I have, in former Papers, fhewn how great a Tendency there is to Chearfulness in Religion, and how fuch a Frame of Mind is not only the most lovely, but the moft commendable in a virtuous Perfon. In fhort, those who represent Religion in fo unamiable a Light, are like the Spies, fent by Mofes to make a Discovery of the Land of Promife, when by their Reports they difcouraged the People from entring upon it. Thofe who fhew us the Joy, the Chearfulness, the Good-humour, that naturally fpring up in this happy State, are like the Spies bringing along with them the Clufters of Grapes, and delicious Fruits, that might invite their Companions into the pleafant Country which produced them.. AN eminent Pagan Writer has made a Difcourfe, to fhew that the Atheist, who denies a God, does him lefs Dishonour than the Man who owns his Being, but at the fame Time believes him to be cruel, hard to please, and terrible to human Nature. For my own Part, fays he, I would rather it fhould be faid of me, that there was never any fuch Man as Plutarch, than that Plutarch was illmatured, capricious, or inhumane. It Ir we may believe our Logicians, Man is diftinguished from all other Creatures by the Faculty of Laughter. He has a Heart capable of Mirth, and naturally dif pofed to it. It is not the Bufinefs of Virtue to extirpate the Affections of the Mind, but to regulate them. may moderate and reftrain, but was not defigned to banish Gladness from the Heart of Man. Religion contracts the Circle of our Pleasures, but leaves it wide enough for her Votaries to expatiate in. The Contemplation of the divine Being, and the Exercise of Virtue, are in their own Nature fo far from excluding all Gladness of Heart, that they are perpetual Sources of it. In a Word, the true Spirit of Religion cheers, as well as compofes the Soul; it banishes indeed all Levity of Behaviour, all vicious and diffolute Mirth, but in Exchange fills the Mind with a perpetual Serenity, uninterrupted Chearfulness, and an habitual Inclination to please others, as well as to be pleafed in itself. Saturday No. 495. Saturday, September 27. Duris ut ilex tonfa bipennibus Hor. SI am one, who, by my Profeffion, am obliged to A look into all Kinds of Men, there are none whom I confider with fo much Pleasure, as thofe who have any thing new or extraordinary in their Characters, or Ways of living. For this Reafon I have often amufed my felf with Speculations on the Race of People called Jews, many of whom I have met with in most of the confiderable Towns which I have paffed through in the Course of my Travels. They are, indeed, fo diffeminated through all the trading Parts of the World, that they are become the Inftruments by which the most diftant Nations converse with one another, and by which Mankind are knit together in a general Correspondence: They are like the Pegs and Nails in a great Building, which, though they are but little valued in themselves, are abfolutely neceffary to keep the whole Frame together. THAT I may not fall into any common beaten Tracks of Obfervation, I fhall confider this People in three Views: First, with regard to their Number; Secondly, their Difperfion; and, Thirdly, their Adherence to their Religion; and afterwards endeavour to fhow, first, what natural Reasons, and, fecondly, what providential Reafons may be affigned for thefe three remarkable Particulars. THE Jews are looked upon by many to be as numerous at prefent, as they were formerly in the Land of Canaan. THIS is wonderful, confidering the dreadful Slaughter made of them under fome of the Roman Emperors, which Hiftorians defcribe by the Death of many hundred thoufands in a War; and the innumerable Maffacres and Per fecutions. fecutions they have undergone in Turkey, as well as in all Christian Nations of the World. The Rabbins, to exprefs the great Havock which has been fometimes made of them, tell us, after their ufual manner of Hyperbole, that there were fuch Torrents of holy Blood fhed as carried Rocks of an hundred Yards in Circumference above three Miles into the Sea. THEIR Difperfion is the fecond remarkable Particular in this People. They fwarm over all the East ; and are fettled in the remotelt Parts of China: They are spread through most of the Nations of Europe and Afric, and many Families of them are eftablished in the Weft-Indies; not to mention whole Nations bordering on Prefer-John's Country, and fome discovered in the inner Parts of America, if we may give any Credit to their own Writers. THEIR firm Adherence to their Religion, is no less remarkable than their Numbers and Difperfion, efpecially confidering it as perfecuted or contemned over the Face of the whole Earth. This is likewife the