No. 287.] Tuesday, January 29, 1711-12. Ο φιλίατη γη μήτερ, ως σεμνον σφοδρ' ει Menand. Even delicacy requires that the pity shown me with less repining allow that of my to distressed indigent wickedness, first chamber-fellow. I know very well that I betrayed into and then expelled the har- have Jack Cleveland* and Bond's Horace bours of the brothel, should be changed to on my side; but then he has such a band of detestation, when we consider pampered rhymers and romance-writers, with which vice in the habitations of the wealthy. The he opposes me, and is so continually chiming most free person of quality, in Mr. Court- to the tune of golden tresses, yellow locks, ly's phrase, that is, to speak properly, a milk, marble, ivory, silver, swans, snow, woman of figure who has forgot her birth daisies, doves, and the Lord knows what, and breeding, dishonoured her relations which he is always sounding with so much and herself, abandoned her virtue and repu- vehemence in my ears, that he often puts tation, together with the natural modesty me into a brown study how to answer him; of her sex, and risked her very soul, is so and I find that I am in a fair way to be quite far from deserving to be treated with no confounded, without your timely assistance worse character than that of a kind woman, afforded to, sir, your humble servant, Z. "PHILOBRUNE.' which is, doubtless, Mr. Courtly's meaning, (if he has any,) that one can scarce be too severe on her, inasmuch as she sins against greater restraints, is less exposed, and liable to fewer temptations, than beauty in poverty and distress. It is hoped, therefore, sir, that you will not lay aside your generous design of exposing that monstrous wickedness of the town, whereby a multitude of innocents are sacrificed in a more barbarous manner than those who were offered to Moloch. The unchaste are provoked to see their vice exposed, and the chaste cannot rake into such filth without danger of defilement; but a mere spectator may look into the bottom, and come off without partaking in the guilt. The doing so will convince us you pursue public good, and not merely your own advantage; but if your zeal slackens, how can one help thinking that Mr. Courtly's letter is but a feint to get off from a subject, in which either your own, or the private and base ends of others to whom you are partial, or those of whom you are afraid, would not endure a reformation?—I am, sir, your humble servant and admirer, so long as you tread in the paths of truth, virtue, and honour." 'Trin. Coll. Cantab. Jan. 12, 1711-12. 'MR. SPECTATOR,-It is my fortune to have a chamber-fellow, with whom, though I agree very well in many sentiments, yet there is one in which we are as contrary as light and darkness. We are both in love. His mistress is a lovely fair, and mine a lovely brown. Now as the praise of our mistresses' beauty employs much of our time, we have frequent quarrels in entering upon that subject, while each says all he can to defend his choice. For my own part, I have racked my fancy to the utmost; and sometimes with the greatest warmth of imagination have told him, that night was made before day, and many more fine things, though without any effect; nay, last night I could not forbear saying, with more heat than judgment, that the devil ought to be painted white. Now my desire is, sir, that you would be pleased to give us in black and white your opinion in the matter of dispute between us: which will either furnish me with fresh and prevailing arguments to maintain my own taste, or make Dear native land, how do the good and wise Thy happy clime and countless blessings prize! I LOOK upon it as a peculiar happiness, that were I to choose of what religion I would be, and under what government I would live, I should most certainly give the preference to that form of religion and government which is established in my own country. In this point I think I am determined by reason and conviction; but if I shall be told that I am actuated by prejudice, I am sure it is an honest prejudice, it is a prejudice that arises from the love of my country, and therefore such a one as 1 will always indulge. I have in several papers endeavoured to express my duty and esteem for the church of England, and design this as an essay upon the civil part of our constitution, having often entertained myself with reflections on this subject, which I have not met with in other writers. That form of government appears to me the most reasonable which is most conformable to the equality that we find in human nature, provided it be consistent with public peace and tranquillity. This is what may properly be called liberty, which exempts one man from subjection to another, so far as the order and economy of government will permit. Liberty should reach every individual of a people, as they all share one common nature; if it only spreads among particular branches, there had better be none at all, since such a liberty only aggravates the. misfortune of those who are deprived of it, by setting before them a disagreeable subject of comparison. This liberty is best preserved where the legislative power is lodged in several persons, especially if those persons are of different ranks and interests; for where they are of the