clufion of almost every scene, telling me that he could not imagine how the play would end. One while he appeared much concerned for Andromache; and a little while after as much for Her mione; and was extremely puzzled to think what would become of Pyrrhus. When Sir Roger faw Andromache's obftinate refufal to her lover's importunities, he whispered me in the ear, that he was fure the would never have him; to which he added, with a more than juftling of the croud. Sir Roger went out fully fatisfied with his entertainment, and we guard d him to his lodging in the fame manner that we brought him to the play-houfe; being highly pleased, for my own part, not only with the performance of the excellent piece which had been prefented, but with the fatisfaction which it had given the old man. -Clament periiffe pudorem Cuncti penè patres: ea cùm reprehendere coner, L ordinary vehemence, You cannot imagine, Sir, N° 336. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26. what it is to have to do with a widow. Upon Pyrrhus's threatening afterwards to leave her, the Knight thook his head and muttered to himfelf, Ay, do if you can. This part dwelt fo much upon my friend's imagination, that at the clofe of the third act, as I was thinking of fomething elfe, he whifpered me in the ear, Thefe widows, Sir, are the moft perverfe creatures in the world. But pray, fays he, you that are a critic, is the play according to your dramatic rules, as you call them? Should your people in tragedy always talk to be underfood? Why there is not a fingle fentence in this play that I do not know the meaning of. HOR. Ep. 1. 1. 2. v. 80. One tragic fentence if I dare deride, Mr. Spectator, POPE. S you are the daily endeavourer to promote The fourth act very luckily begun before I had time to give the old gentleman an anfwer: Well, fays the knight, fitting down with great fatisfaction, I fuppofe we are now to fee Hector's ghoft. He then renewed his attention, and from time to time, fell a praifing the widow. He made, indeed, a little mistake as to one of her pages, whom, at his firft entering, he took for Aftyanax; but quickly fet himfelf right in that particular, though, at the fame time, he owned he fhould have been very glad to have feen the little boy, who, fays he, muft needs be a very fine child by the account that is given of him. Upon Hermione's going off with a menace toneration, which grey hairs and tyrannical custom Pyrrhus, the audience gave a loud clap, to which Sir Roger added, On my word, a notable young baggage! As there was a very remarkable filence and ftillness in the audience during the whole action, it was natural for them to take the opportunity of the intervals between the acts, to exprefs their opinion of the players and of their respective parts. Sir Roger hearing a clufter of them praise Oreftes, ftruck in with them, and told them, that he thought his friend Pylades was a very fenfible man; as they were afterwards applauding Pyrrhus, Sir Roger put in a fecond time: And let me tell you, fays he, though he fpeaks but little, I like the old fellow in whifkers as well rs any of them. Captain Sentry feeing two or three wags, who fat near us, lean with an attentive ear towards Sir Roger, and fearing left they fhould smoke, the knight, plucked him by the elbow, and whispered fomething in his ear, that lafted till the opening of the fifth act. The knight was wonderfully attentive to the account which Oreftes gives of Pyrrhus's death, and at the conclufion of it, told me it was fuch a bloody piece of work, that he was glad it was not done upon the ftage. Seeing afterwards Oreftes in his raving fit, he grew more than ordinary ferious, and took occafion to moralize (in his way) upon an evil confcience, adding, that Oreftes, in his madnefs, looked as if he faw fomething. As we were the first that came into the houfe, fo we were the laft that went out of it; being refolved to have a clear paffage for our old friend, whom we did not care to venture among the A learning and good fenfe, I think myfelf obliged to fuggeft to your confideration whatever may promote or prejudice them. There is an evil which has prevailed from generation to ge continue to fupport; I hope your fpectatorical authority will give a feafonable check to the fpread of the infection; I mean old men's overbearing the fironger fenfe of their juniors by the mere force of feniority; fo that for a young man in the bloom of life and vigour of age to < give a reafonable contradiction to his elders, is efteemed an unpardonable infolence, and regarded as a reverfing the decrees of nature. I am a young man, I confefs, yet I honour the grey head as