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N unaffected Behaviour is without question a very great Charm; but under the Notion of being unconftrained and difengaged, People take upon them to be unconcerned in any Duty of Life. A general Negligence is what they affume upon all Occafions, and fet up for an Averfion to all manner of Business and Attention. I am the careleffeft Creature in the World, I have certainly the worft Memory of any Man living, are frequent Expreffions in the Mouth of a Pretender of this fort. It is a profeffed Maxim with thefe People never to think ; there is fomething fo folemn in Reflexion, they, forfooth, can never give themselves time for fuch a way of employing themselves. It happens often that this fort of Man is heavy enough in his Nature to be a good Proficient in fuch Matters as are attainable by Industry; but alas! he has fuch an ardent Defire to be what he is not, to be too volatile, to have the Faults of a Perfon of Spirit, that he profeffes himself the most unfit Man living for any manner of Application. When this Humour enters into the Head of a Female, fhe generally profeffes Sickness upon all Occafions, and acts all things with an indifpofed Air : She is offended, but her Mind is too lazy to raise her to Anger, therefore the lives only as actuated by a violent Spleen and gentle Scorn. She has hardly Curiofity to liften to Scandal of her Acquaintance, and has never Attention enough to hear them commended. This Affectation in both Sexes makes them vain of being useless, and take a certain Pride in their Infignificancy.

OPPOSITE to this Folly is another no lefs unreafonable, and that is the Impertinence of being always in a Hurry. There are those who vifit Ladies, and beg Pardon, afore they are well feated in their Chairs, that they juft called in, but are obliged to attend Bufinefs of Importance elsewhere the very next Moment: Thus they run. from Place to Place, profeffing that they are obliged to

be ftill in another Company than that which they are in. Thefe Perfons who are juft a going fomewhere else should never be detained; let all the World allow that Business is to be minded, and their Affairs will be at an end. Their Vanity is to be importuned, and Compliance with their Multiplicity of Affairs would effectually dispatch 'em. The Travelling Ladies, who have half the Town to fee in an Afternoon, may be pardoned for being in conftant Hurry; but it is inexcufable in Men to come where they have no Bufinefs, to profefs they abfent themselves where they have. It has been remarked by fome nice Obfervers and Criticks, that there is nothing difcovers the true Temper of a Perfon fo much as his Letters. I have by me two Epiftles, which are written by two People of the different Humours above-mentioned. It is wonderful that a Man cannot observe upon himself when he fits down to write, but that he will gravely commit himself to Paper the fame Man that he is in the Freedom of Converfation. I have hardly feen a Line from any of thefe Gentlemen, but spoke them as abfent from what they were doing, as they profefs they are when they come into Company. For the Folly is, that they have perfuaded themselves they really are bufy. Thus their whole Time is fpent in fufpenfe of the present Moment to the next, and then from the next to the fucceeding, which to the End of Life is to pafs away with Pretence to many things, and Execution of nothing.

SIR,

TH

'HE Poft is just going out, and I have many other Letters of very great Importance to write this Evening, but I could not omit making my Compli ments to you for your Civilities to me when I was last in Town. It is my Misfortune to be full of Business, ⚫ that I cannot tell you a Thousand Things which I have to fay to you. I must defire you to communicate the Contents of this to no one living; but believe me to be, with the greatest Fidelity,

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SIR,
Your moft Obedient,

Humble Servant,
Stephen Courier.

Madam,

Madam,

I Hate writing, of all Things in the World; however, tho' I have drank the Waters, and am told I ought not to use my Eyes fo much, I cannot forbear writing to you, to tell you I have been to the last Degree hipped fince I faw you. How could you entertain fuch a Thought, as that I should hear of that filly Fellow with • Patience? Take my Word for it, there is nothing in it; ⚫ and you may believe it when fo lazy a Creature as I am undergo the Pains to affure you of it by taking Pen, Ink, and Paper in my Hand. Forgive this, you know I fhall 6 not often offend in this Kind. I am very much Your Servant,

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Bridget Eitherdown.

The Fellow is of your Country, pr'ythee fend me Word however whether he has fo great an Estate.

