not avail, that these children of infamy publish | very moderate ambition in this particular. His their works under feigned names; or under name, it seems, is Charles Lillie, and he recomnone at all; for I am so perfectly well acquainted mends himself to my observation as one that with the styles of all my contemporaries, that I sold snuff, next door to the Fountain tavern, in shall not fail of doing them justice, with their the Strand, and was burnt out when he began to proper names, and at their full length. Let have a reputation in his way. those miscreants, therefore, enjoy their present act of oblivion, and take care how they offend hereafter. But, to avert our eyes from such objects, it is, methinks, but requisite to settle our opinion in the case of praise and blame. I believe, the only true way to cure that sensibility of reproach, which is a common weakness with the most virtuous men, is to fix their regard firmly upon only what is strictly true, in relation to their advantage, as well as diminution. For, if I am pleased with commendation which I do not deserve, I shall, from the same temper, be concerned at scandal I do not deserve. But he that can think of false applause with as much contempt, as false detraction, will certainly be prepared for all adventures, and will become all occasions. Undeserved praise can please only those who want merit, and undeserved reproach frighten only those who want sincerity.* I have thought of this with so much attention, that I fancy there can be no other method in nature found for the cure of that delicacy which gives good men pain under calumny, but placing satisfaction no where but in a just sense of their own integrity, without regard to the opinion of others. If we have not such a foundation as this, there is no help against scandal but being in obscurity, which to noble minds is not being at all. The truth of it is, this love of praise dwells most in great and heroic spirits; and those who best deserve it have generally the most exquisite relish of it. Methinks I see the renowned Alexander, after a painful and laborious march amidst the heats of a parched soil and a burning climate, sitting over the head of a fountain, and, after a draught of water, pronounce that memorable saying, 'Oh! Athenians! How much do I suffer that you may speak well of me?" The Athenians were at that time the learned of the world, and their libels against Alexander were written, as he was a professed enemy of their state. But how monstrous would such invectives have appeared in Macedonians! As love of reputation is a darling passion in great men, so the defence of them in this particular is the business of every man of honour and honesty. We should run on such an occasion, as if a public building was on fire, to their relief; and all who spread or publish such detestable picces as traduce their merit, should be used like incendiaries. It is the common cause of our country to support the reputation of those who preserve it against invaders; and every man is attacked in the person of that neighbour who deserves well of him. From my own Apartment, November 9. The chat I had to-day at White's about fame and scandal, put me in mind of a person who has often writ to me unregarded, and has a * A translation of the motto prefixed to the paper. 'MR. BICKERSTAFF, I suppose, through a hurry of business, you have either forgot me, or lost my last of this nature, which was to beg the favour of being advantageously exposed in your paper, chiefly for the reputation of snuff. Be pleased to pardon this trouble from, Sir, your very humble servant, C. L. I am a perfumer, at the corner of Beaufortbuildings, in the Strand.' This same Charles leaves it to me to say what I will of him; and I am not a little pleased with the ingenious manner of his address. Taking snuff is what I have declared against; but, as his holiness the pope allows whoring for the taxes raised by the ladies of pleasure; so I, to repair the loss of an unhappy trader, indulge all persons in that custom who buy of Charles. There is something so particular in the request of the man, that I shall send for him before me, and I believe I shall find he has a genius for bawbles. If so, I shall, for aught I know, at his shop, give licensed canes to those who are really lame, and tubes to those who are unfeignedly short-sighted; and forbid all others to vend the same. No. 93.] Saturday, November 12, 1709. Will's Coffee-house, November 11. THE French humour of writing epistles, and publishing their fulsome compliments to each other, is a thing I frequently complain of in this place. It is, methinks, from the prevalence of this silly custom, that there is so little instruction in the conversation of our distant friends. For which reason, during the whole course of my life, I have desired my acquaintance, when they write to me, rather to say something which should make me wish myself with them, than selves with me. By this means, I have by me make me compliments that they wished thema collection of letters from most parts of the world, which are as naturally of the growth of the place, as any herb, tree, or plant, of the soil. This I take to be the proper use of an epistolary commerce. To desire to know how Damon goes on with his courtship to Sylvia, or how the wine tastes at the Old Devil, are thread-bare subjects, and cold treats, which our absent friends might have given us without going out of town for them. A friend of mine, who went to travel, used me far otherwise; for he gave me a prospect of the place, or an account of the people, from every country through which he over this evening, I am not a little delighted passed. Among others which I was looking with this which follows: 'DEAR SIR,-I believe this is the first letter that was ever sent you from the middle region, where I am at this present writing. Not to keep you in suspense, it comes to you from the top