in any of your papers; I think the fuffrage of our Poet Laureat fhould not be overlooked, which fhews the opinion he entertains of your paper, whether the notion he proceeds upon be true or false. I made bold to convey it to you, not knowing if it has yet come to your hands. ON THE SPECTATOR. BY MR. TATE. he half a year behind hand with the fashionable and polite part of the world, than to train himself beyond his circumftances. My bookfeller has now about ten thousand of the third and fourth volumes, which he is ready to publish, having already difpofed of as large an edition both of the first and fecond volumes. As he is a perfon whofe head is very well turned to his bufinefs, he thinks they would be a very proper prefent to be made to perfons at chriftenings, marriages, vifitingdays, and the like joyful folemnities, as feveral other books are frequently given at funerals. He has printed them in fuch a little portable volume, that many WHEN firft the Tatler to a mute was of them may be ranged together upon a fingle plate, and is of opinion, that a falver of Spectators would be as acceptable an entertainment to the ladies as a falver of fweetmeats. I fhall conclude this paper with an epigram lately fent to the writer of the Spectator, after having returned my thanks to the ingenious author of it. SIR, HAVING heard the following epi gram very much commended, I wonder that it has not yet had a place NASCERIS PALIUSQUE ET IDEM HOR. CARM. SEC. V. 10. YOU RISE ANOTHER AND THE SAME. turn'd, Great Britain for her Cenfor's filence mourn'd; Till the Spectator rofe, and blaz'd as bright. 'Tis the fame fun, and does himself fuc ceed. N° CCCCLXXXIX. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20. Ο SIR2 THE MIGHTY FORCE OF OCEAN'S TROUBLED FLOOD. PON reading your effay concern tion, I find among the three fources of thofe pleafures which you have difco. vered, that greatness is one. This has fuggefted to me the reason why, of all objects that I have ever seen, there is none which affects my imagination fo much as the fea or ocean. I cannot fee the heavings of this prodigious bulk of waters, even in a calm, without a very pleafing aftonishment; but when it is worked up in a tempeft fo that the horizon on every fide is nothing but foaming billows and floating mountains, it is impoffible to defcribe the agreeable horror that rifes from fuch a profpect. A troubled ocean, to a man who fails upon it, is, I think, the biggeft object that he can fee in motion, and confe quently gives his imagination one of the highest kinds of pleasure that can arife impoffible for me to furvey this world of fluid matter, without thinking on the hand that first poured it out, and made a proper channel for it's reception. Such an object naturally railes in my thoughts the idea of an Almigh ty Being, and convinces me of his existence as much as a metaphysical demonftration. The imagination prompts the understanding, and by the greatness of the fenfible object, produces in it the idea of a Being who is neither circum、 fcribed by time nor space. As I have made feveral voyages upon the fea, I have often been toffed in ftorms, and on that occafion have frequently reflected on the descriptions of them in ancient poets. I remember 6 Ga Longinus Longinus highly recommends one in Homer, because the poet has not amufed himself with little fancies upon the occafion, as authors of an inferior genius, whom he mentions, had done, but because he has gathered together those circumftances which are the most apt to terrify the imagination, and which really happen in the raging of a tempeft. It is for the fame reafon, that I prefer the following defcription of a thip in a ftorm, which the Pfalmift has made, before any other I have ever met with. They that go down to the fea in hips, that do bufinefs in great wa ters: thefe fee the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth and raifeth the formy wind, which lifteth up the waters thereof: they mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths, their foul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and ftagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their diftreffes. He maketh the ftorm a calin, fo that the waves thereof are ftill. Then they ་ are glad, because they be quiet: fo he bringeth thein unto their defired • haven," By the way, how much more comfortable, as well as rational, is this fyftem of the Pfalmift, than the Pagan scheme in Virgil, and other poets, where one deity is reprefented as raifing a ftorm, and another as laying it? Were we only to confider the fublime in this piece of poetry, what can be nobler than the idea it gives us of the Supreme Being thus raifing a tumult among the elements, and recovering them out of their confufion, thus troubling and becalming nature? Great painters do not only give us landikips of gardens, groves, and meadows, but very often employ their pencils upon fea-pieces: I could with you would follow their example. If this mall sketch may deferve a place among your works, I fhall accompany it with THY HOUSE AND PLEASING WIFE. Have very long entertained an am veins. When this affection is enjoyed Ibition to make the word Wife the in the moft fublime degree, unikilful eyes fee nothing of it; but when it is fubject to be changed, and has an allay in it that may make it end in distaste, it