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whole shoal of them, who after having | patients walking by themselves in a very taken a survey of the place, came out in pensive and musing posture, so that the very good order, and with looks entirely whole space seemed covered with philosoEnglish. I afterwards put in a Dutchman, phers. I was at length resolved to go into who had a great fancy to see the kelder, the cave myself, and see what it was that as he called it; but I could not observe that had produced such wonderful effects upon I had made any alteration in him. the company; but as I was stooping at the A comedian, who had gained great re-entrance, the door being somewhat low, I putation in parts of humour, told me that gave such a nod in my chair that I awaked. he had a mighty mind to act Alexander the After having recovered myself from my Great, and fancied that he should succeed first startle, I was very well pleased at the very well in it if he could strike two or accident which had befallen me, as not three laughing features out of his face. He knowing but a little stay in the place might tried the experiment, but contracted so have spoiled my Spectators. very solid a look by it, that I am afraid he will be fit for no part hereafter but a Timon of Athens, or a Mute in The Funeral.

I then clapped up an empty fantastic citizen, in order to qualify him for an alderman. He was succeeded by a young rake of the Middle Temple, who was brought to me by his grandmother; but, to her great sorrow and surprise, he came out a quaker. Seeing myself surrounded with a body of freethinkers and scoffers at religion, who were making themselves merry at the sober looks and thoughtful brows of those who had been in the cave, I thrust them all in, one after another, and locked the door upon them. Upon my opening it, they all looked as if they had been frightened out of their wits, and were marching away with ropes in their hands to a wood that was within sight of the place. I found they were not able to bear themselves in their first serious thoughts; but, knowing these would quickly bring them to a better frame of mind, I gave them into the custody of their friends until that happy change was wrought in them.

The last that was brought to me was a young woman, who at the first sight of my short face fell into an immoderate fit of laughter, and was forced to hold her sides all the while her mother was speaking to me. Upon this, I interrupted the old lady, and taking her daughter by the hand, Madam," said I, 'be pleased to retire into my closet while your mother tells me your case. I then put her into the mouth of the cave; when the mother, after having begged pardon for the girl's rudeness, told me that she had often treated her father and the gravest of her relations in the same manner; that she would sit giggling and laughing with her companions from one end of a tragedy to the other; nay, that she would sometimes burst out in the middle of a sermon, and set the whole congregation staring at her. The mother was going on, when the young lady came out of the cave to us with a composed countenance and a low courtesy. She was a girl of such exuberant mirth that her visit to Trophonius only reduced her to a more than ordinary decency of behaviour, and made a very pretty prude of her. After having performed innumerable cures, I looked about

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No. 600.] Wednesday, September 29, 1714.

Solemque suum, sua sidera norunt.

Virg. Æn. vi. 641. Stars of their own, and their own suns they know. Dryden.

I HAVE always taken a particular pleasure in examining the opinions which men of different religions, different ages, and different countries, have entertained concerning the immortality of the soul, and the state of happiness which they promise themselves in another world. For, whatever prejudices and errors human nature lies under, we find that either reason, or tradition from our first parents, has discovered to all people something in these great points which bears analogy to truth, and to the doctrines opened to us by divine revelation. I was lately discoursing on this subject with a learned person who has been very much conversant among the inhabitants of the more western parts of Africa.* Upon his conversing with several in that country, he tells me that their notion of heaven or of a future state of happiness is this, that every thing we there wish for will immediately present itself to us. We find, say they, our souls are of such a nature that they require variety, and are not capable of being always delighted with the same objects. The Supreme Being, therefore, in compliance with this taste of happiness which he has planted in the soul of man, will raise up from time to time, say they, every gratification which it is in the humour to be pleased with. If we wish to be in groves or bowers, among running streams, or falls of water, we shall immediately find ourselves in the midst of such a scene as we desire. If we would be entertained with music and the melody of sounds, the concert arises upon our wish, and the whole region about us is filled with harmony. In short, every desire will be followed by fruition; and whatever a man's inclination directs him to will be present with him. Nor is it material whether the Supreme Power creates in conformity to our wishes, or whether he only produces

published an account of West Barbary, &c. He died in * Addison's father, dean Launcelot Addison, who 1703, aged 71.

