For the conduct therefore of fuch ufeful perfons, as are ready to do their country fervice upon all occafions, I have an engine in my study, which is a fort of a political barometer, or, to fpeak more intelligibly, a State Weather-glafs, that, by the rifing and falling of a certain magical liquor, prefages all changes and revolutions in government, as the common glass does thofe of the weather. The Weather-glafs is faid to have been invented by Cardan, and given by him as a prefent to his great countryman and contemporary Machiavel; which, by the way, may ferve to rectify a received error in chronology, that places one of these fome years after the other. How or when it came into my hands, I shall defire to be excufed, if I keep to myfelf; but fo it is, that I have walked by it for the better part of a century to my fafety at leaft, if not to my advantage; and have among my papers a register of all the changes, that have happened in it from the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign. In the time of that Princess it flood long at Settled Fair. At the latter End of King James the First, it fell to Cloudy. It held feveral years after at Stormy; infomuch that at laft defpairing of feeing any clear weather at home I followed the royal Exile, and fome time after finding my Glafs rife, returned to my native country, with the rest of the Loyalifts. I was then in hopes to pafs the remainder of my days in Settled Fair: But alas! during the greateft part of that reign the English nation lay in a dead calm, which, as it is ufual, was followed by high winds and tempefts, until of late years; in which, with unspeakable joy and fatisfaction, I have feen our political weather returned to Settled Fair. I must only obferve, that for all this last fummer my glass has pointed at Changeable. Upon the whole, I often apply to Fortune Æneas's fpeech to the Sibyl: -Non ulla laborum O virgo, nova mi facies inopinave furgit : VIRG. En. 6. ver. 103. No No terror to my view, No frightful face of danger can be new: The fates without my power, fhall be without my care. DRYDEN. The advantages, which have accrued to those whom I have advised in their affairs, by virtue of this fort of prefcience, have been very confiderable. A Nephew of mine, who has never put his money into the ftocks, or taken it out, without my advice, has in a few years raised five hundred pounds to almoft fo many thousands. As for myself, who look upon riches to confift rather in content than poffeffions, and measure the greatnefs of the mind rather by its tranquillity than its ambition, I have feldom used my glafs to make my way in the world, but often to retire from it. This is a by-path to happiness, which was first discovered to me by a moft pleafing apothegm of Pythagoras: "When the Winds, fays he, rife, "worship the Echo." That great Philofopher (whether to make his doctrines the more venerable, or to gild his precepts with the beauty of imagination, or to awaken. the curiofity of his Difciples, for I will not fuppose, what is ufually faid, that he did it to conceal his wifdom from the vulgar) has couched feveral admirable precepts in remote allufions, and myfterious fentences. By the Wind in this apothegm, are meant ftate hurricanes and popular tumults. When these rife, fays he, worship the Echo; that is, withdraw yourself from the multitude into defarts, woods, folitudes, or the like retirements, which are the ufual habitations of the echo. VOL. IV. Tuesday, N° 215. Thursday, August 24, 1710. From my own Apartment, August 23. YSANDER has writ to me out of the country, circumftances, -he had paffed a great deal of time with much pleasure and tranquillity; until his happiness was interrupted by an indifcreet Flatterer, who came down into thofe parts to vifit a relation. With the circumstances in which he reprefents the matter, he had no fmall provocation to be offended; for he attacked him in fo wrong a feason, that he could not have any relish of pleasure in it; though, perhaps, at another time it might have paffed upon him without giving him much uneafinefs. Lyfander had, af ter a long fatiety of the town, been so happy as to get to a folitude he extremely liked, and recovered a pleafure he had fo long difcontinued, that of reading. He was got to the bank of a rivulet, covered by a pleafing fhade, and fanned by a foft breeze; which threw his mind into that fort of compofure and attention, in which a man, though with indolence, enjoys the utmost livelinefs of his fpirits, and the greateft ftrength of his mind at the fame time. In this ftate, Lyfander reprefents that he was reading Virgil's Georgics, when on a fudden the Gentleman above-mentioned furprized him; and without any manner of preparation falls upon him at once: "What! I have found you at