IN fpite of your invincible filence you have found out a method of being the moft agreeable companion in the world; that kind of converfation which you hold with the town, has the good fortune of being always pleafing to the men of talte and leifure, and never offenfive to thofe of hurry and business. You are never heard, but at what Horace calls dextro tempore, and have the happiness to obferve the politic rule, which the fame difcerning author gave his friend, when he enjoined him to deliver his book to Augustus

St validus, fi lætus erit, fi denique pofcet.

Ep. XIII. L. 1. VER. 3. When vexing cares are fled, When well, when merry, when he asks to read. CREECH.

You never begin to talk, but when people are defirous to hear you; and I defy any one to be out of humour until you leave off. But I am led unawares into reflections foreign to the original defign of this epiftle; which was to let you know, that fome unfeigned admirers of your inimitable papers, who could, without any flattery, greet you with the falutation used to the eastern monarchs, viz. O Spec, live for ever!' have lately been under the fame appre henfions with Mr. Philo-Spec; that the halte you have made to difpatch your best friends portends no long duration to your own fhort vifage. We could not, indeed, find any juft grounds for complaint in the method you took to diffolve that venerable body: no, the world was not worthy of your Divine, Will Honeycomb could not, with any reputation, live fingle any longer. It was high time for the Templar to turn himself to Coke: and Sir Roger's dying was the wifeft thing he ever did in his life. It was, however, matter of great grief to us, to think that we were in Janger of lofing fo elegant and valuable

an entertainment. And we could not, without forrow, reflect that we were likely to have nothing to interrupt our fips in the morning, and to fufpend our coffee in mid-air, between our lips and right-ear, but the ordinary trash of news

papers.

We refolved, therefore, not

to part with you fo. But fince, to make ufe of your own allufion, the cherries began now to croud the market, and their feafon was almoft over, we confulted our future enjoyments, and endeavoured to make the exquifite pleasure that delicious fruit gave our taste as lafting as we could, and by drying them protract their stay beyond it's natural date. We own that thus they have not a flavour equal to that of their juicy bloom; but yet, under this difadvantage, they pique the palate, and become the falver better than any other fruit at it's first appearance. To fpeak plain, there are a number of us who have begun your works afresh, and ineet two nights in the week in order to give you a re-hearing. We never come together without drinking your health, and as seldom part without general expreffions of thanks to you for our night's improvement. This we conceive to be a more useful inftitution than any other club whatever, not excepting even that of Ugly Faces. We have one manifeft advantage over that renowned fociety, with respect to Mr. Spectator's company. For though they may brag, that you fometimes make your perfonal appearance amongst them, it is impoffible they fhould ever get a word from you, whereas you are with us the reverfe of what Phædria would have his miftrefs be in his rival's company

Prefent in your abience.' We make you talk as much and as long as we pleafe; and let me tell you, you seldom hold your tongue for the whole evening. I promife myfelf you will look with an eye of favour upon a meeting which owes it's original to a mutual emulation among it's members, who fhall fhew the mott profound refpe&t for your paper; not but we have a very great value for your perfon: and I dare fay you can no where find four more fincere admirers, and humble fervants, than

T. F. G. S. J. T. E. T.

IT is a remark made, as I remember, by a celebrated French author, that No man ever pufhed his capacity fo far as it was able to extend. I shall not inquire whether this affertion be strictly true. It may fuffice to fay, that men of the greatest application and acquirements can look back upon many vacant spaces, and neglected parts of time, which have flipped away from them unemployed; and there is hardly any one confidering perfon in the world, but is apt to fancy with himself, at fome time or other, that if his life were to begin again, he could fill it up better.

The mind is moft provoked to caft on itself this ingenuous reproach, when the examples of fuch men are prefented to it, as have far outfhot the generality of their fpecies in learning, arts, or any valuable improvements.

One of the most extenfive and improved geniuses we have had any intance of in our own nation, or in any other, was that of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam. This great man, by an extraordinary force of nature, compafs of thought, and indefatigable study, had amaffed to himfelf fuch ftores of knowledge as we cannot look upon without amazement. His capacity feems to have grafped all that was revealed in books before his time; and not fatisfied with that, he began to ftrike out new tracks of fcience, too many to be travelled over by any one man, in the compafs of the longest life. Thefe, therefore, he could only mark down, like imperfect coaftings in maps, or fuppofed points of land, to be further difcovered and afcertained by the in

DRYDIN.

duftry of after-ages, who should proceed upon his notices or conjectures.

The excellent Mr. Boyle was the perfon who seems to have been defigned by nature to fucceed to the labours and inquiries of that extraordinary genius I have juft mentioned. By innumerable experiments he, in a great measure, filled up thofe plans and outlines of fcience, which his predeceffor had sketched out. His life was spent in the pur fuit of nature, through a great variety of forms and changes, and in the most rational, as well as devout adoration of it's Divine Author.

