father used toward him, and might perhaps have occasioned a dislike to those modes of life, which were not made amiable to him by freedom and affability.

ery, what he purchased with so much industry, prudence, and wisdom. This is the true way to show the sense you have of your loss, and to take away the distress of others upon the occasion. You cannot recall your father by your grief, but you may revive him to his friends by your con

We may promise ourselves that no such excrescence will appear in the family of the Cornelii, where the father lives with his sons like their eld-duct." est brother, and the sons converse with him as if they did it for no other reason but that he is the wisest man of their acquaintance. As the Corneiii* are eminent traders, their good correspondence with each other is useful to all that know them, as well as to themselves: and their friendship, goodwill, and kind offices, are disposed of jointly as well as their fortune, so that no one ever obliged one of them, who had not the obligation multiplied in returns from them all.

It is the most beautiful object the eyes of man can behold to see a man of worth and his son live in an entire unreserved correspondence. The mutual kindness and affection between them, give an inexpressible satisfaction to all who know them. It is a sublime pleasure which increases by the participation. It is as sacred as friendship, as pleasurable as love, and as joyful as religion. This state of mind does not only dissipate sorrow, which would be extreme without it, but enlarges pleasures which would otherwise be contemptible. The most indifferent thing has its force and beauty when it is spoke by a kind father, and an insignificant trifle has its weight when offered by a dutiful child. I know not how to express it, but I think I may call it a transplanted self-love." All the enjoyments and sufferings which a man meets with are regarded only as they concern him in the relation he has to another. A man's very honor receives a new value to him, when he thinks that, when he is in his grave, it will be had in remembrance that such au action was done by sucha-one's father. Such considerations sweeten the old man's evening, and his soliloquy delights him when he can say to himself, "No man can tell my child, his father was either unmerciful, or unjust. My son shall meet many a man who shall say to him, I was obliged to thy father: and be my child a friend to his child forever.""

66

It is not in the power of all men to leave illustrious names or great fortunes to their posterity, but they can very much conduce to their having industry, probity, valor, and justice. It is in every man's power to leave his son the honor of descending from a virtuous man, and add the blessings of heaven to whatever he leaves him. I shall end this rhapsody with a letter to an excellent young man of my acquaintance, who has lately lost a worthy father.

"DEAR SIR.

T.

No. 193.] THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1711.
-Ingentem foribus domus alta superbis
Mane salutantum totis vomit adibus undam.
VIRG. Georg., ii, 461.

His lordship's palace view, whose portals proud
Each morning vomit forth a cringing crowd.

WARTON, etc.

WHEN We look round us, and behold the strange variety of faces and persons which fill the streets with business and hurry, it is no unpleasant amusement to make guesses at their different pursuits, and judge by their countenances what it is that so anxiously engages their present attention. Of all this busy crowd, there are none who would give a man inclined to such inquiries better diversion for his thoughts, than those whom we call good courtiers, and such as are assiduous at the levees of great men. These worthies are got into a habit of being servile with an air, and enjoy a certain vanity in being known for understanding how the world passes. In the pleasure of this they can rise early, go abroad sleek and welldressed, with no other hope or purpose, but to make a bow to a man in court favor, and be thought, by some insignificant smile of his, not a little engaged in his interests and fortunes. It is wondrous, that a man can get over the natural existence and possession of his own mind so far as to take delight either in paying or receiving such cold and repeated civilities. But what maintains the humor is, that outward show is what most men pursue, rather than real happiness. both the idol, and idolater, equally impose upon themselves in pleasing their imaginations this way; But as there are very many of her majesty's good subjects who are extremely uneasy at their own seats in the country, where all from the skies to the center of the earth is their own, and have a mighty longing to shine in courts, or to be partners in the power of the world; I say, for the benefit of these, and others who hanker after being in the whisper with great men, and vexing their neighbors with the changes they would be capable of making in the appearance of a country sessions, it would not, methinks, be amiss to give an account of that market for preferment, a great man's levee.