laft, after searching all over the wood! we wanted you at cards after dinner; but you are much better employed. I have heard indeed that you are an excellent fcholar. But at the fame time, is it not a little unkind to rob the Ladies, "who like you fo well, of the pleasure of your company ? But that is indeed the misfortune of you great "fcholars; you are feldom fo fit for the world as thofe who never trouble themselves with books. Well, I * fee 99 "fee you are taken up with your learning there, and I will leave you." Lyfander fays, he made him no an-fwer, but took a refolution to complain to me. 1 It is a fubftantial affliction, when men govern them-felves by the rules of good-breeding, that by the very force of them they are subjected to the infolence of thofe, who either never will, or never can, understand them. The fuperficial part of mankind form to themselves little measures of behaviour from the outfide of things. By the force of thefe narrow conceptions, they act among themselves with applaufe; and do not apprehend they are contemptible to thofe of higher understanding, who are reftrained by decencies above their knowledge from fhewing a diflike. Hence it is, that because complai fance is a good quality in converfation, one Impertinent takes upon him on all occafions to commend; and becaufe mirth is agreeable, another thinks it fit eternally to jeft. I have of late received many packets of Letters, complaining of thefe fpreading evils. A Lady who is lately arrived at the Bath acquaints me, there were in the ftage-coach wherein the went down a common Flatterer, and a common Jefter. Thefe Gentlemen were, fhe tells me, rivals in her favour; and adds, if there Lever happened a cafe wherein of two perfons one was not liked more than another, it was in that journey. They differed only in proportion to the degree of diflike be tween the Naufeous and the Infipid. Both these characters of men are born out of a barrennefs of imagination. They are never fools by Nature; but become fuch out of an impotent ambition of being, what the never intended them, men of wit and converfation. I therefore think fit to declare, that according to the known laws of this land, a man may be a very honeft Gentleman, and enjoy himfelf and his friend, without being a Wit; and I abfolve all men from taking pains to be such for the future. As the prefent cafe ftands, is it not very unhappy that Lyfander must be attacked and applauded in a wood, and Corinna jolted and commended in a flage coach; and this for no manner of reason, but becau.e other people have a mind to fhew their parts? I grant indeed, if thefe people, as they have understanding -enough for it, would confine their accomplishments to 2 F 2 thofe thofe of their own degree of talents, it were to be tole rated; but when they are fo infolent as to interrupt the meditations of the wife, the converfations of the agreeable, and the whole behaviour of the modeft, it becomes a grievance naturally in my jurifdiction. Among themfelves, I cannot only overlook, but approve it. I was prefent the other day at a conversation, where a man of this height of breeding and fenfe told a young woman of the fame form, to be fure, Madam, every thing must please that comes from a Lady. She answered, I know, Sir, you are fo much a Gentleman, that you think fo. Why, this was well on both fides; and it is impoffible that fuch a Gentleman and Lady should do otherwife than think well of one another. These are but loose hints of the disturbances in human fociety, for which there is yet no remedy: But I fhall in a little time publifh tables of refpect and civility, by which perfons may be instructed in the proper times and seasons, as well as at what degree of intimacy a man may be allowed to commend or rally his companions; the promifcuous licence of which is, at prefent, far from being among fmall errors in conversation. the P. S. The following Letter was left, with a requeft to be immediately answered, left the artifices used against a Lady in diftrefs may come into common practice. SIR, M Y eldest fifter buried her husband about fix months ago; and at his funeral, a Gentleman "of more art than honefty, on the night of his inter“ment, while fhe was not herself, but in the utmoft agony of her grief, fpoke to her of the fubject of "Love. In that weakness and diftraction which my "fifter was in, as one ready to fall is apt to lean on any body, he obtained her promise of marriage, which was There "accordingly confummated eleven weeks after. " is no affliction comes alone, but one brings another. "My fifter is now ready to lye-in. She humbly asks "of you, as you are a friend to the Sex, to let her "know, who is the lawful father of this child, or whe"ther fhe may not be relieved from this second mar"riage; 5 |