Mr. SPECTATOR gives his most humble Service
to _Mr. R. M._ of Chippenham in _Wilts_,
and hath received the Patridges.]
* * * * *
No. 157. Thursday, August 30, 1711. Steele.
'... Genius natale comes qui temperat astrum
Naturæ Deus humanæ Mortalis in unum
Quodque Caput ...'
Hor.
I am very much at a loss to express by any Word that occurs to me in our
Language that which is understood by _Indoles_ in _Latin_. The natural
Disposition to any Particular Art, Science, Profession, or Trade, is
very much to be consulted in the Care of Youth, and studied by Men for
their own Conduct when they form to themselves any Scheme of Life. It is
wonderfully hard indeed for a Man to judge of his own Capacity
impartially; that may look great to me which may appear little to
another, and I may be carried by Fondness towards my self so far, as to
attempt Things too high for my Talents and Accomplishments: But it is
not methinks so very difficult a Matter to make a Judgment of the
Abilities of others, especially of those who are in their Infancy. My
Commonplace Book directs me on this Occasion to mention the Dawning of
Greatness in _Alexander_, who being asked in his Youth to contend for a
Prize in the Olympick Games, answered he would, if he had Kings to run
against him. _Cassius_, who was one of the Conspirators against _Cæsar_,
gave as great a Proof of his Temper, when in his Childhood he struck a
Play-fellow, the Son of _Sylla_, for saying his Father was Master of the
_Roman_ People. _Scipio_ is reported to have answered, (when some
Flatterers at Supper were asking him what the _Romans_ should do for a
General after his Death) Take _Marius_. _Marius_ was then a very Boy,
and had given no Instances of his Valour; but it was visible to _Scipio_
from the Manners of the Youth, that he had a Soul formed for the Attempt
and Execution of great Undertakings. I must confess I have very often
with much Sorrow bewailed the Misfortune of the Children of _Great
Britain_, when I consider the Ignorance and Undiscerning of the
Generality of Schoolmasters. The boasted Liberty we talk of is but a
mean Reward for the long Servitude, the many Heart-aches and Terrors, to
which our Childhood is exposed in going through a Grammar-School: Many
of these stupid Tyrants exercise their Cruelty without any manner of
Distinction of the Capacities of Children, or the Intention of Parents
in their Behalf. There are many excellent Tempers which are worthy to be
nourished and cultivated with all possible Diligence and Care, that were
never designed to be acquainted with _Aristotle, Tully_, or _Virgil_;
and there are as many who have Capacities for understanding every Word
those great Persons have writ, and yet were not born to have any Relish
of their Writings. For want of this common and obvious discerning in
those who have the Care of Youth, we have so many hundred unaccountable
Creatures every Age whipped up into great Scholars, that are for ever
near a right Understanding, and will never arrive at it. These are the
Scandal of Letters, and these are generally the Men who are to teach
others. The Sense of Shame and Honour is enough to keep the World itself
in Order without Corporal Punishment, much more to train the Minds of
uncorrupted and innocent Children. It happens, I doubt not, more than
once in a Year, that a Lad is chastised for a Blockhead, when it is good
Apprehension that makes him incapable of knowing what his Teacher means:
A brisk Imagination very often may suggest an Error, which a Lad could
not have fallen into, if he had been as heavy in conjecturing as his
Master in explaining: But there is no Mercy even towards a wrong
Interpretation of his Meaning, the Sufferings of the Scholar's Body are
to rectify the Mistakes of his Mind.
I am confident that no Boy who will not be allured to Letters without
Blows, will ever be brought to any thing with them. A great or good Mind
must necessarily be the worse for such Indignities; and it is a sad
Change to lose of its Virtue for the Improvement of its Knowledge. No
one who has gone through what they call a great School, but must
remember to have seen Children of excellent and ingenuous Natures, (as
has afterwards appeared in their Manhood) I say no Man has passed
through this way of Education, but must have seen an ingenuous Creature
expiring with Shame, with pale Looks, beseeching Sorrow, and silent
Tears, throw up its honest Eyes, and kneel on its tender Knees to an
inexorable Blockhead, to be forgiven the false Quantity of a Word in
making a Latin Verse; The Child is punished, and the next Day he commits
a like Crime, and so a third with the same Consequence. I would fain ask
any reasonable Man whether this Lad, in the Simplicity of his native
Innocence, full of Shame, and capable of any Impression from that Grace
of Soul, was not fitter for any Purpose in this Life, than after that
Spark of Virtue is extinguished in him, tho' he is able to write twenty
Verses in an Evening?
