66 my mother plunged in mifery, weeping and "despairing!" Thefe breaks and turns of paffion, it feems, were fo enforced by the eyes, voice, and gesture of the fpeaker, that his very enemies could not refrain from tears. I infift, fays Tully, upon this the rather, because our orators, who are as it were actors of the truth itself, have quitted this manner of fpeaking; and the players, who are but the imitators of truth, have taken it up. I fhall therefore purfue the hint he has here given me, and for the fervice of the British stage, I fhall copy fome of the rules which this great Roman mafter has laid down; yet, without confining myself wholly to his thoughts or words: and to adapt this effay the more to the purpofe for which I intend it, instead of the examples he has inferted in his difcourfe, out of the ancient tragedies, I fhall make use of parallel paffages out of the most celebrated of our own. The defign of art is to affift action as much as poffible in the reprefentation of nature; for the appearance of reality is that which moves us in all reprefentations, and these have always the greater force, the nearer they approach to nature, and the lefs they fhew of imitation, Nature herself has affigned to every motion of the foul, its peculiar caft of the countenance, tone of voice, and manner of gefture; and the whole perfon, all the features of the face and T tones of the voice, anfwer, like ftrings upon mufical inftruments, to the impreffions made on them by the mind. Thus the founds of the voice, according to the various touches, which raife them, form themselves into an acute or grave, quick or flow, loud or soft tone, Thefe too may be fubdivided into various kinds of tones, as the gentle, the rough, the contracted, the diffufe, the continued, the intermitted, the broken, abrupt, winding, foftened, or elevated. Every one of thefe may be employed with art and judgment; and all fupply the actor, as colours do the painter, with an expressive variety. "The builder-oak, fole king of forests all, "The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors, And poets fage; the fir that weepeth ftill, "The willow worn of forlorn paramours, "The yew obedient to the bender's will, The birch for fhafts, the fallow for the mill : "The myrrheweet bleeding in the bitter wound, The warlike beech, the afh, for nothing ill, The fruitful olive, and the piantane round, "The carver holm, the maple feldom inward "found." I fhall trouble you no more, but defire you to let me conclude with thefe verfes, though I think they have already been quoted by you: they are directions to young ladies oppreft with calumny. V. 6, 14. "The best (faid he) that I can you advise, N° 541. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20. Fermat enim natura priùs nos intus ad omnem HOR. Ars Poet, yer. 108 ROSCOMMCN Μ Y friend the Templar, whom I have fo often mentioned in thefe writings, having determined to lay afide his poetical studies, in order to a clofer purfuit of the law, has put to-. gether, as a farewel effay, fome thoughts concerning pronunciation, and action, which he has given me leave to communicate to the public. They are chiefly collected from his favourite author, Cicero, who is known to be an intimate friend of Rofcius the actor, and a good judge of dramatic performances, as well as the most eloquent pleader of the time in which he lived. Cicero concludes his celebrated book de Oratore with fome precepts for pronunciation and action, without which part he affirms that the beft orator in the world can never fucceed; and an indifferent one, who is mafter of this, fhall gain much greater, applause, What could make a ftronger impreffion, fays he, than thofe exclamations of Graccus Whither shall I turn ?. "Wretch that I am! to what place betake my"felf Shall I go to the capitol-Alafs! it is "overflowed with my brother's blood. Or fhall I retire to my houfe? Yet there I behold Anger exerts its peculiar voice in an acute, raifed, and hurrying found, The paffionate character of King Lear, as it is admirably drawn by Shakespeare, abounds with the ftrongest inftances of this kind. -Death! Confufion! "Fiery!--what quality?-why Gloster! Gloster! Fiery? the fiery duke?———&c.” different, flexible, flow, interrupted, and moSorrow and complaint demand a voice quite dulated in a mournful tone; as in that pathet, ical foliloquy of Cardinal Wolfey on his fall. "Farewel!-a long farewel to all my greatness! This is the ftate of man!-to-day he puts forth "The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blos "And bears his blufhing honours thick upon furely "His greatnefs is a ripening, nips his root, "And then he falls as I do." We have likewife a fine example of this in the whole part of Andromache in the Diftreft Mother, particularly in these lines. "I'll go, and in the anguish of my heart life "Is wrapt in his, I fhail not long furvive. 