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nature of heavenly bodies; because, says he, | moter and preacher of it. To me it seems that his mind will become more extensive and un- the latter part of his judgment adds great confined; and when he descends to treat of weight to his opinion of St. Paul's abilities, human affairs, he will both think and write in since, under all the prejudice of opinions dia more exalted and magnificent manner. For rectly opposite, he is constrained to acknowthe same reason, that excellent master would ledge the merit of that apostle. And no doubt, have recommended the study of those great such as Longinus describes St. Paul, such he and glorious mysteries which revelation has dis- appeared to the inhabitants of those countries covered to us; to which the noblest parts of which he visited and blessed with those docthis system of the world are as much inferior trines he was divinely commissioned to preach. as the creature is less excellent than its Creator. Sacred story gives us, in one circumstance, a The wisest and most knowing among the hea- convincing proof of his eloquence, when the thens had very poor and imperfect notions men of Lystra called him Mercury, "because of a future state. They had indeed some un- he was the chief speaker;" and would have certain hopes, either received by tradition, or paid divine worship to him, as to the god who gathered by reason, that the existence of virtu- invented and presided over eloquence. This ous men would not be determined by the sepa-one account of our apostle sets his character, ration of soul and body; but they either dis- considered as an orator only, above all the cebelieved a future state of punishment and lebrated relations of the skill and influence of misery; or, upon the same account that Ap-1 Demosthenes and his contemporaries. Their pelles painted Antigonous with one side only power in speaking was admired, but still it towards the spectator, that the loss of his eye was thought human; their cloquence warmed might not cast a blemish upon the whole piece; and ravished the hearers, but still it was so these represented the condition of man in thought the voice of man, not the voice of its fairest view, and endeavoured to conceal God. What advantage then had St. Paul above what they thought was a deformity to human those of Greece or Rome? I confess I can nature. I have often observed, that whenever ascribe this excellence to nothing but the the above-mentioned orator in his philosophi- power of the doctrines he delivered, which may cal discourses is led by his argument to the have still the same influence on the hearers; mention of immortality, he seems like one which have still the power, when preached by awakened out of sleep: roused and alarmed a skilful orator, to make us break out in the with the dignity of the subject, he stretches his same expressions as the disciples who met our imagination to conceive something uncommon, Saviour in their way to Emmaus made use of; and, with the greatness of his thoughts, casts, "Did not our hearts burn within us when he as it were, a glory round the sentence. Un-talked to us by the way, and while he opened certain and unsettled as he was, he seems fired to us the scriptures ?" I may be thought bold with the contemplation of it. And nothing in my judgment, by some, but I must affirm, but such a glorious prospect could have forced that no one orator has left us so visible marks so great a lover of truth as he was, to declare and footsteps of his eloquence as our apostle. his resolution never to part with his persuasion It may perhaps be wondered at, that in his of immortality, though it should be proved to reasonings upon idolatry at Athens, where elobe an erroneous one. But had he lived to see quence was born and flourished, he confines all that Christianity has brought to light, how himself to strict argument only; but my reader would he have lavished out all the force of may remember what many authors of the best eloquence in those noblest contemplations credit have assured us, that all attempts upon which human nature is capsble of, the resur- the affections, and strokes of oratory, were exrection and the judgment that follows it! How pressly forbidden, by the laws of that country, had his breast glowed with pleasure, when the in courts of judicature. His want of eloquence whole compass of futurity lay open and ex- therefore here was the effect of his exact conposed to his view! How would his imagina-formity to the laws; but his discourse on the tion have hurried him on in the pursuit of the resurrection to the Corinthians, his harangue mysteries of the incarnation! How would he before Agrippa upon his own conversion, and have entered, with the force of lightning, into the necessity of that of others, are truly great, the affections of his hearers, and fixed their and may serve as full examples to those excelattention, in spite of all the opposition of cor-lent rules for the sublime, which the best of rupt nature, upon those glorious themes which critics has left us. The sum of all this dishis eloquence hath painted in such lively and course is, that our clergy have no farther to lasting colours! look for an example of the perfection they This advantage Christians have; and it may arrive at, than to St. Paul's harangues; was with no small pleasure I lately met with a that when he, under the want of several adfragment of Longinus, which is preserved as vantages of nature, as he himself tells us, was a testimony of that critic's judgment, at the heard, admired and made a standard to sucbeginning of a manuscript of the New Tes-ceeding ages by the best judges of a different tament in the Vatican library. After that persuasion in religion; I say, our clergy may author has numbered up the most celebrated learn that, however instructive their sermons orators among the Grecians, he says, "add to are, they are capable of receiving a great adthese Paul of Tarsus, the patron of an opinion dition: which St. Paul has given them a noble not yet fully proved." As a heathen, he con- example of, and the Christian religion has demns the Christian religion; and, as an im-furnished them with certain means of attain partial critic, he judges in favour of the pro-ing to.'