such a change in our imagination as makes | infinite multitude of objects, especially when us believe ourselves conversant among the soul shall have passed through the space those scenes which delight us. Our hap- of many millions of years, and shall reflect piness will be the same, whether it pro- with pleasure on the days of eternity. Every ceed from external objects, or from the other faculty may be considered in the same impressions of the Deity upon our own pri- extent. vate fancies. This is the account which I We cannot question but that the happihave received from my learned friend. ness of a soul will be adequate to its nature; Notwithstanding this system of belief be and that it is not endowed with any faculties in general very chimerical and visionary, which are to lie useless and unemployed. there is something sublime in its manner of The happiness is to be the happiness of the considering the influence of a Divine Be- whole man; and we may easily conceive to ing on a human soul. It has also, like most ourselves the happiness of the soul, while other opinions of the heathen world upon any one of its faculties is in the fruition of these important points; it has, I say, its its chief good. The happiness may be of a foundation in truth, as it supposes the souls more exalted nature in proportion as the of good men after this life to be in a state faculty employed is so: but, as the whole of perfect happiness; that in this state soul acts in the exertion of any of its parthere will be no barren hopes, nor fruitless ticular powers, the whole soul is happy in wishes, and that we shall enjoy every thing the pleasure which arises from any of its we can desire. But the particular circum- particular acts. For, notwithstanding, as stance which I am most pleased with in has been before hinted, and as it has been this scheme, and which arises from a just taken notice of by one of the greatest moreflection upon human nature, is that va-dern philosophers,* we divide the soul into riety of pleasures which it supposes the several powers and faculties, there is no souls of good men will be possessed of in such division in the soul itself, since it is the another world. This I think highly pro- whole soul that remembers, understands, bable, from the dictates both of reason and wills, or imagines. Our manner of conrevelation. The soul consists of many fa-sidering the memory, understanding, will, culties, as the understanding, and the will, with all the senses, both outward and inward; or, to speak more philosophically, the soul can exert herself in many different ways of action. She can understand, will, imagine, see, and hear; love, and discourse, and apply herself to many other the like exercises of different kinds and natures; but, what is more to be considered, the soul is capable of receiving a most exquisite pleasure and satisfaction from the exercise of any of these its powers, when they are gratified with their proper objects; she can be entirely happy by the satisfaction of the memory, the sight, the hearing, or any other mode of perception. Every faculty is a distinct taste in the mind, and hath ob-is in a state of happiness: and, in the last jects accommodated to its proper relish. Doctor Tillotson somewhere says, that he will not presume to determine in what consists the happiness of the blessed, because God Almighty is capable of making the soul happy by ten thousand different ways. Besides those several avenues to pleasure, which the soul is endowed with in this life, it is not impossible, according to the opinions of many eminent divines, but there may be new faculties in the souls of good men made perfect, as well as new senses, in their glorified bodies. This we are sure of, that there will be new objects offered to all those faculties which are essential

to us.

imagination, and the like faculties, is for the better enabling us to express ourselves in such abstracted subjects of speculation, not that there is any such division in the soul itself.

Seeing then that the soul has many different faculties, or, in other words, many different ways of acting; that it can be intensely pleased or made happy by all these different faculties, or ways of acting; that it may be endowed with several latent faculties, which it is not at present in a condition to exert; that we cannot believe the soul is endowed with any faculty which is of no use to it; that, whenever any one of these faculties is transcendently pleased, the soul

place, considering that the happiness of another world is to be the happiness of the whole man, who can question but that there is an infinite variety in those pleasures we are speaking of? and that this fulness of joy will be made up of all those pleasures which the nature of the soul is capable of receiving?

We shall be the more confirmed in this doctrine, if we observe the nature of variety with regard to the mind of man. The soul does not care to be always in the same bent. The faculties relieve one another by turns, and receive an additional pleasure from the novelty of those objects about which they

are conversant.

We are likewise to take notice that every Revelation likewise very much confirms particular faculty is capable of being em- this notion, under the different views which ployed on a very great variety of objects. it gives us of our future happiness. In the The understanding, for example, may be description of the throne of God, it reprehappy in the contemplation of moral, natu-sents to us all those objects which are able ral, mathematical, and other kinds of truth. The memory likewise may turn itself to an VOL. II.

