, really inexpressible, what be capable of knowing and conversing with a can this be owing to but consciousress of a vast circle of objects, and love none but him- man's having done something praise-worthy, self? What proportion would there be between and expressive of a great soul? Whereas, if in the head and the heart of such a creature, all this he only sacrificed to vanity and self

motion round its own centre, which might be improved as an illustration of self-love, to that which whirls it about the common centre of the world, answering to universal benevolence. Is the force of self-love abated, or its interest prejudiced, by benevolence? So far from it, that benevolence, though a distinct principle, is extremely serviceable to self-love, and then doth most service when it is least de

love, as there would be nothing brave in ac-[right or left, you are in a forest, where nature tions that make the most shining appearance, presents you with a much more beautiful scene so nature would not have rewarded thein with than could have been raised by art. this divine pleasure; nor could the commen- 'Instead of tulips or carnations, I can show dations, which a person receives for benefits you oaks in my garden of four hundred years done upon selfish views, be at all more satis-standing, and a knot of elms that might shelfactory than when he is applauded for what ter a troop of horse from the rain. he doth without design; because, in both cases, 'It is not without the utmost indignation that the ends of self-love are equally answered. I observe several prodigal young heirs in the The conscience of approving oneself a bene- neighbourhood felling down the most glorious factor to mankind is the noblest recompense monuments of their ancestors' industry, and for being so; doubtless it is, and the most in- ruining, in 'a day, the product of ages. terested cannot propose any thing so much to 'I am mightily pleased with your discourse their own advantage; notwithstanding which, upon planting, which put me upon looking the inclination is nevertheless unselfish. The into my books, to give you some account of pleasure which attends the gratification of our the veneration the ancients had for trees. hunger and thirst, is not the cause of these ap- There is an old tradition, that Abraham plantpetites; they are previous to any such pros-ed a cypress, a pine, and a cedar; and that pect; and so likewise is the desire of doing these three incorporated into one tree, which good; with this difference, that, being seated was cut down for the building of the temple of in the intellectual part, this last, though ante- Solomon. cedent to reason, may yet be improved and re- 'Isidorus, who lived in the reign of Congulated by it; and, I will add, is no otherwise stantius, assures us, that he saw, even in his a virtue than as it is so. Thus have I conten- time, that famous oak in the plains of Mamre, ded for the dignity of that nature I have the under which Abraham is reported to have honour to partake of; and, after all the evi- dwelt; and adds, that the people looked upon dence produced, I think I have a right to con- it with a great veneration, and preserved it as clude, against the motto of this paper, that a sacred tree.

'If we consider the machine in Virgil, so much blamed by several critics, in this light, we shall hardly think it too violent.

there is such a thing as generosity in the world. The heathens still went farther, and reThough, if I were under a mistake in this, I garded it as the highest piece of sacrilege to should say as Cicero, in relation to the immor-injure certain trees which they took to be protality of the soul, I willingly err, and should tected by some deity. The story of Erisicthon, believe it very much for the interest of man- the grove at Dodona, and that at Delphi, are kind to lie under the same delusion. For the all instances of this kind. contrary notion naturally tends to dispirit the mind, and sinks it into a meanness fatal to the God-like zeal of doing good: as, on the other hand, it teaches people to be ungrate- 'Æneas, when he built his fleet in order to ful, by possessing them with a persuasion con- sail for Italy, was obliged to cut down the cerning their benefactors, that they have no grove on mount Ida, which however he durst regard to them in the benefits they bestow. not do until he had obtained leave from CyNow he that banishes gratitude from among bele, to whom it was dedicated. The goddess men, by so doing stops up the stream of bene- could not but think herself obliged to protect ficence: for though in conferring kindnesses, these ships, which were made of consecrated a truly generous man doth not aim at a re-timber, after a very extraordinary manner, turn, yet he looks to the qualitles of the person and therefore desired Jupiter that they might obliged; and as nothing renders a person not be obnoxious to the power of waves or more unworthy of a benefit than his being winds. Jupiter would not grant this, but prowithout all resentment of it, he will not be extremely forward to oblige such a man.

No 589.] Friday, September 3, 1714.
Persquitur scelus ille suum; labefactaque tandem
Ictibus innumeris, adductaque funibus arbor
Corruit-
Ooid. Met. Lib. 8. 774.
The impious axe he plies, loud strokes resound:
Till dragg'd with ropes, and fell'd, with many a wound,
The loosen'd tree comes rushing to the ground.

SIR,

'I AM SO great an admirer of trees, that the spot of ground L have chosen to build a small seat upon in the country is almost in the midst of large wood. I was obliged, much against my will, to cut down several trees, that I might have any such thing as a walk in my gardens; but then I have taken care to leave the space, between every walk, as much a wood as found it. The moment you turn either to the

mised her that as many as came safe to Italy should be transformed into goddesses of the sea; which the poet tells us was accordingly executed.

