amphitheatre that lie between both the poles of heaven, and takes in at one view the whole round of the creation. His flight between the feveral worlds that fhined on every fide of him, with the particular defcription of the fun, are fet forth in all the wantonnefs of a luxuriant imagination. His shape, fpeech and behaviour upon his transforming himself into an angel of light, are touched with exquifite beauty. The poet's thought of directing San to the fun, which in the vulgar opinion of mankind is the most confpicuous part of the creation, and the placing in it an angel, is a circumftance very finely contrived, and the more adjusted to a poetical probability, as it was a received doctrine among the most famous: philofophers, that every orb had its intelligence; and as an apoftle in facred writ is faid to have feen fuch an angel in the fun. In the answer which this angel returns to the difguifed evil fpirit, there is fuch a becoming majefty as is altogether fuitable to a fuperior being. The part of it in which he reprefents himself as prefent at the creation, is very roble in itself, and not only proper where it is introduced, but requifite to prepare the reader. for what follows in the feventh book. I faw when at his word the formlefs mafs, In the following part of the fpeech he points out the earth with fuch circumftances, that the reader can fcarce forbear fancying himfelf employed on the fame diftant view of it. Look downward on the globe whofe hither fide I must not conclude my reflections upon this third book of Paradife Loft, without taking notice of that celebrated complaint of Milton with which it opens, and which certainly deferves all the praifes that have been given it; though as I have before hinted, it may rather be looked on as an excrefcence, than as an effential part. of the poem. The fame obfervation might be applied to that beautiful digreffion upon hypocrily in the fame. book. L. N° 316. Monday, March 3. Libertas; quæ fera, tamen refpexit inertem. VIRG. Ecl. 1. ver. 28. Freedom, which came at length, tho' flow to come. DRYDEN Mr. SPECTATOR, to you; you ever read a letter which is fent with the more pleasure for the reality of its complaints, this may have reafon to hope for a favourable acceptance; and if time be the moft irretrievable lofs, the regrets which follow will be thought, I hope, the moft justifiable. The regaining of my liberty from a long ftate of indolence and inactivity, and the defire of refifting the farther incroachment of idlenefs, make me apply and the uneafinefs with which I recollect the past years, and the apprehenfions with which I expect the future, foon determine ne to it. Idleness is fo general a diftemper, that I cannot but imagine a fpeculation on this fubject will be of univerfal ufe. There is hardly any one perfon without fome allay of it; and thousands befides myfelf fpend more time in an idle uncertainty which to begin first of two affairs, than would have been fufficient to have ended them both. I he occafion of this feems to be the want of fome neceffary employment, to put the fpirits in motion, and awaken them out of their le thargy: if I had lefs leifure, I fhould have more; for Ifhould then find my time diftinguished into portions, fome for bufinefs, and others for the indulging of pleasures: but now one face of indolence over No 416. fpreads the whole, and I have no land-mark to direct myfelf by. Were one's time a little ftrained by bufinefs, like water inclofed in its banks, it would have • fome determined courfe; but unlefs it be put into ⚫ fome channel it has no current, but becomes a deluge ⚫ without either use or motion. 4 When Scanderbeg prince of Epirus was dead, the Turks who had but too often felt the force of his arm in the battles he had won from then, imagined that ⚫ by wearing a piece of his bones near their heart, they fhould be animated with a vigour and force like to that which infpired him when living. As I am like to be but of little use whilst I live, I am refolved to ⚫ do what good I can after my decease; and have ac⚫cordingly ordered my bones to be difpofed of in this manner for the good of my countrymen, who are troubled with too exorbitant a degree of fire. All fox-hunters, upon wearing me, would in a fhort time be brought to endure their beds in a morning, and perhaps even quit them with regret at ten: inftead of hurrying away to teaze a poor animal, and run away from their own thoughts, a chair or a chariot would ⚫ be thought the most defirable means of performing a remove from one place to another. I fhould be a cure ⚫ for the unnatural defire of John