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to have it fresh from the tree; and to convey it to my friends before it is faded. Accordingly my expenses in coach-hire make no small article: which you may believe, when I assure you, that I post away from coffee-house to coffee-house, and forestal the Evening-post by two hours. There is a certain gentleman, who hath given me the slip twice or thrice, and hath been beforehand with me at Child's. But I have played him a trick. I have purchased a pair of the best coach-horses I could buy for money, and now let him outstrip me if he can. Once more, Mr. Spectator, let me advise you to deal in news. You may depend upon my assistance. But I must break off abruptly, for I have twenty letters to write.

"Yours, in haste,

"THOS. QUIDNUNC."

No. 626.] MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1714. Dulcique animos novitate tenebo.-Ovin, Met. 1. 1.

With sweet novelty your taste I'll please.-EUSDEN.

I HAVE seen a little work of a learned man, consisting of extemporary speculations, which owed their birth to the most trifling occurrences of life. His usual method was to write down any sudden start of thought which arose in his mind upon the sight of an odd gesticulation in a man, any whimsical mimicry of reason in a beast, or whatever appeared remarkable in any object of the visible creation. He was able to moralize upon a snuff-box, would flourish eloquently upon a tucker or a pair of ruffles, and draw practical inferences from a full bottomed periwig. This I thought fit to mention, by way of excuse for my ingenious correspondent, who hath introduced the following letter by an image which I beg leave to tell him, is too ridiculous in so serious and noble a speculation.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"When I have seen young puss playing her wanton gambols, and with a thousand antic shapes express her own gaiety at the same time that she moved mine, while the old grannum hath sat by with a most exemplary gravity, unmoved at all that passed, it hath made me reflect what should be the occasion of humours so opposite in two creatures, between whom there was no visible difference but that of age; and I have been able to resolve it into nothing else but the force of novelty.

"In every species of creatures, those who have been least time in the world appear best pleased with their condition: for, besides that, to a new comer, the world bath a freshness on it that strikes the sense after a most agreeable manner. Being itself, unattended with any great variety of enjoyments, excites a sensation of pleasure; Lut, as age advances, every thing seems to wither, the senses are disgusted with their old entertainments, and existence turns flat and insipid. We may see this exemplified in mankind. The child, let him be free from pain, and gratified in his change of toys, is diverted with the smallest trifle. Nothing disturbs the mirth of the boy but a little punishment or confinement. The youth must have more violent pleasures to employ his time. The man loves the hurry of an active life, devoted to the pursuits of wealth or ambition. And lastly, old age, having lost its capacity for these avocations, becomes its own insupportable burden. This variety may in part be accounted for by the vivacity and decay of the

faculties; but I believe is chiefly owing to the, that the longer we have been in possession of being, the less sensible is the gust we have of it; and the more it requires of adventitious amusements to relieve us from the satiety and weariness it brings along with it, "And as novelty is of a very powerful, so is it of a most extensive influence. Moralists have long since observed it to be the source of admiration, which lessens in proportion to our familiarity with objects, and upon a thorough acquaintance is utterly extinguished. But I think it hath 1.ot been so commonly remarked, that all the other passions depend considerably on the same circumstance. What is it but novelty that awakens desire, enhances delight, kindles anger, provokes envy, inspires horror? To this cause we must ascribe it, that love languishes with fruition, and friendship itself is recommended by intervals of absence: hence monsters, by use, are beheld without loathing, and the most enchanting beauty without rapture. That emotion of the spirits, in which passion consists, is usually the effect of surprise, and, as long as it continues, heightens the agreeable or disagreeable qualities of its object; but as this emotion ceases (and it ceases with the novelty) things appear in another light, and affect us even less than might be expected from their proper energy, for having moved us too mach before.

