then Greek to those who have not converfed by Glances. • This, Sir, is a Language in which there can be no De⚫ceit, nor can a skilful Obferver be impofed upon by • Looks even among Politicians and Courtiers. If you do • me the Honour to print this among your Speculations, • I fhall in my next make you a Present of Secret Hiftory, by tranflating all the Looks of the next Affembly of Ladies and Gentlemen into Words, to adorn fome future -Paper. I am, SIR, Your faithful Friend,, Mary Heartfree." Dear Mr. SPECTATOR, Have a Sot of a Husband that lives a very fcandalous Have a a fasaray his Body and Fortune in • Debaucheries; and is immoveable to all the Arguments I can urge to him. I would gladly know whether in 'fome Cafes a Cudgel may not be allowed as a good Figure of Speech, and whether it may not be lawfully ufed by a female Orator... Your bumble Servant, Barbara Crabtree, Mr. SPECTATOR, HOUGH I am a Practitioner in the Law of fome fanding, and have heard many eminent Pleaders in my Time, as well as other eloquent Speakers of both • Universities, yet I agree with you, that Women are bet⚫ter qualified to fucceed in Oratory than the Men, and "believe this is to be refolved into natural Causes. You ⚫ have mentioned only the Volubility of their Tongue;: ⚫ but what do you think of the filent Flattery of their 'pretty Faces, and the Perfwafion which even an infipid '. Difcourfe carries with it when flowing from beautiful Lips, to which it would be cruel to deny any Thing? It is certain too, that they are poffeffed of fome Springs ⚫ of Rhetorick which Men want, fuch as Tears, fainting Fits, and the like, which I have feen employed upon · Occafion with good Succefs. You must know I am ་ any a plain Man and love my Money; yet I have a Spouse who is fo great an Orator in this Way, that she draws ⚫ from me what Sums fhe pleases. Every Room in my • House is furnished with Trophies of her Eloquence, rich Cabinets, Piles of China, Japan Screens, and coftly` Jars; and if you were to come into my great Parlour, you would fancy your felf in an India Ware-houfe: Befides this, fhe keeps a Squirrel, and I am doubly taxed to pay for the China he breaks. She is feized with periodical Fits, about the Time of the Subscriptions to a new Opera, and is drowned in Tears after having feen Woman there in finer Cloaths than her felf: Thefe are arts of Perfwafion purely Feminine, and which a • tender Heart cannot refift. What I would therefore defire of you, is, to prevail with your Friend who has ⚫ promised to diffect a Female Tongue, that he would at ⚫ the fame Time give us the Anatomy of a Female Eye, and explain the Springs and Sluices which feed it with fuch ready Supplies of Moisture; and likewise fhew by what Means, if poffible, they may be ftopped at a reafonable Expence: Or indeed, fince there is fomething fo moving in the very Image of weeping Beauty, it ⚫ would be worthy his Art to provide, that these eloquent Drops may no more be lavished on Trifles, or employed as Servants to their wayward Wills; but reserved for ⚫ferious Occafions in Life, to adorn generous Pity, true Penitence, or real Sorrow. T I am, &c. No. 253. Thursday, December 20. Indignor quicquam reprehendi, non quia crasse Compofitum, illepideve putetur, fed quia nuper. Hor. TH HERE is nothing which more denotes a great Mind, than the Abhorrence of Envy and Detraction. This Paffion reigns more among bad Poets, than among any other Set of Men. As As there are none more ambitious of Fame, than those who are converfant in Poetry, it is very natural for fuch as have not fucceeded in it to depreciate the Works of those who have. For fince they cannot raise themselves to the Reputation of their Fellow-Writers, they must endeavour to fink it to their own Pitch, if they would still keep themselves upon a Level with them. THE greatest Wits that ever were produced in one Age lived together in fo good an Understanding, and celebrated one another with fo much Generofity, that each of them receives an additional Luftre from his Contemporaries, and is more famous for having lived with Men of fo extraordinary a Genius, than if he had himself been the fole Wonder of the Age. I need not tell my Reader, that I here point at the Reign of Auguftus, and I believe he will be of my Opinion, that neither Virgil nor Horace would have gained fo great a Reputation in the World, had they not been the Friends and Admirers