is apt to break into rage, or overflow into fondnefs, before the rest of the world. Uxander and Viramira are amorous and young, and have been married thefe two years; yet do they fo much diftinguifh each other in company, that in your converfation with the dear things you are still put to a fort of cross-purpofes. Whenever you addrefs yourfelf in ordinary difcourfe to Viramira, she turns her head another way, and the anfwer is made to the dear Uxander: if you tell a merry tale, the application is still directed to her dear; and when the fhould commend you, the fays to him, as if he had fpoke it- That is, molt agreeable and delightful name in nature. If it be not fo in itself, all the wifer part of mankind from the beginning of the world to this day has confented in an error: but our unhappinefs in England has been, that a few loofe men of genius for pleasure have turned it all to the gratification of ungoverned defires, in defpite of good fenfe, form, and order; when, in truth, any fatiffaction beyond the boundaries of reafon, is but a step towards madness and folly. But is the fenfe of joy and accomplishment of defire no way to be indulged or attained? and have we appetites given us not to be at all gratified? Yes certainly marriage is an inftitution calculated for a constant scene of delight as much as our being is capable of. Two perfons who have chofen each other out of all the fpecies, with defign my dear, fo pretty.". This puts me to be each other's mutual comfort and in mind of what I have fomewhere read entertainment, have in that action bound in the admired memoirs of the famous themfelves to be good-humoured, affa- Cervantes, where, while honeft Sancho ble, difcreet, forgiving, patient, and Pança is putting fome neceffary humble joyful, with refpect to each other's frail-queltion concerning Rozinante, his fupties and perfections, to the end of their lives. The wifer of the two (and it always happens that one of them is fuch) will, for her or his own fake, keep things from outrage with the utmost fanctity. When this union is thus preferved, (as I have often faid) the most indifferent circumstance adminifters delight. Their condition is an endless fource of new gratifications. The married man can fay- If I am unacceptable to all the world befide, there is one whom I intirely love, that will receive me with joy and tranfport, and think herself obliged to double her kindness and 'careffes of me from the gloom with which the fees me overcaft. I need not diffemble the forrow of my heart to be agreeable there, that very for'row quickens her affection.' This paffion towards each other, when once well fixed, enters into the very conftitution, and the kindness flows as eafily and filently as the blood in the per, or his lodging, the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance is ever improving the harmless lowly hints of his fquire to the poetical conceit, rapture, and flight, in contemplation of the dear Dulcinea of his affections. On the other fide, Dictamnus and Maria are ever fquabbling, and you may observe them all the time they are in company, in a state of impatience. As Uxander and Viramira with you all gone, that they may be at freedom for dalliance; Dictamnus and Maria wait your abfence, that they may speak their harth interpretations on each other's words and actions during the time you were with them. It is certain that the greater part of the evils attending this condition of life, arifes from fafhion. Prejudice in this cafe is turned the wrong way, and inftead of expecting more happiness than we shall meet with in it, we are laughed into a prepoffeflion, that we fhall be disappointed difappointed if we hope for lafting fatiffactions. With all perfons who have made good fenfe the rule of action, marriage is defcribed as the ftate capable of the highett human felicity. Tully has epiftles full of affectionate pleature, when he writes to his wife, or peaks of his children. But above all the hints of this kind I have met with in wri ers of ancient date, I am pleafed with an epigram of Martial, in honour of the beauty of his wife Cleopatra. Commentators fay it was written the day after his wedding-night. When his fpoufe was retired to the bathing-room in the heat of the day, he, it feems, came in upon her when the was just going into the water. To her beauty and carriage on this occafion we owe the following epigram, which I thewed my friend Will. Honeycomb in French, who has tranflated it as follows, without understanding the original. I expect it will please the English better than the Latin reader. When my bright confort, now or wife more gentlemanly turn to the epigram, But, under favour of him and all other fuch fine gentlemen, I cannot be perfuaded but that the passion a bridegroom has for a virtuous young woman, will, by little and little, grow into friendship, and then it is afcended to a higher pleafure than it was in it's first fervour. Without this happens, he is a very unfortunate man who has entered into this ftate, and left the habitudes of life he might have enjoyed with a faithful friend. But when the wife proves ca. pable of filling ferious as well as joyous hours, the brings happinefs unknown to friendship itfelf. Spenfer fpeaks of each kind of love with great justice, and attributes the highest praise to friendship; and indeed there is no difputing that point, but by making that friendship take place between two married perfons. Hard is the doubt, and difficult to deem, When all three kinds of love together meet, And do difpart the heart with pow'r er N° CCCCXCI. