the town. Good-breeding and goodnature lead people in a great measure to this injuftice: when fuitors of no confideration will have confidence enough to prefs upon their fuperiors, thofe in power are tender of speaking the exceptions they have against them, and are mortgaged into promifes out of their impatience of importunity. In this latter cafe, it would be a very useful inquiry to know the hiftory of recommendations. There are, you must know, certain abettors of this way of torment, who make it a profeffion to manage the affairs of candidates: these gentlemen let out their impudence to their clients, and fupply any defective recommendation, by informing how fuch and fuch a man is to be attacked. They will tell you, Get the leaft fcrap from Mr. Such-a-one, and leave the reft to them. When one of thefe undertakers has your business in hand, you may be fick, abfent in town or country, and the patron fhall be worried, or you prevail. I remember to have been fhewn a gentleman Tome years ago, who punifhed a whole people for their facility in giving their credentials. This perfon had belonged to a regiment which did duty in the Weft Indies, and by the mortality of the place happened to be commanding officer in the colony. He oppreffed his fubjects with great frankness, till he be came fenfible that he was heartily hated by every man under his command. When he had carried his point, to be thus detestable, in a pretended fit of dif humour, and feigned uneafinefs of living where he found he was fo univerfally unacceptable, he communicated to the chief inhabitants a defign he had to return for England, provided they would give him ample teftimonials of their approbation. The planters came into it to a man, and in proportion to his deferving the quite contrary, the words, Juftice, Generofity, and Courage, were inferted in his commiffion, not omitting the general good-liking of people of all conditions in the colony. The gentleman returns for England, and within a few months after came back to them their governor on the strength of their own icftimonials. Such a rebuke as this cannot indeed happen to eafy recommenders, in the ordinary courfe of things from one hand to another; but how would a man bear to have it faid to him- The perfon I took 977 into confidence on the credit you gave him, has proved falfe, unjust, and has not answered any way the character you gave me of him." of that rake Jack Toper of the Temple, I cannot but conceive very good hopes for an honeft fcrupuloufnefs in this point. that had formerly lived with Jack, and A friend of his meeting with a fervant having a mind to take him, fent to him fince he could not please such a careless to know what faults the fellow had, fellow as he was. follows: His anfwer was as SIR, THOMAS that lived with me was good for me. turned away because he was too verns; he is an orderly fober rafcal, and You know I live in tathinks much to fleep in an entry, until day when he was dreffing me, that he two in the morning. He told me one wondered I was not dead before now, and went to fupper at two in the morn fince I went to dinner in the evening, ing. We were coming down Effex Street giving him the word to alarm the watch; one night a little fluftered, and I was he had the imprudence to tell me it was against the law. You that are married, and live one day after another the fame fay will like him, and he will be glad to way, and fo on the whole week, I dare have his meat in due feafon. The fellow is certainly very honeft. My fervice to your lady. Yours, J. T. knew very well, that though the love of of recommendation from Horace to in ceived by you, who are delicate in the choice of your friends and domestics, he knows cur intimacy, and unders ftands my ability to ferve him better than I do myfelf. I have defended my felf against his ambition to be yours, as long as I poffibly could; but fearing the imputation of hiding my power in you out of mean and felfish confiderations, I am at laft prevailed upon to give you this trouble. Thus, to avoid the appearance of a greater fault, I have put on this confidence. If you can forgive this tranfgreffion of modefty in behalf of a friend, receive this gentleman into. your interefts and friendhip, and take it from me that he is an honeft and a braye man. N° CCCCXCIV. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. T GRITUDINEM LAUDARE, UNAM REM MAXIME DETESTABILEM, QUORUM LÍT TANDEM PHILOSOPHORUM? Cic. WHAT KIND OF PHILOSOPHY IS IT, TO EXTOL MELANCHOLY, THE MOST DE, TESTABLE THING IN NATURE? Anion in England, for every one BOUT an age ago it was the fa that would be thought religious, to throw as much fanctity as poffible into his face, and in particular to abitain from all appearances of mirth and pleafantry, which were looked upon as the marks of a carnal mind. The faint was of a forrowful countenance, and generally eaten up with spleen and melancholy. A gentleman, who was lately a great ornament to the learned world, has diverted me more than once with an account of the reception which he met with from a very famous independent minifter, who was head of a college in thofe times. This gentleman was then a young adventurer in the republic of letters, and juft fitted out for the univerfity with a good cargo of Latin and Greek. His friends were refolved that he should try his fortune at an election which was drawing near in the college, of which the independent minifter whom I have before mentioned was governor. The youth, according to cuftom, waited on him in order to be examined. He was received at the door by a fervant, who was one of that gloomy generation that were then in fashion. He conducted him, with great filence and feriousness, to a long gallery, which was darkened at noon day, and had only a fingle candle burning in it. After a fhort stay in this melancholy apartment, he was led into a chamber hung with black, where he entertained himself for fome time by the glimmering