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The Mufe, if fir'd with thy enlivening Beams, Perhaps hall aim at more exalted Themes, Record our Monarch in a nobler Strain, And fing the opening Wonders of his Reign; Bright CAROLINA's heavenly Beauties trace, Her valiant CONSORT, and his blooming Race. A Train of Kings their fruitful Love Supplies, A glorious Scene to Albion's ravish'd Eyes; Who fees by BRUNSWICK's Hand her Sceptre fway'd, And through his Line from Age to Age convey'd.

N° 621. Wednedfay, November 17.

poftquam fe lumine puro

Implevit, fellafque vagas miratur & Aftra
Fixa Polis, vidit quantâ fub nocte jaceret
Noftra dies, rifitque fui ludibria-

TH

Lucan.

HE following Letter having in it fome Obfervations out of the common Road, I fhall make it the Entertainment of this Day.

Mr, SPECTATOR,

T

HE common Topicks against the Pride of Man, which are laboured by florid and declamatory • Writers, are taken from the Baseness of his Original, • the Imperfections of his Nature, or the fhort Duration of thofe Goods in which he makes his Boaft. Though it be true that we can have nothing in us that ought to raise our Vanity, yet a Consciousness of our own • Merit may be fometimes laudable. The Folly there'fore lies here: We are apt to pride our selves in worthlefs or perhaps fhameful Things; and, on the other hand, count that disgraceful which is our truest Glory.

• HENCE

HENCE it is, that the Lovers of Praise take wrong Measures to attain it. Would a vain Man con⚫ fult his own Heart, he would find, that if others knew his Weakneffes as well as he himself doth, he could not have the Impudence to expect the publick Efteem. • Pride therefore flows from want of Reflexion, and Ignorance of our felves. Knowledge and Humility come upon us together.

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THE proper way to make an Eftimate of our felves, is to confider feriously what it is we value or despise in ⚫ others. A Man who boafts of the Goods of Fortune, a gay Drefs or a new Title, is generally the Mark of Ridicule. We ought therefore not to admire in our selves, ⚫ what we are fo ready to laugh at in other Men.

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MUCH lefs can we with Reafon pride our felves in thofe things, which at fome time of our Life we fhall certainly defpife. And yet, if we will give our ⚫ felves the Trouble of looking backward and forward on the several Changes which we have already undergone and hereafter muft try, we fhall find that the greater Degrees of our Knowledge and Wisdom ferve only to fhew us our own Imperfections.

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AS we rife from Childhood to Youth, we look with Contempt on the Toys and Trifles which our Hearts have hitherto been fet upon. When we advance to ⚫ Manhood, we are held wife in proportion to our Shame ⚫ and Regret for the Rashness and Extravagance of Youth. Old Age fills us with mortifying Reflexions upon a Life mifpent in the Purfuit of anxious Wealth or uncertain Honour. Agreeable to this Gradation of Thought in this Life, it may be reasonably supposed, that in a fa-' ture State, the Wisdom, the Experience, and the Ma⚫xims of old Age, will be looked upon by a feparate Spirit in much the fame Light as an ancient Man now fees the little Follies and Toyings of Infants. The Pomps, the Honours, the Policies, and Arts of mortal 'Men, will be thought as trifling as Hobby-Horfes, MockBattles, or any other Sports that now employ all the Cunning, and Strength, and Ambition of rational Beings from four Years old to nine or ten.

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IF the Notion of a gradual Rife in Beings, from the meanest to the most High, be not a vain Imagination, it is not improbable that an Angel looks down upon a Man, as a Man doth upon a Creature which approaches the nearest to the rational Nature. By the fame Rule (if I may indulge my Fancy in this Particular) a fuperior Brute looks with a kind of Pride on one of an inferior Species. If they could reflect, we might imagine from the Geftures of fome of them ⚫ that they think themselves the Sovereigns of the World, and that all things were made for them. Such a Thought would not be more abfurd in Brute Creatures, ⚫ than one which Men are apt to entertain, namely, That all the Stars in the Firmament were created only to please their Eyes and amufe their Imaginations. Mr. Dryden, in his Fable of the Cock and the Fox, makes. a Speech for his Hero the Cock, which is a pretty In ftance for this Purpose.

