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foregoing lines, puts me in mind of a de-
scription in Homer's Odyssey, which none
of the critics have taken notice of. It is
where Sisyphus is represented lifting his
stone up the hill, which is no sooner carried
to the top of it, but it immediately tumbles
to the bottom. This double motion of the
stone is admirably described in the num-
bers of these verses; as in the four first it
is heaved up by several spondees, inter-
mixed with proper breathing places, and
at last trundles down in a continued line of
dactyls:

Και μην Σίσυφον, εισείδον, κρατερ' άλγε' έχοντα,
Λααν Βαστάζοντα πελώριον αμφοτέρησιν.
Ήτοι ο μεν στηριπτομένος χέρσον το ποσιν τε,
Λαχν άνω αθισκε ποτε λόγον, αλλ' ότε μέλλοι
Ακρον υπερβαλειν, τοτ' αποστρέψασκε Κραταιός,
Αυτός έπειτα πεδονδε κυλινδετο λαις αναίδης.

Odyss. 1. 11.

I turn'd my eye, and as I turn'd survey'd
A mournful vision, the Sisyphian shade:
With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone:
The huge round stone, resulting with
Thunders impetuous down, and sinokes along the
ground.
Pope.

observation of others.

bound,

I cannot conclude this paper without taking notice that we have three poems in our tongue, which are of the same nature, and each of them a master-piece in its kind; the Essay on Translated Verse, the Essay on the Art of Poetry, and the Essay upon Criticism.

grogram gown, the spouse of your parish vicar, who has by this time, I am sure, well furnished you with receipts for making salves and possets, distilling cordial waters, making syrups, and applying poultices.

'Blest solitude! I wish thee joy, my dear, of thy loved retirement, which indeed you would persuade me is very agreeable, and different enough from what I have here described: but, child, I am afraid thy brains are a little disordered with romances and novels. After six months marriage to hear thee talk of love, and paint the country scenes so softly, is a little extravagant; one would think you lived the lives of sylvan deities, or roved among the walks of Paradise, like the first happy pair. But pray thee leave these whimsies, and come to town in order to live and talk like other mortals. However, as I am extremely interested in your reputation, I would willingly give you a little good advice at your first appearance under the character of a married woman. It is a little insolent in It would be endless to quote verses out me, perhaps, to advise a matron; but I am of Virgil which have this particular kind so afraid you will make so silly a figure as of beauty in the numbers: but I may take a fond wife, that I cannot help warning you several of them which have escaped the St. James's Park together; if you presume an occasion in a future paper to show not to appear in any public places with your husband, and never to saunter about to enter the ring at Hyde Park together, you are ruined for ever; nor must you take the least notice of one another at the playhouse or opera, unless you would be laughed at for a very loving couple, most happily recommend the example of an acquaintpaired in the yoke of wedlock. I would ance of ours to your imitation; she is the most negligent and fashionable wife in the world; she is hardly ever seen in the same place with her husband, and if they happen to meet, you would think them perfect him in his absence; and takes care he shall strangers; she was never heard to name never be the subject of any discourse that she has a share in. I hope you will propose this lady as a pattern, though I am very much afraid you will be so silly to think Portia, &c., Sabine and Roman wives, much brighter examples. I wish it may never come into your head to imitate those antiquated creatures, so far as to come into public in the habit as well as air of a Roman matron. You make already the entertainment at Mrs. Modish's tea-table; 'MY DEAR HARRIOT,-If thou art she, she says she always thought you a discreet but oh how fallen, how changed, what an person, and qualified to manage a family apostate! how lost to all that is gay and with admirable prudence; she dies to see agreeable! To be married I find is to be what demure and serious airs wedlock has buried alive; I cannot conceive it more dis- given you, but she says, she shall never mal to be shut up in a vault to converse forgive your choice of so gallant a man as with the shades of my ancestors, than to Bellamour, to transform him into a mere be carried down to an old manor-house in sober husband: it was unpardonable. You the country, and confined to the conversa-see, my dear, we all envy your happiness, tion of a sober husband, and an awkward and no person more than your humble serchambermaid. For variety, I suppose you vant,

C.

No. 254.] Friday, December 21, 1711.