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No. 634.] Friday, December 17, 1714.

Οἐλαχίστων δεόμενος ἔξγιστα θεῶν

Socrates apud Xen.

The fewer our wants, the nearer we resemble the gods.

ciple that influenced them throughout the whole series of their lives and exploits. Alexander tells them, that his aim was to conquer; Julius Cæsar, that his was to gain the highest post in his country; Augustus, to govern well; Trajan, that his was the same as that of Ir was the common boast of the heathen Alexander, namely, to conquer. The question, philosophers, that by the efficacy of their seve- at length, was put to Marcus Aurelius, who reral doctrines, they made human nature re-plied, with great modesty, that it had always semble the divine. How much mistaken so-been his care to imitate the gods. This conever they might be in the several means they duct seems to have gained him the most proposed for this end, it must be owned that votes and best place in the whole assembly. the design was great and glorious. The finest Marcus Aurelius being afterwards asked to works of invention and imagination are of explain himself, declares that, by imitating very little weight when put in the balance the gods, he endeavoured to imitate them in with what refines and exalts the rational the use of his understanding, and of all other mind. Longinus excuses Homer very hand- faculties; and in particular, that it was alsomely, when he says the poet made his gods ways his study to have as few wants as possilike men, that he might make his men appear ble in himself, and to do all the good he could like the gods. But it must be allowed that to others. several of the ancient philosophers acted as Among the many methods by which revealed Cicero wishes Homer had done: they endea- religion has advanced morality, this is one, voured rather to make men like gods, than that it has given us a more just and perfect gods like men. idea of that Being whom every reasonable According to this general maxim in philo- creature ought to imitate. The young man, in sophy, some of them have endeavoured to a heathen comedy, might justify his lewdness place men in such a state of pleasure, or in- by the example of Jupiter; as, indeed, there dolence at least, as they vainly imagined the was scarce any crime that might not be counhappiness of the Supreme Being to consist in. tenanced by those notions of the deity which On the other hand, the most virtuous sect of prevailed among the common people in the philosophers have created a chimerical wise heathen world. Revealed religion sets forth a man, whom they made exempt from passion proper object for imitation, in that Being who and pain, and thought it enough to pronounce is the pattern, as well as the source, of all him all-sufficient. spiritual perfection

This last character, when divested of the While we remain in this life, we are subject glare of human philosophy that surrounds it, to innumerable temptations, which, if listened signifies no more than that a good and wise to, will make us deviate from reason and goodmau should so arm himself with patience, as ness, the only things wherein we can imitate not to yield tamely to the violence of passion the Supreme Being. In the next life we meet and pain; that he should learn so to suppress with nothing to excite our inclinations that and contract his desires as to have few wants; doth not deserve them. I shall therefore disand that he should cherish so many virtues in miss my reader with this maxim, viz. Our his soul as to have a perpetual source of plea-happiness in this world proceeds from the supsure in himself. pression of our desires, but in the next world

The Christian religion requires that, after from the gratification of them.' having framed the best idea we are able of the divine nature, it should be our next care to conform ourselves to it as far as our imperfections will permit. I might mention several passages in the sacred writings on this head, to which I might add many maximsand wise sayings of moral authors among the Greeks and Romans.

No. 635.] Monday, December 20, 1714.

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Sentio te sedem hominum ac domum contemplari; quæ tibi parva (ut est) ita videtur, hæc cœlestia semper spectato; illa humana contemnito.

Cicero Somn. Scip.

I shall only instance a remarkable passage, I perceive you contemplate the seat and habitation of to this purpose, out of Julian's Cæsars.*men; which if it appears as little to you as it really is, fix, your eyes perpetually upon heavenly objects, and despise That emperor having represented all the Ro-earthly. man emperors, with Alexander the Great, as passing in review before the gods, and striving THE following esssay comes from the ingenfor the superiority, lets them all drop, ex-ious author of the letter upon novelty, printed cepting Alexander. Julius Cæsar, Augustus in a late Spectator :* the notions are drawn Cæsar, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Con- from the Platonic way of thinking; but, as stantine. Each of these great heroes of an-they contribute to raise the mind, and may intiquity lays in his claim for the upper place; spire noble sentiments of our own future granand, in order to it, sets forth his actions after deur and happiness, I think it well deserves to the most advantageous manner. But the be presented to the public.

gods, instead of being dazzled with the lustre of their actions, inquire by Mercury