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Then turning, faid to Partlet, See, my Dear,
How lavish Nature hath adorn'd the Year;
How the pale Primrofe and the Violet Spring,
And Birds effay their Throats, difus'd to fing:
All these are ours, and I with Pleafure fee
Man frutting on two Legs, and aping me.

WHAT I would obferve from the Whole is this, That we ought to value our felves upon thofe Things ⚫ only which fuperior Beings think valuable, fince that is the only way for us not to fink in our own Esteem ⚫ hereafter.

N° 622. Friday, November 19.

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Fallentis Semita Vita.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

Hor.

N a former Speculation you have obferved, that true Greatnefs doth not confift in that Pomp and Noife wherein the generality of Mankind are apt to place it. You have there taken notice, that Virtue in obfcurity often appears more illuftrious in the Eye of fuperior Beings, than all that paffes for Grandeur and Magnificence among Men.

WHEN we look back upon the History of thofe who have born the Parts of Kings, Statesmen, or Commanders, they appear to us ftripped of thofe out-fide Ornaments that dazzled their Contemporaries; and we regard their Perfons as great or little, in Proportion to the Eminence of their Virtues or Vices. The wife Sayings, generous Sentiments, or difinterested Conduct of a Philofopher under mean Circumftances of Life, fet him higher in our Efteem than the mighty Potentates of the Earth, when we view them both through the long Profpect of many Ages. Were the Memoirs of an obfcure Man, who lived up to the Dignity of his Nature, and according to the Rules of Virtue, to be laid before us, we fhould find nothing in fuch a Cha⚫racter which might not fet him on a Level with Men of the highest Stations. The following Extract out of the private Papers of an honest Country-Gentleman will fet this Matter in a clear Light. Your Reader will perhaps conceive a greater Idea of him from thefe Acti· ons done in Secret, and without a Witnefs, than of those which have drawn upon them the Admiration of ❝. Multitudes.

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MEMOIR S.

1

"IN my 22d Year I found a violent Affection for my Coufin Charles's Wife growing upon me, wherein "I was in danger of fucceeding, if I had not upon that "Account begun my Travels into foreign Countries. "A little after my Return into England, at a private Meeting with my Uncle Francis, I refufed the Offer of his Eftate, and prevailed upon him not to difinherit his "Son Ned.

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Mem. NEVER to tell this to Ned, left he fhould "think hardly of his deceafed Father; though he con"tinues to fpeak ill of me for this very Reason.

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"PREVENTED a fcandalous Law-fuit betwixt my Nephew Harry and his Mother, by allowing her underhand, out of my own Pocket, so much Money "yearly as the Dispute was about.

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"PROCURED a Benefice for a young Divine, "who is Sifter's Son to the good Man who was my Tutor, and hath been dead Twenty Years.

66

"GAVE Ten Pounds to poor Mrs., my Friend -'s Widow.

"H

"Mem. To retrench one Dish at my Table, till I have fetched it up again.

"Mem. TO repair my House and finish my Gardens "in order to employ poor People after Harvest-time. "ORDERED John to let out Goodman D's Sheep that were pounded, by Night: but not to let "his Fellow-Servants know it.

66

"PREVAILED upon M. T. Efq; not to take the Law of the Farmer's Son for fhooting a Partridge, and "to give him his Gun again.

"PAID the Apothecary for curing an old Woman "that confeffed her felf a Witch.

"GAVE away my favourite Dog for biting a Beggar. "MADE the Minifter of the Parish and a Whig Ju"ftice of one Mind, by putting them to explain their "Notions to one another.

"Mem. To turn off Peter for fhooting a Doe while "The was eating Acorns out of his Hand. "WHEN

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