[Footnote 2: need]
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No. 146. Friday, August 17, 1711. Steele.
'Nemo Vir Magnus sine aliquo Afflatu divino unquam fuit.'
Tull.
We know the highest Pleasure our Minds are capable of enjoying with
Composure, when we read Sublime Thoughts communicated to us by Men of
great Genius and Eloquence. Such is the Entertainment we meet with in
the Philosophick Parts of _Cicero_'s Writings. Truth and good Sense have
there so charming a Dress, that they could hardly be more agreeably
represented with the Addition of Poetical Fiction and the Power of
Numbers. This ancient Author, and a modern one, had fallen into my Hands
within these few Days; and the Impressions they have left upon me, have
at the present quite spoiled me for a merry Fellow. The Modern is that
admirable Writer the Author of _The Theory of the Earth_. The Subjects
with which I have lately been entertained in them both bear a near
Affinity; they are upon Enquiries into Hereafter, and the Thoughts of
the latter seem to me to be raised above those of the former in
proportion to his Advantages of Scripture and Revelation. If I had a
Mind to it, I could not at present talk of any thing else; therefore I
shall translate a Passage in the one, and transcribe a Paragraph out of
the other, for the Speculation of this Day. _Cicero_ tells us, [1] that
_Plato_ reports _Socrates_, upon receiving his Sentence, to have spoken
to his Judges in the following manner.
I have great Hopes, oh my Judges, that it is infinitely to my
Advantage that I am sent to Death: For it is of necessity that one of
these two things must be the Consequence. Death must take away all
these Senses, or convey me to another Life. If all Sense is to be
taken away, and Death is no more than that profound Sleep without
Dreams, in which we are sometimes buried, oh Heavens! how desirable is
it to die? how many Days do we know in Life preferable to such a
State? But if it be true that Death is but a Passage to Places which
they who lived before us do now inhabit, how much still happier is it
to go from those who call themselves Judges, to appear before those
that really are such; before _Minos, Rhadamanthus, Æacus_, and
_Triptolemus_, and to meet Men who have lived with Justice and Truth?
Is this, do you think, no happy Journey? Do you think it nothing to
speak with _Orpheus, Musceus, Homer_, and _Hesiod_? I would, indeed,
suffer many Deaths to enjoy these Things. With what particular Delight
should I talk to _Palamedes, Ajax_, and others, who like me have
suffered by the Iniquity of their Judges. I should examine the Wisdom
of that great Prince, who carried such mighty Forces against _Troy_;
and argue with _Ulysses_ and _Sisyphus_, upon difficult Points, as I
have in Conversation here, without being in Danger of being condemned.
But let not those among you who have pronounced me an innocent Man be
afraid of Death. No Harm can arrive at a good Man whether dead or
living; his Affairs are always under the direction of the Gods; nor
will I believe the Fate which is allotted to me myself this Day to
have arrived by Chance; nor have I ought to say either against my
Judges or Accusers, but that they thought they did me an Injury ...
But I detain you too long, it is Time that I retire to Death, and you
to your Affairs of Life; which of us has the Better is known to the
Gods, but to no Mortal Man.
The Divine _Socrates_ is here represented in a Figure worthy his great
Wisdom and Philosophy, worthy the greatest mere Man that ever breathed.
