them from gouts, dropfies, unwieldinefs, and intemperance. But whatever fhe had to fay for herself, fhe was at laft forced to troop off. Chremylus immediately confidered how he might reflore Plutus to his fight; and in order to it, conveyed him to the temple of Efculapius, who was famous for cures and miracles of this nature. By this means the deity recovered his eyes, and began to make a right use of them, by enriching every one that was diftinguished by piety towards the gods, and justice towards men; and at the fame time by taking away his gifts from the impious and undeferving. This produces feveral merry incidents, till in the lat at Mercury defcends with great complaints from the gods, that fince the good men were grown rich they had

received no facrifices, which is confirmed by a priest of Jupiter, who enters with a remonftrance, that fince this late innovation he was reduced to a starving condition, and could not live upon his office. Chremylus, who in the beginning of the play was religious in his poverty, concludes it with a propofal which was relifhed by all the good men who were now grown rich as well as himfelf, that they fhould carry Plutus in a folemn proceffion to the temple, and inftal him in the place of Jupiter. This allegory instructed the Athenians in two points, first, as it vindicated the conduct of Providence in it's ordinary diftributions of wealth; and in the next place, as it fhewed the great tendency of riches to corrupt the morals of thofe who poffeffed them.

HA

AVING endeavoured in my laft Saturday's paper to fhew the great excellency of faith, I shall here confider what are the proper means of ftrengthening and confirming it in the mind of man. Those who delight in reading books of controverfy, which are written on both fides of the question in points of faith, do very feldom arrive at a fixed and fettled habit of it. They are one day entirely convinced of it's important truths, and the next meet with fomething that shakes and difturbs them. The doubt which was laid revives again, and fhews itself in new difficulties, and that generally for this reafon, because the mind which is perpetually toft in controverfies and difputes, is apt to forget the reafons which had once fet it at reft, and to be difquieted with any former perplexity, when it appears in a new fhape, or is ftarted by a different hand. As nothing is more laudable than an enquiry after truth, fo nothing is more irrational than to pals away our

CREECH.

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whole lives, without determining ourfelves one way or other in thofe points which are of the laft importance to us. There are, indeed, many things from which we may with-hold our affent; but in cafes by which we are to regulate our lives, it is the greatest abfurdity to be wavering and unfettled, without clofing with that fide which appears the mott fafe and the moft probable. The firit rule therefore which I fhall lay down is this, that when by reading or difcourfe we find ourselves thoroughly convinced of the truth of any article, and of the reasonableness of our belief in it, we fhould never after fuffer ourselves to call it into queltion. We may perhaps forget the arguments which occafioned our conviction, but we ought to remember the ftrength they had with us, and therefore itill to retain the conviction which they once produced. This is no more than what we do in every common are or science, nor is it poffible to act other wife, confidering the weakness and li 6A2

mitation

mitation of our intellectual faculties. It was thus that Latimer, one of the glorious army of martyrs, who introduced the Reformation in England, behaved himself in that great conference which was managed between the most learned among the proteftants and papifts in the reign of Queen Mary. This venerable old man knowing how his abilities were impaired by age, and that it was impoffible for him to recollect all thofe reafons which had directed him in the choice of his religion, left his companions, who were in the full poffeffion of their parts and learning, to baffle and confound their antagonists by the force of reafon. As for himself, he only repeated to his adverfaries the articles in which he firmly believed; and in the profeffion of which he was determined to die. It is in this manner that the mathematician proceeds upon propofitions which he has once demonftrated; and though the demonstration may have flipt out of his memory, he builds upon the truth, because he knows it was demonstrated. This rule is abfolutely neceffary for weaker minds, and in fome meafure for men of the greatest abilities; but to these last I would propofe in the fecond place, that they should lay up in their memories, and always keep by them in a readiness thofe arguments which appear to them of the greatest trength, and which cannot be got over by all the doubts and cavils of infidelity.

But, in the third place, there is nothing which ftrengthens faith more than morality. Faith and morality naturally produce each other. A man is quickly convinced of the truth of religion, who finds it is not against his intereft that it fhould be true. The pleasure he receives at prefent, and the happiness which he promifes himself from it hereafter, will both difpofe him very powerfully to give credit to it, according to the ordinary obfervation that we are easy to believe what we wish.' It is very certain, that a man of found reason cannot forbear clofing with religion upon an impartial examination of it! but at the fame time it is certain, that faith is kept alive in us, and gathers ftrength from practice more than from speculation.

There is ftill another method which is more perfuafive than any of the former, and that is an habitual adoration of the Supreme Being, as well in con

ftant acts of mental worship, as in outward forms. The devout man does not only believe, but feels there is a Deity. He has actual fenfations of him; his experience concurs with his reafon; he fees him more and more in all his intercourfes with him, and even in this life almost loses his faith in conviction.