Σεμνος έρως αρετης, ο δε κυπρίδος αχος οφελλει, Virtuous love is honourable, but lust increaseth sorrow. WHEN I consider the false impressions which are received by the generality of the world, I am troubled at none more than a certain levity of thought, which many young women of quality have entertained, to the hazard of their characters, and the certain misfortune of their lives. The first of the following letters may best represent the faults I would now point at, and the answer to it, the temper of mind in a contrary character.

may entertain yourself with madam in her

* By the Earl of Roscommon.

LYDIA.'

Be not in pain, good madam, for my appearance in town; I shall frequent no

public places or make any visit where the character of a moderate wife is ridiculous. As for your wild raillery on matrimony, it is all hypocrisy; you, and all the handsome young women of your acquaintance, show yourselves to no other purpose than to gain a conquest over some man of worth, in order to bestow your charms and fortune on him. There is no indecency in the confession, the design is modest and honourable, and all your affectation cannot disguise it.

'I am married, and have no other concern but to please the man I love; he is the end of every care I have; if I dress, it is for him; if I read a poem, or a play, it is to qualify myself for a conversation agreeable to his taste: he is almost the end of my devotions; half my prayers are for his happiness-I love to talk of him, and never hear him named but with pleasure and emotion. I am your friend, and wish your happiness, but am sorry to see, by the air of your letter, that there are a set of women who are got into the common-place raillery of every thing that is sober, decent, and proper; matrimony and the clergy are the topics of people of little wit, and no understanding. I own to you I have learned of the vicar's wife all you tax me with. She is a discreet, ingenious, pleasant, pious woman; I wish she had the handling of you and Mrs. Modish; you would find, if you were too free with her, she would soon make you as charming as ever you were; she would make you blush as much as if you never had been fine ladies. The vicar, madam, is so kind as to visit my husband, and his agreeable conversation has brought him to enjoy many sober, happy hours, when even I am shut out, and my dear master is entertained only with his own thoughts. These things, dear madam, will be lasting satisfactions, when the fine ladies, and the coxcombs, by whom they form themselves, are irreparably ridiculous, ridiculous in cld age. I am, madam, your most humble servant,

'MARY HOME.'

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No. 255.] Saturday, December 22, 1711.
Laudis amore tumes? sunt certa piacula, que te
Ter pure lecto poterunt recreare libello.

Her. Ep. 1. Lab. 1. ver. 36.
IMITATED.
Know there are rhymes, which fresh and fresh apply`d)
Will cure the arrant'st puppy of his pride.—Pope.
THE Soul, considered abstractedly from
its passions, is of a remiss and sedentary
nature, slow in its resolves, and languish-
ing in its executions. The use therefore
of the passions is to stir it up, and to put it
upon action, to awaken the understanding,
to enforce the will, and to make the whole
man more vigorous and attentive in the
prosecution of his designs. As this is the
end of the passions in general, so it is parti-
cularly of ambition, which pushes the soul
to such actions as are apt to procure honour
and reputation to the actor. But if we
carry our reflections higher, we may dis-
cover farther ends of Providence in im-
planting this passion in mankind.

It was necessary for the world. that arts should be invented and improved, bocks written and transmitted to posterity, nations conquered and civilized. Now since the proper and genuine motives to these, and the like great actions, would only influence virtuous minds: there would be but small improvements in the world, were there not some common principle of action working equally with all men. And such a principle is ambition, or a desire of fame, by which great endowments are not suffered to lie idle and useless to the public, and many vicious men are over-reached as it were, and engaged, contrary to their natural inclinations, in a glorious and laudable course of action. For we may farther ob 1 serve, that men of the greatest abilities are mest fired with ambition; and that on the contrary, mean and narrow minds are the least actuated by it: whether it be that a man's sense of his own incapacities makes him despair of coming at fame, or that he has not enough range of thought to lock out for any good which does not more immediately relate to his interest or convenience; or that Providence, in the very frame of his soul, would not subject him to such a passicn as would be useless to the world, and a torment to himself.

