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Reposing himself. Instead of the reflexive form, we now use 'repose' intransitively.

Answerable, corresponding, similar. Cf. Swift (below): 'If they answered the bulk of so prodigious a person." Those of country. Dispense with (See Bain's Com

...

the pronoun.
panion to the Higher Grammar,
pages 57-60.)

Rostral crown, a crown bestowed in
honour of a naval victory. Lat.
rostrālis, belonging to a rostrum
(ship's beak, curved prow). Cf.
Addison, Tatler, No. 161: 'Com-
merce wore a rostral crown upon

her head, and kept her eyes fixed 'Rostrate crown' upon a compass.'

was also used.

So serious an

But to return &c. In cases of digres-
sion, the 'return to our subject'
ought always to be clearly marked.
amusement...
. . enter-
tainments. Cf. the opening sen-
tences; also what follows here.
There is an apparent, not a real,
contradiction in Addison's language.
'Amusement' may be taken as
synonymous with 'entertainment,'
which is lit. taking up, engaging
the attention; Fr. entre-tenir, Lat.
inter (between), and tenĕre (to hold).

Compare: A man may read a sermon, the best and most passionate that ever man preached, if he shall but enter into the sepulchres of kings. In the same Escurial where the Spanish princes live in greatness and power, and decree war or peace, they have wisely placed a cemetery, where their ashes and their glory shall sleep till time shall be no more; and where our kings have been crowned, their ancestors lie interred, and they must walk over their grandsire's head to take his crown. There is an acre sown with royal seed, the copy of the greatest change, from rich to naked, from ceiled roofs to arched coffins, from living like gods to die like men. There is enough to cool the flames of lust, to abate the heights of pride, to appease the itch of covetous desires, to sully and dash out the dissembling colours of a lustful, artificial, and imaginary beauty. There the warlike and the peaceful, the fortunate and the miserable, the beloved and the despised princes mingle their dust, and pay down their symbol of mortality, and tell all the world that, when we die, our ashes shall be equal to kings', and our accounts easier, and our pains for our crowns shall be less' (Jeremy Taylor).

GENERAL RESPECT FOR SIR ROGER.

(The Spectator, No. 122. Friday, July 20, 1711.)

Comes jucundus1 in via pro vehiculo est.

PUBLIUS SYRUS, Fragmenta.

An agreeable companion upon the road is as good as a coach.

A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but, otherwise, there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind than to see Jucundus is an adaptation or a mistake. The word in the original Latin is facundus (fluent, having plenty to say).

must quickly follow: when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs of some that died yesterday and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.

6

NOTES.

Pluto's house, abode, or kingdom, was
the Nether World, the unseen
country inhabited by the spirits of
the dead. Hades, the god of this
region, was called Pluto, the giver
of wealth' (from Greek ploutos,
wealth) of such wealth as comes
out of the earth (metals, &c.). Cf.
Milton, Par. Lost, i. 685-91.
Amusing myself &c. This participial

usage is an exceedingly happy form
for adding a fact simultaneous with
the principal one.

Person

...

he. 'Person' being of common gender, we should expect a com. gend. pron. ; but no such pron. exists. 'He' is taken as typical of persons generally. He or she' is clumsy; 'they' is oftener used. Addison might have said 'persons,' but the sing. is very much more vivid. The same construction recurs below.

No other reason but. We now prefer 'no other reason than;' we use 'than' after comparatives, and 'other' has the force of a comparative. The Queen Anne writers prefer 'but.'

Glaucus, &c. Three warriors on the

Trojan side in the siege of Troy. Writ, writing, what is written; used only technically, as an ecclesiastical term (as here), or as a legal term. Prebendary, an ecclesiastic enjoying a

prebend (Lat. prebenda, what has to be given or furnished), a stipend granted from the revenues of a cathedral or collegiate church. The present war. The War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13), waged by England, the Empire, and Holland against France and Spain. 'What they fought each other for' was to decide who should succeed Charles II. on the throne of Spain.

