folid honour, there is no way of form-flaves, and the extent of his territo ing a monarch, but after the Machia• velian fcheme, by which a prince mutt ever feem to have all virtues, but really to be mafter of none; but is to be liberal, merciful, and juft, only as they ferve his interefts; while, with the noble art of hypocrify, empire would be to be extended, and new ⚫ conquests be made by new devices, by which prompt addrefs his creatures might infenfibly give law in the bufinefs of life, by leading men in the en⚫tertainment of it. Thus when words and how are apt to pafs for the fubftantial things they are only to exprefs, there would need no more to enflave a country but to adorn a court; for while every man's • vanity makes him believe himtelf capable of becoming luxury, enjoyments. are a ready bait for fufferings, and the hopes of preferment invitations to fervitude; which flavery would be coloured with all the agreements, as they call it, imaginable. The noblett arts and artiits, the fineft pens and mott elgant minds, jointly employed to let it off, with the various embel⚫lishments of fumptuous entertain•ments, charming assemblies, and po*lifhed difcourfes; and thofe apoftate abilities of men, the adored monarch might profufely and fkilfully encourage, while they flatter his virtue, and gild his vice at fo high a rate, that he, ⚫ without fcorn of the one, or love of the other, would alternately and occafionally use both: fo that his bounty fhould fupport him in his rapines, his mercy in his cruelties. ries? Such undoubtedly would be the tragical effects of a prince's living with no religion, which are not to be furpaffed but by his having a falie one. If ambition were fpirited with zeal, what would follow, but that his people fhould be converted into an army, whofe fwords can make right in power, and fule controversy in belief? And if men thould be stiff-necked to the doctrine of that vifible church, let them be contented with an oar and a chain, in the midst of ftripes and anguish, to contemplate on him, "whofe "yoke is easy, and whofe burden is light." With a tyranny begun on his own fubjects, and indignation that others draw their breath independent of his frown or fmile, why fhould he not proceed to the feizure of the world? And if nothing but the thirft of fway ⚫ were the motive of his actions, why 'fhould treaties be other than mere ⚫ words; or folemn national compacts be any thing but an halt in the march of that army, who are never to lay down the'r arms, until all men are reduced to the neceffity of hanging their lives on his wayward will; who might fupinely, and at leifiure, expiate his own fins by other men's fufferings, while he daily meditates new flaughter, and new conquest ? For mere man, when giddy with unbridled power, is an infatiate idol, not to be appeafed with myriads offered to his pride, which may be puff. ed up by the adulation of a base and proftrate world, into an opinion that he is fomething more than human, by being fomething lefs: and, alas! what is there that mortal man will not be. lieve of himself, when complimented with the attributes of God? He can 'then conceive thoughts of a power as Nor is it to give things a more severe look than is natural, to fuppofe • fuch must be the confequences of a prince's having no other purfuit than that of his own glory; for if we confider an infant born, into the world, and beholding itself the mightiest thing in it, itself the prefent admira-omniprefent as his. But fhould there tion and future profpect of a fawning people, who profefs themselves great or mean according to the figure hé is to make amongst them, what fancy would not be debauched to believe they were but what they profeffed themfelves, his mere creatures, and ufe them as fuch by purchafing with their lives a boundlet's renown, which he, for want of a more just profpect, ⚫ would place in the number of his be fuch a foe of mankind now upon earth, have our fins fo far provoked Heaven, that we are left utterly naked to his fury? Is there no power, no ⚫ leader, no genius, that cas conduct and animate us to our death or our • defence? Yes; our great God never gave one to reign by his permiffion, but he gave to another alto to reign by his grace. All the circumstances of the illuf• trious trious life of our prince feem to have 'confpired to make him the check and bridle of tyranny; for his mind has been ftrengthened and confirmed by one continued ftruggle, and Heaven has educated him by adverfity to a ' quick fenfe of the diftreffes and mife"ries of mankind, which he was born to redress: in juft fcorn of the trivial glories and light oftentations of power, that glorious inftrument of Providence moves, like that, in a teddy, calm, ⚫ and filent course, independent either of applaufe or calumny; which renders him, if not in a political, yet in a moral, a philofophic, an heroic, and ' a christian sense, an absolute monarch; 'who, fatisfied with this unchangeable, 'juft, and ample glory, muft needs ་ turn all his regards from himself to ⚫ the fervice of others; for he begins his ' enterprises with his own fhare in the 'fuccefs of them; for integrity bears ' in itself it's reward, nor can that which depends not on event ever know dif' appointment. With the undoubted character of a glorious captain, and (what he much man, he is the hope and stay of Europe, an univerfal good not to be in'grofled by us only; for diftant potentates implore his friendship, and injured empires court his affiftance. He rules the world, not by an invasion of the people of the earth, but the addrefs of it's princes; and if that world fhould be again roufed from the repofe which his prevailing arms had given it, why fhould we not hope that there is an Almighty, by whofe influence the terrible enemy that thinks himself prepared for battle, may find he is ' but ripe for destruction? and that there may be in the womb of time great incidents, which may make the cataftrophe of a profperous life as unfortunate as the particular scenes of it were fuccefsful? For there does not want a fkilful eye and refolute arm to obferve and grafp the occafion; a prince, who from more values than the mott fplendid Troy is no more, and Ilium was a town. titles), that of a fincere and honeft DRYDEN. N° DXVII. