The Egyptians, who made use of hieroglyphics to signify several things, expressed a man who confined his knowledge and discoveries a together within himself by the figure of a dark lantern clowed on all sides; which, though it was aminated within, afforded no manner of light or advan tage to such as stood by it. For my own part, as 1 shall from time to time communicate to the pubhe whatever discoveries I happen to make, I should much rather be compared to an ordinary lamp, which consumes and wastes itself for the benefit of every passenger.

I shall conclude this paper with the story of Rosicrusius's sepulchre. I suppose I need not inform my readers that this man was the author of the Rosicrusian sect, and that his disciples still pretend to new discoveries, which they are never to communicate to the rest of mankind*.

A certain person having occasion to dig somewhat deep in the ground, where this philosopher Jay interred, met with a small door, having a wall on each side of it. His curiosity, and the hopes of finding some hidden treasure, soon prompted him to force open the door. He was immediately surprised by a sudden blaze of light, and discovered a very fair vault. At the upper end of it was a statue of a man in armour, sitting by a table, and leaning on his left arm. He held a truncheon in his right hand, and had a lamp burning before him. The man had no sooner set one foot within the vault, than the statue erected itself from its leaning posture, stood bolt up-right, and, upon the fellow's advancing another step, lifted up the trun

* See Comte de Gabalis, par l'Abbe Villars. 1742. vols. in 12mo.; and Pope's Works, ed. oi Warb, vol. i. p, 109 12me. 1770, 6 vols.

cheon in his right hand. The man still ventured a third step, when the statue, with a furious blow, broke the lamp into a thousand pieces, and left his guest in a sudden darkness.

Upon the report of this adventure, the country people soon came with lights to the sepulchre, and discovered that the statue, which was made of brass, was nothing more than a piece of clock-work; that the floor of the vault was all loose, and underlaid with several springs, which, upon any man's entering, naturally produced that which had happened.'

Rosicrusius, say his disciples, made use of this method, to show the world that he had re-invented the ever-burning lamps of the ancients, though he was resolved no one should reap any advantage from the discovery.

X.

N° 380. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1712.

Rivalem patienter habe.

OVID Ars Am. ii. 538.

K SIR,

With patience bear a rival in thy love.

Thursday, May 8, 1712.

THE character you have in the world of being the ladies' philosopher, and the pretty advice I have seen you give to others in your papers, make me address myself to you in this abrupt manner, and to desire your opinion of what in this age a woman may call a lover. I have lately had a

Isa. ix. 6.
ii. 4.

As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pastures and the purest air,
Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs,
By day o'ersees them, and by night protects,
The tender lamb he raises in his arms,

Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms;
Mankind shall thus his guardian care engage,
The promis'd father of the future age.
No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover'd o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more:
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in a plough-share end.
Av. 21, 22. Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son

Shall finish what the short-liv'd sire begun ;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sow'd shall reap the field.
xxxv. 1. 7. The swain in barren deserts with surprise
Sees lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise,
And starts amidst the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murmuring in his ear:
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn:

xli. 19, and
lv. 13.

To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed,
And od'rous myrtle to the noisome weed.

xi. 6, 7, 8. The lambs with wolves shall grace the verdant

x. 1.

Ix. 4.

mead,

And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead;

The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,

And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet:
The smiling infant in his hand shall take

The crested basilisk and speckled snake-
Pleas'd the green lustre of the scales survey,
And with their forked tongue and pointless sting
shall play.

Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise!
Exalt thy towery head, and lift thy eyes!
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn!
See future sons and daughters yet unborn
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!

See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend!
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings,
And heap'd with products of Sabæan springs!
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,
And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee with a flood of day!
No more the rising sun shall gild the moru,
Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn,
But lost, dissolv'd in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts: the LIGHT HIMSELF shall
shine

Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!

The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd His word, His saving power remains;
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns.

Isa. lx. 3.

lx. 6. lx.

Ix. 19, 20.

li. 6.

li. 6. and liv. 10.

T.

N° 379. THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1712,

Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter.

PERS. Sat. i. 27.

Science is not science till reveal'd.

DRYDEN.

I HAVE often wondered at that ill natured position which has been sometimes maintained in the schools, and is comprised in an old Latin verse, namely, that A man's knowledge is worth nothing if he communicates what he knows to any one besides.' There is certainly no more sensible pleasure to a good-natured man, than if he can by any means gratify or inform the mind of another. might add, that this virtue naturally carries its

I

own reward along with it, since it is almost impossible it should be exercised without the improvement of the person who practises it. The reading of books, and the daily occurrences of life, are continually furnishing us with matter for thought and reflexion. It is extremely natural for us to desire to see such our thoughts put in the dress of words; without which, indeed, we can scarce have a clear and distinct idea of them ourselves. When they are thus clothed in expressions, nothing so truly shows us whether they are just or false, as those effects which they produce in the minds of others.

Lam apt to flatter myself, that, in the course of these my speculations, I have treated of several subjects, and laid down many such rules for the conduct of a man's life, which my readers were either wholly ignorant of before, or which at least those few who were acquainted with them looked upon as so many secrets they have found out for the conduct of themselves, but were resolved never to have made public.

I am the more confirmed in this opinion from my having received several letters, wherein I am censured for having prostituted Learning to the embraces of the vulgar, and made her, as one of my correspondents phrases it, a common strumpet. I am charged by another with laying open the arcana or secrets of prudence to the eyes of every reader.

The narrow spirit which appears in the letters of these my correspondents is the less surprising, as it has shown itself in all ages: there is still extant an epistle written by Alexander the Great to his tutor Aristotle, upon that philosopher's publishing some part of his writings; in which the prince complains of his having made known to all the world those se▾