50

* Locke.

to gratify the senses and imagination: in it a being capable of receiving so much very many places it intimates to us all the bliss. He would never have made such happiness which the understanding can faculties in vain, and have endowed us with possibly receive in that state, where all powers that were not to be exerted on such things shall be revealed to us, and we shall objects as are suited to them. It is very know even as we are known; the raptures manifest, by the inward frame and constituof devotion, of divine love, the pleasure of tion of our minds, that he has adapted them conversing with our blessed Saviour, with to an infinite variety of pleasures and gratian innumerable host of angels, and with the fications which are not to be met with in spirits of just men made perfect, are like- this life. We should therefore at all times wise revealed to us in several parts of the take care that we do not disappoint this his holy writings. There are also mentioned gracious purpose and intention towards us, those hierarchies or governments in which and make those faculties, which he formed the blessed shall be ranged one above an- as so many qualifications for happiness and other, and in which we may be sure a great rewards, to be the instruments of pain and part of our happiness will likewise consist: punishment. for it will not be there as in this world, where every one is aiming at power and superiority; but, on the contrary, every one No. 601.] Friday, October 1, 1714. will find that station the most proper for him in which he is placed, and will probably think that he could not have been so happy in any other station. These, and many other particulars, are marked in divine revelation, as the several ingredients of our happiness in heaven, which all imply such a variety of joys, and such a gratification of the soul in all its different faculties, as I have been here mentioning.

Some of the rabbins tell us, that the cherubims are a set of angels who know most, and the seraphims a set of angels who love most. Whether this distinction be not altogether imaginary, I shall not here examine; but it is highly probable that, among the spirits of good men, there may be some who will be more pleased with the employment of one faculty than of another; and this perhaps according to those innocent and virtuous habits or inclinations which have here taken the deepest root.

I might here apply this consideration to the spirits of wicked men, with relation to the pain which they shall suffer in every one of their faculties, and the respective miseries which shall be appropriated to each faculty in particular. But, leaving this to the reflection of my readers, I shall conclude with observing how we ought to be thankful to our great Creator, and rejoice in the being which he has bestowed upon us, for having made the soul susceptible of pleasure by so many different ways. We see by what a variety of passages joy and gladness may enter into the thoughts of man; how wonderfully a human spirit is framed, to imbibe its proper satisfactions, and taste the goodness of its Creator. We may therefore look into ourselves with rapture and amazement, and cannot sufficiently express our gratitude to Him who has encompassed us with such a profusion of blessings, and opened in us so many capacities of enjoying them.

There cannot be a stronger argument that God has designed us for a state of future happiness, and for that heaven which he has revealed to us, than that he has thus naturally qualified the soul for it, and made

6 Ο ανθρωπος ευερνετος περυκως. Antonin. Lib. jx. Man is naturally a beneficent creature. THE following essay comes from a hand which has entertained my readers once before.

'Notwithstanding a narrow contracted temper be that which obtains most in the world, we must not therefore conclude this to be the genuine characteristic of mankind; because there are some who delight in n thing so much as in doing good, and receive more of their happiness at second hand, cr by rebound from others, than by direct and immediate sensation. Now, though these heroic souls are but few, and to appearance so far advanced above the grovelling multitude as if they were of another order of beings, yet in reality their nature is the same; moved by the same springs, and endowed with all the same essential qualities, only cleared, refined, and cultivated. Water is the same fluid body in winter and in summer; when it stands stiffened in ice as when it flows along in gentle streams, gladdening a thousand fields in its progress. It is a property of the heart of man to be diffusive: its kind wishes spread abroad over the face of the creation; and if there be those, as we may observe too many of them, who are all wrapped up in their own dear selves, without any visible concern for their species, let us suppose that their good nature is frozen, and by the prevailing force of some contrary quality, restrained in its operation. I shall therefore endeavour to assign some of the principal checks upon this generous propension of the human soul, which will enable us to judge whether, and by what method, this most useful principle may be unfettered, and restored to its native freedom of exercise.

'The first and leading cause is an unhappy complexion of body. The heathens, ignorant of the true source of moral evil, generally charged it on the obliquity of matter, which, being eternal and independent, was incapable of change in any of its

duce a change in the body, which the others not doing, must be maintained the same way they are acquired, by the mere dint of industry, resolution, and vigilance.