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23. HEU PIETAS! HEU PRISCA FIDES! VIRG. EN. VI. VER. 878.. MIRROUR OF ANCIENT FAITH! He WE E laft night received a piece of very fenfibly afflicted every one of us. I question not but my readers themselves will be troubled at the hearing of it. To keep them no longer in fufpence, Sir Roger de Coverley is dead. departed this life at his houfe in the country, after a few weeks fick nefs. Sir Andrew Freeport has a letter from one of his correspondents in thofe parts, that informs him the old man caught a cold at the county-feffions, as he was very warmly, promoting an addrefs of his own penning, in which he fucceeded according to his wifhes. But this particular comes from a Whig juftice of peace, who was always Sir Roger's enemy and antagonist. I have letters both h hand of his father Sir Arthur. The mafter was fo fond of. It would have vants, who loved him, I may fay, better than we did our lives. I am afraid he caught his death the laft county-feffions, where he would go to fee juftice done to a poor widow woman, and her fatherlefs children, that had been wronged by a neighbouring gentleman; for you know, Sir, my good mafter was always the poor man's friend. Upon his coming home, the first complaint he made was, that he had lost his roatt-beef ftomach, not being able to touch a fir lom, which was ferved up according to custom; and you know he ufed to take great delight in it. From that time for ward he grew worfe and worfe, but till kept a good heart to the last. Indeed we were once in great hope of his recovery, upon a kind meflage that was fent him from the widow lady whom he had made love to the forty last years of his life; but this only proved a light-old house-dog, that you know my poor ning before death. He has bequeathed to this lady, as a token of his love, a great pearl necklace, and a couple of filver bracelets fet with jewels, which belonged to my good old lady his mother he has bequeathed the fine white gelding, that he ufed to ride a hunting upon, to his chaplain, because he thought he would be kind to him, and has left you all his books. He has, moreover, bequeathed to the chaplain a very pretty tenement with good lands about it. It P. S. My mafter defired, fome weeks being a very cold day when he made his before he died, that a book, which will, he left for mourning, to every comes up to you by the carrier, fhould man in the parifh, a great frize coat, be given to Sir Andrew Freeport, in his and to every woman a black ridinghood. It was a moft moving fight to fee him take leave of his poor fervants, This letter, notwithstanding the poor commending us all for our fidelity, whilft butler's manner of writing it, gave us we were not able to speak a word for fuch an idea of our good old friend, that weeping. As we most of us are grown upon the reading of it there was not a grey-headed in our dear mafter's fervice, dry eye in the club Sir Andrew openhe has left us penfions and legacies, ing the book, found it to be a 'collection which we may live very comfortably of acts of parliament.?" There was' in upon the remaining part of our days. particular the Act of Uniformity, with He has bequeathed a great deal more in fome paffages in it marked by Sir Rocharity, which is not yet come to my ger's own hand. Sir Andrew found knowledge, and it is peremptorily faid that they related to two or three points, in the parish, that he has left money to which he had difputed with Sir Roger build a fteeple to the church; for he the last time he appeared at the club. was heard to fay fome time ago, that if Sir Andrew, who would have been he lived two years longer, Coverley merry at fuch an incident on another church fhould have a fteeple to it. The occafion, at the fight of the old man's chaplain tells every body that he made hand-writing burit into tears, and put a very good end, and never fpeaks of the book into his pocket. Captain Senhim without tears. He was buried, ac-try informs me, that the knight has left cording to his own directions, among rings and mourning for every one in the the family of the Coverlies, on the left- club. 1 name. N° THIS N° DXVIII. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24. MISERUM EST ALIENE INCUMBERE FAMÆ, NE COLLAPSA RUANT SUBDUCTIS TECTA COLUMNIS. Juv. SAT. VIII. VER. 76. 