DEAR MR. SPECTATOR,-You have no goodness in the world, and are not in earnest in any thing you say that is serious, if you do not send me a plain answer to this. I happened some days past to be at the play, where during the time of performance, I could not keep my eyes off from a beautiful young creature who sat just before me, and who I have been since informed, has no fortune. It would utterly ruin my reputation for discretion to marry such a one, and by what I can learn she has Were not this desire of fame very strongs a character of great modesty, so that there the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danis nothing to be thought on any other way.ger of lesing it when obtained, would be My mind has ever since been so wholly sufficient to deter a man from so vain a bent on her, that I am much in danger of pursuit. doing something very extravagant without How few are there who are furnished your speedy advice to, sir, your most hum-with abilities sufficient to recommend their ble servant.' actions to the admiration of the world, and

to distinguish themselves from the rest of mankind? Providence for the most part sets us upon a level, and observes a kind of proportion in its dispensation towards us. If it renders us perfect in one accomplishment, it generally leaves us defective in another, and seems careful rather of preserving every person from being mean and deficient in his qualifications, than of making any single one eminent or extraordinary.

and as the world is more apt to find fault than to commend, the boast will probably be censured, when the great action that occasioned it is forgotten.

and illustrious course of virtue, without any regard to our good or ill opinions of him, to our reproaches or commendations. As on the contrary it is usual for us, when we would take off from the fame and reputation of an action, to ascribe it to vain-glory, and a desire of fame in the actor. Nor is this common judgment and opinion of mankind ill-founded: for certainly it denotes no great bravery of mind, to be worked up to any noble action by so selfish a motive, and to do that out of a desire of

Besides, this very desire of fame is looked on as a meanness and imperfection in the greatest character. A solid and substantial greatness of soul looks down, with a generous neglect, on the censures and applauses of the multitude, and places a Among those who are the most richly man beyond the little noise and strife of endowed by nature, and accomplished by tongues. Accordingly we find in ourselves their own industry, how few are there a secret awe and veneration for the characwhose virtues are not obscured by the igno-ter of one who moves above us, in a regular rance, prejudice, or envy of their beholders! Some men cannot discern between a noble and a mean action. Others are apt to attribute them to some false end or intention; and others purposely misrepresent, or put a wrong interpretation on them. But the more to enforce this consideration, we may observe that those are generally most unsuccessful in their pursuit after fame, who are most desirous of obtaining it It is Sallust's remark upon Cato, that the less he coveted glory, the more he acquired it.* Men take an ill-natured pleasure in cross-fame, which we could not be prompted to ing our inclinations, and disappointing us in by a disinterested love to mankind, or by a what our hearts are most set upon. When generous passion for the glory of him who therefore, they have discovered the pas- made us. sionate desire of fame in the ambitious man, (as no temper of mind is more apt to show itself) they become sparing and reserved in their commendations, they envy him the satisfaction of an applause, and look on their praises rather as a kindness done to his person, than as a tribute paid to his merit. Others who are free from this natural perverseness of temper, grow weary in their praises of one who sets too great a value on them, lest they should raise him too high in his own imagination, and by consequence remove him to a greater distance from themselves.

Thus is fame a thing difficult to be ob- \ tained by all, but particularly by those who thirst after it, since most men have so much either of ill-nature, or of wariness, as not to gratify or soothe the vanity of the ambitious man; and since this very thirst after fame naturally betrays him into such indecencies as are a lessening to his reputation, and is itself looked upon as a weakness in the greatest characters.

In the next place, fame is easily lost, and as difficult to be preserved as it was at first to be acquired. But this I shall make the subject of a following paper.

C.

But further, this desire of fame naturally betrays the ambitious man into such indecencies as are a lessening to his reputation. No. 256.] Monday, December 24, 1711. He is still afraid lest any of his actions should be thrown away in private, lest his deserts should be concealed from the notice of the world, or receive any disadvantage from the reports which others make of them. This often sets him on empty boasts and ostentations of himself, and betrays him into vain fantastical recitals of his own performances. His discourse generally leans one way, and whatever is the subject of it, tends obliquely either to the detracting from others, or to the extolling of himself. Vanity is the natural weakness of an ambitious man, which exposes him to the secret scorn and derision of those he converses with, and ruins the character he is so industrious to advance by it. For though his actions are never so glorious, they lose their lustre when they are drawn at large, and set to show by his own hand;

*Sal. Bel. Catil. c. 49.