same rank, and consequently have an interest to manage peculiar to that rank, it differs but little from a despotical * See Cleveland's Poems, 1653, 24mo. "The Senses Festival," p. 1. have its public happiness or misery depend on the virtue or vices of a single person. Look into the history I have mentioned, or into any series of absolute princes, how many tyrants must you read through, be fore you come to an emperor that is supportable. But this is not all; an honest private man often grows cruel and aban government in a single person. But the greatest security a people can have for their liberty, is when the legislative power is in the hands of persons so happily distinguished, that by providing for the particular interests of their several ranks, they are providing for the whole body of the people; or in other words, when there is no part of the people that has not a com-doned, when converted into an absolute mon interest with at least one part of the egislators. prince.. Give a man power of doing what he pleases with impunity, you extinguish his fear, and consequently overturn in him one of the great pillars of morality. This too we find confirmed by matter of fact. How many hopeful heirs apparent to grand empires, when in the possession of them, have become such monsters of lust and cruelty as are a reproach to human nature! Some tell us we ought to make our governments on earth like that in heaven, which, they say, is altogether monarchical and unlimited. Was man like his Creator in goodness and justice, I should be for following this great model; but where goodness and justice are not essential to the ruler, I would by no means put myself into his hands to be disposed of according to his particular will and pleasure. If there be but one body of legislators, it is no better than a tyranny; if there are only two, there will want a casting voice, and one of them must at length be swallowed up by disputes and contentions that will necessarily arise between them. Four would have the same inconvenience as two, and a greater number would cause too much confusion. I could never read a passage in Polybius, and another in Cicero, to this purpose, without a secret pleasure in applying it to the English constitution, which it suits much better than the Roman. Both these great authors give the pre-eminence to a mixed government, consisting of three branches, the regal, the noble, and the popular. They had doubtless in their thoughts the constitution of the Roman commonwealth, in which the consul represented the king, the senate the nobles, and the tribunes the people. This division of the three powers in the Roman constitution, was by no means so distinct and natural as it is in the English form of government. Among several objections that might be made to it, I think the chief are those that affect the consular power, which had only the ornaments without the force of the regal authority. Their number had not a casting voice in it; for which reason, if one did not chance to be employed abroad, while the other sat at home, the public business was sometimes at a stand, while the consuls pulled two different ways in it. Besides, I do not find that the consuls had ever a negative voice in the passing of a law, or decree of the senate: so that indeed they were rather the chief body of the nobility, or the first ministers of state, than a distinct branch of the sovereignty, in which none can be looked upon as a part, who are not a part of the legislature. Had the consuls been invested with the regal authority to as great a degree aș our monarchs, there would never have been any occasion for a dictatorship, which had in it the power of all the three orders, and ended in the sub-hands, we look out for pleasures and amuseversion of the whole constitution. Such a history as that of Suetonius, which gives us a succession of absolute princes, is to me an unanswerable argument against despotic power. Where the prince is a man of wisdom and virtue, it is indeed happy for his people that he is absolute; but since in the common run of mankind, for one that is wise and good you find ten of a contrary character, it is very dangerous for a nation to stand to its chance, or to It is odd to consider the connexion between despotic government and barbarity, and how the making of one person more than man makes the rest less. Above nine parts of the world in ten are in the lowest state of slavery, and consequently sunk in the most gross and brutal ignorance. European slavery is, indeed, a state of liberty, if compared with that which prevails in the other three divisions of the world; and therefore it is no wonder that those who grovel under it have many tracks of light among them, of which the others are wholly destitute. Riches and plenty are the natural fruits of liberty, and where these abound, learning and all the liberal arts will immediately lift up their heads and flourish. As a man must have no slavish fears and apprehen sions hanging upon his mind, who will indulge the flights of fancy or speculation, and push his researches into all the abstruse corners of truth, so it is necessary for him to have about him a competency of all the conveniences of life. The first thing every one looks after, is to provide himself