lutions, I must confess, with great confusion, that I find myself daily degenerating into a bagpipe; whether it be the effect of my old age, or of the company I keep, I know not. All that I can do, is to keep a watch over my conversation, and to silence the drone as soon as I find it begin to hum in my discourse, being determined rather to hear the notes of others, than to play out of time, and encroach upon their parts in the concert, by the noise of so tiresome an instrument.

I shall conclude this paper with a letter which I received last night from a friend of mine, who knows very well my notions upon this subject, and invites me to pass the evening at his house, with a select company of friends, in the following words:

"DEAR ISAAC,-I intend to have a concert at my house this evening, having by great chance got a harpsichord, which I am sure will entertain you very agreeably. There will be likewise two lutes and a trumpet: let me beg you to put yourself in tune, and be

lieve me

Your very faithful servant,

"NICHOLAS HUMDRUM.'

No. 154.] Tuesday, April 4, 1710.

Obscuris vera involvens.

Virg. Jn. 1. 6.

From my own Apartment, April 3. WE have already examined Homer's description of a future state, and the condition in which he hath placed the souls of the deceased. I shall in this paper make some observations on the account which Virgil hath given us of the same subject, who, besides a greatness of genius, had all the lights of philosophy and human learning to assist and guide him in his discoveries.

Æneas is represented as descending into the empire of death, with a prophetess by his side, who instructs him in the secrets of those lower regions.

who very naturally lie within the shadow of the dream-tree, as being of the same kind of make in themselves, and the materials, or (to use Shakspeare's phrase) the stuff of which dreams are made. Such are the shades of the giant with a hundred hands, and of his brother with three bodies; of the double-shaped Centaur, and Scylla; the Gorgon with snaky hair; the Harpy with a woman's face and lion's talons; the sevenheaded Hydra; and the Chimera, which breathes forth a flame, and is a compound of three animals. These several mixed natures, the creatures of imagination, are not only introduced with great art after the dreams, but as they are planted at the very entrance, and within the very gates of those ums and extravagancies of fancy, which the regions, do probably denote the wild delirisoul usually falls into when she is just upon the verge of death.

Thus far Æneas travels in an allegory. The rest of the description is drawn with great exactness, according to the religion of the heathens, and the opinions of the Platonic philosophy. I shall not trouble my reader with a common dull story, that gives an account why the heathens first of all supposed a ferryman in hell, and his name to be Charon; but must not pass over in silence the point of doctrine which Virgil hath very much insisted upon in this book, that the souls of those who are unburied, are not permitted to go over into their respective places of rest, till they have wandered a hundred years upon the banks of Styx. This was probably an invention of the heathen priesthood, to make the people extremely careful of performing proper rites and ceremonies to the memory of the dead. I shall not, however, with the infamous scribblers of the age, take an occasion from such a circumstance, to run into declamations against priestcraft, but rather look upon it even in this light as a religious artifice, to raise in the minds of men an esteem for the memory of their forefathers, and a desire to recommend Upon the confines of the dead, and before themselves to that of posterity; as also to the very gates of this infernal world, Virgil excite in them an ambition of imitating the describes several inhabitants, whose natures virtues of the deceased, and to keep alive in are wonderfully suited to the situation of the their thoughts the sense of the soul's immorplace, as being either the occasions or re-tality. In a word, we may say in defence of semblances of Death. Of the first kind are the shadows of Sickness, Old Age, Fear, Famine, and Poverty, (apparitions very terrible to behold,) with several others, as Toil, War, Contention, and Discord, which contribute all of them to people this common receptacle of human souls. As this was likewise a very proper residence for every thing that resembles death, the poet tells us, that Sleep, whom he represents as a near relation to Death, has likewise his habitation in these quarters, and describes in them a huge gloomy elm-tree, which seems a very proper ornament for the place, and is possessed by an innumerable swarm of dreams, that hang in clusters under every leaf of it. He then gives us a list of imaginary persons,

the severe opinions relating to the shades of unburied persons, what hath been said by some of our divines, in regard to the rigid doctrines concerning the souls of such who die without being initiated into our religion, that supposing they should be erroneous, they can do no hurt to the dead, and will have a good effect upon the living, in making them cautious of neglecting such necessary solemnities.