Seneca says, after his exalted way of Talking, _As the immortal Gods
never learnt any Virtue, tho they are endowed with all that is good; so
there are some Men who have so natural a Propensity to what they should
follow, that they learn it almost as soon as they hear it._ [1] Plants
and Vegetables are cultivated into the Production of finer Fruit than
they would yield without that Care; and yet we cannot entertain Hopes of
producing a tender conscious Spirit into Acts of Virtue, without the
same Methods as is used to cut Timber, or give new Shape to a Piece of
Stone.
It is wholly to this dreadful Practice that we may attribute a certain
Hardiness and Ferocity which some Men, tho' liberally educated, carry
about them in all their Behaviour. To be bred like a Gentleman, and
punished like a Malefactor, must, as we see it does, produce that
illiberal Sauciness which we see sometimes in Men of Letters.
The _Spartan_ Boy who suffered the Fox (which he had stolen and hid
under his Coat) to eat into his Bowels, I dare say had not half the Wit
or Petulance which we learn at great Schools among us: But the glorious
Sense of Honour, or rather Fear of Shame, which he demonstrated in that
Action, was worth all the Learning in the World without it.
It is methinks a very melancholy Consideration, that a little Negligence
can spoil us, but great Industry is necessary to improve us; the most
excellent Natures are soon depreciated, but evil Tempers are long before
they are exalted into good Habits. To help this by Punishments, is the
same thing as killing a Man to cure him of a Distemper; when he comes to
suffer Punishment in that one Circumstance, he is brought below the
Existence of a rational Creature, and is in the State of a Brute that
moves only by the Admonition of Stripes. But since this Custom of
educating by the Lash is suffered by the Gentry of _Great Britain _, I
would prevail only that honest heavy Lads may be dismissed from Slavery
sooner than they are at present, and not whipped on to their fourteenth
or fifteenth Year, whether they expect any Progress from them or not.
Let the Child's Capacity be forthwith examined and [he] sent to some
Mechanick Way of Life, without respect to his Birth, if Nature designed
him for nothing higher: let him go before he has innocently suffered,
and is debased into a Dereliction of Mind for being what it is no Guilt
to be, a plain Man. I would not here be supposed to have said, that our
learned Men of either Robe who have been whipped at School, are not
still Men of noble and liberal Minds; but I am sure they had been much
more so than they are, had they never suffered that Infamy.
But tho' there is so little Care, as I have observed, taken, or
Observation made of the natural Strain of Men, it is no small Comfort to
me, as a SPECTATOR, that there is any right Value set upon the _bona
Indoles_ of other Animals; as appears by the following Advertisement
handed about the County of _Lincoln _, and subscribed by _Enos Thomas_,
a Person whom I have not the Honour to know, but suppose to be
profoundly learned in Horse-flesh.
_A Chesnut Horse called_ Cæsar, _bred_ by James Darcy, _Esq., at_
Sedbury, _near_ Richmond _in the County of_ York; _his Grandam
was his old royal Mare, and got by_ Blunderbuss, _which was got by_
Hemsly Turk, _and he got Mr._ Courand's Arabian, _which got Mr._
Minshul's Jews-trump. _Mr._ Cæsar _sold him to a Nobleman
(coming five Years old, when he had but one Sweat) for three hundred
Guineas. A Guinea a Leap and Trial, and a Shilling the Man_.
T. Enos Thomas.
[Footnote 1: Epist. 95.]
* * * * *
No. 158. Friday, August 31, 1711. Steele.
'Nos hoec novimus esse nihil.'
Martial.
Out of a firm Regard to Impartiality, I print these Letters, let them
make for me or not.
_Mr_. SPECTATOR,
I have observed through the whole Course of your Rhapsodies, (as you
once very well called them) you are very industrious to overthrow all
that many your Superiors who have gone before you have made their Rule
of writing. I am now between fifty and sixty, and had the Honour to be
well with the first Men of Taste and Gallantry in the joyous Reign of
_Charles_ the Second: We then had, I humbly presume, as good
Understandings among us as any now can pretend to. As for yourself,
_Mr_. SPECTATOR, you seem with the utmost Arrogance to undermine the
very Fundamentals upon which we conducted our selves. It is monstrous
to set up for a Man of Wit, and yet deny that Honour in a Woman is any
thing else but Peevishness, that Inclination [is [1]] the best Rule of
Life, or Virtue and Vice any thing else but Health and Disease. We had
no more to do but to put a Lady into good Humour, and all we could
wish followed of Course. Then again, your _Tully_, and your Discourses
of another Life, are the very Bane of Mirth and good Humour. Pr'ythee
don't value thyself on thy Reason at that exorbitant Rate, and the
Dignity of human Nature; take my Word for it, a Setting-dog has as
good Reason as any Man in _England_. Had you (as by your Diurnals one
would think you do) set up for being in vogue in Town, you should have
fallen in with the Bent of Passion and Appetite; your Songs had then
been in every pretty Mouth in _England_, and your little Distichs had
been the Maxims of the Fair and the Witty to walk by: But alas, Sir,
what can you hope for from entertaining People with what must needs
make them like themselves worse than they did before they read you?