Blenheim (Ger. Blindheim), a small village in Bavaria, where the English and the Austrians, under the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene, defeated the French and the Bavarians with great slaughter, August 13, 1704. At Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708), and Malplaquet (1709), Marlborough gained other great victories in this war.

Ocean. The French fleet was defeated by Sir George Rooke off Vigo (1702), and off Malaga (1704).

Sir Cloudesly Shovel (1650-1707), like Marten van Tromp, rose from cabinboy to admiral. He led the van in the battle off Malaga (1704). His fleet was wrecked on the Scilly Islands, and himself drowned, Oct.

22, 1707.

Which was the distinguishing character. What is the exact reference of which?'

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her head, and kept her eyes fixed upon a compass.' 'Rostrate crown' was also used.

But to return &c. In cases of digression, the 'return to our subject' ought always to be clearly marked. So serious an amusement... entertainments. Cf. the opening sentences; also what follows here. There is an apparent, not a real, contradiction in Addison's language. 'Amusement' may be taken as synonymous with 'entertainment,' which is lit. taking up, engaging the attention; Fr. entre-tenir, Lat. inter (between), and tenere (to hold).

Compare: A man may read a sermon, the best and most passionate that ever man preached, if he shall but enter into the sepulchres of kings. In the same Escurial where the Spanish princes live in greatness and power, and decree war or peace, they have wisely placed a cemetery, where their ashes and their glory shall sleep till time shall be no more; and where our kings have been crowned, their ancestors lie interred, and they must walk over their grandsire's head to take his crown. There is an acre sown with royal seed, the copy of the greatest change, from rich to naked, from ceiled roofs to arched coffins, from living like gods to die like men. There is enough to cool the flames of lust, to abate the heights of pride, to appease the itch of covetous desires, to sully and dash out the dissembling colours of a lustful, artificial, and imaginary beauty. There the warlike and the peaceful, the fortunate and the miserable, the beloved and the despised princes mingle their dust, and pay down their symbol of mortality, and tell all the world that, when we die, our ashes shall be equal to kings', and our accounts easier, and our pains for our crowns shall be less' (Jeremy Taylor).

GENERAL RESPECT FOR SIR ROGER.

(The Spectator, No. 122. Friday, July 20, 1711.)

Comes jucundus1 in via pro vehiculo est.

PUBLIUS SYRUS, Fragmenta.

An agreeable companion upon the road is as good as a coach.

A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but, otherwise, there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind than to see

:

1 Fucundus is an adaptation or a mistake. The word in the original Latin is facundus (fluent, having plenty to say).

those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public: a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him.

My worthy friend Sir Roger is one of those who is not only at peace within himself, but beloved and esteemed by all about him. He receives a suitable tribute for his universal benevolence to mankind in the returns of affection and good-will which are paid him by every one that lives within his neighbourhood. I lately met with two or three odd instances of that general respect which is shewn to the good old knight. He would needs carry Will. Wimble and myself with him to the county assizes: as we were upon the road, Will. Wimble joined a couple of plain men who rid before us, and conversed with them for some time; during which my friend Sir Roger acquainted me with their characters.

'The first of them,' says he, 'that has a spaniel by his side, is a yeoman of about an hundred pounds a year, an honest man he is just within the game-act, and qualified to kill an hare or a pheasant: he knocks down a dinner with his gun twice or thrice a week; and by that means lives much cheaper than those who have not so good an estate as himself. He would be a good neighbour if he did not destroy so many partridges: in short, he is a very sensible man; shoots flying; and has been several times foreman of the petty-jury.

'The other that rides along with him is Tom Touchy, a fellow famous for "taking the law" of everybody. There is not one in the town where he lives that he has not sued at a quarter-sessions. The rogue had once the impudence to go to law with the widow. His head is full of costs, damages, and ejectments he plagued a couple of honest gentlemen so long for a trespass in

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