'Tis for his fake, that I have fuffer'd life, "Groan'd in captivity, and out-liv'd Hector. "Yes, my Aftyanax, we'll go together! "Together to the realms of night we'll go; "There to thy ravish'd eyes thy fire I'll fhow, "And point him out among the shades below.', Fear expreffes itself in a low, hefitating, and abject found. If the reader confiders the following speech of Lady Macbeth, while her huf. band is about the murder of Duncan and his grooms, he will imagine her even affrighted with the found of her own voice' while the is fpeak ing it. As all thefe varieties of voice are to be directed by the fenfe, fo the action is to be directed by the voice, and with a beautiful propriety, as it were to enforce it. The arm, which by a ftrong figure Tully calls the Orator's weapon, is. to be fometimes raised and extended; and the hand, by its motion, fometimes to lead, and fometimes to follow the words as they are uttered. The ftamping of the foot too has its proper expreffion in contention, anger, or abfolute command. But the face is the epitome of the whole man, and the eyes are as it were the epitome of the face; for which reafon, he says, the best judges among the Romans were not extremely pleafed, even with Rofcius himfelf in his mafk. No part of the body, befides the face, is capable of as many changes as there are different emotions in the mind, and of exprefling them all by thofe changes. Nor is this Courage affumes a louder tone, as in that to be done without the freedom of the eyes; Speech of Don Sebastian therefore Theophraftus called one, who barely rchearfed his fpeech with his eyes fixed, an abfent aЯor. As the countenance admits of fo great variety, it requires alfo great judgment to govern it. Not that the form of the face is to be shifted on every occafion, left it turn to farce and buffoonery; but it is certain, that the eyes have a wonderful power of marking the emotions of the mind, fometimes by a steadfaft look, fometimes by a careless one, now by a fudden regard, then by a joyful fparkling, as the fenfe of the words is diverfified for action is, as it were, the fpeech of «Alas! I am afraid they have awak'd, "My father as he slept, I had done it." "Here fatiate all your fury; "Let fortune empty her whole quiver on me, Pleasure diffolves into a luxurious, mild, tender, and joyous modulation; as in the following lines in Caius Marius, And perplexity is different from all thefe; grave, but not bemoaning, with an earnest uni'form found of voice; as in that celebrated fpeech of Hamlet. "Lavinia! O there's music in the name, "That foftning me to infant tenderness, "Makes my heart spring like the first leaps of the features and limbs, and must therefore con life." form itself always to the fentiments of the foul. And it may be obferved, that in all which relates to the gefture, there is a wonderful force implanted by nature; fince the vulgar, the unfkilful, and even the moft barbarous are chiefly affected by this. None are moved by the found of words, but thefe who understand the language; and the fenfe of many things is loft upon men of a dull apprehension: but action is a kind of univerfal tongue; all men are fubject to the fame paffions, and confequently know the fame marks of them in others, by which they themfelves exprefs them. "To be or not to be?-that is the question: "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to fuffer "For who would bear the whips and fcorns of time, "Th' oppreffors wrongs, the proud man's contumely, The flings and arrows of outrageous fortune, "Or to take arms against a fea of troubles, "And by opposing end them. To die, to fleep; "No more; and by a fleep to say we end "The heart-ach, and a thousand natural shocks "That flesh is heir to ; 'tis a confummation "Devoutly to be wifh'd. To die, to fleep To fleep; perchance to dream! Ah, there's the rub. "For in that fleep of death what dreams may "When we have fhuffled off this mortal coil, "The pangs ot defpis'd love, the laws delay, : Perhaps fome of my readers may be of opinion, that the hints I have here made ufe of, out of Cicero, are fomewhat too refined for the players on our theatre in anfwer to which, I venture to lay it down as a maxim, that without good fenfe no one can be a good player, and that he is very unfit to perfonate the dignity of a Roman hero, who cannot enter into the rules for pronunciation and gefture delivered by a Roman orator. There racters into my work, which could not have been done, had I always written in the perfon of the Spectator. Fourthly, becaufe the dignity fpectatorial would have fuffered, had I publifhed as from myfelf thofe, feveral ludicrous compofitions which I have afcribed to fictitious names and characters. And lastly, because they often ferve to bring in more naturally, fuclit additional reflections as have been placed at the end of them. No 542. FRIDAY, Nov. 21. There are others who have likewife done me a very particular honour, though undefignedly. Thefe are fuch who will needs have it, that I have tranflated or borrowed many of my thoughts out of books which are written in other languages. I have heard of a person who is more famous for his library than his learning, that has afferted this more than once in his private converfation. Were it true, I am fure he could not fpeak it from his own knowledge; Et fibi præferri fe gaudet. but had he read the books which he has colOvid Met. 1. 