club, that for twenty years fucceffively, upon the death of a childless rich man, he immediately drew on his boots, called for his horse, and made up to the widow. When he is rallied upon his ill fuccefs, WILL, with his ufual gaiety tells us, that he always found her pre-engaged. Widows are indeed the great game of your fortunehunters. There is fcarce a young fellow in the town of fix foot high, that has not paffed in review before one or other of these wealthy relicts. Hudibras's Cupid, who

66

--took his ftand

Upon a widow's jointure land,"

is daily employed in throwing darts, and kindling flames. But as for widows, they are fuch a fubtle generation of people, that they may be left to their own conduct; or if they make a false step in it, they are answerable for it to no body but themfelves. The young innocent creatures who have no knowledge and experience of the world, are thofe whofe fafety I would principally confult in this fpeculation. The ftealing of fuch an one should, in my opinion, be as punishable as a rape. Where there is no judgment there is no choice; and why the inveigling a woman before fhe is come to years of difcretion, fhould not be as criminal as the feducing of her before fhe is ten years old, I am at a lofs to comprehend..

L

N° 312. Wednesday, February 27.

Quad buic officium, quæ laus, quod decus erit tanti, quod adipifci cum dolore corporis velit, qui dolorem fummum malum fibi perfuaferit ? Quam porrò quis ignominiam, quam turpitudinem non pertulerit, ut effugiat dolorem, fi id fummum malum effe decreverit ?

TULL.

What duty will a man perform, what praise, what honour will he think worth purchafing at the expence of his eafe, who is perfuaded that pain is the greatest of evils? And what ignominy, what bafenefs will he not fubmit to, in order to avoid pain, if he has determined it to be the worst of misfortunes?

IT is a very melancholy reflection, that men are ufually.

fo weak, that it is abfolutely neceffary for them to know forrow and pain, to be in their right fenfes. Profperous people, for happy there are none, are hurried away with a fond fenfe of their prefent condition, and thoughtless of the mutability of fortune: fortune is a term which we muft ufe in fuch difcourfes as thefe, for what is wrought by the unfeen hand of the difpofer of all things. But methinks the difpofition of a mind which is truly great, is that which makes inisfortunes and forrow's little when they befall ourselves, great and lamentable, when they befall other men. The moft unpardonable malefactor in the world going to his death and bearing it with compofure, would win the pity of those who should behold him ; and this not because his calamity is deplorable, but because he seems himself not to deplore it: we fuffer for him who is lefs fenfible of his own mifery, and are inclined to defpife him who finks under the weight of his diftreffes. On the other hand, without any touch of envy, a temperate and well-governed mind looks down on fuch as are exalted with fuccefs, with a certain shame for the

imbecillity of human nature, that can fo far forget how liable it is to calamity, as to grow giddy with only the fufpenfe of forrow, which is the portion of all men. He therefore who turns his face from the unhappy man, who will not look again when his eye is caft upon modeft forrow, who fhuns affliction like a contagion, does but pamper himself up for a facrifice, and contract in himself a greater aptitude to mifery by attempting to efcape it. A gentleman, where I happened to be last night, fell into a difcourfe which I thought fhewed a good difcerning in him he took notice that whenever men have looked into their heart for the idea of true excellency in human nature, they have found it to confift in fuffering after a right manner and with a good grace. Heroes are always drawn bearing forrows, ftruggling with adverfities, undergoing all kinds of hardfhips, and having in the fervice of mankind a kind of appetite to difficulties and dangers. The gentleman went on to obferve, that it is from this fecret fenfe of the high merit which there is in patience under calamities, that the writers of romances, when they attempt to furnish out characters of the highest excellence, ranfack nature for things terrible; they raife: a new creation of monsters, dragons, and giants: where the danger ends, the hero ceafes; when he has won an empre, or gained his miftrefs, the rest of his story is not worth relating. My friend carried his discourse fo far as to fay, that it was for higher beings than men to join happiness and greatness in the fame idea; but that in our condition we have no conception of fuperlative excellence, or heroifin, but as it is furrounded with a fhade of diftrefs.

It is certainly the proper education we fhould give ourfelves, to be prepared for the ill events and accidents we are to meet with in a life fentenced to be a scene of forrow: but instead of this expectation, we foften ourfelves with profpects of conftant delight, and deftroy in our. ninds the leeds of fortitude and virtue, which should fupport us in hours of anguifh. The conftant purfuit of pleasure has in it fomething infolent and improper for our being. There is a pretty fober liveliness in the ode of Horace to Delius, where he tells him, "loud mirth, or "immoderate forrow, inequality of behaviour either in

257 "profperity or adverfity, are alike ungraceful in man "that is born to die." Moderation in both circumftances is peculiar to generous minds: men of that fort ever tafte the gratifications of health, and all other advantages of life, as if they were liable to part with them, and when bereft of them, refign them with a greatness of mind which shews they know their value and duration. The contempt of pleasure is a certain preparatory for the contempt of pain: without this the mind is as it were taken fuddenly by an unforeseen event; but he that has always, during health and profperity, been abftinent in his fatisfactions, enjoys, in the worst of difficulties, the reflection, that his anguish is not aggravated with the comparison of past pleasures which upbraid his prefent condition. Tully tells us a ftory after Pompey, which gives us a good taste of the pleasant manner the men of wit and philofophy had in old times of alleviating the diftreffes of life by the force of reafon and philofophy. Pompey, when he came to Rhodes, had a curiofity to vifit the famous philofopher Poffidonius; but finding him in his fick bed, he bewailed the misfortune that he should not hear a difcourfe from him: but you may, answered Poffidonius; and immediately entered into the point of ftoical philofophy, which fays, pain is not an evil. During the difcourfe, upon every puncture he felt from his diltemper, he fmiled and cried out, pain, pain, be as impertinent and troublefome as you pleafe, I fhall never own that thou art an evil.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

HAVING feen in feveral of your papers, a con⚫cern for the honour of the clergy, and their doing every thing as becomes their character, and particularly performing the public fervice with a due zeal and devotion; I ain the more encouraged to lay before them, by your means, feveral expreffions used by fone of them in their prayers before ferinon, which I am not well fatisfied in as their giving fome titles and epithets to great men, which are indeed due to them in their fe⚫veral ranks and stations, but not prope ly ufed, I think, in our prayers. Is it not contradict on to fay, illuftrious, right reverend, and right honourable poor finners?

N° 312. • Thefe diftinctions are fuited only to our ftate here, and have no place in heaven: we fee they are omitted in the liturgy; which I think the clergy should take for their pattern in their own forms of devotion. There is another expreffion which I would not mention, but that I have heard it feveral times before a learned congregation, to bring in the last petition of the prayer in thefe words, "O let not the Lord be angry and I will "fpeak but this once;" as if there was no difference between Abraham's interceding for Sodom, for which he had no warrant as we can find, and our asking those things which we are required to pray for; they would therefore have much more reafon to fear his anger if they did not make fuch petitions to him. There is another pretty fancy: when a young man has a mind to let us know who gave him his fcarf, he speaks a parenthefis to the Almighty, blefs, "as I am in duty "bound to pray," the right honourable the countefs; is not that as much as to fay, bless her, for thou knoweft I am her chaplain ?

Your humble fervant,

T.

'J. O.'