Charon is no sooner appeased, and the triple-headed dog laid asleep, but Æneas makes his entrance into the dominions of Pluto. There are three kinds of persons described, as being situated on the borders; and I can give no reason for their being stationed there in so particular a manner, but

because none of them seem to have had a |
proper right to a place among the dead, as
not having run out the whole thread of their
days, and finished the term of life that had
been allotted them upon earth. The first
of these are the souls of infants, who are
snatched away by untimely ends: the second,
are of those who are put to death wrongfully,
and by an unjust sentence; and the third, of
those who grew weary of their lives, and
laid violent hands upon themselves. As for
the second of these, Virgil adds, with great
beauty, that Minos, the judge of the dead, is
employed in giving them a re-hearing, and
assigning them their several quarters, suita-
ble to the parts they acted in life. The
poet, after having mentioned the souls of
those unhappy men who destroyed them-
selves, breaks out into a fine exclamation:
"Oh ! how gladly (says he) would they now
endure life with all its miseries! But the
destinies forbid their return to earth, and the
waters of Styx surround them with nine
streams that are unpassable." It is very
remarkable, that Virgil, notwithstanding
self-murder was so frequent among the hea-
thens, and had been practised by some of
the greatest men in every age before him,
hath here represented it as so heinous a
crime. But in this particular he was guided
by the doctrines of his great master Plato,
who says on this subject, "That a man is
placed in his station of life like a soldier in
his proper post, which he is not to quit,
whatever may happen, until he is called off
by his commander who planted him in it."

and walks, which he tells us are inhabited by deceased lovers.

“Not far from hence (says he) lies a great waste of plains, that are called the Fields of Melancholy. In these there grows a forest of myrtle, divided into many shady retirements, and covered walks, and inhabited by the souls of those who pined away with love. The passion (says he) continues with them after death." He then gives a list of this languishing tribe, in which his own Dido makes the principal figure, and is described as living in this soft romantic scene, with the shade of her first husband Sichæus.

The poet in the next place mentions another plain, that was peopled with the ghosts of warriors, as still delighting in each other's company, and pleased with the exercise of arms. He there represents the Grecian generals and common soldiers, who perished in the siege of Troy, as drawn up in squadrons, and terrified at the approach of Æneas, which renewed in them those impressions of fear they had before received in battle with the Trojans. He afterwards likewise, upon the same notion, gives a view of the Trojan heroes, who lived in former ages, amidst a visionary scene of chariots and arms, flowery meadows, shining spears, and generous steeds, which he tells us were their pleasures upon earth, and now make up their happiness in Elysium. For the same reason also, he mentions others, as singing peans, and songs of triumph, amidst a beautiful grove of laurel. The chief of the concert was the poet Museus, who stood inclosed There is another point in the Platonic phi- with a circle of admirers, and rose by the losophy, which Virgil has made the ground-head and shoulders above the throng of work of the greatest part in the piece we are now examining, having with wonderful art and beauty materialized (if I may so call it) a scheme of abstracted notions, and clothed the most nice, refined conceptions of philosophy in sensible images, and poetical representations. The Platonists fell us, that the soul, during her residence in the body, contracts many virtuous and vicious habits, so as to become a beneficent, mild, charitable, or an angry, malicious, revengeful being; a substance inflamed with lust, avarice, and pride; or, on the contrary, brightened with pure, generous, and humble dispositions: that these, and the like habits of virtue and vice growing into the very essence of the soul, survive and gather strength in her after her dissolution: that the torments of a vicious soul in a future state, arise principally from those importunate passions, which are not capable of being gratified without a body; and that, on the contrary, the happiness of virtuous minds, very much consists in their being employed in sublime speculations, innocent diversions, sociable affections, and all the ecstacies of passion and rapture which are agreeable to reasonable natures, and of which they gained a relish in this life.

Upon this foundation, the poet raises that beautiful description of the secret haunts

shades that surrounded him. The habitations of unhappy spirits, to show the duration of their torments, and the desperate condition they are in, are represented as guarded by a fury, moated round with a lake of fire, strengthened with towers of iron, encompassed with a triple wall, and fortified with pillars of adamant, which all the gods together were not able to heave from their foundations. The noise of stripes, the clank of chains, and the groans of the tortured, strike the pious neas with a kind of horror. The poet afterwards divides the criminals into two classes: the first and blackest catalogue consists of such as were guilty of outrages against the gods; and the next, of such who were convicted of injustice between man and man: the greatest number of whom, says the poet, are those who followed the dictates of avarice.

It was an opinion of the Platonists, that the souls of men having contracted in the body great stains and pollutions, of vice and ignorance, there were several purgations and cleansings necessary to be passed through, both here and hereafter, in order to refine and purify them.