2. ver. 430 lected, he would find this accufation to be He heard, wholly groundlefs. Those who are truly learned will acquit me in this point, in which I have been fo far from offending, that I have been fcrupulous perhaps to a fault in quoting the authors of feveral paffages which I might have But as this affertion is in re made my own. I + ality an encomium on what I have published, I ought rather to glory in it, than endeavour to confute it. There is another thing which my author does not think too minute to infit on, though it is purely mechanical; and that is the right pitching of the voice. On this occafion he tells the ftory of Gracchus, who employed a fervant with a little ivory pipe to stand behind him, and give him the right pitch, as often as he wandered too far from the proper modulation. Every voice, fays Tully, has its particular medium and compafs, and the fweethefs of fpeech confifts in leading it through all the variety of tones naturally, and without touching any extreme. Therefore, faye he, "Leave the pipe at home, "but carry the fenfe of this cuftom with ❝ you." 1 Well pleas'd, himself before himself preferr'd. ADDISON. W HEN I have been prefent in affemblies where my paper has been talked of, I have been very well pleafed to hear thofe who would detract from the author of it obferve, that the letters which are fent to the Spectator, are as good, if not better than any of his works. Upon this occafion, many letters of mirth are ufually mentioned, which fome think the Specator writ to himself, and which others commend because they fancy he received them from his correfpondents: fuch are thofe from the valetudinarian; the inspector of the fign-pofts; the mafter of the fan-exercife; with that of the hooped petticoat; that of Nicholas Hart the annual fleeper; that from Sir John Envill; that upon the London cries; with multitudes of the fame nature. As I love nothing more than to mortify the ill-natured, that I may do it effectually, I muft acquaint them, they have very often praised me when they did not defign it, and that they have approved my writings when they thought they had derogated from them. I have heard feveral of thefe unhappy gentlemen proving, by undeniable arguments, that I was not able to pen a letter which I had written the day before. Nay, I have heard fome of them throwing out ambiguous expreffions, and giving the company reason to suspect that they themfelves did me the honour to fend me fuch and fuch a particular epiftle, which happened to be talked of with the efteem or approbation of thofe who were prefent. The sigid critics are fo afraid of allowing me any thing which does not belong to me, that they will not be pofitive whether the lion, the wild boar, and the flower-pots in the play-houfe, did not actually write thofe letters which came to me in their names. I must therefore inform thefe gentlemen, that I often choose this way of cafting my thoughts into a letter, for the following reafons: firft, out of the policy of thofe who try their jeft upon another, before they own it themfelves. Secondly, becaufe I would extort a litle praise from fuch who will never applaud any thing whofe author is known and certain, Thirdly, because it gave me an opportunity of introducing a great variety of cha◄ Some are so very willing to alienate from me that fmall reputation which might accrue to me from any of my fpeculations, that they attribute fome of the beft of them to thofe imaginary manufcripts with which I have introduced them. There are others, I must confefs, whose objections have given me a greater concern, as they seem to reflect, under this head, rather on my morality, than on my invention. Thefe are they who fay an author is guilty of falfhood, when he talks to the public of manufcripts which he never faw, or defcribes fcenes of action or difcourfe in which he was never engaged. But thefe gentlemen would do well to confider, there is not a fable or parable which ever was made ufe of, that is not liable to this exception; fince nothing, according to this notion, can be related innocently, which was not once matter of fact. Befides, I think the most ordinary reader may be able to difcover by my way of writing, what I deliver in thefe occurrences as truth, and what as fiction. Since I am unawares engaged in answering the feveral objections, which have been made against thefe my works, I must take notice that there are fome who affirm a paper of this nature fhould always turn upon diverting fubjects; and others who find fault with every one of them that hath not an immediate tendency to the advancement of religion or learning. I fhall leave thefe gentlemen to difpute it out among themfelves; fince I fee one half of my conduct patronized by each fide. rious on an important fubject, or trifling in a ferious one, I fhould defervedly draw upon me the cenfure of my readers; or were I conscious of any thing in my writings that is not innocent at leaft, or that the greatest part of them were not fincerely defigned to discountenance vice and ignorance, and fupport the intereft of true wildom Were I fe wisdom and virtue, I should be more fevere upon myself than the public is difpofed to be. In the mean while I defire my reader to confider every particular paper or difcourfe as a diftine tract by itself, and independent of every thing that goes before or after it. I fhall end this paper with the following letter, which was really fent me, as fome others have been which I have published, and for which I must own myself indebted to their refpective writers. SIR, I 6 6 < · · < Was this morning in a company of your well-wishers, when we read over with great fatisfaction Tully's obfervations on action adapted to the British theatre: though, by the way, we were very