of a taper, until at length the head of the college came out to him, from an inner room, with half a dozen night caps upon his head, and religious horror in his countenance. The young man trembled: but his fears increased, when, instead of being asked what progress he had made in learning, he was examined how he abounded in grace. His Latin and Greek stood him in little tead; he was to give an account only of the ftate of his foul; whether he was of the number of the elect; what was the occafion of his converfion; upon what day of the month, and hour of the day it happened; how it was carried on, and when completed. The whole examination was fummed up with one short question, namely, Whether he was prepared for death? The boy, who had been bred up by honeft parents, was frighted out of his wits at the folemnity of the proceeding, and by the laft dreadful interrogatory; fo that upon making his efcape out of this house of mourning, he he could never be brought a fecond time to the examination, as not being able to go through the terrors of it. Notwithstanding this general form and outfide of religion is pretty well worn out among us, there are many perfons, who, by a natural unchearfulness of heart, miftaken notions of piety, or weakness of understanding, love to indulge this uncomfortable way of life, and give themfelves up a prey to grief and melancholy. Superftitious fears and groundless fcruples cut them off from the pleafures of converfation, and all thofe focial entertainments which are not only innocent, but laudable: as if mirth was made for reprobates, and chearfulness of heart denied thofe who are the only perfons that have a proper title to it. ing it as an unfociable ftate, that extinguishes all joy and gladness, darkens the face of nature, and deftroys the relish of being itself. I have, in former papers, fhewn how great a tendency there is to chearfulness in religion, and how fuch a frame of mind is not only the most lovely, but the most commendable in a virtuous pers fon. In fhort, thofe who reprefent religion in fo unamiable a light, are like the fpies, fent by Mofes to make a dif covery of the land of Promife, when by their reports they difcouraged the people from entering upon it. Thofe who thew us the joy, the chearfulness, the good humour, that naturally fpring up in this happy ftate, are like the fpies bring ing along with them the clusters of grapes, and delicious fruits, that might invite their companions into the pleafant country which produced them. Sombrius is one of thefe fons of forrow, He thinks himself obliged in duty to be fad and difconfolate. He looks on a fudden fit of laughter as a breach of his baptifinal vow. An innocent jeft, ftartles him like blafphemy. Tell him of one who is advanced to a title of honour, he lifts up his hands and eyes; defcribe a public ceremony, he thakes his head; fhew him a gay equipage, heI would rather it thould be faid of me, bleffes himself. All the little orna- An eminent pagan writer has made a difcourfe, to fhew that the atheist, who denies a God, does him lefs difhonour than the man who owns his being, but at the fame time believes him to be cruel, hard to please, and terrible to human nature. For my own part,' fays he, that there was never any fuch man as Plutarch, than that Plutarch was illnatured, capricious, or inhumane.' If we may believe our logicians, man is diftinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally difpofed to it. It is not the business of virtue to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them. It may moderate and reftrain, but was not defigned to banish gadnefs from the heart of man. Religion contracts the circle of our pleasures, but leaves it wide enough for her votaries to expatiate in. The contemplation of the Divine Being, and the exercise of virtue, are in their own nature fo far from excluding all gladneis of heart, that they are perpetual fources of it. In a word, the true spirit of religion cheers, as well as compofes the foul; it banithes indeed all levity of behaviour, all vicious and diffolute mirth, but in exchange fills the mind with a perpetual ferenity, uninterrupted chearfulness, and an habitual inclination to pleale others, as well as to be pleased in itself. N N° CCCCXCV. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27. A DURIS UT ILEX TONSA BIPENNIBUS HOR. OD. IV. L.4. VER. 57. LIKE AN OAK ON SOME COLD MOUNTAIN'S BROW, THE AX AND SWORD NEW VIGOUR GIVE, S I am one, who, by my profeffion, am obliged to look into all kinds of men, there are none whom I confider with fo much pleasure, as thofe who have any thing new or extraordinary in their characters, or ways of living. For this reafon I have often amufed myfelf with fpeculations on the race of people called Jews, many of whom I have met with in most of the confiderable towns which I have paffed through in the courfe of my travels. They are, indeed, fo diffeminated through all the trading parts of the world, that they are become the inftruments by which the moft diftant nations converfe with one another, by which mankind are knit together in a general correfpondence: they are like the pegs and nails in a great building, which, though they are but little valued in themfelves, are abfolutely neceffary to keep the whole frame together. That I may not fall into any common beaten tracks of obfervation, I fhall confider this people in three views: first, with regard to their number; fecondly, their difperfion; and, thirdly, their adherence to their religion: and afterwards endeavour to fhew, firft, what natural reafons, and, fecondly, what providential reafons, may be affigned for thefe three remarkable particulars. The Jews are looked upon by many to be as numerous at prefent, as they were formerly in the land of Canaan. This is wonderful, confidering the dreadful flaughter made of them under fome of the Roman emperors, which hiftorians defcribe by the death of many hundred