the policies, and arts, of mortal men, will be thought as trifling as hobby-horses, mock-battles, 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.

'If the notion of a gradual rise 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 same rule, if I may indulge my fancy in this particular, a superior brute looks with a kind of pride on one of an inferior species. If they could reflect, we might imagine, from the gestures of some 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 absurd 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 amuse 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 instance for this purpose.

Then turning, said to Partlet, See, my dear,
How lavish nature hath adorn'd the year;
How the pale primrose and the violet spring,
And birds essay their throats, disus'd to sing:
All these are ours, and I with pleasure see
Man strutting on two legs, and aping me.

'What I would observe from the whole is this, that we ought to value ourselves upon those things only which superior beings think valuable, since that is the only way for us not to sink in our own esteem hereafter.'

N° 622. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1714.

Fallentis semita vitæ.-HOR. 1 Ep. xviii. 103.

A safe private quiet, which betrays

Itself to ease, and cheats away the days.-POOLEY.

MR. SPECTATOR,

IN a former speculation you have observed, that true greatness doth not consist in that pomp and noise wherein the generality of mankind are apt to place it. You have there taken notice that virtue in obscurity often appears more illustrious in the eye of superior beings, than all that passes for grandeur and magnificence among men.

When we look back upon the history of those who have borne the parts of kings, statesmen, or commanders, they appear to us stripped of those outside ornaments that dazzle their contemporaries; and we regard their persons as great or little in proportion to the eminence of their virtues or vices. The wise sayings, generous sentiments, or disinterested conduct of a philosopher under mean circumstances of life, set him higher in our esteem than the mighty potentates of the earth, when we view them both through the long prospect of many ages. Were the memoirs of an obscure man, who lived up to the dignity of his nature, and according to the rules of virtue, to be laid before us, we should find nothing in such a character which might not set him on a level with men of the highest stations. The following extract out of the private papers of an honest country gentleman will set this matter in a clear light. Your reader will, perhaps, conceive a greater idea of him from these actions done in secret, and with

out a witness, than of those which have drawn upon them the admiration of multitudes.

MEMOIRS.

In my twenty-second year I found a violent affection for my cousin Charles's wife growing upon me, wherein I was in danger of succeeding, 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 refused the offer of his estate, and prevailed upon him not to disinherit his son Ned.

'Mem. Never to tell this to Ned, lest he should think hardly of his deceased father; though he continues to speak ill of me for this very reason.

'Prevented a scandalous lawsuit 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.

'Procured a benefice for a young divine, who is sister's son to the good man who was my tutor, and hath been dead twenty years.

H

Gave ten pounds to poor Mrs.

's widow.

-, my friend 'Mem. To retrench one dish at my table, until I have fetched it up again.

'Mem. To repair my house and finish my gardens, in order to employ poor people after harvesttime.

's

Ordered John to let out goodman D sheep that were pounded, by night; but not to let his fellow-servants know it.

Prevailed upon M. T. Esq. not to take the law of the farmer's son for shooting a partridge, and to give him his gun again.

'Paid the apothecary for curing an old woman that confessed herself a witch.

Gave away my favourite dog, for biting a beggar. 'Made the minister of the parish and a whig justice of one mind, by putting them upon explaining their notions to one another.

'Mem. To turn off Peter for shooting a doe while she was eating acorns out of his hand.

"When my neighbour John, who hath often injured me comes to make his request to-morrow.

Mem. I have forgiven him.

Laid up my chariot, and sold my horses to relieve the poor in a scarcity of corn.

In the same year remitted to my tenants a fifth part of their rents.

'As I was airing to-day I fell into a thought that warmed my heart, and shall, I hope, be the better for it as long as I live.

'Mem. To charge my son in private to erect no monument for me; but not to put this in my last will.'

N° 623. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1714.

Sed mihi vel tellus optem priùs ima dehiscat;
Vel pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,
Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundam,
Ante, pudor, quam te violem, aut tua jura resolvam.
Ille meos, primus qui me sibi junxit, amores
Abstulit; ille habeat secum, servetque sepulcro.

VIRG. En. iv. 24.

But first let yawning earth a passage rend,
And let me thro' the dark abyss descend;
First let avenging Jove, with flames from high,
Drive down this body to the nether sky,
Condemn'd with ghosts in endless night to lie;
Before I break the plighted faith I gave;
No he who had my vows shall ever have;
For whom I lov'd on earth, I worship in the grave.

DRYDEN.

I AM obliged to my friend the love-casuist for the following curious piece of antiquity, which I shall communicate to the public in his own words.

· MR. SPECTATOR,

'You may remember that I lately transmitted to you an account of an ancient custom in the manors of East and West Enborne, in the county of Berks, and elsewhere. "If a customary tenant die, the widow shall have what the law calls her freebench, in all his copyhold lands, dum sola et casta fuerit; that is, while she lives single and chaste; but if she commit incontinency, she forfeits her estate; yet if she will come into the court riding backward upon a black ram, with his tail in her hand, and say the words following, the steward is bound by the custom to re-admit her to her freebench.