Had you made it your Business to describe _Corinna_ charming, though
inconstant, to find something in human Nature itself to make _Zoilus_
excuse himself for being fond of her; and to make every Man in good
Commerce with his own Reflections, you had done something worthy our
Applause; but indeed, Sir, we shall not commend you for disapproving
us. I have a great deal more to say to you, but I shall sum it up all
in this one Remark, In short, Sir, you do not write like a Gentleman.
'I am, SIR,
Your most humble Servant.'
_Mr_. SPECTATOR,
'The other Day we were several of us at a Tea-Table, and according to
Custom and your own Advice had the _Spectator_ read among us: It was
that Paper wherein you are pleased to treat with great Freedom that
Character which you call a Woman's Man. We gave up all the Kinds you
have mentioned, except those who, you say, are our constant Visitants.
I was upon the Occasion commissioned by the Company to write to you
and tell you, That we shall not part with the Men we have at present,
'till the Men of Sense think fit to relieve them, and give us their
Company in their Stead. You cannot imagine but that we love to hear
Reason and good Sense better than the Ribaldry we are at present
entertained with, but we must have Company, and among us very
inconsiderable is better than none at all. We are made for the Cements
of Society, and came into the World to create Relations among Mankind;
and Solitude is an unnatural Being to us. If the Men of good
Understanding would forget a little of their Severity, they would find
their Account in it; and their Wisdom would have a Pleasure in it, to
which they are now Strangers. It is natural among us when Men have a
true Relish of our Company and our Value, to say every thing with a
better Grace; and there is without designing it something ornamental
in what Men utter before Women, which is lost or neglected in
Conversations of Men only. Give me leave to tell you, Sir, it would do
you no great Harm if you yourself came a little more into our Company;
it would certainly cure you of a certain positive and determining
Manner in which you talk sometimes. In hopes of your Amendment,
'I am, SIR,
'Your gentle Reader_.'
_Mr_. SPECTATOR,
'Your professed Regard to the Fair Sex, may perhaps make them value
your Admonitions when they will not those of other Men. I desire you,
Sir, to repeat some Lectures upon Subjects which you have now and then
in a cursory manner only just touched. I would have a _Spectator_
wholly writ upon good Breeding: and after you have asserted that Time
and Place are to be very much considered in all our Actions, it will
be proper to dwell upon Behaviour at Church. On Sunday last a grave
and reverend Man preached at our Church: There was something
particular in his Accent, but without any manner of Affectation. This
Particularity a Set of Gigglers thought the most necessary Thing to be
taken notice of in his whole Discourse, and made it an Occasion of
Mirth during the whole time of Sermon: You should see one of them
ready to burst behind a Fan, another pointing to a Companion in
another Seat, and a fourth with an arch Composure, as if she would if
possible stifle her Laughter. There were many Gentlemen who looked at
them stedfastly, but this they took for ogling and admiring them:
There was one of the merry ones in particular, that found out but just
then that she had but five Fingers, for she fell a reckoning the
pretty Pieces of Ivory over and over again, to find her self
Employment and not laugh out. Would it not be expedient, Mr.
SPECTATOR, that the Church-warden should hold up his Wand on these
Occasions, and keep the Decency of the Place as a Magistrate does the
Peace in a Tumult elsewhere?
_Mr_. SPECTATOR,
I am a Woman's Man, and read with a very fine Lady your Paper, wherein
you fall upon us whom you envy: What do you think I did? you must know
she was dressing, I read the _Spectator_ to her, and she laughed at
the Places where she thought I was touched; I threw away your Moral,
and taking up her Girdle cried out,
_Give me but what this Ribbon bound,
Take all the rest the [Sun [2]] goes round_. [3]
She smiled, Sir, and said you were a Pedant; so say of me what you
please, read _Seneca_ and quote him against me if you think fit.
_I am_,
_SIR,
Your humble Servant_.
[Footnote 1: is not]
[Footnote 2: _World_]
[Footnote 3: Waller, _On a Girdle_.]