The laft method which I fhall mention for the giving life to a man's faith, is frequent retirement from the world, accompanied with religious meditation. When a man thinks of any thing in the dark nefs of the night, whatever deep impreffions it may make in his mind, they are apt to vanish as foon as the day breaks about him. The light and noife of the day, which are perpetually foliciting his fenfes, and calling off his attention, wear out of his mind the thoughts that imprinted themselves in it, with fo much strength, during the filence and darkness of the night. A man finds the fame difference as to himfelf in a crowd and in a folitude: the mind is stunned and dazzled amidst that variety of objects which press upon her in a great city. She cannot apply herfelf to the confideration of those things which are of the utmost concern to her. The cares or pleafures of the world ftrike in with every thought, and a multitude of vicious examples give a kind of juftification to our folly. In our retirements every thing difpofes us to be

ferious. In courts and cities we are entertained with the works of men ; în the country with thofe of God. One is the province of art, the other of nature. Faith and devotion naturally grow in the mind of every reasonable man, who fees the impreffions of Divine Power and Wifdom in every object on which he cafts his eye. The Supreme Being has made the best arguments for his own existence, in the formation of the heavens and the earth, and thefe are arguments which a man of fenfe cannot forbear attending to, who is out of the noise and hurry of human affairs. Ariftotle fays, that fhould a man live under ground, and there converfe with works of art and mechanism, and should afterwards be brought up into the open day, and fee the several glories of the heaven and earth, he would immediately pronounce them the works of fuch a Being as we define God to be. The Pfalmift has very beautiful strokes of poetry to

this purpofe, in that exalted train "The heavens declare the glory of God: ⚫ and the firmament fheweth his handywork. One day telleth another: and one night certifieth another. There is neither fpeech nor language: but their voices are heard among them. Their found is gone out into all lands: ⚫ and their words into the ends of the world.' As such a bold and fublime manner of thinking furnishes very noble matter for an ode, the reader may see it wrought into the following one.

1.

THE fpacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal fky, And spangled heavens, a fhining frame, Their great Original proclaim: Th' unwearied fun from day to day, Does his Creator's power difplay,

And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty Hand.

II.

III.

What though, in folemn filence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What tho' nor real voice nor found
Amid their radiant orbs be found?
In reafon's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
For ever finging, as they thine,
The hand that made us is divine.'

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VIRG. ÆN. 1. v. 409.

WHEN Æneas, the hero of Vir

HEN Æneas, the hero of Virgil, is loft in the wood, and a perfect ftranger in the place on which he is landed, he is accofted by a lady in an habit for the chace. She enquires of him, whether he has feen pafs by that way any young woman dreffed as the was? Whether the were following the fport in the wood, or any other way employed, according to the cuftom of huntreffes? The hero answers with the refpect due to the beautiful appearance fhe made; tells her, he faw no fuch perfon as the enquired for; but intimates that he knows her to be one of the deities, and defires she would conduct a stranger. Her form from her firft appearance manifefted the was more than mortal; but though the was certainly a goddess, the poet does not make her known to be the goddess of Beauty till the moved: all the charms of an agreeable perfon are then in their highest exertion, every limb and feature appears with it's refpective grace. It is from this obfer. vation, that I cannot help being fo paffionate an admirer as I am of good dancing. As all art is an imitation of

DRYDEN.

nature, this is an imitation of nature in it's higheft excellence, and at a time when the is moft agreeable. The bu finefs of dancing is to difplay beauty, and for that reafon all diftortions and mimicries, as fuch, are what raise averfion inftead of pleasure: but things that are in themfelves excellent, are ever attended with impolture and falfe imitation. Thus as in poetry there are laborious fools who write anagrams and acroftics, there are pretenders in dancing, who think merely to do what others cannot, is to excel. Such creatures fhould be rewarded like him who had acquired a knack of throwing a grain of corn through the eye of a needle, with a bufhel to keep his hand in use. The dancers on our stage are very faulty in this kind; and what they mean by writhing themselves into fuch postures, as it would be a pain for any of the fpectators to ftand in, and yet hope to please thofe fpectators, is unintelligible. Mr. Prince has a genius, if he were encouraged, would prompt him to better things. In all the dances he invents, you fee he keeps close to the characters

be

he reprefents. He does not hope to pleafe by making his performers move in a manner in which no one elfe ever did, but by motions proper to the characters he reprefents. He gives to clowns and lubbards clumfy graces, that is, he makes them practife what they would think graces. And I have feen dances of his, which might give hints that would be useful to a comic writer. Thele performances have pleafed the tatte of fuch as have not reflection enough to know their excellence, becanfe they are in nature; and the diftorted motions of others have offended thofe, who could not form reafons to themfelves for their difpleasure, from their being a contradiction to nature.

When one confiders the inexpreffible advantage there is in arriving at fome excellence in this art, it is monstrous to behold it so much neglected. The following letter has in it fomething very natural on this fubject.