forry to find that you have difpofed of another member of your 6 club. Poor Sir Roger is dead, and the worthy clergyman dying. Captain Sentry has taken poffeffion of a fair eftate; Will Honeycomb has married a farmer's daughter; and the Templar withdraws himself into the bufinefs 6 of his own profeffion. What will all this < end in ? We are afraid it portends no good to the public. Unless you very fpeedily fix a day for the election of new members, we are under apprehenfions of lofing the British Spectator. I hear of a party of ladies who intend to addrefs you on this fubject; and question not, if you do not give us the flip very fuddenly, that you will receive addreffes from all parts of the kingdom to continue fo ufeful a work. Pray deliver us out of this perplexity, and among the multitude of your 'readers you will particularly oblige · < " Your moft fincere friend and fervant, Philo-Spec. But to return to our fpeculations on anatomy, I shall here confider the fabric and texture of the bodies of animals in one particular view; which in my opinion, shews the hand of a thinking and all-wife Being in their formation, with the evidence of a thousand demonstrations. I think we may lay this down as an incontested prinOvid. Met. 1. 2. ver. 13. ciple, that chance never acts in a perpetual uniformity and confiftence with itself. If one fhould always fling the fame number with ten thousand dice, or fee every throw just five times lefs, or five times more in number than the throw which immediately preceded it, who would not imagine there is fome invisible power which directs the caft? This is the proceeding which we find in the operations of nature. Every kind of animal is diverfified by different magnitudes, each of which gives rife to a different fpecies. Let a man trace the dog or lion kind, and he will obferve how many of the works of nature are published, if I may use the expreffion, in a variety of editions. If we look into the reptile world, or into thofe different kinds of animals that fill the element of water, we meet with the fame repetitions among feveral fpecies, that differ very little from one another, but in fize and bulk. You find the fame creature that is drawn at large, copied out in feveral proportions and ending in miniature. It would be tedious to produce inftances of this regular conduct in Providence, as it would be fuperfluous to those who are verfed in the natural hiftory of animals, The magnificent harmony NA of N° 543. SATURDAY, Nov. 22. -Facies non omnibus una, Nec diverfa tamen.—— several important uses for those parts, which uses the ancients knew nothing of. În fhort, the body of man is such a subject as ftands the utmost test of examination. Though it appears formed with the niceft wifdom, upon the most superficial furvey of it, it ftill mends upon the fearch, and produces our furprize and amazement in proportion as we pry into it. What I have here faid of an human body, may be applied to the body of every animal which has been the subject of anatomical obfervations. The body of an animal is an object adequate to our fenfes. It is a particular fyftem of Prois able to command it, and by fucceffive inquividence that lies in a narrow compafs. The eye ries can search into all its parts. Could the body of the whole earth, or indeed the whole univerfe, be thus fubmitted to the examination of our fenfes, were it not too big and difproportioned for our enquiries, too unwieldy for the management of the eye and hand, there is no question but it would appear to us as curious and well contrived a frame as that of an human body. We fhould fee the fame concatenation and fubferviency, the fame receffity and usefulnefs, the fame beauty and harmony in all and every of its parts, as what we difcover in the body of every fingle animal. The more extended our reafon is, and the more able to grapple with immenfe objects, the greater ftill are thofe difcoveries which it makes of wisdom and providence in the works of the creation. A Sir Ifaac Newton, who ftands up as the miracle of the prefent age, can look through a whole planetary fyftem; confider it in its weight, number, and measure; and draw from it as many demonftrations of infinite power and wisdom, as a more confined underftanding is able to deduce from the fyftem of an human body. Tho' not alike, confenting parts agree, THO HOSE who were skilful in anatomy among the ancients, concluded from the outward and inward make of an human body, that it was the work of a being tranfcendently wife and powerful. As the world grew more enlightened in this art, their difcoveries gave them fresh opportunities of admiring the conduct of Providence in the formation of an human body, Galen was converted by his diffections, and could not but own a Supreme Being upon a furvey of this his handy work. There are, indeed, many parts of which the old anatomifts did not know, the certain ufe; but as they fay that most of those which they examined were adapted with admirable art to their several functions, they did not queftion but thofe, whofe ufes they could not determine, were contrived with the fame wisdom for respective ends and purposes. Since the circulation of the blood has been found out, and many other great difcoveries have been made by our modern anatomifts, we fee new wonders in the human frame, and difcern of the univerfe is fuch