Thus

For aught I know, this commerce between the mighty and their slaves, very justly represented, "I know no part of life more impertinent than might do so much good, as to incline the great to the office of administering consolation: I will not regard business rather than ostentation; and make enter into it, for I cannot but applaud your grief. the little know the use of their time too well to The virtuous principles you had from that excel- spend it in vain applications and addresses. The lent man, whom you have lost, have wrought in famous doctor in Moorfields, who gained so much you as they ought, to make a youth of three-and-reputation for his horary predictions, is said to twenty incapable of comfort upon coming into have had in his parlor different ropes to little bells possession of a great fortune. I doubt not but which hung in the room above stairs, where the you will honor his memory by a modest enjoy-doctor thought fit to be oraculous. If a girl had ment of his estate; and scorn to triumph over his grave, by employing in riot, excess, and debauch

been deceived by her lover, one bell was pulled; and if a peasant had lost a cow, the servant raug another. This method was kept in respect to all other passions and concerns, and the skillful waiter below sifted the inquirer, and gave the doctor notice accordingly. The levee of a great man is laid after the same manner, and twenty whispers, false alarms, and private intimations, pass backward and forward from the porter, the valet, and the patron himself, before the gaping crew, who

are to pay their court, are gathered together. | weakness of our nature, that when men are a little When the scene is ready, the doors fly open and discover his lordship.

exalted in their condition, they immediately conceive they have additional senses, and their capaThere are several ways of making this first ap- cities enlarged not only above other men, but pearance. You may be either half-dressed, and above human comprehension itself. Thus it is orwashing yourself, which is indeed the most stately; dinary to see a great man attend one listening, but this way of opening is peculiar to military bow to one at a distance, and call to a third at the men, in whom there is something graceful in ex- same instant. A girl in new ribbons is not more posing themselves naked: but the politicians, or taken with herself, nor does she betray more apcivil officers, have usually affected to be more re- | parent coquetries, than even a wise man in such a served, and preserve a certain chastity of deport-circumstance of courtship. I do not know anyment. Whether it be hieroglyphical or not, this thing that I ever thought so very distasteful as the difference in the military and civil list, I will not affectation which is recorded of Cæsar, to wit: say; but have ever understood the fact to be, that that he would dictate to three several writers the close minister is buttoned up, and the brave at the same time. This was an ambition below officer open-breasted on these occasions. the greatness and candor of his mind. He indeed (if any man had pretensions to greater faculties than any other mortal) was the person; but such a way of acting is childish, and inconsistent with the manner of our being. It appears from the very nature of things, that there cannot be any thing effectually dispatched in the distraction of a public levee; but the whole seems to be a conspiracy of a set of servile slaves, to give up their own liberty to take away their patron's under standing.-T.

However that is, I humbly conceive the business of a levee is to receive the acknowledgments of a multitude, that a man is wise, bounteous, valiant, and powerful. When the first shot of eyes is made, it is wonderful to observe how much submission the patron's modesty can bear, and how much servitude the client's spirit can descend to. In the vast multiplicity of business, and the crowd about him, my lord's parts are usually so great, that, to the astonishment of the whole assembly, he has something to say to every man there, and that so suitable to his capacity as any man may judge that it is not without talents men can arrive at great employments. I have known a great man ask a flag-officer, which way was the wind; a commander of horse, the present price of oats and a stock-jobber, at what discount such a fund was, with as much ease as if he had been bred to each of those several ways of life. Now this is extremely obliging; for at the same time that the patron informs himself of matters, he gives the person of whom he inquires an opportunity to exert himself. What adds to the pomp of those interviews is, that it is performed with the greatest silence and order imaginable. The patron is usually in the midst of the room, and some humble person gives him a whisper, which his lordship answers aloud, "It is well. Yes, I am of your opinion. Pray inform yourself further, you may be sure of my part in it." This happy man is dismissed, and my lord can turn himself to a business of a quite different nature, and off hand give as good an answer as any great man is obliged to. For the chief point is to keep in generals; and if there be anything offered that is particular, to be in haste.

But we are now in the height of the affair, and my lord's creatures have all had their whispers round to keep up the farce of the thing, and the dumb-show is become more general. He casts his eye to that corner, and there to Mr. Such-a-one; to the other, "And when did you come to town?" And perhaps just before he nods to another; and enters with him, "But, Sir, I am glad to see you, now I think of it." Each of those are happy for the next four-and-twenty hours; and those who bow in ranks undistinguished, and by dozens at a time, think they have very good prospects if they may hope to arrive at such notices half a year

hence.