more remarkable, if we confider the frequent Apoftacies of this People, when they lived under their Kings in the Land of Promife, and within fight of their Temple. IF in the next Place we examine, what may be the natural Reafons for thefe three Particulars which we find in the Jerus, and which are not to be found in any other Religion or People, I can, in the firft Place, attribute their Numbers to nothing but their conftant Employment, their Abftinence, their Exemption from Wars, and above all, their frequent Marriages; for they look on Celibacy as an accurfed State, and generally are married before twenty, as hoping the Meffiah may defcend from them. THE Difperfion of the Jews into all the Nations of the Earth, is the fecond remarkable Particular of that People, though not fo hard to be accounted for. They were always in Rebellions and Tumults while they had the Temple and holy City in View, for which Reason they have been often driven out of their old Habitations in the Land of Promife. They have as often been banifhed out of most other Places where they have fettled, which muft very much difperfe and fcatter a People, and oblige them to teek a Lively hood where they can find it. Befides, the whole People is now a Race of fuch Mer chants chants as are Wanderers by Profeffion, and at the fame Time, are in moft, if not all, Places incapable of either Lands or Offices, that might engage them to make any Part of the World their Home. THIS Difperfion would probably have loft their Religión, had it not been fecured by the Strength of its Conftitution: For they are to live all in a Body, and generally within the fame Enclosure; to marry among themfelves, and to eat no Meats that are not killed or prepared their own way. This fhuts them out from all Table Converfation, and the most agreeable Intercourses of Life; and, by confequence, excludes them from the moft probable Means of Conversion. IF, in the laft place, we confider what Providential Reafon may be affigned for these three Particulars, we fhall find that their Numbers, Difperfion, and Adherence to their Religion, have furnish'd every Age, and every Nation of the World, with the ftrongest Arguments for the Chriftian Faith; not only as thefe very Particulars are foretold of them, but as they themselves are the Depofitaries of these and all the other Prophecies, which tend to their own Confufion. Their Number furnishes us with a fufficient Cloud of Witneffes that atteft the Truth of the Old B ble. Their Difperfion fpreads thefe Witneffes thro' all Parts of the World. The Adherence to their Religion makes their Teftimony unquesti onable. Had the whole Body of the Jews been converted to Chriftianity, we fhould certainly have thought all the Prophecies of the Old Teftament, that relate to the Coming and Hiftory of our Bleffed Saviour, forged by Chriftians, and have looked upon them, with the Prophecies of the Sibyls, as made many Years after the Events they pretended to foretel. X:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:X No. 496. Monday, September 29. 6 Gnatum pariter uti his decuit aut etiam amplius, Mr. SPECTATOR, T HOSE Ancients who were the most accurate in their Remarks on the Genius and Temper of Mankind, by confidering the various Bent and Scope of our Actions throughout the Progrefs of Life, have with great Exactnefs allotted Inclinations and Objects of Defire particular to every Stage, according to the different Circumftances of our Converfation and Fortune, thro' the several Periods of it. Hence they were difpofed eafily to excufe thofe Exceffes which might poffibly arife from a too eager Purfuit of the Affections more immediately proper to each State: They indulged the Levity of Childhood with Tenderness, overlooked the Gaiety of Youth with Good-nature, tempered the ⚫ forward Ambition and Impatience of ripen'd Manhood with Difcretion, and kindly imputed the tenacious Avarice of old Men to their want of Relifh for any other Enjoyment. Such Allowances as these were no lefs advantageous to common Society than obliging to particular Perfons; for by maintaining a Decency and Regularity in the Courfe of Life, they fupported the Dignity of human Nature, which then fuffers the greatest Violence when the Order of Things is inverted; and in nothing is it more remarkably vilify'd and ridiculous, than when Feeblenefs prepofterously attempts to adorn ⚫ itself with that outward Pomp and Luftre, which ferve only to fet off the Bloom of Youth with better Advan6 tage. I was infenfibly carried into Reflections of this Nature, by juft now meeting Paulino (who is in his Climacterick) bedeck'd with the utmoft Splendor of Drefs and Equipage, and giving an unbounded Loose 6 ' to |