I

MR. SPECTATOR,

Am a widower with but one daughter; fhe was by nature much inclined to be a romp, and I had no way of educating her, but commanding a young woman, whom I entertained to take care of her, to be very watchful in her care and attendance about her. I am a man of bufinefs, and obliged to be much abroad. The neighbours have told me, that in my absence our maid has let in the fpruce fervants in the neighbourhood to junketings, while my girl play. ed and romped even in the street. To tell you the plain truth, I catched her once, at eleven years old, at chuck-farthing among the boys. This put me upon new thoughts about my child, and I determined to place her at a boardingfchool, and at the fame time gave a very difcreet young gentlewoman her maintenance at the fame place and rate, to be her companion. I took little notice of my girl from time to time, but faw her now and then in good health, out of harm's way, and was fatisfied. But by much importunity, I was lately prevailed with to go to one of their balls. I cannot exprefs to you the anxiety my filly heart was in, when I faw my romp, now fifteen, taken out: I never felt the pangs of a father upon me fo ftrongly in my whole life before; and I could not have fuffered more, had my whole fortune been at ftake. My girl came

on with the most becoming modefty I had ever seen, and casting a respectful eye, as if the feared me more than all the audience, I gave a nod, which I think gave her all the spirit the affumed upon it, but the rofe properly to that dignity of afpect. My romp, now the moft graceful perfon of her fex, affumed a majefty which commanded the higheft refpest; and when the turned to me, and faw my face in rapture, the fell into the prettieft fimile, and I faw in all her motions that he exulted in her father's fatisfaction. You, Mr. Spectator, will, better than I can tell you, imagine to yourself all the different beauties and changes of afpect in an accomplished young woman, fetting forth all her beauties with a defign to please no one fo much as her father. My girl's lover can never know half the fatisfaction that I did in her that day. I could not poffibly have imagined, that fo great improvement could have been wrought by an art that I always held in itielf ridiculous and contemptible. There is, I am convinced, no method like this, to give young women a fenfe of their own value and dignity; and I am fure there can be none fo expeditious to communicate that value to others. As for the flippant, infipidly gay, and wantonly forward, whom you behold among dancers, that carriage is more to be attributed to the perverfe genius of the performers, than imputed to the art itfelf. For my part, my child has danced herfelf into my esteem, and I have as great an honour for her as ever I had for her mother, from whom the derived thofe latent good qualities which appeared in her countenance when she was dancing; for my girl, though I fay it myfelf, thewed in one quarter of an hour the innate principles of a modest virgin, a tender wife, a generous friend, a kind mother, and an indulgent mif trefs. I will strain hard but I will purchafe for her an husband suitable to her merit. I am your convert in the admiration of what I thought you jefted when you recommended; and if you pleafe to be at my houfe on Thursday next, I make a ball for my daughter, and you fhall fee her dance, or, if you will do her that honour, dance with her.

I am, Sir,

Your most humble fervant, PHILIPATER.

I have fome time ago fpoken of a treatife written by Mr. Weaver on this fubject, which is now, I understand, ready to be published. This work fets this matter in a very plain and advantageous light; and I am convinced from it, that if the art was under proper regulations, it would be a mechanic way of implanting infenfibly in minds, not capable of receiving it fo well by any other rules, a fenfe of good-breeding and virtue.

Were any one to fee Mariamne dance, let him be never so fenfual a brute, I defy him to entertain any thoughts but of the highest refpect and efteem towards her. I was fhewed last week a picture in a lady's clofet, for which she had an hundred different dresses, that she could clap on round the face, on purpose to demonftrate the force of habits in the diverfity of the fame countenance. Motion, and change of pofture and afpect, has an effect no lefs furprifing on the perfen of Mariamne when the dances.

Chloe is extremely pretty, and as filly as fhe is pretty. This idiot has a very good ear, and a moft agreeable fhape; but the folly of the thing is fuch, that it fimiles fo impertinently, and affects to pleafe fo fillly, that while the dances you fee the impleton from head to foot. For you must know, (as trivial as this art is thought to be) no one ever was a good dancer, that had not a good un

derstanding. If this be a truth, I fhall leave the reader to judge from that maxim, what esteem they ought to have for fuch impertinents as fly, hop, caper, tumble, twirl, turn round, and jump over their heads, and in a word, play a thoufand pranks which many animals can do better than a man, instead of performing to perfection what the human figure only is capable of performing.

It may perhaps appear odd, that I, who fet up for a mighty lover, at least, of virtue, should take fo much pains to recommend what the foberer part of mankind look upon to be a trifle; but' under favour of the soberer part of mankind, I think they have not enough confidered this matter, and for that reafon only diffteem it. I muft alfo, in my own juftification, fay that I attempt to bring into the fervice of honour and virtue every thing in nature that can pretend to give elegant delight. It may poffibly be proved, that vice is in itfelf deftructive of pleasure, and virtue in itfelf conducive to it. If the delights of a free fortune were under proper regulations, this truth would not want much argument to fupport it; but it would be obvious to every man, that there is a ftrict affinity between all things that are truly laudable and beautiful, from the higheft fentiments of the foul, to the molt indifferent gesture of the body.

T

duty is but an acknowledgment of our faults, whilst this is the immediate adoration of his perfections. It was an excellent obfervation, that we then only defpife commendation when we cease to deferve it: and we have till extant two orations of Tully and Pliny, fpoken to the greatest and best princes of all the Roman emperors, who, no doubt, heard