The satirist says, there is seldom common sense in high fortune; and one would think, to behold a levee, that the great were not only infatuated with their station, but also that they believed all below were seized too; else how is it possible they could think of imposing upon themselves and others in such a degree, as to set up a levee for anything but a direct farce? But such is the

*Rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa
Fortuna-
Juv., viii, 73.

No. 194.]

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1711.

-Difficili bile tumet jecur.-HOR. 1 Od. xiii, 4.
With jealous pangs my bosom swells.

THE present paper shall consist of two letters which observe upon faults that are easily cured both in love and friendship. In the latter, as far as it merely regards conversation, the person who neglects visiting an agreeable friend is punished in the very transgression; for a good companion is not found in every room we go into. But the case of love is of a more delicate nature, and the anxiety is inexpressible, if every little instance of kindness is not reciprocal. There are things in this sort of commerce which there are not words to express, and a man may not possibly know how to represent what may yet tear his heart into ten thousand tortures. To be grave to a man's mirth, inattentive to his discourse, or to interrupt either with something that argues a disinclination to be entertained by him, has in it something so disagreeable, that the utmost steps which may be made in further enmity cannot give greater torment. The gay Corinna, who sets up for an indifference and becoming heedlessness, gives her husband all the torment imaginable out of mere indolence, with this peculiar vanity, that she is to look as gay as a maid in the character of a wife. It is no matter what is the reason of a man's grief, if it be heavy as it is. Her unhappy man is convinced that she means him no dishonor, but pines to death because she will not have so much deference to him as to avoid the appearances of it. The author of the following letter is perplexed with an injury that is in a degree yet less criminal, and yet the source of the utmost unhappiness.

"I have read your papers which relate to jealousy, and desire your advice in my case, which you will say is not common. I have a wife, of whose virtue I am not in the least doubtful; yet I cannot be satisfied she loves me, which gives me as great uneasiness as being faulty the other way would do. I know not whether I am not yet more miserable than in that case, for she keeps possession of my heart, without the return of hers. I would desire your observations upon that temper in some women, who will not condescend to con

modern meal? would not he have thought the master of a family mad, and have begged his servants to tie down his hands, had he seen him devour a fowl, fish, and flesh; swallow oil and vinegar, wines and spices; throw down salads of twenty different herbs, sauces of a hundred ingredients, confections and fruits of numberless sweets and flavors? What unnatural motions and counter-ferments must such a medley of intemperance produce in the body? For my part, when I behold a fashionable table set out in all its magnificence, I fancy that I see gouts and dropsies, fevers and lethargies, with other innumerable distempers, lying in ambuscade among the dishes.

any series of kings or great men of the same nuinber. If we consider these ancient sages, a great part of whose philosophy consisted in a temperate and abstemious course of life, one would think the life of a philosopher and the life of a man were of two different dates. For we find that the generality of these wise men were nearer a hundred than sixty years of age, at the time of their respective deaths. But the most remarkable instance of the efficacy of temperance toward the procuring of long life, is what me meet with in a little book published by Lewis Cornaro the Venetian; which I the rather mention, because it is of undoubted credit, as the late Venetian ambassador, who was of the same family, attested more than once in conversation, when he resided in England. Cornaro, who was the author of the little treatise I am mentioning, was of an infirm constitution, until about forty, when by obstinate

Nature delights in the most plain and simple diet. Every animal, but man, keeps to one dish. Herbs are the food of this species, fish of that, and flesh of a third. Man falls upon everything that comes in his way; not the smallest fruit or excrescence of the earth, scarce a berry or a mush-ly persisting in an exact course of temperance, he room, can escape him.

recovered a perfect state of health; insomuch that at fourscore he published his book, which has been translated into English under the title of Sure and Certain Methods of Attaining a Long and Healthy Life. He lived to give a third or fourth edition of it; and after having passed his hundredth year, died without pain or agony, and like one who falls asleep. The treatise I mention has been taken notice of by several eminent authors, and is written with such a spirt of cheerfulness, religion, and good sense, as are the natural concomitants of temperance and sobriety. The mixture of the old man in it is rather a recommendation than a discredit to it.