* * * * *
No. 159. Saturday, September 1, 1711. Addison.
... Omnem quæ nunc obducta tuenti
Mortales hebetat visus tibi, et humida circum
Caligat, nubem eripiam ...
Virg.
When I was at _Grand Cairo_, I picked up several Oriental Manuscripts,
which I have still by me. Among others I met with one entitled, _The
Visions of Mirzah_, which I have read over with great Pleasure. I intend
to give it to the Publick when I have noother Entertainment for them;
and shall begin with the first Vision, which I have translated Word for
Word as follows.
'On the fifth Day of the Moon, which according to the Custom of my
Forefathers I always keep holy, after having washed my self, and
offered up my Morning Devotions, I ascended the high Hills of
_Bagdat_, in order to pass the rest of the Day in Meditation and
Prayer. As I was here airing my self on the Tops of the Mountains, I
fell into a profound Contemplation on the Vanity of human Life; and
passing from one Thought to another, Surely, said I, Man is but a
Shadow and Life a Dream. Whilst I was thus musing, I cast my Eyes
towards the Summit of a Rock that was not far from me, where I
discovered one in the Habit of a Shepherd, with a little Musical
Instrument in his Hand. As I looked upon him he applied it to his
Lips, and began to play upon it. The Sound of it was exceeding sweet,
and wrought into a Variety of Tunes that were inexpressibly
melodious, and altogether different from any thing I had ever heard:
They put me in mind of those heavenly Airs that are played to the
departed Souls of good Men upon their first Arrival in Paradise, to
wear out the Impressions of the last Agonies, and qualify them for the
Pleasures of that happy Place. My Heart melted away in secret
Raptures.
I had been often told that the Rock before me was the Haunt of a
Genius; and that several had been entertained with Musick who had
passed by it, but never heard that the Musician had before made
himself visible. When he had raised my Thoughts by those transporting
Airs which he played, to taste the Pleasures of his Conversation, as I
looked upon him like one astonished, he beckoned to me, and by the
waving of his Hand directed me to approach the Place where he sat. I
drew near with that Reverence which is due to a superior Nature; and
as my Heart was entirely subdued by the captivating Strains I had
heard, I fell down at his Feet and wept. The Genius smiled upon me
with a Look of Compassion and Affability that familiarized him to my
Imagination, and at once dispelled all the Fears and Apprehensions
with which I approached him. He lifted me from the Ground, and taking
me by the hand, _Mirzah_, said he, I have heard thee in thy
Soliloquies; follow me.
He then led me to the highest Pinnacle of the Rock, and placing me on
the Top of it, Cast thy Eyes Eastward, said he, and tell me what thou
seest. I see, said I, a huge Valley, and a prodigious Tide of Water
rolling through it. The Valley that thou seest, said he, is the Vale
of Misery, and the Tide of Water that thou seest is part of the great
Tide of Eternity. What is the Reason, said I, that the Tide I see
rises out of a thick Mist at one End, and again loses itself in a
thick Mist at the other? What thou seest, said he, is that Portion of
Eternity which is called Time, measured out by the Sun, and reaching
from the Beginning of the World to its Consummation. Examine now, said
he, this Sea that is bounded with Darkness at both Ends, and tell me
what thou discoverest in it. I see a Bridge, said I, standing in the
Midst of the Tide. The Bridge thou seest, said he, is human Life,
consider it attentively. Upon a more leisurely Survey of it, I found
that it consisted of threescore and ten entire Arches, with several
broken Arches, which added to those that were entire, made up the
Number about an hundred. As I was counting the Arches, the Genius told
me that this Bridge consisted at first of a thousand Arches; but that
a great Flood swept away the rest, and left the Bridge in the ruinous
Condition I now beheld it: But tell me further, said he, what thou
discoverest on it. I see Multitudes of People passing over it, said I,
and a black Cloud hanging on each End of it. As I looked more
attentively, I saw several of the Passengers dropping thro' the
Bridge, into the great Tide that flowed underneath it; and upon
farther Examination, perceived there were innumerable Trap-doors that
lay concealed in the Bridge, which the Passengers no sooner trod upon,
but they fell thro' them into the Tide and immediately disappeared.
These hidden Pit-falls were set very thick at the Entrance of the
Bridge, so that the Throngs of People no sooner broke through the
Cloud, but many of them fell into them. They grew thinner towards the
Middle, but multiplied and lay closer together towards the End of the
Arches that were entire.