Φήμη γαρ το κακή πέλεται κρυφη μεν αειραι Ρεια μαλ', αργαλέη δε φέρειν. - Hesiod. Fame is an ill you may with ease obtain, A sad oppression to be borne with pain. THERE are many passions and tempers of mind which naturally dispose us to depress and vilify the merit of one rising in the esteem of mankind. All those who made their entrance into the world with the same advantages, and were once looked on as his equals, are apt to think the fame of his merits a reflection on their own deserts; and will therefore take care to reproach him with the scandal of some past action, or derogate from the worth of the present, that they may still keep him on the same level with themselves. The like kind of consideration often stirs up the envy of such as were once his superiors, who think it a detraction from their merit to see another get ground upon them, and over

take them in the pursuits of glory; and will therefore endeavour to sink his reputation, that they may the better preserve their own. Those who were once his equals envy and defame him, because they now see him their superior; and those who were once his superiors, because they look upon him as their equal.

cate motives there are to detraction and defamation, and how many malicious spies are searching into the actions of a great man, who is not, always, the best prepared for so narrow an inspection. For we may generally observe that cur admiration of a famous man lessens upon our nearer acquaintance with him: and that we seldom hear the description of a celebrated person, without a catalogue of some notorious weaknesses and infirmities. The reason may be, because any little slip is more conspicucus and observable in his conduct than in another's, as it is not of a piece with the rest of his character: or because it is impossible for a man at the same time to be

life, and to keep a watchful eye over all the inconsiderable circumstances of his behavicur and conversation; or because, as we have before observed, the same temper of mind which inclines us to a desire of fame, naturally betrays us into such slips and unwariness, as are not incident to men of a contrary disposition.

After all it must be confessed, that a noble and triumphant merit often breaks through and dissipates these little spots and sullies in its reputation; but if by a mistaken pursuit after fame, or through human infirmity, any false step be made in the more momentous concerns of life, the whole scheme of ambiticus designs is broken and disappointed. The smaller stains and blemishes may die away and disappear, amidst the brightness that surrounds them; but a blot of a deeper nature casts a shade on all the other beauties, and darkens the whole character. How difficult therefore is it to preserve a great name, when he that has acquired it is so obnoxious to such little weaknesses and infirmities as are no small diminution to it when discovered; especially when they are so industriously proclaimed, and aggravated by such as were once his superiors, or equals; by such as would set to show their judgment, or their wit, and by such as are guilty, or innocent, of the same slips or misconducts in their own behaviour!

But farther, a man whose extraordinary reputation thus lifts him up to the notice, and observation of mankind, draws a multitude of eyes upon him, that will narrowly inspect every part of him, consider him nicely in all views, and not be a little pleased, when they have taken him in the worst and most disadvantageous light. There are many who find a pleasure in contradict-attentive to the more important part of his ing the common reports of fame, and in spreading abroad the weaknesses of an exalted character. They publish their illnatured discoveries with a secret pride, and applaud themselves for the singularity of their judgment, which has searched deeper than others, detected what the rest of the world have overlooked, and found a flaw in what the generality of mankind admires. Others there are who proclaim the errors and infirmities of a great man with an inward satisfaction and complacency, if they discover none of the like errors and infirmities in themselves; for while they are exposing another's weakness, they are tacitly aiming at their own commendations, who are not subject to the like infirmities, and are apt to be transported with a secret kind of vanity, to see themselves superior in some respects to one of a sublime and celebrated reputation. Nay, it very often happens, that none are more industrious in publishing the blemishes of an extraordinary reputation, than such as lie open to the same censures in their own characters, as either hoping to excuse their own defects by the authority of so high an example, cr to raise an imaginary applause to themselves, for resembling a person of an exalted reputation, though in the blameable parts of his character. If all these secret springs of detraction fail, yet very often a vain ostentation of wit sets a man on attacking an established name, and sacrificing it to the mirth and laughter of those about him. A satire or a libel on one of the common stamp never meets with that reception and approbation among its readers, as what is aimed at a person whose merit places him upon an eminence, and gives him a more conspicuous figure among men. Whether it be, that we think it shows greater art to expose and turn to ridicule a man whose character seems so improper a subject for it, or that we are pleased by some implicit kind of revenge, to see him taken down and humbled in his reputation, and in some measure reduced to our own rank, who had so far raised himself above us, in the reports and opinions

of mankind.

