to meet with that common ftory, the poet lides by, and raises the whole world for a kind of arbiter which is to end the contention among it's feveral parts. ON ANACREON, BY ANTIPATER. The poet here written upon, is an eafy gay author, and he who writes up Whofe foul, exalted like a god of wit, This epigram I have opened more than any one of the former: the thought towards the latter end feemed clofer couched, fo as to require an explication. I fancied the poet aimed at the picture which is generally made of Apollo and the Mufes, he fitting with his harp in the middie, and they around him. This looked beautiful to my thought, and because the image arofe before me out of the words of the original as I was reading it, I ventured to explain them so. ON MENANDER, THE AUTHOR UN- The very bees, O fweet Menander, hung on him has filled his own head with the character of his fubje&t. He feeins to Jove his theme fo much, that he thinks of nothing but pleasing him as if he were ftill alive, by entering into his libertine fpirit; fo that the humour is eafy and gay, refembling Anacreon in it's air, raifed by fuch images, and pointed with fuch a turn as he might have used. I gave it a place here, becaufe the author may have defigned it for his honour; and I take an opportunity from it to ad-racter of it's fubject; for Menander writ wife others, that when they would praife, they cautiously avoid every loofer qualification, and fix only where there is a real foundation in merit. ON EURIPIDES, BY ION. The thought here is fine, but it's fault is, that it is general, that it may belong to any great man, because it points out no particular character. It would be better, if when we light upon fuch a turn, we join it with fomething that circumfcribes and bounds it to the qualities of our fubject. He who gives his praife in grofs, will often appear either to have been a ftranger to thofe he writes upon, or not to have found any thing in them which is praife-worthy. And raife it's glory to the skies in thine. This epigram has a refpect to the chs. remarkably with a juftness and purity of language. It has alfo told the coun try he was born in, without either a fet or a hidden manner, while it twifts to gether the glory of the poet and his na tion, fo as to make the nation depend upon his for an increase of it's own. I will offer no more inftances at prefent to fhew that they who deferve praise have it returned them from different ages. Let thefe which have been laid down, fhew men that envy will not al ways prevail. And to the end that writers may more fuccessfully enliven the endeavours of one another, let them confider, in fome fuch manner as I have attempted, what may be the justest spirit and art of praise. It is indeed very hard to come up to it. Our praife is trifling when it depends upon fable; it is falle when it depends upon wrong qualifications; it means nothing when it is general; it is extremely difficult to hit when we propose to raise characters high, while we keep to them justly. I fhall end this with tranfcribing that excellent epitaph of Mr. Cowley, wherein, with a kind of grave and philofophic humour, he very beautifully fpeaks of himself (withdrawn from the world, and dead to all the interefts of it) as of a man really deceased. At the fame time it is an inftruction how to leave the public with a good grace. EPITAPHIUM VIVI AUCTORIS. HIC, O viator, fub lare parvulo P is ut illum dicere mortuum, Vatis adbuc cinerem calentem. THE LIVING AUTHOR'S EPITAPH. FROM life's fuperfluous cares enlarg`d, His debt of human toil difcharg'd, The publication of these criticifims having procured me the following letter from a very ingenious gentleman, I cannot forbear inferting it in the volume, though it did not come foon enough to have a place in any of my fingle papers. MR. SPECTATOR, HAVING read over in your paper, DLI.fome of the epigrams made by the Grecian wits, in commendation of their celebrated poets, I could not forbear fending you another, out of the fame collection; which I take to be as great a compliment to Homer, as any that has yet been paid him. Τές ποθ ̓ ὁτὸν Τροίης πόλεμον, &c. Who first tranfcrib'd the famous Trojan war, And wife Ulyffes' acts, O Jove, make · known: For fince 'tis certain thine thofe poems are, No more let Homer boaft they are his own. If you think it worthy of a place in your fpeculations, for aught I know, by that means, it may in time be printed as often in English, as it has already been in Greek. I am, like the reft of the world, Sir, your great admirer, 4th DEC. G. R. The