If the universe be the creature of an intelli

into the proper motive and governing prin gent mind, this mind could have no immediate

Spanheim, Les Cesars de l'Empereur Julien, 4to. 1798

* No. 626.

regard to himself in producing it. He needed slides, and he tumbles down headlong into the not to make trial of his omnipotence to be in-grave. formed what effects were within its reach; the Thinking on this, I am obliged to believe, in world, as existing in his eternal idea, was then justice to the Creator of the world, that there as beautiful as now it is drawn forth into is another state when man shall be better situ being; and in the immense abyss of his es- ated for contemplation, or rather have it in sence are contained far brighter scenes than his power to remove from object to object, will be ever set forth to view; it being impos- and from world to world; and be accommo sible that the great Author of nature should dated with senses, and other helps, for makbound his own power by giving existence to a ing the quickest and most amazing discovesystem of creatures so perfect that he cannot ries. How does such a genius as Sir Isaac improve upon it by any other exertions of his almighty will. Between finite and infinite there is an unmeasured interval, not to be filled up in endless ages; for which reason, the most excellent of all God's works must be equally short of what his power is able to produce as the most imperfect, and may be exceeded with the same ease.

Newton, from amidst the darkness that involves human understanding, break forth, and appear like one of another species! The vast machine we inhabit lies open to him; he seems not unacquainted with the general laws that govern it, and while with the transport of a philosopher he beholds and admires the glorious work, he is capable of paying at opce This thought hath made some imagine (what a more devout and more rational homage to it must be confessed is not impossible) that his Maker. But, alas! how narrow is the the unfathomed space is ever teeming with prospect even of such a mind! And how ohnew births, the younger still inheriting greater scure to the compass that is taken in by the perfection than the elder. But, as this doth ken of an angel, or of a soul but newly escap not fall within my present view, I shall con-ed from its imprisonment in the body! For tent myself with taking notice, that the con- my part, I freely indulge my soul in the confi sideration now mentioned proves undeniably, dence of its future grandeur; it pleases me that the ideal worlds in the divine under- to think that I, who know so small a portion standing yield a prospect incomparably more of the works of the Creator, and with slow ample, various, and deligtful, than any cre- and painful steps creep up and down on the ated world can do: and that therefore, as it surface of this globe, shall ere long shoot is not to be supposed that God should make away with the swiftness of imagination, trace a world merely of inanimate matter, however out the hidden springs of nature's operations, diversified or inhabited only by creatures of be able to keep pace with the heavenly bodies no higher an order than brutes, so the end in the rapidity of their career, be a spectator for which he designed his reasonable offspring of the long chain of events in the natural and is the contemplation of his works, the enjoy-moral worlds, visit the several apart ments of ment of himself, and in both to be happy; the creation, know how they are furnished having, to this purpose, endowed them with and how inhabited, comprehend the order, correspondent faculties and desires. He can and measure the magnitudes and distances of have no greater pleasure from a bare review those orbs, which to us seem dispo sed withof his works than from a survey of his own out any regular design, and set all in the ideas; but we may be assured that he is well same circle; observe the dependerace of the pleased in the satisfaction derived to beings parts of each system, and (if our minds are capable of it, and for whose entertainment big enough to grasp the theory) of the several he hath erected this immense theatre. Is not systems upon one another, from whence rethis more than an intimation of our immor-sults the harmony of the universe. In etertality? Man, who, when considered as on nity, a great deal may be done of this kind. his probation for a happy existence hereafter, I find it of use to cherish this generous amis the most remarkable instance of divine wisdom, if we cut him off from all relation to eternity, is the most wonderful and unaccountable composition in the whole creation. He hath capacities to lodge a much greater variety of knowledge than he will be ever master of, and an unsatisfied curiosity to tread the secret paths of nature and providence: but, The other, and that the ultimate end of man, with this, his organs, in their present structure, is the enjoyment of God, beyond which he canare rather fitted to serve the necessities of a not form a wish. Dim at best are the concepvile body, than to minister to his understand-tions we have of the Supreme Being, who, as ing; and, from the little spot to which he is it were, keeps his creatures in suspense, neither chained, he can frame but wandering guesses discovering nor hiding himself; by which concerning the innumerable worlds of light means, the libertine hath a handle to dispute that encompass him; which, though in them- his existence, while the most are content to selves of a prodigious bigness, do but just glim- speak him fair, but in their hearts prefer every mer in the remote spaces of the heavens and trifling satisfaction to the favour of their Maker, when, with a great deal of time and pains, he and ridicule the good man for the singularity hath laboured a little way up the steep ascent of his choice. Will there not a time come, of truth, and beholds with pity the grovel- when the free-thinker shall see his impious ling multitude beneath, in a moment his foot schemes overturned, and be made a convert to

bition; for, besides the secret refreshment it diffuses through my soul, it engages me in an endeavour to improve my faculties, as well as to exercise them conformably to the rank I now hold among reasonable being s, and the hope I have of being once advanced to a more exalted station.