much as any one; however, when in company with old men I hear them fpeak obfcurely, or reafon prepofteroufly (into which abfurdities, prejudice, pride, or intereft, will fometimes throw the wifeft) I count it no crime to rectify their reafonings, unless confcience muft truckle to ceremony, and truth fall a facrifice to complaifance. The ftrongest arguments are enervated, and the brightest evidence d fappears, before thofe tremendous reafonings and dazzling difcoveries of venerable old age: you are young giddy-headed fellows, you have not yet had experience of the world. Thus we young folks find our ambition cramped, and our lazinefs, indulged, fince, while young, we have little room to difplay ourfelves; and when old, the weakness of nature muft pafs for ftrength of fenfe, and we hope that hoary heads will raise us above the attacks of contradiction. Now, Sir, as you would enliven our activity in the pursuit of learning, take 6 our cafe into confideration; and, with a glofs on brave Elihu's fentiments, affert the rights of youth, and prevent the pernicious encroachC 2 • Kents ments of age. The generous reasonings of that gallant youth would adorn your paper; and I beg you would infert them, not doubting but that they will give good entertain'ment to the most intelligent of your readers. "So thefe three men ceafed to answer Job, "because he was righteous in his own eyes. "Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu, the fon "of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: "against Job was his wrath kindied, because "he juftified himfelf rather than God, alfo "against his three friends was his wrath kind"led, because they had found no answer, "and yet had condemned Job. Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they 66 were elder than he. When Elihu faw there "was no anfwer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled. And "Elihu, the fon of Barachel the Buzite, an"fwered aud faid, I am young and ye are "very old, wherefore I was afraid, and durft not fhew you mine opinion. I said, days fhould speak, and multitude of years should "teach wifdom. But there is a fpirit in a man "and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Great men are not "always wife, neither do the aged understand "judgment. Therefore I faid, hearken to "fpleen, feldom fail to plague me twice or thrice me, I alfo will fhew you mine opinion. Be"hold I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reafons, whilft you fearched out what "to fay. Yea, I attended unto you and be"hold there was none of you that convinced "Job, or that anfwered his words; left you "fhould fay, we have found out wisdom: God "thrufteth him down, not man. Now he "hath not directed his words against me: *neither will I anfwer him with your fpeeches. "They were amazed; they answered no more : "they left off fpeaking. When I had waited. (for they fpake not, but ftood ftill and anwered no more) I faid, I will anfwer alfo * my part, I alfo will thew mine opinion. "For I am full of matter, the fpirit within me *conftraineth me. Behold, my belly is as "wine which hath no vent, it is ready to burit like new bottles. I will fpeak that I may be refreshed: 1 will open my lips and anfwer. Let me not, I pray you, accept "any man's perfon, neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not to "give flattering titles; in fo doing my Maker "would foon take me away." • Mr. Spectator, HAVE formerly read with great fatisfaction of gentlemen in thofe coffee-houfes where women officiate, and impatiently waited to fee you take India and china fhops into confideration : "But fince you have paffed us over in filence, ei"ther that you have not as yet thought us worth your notice, or that the grievances we lie under "have escaped your difcerning eye, I muft make my complaints to you, and am encouraged "to it, because you feem a little at leifure at this * prefent writing. dear Sir, one of the top china-women about town; and, though I "fay it, keep as good things, and receive as fine "company as any o' this end of the town, let the "other be who the will: in fhort, I am in a fair 66 way to be eafy, were it not for a club of female "Rakes, who under pretence of taking their innocent rambles, forfooth, and diverting the am, HAVE lately received a third letter from the gentleman who has already given the public two effays upon education. As his thoughts feem to be very just and new upon this fubject, I fhall communicate them to the reader. SIR, I' F I had not been hindered by fome extraordinary business, I fhould have fent you fooner my further thoughts upon education. You may please to remember that in my last 