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. DIGNA SATIS FORTUNA REVISIT. VIRG. ÆN. II. VER. 318. A JUST REVERSE OF FORTUNE ON HIM WAITS. T is common with me to run from book to book, to exercife my mind with many objects, and qualify myfelf for my daily labours. After an hour spent in this loitering way of reading, fomething will remain to be food to the T imagination. The writings that please me molt on fuch occafions are flories, for the truth of which there is good authority. The mind of man is naturally a lover of justice, and when we read a story wherein a criminal is overtaken, in whom there is no quality which is the object of pity, the foul enjoys a certain revenge for the offence done to it's nature, in the wicked actions committed in the preceding part of the hiftory.. This will be better understood by the reader from the following narration itfelf, than froin any thing which I can fay to introduce it." WHEN Charles Duke of Burgundy, firnamed The Bold, reigned over fpacious dominions now swallowed up by the power of France, he heaped many favours and honours upon Claudius Rhynfault, a German, who had ferved him in his wars against the insults of his neighbours. A great part of Zealand was at that time in fubjection to that dukedom. The prince himself was a perfon of fingular humanity and juftice. Rhynfault, with no other real quality than courage, had diffimulation enough to pass upon his generous and unfufpicious master for a perfon of blunt honefty and fidelity, without any vice that could bias him from the execution of justice. His highness prepoffeffed to his advantage, upon the deceafe of the governor of his chief town of Zealand, gave Rhynfault that command. He was not long feated in that government, before he caft his eyes upon Sapphira, a woman of exquifite beauty, the wife of Paul Danvelt, a wealthy merchant of the city under his protection and government. Rhynfault was a man of a warm conftitution, and violent inclination to women, and not unskilled in the foft arts which win their favour. He knew what it was to enjoy the fatisfactions which are reaped from the poffeffion of beauty, but was an utter ftranger to the decencies, honours, and delicacies, that attend the paffion towards them in elegant minds. However, he had fo much of the world, that he had a great fhare of the language which ufually prevails upon the weaker part of that fex, and he could with his tongue utter a paffion with which his heart was wholly untouched. He was one of thofe brutal minds which can be gratified with the violation of innocence and beauty, without the leaft pity, paffion, or love to that with which they are fo much delighted. Ingratitude is a vice infeparable from a luftful man; and the poffeffion of a woman by him who has no thought but allaying a paffion pain ful to himself, is neceffarily followed by diftate and averfion. Rhynfault be. ing refolved to accomplish his will on the wife of Danvelt, left no arts untried to get into a familiarity at her houfe; but the knew his character and difpoft. tion too well, not to fhun all occasions that might enfnare her into his converfation. The governor defpairing of fuc-." cefs by ordinary means, apprehended and imprisoned her husband, under pretence of an information that he was guilty of a correfpondence with the enemies of the duke to betray the town. into their poffeffion. This defign had it's defired effe&t; and the wife of the unfortunate Danvelt, the day before that which was appointed for his execution, presented herself in the hall of the governor's houfe, and as he paffed through the apartment, threw herself at his feet, and holding his knees befeeched his mercy. Rhynfault beheld her with a diffembled fatisfaction, and affuming an air of thought and authority, he bid her arife, and told her the muft follow him to his clofet; and afk-.! ing her whether the knew the hand of the letter he pulled out of his pocket, went from her, leaving this admonition aloud- If you will fave your husband, · you must give me an account of all you know without prevarication; for every body is fatisfied he was too fond of you to be able to hide from you the names of the reft of the confpirators, or any other particulars whatsoever. He went to his clofet, and foon after the lady was fent for to an audience. The fervant knew his distance when matters of ftate were to be debated; and the governor laying afide the air with which he had appeared in public, began to be the fur plicant, to rally an affliction, which it was in her power eafily to remove, and relieve an innocent man from his imprifonment. She eafily perceived his intention; and, bathed in tears, began to deprecate fo wicked a defign. Luft, like ambition, takes all the faculties of the mind and body into it's service and fubjection. Her becoming tears, her honeft anguifh, the wringing of her hands, and the many changes of her poture and figure in the vehemence of fpeaking, were but fo many attitudes in which he beheld her beauty, and farther incentives of his defire. All hu manity was loft in that one appetite, and |