reader may obferve that the beauty of this epigram is different from that of any in the foregoing. An irony is looked upon as the finest palliative of praife; and very often conveys the nobleft panegyric under the appearance of fatire. Homer is here seemingly accuf-. ed and treated as a plagiary; but what is drawn up in the form of an accufation is certainly, as my correfpondent obferves, the greatest compliment that could have been paid to that divine poet. DEAR MR. SPECTATOR, I Am a gentleman of a pretty good fortune, and of a temper inpatient of any thing which I think an injury; however, I always quarrelled according to law, and instead of attacking my adverfary by the dangerous method of fword and piftol, I made my affaults by that more fecure one of writ or warrant. I cannot help telling you, that either by the juftice of my caufes, or the fuperiority of my counfel, I have been generally fuccessful; and to my great fatisfaction I can fay it, that by three actions of flander, and half a dozen trespasses, I have for feveral years enjoyed a perfect tranquillity in my reputation and eftate. By thefe means alfo I have been made known to the judges; the ferjeants of our circuit are my intimate friends, and the ornamental counfel pay a very profound refpect to one who has made fo great a figure in the law. Affairs of confequence having brought me to town, I had the curiofity the other day to vifit Weftminster Hall; and having placed myfelf in one of the courts, expected to be moft agreeably entertained. After the court and counfel were, with due ceremony, feated, up ftands a learned gentleman, and began When this ( matter was last itirred before your lordship; the next humbly moved to quash an indictment; another complained that his adverfary had snapped a judgment; the next informed the court that 6 Y his his client was stripped of his poffeffion; another begged leave to acquaint his lordship they had been faddled with cofts, At laft up got a grave ferjeant, and told us his client had been hung up a whole term by a writ of error. At this I could bear it no longer, but came hither, and refolved to apply myself to your honour to interpofe with thefe gentlemen, that they would leave off fuch low and unnatural expreffions: for furely though the lawyers fubfcribe to hideous French and falfe Latin, yet they fhould let their clients have a little decent and proper English for their money. What man that has a value for a good name would like to have it faid in a public court, that Mr. Such-a-one was ftripped, faddled, or hung up?' This being what has efcaped your spectatorial obfervation, be pleafed to correct fuch an illiberal cant among profeffed fpeakers, and you will infinitely oblige your hum. ble fervant, PHILONICUS. JOE'S COFFEE-HOUSE,' N° DLII. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3. QUI PRÆGRAVAT ARTES INFRA SE POSITAS, EXTINCTUS AMABITUR IDEM. HOR. EP. 1. L. 2. VER. 13. FOR THOSE ARE HATED THAT EXCEL THE REST, S I was tumbling about the town the other day in a hackney-coach, and delighting myfelf with bufy fcenes in the fhops of each fide of me, it came into my head, with no fmall remorse, that I had not been frequent enough, in the mention and recommendation of the industrious part of mankind, It very naturally, upon this occafion, touched my confcience in particular, that I had not acquitted myfelf to my friend Mr. Peter Motteux. That induftrious man of trade, and formerly brother of the quill, has dedicated to me a poem upon tea. It would injure him, as a man of business, if I did not let the world know that the author of fo good verfes writ them before he was concerned in traffic. In order to expiate my negligence to wards him, I immediately refolved to make him a vifit. I found his fpacious warehouses filled and adorned with tea, China and Indian ware. I could obferve a beautiful ordonnance of the whole; and fuch different and confiderable branches of trade carried on, in the fame house, I exulted in feeing disposed by a poetical head. In one place were expofed to view filks of various fhades and colours, ich brocades, and the wealthieft products of foreign looms. Here you might fee the fineft laces held up by the fairest hands; and there examined by the beauteons eyes of the buyers, the most delicate cambrics, CREECH. muflins, and linens, I could not but congratulate my friend on the humble, but, I hope, beneficial ufe he had made of his talents, and wished I could be a patron to his trade, as he had been pleased to make me of his poetry. The honest man has, I