"Homo qui erranti comiter monstrat viam, Quasi lumen de suo lumine accendat, facit, Nihilominus ipsi luceat, cum illi accenderit."

properties, even by the Almighty Mind, who, when he came to fashion it into a world of beings, must take it as he found it. This notion, as most others of theirs, is a composition of truth and error. That matter is 'Another thing which suspends the opeeternal, that, from the first union of a soul rations of benevolence, is the love of the to it, it perverted its inclinations, and that world; proceeding from a false notion men the ill influence it hath upon the mind is have taken up, that an abundance of the not to be corrected by God himself, are all world is an essential ingredient in the hapvery great errors, occasioned by a truth as piness of life. Worldly things are of such evident, that the capacities and dispositions à quality as to lessen upon dividing, so that of the soul depend, to a great degree, on the more partners there are the less must the bodily temper. As there are some fools, fall to every man's private share. The others are knaves by constitution; and par- consequence of this is, that they look upon ticularly it may be said of many, that they one another with an evil eye, each imaginare born with an illiberal cast of mind; the ing all the rest to be embarked in an inmatter that composes them is tenacious as terest that cannot take place but to his birdlime; and a kind of cramp draws their prejudice. Hence are those eager compehands and their hearts together, that they titions for wealth or power; hence one man's never care to open them, unless to grasp at success becomes another's disappointment; more. It is a melancholy lot this; but at- and, like pretenders to the same mistress, tended with one advantage above theirs, to they can seldom have common charity for whom it would be as painful to forbear good their rivals. Not that they are naturally offices as it is to these men to perform them; disposed to quarrel and fall out; but it is that whereas persons naturally beneficent natural for a man to prefer himself to all often mistake instinct for virtue, by reason others, and to secure his own interest first. of the difficulty of distinguishing when one If that which men esteem their happiness rules them and when the other, men of the were, like the light, the same sufficient and opposite character may be more certain of unconfined good, whether ten thousand enthe motive that predominates in every ac-joy the benefit of it or but one, we should tion. If they cannot confer a benefit with see men's good-will and kind endeavours that ease and frankness which are neces- would be as universal. sary to give it a grace in the eye of the world, in requital, the real merit of what they do is enhanced by the opposition they surmount in doing it. The strength of their virtue is seen in rising against the weight of nature; and every time they have the resolution to discharge their duty, they make a sacrifice of inclination to conscience, 'But, unluckily, mankind agree in making which is always too grateful to let its fol- choice of objects which inevitably engage lowers go without suitable marks of its ap- them in perpetual differences. Learn, thereprobation. Perhaps the entire cure of this fore, like a wise man, the true estimate of ill quality is no more possible than of some things. Desire not more of the world than distempers that descend by inheritance. is necessary to accommodate you in passing However, a great deal may be done by a through it; look upon every thing beyond, course of beneficence obstinately persisted not as useless only, but burdensome. Place in; this, if any thing, being a likely way of not your quiet in things which you cannot establishing a moral habit, which shall be have without putting others beside them, somewhat of a counterpoise to the force of and thereby making them your enemies; mechanism. Only it must be remembered and which, when attained, will give you that we do not intermit, upon any pretence more trouble to keep than satisfaction in whatsoever, the custom of doing good, in the enjoyment. Virtue is a good of a nobler regard, if there be the least cessation, na-kind; it grows by communication; and so ture will watch the opportunity to return, and in a short time to recover the ground it was so long in quitting: for there is this difference between mental habits and such as have their foundation in the body; that these last are in their nature more forcible and violent; and, to gain upon us, need only not to be opposed; whereas the former must be continually reinforced with fresh supplies, or they will languish and die away, And this suggests the reason why good habits in general require longer time for their settlement than bad, and yet are sooner displaced; the reason is, that vicious habits, as drunkenness for instance, pro

"To direct a wanderer in the right way, is to light another man's candle by one's own, which loses none of its light by what the other gains."