"It may not be a useless inquiry how far the love of novelty is the unavoidable growth of nature, and in what respects it is peculiarly adapted to the present state. To me it seems impossible that a reasonable creature should rest absolutely satisfied in any acquisitions whatever, without endeavouring farther; for, after its highest improvements, the mind hath an idea of an infinity of things still behind worth knowing, to the knowledge of which therefore it cannot be indifferent; as by climbing up a hill in the midst of a wild plain a man hath his prospect enlarged, and, together with that, the bounds of his desires. Upon this account, I cannot think he detracts from the state of the blessed who conceives them to be perpetually employed in fresh searches into nature, and to eternity advancing into the fathomless depths of the divine perfections. In this thought, there is nothing but what doth honour to these glorified spirits; provided still it be remem bered, that their desire of more proceeds not from their disrelishing what they possess; and the pleasure of a new enjoyment is not with them measured by its novelty (which is a thing merely foreign and accidental), but by its real intrinsic value. After an acquaintance of many thousand years with the works of God, the beauty and magnificence of the creation fills them with the same pleasing wonder and profound awe which Adam felt himself seized with as he first opened his eyes upon this glorious scene. Truth captivates with unborrowed charms, and whatever hath once given satisfaction will always do it. In all which they have manifestly the advantage of us, who are so much governed by sickly and changeable appetites, that we can with the greatest coldness behold the stupendous displays of Omnipotence, and be in transports at the puny essays of human skill; throw aside speculations of the sublimest nature and vastest importance into some obscure corner of the mind, to make room for new notions of no conse quence at all: are even tired of health, because not enlivened with alternate pain; and prefer the first reading of an indifferent author to the second or third perusal of one whose merit and reputation are established.

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can think of: Surely,' say I to myself, life is vain, and the man beyond expression stupid or prejudiced, who from the vanity of life cannot gather that he is designed for immortality.''

No. 627.] WEDNESDAY, DEC. 1, 1714.
Tantum inter densas umbrosa cacumina, fagos
Assidue veniebat; ibi hæc incondita solus
Montibus et sylvis studio jactabat inani-VIRG. Ecl. 1 3.
He underneath the beechen shade, alone,
Thus to the woods and mountains made his moan

DRYDEN.

THE following account, which came to my hands some time ago, may be no disagreeable entertain ment to such of my readers as have tender hearts, and nothing to do:

"MR. SPECTATOR,

'Our being thus formed serves many useful purposes in the present state. It contributes not a little to the advancement of learning; for, as Cicero takes notice, that which makes men willing to undergo the fatigues of philosophical disquisitions, is not so much the greatness of objects as their novelty. It is not enough that there is field and game for the chase, and that the understanding is prompted with a restless thirst of knowledge, effectually to rouse the soul sunk into a state of sloth and indolence; it is also necessary that there be an uncommon pleasure annexed to the first appearance of truth in the mind. This pleasure being exquisite for the time it lasts, but transient, it hereby comes to pass that the mind grows into an indifference to its former notions, and passes on after new discoveries, in hope of repeating the delight. It is with knowledge as with wealth, the pleasure of which lies more in making endless additions than in taking a review of our old store. There are some inconveniences that fol- "A friend of mine died of a fever last week, which low this temper, if not guarded against, particularly he caught by walking too late in a dewy evening this, that, through a too great eagerness of some-amongst his reapers. I must inform you that his thing new, we are many times impatient of staying greatest pleasure was in husbandry and gardening. long enough upon a question that requires some He had some humours which seemed inconsistent time to resolve it; or, which is worse, persuade our with that good sense he was otherwise master of. selves that we are masters of the subject before we His uneasiness in the company of women was very are so, only to be at the liberty of going upon a remarkable in a man of such perfect good-breeding; fresh scent: in Mr. Locke's words, We see a and his avoiding one particular walk in his garden, little, presume a great deal, and so jump to the where he had used to pass the greatest part of his conclusion.' time, raised abundance of idle conjectures in the "A further advantage of our inclination for no- village where he lived. Upon looking over his velty, as at present circumstantiated, is, that it an- papers we found out the reason, which he never innihilates all the boasted distinctions among man-timated to his nearest friends. He was, it seems, a kind. Look not up with envy to those above thee! Sounding titles, stately buildings, fine gardens, gilded chariots, rich equipages, what are they? They dazzle every one but the possessor; to him that is accustomed to them they are cheap and regardless things; they supply him not with brighter images or more sublime satisfactions, than the plain man may have whose small estate will just enable him to support the charge of a simple unencumbered life. He enters heedless into his rooms of state, as you or I do under our poor sheds. The poor paintings and costly furniture are lost on him; he sees them not; as how can it be otherwise, when by custom a fabric infinitely more grand and finished, that of the universe, stands unobserved by the inhabitants, and the everlasting lamps of heaven are lighted up in vain, for any notice that mortals take of them? Thanks to indulgent nature, which not only placed her children originally upon a level, but still, by the strength of this principle, in a great measure preserves it, in spite of all the care of man to introduce artificial distinctions.