know, that modeft defire of gain which is peculiar to thofe who understand better things than riches; and I dare fay he would be contented with much less than what is called wealth at that quarter of the town which he inhabits, and will oblige all his customers with demands agreeable to the modera tion of his defires. Among other omiffions of which I have been alfo guilty, with relation to men of industry of a fuperior order, I must acknowledge my filence towards a propofal frequently inclofed to me by Mr. Renatus Harris, organ-builder, The ambition of this artificer is to erect an organ in St. Paul's cathedral, over the wet door, at the entrance into the body of the church, which in art and magnificence fhall tranfcend any work of that kind ever before invented. The propofal in perfpicuous language fets forth the honour and advantage fuch a performance would be to the British name, as well as that it would apply the power of founds, in a manner more amazingly forcible than, perhaps, has yet been known, and I am fure to an end much more worthy. Had the vast fums fums which have been laid out upon operas without skill or conduct, and to no other purpose but to fufpend or vitiate our understandings, been difpofed this way, we should now perhaps have had an engine fo formed as to ftrike the minds of half the people at once in a place of worthip with a forgetfulness of prefent care and calamity, and a hope of endless rapture, joy, and hallelujah hereafter. When I am doing this justice, I am not to forget the belt mechanic of my acquaintance, that useful fervant to fcience and knowledge, Mr. John Rowley; but I think I lay a great obligation on the public by acquainting them with his proposals for a pair of new globes. After his preamble, he promises in the faid proposals that, In the Celestial Globe, Care fhall be taken that the fixed stars be placed according to the true longitude and latitude, from the many and correct obfervations of Hevelius, Caffini, Mr. Flamstead, reg. aftronomer, Dr. Halley, Savilian profeffor of geometry in Oxon; and from whatever elfe can be procured to render the globe more exact, instructive, and useful. That all the conftellations be drawn in a curious, new, and particular manner; each star in fo juft, diftinct, and confpicuous a proportion, that it's magnitude may be readily known by bare infpection, according to the different light and fizes of the stars. That the track or way of fuch comets as have been well obferved, but not hitherto expreffed in any globe, be carefully delineated in this. In the Terreftrial Globe, That by reafon the defcriptions formerly made, both in the English and Dutch great globe, are erroneous, Afia, Africa, and America, be drawn in a fnanner wholly new; by which means it is to be noted that the undertakers will be obliged to alter the latitude of fome places in to degrees, the longitude of others in 20 degrees; befides which great and neceffary alterations, there are many remarkable countries, cities, towns, rivers, and lakes, omitted in other globes, inferted here according to the best discoveries made by our late na vigators. Lastly, that the course of the trade-winds, the monfoons, and other winds periodically fhifting between the tropics, be vifibly expreffed. Now in regard that this undertaking is of fo universal use, as the advancement of the moit neceffary parts of the mathematics, as well as tending to the honour of the British nation, and that the charge of carrying it on is very expenfive; it is defired that all gentlemen who are willing to promote fo great a work, will be pleafed to fubfcribe on the following conditions. 1. The undertakers engage to furnish each fubfcriber with a celeftial and terreftrial globe, each of thirty inches diameter, in all refpects curiously adorned, the ftars gilded, the capital cities plain ly diftinguished, the frames, meridians, horizons, hour-circles and indexes, divided, that a pair of thefe globes will fo exactly finished up, and accurately really appear, in the judgment of any difinterested and intelligent perfon, worth fifteen pounds more than will be demanded for them by the undertakers. 