66

And now at length the number'd hours were come,
Prefix'd by Fate's irrevocable doom,
When the great mother of the gods was free
To save her ships, and finish Jove's decree.
First, from the quarter of the morn there sprung
A light that sing'd the heavens, and shot along:
Then from a cloud, fring'd round with golden fires,
Were timbrels heard, and Berecynthian quires:
And last a voice with more than mortal sounds,
Both hosts in arms oppos'd with equal horror wounds.
'O Trojan race, your needless aid forbear;
And know my ships are my peculiar care.
With greater ease the bold Rutulian may,
With hissing brands, attempt to burn the sea,
Than singe my sacred pines. But you, my charge,
Loos'd from your crooked anchors, launch at large,
Exalted each a nymph: forsake the sand,
And swim the seas, at Cybelle's command.'
No sooner had the goddess ceas'd to speak,
When lo, th' obedient ships their hawsers break,
And, strange to tell, like dolphins in the main,
They plunge their prows, and dive and spring again:

As many beauteous maids the billows sweep,
As rode before tall vessels on the deep."

beginning nor an end. In our speculations of infinite space, we consider that particular place Dryden's Virg.in which we exist as a kind of centre to the

The common opinion concerning the whole expansion. In our speculations of eternymphs, whom the ancients called Hamadryads, nity, we consider the time which is present to is more to the honour of trees than any thing us as the middle, which divides the whole line yet mentioned. It was thought the fate of into two equal parts. For this reason, many these nymphs had so near a dependence on witty authors compare the present time to an some trees, more especially oaks that they isthmus, or narrow neck of land, that rises in lived and died together. For this reason they the midst of an ocean, immeasurably diffused were extremely grateful to such persons who on either side of it.

preserved those trees with which their being 'Philosophy, and indeed common sense, nasubsisted. Apollonius tells us a very remark-turally throws eternity under two divisions, able story to this purpose, with which I shall which we may call in English that eternity conclude my letter. which is past, and that eternity which is to

A certain man, called Rhæcus, observing come, The learned terms of Eternitas a parte an old oak ready to fall, and being moved with ante, and Eternitas a parte post, may be more a sort of compassion towards the tree, ordered amusing to the reader, but can have no other his servants to pour in fresh earth at the roots idea affixed to them than what is conveyed to of it, and set it upright. The Hamadryad, us by those words, an eternity that is past, and or nymph, who must necessarily have perished eternities is bounded at the one extreme, or, in an eternity that is to come. Each of these with the tree, appeared to him the next day, and, after having returned him her thanks, told other words, the former has an end and the him she was ready to grant whatever he should latter a beginning. ask. As she was extremely beautiful, Rhæcus 'Let us first of all consider that eternity desired he might be entertained as her lover. which is past, reserving that which is to come The Hamadryad, not much displeased with the for the subject of another paper

The nature

request, promised to give him a meeting, but of this eternity is utterly inconceivable by the commanded him for some days to abstain from mind of man; our reason demonstrates to us the embraces of all other women, adding, that that it has been, but at the same time can frame she would send a bee to him, to let him know no idea of it, but what is big with absurdity when he was to be happy. Rhæcus was, it and contradiction. We can have no other conseems, too much addicted to gaming, and hap- ception of any duration which is past, than that pened to be in a run of ill-luck when the faith- all of it was once present: and whatever was ful bee came buzzing about him; so that, in- once present is at some certain distance from stead of minding his kind invitation, he had us, and whatever is at any certain distance like to have killed him for his pains. The Ha- from us, be the distance never so remote, canmadryad was so provoked at her own disap-ration being past implies that it was once prenot be eternity. The very notion of any dupointment, and the ill usage of her messenger, that she deprived Rhæcus of the use of his limbs. However, says the story, he was not so much a cripple, but he made a shift to cut down the tree, and consequently to fell his mistress.'

No. 590.] Monday, September 6, 1714.

-Assidno labuntur tempora motu
Non secus ac flumen. Neque enim consistere flumen,
Nec levis hora potest: sed ut unda impellitur unda,
Urgeturque prior venienti, urgetque priorem,
Tempora sic fugiunt pariter, pariturque sequunter
Et nova sunt semper. Nam quod fuit ante, relictum est;
Fitque quod haud fuerat: momentaque euncta novantur.
Ovid, Met. Lib. xv. 179.

E'en times are in perpetual flux, and run,
Like rivers from their fountains, rolling on.
For time, no more than streams, is at a stay;
The flying hour is ever or her way;

sent, for the idea of being once present is actually included in the idea of its being past. This therefore is a depth not to be sounded by human understanding. We are sure that there has been an eternity, and yet contradict ourselves when we measure this etereity by any notion which we can frame of it.

'If we go to the bottom of this matter, we shall find that the difficulties we meet with in our conceptions of eternity proceed from this single reason, that we can have no other idea of any kind of duration, than that by which we ourselves, and all other created beings, do exist; which is, a successive duration made up of past, present, and to come. There is nothing which exists after this manner, all the parts of whose existence were not once actually present, and consequently may be reached by a certain number of years applied to it. We may ascend as high as we please, and employ our being to that eternity which is to come, in adding millions of years to millions of years, and we can never come up to any fountain-head of duration, to any beginning in eternity: but at the same time we are sure, that whatever was once present does lie within the reach of numbers, though perhaps we can never be able to put enough of them together for that purpose. We 'WE consider infinite space as an expansion may as well say. that any thing may be actuwithout a circumference: we consider eternity ally present in any part of infinite space, which or infinite duration, as a line that has neither a does not lie at a certain distance from us, as

And as the fountains still supply their store,
The wave behind impels the wave before;
Thus in successive course the minutes run,
And urge their predecessor minutes on.
Still moving, ever new: for former things
Are laid aside, like abdicated kings:
And every moment alters what is done,
And innovates some act, till then unknown.