little resembles earthly riches, that the more hands it is lodged in, the greater is every man's particular stock. So, by propagating and mingling their fires, not only all the lights of a branch together cast a more extensive brightness, but each single light burns with a stronger flame. And lastly, take this along with you, that if wealth be an instrument of pleasure, the greatest pleasure it can put into your power is that of doing good. It is worth considering, that the organs of sense act within a narrow compass, and the appetites will soon say they have enough. Which of the two therefore is the happier man-he who,

confining all his regard to the gratification | talked of, though it be for the particular of his appetites, is capable but of short fits cock of his hat, or for prating aloud in the of pleasure or the man who, reckoning boxes at a play, is in a fair way of being a himself a sharer in the satisfactions of others, favourite. I have known a young fellow especially those which come to them by his make his fortune by knocking down a conmeans, enlarges the sphere of his happi- stable; and may venture to say, though it ness? may seem a paradox, that many a fair one has died by a duel in which both the combatants have survived.

"The last enemy to benevolence I shall mention is uneasiness of any kind. A guilty or a discontented mind, a mind ruffled by 'About three winters ago, I took notice of ill-fortune, disconcerted by its own passions, a young lady at the theatre, who conceived soured by neglect, or fretting at disappoint- a passion for a notorious rake that headed ments, hath not leisure to attend to the ne-a party of catcalls; and am credibly incessity or unreasonableness of a kindness formed that the emperor of the Mohocks desired, nor a taste for those pleasures married a rich widow within three weeks which wait on beneficence, which demand after having rendered himself formidable in a calm and unpolluted heart to relish them. the cities of London and Westminster. The most miserable of all beings is the Scouring and breaking of windows have most envious; as, on the other hand, the done frequent execution upon the sex. But most communicative is the happiest. And there is no set of these male charmers who if you are in search of the seat of perfect make their way more successfully than love and friendship, you will not find it until those who have gained themselves a name you come to the region of the blessed, for intrigue, and have ruined the greatest where happiness, like a refreshing stream, number of reputations. There is a strange flows from heart to heart in an endless cir- curiosity in the female world to be acquaintculation, and is preserved sweet and un-ed with the dear man who has been loved tainted by the motion. It is old advice, if you have a favour to request of any one, to observe the softest times of address, when the soul, in a flash of good humour, takes a pleasure to show itself pleased. Persons conscious of their own integrity, satisfied with themselves and their condition, and full of confidence in a Supreme Being, and the hope of immortality, survey all about 'I was very sensible of the great advanthem with a flow of good-will; as trees tage of being a man of importance upon which, like their soil, shoot out in expres- these occasions on the day of the king's sions of kindness, and bend beneath their entry, when I was seated in a balcony beown precious load, to the hand of the ga- hind a cluster of very pretty country ladies, therer. Now, if the mind be not thus easy, who had one of these showy gentlemen in it is an infallible sign that it is not in its na- the midst of them. The first trick I caught tural state: place the mind in its right pos-him at was bowing to several persons of ture, it will immediately discover its innate propension to beneficence.'

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by others, and to know what it is that makes him so agreeable. His reputation does more than half his business. Every one that is ambitious of being a woman of fashion, looks out for opportunities of being in his company; so that, to use the old proverb, "When his name is up he may lie a-bed.

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quality whom he did not know; nay, he had the impudence to hem at a blue garter who had a finer equipage than ordinary; and seemed a little concerned at the impertinent huzzas of the mob, that hindered his friend from taking notice of him. There was indeed one who pulled off his hat to him; and, upon the ladies asking who it was, he told them it was a foreign minister that he had been very merry with the night before; whereas in truth it was the city common hunt.

'He was never at a loss when he was asked any person's name, though he seldom knew any one under a peer. He found dukes and earls among the aldermen, very good-natured fellows among the privycounsellors, with two or three agreeable old rakes among the bishops and judges.

'SIR,-In order to execute the office of the love casuist of Great Britain, with which I take myself to be invested by your paper of September 8, I shall make some farther observations upon the two sexes in general, beginning with that which always In short, I collected from his whole disought to have the upper hand. After hav-course, that he was acquainted with every ing observed, with much curiosity, the accomplishments which are apt to captivate female hearts, I find that there is no person so irresistible as one who is a man of importance, provided it be in matters of no consequence, One who makes himself

body, and knew nobody. At the same time, I am mistaken if he did not that day make more advances in the affections of his mistress, who sat near him, than he could have done in half a year's courtship.

'Ovid has finely touched this method of

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