'letter I endeavoured to give the beft reafons that could be urged in favour of a private or 'public education. Upon the whole it may perhaps be thought that I feemed rather inclined to the latter, though at the fame time I confeffed that virtue, which ought to be our first ' and principal care, was more ufually acquired in the former, I intend therefore, in this letter, to offer at methods, by which I conceive boys might be 'made to improve in virtue, as they advance in ⚫ letters. "I know that in most of our public schools 'vice is punished and difcouraged, whenever it ' is found out; but this is far from being fufficient ficient, unlefs our youth are at the fame time taught to form a right judgment of things, and to know what is properly virtue. To this end, whenever they read the lives and <actions of fuch men as have been famous in their generation, it fhould not be thought enough to make them barely understand fo many Greek or Latin fentences, but they fhould be asked their opinion of fuch an action or faying, and obliged to give their reafons why they take it to be good or bad. By this means they • would infenfibly arrive at proper notions of courage, temperance, honour, and justice. "There must be great care taken how the exam< ple of any particular perfon is recommended to them in grofs; inftead of which they ought to be taught wherein fuch a man, though great in fome refpects, was weak and faulty in others. For want of this caution, a boy is often fo dazzled with the luftre of a great character, that he confounds its beauties with its blemishes, and looks even upon the faulty part of ' it with an eye of admiration. you not fee (fays he) the miferable condition of Burrus, and the fon of Albus? Let the 'misfortunes of thofe two wretches teach you to ' avoid luxury and extravagance. If he would infpire me with an abhorrence to debauchery, Do not (fays he) make yourself like Sectanus, 'when you may be happy in the enjoyment of lawful pleasures. How fcandalous (fays he) is the character of Trebonius, who was lately caught in bed with another man's wife? To illuftrate the force of this method, the poet adds, that as a headstrong patient, who will not at firft follow his phyfician's prefcriptions, grows orderly when he hears that his neighbours die all about him; fo youth is often frighted from vice, by hear ing the ill reports it brings upon • others. 'Xenophon's schools of equity, in his life of Cyrus the great, are fufficiently famous. He 'tells us, that the Perfian children went to fchool, and employed their time as diligently in learning the principles of justice and fobriety, as the youth in other countries did to acquire the most difficult arts and fciences: their governors spent most part of the day in hearing their mutual accufations one against the other, whether for violence, cheating, flander, or ingratitude; and taught them how to give judgment against those who were found to be any ways guilty of thefe crimes. I omit the story of the long and fhort coat, for which 'Cyrus himself was punished, as a cafe equally 'known with any in Lyttleton. I have often wondered how Alexander, who was naturally of a generous and merciful difpofition, came to be guilty of fo barbarous an action as that of dragging the governor of a ⚫ town after his chariot. I know this is generally ⚫ afcribed to his paffion for Homer; but I lately met with a paffage in Plutarch, which, if I am ⚫ not very much mistaken, ftill gives us a clearer light into the motives of this action. Plutarch tells us, that Alexander in his youth had a mafter named Lyfimachus, who, though he · was a man deftitute of all politenefs, ingratiated himself both with Philip and his pupil, < and became the fecond man at court, by calling 'the King Peleus, the Prince Achilles, and himfelf Phoenix. It is no wonder if Alexanderquire of every particular scholar how he has ⚫ having been thus ufed not only to admire but to perfonate Achilles, fhould think it glorious to imitate him in this piece of cruelty and extravagance. To carry this thought yet further, I shall ⚫ fubmit it to your confideration, whether inftead of a theme or copy of verfes, which are the ufual exercises, as they are called in the school phrafe, it would not be more proper that a boy fhould be tasked once or twice a week to write down his opinion of fuch perfons and things as occur to him in his reading; that he fhould defcant upon the actions of Turnus or neas, fhew wherein they excelled or were defective, cenfure or approve any particular action, obferve how it might have been carried to a greater degree of perfection, and how it exceeded or fell short of another. He