'TIS POOR RELYING ON ANOTHER'S FAME: HIS being a day of business with me, I must make the prefent entertainment like a treat at an houfewarming, out of fuch prefents as have been fent me by my guetts. The first dish which I ferve up is a letter come fresh to my hand. MR. SPECTATOR, T is with inexpreffible forrow that I hear of the death of good Sir Roger, and do heartily condole with you upon fo melancholy an occafion. I think you aight to have blackened the edges of a paper which brought us fo ill news, and to have had it ftamped likewife in black. It is expected of you that you should write his epitaph, and, if poffible, fill his place in the club with as worthy and diverting a member. I question not but you will receive many recommendations from the public of fuch as will appear candidates for that poft. Since I am talking of death, and have mentioned, an epitaph, I must tell you, Sir, that I have made discovery of a church-yard in which I believe you might spend an afternoon, with great pleafure to yourself and to the public: it belongs to the church of Stebon-heath, commonly called Stepney. Whether or noit be that the people of that parish have a particular genius for an epitaph, or that there be fome poet among them who undertakes that work by the great, I cannot tell; but there are more remarkable infcriptions in that place than in any other I have met with; and I may fay without vanity, that there is not a gentleman in England better read in tombftones than myself, my ftudies having laid very much in church-yards. I shall beg leave to fend you a couple of epitaphs, for a fample of thofe I have just now mentioned. They are written in a different manner, the firit being in the diffufed and luxuriant, the second in the clofe contracted ftile. The firft has much of the fimple and pathetic; the fecond is fomething light, but nervous. The first is thus: Here Thomas Sapper lies interr'd. Ah why! The fecond is as follows; Here lies the body of Daniel Saul, I will not difmifs you, whilst I am upon this fubject, without fending a fhort epitaph which I once met with, though I cannot poffibly recollect the place. The thought of it is ferious, and in my opinion, the finest that I ever met with upon this occafion. You know, Sir, it is ufual, after having told us the najne of the perfon who lies interred, to launch out into his praifes. This epitaph takes a quite contrary turn, having been made by the perfon himself fome time before his death. BTR, HAVING lately read among your fpeculations, an effay upon phy fiognomy, I cannot but think that if you made a vifit to this ancient univerfity, you might receive very confiderable lights upon that fubject, there being fcarce a young fellow in it who does not give certain indications of his particular humour and difpofition conformable to the rules of that art. In courts and cities every body lays a constraint upon his countenance, and endeavours to look like the rest of the world; but the youth of this place, having not, yet formed themfelves by converfation, and the knowledge of the world, give their `limbs and features their full play. As you have confidered human na ture in all it's lights, you must be extremely well apprifed, that there is a, very clofe correspondence between the outward and the inward man; that scarce the least dawning, the leaft parturiency towards a thought can be stirring in the mind of man, without producing a fuit able revolution in his exteriors, which will eafily discover itfelf to an adept in the theory of the phiz. Hence it is, that the intrinfic worth and merit of a fon of Alma Mater is ordinarily cal-, culated from the caft of his vifage, the contour of his perfon, the mechanifin of his drefs, the difpofition of his limbs, the manner of his gait and air, with a number of circumstances of equal confequence and information: the practitioners in this art often make use of a gentleman's eyes to give them light into the pofture of his brains; take a handle from his nofe, to judge of the size of his intellects and interpret the over much vifibility and pertneis of one ear, as an infallible mark of reprobation, and a : fign the owner of fo fancy a member fears neither God nor man. In con formity to this fcheme, a contracted brow, a lumpish down-cast look, a fober fedate pace, with both hands dangling. quiet and steady, in lines exactly parallel: to each lateral pocket of the galligafkins," is logic, metaphyfics, and, mathematics in perfection. So likewife the Belles Lettres are typified by a faunter in the gait, a fall of one wing of the peruke backward, an infertion of one hand in the fob, and a negligent fwing of the other, with a pinch of right and fine Barcelona between finger and thumb, a due quantity of the fame upon the upper lip, and a noddle cafe loaden with pulvil. Again, a grave folemn stalke ing pace is heroic poetry, and politics; an unequal one, a genius for the ode, and the modern ballads and am open breaft, with an audacious difplay of the holland fhirt, is construed a fatal tens dency to the art military,onedhang SK, I might be much larger upon theserTM hints, but I know whom I write to. If you can graft any speculation upon them, or turn them to the advantage of the perfons concerned in them, you wills do a work very becoming the British Spectator, and oblige your very humbles! fervant, TOM TWEER." N° DXIX. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25. INDE HOMINUM PECUDUMQUE GENUS, VITAQUE VOLANTUM, ET QUE MARMOREO FERT MONSTRA SUB EQUORE PONTUS. VIRG. N. VI. VER. HENCE MEN AND BEASTS THE BREATH OF LIFE OBTAIN, VI AND BIRDS OF AIR, AND MONSTERS OF THE MAIN. " DRYDEN. on the world of life, by which I mean all thofe animals with which every part of the univerfe is furnished. The ma terial world is only the fhell of the univerfe: the world of life are it's inhabi tants. If we confider thofe parts of the ma terial world which lie the nearest to us, and are therefore fubject to our obfer. vations |