Virgil, to give this thought likewise a clothing of poetry, describes some spirits as bleaching in the winds, others as cleansing under great falls of waters, and others as

purging in fire, to recover the primitive beauty and purity of their natures.

It was likewise an opinion of the same sect of philosophers, that the souls of all men exist in a separate state, long before their union with their bodies; and that upon their immersion into flesh, they forget every thing which passed in the state of pre-existence; so that what we here call knowledge, is nothing else but memory, or the recovery of those things which we knew before. In pursuance of this scheme, Virgil gives us a view of several souls, who, to prepare themselves for living upon earth, flock about the banks of the river Lethe, and swill themselves with the water of oblivion.

The same scheme gives him an opportunity of making a noble compliment to his countrymen, where Anchises is represented taking a survey of the long train of heroes that are to descend from him, and giving his son Æneas an account of all the glories of

his race.

I need not mention the revolution of the Platonic year, which is but just touched upon in this book; and as I have consulted no anthor's thoughts in this explication, shall be very well pleased, if it can make the noblest piece of the most accomplished poet more agreeable to my female readers, when they think fit to look into Dryden's translation of it.

No. 155.] Thursday, April 6, 1710.

-Aliena negotia curat
Excussus propriis.-

Hor.

This man and his affairs had been long out of my mind, till about three days ago, as I was walking in St. James's Park, I heard somebody at a distance hemming after me; and who should it be but my old neighbour the upholsterer. I saw he was reduced to extreme poverty, by certain shabby superfluities in his dress: for, notwithstanding that it was a very sultry day for the time of the year, he wore a loose great coat and a muff, with a long campaign wig out of curl; to which he had added the ornament of a pair of black garters buckled under the knee. Upon his coming up to me, I was going to inquire into his present circumstances; but was prevented by his asking me, with a whisper, "Whether the last letters brought any accounts that one might rely upon from Bender?" I told him, "None, that I heard of ;" and asked him, "Whether he had yet married his eldest daughter?" He told me, "No. But pray, (says he) tell me sincerely, what are your thoughts of the King of Sweden?" for though his wife and children were starving, I found his chief concern at present was for this great monarch. I told him, "That I looked upon him as one of the first heroes of the age, "But pray, (says he,) do you think there is any thing in the story of his wound?" (and finding me surprised at the question, Nay, (says he,) I only propose it to you. " I answered, “That I thought there was no reason to doubt of it." But why in the heel, (says he,) more than any other part of the body?” "Because (says I) the bullet chanced to light there."

This extraordinary dialogue was no sooner ended, but he began to launch out into a From my own Apartment, April 5. long dissertation upon the affairs of the THERE lived some years since within my north: and, after having spent some time neighbourhood, a very grave person, an up- on them, he told me, he was in a great perholsterer, who seemed to be a man of more plexity how to reconcile the Supplement than ordinary application to business. He with the English-Post, and had been just was a very early riser, and was often abroad now examining what the other papers said two or three hours before any of his neigh- upon the same subject. "The daily Cou-bours. He had a particular carefulness in rant (says he) has these words, ' We have the knitting of his brows, and a kind of im- advices from very good hands, that a cer patience in all his motions, that plainly dis- tain prince has some matters of great imcovered he was always intent on matter of portance under consideration.' This is very importance. Upon my inquiry into his life mysterious; but the Post-boy leaves us more and conversation, I found him to be the in the dark, for he tells us, That there are greatest news-monger in our qnarter; that private intimations of measures taken by a he rose before day to read the Postman; and certain prince, which time will bring to that he would take two or three turns to the light.' Now, the Postman, (says he,) who other end of the town before his neighbours uses to be very clear, refers to the same were up, to see if there were any Dutch news in these words; The late conduct of mails come in. He had a wife and several a certain prince affords great matter of specchildren; but was much more inquisitive to ulation. This certain prince, (says the upknow what passed in Poland, than in his holsterer,) whom they are all so cautious of own family; and was in greater pain and naming, I take to beanxiety of mind for King Augustus's welfare though there was nobody near us, he whisperupon which, than that of his nearest relations. He looked ed something in my ear, which I did not hear, extremely thin in a dearth of news, and never or think worth my while to make him enjoyed himself in a westerly wind. This repeat. indefatigable kind of life was the ruin of his shop; for about the time that his favourite prince left the crown of Poland, he broke, and lisappeared.