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passionate lover in his youth, of which a large par cel of letters he left behind him are a witness. I send you a copy of the last he ever wrote upon that subject, by which you find that he concealed the true name of his mistress under that of Zelinda:--

"A long month's absence would be insupportable to me, if the business I am employed in were not for the service of my Zelinda, and of such a nature as to place her every moment in my mind. I have furnished the house exactly according to your fancy, or, if you please, my own; for I have long since learned to like nothing but what you do. The apartment designed for your use is so exact a copy of that which you live in, that I often think myself in your house when I step into it, but sigh when I find it without its proper inhabitant. You will have the most delicious prospect from your closet window that England affords: I am sure I should think it so, if the landscape that shows such variety did not at the same time suggest to me the greatness of the space that lies between us.

"The gardens are laid out very beautifully; I To add no more-is not this fondness for no- have dressed up every hedge in woodbines, sprinkled velty, which makes us out of conceit with all we bowers and arbours in every corner, and made a already have, a convincing proof of a future state ? little paradise round me yet I am still like the first Either man was made in vain, or this is not the man in his solitude, but half blessed without a partonly world he was made for: for there cannot be a ner in my happiness. I have directed one walk to greater instance of vanity than that to which man be made for two persons, where I promise ten thouis liable, to be deluded from the cradle to the grave sand satisfactions to myself in your conversation. with fleeting shadows of happiness. His pleasures, I already take my evening's turn in it, and have and those not considerable neither, die in the pos-worn a path upon the edge of this little alley, while session, and fresh enjoyments do not rise fast enough I soothed myself with the thought of your walking to fill up half his life with satisfaction. When I see by my side. I have held many imaginary discourses persons sick of themselves any longer than they are with you in this retirement; and when I have been called away by something that is of force to chain down the present thought: when I see them hurry from country to town, and then from the town back again into the country, continually shifting postures, and placing life in all the different lights they SPECTATOR-No. 89.

weary have sat down with you in the midst of a row of jessamines. The many expressions of joy and rapture I use in these silent conversations have made me for some time the talk of the parish; but a neighbouring young fellow, who makes love to the

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farmer's daughter, hath found me out, and made my case known to the whole neighbourhood.

In planting of the fruit-trees I have not forgot the peach you are so fond of. I have made a walk of elms along the river side, and intend to sow all the place about it with cowslips, which I hope you will like as well as that I have heard you talk of by your father's house in the country.

notwithstanding the long race that we shall then have run, we shall still imagine ourselves just start. ing from the goal, and find no proportion between that space which we know had a beginning, and what we are sure will never have an end.

"But I shall leave this subject to your management, and question not but you will throw it into such lights as shall at once improve and entertain your reader.