with necessaries. This point will engross our thoughts until it be satisfied. If this is taken care of to our people, there will be many whose pleaments; and among a great number of idle sures will lie in reading and contemplation. These are the two great sources of knowledge, and as men grow wise they naturally love to communicate their discoveries; and others seeing the happiness of such a learned life, and improving by their conversation, emulate, imitate, and surpass one another, until a nation is filled with races of wise and understanding persons. Ease and plenty are therefore the great cherishers of know- | allow; and if they are not deficient that ledge: and as most of the despotic govern- way, generally speak so as to admit of a ments of the world have neither of them, double interpretation; which the credulous they are naturally_overrun with ignorance | fair is too apt to turn to her own advantage, and barbarity. In Europe, indeed, notwith- since it frequently happens to be a raw, instanding several of its princes are absolute, nocent young creature, who thinks all the there are men famous for knowledge and world as sincere as herself, and so her unlearning; but the reason is, because the wary heart becomes an easy prey to those subjects are many of them rich and wealthy, deceitful monsters, who no sooner perceive the prince not thinking fit to exert himself it, but immediately they grow cool, and in his full tyranny, like the princes of the shun her whom they before seemed so eastern nations, lest his subjects should be much to admire, and proceed to act the invited to new-mould their constitution, same common-place villany towards anhaving so many prospects of liberty within other. A coxcomb, flushed with many of their view. But in all despotic govern- these infamous victories, shall say he is ments, though a particular prince may fa- sorry for the poor fools, protest and vow vour arts and letters, there is a natural he never thought of matrimony, and wondegeneracy of mankind, as you may observe der talking civilly can be so strangely misfrom Augustus's reign, how the Romans interpreted. Now, Mr. Spectator, you that lost themselves by degrees until they fell are a professed friend to love, will, I hope, to an equality with the most barbarous na- observe upon those who abuse that noble tions that surrounded them. Look upon passion, and raise it in innocent minds by Greece under its free states, and you would a deceitful affectation of it, after which they think its inhabitants lived in different cli- desert the enamoured. Pray bestow a little mates, and under different heavens, from of your counsel on those fond believing fethose at present, so different are the ge- males who already have, or are in danger niusses which are formed under Turkish of having broken hearts; in which you will slavery, and Grecian liberty. oblige a great part of this town, but in a particular manner, sir, your (yet heartwhole) admirer, and devoted humble servant, MELAINIA.” Besides poverty and want, there are other reasons that debase the minds of men who live under slavery, though I look on this as the principal. The natural tendency of despotic power to ignorance and barbarity, Melainia's complaint is occasioned by so though not insisted upon by others, is, I gencral a folly, that it is wonderful one think, an unanswerable argument against could so long overlook it. But this false that form of government, as it shows how gallantry proceeds from an impotence of repugnant it is to the good of mankind, and mind, which makes those who are guilty the perfection of human nature, which of it incapable of pursuing what they themought to be the great ends of all civil in-selves approve. Many a man wishes a stitutions. L. 'MR. SPECTATOR,-When you spoke of the jilts and coquettes, you then promised to be very impartial, and not to spare even your own sex, should any of their secret or open faults come under your cognizance; which has given me encouragement to describe a certain species of mankind under the denomination of male jilts. They are gentlemen who do not design to marry, yet that they may appear to have some sense of gallantry, think they must pay their devoirs to one particular fair: in order to which, they single out from amongst the herd of females her to whom they design to make their fruitless addresses. This done, they first take every opportunity of being in her company, and then never fail upon all occasions to be particular to her, laying themselves at her feet, protesting the reality of their passion with a thousand oaths, soliciting a return, and saying as many fine things as their stock of wit will woman his wife whom he dare not take for such. Though no one has power over his inclinations or fortunes, he is a slave to common fame. For this reason, I think Melainia gives them too soft a name in that of male coquettes. I know not why irresolution of mind should not be more contemptible than impotence of body; and these frivolous admirers would be but tenderly used, in being only included in the same term with the insufficient another way. They whom my correspondent calls male coquettes, should hereafter be called fribblers. A fribbler is one who professes rapture and admiration for the woman to