Dryden. The following discourse comes from the same hand with the essays upon infinitude.

that any part of infinite duration was once ac- who is environed with so much glory and pertually present, and does not also lie at some de- fection, who is the source of being the fountain termined distance from us. The distance in of all that existence which we and his whole both cases may be immeasurable and indefinite creation derive from him. Let us therefore, as to our faculties, but our reason tells us that with the utmost humility, acknowledge, that, as it cannot be so in itself. Here therefore is that some being must necessarily have existed from difficulty which human understanding is not eternity, so this being does exist after an incapable of surmounting. We are sure that comprehensible manner, since it is impossible something must have existed from eternity, for a being to have existed from eternity after and are at the same time unable to conceive, our manner or notions of existence. Revelathat any thing which exists, according to our tion confirms these natural dictates of reason notion of existence, can have existed from in the accounts which it gives us of the divine eternity. existence, where it tells us, that he is the same 'It is hard for a reader, who has not rolled yesterday, to-day, and for ever; that he is the this thought in his own mind, to follow in such Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the endan abstracted speculation; but I have been the ing; that a thousand years are with him as one longer on it, because I think it is a demontra- day, and one day as a thousand years by tive argument of the being and eternity of God: which, and the like expressions, we are taught and, though there are many other demonstra- that his existence, with relation to time or dutions which lead us to this great truth, I do not ration, is infinitely different from the existence think we ought to lay aside any proofs in this of any of his creatures, and consequently that matter, which the light of reason has suggested it is impossible for us to frame any adequate to us, especially when it is such an one as has conceptions of it.

been urged by men famous for their penetra- 'In the first revelation which he makes of his tion and force of understanding, and which ap-own being, he entitles himself, "I Am that I pears altogether conclusive to those who will be at the pains to examine it.

'Having thus considered that eternity which is past, according to the best idea we can frame of it, I shall now draw up those several articles on this subject, which are dictated to us by the light of reason, and which may be looked upon as the creed of a philosopher in this great point.

'First, it is certain that no being could have made itself; for, if so, it must have acted before it was, which is a contradiction.

Am;" and when Moses desires to know what name he shall give him in his embassy to Pharaoh, he bids him say that "I Am hath sent you." Our Great Creator, by this revelation of himself, does in a manner exclude every thing else from a real existence, and distinguishes himself from his creatures as the only being which truly and really exists. The ancient Platonic notion, which was drawn from speculations of eternity, wonderfully agrees with this revelation which God has made of himself. There is nothing, say they, which in reality exists, whose existence, as we call it, is pieced up of past, present, and to come. Such a flit'Thirdly, That whatever exists after the ting and successive existence is rather a shamanner of created beings, or according to any dow of existence, and something which is like notions which we have of existence, could not it, than existence itself. He only properly have existed from eternity. exists whose existence is entirely present; that is, in other words, who exists in the most perfect manner, and in such a manner as we have no idea of.

'Secondly, That therefore some being must have existed from all eternity.

'Fourthly, That this Eternal Being must therefore be the great Author of nature, "the Ancient of Days." who, being at an infinite distance in his perfections from all finite and created beings, exists in a quite different manner from them, and in a manner of which they can have no idea.

'I know that several of the schoolmen, who would not be thought ignorant of any thing, have pretended to explain the manner of God's existence, by telling us that he comprehends infinite duration in every moment: that eternity is with him a punctum stans, a fixed point; or, which is as good sense, an infinite instant; that nothing, with reference to his existence, is either past or to come to which the ingenious Mr. Cowley alludes in his description of heaven:

I shall conclude this speculation with one useful inference. How can we sufficiently prostrate ourselves and fall down before our Maker, when we consider that ineffable goodness and wisdom which contrived this existence for finite natures? What must be the overflowings of that good-will, which prompted our Creator to adapt existence to beings in whom it is not necessary? especially when we consider that he himself was before in the complete possesion of existence and of happiness, and in the full enjoyment of eternity. What man can think of himself as called out and separated from nothing, of his being made a conscious, a reasonable and a happy creature, in short, in being taken in as a sharer of existence, and a kind of partner in eternity, without being swallowed For my own part, I look upon these pro- up in wonder, in praise, in adoration! It is positions as words that have no ideas annexed indeed a thought too big for the mind of man, to them; and think men had better own their and rather to be entertained in the secrecy of ignorance than advance doctrines by which devotion, and in the silence of his soul, than to they mean nothing, and which, indeed, are be expressed by words. The Supreme Being self-contradictory. We cannot be too modest has not given us powers or faculties sufficient to in our disquisitions when we meditate on Him, extol and magnify such unutterable goodness.

"Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal now does always last."