We were now got to the upper end of the Mall, where were three or four very odd fellows sitting together upon the bench. These I found were all of them politicians.

who used to sun themselves in that place every day about dinner-time. Observing them to be curiosities in their kind, and my friend's acquaintance, I sat down among them.

passion to so needy a statesman, and to dissipate the confusion I found he was in, I told him, if he pleased, I would give him five shillings, to receive five pounds of him when the great Turk was driven out of Constantinople; which he very readily accepted, but not before he had laid down to me the impossibility of such an event, as the affairs of Europe now stand.

The chief politician of the bench was a great asserter of paradoxes. He told us, with a seeming concern, that, by some news he had lately read from Muscovy, it appeared to him, that there was a storm gathering in the Black Sea, which might in time do hurt to the naval forces of this nation. To this he added, that, for his part, he could not wish to see the Turk driven out of Europe, which he believed could not but be prejudicial to our woollen manufacture. He then told us, that he looked upon those extraordinary revolutions, which had lately hap- No. 156.] Saturday, April 8, 1710. pened in those parts of the world, to have risen chiefly from two persons who were not much talked of; and those, says he, are Prince Menzikoff, and the Duchess of Mirandola. He backed his assertions with so many broken hints, and such a show of depth and wisdom, that we gave ourselves up to his opinions.

This paper I design for the particular benefit of those worthy citizens who live more in a coffee-house than in their shops, and whose thoughts are so taken up with the affairs of the Allies, that they forget their customers.

-Sequiturque Patrem non passibus æquis.-Virg.

From my own Apartment, April 7 We have already described out of Homer, the voyage of Ulysses to the infernal shades, with the several adventures that attended it. If we look into the beautiful romance pubThe discourse at length fell upon a point lished not many years since by the Archwhich seldom escapes a knot of true-born bishop of Cambray, we may see the son of Englishmen, whether, in case of a religious Ulysses bound on the same expedition, and war, the Protestants would not be too strong after the same manner making his discovefor the Papists? This we unanimously deter- ries among the regions of the dead. The mined on the Protestant side. One who sat story of Telemachus is formed altogether in on my right hand, and, as I found by his the spirit of Homer, and will give an undiscourse, had been in the West Indies, as- learned reader a notion of that great poet's sured us, that it would be a very easy mat- manner of writing, more than any translater for the Protestants to beat the Pope at tion of him can possibly do. As it was sea; and added, that whenever such a war written for the instruction of a young prince, does break out, it must turn to the good of who may one day sit upon the throne of the Leeward Islands. Upon this, one who France, the author took care to suit the sesat at the end of the bench, and, as I after- veral parts of his story, and particularly the wards found, was the geographer of the description we are now entering upon, to the For company, said, that in case the Papists character and quality of his pupil. should drive the Protestants from these which reason, he insists very much on the parts of Europe, when the worst came to misery of bad, and the happiness of good the worst, it would be impossible to beat kings, in the account he hath given of punthem out of Norway and Greenland, provi-ishments and rewards in the other world. ded the northern crowns hold together, and the Czar of Muscovy stands neuter.

He further told us, for our comfort, that there were vast tracts of land about the pole, inhabited neither by Protestants nor Papists, and of greater extant than all the Roman Catholic dominions in Europe.

When he had fully discussed this point, my friend the upholsterer began to exert himself upon the present negotiations of peace, in which he deposed princes, settled the bounds of kingdoms, and balanced the power of Europe with great justice and impartiality.

I at length took my leave of the company, and was going away; but had not gone thirty yards, before the upholsterer hemmed again after me. Upon his advancing towards me, with a whisper, I expected to hear some secret piece of news, which he had not thought fit to communicate to the bench; but, instead of that, he desired me in my ear to lend him half-a-crown. In com

We may, however, observe, notwithstanding the endeavours of this great and learned author, to copy after the style and sentiments of Homer, that there is a certain tincture of Christianity running through the whole relation. The prelate in several places mixes himself with the poet; so that his future state puts me in mind of Michael Angelo's last judgment, where Charon and his boat are represented as bearing a part in the dreadful solemnities of that great day.