But the modern Discourse is written upon a Subject no less than the
Dissolution of Nature it self. Oh how glorious is the old Age of that
great Man, who has spent his Time in such Contemplations as has made
this Being, what only it should be, an Education for Heaven! He has,
according to the Lights of Reason and Revelation, which seemed to him
clearest, traced the Steps of Omnipotence: He has, with a Celestial
Ambition, as far as it is consistent with Humility and Devotion,
examined the Ways of Providence, from the Creation to the Dissolution of
the visible World. How pleasing must have been the Speculation, to
observe Nature and Providence move together, the Physical and Moral
World march the same Pace: To observe Paradise and eternal Spring the
Seat of Innocence, troubled Seasons and angry Skies the Portion of
Wickedness and Vice. When this admirable Author has reviewed all that
has past, or is to come, which relates to the habitable World, and run
through the whole Fate of it, how could a Guardian Angel, that had
attended it through all its Courses or Changes, speak more emphatically
at the End of his Charge, than does our Author when he makes, as it
were, a Funeral Oration over this Globe, looking to the Point where it
once stood? [2]
Let us only, if you please, to take leave of this Subject, reflect
upon this Occasion on the Vanity and transient Glory of this habitable
World. How by the Force of one Element breaking loose upon the rest,
all the Vanities of Nature, all the Works of Art, all the Labours of
Men, are reduced to Nothing. All that we admired and adored before as
great and magnificent, is obliterated or vanished; and another Form
and Face of things, plain, simple, and every where the same,
overspreads the whole Earth. Where are now the great Empires of the
World, and their great Imperial Cities? Their Pillars, Trophies, and
Monuments of Glory? Shew me where they stood, read the Inscription,
tell me the Victors Name. What Remains, what Impressions, what
Difference or Distinction, do you see in this Mass of Fire? _Rome_ it
self, eternal _Rome_, the great City, the Empress of the World, whose
Domination and Superstition, ancient and modern, make a great Part of
the History of the Earth, what is become of her now? She laid her
Foundations deep, and her Palaces were strong and sumptuous; _She
glorified her self, and lived deliciously, and said in her Heart, I
sit a Queen, and shall see no Sorrow_: But her Hour is come, she is
wiped away from the Face of the Earth, and buried in everlasting
Oblivion. But it is not Cities only, and Works of Mens Hands, but the
everlasting Hills, the Mountains and Rocks of the Earth are melted as
Wax before the Sun, and _their Place is no where found_. Here stood
the _Alps_, the Load of the Earth, that covered many Countries, and
reached their Arms from the Ocean to the _Black Sea_; this huge Mass
of Stone is softned and dissolved as a tender Cloud into Rain. Here
stood the _African_ Mountains, and _Atlas_ with his Top above the
Clouds; there was frozen _Caucasus_, and _Taurus_, and _Imaus_, and
the Mountains of _Asia_; and yonder towards the North, stood the
_Riphaean_ Hills, cloathd in Ice and Snow. All these are Vanished,
dropt away as the Snow upon their Heads. _Great and Marvellous are thy
Works, Just and True are thy Ways, thou King of Saints! Hallelujah_.
[Footnote 1: 'Tusculan Questions', Bk. I.]
[Footnote 2: 'Theory of the Earth', Book III., ch. xii.]
* * * * *
No. 147. Saturday, August 18, 1711. Steele.
'Pronuntiatio est Vocis et Vultus et Gestus moderatio cum
venustate.'
Tull.
_Mr_. SPECTATOR,
The well Reading of the Common Prayer is of so great Importance, and
so much neglected, that I take the Liberty to offer to your
Consideration some Particulars on that Subject: And what more worthy
your Observation than this? A thing so Publick, and of so high
Consequence. It is indeed wonderful, that the frequent Exercise of it
should not make the Performers of that Duty more expert in it. This
Inability, as I conceive, proceeds from the little Care that is taken
of their Reading, while Boys and at School, where when they are got
into _Latin_, they are looked upon as above _English_, the Reading of
which is wholly neglected, or at least read to very little purpose,
without any due Observations made to them of the proper Accent and
Manner of Reading; by this means they have acquired such ill Habits as
won't easily be removed. The only way that I know of to remedy this,
is to propose some Person of great Ability that way as a Pattern for
them; Example being most effectual to convince the Learned, as well as
instruct the Ignorant.
You must know, Sir, I've been a constant Frequenter of the Service of
the Church of _England_ for above these four Years last past, and
'till _Sunday_ was Seven-night never discovered, to so great a Degree,
the Excellency of the Common-Prayer. When being at St. _James's
Garlick-Hill_ Church, I heard the Service read so distinctly, so
emphatically, and so fervently, that it was next to an Impossibility
to be unattentive. My Eyes and my Thoughts could not wander as usual,
but were confin'd to my Prayers: I then considered I addressed my self
to the Almighty, and not to a beautiful Face. And when I reflected on
my former Performances of that Duty, I found I had run it over as a
matter of Form, in comparison to the Manner in which I then discharged
it. My Mind was really affected, and fervent Wishes accompanied my
Words. The Confession was read with such a resigned Humility, the
Absolution with such a comfortable Authority, the Thanksgivings with
such a Religious Joy, as made me feel those Affections of the Mind in
a Manner I never did before. To remedy therefore the Grievance above
complained of, I humbly propose, that this excellent Reader, [1] upon
the next and every Annual Assembly of the Clergy of _Sion-College_,
and all other Conventions, should read Prayers before them. For then
those that are afraid of stretching their Mouths, and spoiling their
soft Voice, will learn to Read with Clearness, Loudness, and Strength.