"Oh! Zelinda, what a scheme of delight have I drawn up in my imagination! What day dreams do "I have, enclosed, sent you a translation of the I indulge myself in! When will the six weeks be at speech of Cato on this occasion, which hath accian end, that lie between me and my promised hap-dentally fallen into my hands, and which, for conpiness! ciseness, purity, and elegance of phrase, cannot be sufficiently admired.

"How could you break off so abruptly in your last, and tell me you must go and dress for the play? If you loved as I do, you would find no more company in a crowd than I have in my solitude, I am,' &c.

"On the back of the letter is written, in the hand of the deceased, the following piece of history:

"Mem. Having waited a whole week for an answer to this letter, I hurried to town, where I found the perfidious creature married to my rival. I will bear it as becomes a man, and endeavour to find out. happiness for myself in that retirement which I had prepared in vain for a false, ungrateful woman.' "I am," &c.

No. 628.] FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1714.

Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum.
HOR. 1 Ep. ii. 43.

It rolls, and rolls, and will for ever roll. "MR. SPECTATOR,

"THERE are none of your speculations which please me more than those upon infinitude and eternity. You have already considered that part of eternity which is past, and I wish you would give us your thoughts upon that which is to come.

"Your readers will perhaps receive greater pleasure from this view of eternity than the former, since we have every one of us a concern in that which is to come: whereas a speculation on that which is past is rather curious than useful.

"Besides, we can easily conceive it possible for successive duration never to have an end; though, as you have justly observed, that eternity which never had a beginning is altogether incomprehensible; that is, we can conceive an eternal duration which may be, though we cannot an eternal duration which hath been; or, if I may use the philosophical terms, we may apprehend a potential though not an actual eternity.

"This notion of a future eternity, which is natural to the mind of man, is an unanswerable argument that he is a being designed for it; especially if we consider that he is capable of being virtuous or vicious here; that he hath faculties improveable to all eternity; and, by a proper or wrong employment of them may be happy or miserable throughout that infinite duration. Our idea indeed of this eternity is not of an adequate or fixed nature, but is perpetually growing and enlarging itself towards the object, which is too big for human comprehension. As we are now in the beginnings of existence, so shall we always appear to ourselves as if we were for ever entering upon it. After a million or two of centuries, some considerable things already past, may slip out of our memory, which, if it be not strengthened in a wonderful manner, may possibly forget that ever there was a sun or planets; and yet,

ACT V. SCENE 1.
CATO solus, &c.

Sic, sic se habere rem necesse prorsus est,
Ratione vincis, do lubens manus, Plato.
Quid enim dedisset, quæ dedit frustra nihil,
Æternitatis insitam cupidinem
Natura? Quorsum hæc dulcis expectatio;
Vitæque non explenda melioris sitis?
Quid vult sibi aliud iste redeundi in nihil
Horror, sub imis quemque agens præcordiis?
Cur territa in se refugit anima, cur tremit
Attonita, quoties, morte ne pereat, timet?
Partícula nempe est cuique nascenti indita
Divinior; quæ corpus incolens agit;
Hominique succinit, tua est æternitas.
Æternitas! O lubricum nimis aspici,
Mixtumque dulci gaudium formidine!