might at the fame time mark what was moral in any fpeech, and how far it agreed with the character of the perfon fpeaking. This exercife would "foon ftrengthen his judgment in what is blame⚫able or praise-worthy, and give him an early feasoning of morality. Next to thofe examples which may be met ' with in books, I very much approve Horace's way of fetting before youth the infamous or honourable characters of their contemporaries : that poet tells us, this was the method his father made ufe of to incline him to any particular virtue, or give him an averfion to any particular vice. If, fays Horace, my father ad⚫ vifed me to live within bounds, and be contented with the fortune he should leave me; Do The method, which Apuleius tells us the 'Indian Gymnofophifts took to educate their difciples, is ftill more curious and remarkable, His words are as follow: When their dinner is ready, before it is ferved up, the masters en ' employed his time fince fun- rifing; fome of 'them anfwer, that having been chofen as arbiters between two perfons, they have compofed their differences, and made them friends; fome, that they have been executing the orders of their parents; and others, that they have either found out fomething new by their own 'application, or learnt it from the inftructions of their fellows; but if their happens to be any one among them, who cannot make it appear that he has employed the morning to advantage, ' he is immediately excluded from the company, and obliged to work while the reft are at ‹ dinner. 6 6 It is not impoffible, that from these several Iways of producing virtue in the minds of boys, fome general method might be invented. What I would endeavour to inculcate, is, that our youth cannot be tco foon taught the principles of virtue, feeing the first impreffions which are made on the mind are always the strongest. The archbishop of Cambray makes Telemachus fay, that, though he was young in years, he was old in the art of knowing how to keep both his own and his friends fecrets. When my father, fays the prince, went to the fiege of Troy, he took me on his knees, and after having embraced and blessed me, as he was furrounded by the nobles of Ithac, O my friends, fays he, into your hands I commit the education of my fon; if ever you loved his father, fhew it in your care towards him but above all, do not omit to form him juft, fincere, and ‹ faithful in keeping a fecret. These words of my my father, fays Telamachus, were continually < repeated to me by his friends in his abfence; who made no fcruple of communicating to me their uneafinefs to fee my mother furrounded with lovers, and the meafures they defigned to take on that occasion. He adds, that he was fo ravished at being thus treated like a man, and and at the confidence repofed in him, that he 6 never once abufed it; nor could all the infinuations of his father's rivals ever get him to betray what was committed to him under the feal of fecrecy. There is hardly any virtue which a lad might not thus learn by practice and example. I have heard of a good man, who used at certain times to give his fcholars fix-pence a-piece, that they might tell him the next day how they had employed it. The third part was always to be laid out in charity, and every boy was blamed or commended as he could make it appear he had chofen a fit object. In fhort, nothing is more wanting to our 'public fchools, than that the mafters of them fhould use the fame care in fathioning the man" ners of their scholars, as in forming their tongues < to the learned languages. Wherever the former is omitted, I cannot help agreeing with Mr. Locke, that a man muft have a very strange value for words, when preferring the languages ⚫ of the Greeks and Romans to that which made them fuch brave men, he can think it worth while to hazard the innocence and virtue of his fon for a little Greek and Latin. I Find the tragedy of The Diftreffed Mother is publifhed to day: the author of the prologue, I fuppofe, pleads an old excufe I have read fomewhere of "being dull with defign:" and the gentleman who writ the epilogue, has, to my knowledge, fo much of greater moment to value himself upon, that he will eafily forgive me for publishing the exceptions made against gaiety at the end of ferious entertainments, in the following letter: I fhould be more unwilling to pardon him, than any body, a practice which cannot have any ill confequence, but from the abilities of the perfon who is guilty of it. Mr. Spectator. Had the happinefs the other night of fitting very near you and your worthy friend Sir Roger, at the acting of the new tragedy, which you have in a late paper or