whom he addresses, and dreads nothing so much as her consent. His heart can flutter by the force of imagination, but cannot fix from the force of judgment. It is not uncommon for the parents of young women of moderate fortune to wink at the addresses of fribblers, and expose their children to the ambiguous behaviour which Melainia complains of, until by their fondness to one they are to lose, they become incapable of love towards others, and by consequence, in their future marriage lead a joyless or a miserable life. As, therefore, I shall in the speculations which regard love, be as severe as I ought on jilts and hbertine women, so will I be as little mer- | circumstances, humbles the poet to exalt ciful to insignificant and mischievous men. the citizen. Like a true tradesman, I hardly In order to this, all visitants who frequent ever look into any books but those of acfamilies wherein there are young females, counts. To say the truth, I cannot, I think, are forthwith required to declare them- give you a better idea of my being a downselves, or absent from places where their right man of traffic, than by acknowledgpresence banishes such as would pass their ing I oftener read the advertisements, than time more to the advantage of those whom the matter of even your paper. I am under they visit. It is a matter of too great mo- a great temptation to take this opportunity ment to be dallied with: and I shall expect of admonishing other writers to follow my from all my young people a satisfactory ac- example, and trouble the town no more; count of appearances. Strephon has, from but as it is my present business to increase the publication hereof, seven days to ex- the number of buyers rather than sellers, I plain the riddle he presented to Eudamia; hasten to tell you that I am, sir, your most and Chloris an hour after this comes to her humble, and most obedient servant, hand, to declare whether she will have T. "PETER MOTTEUX.' Philotas, whom a woman of no less merit than herself, and of superior fortune, languishes to call her own. "To the Spectator. 'SIR,-Since so many dealers turn authors, and write quaint advertisements in praise of their wares, one who, from an author turned dealer, may be allowed for the advancement of trade to turn author again. I will not, however, set up like some of them, for selling cheaper than the most able honest tradesman can; nor do I send this to be better known for choice and cheapness of China and Japan wares, tea, fans, muslins, pictures, arrack, and other Indian goods. Placed as I am in Leadenhall-street, | near the India company, and the centre of that trade, thanks to my fair customers, my warehouse is graced as well as the benefit days of my plays and operas; and the foreign goods I sell, seem no less acceptable than the foreign books I translated, Rabelais and Don Quixotte. This the critics allow me, and while they like my wares they may dispraise my writings. But as it is not so well known yet, that I frequently cross the seas of late, and speak in Dutch and French, besides other languages, I have the conveniency of buying and importing rich brocades, Dutch atlasses, with gold and silver, or without, and other foreign silks of the newest modes and best fabrics, fine Flanders laces, linens, and pictures, at the best hand; this my new way of trade I have fallen into, I cannot better publish than by an application to you. My wares are fit only for such as your readers; and I would beg of you to print this address in your paper, that those whose minds you adorn may take the ornaments for their persons and houses from me. This, sir, if I may presume to beg it, will be the greater favour, as I have lately received rich silks and fine lace to a considerable value, which will be sold cheap for a quick return, and as I have also a large stock of other goods. Indian silks were formerly a great branch of our trade; and since we must not sell them, we must seek amends by dealing in others. This I hope will plead for one who would lessen the number of teasers of the Muses, and who, suiting his spirit to his I No. 289.] Thursday, January 31, 1711-12. Vitæ summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam. Life's span forbids us to extend our cares, . But this is not all the use I make of the above-mentioned weekly paper. A bill of mortality is, in my opinion, an unanswerable argument for a Providence. How can we, without supposing ourselves under the con stant care of a Supreme Being, give any possible account for that nice proportion, which we find in every great city between the deaths and births of its inhabitants, and between the number of males and that of females who are brought into the world? What else could adjust in so exact a manner the recruits of every nation to its losses, and divide these new supplies of people into such equal bodies of both sexes? Chance could never hold the balance with so steady a hand. Were we not counted out by an intelligent supervisor, we should ometimes be overcharged with multitudes, and at others waste away into a desert: we should be sometimes a populus virorum, as Florus elegantly expresses it, a generation of males, and at others a species of women. We may extend this considera- | tion to every species of living