Quæ demigrabitur alia hinc in corpora?
Que terra mox incognita? Quis orbis novus
Manet incolendus? Quanta erit mutatio?
Hæc intuenti spatia mihi quaqua patent
Immensa: sed caliginosa nox premit;
Nec luce clara vult videri singula.
Figendus hic pes; certa sunt hæc hactenus:
Si quod gubernet numen humanum genus,
(At, quod gubernet, esse clamant omnia)
Virtute non gaudere certe non potest:
Nec esse non beata, qua gaudet, potest.
Sed qua beata sede? Quove in tempore?
Hæc quanta quanta terra, tota est Cæsaris.
Quid dubius hæret animus usque adeo? Brevi
Hic nodum hic omnem expediet. Arma en induor.
[Ensi manum admoves.
In utramque partem facta; quæque vim inferant,
Et quæ propulsent! Dextera intentat necem ;
Vitam sinistra: vulnus hæc dabit manus;
Altera medelam vulneris: hic ad exitum
Deducet, ictu simplici; hæc vetant mori.
Secura ridet anima mucronis minas,
Ensesque strictos, interire nescia.
Extinguet ætas sidera diuturnior :
Ætate languens ipse sol obscurus
Emittet orbi consenescenti jubar :
Natura et ipsa sentiet quondam vices
Etatis; annis ipsa deficiat gravis:
At tibi juventus, at tibi immortalitas :
Tibi parta divum est vita. Periment mutuis
Elementa sese et interibunt ictibus.
Tu permanebis sola semper integra,
Tu cuncta rerur quassa, cuncta naufraga,
Jam portu in ipso tuta, contemplabere,
Compage rupta, corruent in se invicem,
Orbesque fractis ingerentur orbibus;
Illasa tu sedebis extra fragmina.

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It must be so-Plato, thou reason'st well-
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality:

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
"Tis the Divinity that stirs within us;
'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man
Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!

Through what variety of untry'd being,
Through what new scenes and changes must we pass?
The wide, th' unbounded prospect lies before me,
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it

This translation was by Mr. afterwards Dr. Bland, once schoolmaster, then provost of Eton, and dean of Durham

Here will I hold. If there's a Power above us.
And that there is all nature cries aloud

Through all her works,) he must delight in virtue;
And that which he delights in must be happy.

But when, or where ?This world was made for Casar.
I'm weary of conjectures-This must end them.

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knighthood, for having cuckolded Sir T. W. a notorious roundhead. રાયો

There is likewise the petition of one who, having let his beard grow from the martyrdom of King Charles I. until the restoration of King Charles II., [Laying his hand on his sword. desired in consideration thereof to be made a privy

Thus am I doubly arm'd; my death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me.
This in a moment brings me to an end;
But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul, secur'd in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years :
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,

The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds.

No. 629.] MONDAY DECEMBER 6, 1714.
Experiar quid concedatur in illos,
Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis, atque Latina
Juv. Sat i 170.

Since none the living dare implead,
Arraign them in the persons of the dead.-DRYDEN.
NEXT to the people who want a place, there are
none to be pitied more than those who are solicited
for one. A plain answer with a denial in it is looked
upon as pride, and a civil answer as a promise.

councillor.

I must not omit a memorial setting forth that the memorialist had, with great dispatch, carried a letter from a certain lord to a certain lord, wherein, as it afterward appeared, measures were concerted for the restoration, and without which he verily believes that happy revolution had never been effected; who thereupon humbly prays to be made post-mastergeneral.

A certain gentleman, who seems to write with a great deal of spirit, and uses the words, "gallantry" and "gentleman-like" very often in his petition, begs that (in consideration of his having worn his hat for ten years past in the loyal cavalier-cock, to his great danger and detriment) he may be made a captain of the guards.

I shall close my account of this collection of me. morials with the copy of one petition at length, which I recommend to my reader as a very valuable piece. "The Petition of E. H., Esq.

"Humbly showeth,

"That your petitioner's father's brother's uncle, Colonel W. H., lost the third finger of his left hand at Edgehill fight.

"That your petitioner, notwithstanding the smallness of his fortune (he being the younger brother), always kept hospitality, and drank confusion to the roundheads in half a score bumpers every Sunday in the year, as several honest gentlemen (whose names are underwritten) are ready to testify.

Nothing is more ridiculous than the pretensions of people upon these occasions. Every thing a man hath suffered, whilst his enemies were in play, was certainly brought about by the malice of the opposite party. A bad cause would not have been lost, if such a one had not been upon the bench; nor a profligate youth disinherited, if he had not got drunk every night by toasting an ousted ministry. I remember a tory, who, having been fined in a court of justice for a prank that deserved the pillory, de"That your petitioner is remarkable in his counsired upon the merit of it to be made a justice of peace when his friends came into power; and shall try, for having dared to treat Sir P. P. a cursed senever forget a whig criminal, who, upon being in-questrator, and three members of the assembly of dicted for a rape, told his friends, "You see what divines, with brawn and minced pies upon Newyear's-day. a man suffers for sticking to his principles."