two fo juftly recommended, I was highly pleased with the advantageous fituation fortune had given me in placing me fo near two gentlemen, from one of which I was fure to hear fuch reflexions on the feveral incidents of the play, as pure nature fuggefted, and from the other 6 fuch as flowed from the exactest art and judg◄ 'ment: though I must confefs that my curiofity led me fo much to obferve the knight's reflexions, that I was not fo well at leifure to improve myfelf by yours. Nature, I found played her 'part in the knight pretty well, till at the last 'concluding lines the entirely forfook him. You muft know, Sir, that it is always my cuftom, when I have been well entertained at a new tragedy, to make my retreat before the facetious epilogue enters; not but that thofe pieces are ' often very well writ, but having paid down my half crown, and made a fair purchase of as much of the pleafing melancholy as the poet's 'art can afford me, or my own nature admit of, I am willing to carry fome of it home with me and cannot endure to be at once tricked out of all, though by the wittieft dexterity in the world. However, I kept my feat the other night, in hopes of finding my own fentiments of this matter favoured by your friend's; when to my great surprise, I found the Knight entering with equal pleasure into both parts, and as much fatisfied with Mrs. Oldfield's gaiety, as he had been before with Andromache's greatnefs, Whether this were no other than an effect of the Knight's peculiar humanity, pleased to find at laft, that after all the tragical doings every thing was fafe and well, I don't know. But for my own part, I must confefs I was fo diffatisfied, that I was forry the poet had faved Andromache, and could heartily have wifhed that he had left her ftone-dead upon the stage. For you cannot imagine, Mr. Spectator, the mifchief fhe was referved to do me. I found I my foul, during the action, gradually worked up to the highest pitch; and felt the exalted 'paffion, which all generous minds conceive at the fight of virtue in diftrefs. The impreffion, believe me, Sir, was fo ftrong upon me, that I am perfuaded if I had been let alone in it, I could at an extremity have ventured to defend yourself and Sir Roger against half a score of the fierceft Mohocs: but the ludicrous epilogue in the clofe extinguished all my ardour, and made me look upon all fuch noble atchievments as downright filly and romantic. What the reft of the audience felt, I cannot fo well tell: for myfelt I muft declare, that at the end of the play I found my foul uniform, and all of a piece but at the end of the epilogue, it was fo jumbled together and divided between jeft and earneft, that if you will forgive me an extravagant fancy, I will here fet it down. I could not but fancy, if my foul had at that moment quitted my body, and defcended to the poetical fhades in the pofture it was then in, what a ftrange figure it would have made among them. They would not have known what to have made of my motley spectre, half comic and half tragic, all over refembling a ridiculous face, that at the fame time laughs on one fide and cries on the other. The only defence, I think, I have ever heard made for this, as it feems to me the most unnatural tack of the comic tail to the tragic head, is this, that the minds of the audience must be refrefhed, and gentlemen and ladies not fent away to their own homes with too difmal and melancholy thoughts about them: for who knows the con'fequence of this? We are much obliged indeed to the poets for the great tenderness they exprefs for the fafety of our perfons, and heartily thank thank them for it. But if that be all, pray, good Sir, affure them, that we are none of us like to come to any great harm; and that, let them do their beft, we fhall in all probability live out the length of our days, and frequent the theatres more than ever. What makes me more defirous to have fome information of this matter, is, becaufe of an ill confequence or two attending it for a great many of our church muficians being related to the theatre, they have, in imitation of thefe epilogues, introduced in their farewell voluntaries a fort of mufic quite foreign to the defign of church-fervices, to the great prejudice of well-difpofed people. Thofe fingering gentlemen fhould be informed that they ought to fuit their airs to the place, and bufinefs; and that the mufician is obliged to keep to the text as much as the preacher. For want of this, I have found by experience a 'great deal of mifchief: for when the preacher has often, with great piety and art enough, ⚫ handled his fubject, and the judicious clerk has with the