creatures, and consider the whole animal world as a huge army made up of innumerable corps, if I may use that term, whose quotas have been kept entire near five thousand years, in so wonderful a manner, that there is not probably a single species lost during this long tract of time. Could we have general bills of mortality of every kind of animals, or particular ones of every species in each continent and island, I could almost say in every wood, marsh, or mountain, what astonishing instances would they be of that Providence which watches over all his works? I have heard of a great man in the Romish church, who upon reading these words in the fifth chapter of Genesis, And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died; and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died; and all the days of Methuselah, were nine hundred and sixtynine years, and he died;' immediately shut himself up in a convent, and retired from the world, as not thinking any thing in this life worth pursuing, which had not regard to another. The truth of it is, there is nothing in history which is so improving to the reader as those accounts which we meet with of the deaths of eminent persons, and of their behaviour in that dreadful season. I may also add, that there are no parts in history which affect and please the reader in so sensible a manner. The reason I take to be this, because there is no other single circumstance in the story of any person, which can possibly be the case of every one who reads it. A battle or a triumph are conjunctures in which not one man in a million is likely to be engaged: but when we see a person at the point of death, we cannot forbear being attentive to every thing he says or does, because we are sure that some time or other we shall ourselves Se in the same melancholy circumstances. The general, the statesman, or the philosopher, are perhaps characters which we may never act in; but the dying man is one whom, sooner or later, we shall certainly resemble. It is, perhaps, for the same kind of reason, that few books written in English have been so much perused as Dr. Sherlock's Discourse upon Death; though at the same time I must own, that he who hath not perused this excellent piece, has not perhaps read one of the strongest persuasives to a religious life that ever was written in any language. The consideration with which I shall close this essay upon death, is one of the most ancient and most beaten morals that has been recommended to mankind. But its being so very common, and so universally received, though it takes away from it the grace of novelty, adds very much to the weight of it, as it shows that it falls in with the general sense of mankind. In short, I would have every one consider that he is in this life nothing more than a passenger, and that he is not to set up his rest here, but to keep an attentive eye upon that state of being to which he approaches every moment, and which will be for ever fixed and permanent. This single consideration would be sufficient to extinguish the bitterness of hatred, the thirst of avarice, and the cruelty of ambition. I am very much pleased with the passage of Antiphanes, a very ancient poet, who lived near an hundred years before Socrates, which represents the life of a man under this view, as I have here translated Be not grieved,' says it word for word. he, ' above measure for thy deceased friends. They are not dead, but have only finished that journey which it is necessary for every one of us to take. We ourselves must go to that great place of reception in which they are all of them assembled, and in this general rendezvous of mankind, live together in another state of being.' I think I have, in a former paper, taken notice of those beautiful metaphors in scripture, where life is termed a pilgrimage, and those who pass through it are all called strangers and sojourners upon earth. I shall conclude this with a story, which I have somewhere read in the travels of Sir John Chardin. That gentleman, after having told us that the inns which receive the caravans in Persia, and the eastern countries, are called by the name of caravansaries, gives us a relation to the follow ing purpose. A dervise travelling through Tartary, being arrived at the town of Balk, went into the king's palace by mistake, as thinking it to be a public inn, or caravansary. Having looked about him for some time, he entered into a long gallery, where he laid down his wallet, and spread his carpet, in order to repose himself upon it, after the manner of the eastern nations. He had not been long in this posture before he was discovered by some of the guards, who asked him what was his business in that place? The dervise told them he intended to take up his night's lodging in that caravansary. The guards let him know in a very angry manner, that the house he was in was not a caravansary, but the king's palace. It happened that the king himself passed through the gallery during this debate, and smiling at the mistake of the dervise, asked him how he could possibly be so dull as not to distinguish a palace from a caravansary? Sir,' says the dervise, 'give me leave to ask your majesty a question or two. Who were the persons that lodged in this house when it was first |