There were indeed some Persons, but their Number was very small, that
continued a kind of hobbling March on the broken Arches, but fell
through one after another, being quite tired and spent with so long a
Walk.
I passed some Time in the Contemplation of this wonderful Structure,
and the great Variety of Objects which it presented. My Heart was
filled with a deep Melancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in
the midst of Mirth and Jollity, and catching at every thing that stood
by them to save themselves. Some were looking up towards the Heavens
in a thoughtful Posture, and in the midst of a Speculation stumbled
and fell out of Sight. Multitudes were very busy in the Pursuit of
Bubbles that glittered in their Eyes and danced before them; but often
when they thought themselves within the reach of them their Footing
failed and down they sunk. In this Confusion of Objects, I observed
some with Scymetars in their Hands, and others with Urinals, who ran
to and fro upon the Bridge, thrusting several Persons on Trap-doors
which did not seem to [lie in their Way,[1]] and which they might have
escaped had they not been forced upon them.
The Genius seeing me indulge my self in this melancholy Prospect,
told me I had dwelt long enough upon it: Take thine Eyes off the
Bridge, said he, and tell me if thou yet seest any thing thou dost not
comprehend. Upon looking up, What mean, said I, those great Flights of
Birds that are perpetually hovering about the Bridge, and settling
upon it from time to time? I see Vultures, Harpyes, Ravens,
Cormorants, and among many other feather'd Creatures several little
winged Boys, that perch in great Numbers upon the middle Arches.
These, said the Genius, are Envy, Avarice, Superstition, Despair,
Love, with the like Cares and Passions that infest human Life.
I here fetched a deep Sigh, Alas, said I, Man was made in vain! How
is he given away to Misery and Mortality! tortured in Life, and
swallowed up in Death! The Genius being moved with Compassion towards
me, bid me quit so uncomfortable a Prospect: Look no more, said he, on
Man in the first Stage of his Existence, in his setting out for
Eternity; but cast thine Eye on that thick Mist into which the Tide
bears the several Generations of Mortals that fall into it. I directed
my Sight as I was ordered, and (whether or no the good Genius
strengthened it with any supernatural Force, or dissipated Part of the
Mist that was before too thick for the Eye to penetrate) I saw the
Valley opening at the farther End, and spreading forth into an immense
Ocean, that had a huge Rock of Adamant running through the Midst of
it, and dividing it into two equal Parts. The Clouds still rested on
one Half of it, insomuch that I could discover nothing in it: But the
other appeared to me a vast Ocean planted with innumerable Islands,
that were covered with Fruits and Flowers, and interwoven with a
thousand little shining Seas that ran among them. I could see Persons
dressed in glorious Habits with Garlands upon their Heads, passing
among the Trees, lying down by the Side of Fountains, or resting on
Beds of Flowers; and could hear a confused Harmony of singing Birds,
falling Waters, human Voices, and musical Instruments. Gladness grew
in me upon the Discovery of so delightful a Scene. I wished for the
Wings of an Eagle, that I might fly away to those happy Seats; but the
Genius told me there was no Passage to them, except through the Gates
of Death that I saw opening every Moment upon the Bridge. The Islands,
said he, that lie so fresh and green before thee, and with which the
whole Face of the Ocean appears spotted as far as thou canst see, are
more in Number than the Sands on the Sea-shore; there are Myriads of
Islands behind those which thou here discoverest, reaching further
than thine Eye, or even thine Imagination can extend it self. These
are the Mansions of good Men after Death, who according to the Degree
and Kinds of Virtue in which they excelled, are distributed among
these several Islands, which abound with Pleasures of different Kinds
and Degrees, suitable to the Relishes and Perfections of those who are
settled in them; every Island is a Paradise accommodated to its
respective Inhabitants. Are not these, O _Mirzah_, Habitations worth
contending for? Does Life appear miserable, that gives thee
Opportunities of earning such a Reward? Is Death to be feared, that
will convey thee to so happy an Existence? Think not Man was made in
vain, who has such an Eternity reserved for him. I gazed with
inexpressible Pleasure on these happy Islands. At length, said I, shew
me now, I beseech thee, the Secrets that lie hid under those dark
Clouds which cover the Ocean on the other side of the Rock of Adamant.
The Genius making me no Answer, I turned about to address myself to
him a second time, but I found that he had left me; I then turned
again to the Vision which I had been so long contemplating; but
Instead of the rolling Tide, the arched Bridge, and the happy Islands,
I saw nothing but the long hollow Valley of _Bagdat_, with Oxen,
Sheep, and Camels grazing upon the Sides of it.
_The End of the first Vision of Mirzah_.