The truth of it is, the sufferings of a man in a party are of a very doubtful nature. When they are such as have promoted a good cause, and fallen upon a man undeservedly, they have a right to be heard and recompensed beyond any other pretensions. But when they rise out of rashness or indiscretion, and the pursuit of such measures as have rather ruined than promoted the interest they aim at, which hath always been the case of many great sufferers, they only serve to recommend them to the children of violence or folly.

I have by me a bundle of memorials presented by several cavaliers upon the restoration of King Charles II., which may serve as so many instances to our present purpose.

"That your said humble petitioner hath been five times imprisoned in five several county-gaols, for having been a ring-leader in five different riots into which his zeal for the royal cause hurried him, when men of greater estates had not the courage to rise.

"That he the said E. H. hath had six duels and four-and-twenty boxing matches in defence of his majesty's title; and that he received such a blow upon the head at a bonfire in Stratford-upon-Avon, as he hath been never the better for from that day

to this.

"That your petitioner hath been so far from improving his fortune, in the late damnable times, that he verily believes, and hath good reason to imagine,

that if he had been master of an estate he had in

fallibly been plundered and sequestered.

Among several persons and pretensions recorded "Your petitioner, in consideration of his said by my author, he mentions one of a very great estate, who, for having roasted an ox whole, and dis-merits and sufferings, humbly requests that he may tributed a hogshead upon King Charles's birth-day, have the place of receiver of the taxes, collector of desired to be provided for as his majesty in his great the customs, clerk of the peace, deputy lieutenant, or whatsoever else he shall be thought qualified for. wisdom shall think fit. And your petitioner shall ever pray," &c.

Another put in to be Prince Henry's governor, for having dared to drink his health in the worst of times.

A third petitioned for a colonel's commission, for having cursed Oliver Cromwell, the day before his death, on a public bowling green.

No. 630.] WEDNESDAY, DEC. 8, 1714.
Favete linguis
HOR. 3 Od. i. 2.
With mute attention wait.

But the most whimsical petition I have met with, is that of B. B., Esq., who desired the honour of HAVING no spare time to write any thing of my

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" SIR,

are more deep and lasting, as the grounds from which it receives its authority are founded more upon reason. It diffuses a calmness all around us, it makes us drop all those vain or immodest thoughts which would be a hinderance to us in the perform

own, or to correct what is sent me by others, I have thought fit to publish the following letters :Oxford, Nov. 22. "If you would be so kind to me, as to suspend that satisfaction which the learned world must re-ance of that great duty of thanksgiving, which, as ceive in reading one of your speculations, by publishing this endeavour, you will very much oblige and improve one, who has the boldness to hope that he may be admitted into the number of your correspondents.

"I have often wondered to hear men of good sense and good-nature profess a dislike to music, when at the same time they do not scruple to own that it has the most agreeable and improving influences over their minds; it seems to me an unbappy contradiction, that those persons should have an indifference for an art which raises in them such a variety of sublime pleasures.

"However, though some few, by their own or the unreasonable prejudices of others, may be led into a distaste of those musical societies which are erected merely for entertainment, yet sure I may venture to say that no one can have the least reason for disaffection to that solemn kind of melody which consists of the praises of our Creator.

"You have, I presume, already prevented me in an argument upon this occasion, which some divines have successfully advanced upon a much greater, that musical sacrifice and adoration has claimed a place in the laws and customs of the most different nations, as the Grecians and Romans of the profane, the Jews and Christians of the sacred world, did as unanimously agree in this as they disagreed in all other parts of their economy.

we are informed by our Almighty Benefactor, is the most acceptable return which can be made for those infinite stores of blessings which he daily conde. scends to pour down upon his creatures. When we make use of this pathetical method of addressing ourselves to him, we can scarce contain from raptures! The heart is warmed with a sublimity of goodness! We are all piety and all love!