Having designed this paper as the sequel to that upon exercise, I have not here considered temperance as it is a moral virtue, which I shall make the subject of a future speculation, but only as it is the means of health.-L.

No. 196.] MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1711.
Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit æquus.
HOR. 1 Ep. xi, 30.

It is impossible to lay down any determinate rule for temperance, because what is luxury in one may be temperance in another; but there are few that have lived any time in the world, who are not judges of their own constitutions, so far as to know what kinds and what proportions of food do best agree with them. Were I to consider my readers as my patients, and to prescribe such a kind of temperance as is accommodated to all persons, and such as is particularly suitable to our climate and way of living, I would copy the following rules of a very eminent physician. Make your whole repast out of one dish. If you indulge in a second, avoid drinking anything strong until you have finished your meal; at the same time abstain from all sauces, or at least such as are not the most plain and simple." A man could not be well guilty of gluttony, if he stuck to these few obvious and easy rules. In the first case there would be no variety of tastes to solicit his palate, and occasion excess; nor in the second any artificial provocatives to relieve satiety, and create a false appetite. Were I to prescribe a rule for drinking, it should be formed upon a saying quoted by Sir William Temple: The first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good-humor, and the fourth for mine enemies." But because it is impossible for one who lives in the world to diet himself always in "THERE is a particular fault which I have obso philosophical a manner, I think every man served in most of the moralists in all ages, and should have his days of abstinence according as that is, that they are always professing themhis constitution will permit. These are great re-selves, and teaching others, to be happy. This liefs to nature, as they qualify her for struggling state is not to be arrived at in this life, therefore with hunger and thirst whenever any distemper or I would recommend to you to talk in a humbler duty of life may put her upon such difficulties; and at the same time give her an opportunity of extricating herself from her oppressions, and recovering the several tones and springs of her distended vessels. Beside that, abstinence well-timed often kills a sickness in embryo, and destroys the first seeds of an indisposition. It is observed by two or three ancient authors, that Socrates, notwithstanding he lived in Athens during that great plague which has made so much noise through all ages, and has been celebrated at different times by such eminent hands; I say, notwithstanding that he lived in the times of this devouring pestilence, he never caught the least infection, which those writers unanimously ascribe to that uninterrupted vemperance which he always observed.

And here I cannot but mention an observation which I have often made, upon reading the lives of the philosophers, and comparing them with

*Diogenes Laertius, in Vit. Socratis.-Eliam in Var. Ilist. lib. xiii, cap. 27, etc.

True happiness is to no place confined, But still is found in a contented mind. "MR. SPECTATOR,

strain than your predecessors have done, and instead of presuming to be happy, instruct us only to be easy. The thoughts of him who would be discreet, and aim at practicable things, should turn upon allaying our pain, rather than promoting our joy. Great inquietude is to be avoided, but great felicity is not to be attained. The great lesson is equanimity, a regularity of spirit, which is a little above cheerfulness and below mirth. Cheerfulness is always to be supported if a man is out of pain, but mirth, to a prudent man, should always be accidental. It should naturally arise out of the occasion, and the occasion seldom be laid for it; for those tempers who want mirth to be pleased, are like the constitutions which flag without the use of brandy. Therefore, I say, let your precept be, 'be easy. That mind is dissolute and ungoverned, which must be hurried out of itself by loud laughter or sensual pleasure, or else be wholly inactive.

"There are a couple of old fellows of my acquaintance who meet every day and smoke a pipe,

and by their mutual love to each other, though take Tom for fear of losing Will's estate, nor enter they have been men of business and bustle in the upon Will's estate, and bid adieu to Tom's person. world, enjoy a greater tranquillity than either I am very young, and yet no one in the world, could have worked himself into by any chapter dear Sir, has the main chance more in her head of Seneca. Indolence of body and mind, when than myself. Tom is the gayest, the blithest we aim at no more, is very frequently enjoyed; out the very inquiry after happiness has something restless in it, which a man who lives in a series of temperate meals, friendly conversations, and easy slumbers, gives himself no trouble about. While men of refinement are talking of tranquillity, he possesses it.