thousands in a war; and the innumerable maffacres and perfecutions they have undergone in Turkey, as well as in all Chriftian nations of the world, The Rabbins, to exprefs the great hayock which has been fometimes made ANON. of them, tell us, after their ufual man ner of hyperbole, that there were fuch torrents of holy blood shed as carried rocks of an hundred yards in circumference above three miles into the fea. Their difperfion is the fecond remark. able particular in this people. They fwarm over all the Eaft; and are fettled in the remoteft parts of China: they are spread through most of the nations of Europe and Africa, and many families of them are established in the Weft Indies: not to mention whole nations bordering on Prefter-John's country, and fome difcovered in the inner parts of America, if we may give any credit to their own writers. Their firm adherence to their religion, is no lefs remarkable than their numbers and difperfion, especially confidering it as perfecuted or contemned over the face of the whole earth. This is likewife the more remarkable, if we confider the frequent apoltacies of this people, when they lived under their kings in the land of Promife, and within fight of their temple. If in the next place we examine, what may be the natural reasons for these three particulars which we find in the Jews, and which are not to be found in any other religion or people, I can, in the first place, attribute their numbers to nothing but their conftant employ ment, their abftinence, their exemption from wars, and, above all, their fre quent marriages; for they look on celibacy as an accurfed ftate, and generally are married before twenty, as hoping the Meffiah may defcend from them. The difperfion of the Jews into all the nations of the earth, is the fecond remarkable particular of that people, though not to hard to be accounted for. They were always in rebellions and tumults while they had the temple and holy holy city in view, for which reafon they have often been driven out of their old habitations in the land of Promife. They have as often been banished out of molt other places where they have settled, which must very much difperfe and fcatter a people, and oblige them to feek a livelihood where they can find it. Befides, the whole people is now a race of fuch merchants as are wanderers by profeffion, and, at the fame time, are in moft, if not all, places incapable of either lands or offices, that might engage them to make any part of the world their home. This difperfion would probably have loft their religion, had it not been fecured by the strength of it's conftitution: for they are to live all in a body, and generally within the fame inclofure; to marry among themselves, and to eat no meats that are not killed or prepared their own way. This huts them out from all table-converfation, and the most agreeable intercourfes of life; and, by confequence, excludes them from the moft probable means of converfion. If, in the last place, we confider what providential reafons may be affigned for thefe three particulars, we fhall find that their numbers, difperfion, and adherence to their religion, have furnished every age, and every nation of the world, with the ftrongest arguments for the Chriftian Faith, not only as these very particular are foretold of them, but as they themfelves are the depofitaries of these and all the other prophecies, which tend to their own confufion. Their number furnishes us with a fufficient cloud of witneffes that atteft the truth of the old Bible. Their difperfion fpreads thefe witneffes through all parts of the world. The adherence to their religion makes their teftimony unqueftionable. Had the whole body of the Jews been converted to Christianity, we fhould certainly have thought all the prophecies of the Old Teftament, that relate to the coming and history of our bleffed Saviour, forged by Chriftians, and have looked upon them, with the prophecies of the Sibyls, as made many years after the events they pretended to foretel. N° CCCCXCVI. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. GNATUM PARITER UTI HIS DECUIT AUT ETIAM AMPLIUS, YOUR SON OUGHT TO HAVE SHARED IN THESE THINGS, BECAUSE YOUTH IS BEST MR. SPECTATOR, on HOSE ancients who were the most accurate in their remarks the genius and temper of mankind, by confidering the various bent and fcope of our actions throughout the progrefs of life, have with great exactneis allotted inclinations and objects of defire particular to every ftage, according to the different circumftances of our converfation and fortune, through the feveral periods of it. Hence they were difpofed eafily to excufe thofe exceffes which might poffibly arife from a too eager purfuit of the affections more immediately proper to each state: they indulged the levity of childhood with tenderness, overlooked the gaiety of youth with good-nature, tempered the forward ambition and impatience of ripened manhood with difcretion, and kindly imputed the tenacious avarice of old men to their want of relish for any other enjoyment. Such allowances as thefe were no lefs advantageous to common fociety than obliging to particular perfons; for by maintaining a decency and regularity in the courie of life, they fupported the dignity of human nature, which then fuffers the greatest violence when the order of things is inverted; and in nothing is it more remarkably vilified and ridiculous, than when feeblenefs prepofterously attempts to adorn itfelf with that outward pomp and luftre, which ferve only to fet off the bloom of youth with better advantage. I was infenfibly carried into reflections of this nature, by just now meeting Paulino (who is in his climacteric) bedecked with the utmoft fplendour of drefs and equipage, and giving an unbounded loofe to all manner of pleasure, whilst his only fon is debarred all innocent diverfion, and may be feen frequently folacing himself in the Mall with no other |