of each other. Indeed all the great Writers of that Age, for whom fingly we have fo great an Efteem, ftand up together as Vouchers for one another's Reputation. But at the fame Time that Virgil was celebrated by Gallus, Propertius, Horace, Varius, Tucca and Ovid, we know that Bavius and Mavius were his declared Foes and Calumniators. IN our own Country a Man feldom fets up fora Poet, without attacking the Reputation of all his Brothers in the Art. The Ignorance of the Moderns, the Scriblers of the Age, the Decay of Poetry, are the Topicks of Detraction, with which he makes his Entrance into the World: But how much more noble is the Fame that is built on Candour and Ingenuity, according to those beautiful Lines of Sir John Denham, in his Poem on Fletcher's Works! But whither am I ftray'd? I need not raife I am forry to find that an Author, who is very juftly efteemed among the best Judges, has admitted fome Stroaks Stroaks of this Nature into a very fine Poem, I mean The Art of Criticifm, which was publish'd fome Months fince, and is a Mafter-piece in its Kind. The Obfervations follow one another like thofe in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical Regularity which would have been requifite in a Profe Author. They are fome of them uncommon, but fuch as the Reader muft affent to, when he fees them explained with that Elegance and Perfpicuity in which they are delivered. As for those which are the moft known, and the moft received, they are placed in fo beautiful a Light, and illuftrated with fuch apt Allufions, that they have in them all the Graces of Novelty, and make the Reader, who was before acquainted with them, ftill more convinced of their Truth and Solidity. And here give me Leave to mention what Monfieur Boileau has fo very well enlarged upon in the Preface to his Works, that Wit and fine Writing doth not confift fo much in advancing Things that are new, as in giving Things that are known an agreeable Turn. It is impoffible for us, who live in the latter Ages of the World, to make Obfervations in Criticism, Morality, or in any Art or Science, which have not been touched upon by others. We have little elfe left us, but to reprefent the common Senfe of Mankind in more ftrong, more beautiful, or more uncommon Lights. If a Reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but very few Precepts in it, which he may not meet with in Ariftotle, and which were not commonly known by all the Poets of the Auguftan Age. His Way of expreffing and applying them,' not his Invention of them, is what we are chiefly to admire. FOR this Reason I think there is nothing in the World fo tiresome as the Works of those Criticks, who write in a pofitive dogmatick Way, without either Language, Genius or Imagination. If the Reader would see how the best of the Latin Criticks writ, he may find their Manner very beautifully described in the Characters of Horace, Petronius, Quintilian, and Longinus, as they are drawn in the Effay of which I am now fpeaking. SINCE I have mentioned Longinus, who in his Reflections has given us the fame Kind of Sublime, which he obferves in the feveral Paffages that occafioned them; I cannot but take Notice, that our English Author has after the fame manner exemplified several of his Precepts in the very Precepts themfelves. I fhall produce two or three Inftances of this Kind. Speaking of the infipid Smoothnefs which fome Readers are fo much in Love with, he has the following Verses. Thefe Equal Syllables alone require, Tho oft the Ear the open Vowels tire, THE gaping of the Vowels in the fecond Line, the Expletive do in the third, and the ten Monofyllables in the fourth, give fuch a Beauty to this Paffage, as would have been very much admired in an antient Poet. The Reader may obferve the following Lines in the fame View. A needless Alexandrine ends the Song, That like a wounded Snake, drags its flow Length along. 'Tis not enough no Harshness gives Offence, THE beautiful Diftich upon Ajax in the foregoing It is where Sisyphus is represented lifting his Stone up the Hill, which is no fooner carried to the Top of it, but it immediately tumbles to the Bottom. This double Motion of the Stone is admirably defcribed in the Numbers of these Verfes; as in the four first it is heaved up by feveral Spondees intermixed with proper Breathingplaces, and at last trundles down in a continued Line of Dactyles. Kai |