of the highest mountain in Switzerland, where I am now shivering among the eternal frosts and snows. I can scarce forbear dating it in December, though they call it the first of August at the bottom of the mountain. I assure you I can hardly keep my ink from freezing in the middle of the dog-days. I am here entertained with the prettiest variety of snow-prospects that you can imagine; and have several pits of it before me, that are very near as old as the mountain itself; for in this country, it is as lasting as marble. I am now upon a spot of it, which they tell me fell about the reign of Charlemagne, or king Pepin. The inhabitants of the country are as great curiosities as the country itself. They generally hire themselves out in their youth, and if they are musket-proof until about fifty, they bring home the money they have got, and the limbs they have left, to pass the rest of their time among their native mountains. One of the gentlemen of the place, who is come off with the loss of an eye only, told me, by way of boast, that there were now seven wooden legs in his family; and that, for these four generations, there had not been one in his line that carried a whole body with him to the grave. I believe you will think the style of this letter a little extraordinary: but the Rehearsal* will tell you, that people in clouds must not be confined to speak sense; and I hope we that are above them may claim the same privilege. Wherever I am, I shall always be, Sir, your most obedient, most humble servant.' I think they ought, in those parts where the materials are so easy to work, and at the same time so durable, when any of their heroes come home from the wars, to erect his statue in snow upon the mountains, there to remain from generation to generation. A gentleman who is apt to expatiate upon any hint, took this occasion to deliver his opinion upon our ordinary method of sending young gentlemen to travel for their education. It is certain,' said he, if gentlemen travel at an age proper for them, during the course of their voyages, their accounts to their friends, and, after their return, their discourse and conversations will have in them something above what we can meet with, from those who have not had those advantages.' At the same time, it is to be observed, that every temper and genius is not qualified for this way of improvement. Men may change their climate, but they cannot their nature. A man that goes out a fool, cannot ride or sail himself into common sense. Therefore, let me but walk over London-bridge with a young man, and I will tell you infallibly whether going over the Rialto at Venice will make him wiser. It is not to be imagined how many I have saved in my time from banishment, by letting their parents know they were good for nothing. But this is to be done with much tenderness. There is my cousin Harry has a son, who is the dullest mortal that ever was born into our house; A comedy written by the duke of Buckingham. he had got his trunk and his books all packed up to be transported into foreign parts, for no reason but because the boy never talked; and his father said, he wanted to know the world. I could not say to a fond parent that the boy was dull; but looked grave, and told him, 'the youth was very thoughtful, and I feared he might have some doubts about religion, with which it was not proper to go into Roman catholic countries.' He is accordingly kept here until he declares himself upon some points, which I am sure he will never think of. By this means I have prevented the dishonour of having a fool of our house laughed at in all parts of Europe. He is now with his father upon his own estate, and he has sent to me to get him a wife, which I shall do with all convenient speed; but it shall be such a one whose good-nature shall hide his faults, and good sense supply them. The truth of it is, that race is of the true British kind. They are of our country only; it hurts them to transplant them, and they are destroyed if you pretend to improve them. Men of this solid make are not to be hurried up and down the world, for, if I may so speak, they are naturally at their wit's end; and it is an impertinent part to disturb their repose, that they may give you only a history of their bodily occurrences, which is all they are capable of observing. Harry had an elder brother, who was tried in this way; I remember all he could talk of at his return was, 'That he had like to have been drowned at such a place; he fell out of a chaise at another; he had a better stomach when he moved northward than when he turned his course to the parts in the south, and so forth. It is, therefore, very much to be considered, what sense a person has of things when he is setting out; and, if he then knows none of his friends and acquaintance but by their clothes and faces, it is my humble opinion, that he stay at home. His parents should take care to marry him, and see what they can get out of him that way; for there is a certain sort of men, who are no otherwise to be regarded but as they descend from men of consequence, and may beget valuable successors; and, if we consider that men are to be esteemed only as they are useful, while a stupid wretch is at the head of a great family, we may say, the race is suspended, as properly as when it is all gone, we say it is extinct. From my own Apartment, November 11. I had several hints and advertisements from unknown hands, that some, who are enemies to my labours, design to demand the fashionable way of satisfaction for the disturbance my lucubrations have given them. I confess, as things now stand, I do not know how to deny such inviters, and am preparing myself accordingly. I have bought pumps and files, and am every morning practising in my chamber. My neighbour the dancing-master, has demanded of me, why I take this liberty, since I would not allow it him?' but I answered, 'his was an act of