"How do the blessed spirits rejoice and wonder to behold unthinking man prostrating his soul to his dread Sovereign in such a warmth of piety as they themselves might not be ashamed of!

"I shall close these reflections with a passage taken out of the third book of Milton's Paradise Lost, where those harmonious beings are thus nobly described :

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Then crown'd again, their golden harps they took,
Harps ever tun'd. that, glitt'ring by their side,
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
Of charming symphony they introduce
The sacred song, and waken raptures high:
No one exempt, no voice but well could join
Melodious part-such concord is in heaven!"
"MR. SPECTATOR,

"The town cannot be unacquainted that in divers parts of it there are vociferous sets of men who are called rattling clubs: but what shocks me most is. they have now the front to invade the church, and institute these societies there, as a clan of them have in late times done, to such a degree of insolence, as has given the partition where they reside, in a church near one of the city gates, the denomi nation of the rattling pew. These gay fellows, from humble lay professions, set up for critics, without any tincture of letters or reading, and have the va nity to think they can lay hold of something from the parson which may be formed into ridicule.

"I know there are not wanting some who are of opinion that the pompous kind of music which is in use in foreign churches is the most excellent, as it most affects our senses. But I am swayed by my judgment to the modesty which is observed in the musical part of our devotions. Methinks there is something very laudable in the custom of a voluntary before the first lesson: by this we are supposed to be prepared for the admission of those divine "It is needless to observe that the gentlemen, truths which we are shortly to receive. We are who every Sunday have the hard province of inthen to cast all worldly regards from off our hearts, structing these wretches in a way they are in no all tumults within are then becalmed, and there present disposition to take, have a fixed character should be nothing near the soul but peace and tran- for learning and eloquence, not to be tainted by the quillity. So that in this short office of praise the weak efforts of this contemptible part of their auman is raised above himself, and is almost lost al-diences. Whether the pulpit is taken by these ready amidst the joys of futurity, gentlemen, or any strangers their friends, the way "I have heard some nice observers frequently of the club is this: if any sentiments are delivered commend the policy of our church in this particular, too sublime for their conception; if any uncommon that it leads us on by such easy and regular methods that we are perfectly deceived into piety. When the spirits begin to languish (as they too often do with a constant series of petitions) she takes care to allow them a pious respite, and relieves them with the raptures of an anthem. Nor can we doubt that the sublimest poetry, softened in the most moving strains of music, can never fail of humbling or exalting the soul to any pitch of devotion. Who can bear the terrors of the Lord of Hosts described in the most expressive melody without being awed into a veneration? Or who can hear the kind and enearing attributes of a merciful Father, and not be softened into love towards him?

"As the rising and sinking of the passions, the casting soft or noble hints into the soul, is the natural privilege of music in general, so more particularly of that kind which is employed at the altar. Those impressions which it leaves upon the spirits

topic is entered on, or one in use new modified with the finest judgment and dexterity; or any controverted point be never so elegantly handled; in short, whatever surpasses the narrow limits of their theology, or is not suited to their taste, they are all immediately upon the watch, fixing their eyes upon each other with as much warmth as our gladiators of Hockley-in-the-Hole, and waiting like them for a hit if one touches, all take fire, and their noddles instantly meet in the centre of the pew: then, as by beat of drum, with exact discipline, they rear up into a full length of stature, and, with odd looks and gesticulations, confer together in so loud and clamorous a manner, continued to the close of the discourse, and during the after-psalm, as is not to be silenced but by the bells. Nor does this suffice

lished for a thanksgiving for King George's accession, to be ob • A proclamation issued the day before this paper was pubserved January 20th.

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