11. Whofoever will be pleased to fub feribe, and pay twenty,five pounds in globes, either for their own ufe, or to the manner following for a pair of these prefent them to any college in the univerfities, or any public library or schools, fhall have his coat of arms, name, title, feat, or place of refidence, &c. inferted in fome convenient place of the globe. III. That every fubfcriber do at firft p tpay down the fun of ten pounds, and fifteen pounds more upon the delivery of each pair of globes perfectly fitted up. And that the faid globes be delivered within twelve months, after the number of thirty fubfcribers be compleated; and that the fubfcribers be ferved with globes in the order in which they fubferibed. " Iv. That a pair of these globes fall not hereafter be fold to any person but the fubfcribers under thirty pounds. v. That if there be not thirty fubfcribers within four months, after the first of December, 1712, the money paid fhall be returned on demand by Mr. John Warner, goldfmith, near Temple Bar, who shall receive and pay the fame according to the above-mentioned articles. T N° DLIIL THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4. NIC LUSISSE PUDET, SED NON INCIDERE LUDUM. HOR. EP. XIV. L. I. VER. 3Ố, ONCE TO BE WILD, IS NO SUCH FOUL DISGRACE; HE project which I published on Monday law has brought ine in feveral packets of letters. Among the reft I have received one from a certain projector, wherein after having reprefented, that in all probability the folemnity of opening my mouth will draw together a great confluence of beholders, he propofes to me the hiring of Stationers Hall for the more convenient exhibiting of that public ceremony. He undertakes to be at the charge of it himself, provided he may have the erecting of galleries on every fide, and the letting of them out upon that occafion. I have a letter alfo from a bookseller, petitioning \me in a very humble manner, that he may have the printing of the fpeech which I thall make to the affeinbly upon the first opening of my mouth. I am informed from all parts, that there are great canvaffings in the feveral clubs about town, upon the chufing of a proper perfon to fit with me on thofe arduous affairs to which I have fummoned them. Three clubs have already proceeded to election, whereof one has made a double return. If I find that my enemies fhall take advantage of my filence to begin hoftilities upon me, or if any other exigency of affairs may fo require, fince I fee elections in fo great a forwardness, we may poffibly meet before the day appointed; or if matters go on to my fatisfaction, I may perhaps put off the meeting to a further day but of this public notice fhall be given. In the mean time, I must confefs that I am not a little gratified and obliged by that concern which appears in this great city upon my prefent defign of lay ing down this paper. It is likewife with much fatisfaction, that I find fome of the most outlying parts of the kingdom alarmed upon this occafion, having received letters to expoftulate with me about it from feveral of my readers of the remoteft boroughs of Great Britain. CRITCH. Among thefe I am very well pleafed with a letter dated from Berwick upon Tweed, wherein my correfpondent compares the office, which I have for fome time executed in thefe realms, to the weeding of a great garden; which, fays he, it is not fufficient to weed once for all, and afterwards to give over, but that the work must be continued daily, or the fame fpots of ground which are cleared for a while, will in a little time be overrun as much as ever. Another gentle man lays before me feveral enormities that are already sprouting, and which he believes will difcover themselves in their growth immediately after my dif appearance. There is no doubt," says he, but the ladies heads will shoot up as foon as they know they are no ⚫ longer under the Spectator's eye; and I have already feen fuch monstrous broad-brimmed hats under the arms of foreigners, that I question not but they will overshadow the ifland within a month or two after the dropping of your paper.' But among all the letters which are come to my hands, there is none fo handfomely written as the following one, which I am the more pleased with as it is fent me from gentlemen who belong to a body which I fhall always honour, and where, I cannot speak it without a fecret pride, my fpeculations have met with a very kind reception. It is ufual for poets, upon the publishing of their works, to print before them fuch copies of verfes as have been made in their praife. Not that you muft imagine they are pleafed with their own commendations, but because the elegant compofitions of their friends fhould not be foft. I must make the fame apology for the publication of the enfuing letter, in which I have fuppreffed no part of thofe praises that are given my fpeculations with too lavifh and good-natured a hand; though my correfpondents can witness for me, that at other |