an indifferent nature, and mine of necessity.' My late treatises against duels have so far disobliged the fraternity of the noble science of defence, that I can get none of them to show me so much as one pass. I am, therefore, obliged to learn my book; and have, accordingly, several volumes, wherein all the postures are exactly delineated. I must confess, I am shy of letting people see me at this exercise, because of my flannel waistcoat, and my spectacles, which I am forced to fix on, the better to observe the posture of the enemy. there never breathed one man, who did not, in that part of his days wherein he was recommending himself to his mistress, do something beyond his ordinary course of life. As this has a very great effect even upon the most slow and common men; so, upon such as it finds qualified with virtue and merit, it shines out in proportionable degrees of excellence. It gives new grace to the most eminent accomplishments; and he, who of himself has either wit, wisdom, or valour, exerts each of these noble endowments, when he becomes a lover, with a certain beauty of action above what was ever observed in him before; and all who are without any one of these qualities are to be looked upon as the rabble of mankind. I was talking after this manner in a corner of this place with an old acquaintance, who, taking me by the hand, said, 'Mr. Bickerstaff, your discourse recalls to my mind a story, which I have longed to tell you ever since I read that article wherein you desire your friends to give you accounts of obscure merit.' The story I had of him is literally true, and well known to be so in the country wherein the circumstances were transacted. He acquainted me with the names of the persons concerned, which I shall change into feigned ones; there being a respect due to their families that are still in being, as well as that the names themselves would not be so familiar to an English ear. The adventure really happened in Denmark; and if I can remember all the passages, I doubt not but it will be as moving to my readers as it was to me. I have upon my chamber walls drawn at full length the figures of all sorts of men, from eight feet to three feet two inches. Within this height, I take it, that all the fighting men of Great Britain are comprehended. But, as I push, I make allowances for my being of a lank and spare body, and have chalked out in every figure my own dimensions; for I scorn to rob any man of his life by taking advantage of his breadth: therefore, I press purely in a line down from his nose, and take no more of him to assault than he has of me: for, to speak impartially, if a lean fellow wounds a fat one in any part to the right or left, whether it be in carte or in tierce, beyond the dimensions of the said lean fellow's own breadth, I take it to be murder, and such a murder as is below a gentlenam to commit. As I am spare, I am also very tall, and behave myself with relation to that advantage with the same punctilio; and I am ready to stoop or stand, according to the stature of my adversary. I must confess, I have had great success this morning, and have hit every figure round the room in a mortal part, without re. ceiving the least hurt, except a little scratch by falling on my face, in pushing at one at the lower end of my chamber; but I recovered so Clarinda and Chloc, two very fine women, quick, and jumped so nimbly into my guard, were bred up sisters in the family of Romeo, that if he had been alive, he could not have hurt who was the father of Chloe, and the guardian me. It is confessed I have written against duels of Clarinda. Philander, a young gentleman of with some warmth; but in all my discourses I a good person, and charming conversation, behave not ever said that I knew how a gentleman ing a friend of old Romeo, frequented his house, could avoid a duel if he were provoked to it; and by that means was much in conversation and, since that custom is now become a law, I with the young ladies, though still in the preknow nothing but the legislative power, with sence of the father and the guardian. new animadversions upon it, can put us in a ladies both entertained a secret passion for him, capacity of denying challenges, though we were and could see well enough, notwithstanding afterwards hanged for it. But no more of this the delight which he really took in Romeo's at present. As things stand, I shall put up no conversation, that there was something more in more affronts; and I shall be so far from taking his heart, which made him so assiduous a visitill words, that I will not take ill looks. I, there. ant. Each of them thought herself the happy fore, warn all hot young fellows not to look woman: but the person beloved was Chloe. It hereafter more terrible than their neighbours; for,happened that both of them were at a play in a if they stare at me with their hats cocked higher than other people, I will not bear it. Nay, I give warning to all people in general to look kindly at me, for I will bear no frowns, even from ladies; and if any woman pretends to look scornfully at me, I shall demand satisfaction of the next of kin of the masculine gender. The carnival evening, when it is the fashion there, as well as in most countries of Europe, both for men and women to appear in masks and disguises. It was on that memorable night, in the year 1679, when the play-house by some unhappy accident was set on fire. Philander, in the first hurry of the disaster immediately ran where his treasure was; burst open the door of the box, snatched the lady up in his arms, and, with unspeakable resolution and good fortune, carried her off safe. He was no sooner out of the crowd, but he set her down; and, grasping her in his arms, with all the raptures of a deserving lover, How happy am I, says he, in an opportunity to tell you I love you more than all things, and of showing you the sincerity of my passion at the very