Trot for dancing, and a fpecific to leffen the inclination Mrs. Fidget has to motion, and caufe her always to give her approbation to the prefent place fhe is in. In fine, no Egyptian mummy was ever half fo ufeful in phyfic, as I fhould be to these feverish conftitutions, to reprefs the violent fallies of youth, and give each action its proper weight and repofe. • tue. I can ftifle any violent inclination, and oppofe a torrent of anger, for the folicitations of revenge, with fuccefs. But indolence is a ftream which flows flowly on, but yet undermines the foundation of every virA vice of a more lively nature were a more de· firable tyrant than this ruft of the mind, which gives a tincture of its nature to every action of one's life. It were as little hazard to be tost in a storm, as to lie thus perpetually becalmed and it is to no purpɔfe to have within one the feeds of a thousand good qualities, : ་ if we want the vigour and resolution neceffary for the exerting them. Death brings all perfons back to an equality; and this image of it, this lumber of the ، mind, leaves no difference between the greatest gen'us and the meaneft understanding: a faculty of doing things remarkably praife-worthy thus concealed, is of no more use to the owner, than a heap of gold to the man who dares not use it. To-morrow is ftill the fatal time when all is to be • rectified: to-morrow comes, it goes, and ftill I please myfelf with the fhadow, whilft I lofe the reality; un• mindful that the present time alone is ours, the future is yet unborn, and the paft is dead, and can only live, as parents in their children, in the actions it has pro ⚫duced. ་ • The time we live ought not to be computed by the number of years, but by the ufe that has been made of it; thus it is not the extent of ground, but the yearly rent which gives the value to the cftate. Wretched ⚫ and thoughtless creatures, in the only place where co⚫ vetoufnels were a virtue we turn prodigals! Nothing lies upon our hands with fuch uneafinefs, nor has there been fo many devices for any one thing, as to make it flide away imperceptibly and, to no purpose. A fhlling fhall be hoarded up with care, whilft that which is above the price of an estate, is flung away with difregard and contempt. There is nothing now-a-days fo much avoided, as a folicitous improvement of every part of time; it is a report inuft be fhunned as one tenders the name of a wit and a fine genius, and as one fears the dreadful character of a laborious plodder: but notwithstanding this, the greatest wits any age has produced thought far otherwife; for who can think ⚫ either Socrates or Demofthenes lost any reputation, by their continual pains both in overcoming the defects and improving the gifts of nature. All are acquainted with the labour and affiduity with which Tully ac quired his eloquence.. Seneca in his letters to Lucilius affures him, there was not a day in which he did not ⚫ either write fomething, or read and epitomize fome good author; and I remember Pliny in one of his letters, where he gives an account of the various methods · No 316. he ufed to fill up every vacancy of time, after several employments which he enumerates; fometimes, fays he, I hunt; but even then I carry with me a pocketbook, that whilft my fervants are bufied in difpofing of the nets and other matters, I may be employed in fomething that may be useful to me in my ftudies; and that if I mifs of iny game, I may at the leaft bring • home fome of my own thoughts with me, and not have the mortification of having caught nothing all day. Thus, fir, you fee how many examples I recall to ⚫ mind, and what arguments I ufe with myself, to regain my liberty: but as I am afraid it is no ordinary perfuafion that will be of fervice, I fhall expect your thoughts on this fubject, with the greatest in patience; efpecially fince the good will not be confined to me alone, but will be of univerfal ufe. For there is no ⚫ hopes of amendment where men are pleased with their ruin, and whilft they think lazinefs is a defirable cha⚫racter whether it be that they like the ftate itself, or that they think it gives them a new luftre when they do exert themfelves, feemingly to be able to do that without labour and application, which others attain to • but with the greatest diligence. : I am, Sir, Your moft obliged humble fervant, CLYTANDER to CLEONE. MADAM, PERMISSION to love you is all that I defire, to conquer all the difficulties thofe about you place in my way, to furmount and acquire all thofe qualifications you expect in him who pretends to the honour • of being, 2. • Madam, |