that we may obferve innumerable divifions running upon the fame ground. I might alfo extend this fpeculation to the dead parts of nature, in which we may find matter difpofed into many fimilar fyftems, as well in our furvey of ftars and planets as of ftones, vegetable and other fublunary parts of the creation. In a word, Providence has fhewn the richness of its goodnefs and wifdom, not only in the production of many original fpecies, but in the multiplicity of defcants, which it has made on every original species in particular. One eye But to purfue this thought ftill farther: every living creature confidered in itself, has many very complicated parts that are exact copies of fome other parts which it poffeffes, and which are complicated in the fame manner. would have been fufficient for the fubfiftence and prefervation of an animal; but, in order to better his condition, we fee another placed with a mathematical exactnefs in the fame most advantageous fituation, and in every particular of the fame fize and texture. Is it poffible for chance to be thus delicate and uniform in her operations? Should a mil ion of dice turn up twice together the fame number, the wonder would be nothing in comparison with this. But when we fee this fimilitude and refemblance in the arm, the hand, the fingers; when we fee one half of the body entirely correfpond with the other in all thofe minute ftrokes, without which a man might have very well fubfifted; nay, when we often see a fingle part repcated an hundred times in the fame body notwithstanding it confifts of the most intricate weaving of numberless body of a living creature, for which I refer my reader to other writings, particularly to the fixth book of the poem, entitled Creation, where the anatomy of the human body is defcribed with great perfpicuity and elegance. I have been particular on the thought which runs through this fpeculation, becaufe I have not feen it enlarged upon by others. tude, as the convenience of their particular fituation requires; fure a man must have a ftrange caft of understanding, who does not difcover the finger of God in fo wonderful a work. These duplicates in thofe parts of the body, without which a man might have very well fubfifted, though not fo well as with them, are a plain demonftration of an all-wife contriver; as thofe more numerous copyings which are found among the veffels of the fame body, are evident demonftrations that they could not be the work of chance. This argument receives additional ftrength, if we apply it to every animal and infect within our knowledge, as well as, to thofe numberless living creatures that are objects too minute for an human eye; and if we confider how the feveral fpecies in this whole world of life refemble one another in very many particulars, fo far as is convenient for their respective ftates of exiftence; it is much more probable that an hundred million of dice thould be cafually thrown an hundred million of times in the fame number, than that the body of any fingle animal fhould be produced by the fortuitous concourfe of matter. And that the like chance fhould arife in innumerable inftances, requires a degree of credulity that is not under the direction of common fenfe. We may carry this confideration yet further, if we reflect on the two fexes in every living fpecies, with their refemblances to each other, and thofe particular diftin&tions that were neceffary for the keeping up of this great world of life. There are many more demonftrations of a Supreme Being, and of his tranfcendent wisdom, power, and goodhefs in the formation of the Coverley-Hall, Nov. 15, Worcestershire. AM come to the fucceffion of the estate of in Carly, and I affure you I find it no easy task to keep 6 up the figure of mafter of the fortune which C was fo handfomely enjoyed by that honeft plain man. I cannot, with refpect to the great obligations I have be it fpoken, reflect upon his character, but I am confirmed in the 'truth which I have, I think, heard spoken, at the club, to wit, that a man of a warm and well difpofed heart with a very small capacity, is highly fuperior in human fociety to him who with the greatest talents is cold and languid in 'his affections. But, alas! why do I make a C " failings? His little abfurdities and incapacity difficulty in fpeaking of my worthy ancestor's 'for the converfation of the politeft men are 'dead with him, and his greater qualities are even now useful to him. I know not whether by naming thofe difabilities I do not enhance his merit, fince he has left behind him a re putation in his country, which would be worth the pains of the wifeft man's whole life to arrive at. By the way I must observe to you, that many of your readers have mistook that paf< fage in your writings, wherein Sir Roger is reported to have enquired into the private cha'racter of the young woman at the tavern. " " < < I C know you mentioned that circumftance as an 'inftance of the fimplicity and innocence of his 'mind, which made him imagine it a very easy thing to reclaim one of thofe criminals, and not as an inclination in him to be guilty with her. The lefs difcerning of your readers canC nct enter into that delicacy of defcription in the character: but indeed my chief business at this time is to represent to you my prefent ftate of mind, and the fatisfaction I promise to my |