first declaration of it! My dear, dear Philander,' says the lady, pulling off her mask, 'this is not a time for art; you are much dearer to me than the life you have obliged me in buying at his shop upon my represerved; and the joy of my present deliverance commendation.' I have inquired into the man's does not transport me so much as the passion capacity, and find him an adept in his way. which occasioned it.' Who can tell the grief, He has several helps to discourse besides snuff, the astonishment, the terror, that appeared in which is the best Barcelona, and sells an orangethe face of Philander, when he saw the person flower water, which seems to me to have in it he spoke to was Clarinda! After a short pause, the right spirit of brains; and I am informed, 'Madam,' says he, with the looks of a dead he extracts it according to the manner used in man, we are both mistaken;' and immediately Gresham-College.* I recommend it to the flew away, without hearing the distressed Cla- handkerchiefs of all young pleaders. It cures rinda, who had just strength enough to cry out, or supplies all pauses and hesitations in speech, Cruel Philander! why did you not leave me and creates a general alacrity of the spirit. When in the theatre?' Crowds of people immediately it is used as a gargle, it gives volubility to the gathered about her, and, after having brought tongue, and never fails of that necessary step her to herself, conveyed her to the house of the towards pleasing others, making a man pleased good old unhappy Romeo. Philander was now with himself. I have taken security of him, pressing against the whole tide of people at the that he shall not raise the price of any of his door of the theatre, and striving to enter with commodities for these or any other occult quali more earnestness than any there endeavoured ties in them; but he is to sell them at the same to get out. He did it at last, and with much price which you give at the common perfumers. difficulty forced his way to the box where his Mr. Lillie has brought further security, that he beloved Chloe stood, expecting her fate amidst will not sell the boxes made for politicians to this scene of terror and distraction. She re-lovers; nor, on the contrary, those proper for vived at the sight of Philander, who fell about lovers to men of speculation; At this time, to her neck with a tenderness not to be expressed; avoid confusion, the best orangerie for beaux, and, amidst a thousand sobs and sighs, told her and right musty for politicians.' his love, and his dreadful mistake. The stage was now in flames, and the whole house full of smoke: the entrance was quite barred up with heaps of people, who had fallen upon one another as they endeavoured to get out. Swords were drawn, shrieks heard on all sides; and, in short, no possibility of an escape for Philander himself, had he been capable of making it without his Chloe. But his mind was above such a thought, and wholly employed in weeping, condoling, and comforting. He catches her in his arms. The fire surrounded them, while-I cannot go on Were I an infidel, misfortunes like this would convince me that there must be a hereafter: for who can believe that so much virtue could meet with so great distress without a following reward? As for my part, I am so old-fashioned, as firmly to believe, that all who perish in such generous enterprises are relieved from the fur. ther exercise of life; and Providence, which sees their virtue consummate and manifest, takes them to an immediate reward, in a being more suitable to the grandeur of their spirits. What else can wipe away our tears, when we contemplate such undeserved, such irreparable distresses? It was a sublime thought in some of the heathens of old; -Que gratia currum Armorumque fuit vivis, quæ cura nitentes My almanack is to be published on the twenty-second, and, from that instant, all lovers, in raptures or epistles, are to forbear the comparison of their mistresses' eyes to stars; I having made use of that simile in my dedication for the last time it shall ever pass, and on the properest occasion that it was ever employed. All ladies are hereby desired to take notice, that they never receive that simile in payment for any similes they shall bestow for the future. On Saturday night last a gentlewoman's husband strayed from the play-house in the Hay-market. If the lady who was seen to take him up will restore him, she shall be asked no questions, he being of no use but to the owner. His cares are eased with intervals of bliss; From my own Apartment, November 16. THERE are several persons who have many That is, in other words, The same employ-pleasures and entertainments in their possesments and inclinations which were the entertainment of virtuous men upon earth, make up their happiness in Elysium.' From my own Apartment, November 14. When I came home this evening, I found a present from Mr. Charles Lillie, the perfumer, at the corner of Beaufort-buildings, with a letter of thanks for the mention I made of him. He tells me, 'several of my gentle readers have) sion, which they do not enjoy. It is, therefore, a kind and good office to acquaint them with their own happiness, and turn their attention to such instances of their good fortune as they are apt to overlook. Persons in the married state often want such a monitor; and pine away their days, by looking upon the same condition in anguish and murmur, which carries with it, in the opinion of others, a complication of all The Royal Society then met at Gresham College. the pleasures of life, and a retreat from its inquietudes. that excellent woman. That fading in her countenance is chiefly caused by her watching with me, in my fever. This was followed by a fit of sickness, which had like to have carried her off last winter. I tell you sincerely, I have so many obligations to her, that I cannot, with any sort of moderation, think of her present