Thus we see how many dark and intri

But were there none of these dispositions in others to censure a famous man, nor any such miscarriages in himself, yet would he meet with no small trouble in keeping up his reputation, in all its height and splendour. There must be always a noble train of actions to preserve his fame in life and motion. For when it is once at a stand, it naturally flags and languishes. Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that imme diately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view. And even the greatest actions of a celebrated person labour under this disadvantage, that however surprising and extraordinary they may be, they are no more than what are expected from him;

how will he be able to bear up under scandal and defamation? for the same temper of mind which makes him desire fame, makes him hate reproach. If he can be

but on the contrary, if they fall any thing below the opinion that is conceived of him, though they might raise the reputation of another, they are a diminution to his. One would think there should be some-transported with the extraordinary praises thing wonderfully pleasing in the possession of fame, that, notwithstanding all these mortifying considerations, can engage a man in so desperate a pursuit; and yet, if we consider the little happiness that attends a great character, and the multitude of disquietudes to which the desire of it subjects an ambitious mind, one would be still the more surprised to see so many restless candidates for glory.

of men, he will be as much dejected by their censures. How little therefore is the happiness of an ambitious man, who gives every one a dominion over it, who thus subjects himself to the good or ill speeches of others, and puts it in the power of every malicious tongue to throw him into a fit of melancholy, and destroy his natural rest and repose of mind; especially when we consider that the world is more apt to censure than applaud, and himself fuller of imperfections than virtues.

We may further observe, that such a man will be more grieved for the loss of fame, than he could have been pleased with the enjoyment of it. For though the presence of this imaginary good cannot make us happy, the absence of it may make us miserable; because in the enjoyment of an object we only find that share of pleasure which it is capable of giving us, but in the loss of it we do not proportion our grief to the real value it bears, but to the value our fancies and imaginations set upon it.

Ambition raises a secret tumult in the soul, it inflames the mind, and puts it into a violent hurry of thought. It is still reaching after an empty imaginary good, that has not in it the power to abate or satisfy it. Most other things we long for can allay the cravings of their proper sense, and for a while set the appetite at rest; but fame is a good so wholly foreign to our natures, that we have no faculty in the soul adapted to it, nor any organ in the body to relish it: an object of desire, placed out of the possibility of fruition. It may indeed fill the mind for a while with a giddy kind of pleasure, but it is such a pleasure as makes a man restless and uneasy under it; and So inconsiderable is the satisfaction that which does not so much satisfy the present fame brings along with it, and so great the thirst, as it excites fresh desires, and sets disquietudes to which it makes us liable. the soul on new enterprises. For how few The desire of it stirs up very uneasy moambitious men are there, who have got as tions in the mind, and is rather inflamed much fame as they desired, and whose than satisfied by the presence of the thing thirst after it has not been as eager in the desired. The enjoyment of it brings but very height of their reputation, as it was very little pleasure, though the loss or before they became known and eminent want of it be very sensible and afflicting; among men! There is not any circumstance and even this little happiness is so very in Casar's character which gives me a precarious, that it wholly depends upon greater idea of him, than a saying which the will of others. We are not only torCicero tells us he frequently made use of tured by the reproaches which are offered in private conversation, That he was satis- us, but are disappointed by the silence of fied with his share of life and fame.' Se men when it is unexpected; and humbled satis vel ad naturam, vel ad gloriam vix- even by their praises. isse.' Many indeed have given over their pursuits after fame, but that has proceeded either from the disappointments they have met in it, or from their experience of the little pleasure which attends it, or from the better informations or natural coldness of old age; but seldom from a full satisfaction and acquiescence in their present enjoyments of it.

No. 257.]

C.

Tuesday, December 25, 1711.

Ουχ' εύδει Διος
Οφθαλμος" είγυς δ' εστι και παρων πάνω.

Incert. ex Stob.

No slumber seals the eye of Providence,
Present to every action we commence.

THAT I might not lose myself upon a subject of so great extent as that of fame, I Nor is fame only unsatisfying in itself, have treated it in a particular order and but the desire of it lays us open to many ac- method. I have first of all considered the cidental troubles which those are free from, reasons why Providence may have implantwho have not such a tender regard for it. ed in our minds such a principle of action. How often is the ambitious man cast down I have in the next place shown from many and disappointed, if he receives no praise considerations, first, that fame is a thing where he expected it? Nay, how often is difficult to be obtained, and easily lost; sehe mortified with the very praises he re-condly, that it brings the ambitious man ceives, if they do not rise so high as he thinks they ought; which they seldom do, unless increased by flattery, since few men have so good an opinion of us as we have of ourselves? But if the ambitious man can be so much grieved even with praise itself,

very little happiness, but subjects him to much uneasiness and dissatisfaction. I shall in the last place show, that it hinders us from obtaining an end which we have abilities to acquire, and which is accompanied with fulness of satisfaction, I need

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