Telemachus, after having passed through the dark avenues of death in the retinue of Mercury, who every day delivers up a certain tale of ghosts to the ferrymen of Styx, is admitted into the infernal bark. Among the companions of his voyage, is the shade of Nabopharzon, a king of Babylon, and tyrant of all the East. Among the ceremonies and pomps of his funeral, there were four slaves sacrificed, according to the custom of the country, in order to attend him among the shades. The author having de

repeats to them all the praises that their flatterers had bestowed upon them while they sat on their respective thrones. She too, says the author, presents a mirror before their eyes, in which every one sees himself adorned with all those beauties and perfections in wich they had been drawn by the vanity of their own hearts, and the flattery of others. To punish them for the wanton

scribed this tyrant in the most odious colours | other fury, that, with an insulting derision of pride, insolence, and cruelty, tells us, that his four slaves, instead of serving him after death, were perpetually insulting him with reproaches and affronts for his past usage; that they spurned him as he lay upon the ground, and forced him to show his face, which he would fain have covered, as lying under all the confusions of guilt and infamy; and, in short, that they kept him bound in a chain, in order to drag him before the tribu-ness of the cruelty which they formerly exnal of the dead.

ercised, they are now delivered up to be treated according to the fancy and caprice of several slaves, who have here an opportunity of tyrannizing in their turns.

The author having given us a description of these ghastly spectres, who, says he, are always calling upon death, and are placed under the distillation of that burning vengeance which falls upon them drop by drop, and is never to be exhausted, leads us into a pleasing scene of groves, filled with the melody of birds, and the odours of a thousand

Telemachus, upon looking out of the bark, sees all the strand covered with an innumerable multitude of shades, who, upon his jumping ashore, immediately vanished. He then pursues his course to the palace of Pluto, who is described as seated on his throne in terrible majesty, with Proserpine by his side. At the foot of his throne was the pale hideous spectre, who, by the ghastliness of his visage, and the nature of the apparitions that surrounded him, discovers himself to be Death. His attendants are Melancholy, Dis-different plants. These groves are repretrust, Revenge, Hatred, Avarice, Despair, Ambition, Envy, Impiety, with frightful dreams, and waking cares, which are all drawn very naturally in proper actions and postures. The author, with great beauty, places near his frightful dreams, an assembly of phantoms, which are often employed to terrify the living, by appearing in the shape and likeness of the dead.

“

sented as rising among a great many flowery meadows, and watered with streams that diffuse a perpetual freshness in the midst of an eternal day, and a never-fading spring. This, says the author, was the habitation of those good princes who were friends of the gods, and parents of the people. Among these, Telemachus converses with the shade of one of his ancestors, who makes a most agreeable relation of the joys of Elysium, and the nature of its inhabitants. The residence of Sesostris among these happy shades, with his character and present employment, is drawn in a very lively manner, and with a

The young hero, in the next place, takes a survey of the different kinds of criminals, that lay in torture among clouds of sulphur, and torrents of fire. The first of these were such as had been guilty of impieties, which every one hath a horror for: to which is ad-great elevation of thought. ded, a catalogue of such offenders that scarce appear to be faulty in the eyes of the vulgar. Among these (says the author) are malicious critics, that have endeavoured to cast a blemish upon the perfections of others;' with whom he likewise places such as have often hurt the reputation of the innocent, by passing a rash judgment on their actions, without knowing the occasion of them. "These crimes (says he) are more severely punished after death, because they generally meet with impunity upon earth."

The description of that pure and gentle light which overflows these happy regions, and clothes the spirits of these virtuous persons, hath something in it of that enthusiasm which this author was accused of by his enemies in the church of Rome; but however it may look in religion, it makes a very beautiful figure in poetry.

"The rays of the sun (says he) are darkness in comparison with this light, which rather deserves the name of glory, than that of light. It pierces the thickest bodies, in Telemachus, after having taken a survey the same manner as the sunbeams pass of several other wretches in the same cir- through crystal; it strengthens the sight incumstances, arrives at that region of tor- stead of dazzling it; and nourishes in the ments in which wicked kings are punished. most inward recesses of the mind, a perpetuThere are very fine strokes of imagination al serenity that is not to be expressed. It in the description which he gives of this un- enters and incorporates itself with the very happy multitude. He tells us, that on one substance of the soul: the spirits of the blessside of them there stood a revengeful fury, ed feel it in all their senses, and in all their thundering in their ears incessant repetitions perceptions. It produces a certain source of of all the crimes they had committed upon peace and joy that arises in them for ever, earth, with the aggravations of ambition, running through all the faculties, and refreshvanity, hardness of heart, and all those se- ing all the desires of the soul. External cret affections of the mind that enter into the pleasures and delights, with all their charms composition of a tyrant. At the same time, and allurements, are regarded with the utshe holds up to them a large mirror, in which most indifference and neglect by these hapevery one sees himself represented in the py spirits, who have this great principle of natural horror and deformity of his charac-pleasure within them, drawing the whole ter. On the other side of them stands an- mind to itself, calling off their attention from