state of health. But as to what you say of fifteen, she gives me every day pleasures beyond what I ever knew in the possession of her beauty, when I was in the vigour of youth. Every moment of her life brings me fresh instances of her complacency to my inclinations, and her prudence in regard to my fortune. Her face is to me much more beautiful than when I first saw it; there is no decay in any feature, which I cannot trace, from the very instant it was occasioned by some anxious concern for my welfare and interests. Thus, at the same time, methinks, the love I conceived towards her for what she was, is heightened by my gratitude for what she is. The love of a wife is as much above the idle passion commonly called by that name, as the loud laughter of buffoons is inferior to the elegant mirth of gentlemen. Oh! she is an inestimable jewel. In her examination of her household affairs, she shows a certain fearfulness to find a fault, which makes her servants obey her like children; and the meanest we have has an ingenuous shame for an offence, not always to be seen in children in other families. I speak freely to you, my old friend; ever since her sickness, things that gave me the quickest joy before, turn now to a certain anxiety. As the children play in the next room, I know the poor things by their steps, and am considering what they must do, should they lose their mother in their tender years. The pleasure I used to take in telling my boy stories of battles, and asking my girl questions about the disposal of her baby, and the gossiping of it, is turned into inward reflection and melancholy.' I am led into this thought by a visit I made an old friend, who was formerly my school-fellow. He came to town last week with his family for the winter, and yesterday morning sent me word his wife expected me to dinner. I am, as it were at home at that house, and every member of it knows me for their well-wisher. I cannot indeed express the pleasure it is, to be met by the children with so much joy as I am when I go thither. The boys and girls strive who shall come first, when they think it is I that am knocking at the door; and that child which loses the race to me runs back again to tell the father it is Mr. Bickerstaff. This day I was led in by a pretty girl, that we all thought must have forgot me; for the family has been out of town these two years. Her knowing me again was a mighty subject with us, and took up our discourse at the first entrance. After which, they began to rally me upon a thousand little stories they heard in the country, about my marriage to one of my neighbour's daughters. Upon which the gentleman, my friend, said, 'Nay, if Mr. Bickerstaff marries a child of any of his old companions, I hope mine shall have the preference; there is Mrs. Mary is now sixteen, and would make him as fine a widow as the best of them. But I know him too well; he is so enamoured with the very memory of those who flourished in our youth, that he will not so much as look upon the modern beauties. I remember, old gentleman, how often you went home in a day to refresh your countenance and dress when Teraminta reigned in your heart. As we came up in the coach, I repeated to my wife some of your verses on her.' With such reflections on little passages which happened long ago, we passed our time, during a cheerful and elegant meal. After dinner, his lady left the room, as did also the children. As soon as we were alone, he took me by the hand; 'Well, He would have gone on in this tender way, my good friend,' says he, 'I am heartily glad to when the good lady entered, and with an inexsee thee; I was afraid you would never have pressible sweetness in her countenance told us, seen all the company that dined with you to-day she had been searching her closet for someagain. Do not you think the good woman of thing very good, to treat such an old friend as the house a little altered since you followed her I was.' Her husband's eyes sparkled with pleafrom the play-house, to find out who she was, sure at the cheerfulness of her countenance; for me?' I perceived a tear fall down his cheek and I saw all his fears vanish in an instant. The as he spoke, which moved me not a little. But, lady observing something in our looks which to turn the discourse, I said, 'She is not indeed showed we had been more serious than ordinary, quite that creature she was, when she returned and seeing her husband receive her with great me the letter I carried from you; and told me, concern under a forced cheerfulness, immedi"she hoped, as I was a gentleman, I would be ately guessed at what we had been talking of; employed no more to trouble her, who had never and applying herself to me, said, with a smile, offended me; but would be so much the gentle-Mr. Bickerstaff, do not believe a word of what man's friend, as to dissuade him from a pursuit, which he could never succeed in." You may remember, I thought her in earnest; and you were forced to employ your cousin Will, who made his sister get acquainted with her, for you. You cannot expect her to be for ever fifteen.' Fifteen replied my good friend: Ah! you little understand, you that have lived a bachelor, how great, how exquisite a pleasure there is, in being really beloved! It is impossible, that the most beauteous face in nature should raise in mo such pleasing ideas, as when I look upon he tells you; I shall still live to have you for my second, as I have often promised you, unless he takes more care of himself than he has done since his coming to town. You must know, he tells me that he finds London is a much more healthy place than the country; for he sees several of his old acquaintance and school-fellows are here young fellows with fair full-bottomed periwigs. I could scarce keep him this morn ing from going out open-breasted. My friend, who is always extremely delighted with her agreeable humour, made her sit down with us. |