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

Jan. 24, 1712,

Am Clerk of the Parish from whence Mrs. Simper fends her Complaint, in your Yesterday's Spectator. I must beg of you to publish this as a publick Admoni⚫tion to the aforefaid Mrs. Simper, otherwife all my ho'neft Care in the Difpofition of the Greens in the Church

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will have no Effect: I fhall therefore with your Leave lay before you the whole Matter. I was formerly, as 'fhe charges me, for feveral Years a Gardiner in the ⚫ County of Kent: But I muft abfolutely deny that 'tis out of any Affection I retain for my old Employment ⚫ that I have placed my Greens fo liberally about the Church, but out of a particular Spleen I conceived against Mrs. Simper (and others of the fame Sisterhood) fome time ago. As to her felf, I had one Day fet the Hundredth Pfalm, and was finging the firft Line in order to put the Congregation into the Tune, fhe was all the while curtfying to Sir Anthony, in fo affected and ⚫ indecent a manner, that the Indignation I conceived at it made me forget my felf fo far, as from the Tune of that Pfalm to wander into Southwell Tune, and from thence into Windfor Tune, ftill unable to recover my felf till I had with the utmost Confufion fet a new one. Nay,

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Nay, I have often feen her rife up and fmile, and curtfy to one at the lower End of the Church in the midst of a Gloria Patri; and when I have spoke the Affent to a Prayer with a long Amen uttered with decent Gravity, fhe has been rolling her Eyes round about in fuch "a Manner, as plainly fhewed, however she was moved, it was not towards an Heavenly Object. In fine, the ⚫ extended her Conquefts fo far over the Males, and raifed fuch Envy in the Females, that what between Love of thofe, and the Jealoufy of thefe, I was almoft the only • Perfon that looked in a Prayer-Book all Church-time. I had feveral Projects in my Head to put a Stop to this growing Mischief; but as I have long lived in Kent, and there often heard how the Kentish Men evaded the Conqueror, by carrying green Boughs over their Heads, it put me in mind of practifing this Device against Mrs. Simper. I find I have preferved many a young Man from her Eye-fhot by this Means; therefore humbly pray the Boughs may be fixed, till fhe fhall give Security for her peaceable Intentions.

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Ne, quicunque Deus, quicunque adhibebitur heros,
Regali confpectus in auro nuper & oftro,
Migret in Obfcuras humili fermone tabernas :
Aut, dum vitat humum, nubes & inania captet. Hor.'

H

AVING already treated of the Fable, the Characters and Sentiments in the Paradife Loft, we are in the last Place to confider the Language; and as the Learned World is very much divided upon Milton as to this Point, I hope they will excufe me if I appear particular in any of my Opinions, and incline to those who judge the most advantageously of the Author.

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IT is requifite that the Language of an Heroick Poem fhould be both Perfpicuous and Sublime. In proportion as either of these two Qualities are wanting, the Language is imperfect. Perfpicuity is the first and most neceffary Qualification; infomuch that a good-natur'd Reader fometimes overlooks a little Slip even in the Grammar or Syntax, where it is impoffible for him to mistake the Poet's Senfe. Of this Kind is that Paffage in Milton, wherein he speaks of Satan ;

God and his Son except,

Created thing nought valu'd he nor fhunn'd. And that in which he defcribes Adam and Eve, Adam the goodlieft Man of Men fince born His Sons, the fairest of her Daughters Eve.

IT is plain, that in the former of thefe Paffages according to the natural Syntax, the Divine Perfons mentioned in the firft Line are reprefented as created Beings; and that in the other, Adam and Eve are confounded with their Sons and Daughters, Such little Blemishes as thefe, when the Thought is great and natural, we should, with Horace, impute to a pardonable Inadvertency, or to the Weakness of human Nature, which cannot attend to each minute Particular, and gave the laft Finishing to every Circumftance in fo long a Work. The Ancient Criticks therefore, who were acted by a Spirit of Candour, rather than that of Cavilling, invented certain Figures of Speech, on purpose to palliate little Errors of this nature in the Writings of thofe Authors who had so many greater Beauties to atone for them.

IF Clearness and Perfpicuity were only to be confulted, the Poet would have nothing else to do but to clothe his Thoughts in the most plain and natural Expreffions. But fince it often happens that the most obvious Phrases, and those which are used in ordinary Converfation, become too familiar to the Ear, and contract a kind of Meannefs by paffing through the Mouths of the Vulgar, a Poet fhould take particular Care to guard himself against Idiomatick Ways of Speaking. Ovid and Lucan have many Poorneffes of Expreffion upon this Account, as taking up with the first Phrafes that offered, without putting

them

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