It would be impoffible to name many perfons who have extended their capacities as far as thefe two, in the ftudies they purfued; but my learned readers, on this occafion, will naturally turn their thoughts to a third, who is yet living, and is likewife the glory of our own nation. The improvements which others had made in natural and mathematical knowledge have fo vaftly increafed in his hands, as to afford at once a wonderful inftance how great the capacity is of a human foul, and how inexhauftible the fubje&t of it's inquiries; fo true is that remark in Holy Writ, that Though a wife man seek to find out the works of God from the beginning to the end, yet shall he not be able to do it.'

I cannot help mentioning here one character more, of a different kind indeed from thefe, yet fuch a one as may serve to fhew the wonderful force of nature and of application, and is the most fingular inftance of an univerfal genius I have ever met with. The perfon I mean is Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian painter, defcended from a noble family in Tuf cany, about the beginning of the fixteenth century. In his profeffion of hiftory-painting he was fo great a mafter, that fome have affirmed he excelled all who went before him. It is certain that he raised the envy of Michael An

gelo,

gelo, who was his contemporary, and that from the study of his works Raphael himself learned his best manner of defigning. He was a mafter too in fculpture and architecture, and skilful in anatomy, mathematics, and mechanics. The aqueduct from the river Adda to Milan, is mentioned as a work of his contrivance. He had learned feveral languages, and was acquainted with the ftudies of hiftory, philofophy, poetry, and mufic. Though it is not neceffary to my prefent purpose, I cannot but take notice, that all who have writ of him mention likewife his perfection of body. The inftances of his ftrength are almoft incredible. He is defcribed to have been of a well-formed perfon, and mafter of all genteel exercifes. And laftly, we are told that his moral qualities were agreeable to his natural and intellectual endowments, and that he was of an honest and generous mind, adorned with great sweetness of manners. I might break off the account of him here, but I imagine it will be an entertainment to the curiofity of my readers, to find fo remarkable a character diftinguished by as remarkable a circumftance at his death. The fame of his works having gained him an univerfal' esteem, he was invited to the court of France, where, after fome time, he fell fick; and Francis the First coming to fee him, he raised himself in his bed to acknowledge the honour which was done him by that vifit. The king embraced him, and Leonardo fainting at the fame instant, expired in the arms of that great monarch.

It is impoffible to attend to fuch in ftances as thefe, without being raised into a contemplation on the wonderful nature of an human mind, which is capable of fuch progreffions in know. ledge, and can contain fuch a variety of ideas without perplexity or confufion. How reasonable is it from hence to infer it's divine original? And whilst we find unthinking matter endued with a natural power to laft for ever, unless annihilated by Omnipotence, how abfurd would it be to imagine, that a being fo much fuperior to it fhould not have the fame privilege?

At the fame time it is very furprifing, when we remove our thoughts from fuch inftances as I have mentioned, to confider those we fo frequently meet with in the accounts of barbarous na

tions among the Indians; where we find numbers of people who scarce fhew the firft glimmerings of reafon, and feem to have few ideas above thofe of fenfe and appetite. Thefe, methinks, appear like large wilds, or vaft uncultivated tracts of human nature; and when we compare them with men of the most exalted characters in arts and learning, we find it difficult to believe that they are creatures of the fame species.

Some are of opinion that the fouls of men are all naturally equal, and that the great difparity we fo often obferve arifes from the different organization or ftructure of the bodies to which they are united. But whatever constitutes this first disparity, the next great difference which we find between men in their feveral acquirements is owing to accidental differences in their education, fortunes, or course of life. The foul is a kind of rough diamond, which requires art, labour, and time to polith it. For want of which, many a good natural genius is loft, or lies unfafhioned, like a jewel in the mine.

Per

One of the ftrongest incitements to excel in fuch arts and accomplishments as are in the highest efteem among men, is the natural paffion which the mind of man has for glory; which, though it may be faulty in the excess of it, ought by no means to be discouraged. haps fome moralifts are too fevere in beating down this principle, which seems to be a fpring implanted by nature to give motion to all the latent powers of the foul, and is always obferved to exert itself with the greatest force in the most generous difpofitions. The men whose characters have shone the brightest among the ancient Romans, appear to have been strongly animated by this paffion. Cicero, whofe learning and fervices to his country are fo well known, was inflamed by it to an extravagant degree, and warmly preffes Lucceius, who was compofing a hiftory of thofe times, to be very particular and zealous in relat ing the ftory of his confulfhip; and to execute it fpeedily, that he might have the pleasure of enjoying in his life-time fome part of the honour which he forefaw would be paid to his memory. This was the ambition of a great mind; but he is faulty in the degree of it, and cannot refrain from foliciting the historian upon this occasion to neglect the strict laws of history, and in praifing him,

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