utmost diligence culled out two ftaves · proper to the discourse, and I have found in myfelf and in the reft of the pew good thoughts and difpofitions, they have been all in a moment diffipated by a merry jigg from the organ< loft. One knows not what further ill effects the epilogues I have been speaking of may in time produce: but this I am credibly informed <of,thatPaul Lorrain has refolved upon a very fud⚫ den reformation in his tragical dramas; and that at the next monthly performance, he defigns, in<ftead of a penitential pfalm, to dimifs his audi< ence with an excellent new ballad of his own and worked up with paffion. The author appears in a kind of compofed and fedate majesty; and though the fentiments do not give fo great an emotion as thofe in the former book, they abound with as magnificent ideas. The fixth book, like a troubled ocean, reprefents greatness in confufion; the feventh affects the imagination like the ocean in a calm, and fills the mind of the reader, without producing in it any thing like tumult or agitation. The critic above-mentioned, among the rules which he lays down for fucceeding in the fublime way of writing, propofs to his reader, that he fhould imitate the most celebrated authors who have gone before him, and have been engaged in works of the fame nature; as in particular, that, if he writes on a poetical fubject, he should confider how Homer would have fpoken on fuch an occafion. By this means one great genius often catches the flame from another, and writes in his fpirit, without copying fervilely after him. There are a thousand shining paffages in Virgil, which have been lighted up by Homer. Milton, though his own natural strength of genius was capable of furnishing out a perfect work, has doubtlefs very much raised and ennobled his conceptions by fuch an imitation as that which Longinus has recommended. In this book, which gives us an account of the fix days work, the poet received but very few affiftances from Heathen writers, who are ftrangers to the wonders of creation. But as there are many glorious strokes of poetry upon this fubject in holy writ, the author has numberless allufions to them through the whole course of this book. The great critic I have before mentioned, though an heathen, has taken notice of the fublime manner in which the lawgiver of the Jews has defcribed the creation in the first chapter of Genefis; and there are many other paffages in fcripture, which rife up to the fame majefty, where this fubject is touched upon. Milton has fhewn his SATURDAY, MARCH. 29 of these as were proper for his poem, and in duly judgment very remarkably, in making use of fuch compofing, Pray, Sir, do what you can to put a ftop to thefe growing evils, and you will very • much oblige N° 339 Your humble Servaut, -Ut his exordia primis Phyfibulus.' Omnia,&ipfe tener mundi concreverit orbis. VIRG. Ecl. 6. v. 33. He fung the fecret feeds of nature's frame; L DRYDEN ONGINUS has obferved, that there may be a loftinefs in fentiments where there is no paffion, and brings inftances out of ancient authors to fupport this his opinion. The pathetic, as that great critic obferves, may animate and inflame the fublime, but is not effential to it. Accordingly, as he further remarks, we very I often find that thofe, who excel most in stirring up the paffions, very often want the talent of writing in the great and fublime manner, and fo on the contrary. Milton has fhewn himfelf a mafter in both thefe ways of writing. The feventh book, which we are now entering upon, is arr inftance of that fublime which is not mixed qualifying thofe high ftrains of eaftern poetry, which were fuited to readers whofe imaginations were fet to an higher pitch than thofe of colder climates. Adam's fpeech to the angel, wherein he defires an account of what had paffed within the regions of nature before the creation, is very great and folemn. The following lines, in which he tells him, that the day is not too far fpent for him to enter upon fuch a fubject, are exquifite in their kind. And the great light of day yet wants to run The angel's encouraging our first parents in a modeft purfuit after knowledge, with the caufes which he affigus for the creation of the world, are very juft and beautiful. The Meffiah, by whom, as we are told in Scripture, the Heavens were made, comes forth in the power of his Father, furrounded with an hoft of angels, and cloathed with fuch a Majefty as becomes his entering upon a work, which, according to our conceptions, appears the utmost exertion of Omnipotence. What a beautiful description has our author raifed upon that hint in one of the prophets!" And "behold |