the truths he hates? when deluded mortals as something analagous to the sense of seeing, shall be covinced of the folly of their pursuits; which is the medium of our acquaintance with and the few wise, who followed the guidance of this visible world. And in some such way can Heaven, and, scorning the blaudishments of God make himself the object of immediate insense, and the sordid bribery of the world, as- tuition to the blessed; and as he can, it is uot pired to a celestial abode, shall stand possessed improbable that he will, always condescending, of their utmost wish in the vision of the Crea-in the circumstances of doing it, to the weakter Here the mind heaves a thought now and ness and proportion of finite minds. His works then towards him, and hath some transient but faintly reflect the image of his perfections; ghances of his presence: when in the instant it it is a second-hand knowledge: to have a just thinks itself to have the fastest hold, the ob- idea of him, it may be necessary to see him as ject eludes its expectations, and it falls back he is. But what is that? It is something that tied and baffled to the ground. Doubtless there never entered into the heart of man is some more perfect way of conversing with ceive; yet, what we can easily conceive, will be heavenly beings. Are not spirits capable of a fountain of unspeakable and everlasting rapmutual intelligence, unless immersed in bodies, ture. All created glories will fade and die away or by their intervention? Must superior na-in his presence. Perhaps it will be my happitues depend on inferior for the main privilege ness to compare the world with the fair exemof social beings, that of conversing with and plar of it in the Divine Mind; perhaps, to view knowing each other? What would they have the original plan of those wise designs that done had matter never been created? I sup-have been executing in a long succession of pose, not have lived in eternal solitude. As in- ages. Thus employed in finding out his works, corporeal substances are of a nobler order, so, and contemplating their Author, how shall I be sure, their manner of intercourse is answer-fall prostrate and adoring, my body swallowed ablymore expedite and intimate. This method up in the immensity of matter, my mind in the of communication we call intellectual vision, infinitude of his perfections !

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No.

ABIGAILS, (male) in fashion among the ladies 55 Almighty, his power over the imagination

Absence in conversation, a remarkable instance

of it in Will Honeycomb

The occasion of his absence

And means to conquer it

The absence of lovers, death in love

How to be made easy

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Abstinence, the benefits of it

Academy for politics

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Aristotle's saying of his being

77 Amanda, her adventures

77 Amaryllis, her character
77 Amazons, their commonwealth

77

How they educated their children
Their wars

No.

421

465

375

144

433

434

434

They marry their male allies

434

Ambition never satisfied

27 256

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Accompts, their great usefulness

Acetus, his character

Acosta, his answer to Limborch, touching the mul-

tiplicity of ceremonies in the Jewish religion
Acrostic, piece of false wit. divided into simple and
compound

Act of deformity, for the use of the Ugly Club
Action, the felicity of the soul

A threefold division of our actions

No right judgment to be made of them
A necessary qualification in an orator
Tully's observations on action adapted to the
British theatre

Actions, principles of, two in man

Actor, absent, who so called by Theophrastus
Admiration, one of the most pleasing passions
When turned into contempt

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A pleasing motion of the mind

Adversity, no evil in itself

Advertisement of an Italian chirurgeon
From St. Jame's coffee-house

From a gentleman that teaches birds to speak
From another that is a fine flesh-painter
From Mr. Sly, the haberdasher

Advice: no order of persons too considerable to bo
advised

In what manner to be given to a faulty friend
Usually received with reluctance

Adulterers, how punished by primitive Christians
Affectation, a greater enemy to a fine face than the
small-pox

It deforms beauty, and turns wit into absurdity
The original of it

Found in the wise man as well as the coxcomb
The way to get clear of it

The misfortune of it
Described

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Affliction and sorrow not always expressed by tears
True affliction labours to be invisible

Afflictions, how to be alleviated

Age rendered ridiculous

How contemned by the Athenians and respected
by the Spartans

174 Americans, their opinion of souls

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38 Answesrs to several letters at once

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38 Anthony, (Mark) his witty mirth commended by
38 Tully

38 Antipathies, a letter about them

174

by it, as the people

200

422

Most men subject to it,

219, 224

Of use when rightly directed

219

213

The end of it

255

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56

Exemplified in a vision of an American
Used painting instead of writing

56

416

541

588

Amity between agreeable persons of different sexes
dangerous

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400

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