Others that affect a rakish negligent Air by folding their Arms, and
lolling on their Book, will be taught a decent Behaviour, and comely
Erection of Body. Those that Read so fast as if impatient of their
Work, may learn to speak deliberately. There is another sort of
Persons whom I call Pindarick Readers, as being confined to no set
measure; these pronounce five or six Words with great Deliberation,
and the five or six subsequent ones with as great Celerity: The first
part of a Sentence with a very exalted Voice, and the latter part with
a submissive one: Sometimes again with one sort of a Tone, and
immediately after with a very different one. These Gentlemen will
learn of my admired Reader an Evenness of Voice and Delivery, and all
who are innocent of these Affectations, but read with such an
Indifferency as if they did not understand the Language, may then be
informed of the Art of Reading movingly and fervently, how to place
the Emphasis, and give the proper Accent to each Word, and how to vary
the Voice according to the Nature of the Sentence. There is certainly
a very great Difference between the Reading a Prayer and a Gazette,
which I beg of you to inform a Set of Readers, who affect, forsooth, a
certain Gentleman-like Familiarity of Tone, and mend the Language as
they go on, crying instead of Pardoneth and Absolveth, Pardons and
Absolves. These are often pretty Classical Scholars, and would think
it an unpardonable Sin to read _Virgil_ or _Martial_ with so little
Taste as they do Divine Service.
This Indifferency seems to me to arise from the Endeavour of avoiding
the Imputation of Cant, and the false Notion of it. It will be proper
therefore to trace the Original and Signification of this Word. Cant
is, by some People, derived from one _Andrew Cant_, who, they say, was
a Presbyterian Minister in some illiterate Part of _Scotland_, who by
Exercise and Use had obtained the Faculty, _alias_ Gift, of Talking in
the Pulpit in such a Dialect, that it's said he was understood by none
but his own Congregation, and not by all of them. Since _Mas. Cant's_
time, it has been understood in a larger Sense, and signifies all
sudden Exclamations, Whinings, unusual Tones, and in fine all Praying
and Preaching, like the unlearned of the Presbyterians. But I hope a
proper Elevation of Voice, a due Emphasis and Accent, are not to come
within this Description. So that our Readers may still be as unlike
the Presbyterians as they please. The Dissenters (I mean such as I
have heard) do indeed elevate their Voices, but it is with sudden
jumps from the lower to the higher part of them; and that with so
little Sense or Skill, that their Elevation and Cadence is Bawling and
Muttering. They make use of an Emphasis, but so improperly, that it is
often placed on some very insignificant Particle, as upon _if_, or
_and_. Now if these Improprieties have so great an Effect on the
People, as we see they have, how great an Influence would the Service
of our Church, containing the best Prayers that ever were composed,
and that in Terms most affecting, most humble, and most expressive of
our Wants, and Dependance on the Object of our Worship, dispos'd in
most proper Order, and void of all Confusion; what Influence, I say,
would these Prayers have, were they delivered with a due Emphasis, and
apposite Rising and Variation of Voice, the Sentence concluded with a
gentle Cadence, and, in a word, with such an Accent and Turn of Speech
as is peculiar to Prayer?
As the matter of Worship is now managed, in Dissenting Congregations,
you find insignificant Words and Phrases raised by a lively Vehemence;
in our own Churches, the most exalted Sense depreciated, by a
dispassionate Indolence. I remember to have heard Dr. _S_--_e_ [2] say
in his Pulpit, of the Common-prayer, that, at least, it was as perfect
as any thing of Human Institution: If the Gentlemen who err in this
kind would please to recollect the many Pleasantries they have read
upon those who recite good Things with an ill Grace, they would go on
to think that what in that Case is only Ridiculous, in themselves is
Impious. But leaving this to their own Reflections, I shall conclude
this Trouble with what _Cæsar_ said upon the Irregularity of Tone in
one who read before him, _Do you read or sing? If you sing, you sing
very ill_. [3]
[Footnote 1: The Rec. Philip Stubbs, afterwards Archdeacon of St. Alban's.]
[Footnote 2: Smalridge?]
[Footnote 3:
Si legis cantas; si cantas, male cantas.
The word Cant is rather from 'cantare', as a chanting whine, than from
the Andrew Cants, father and son, of Charles the Second's time.]
* * * * *