Ter. Eun. Act i. Sc. 2.

-Præsens, absens ut sies. Be present as if absent. 'IT is a hard and nice subject for a man to speak of himself,' says Cowley; it grates his own heart to say any thing of disparagement, and the reader's ears to hear any thing of praise from him.' Let the tenour of his discourse be what it will upon this subject, it generally proceeds from vanity. An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred of talking of his own dear person.

when you look into it, you are sure to meet with more upon Monsieur Montaigne than of either of them. The younger Scaliger, who seems to have been no great friend to this author, after having acquainted the world that his father sold herrings, adds these words: La grande fadaise de Montaigne, qui a écrit qu'il aimoit mieux le vin blanc.-Que diable a-t-on à faire de sçavoir ce qu'il aime? For my part,' says Montaigne, ‘I am a great lover of your white wines. '—'What the devil signifies it to the public,' says Scaliger, whether he is a lover of white wines or of red wines?'

I cannot here forbear mentioning a tribe of egotists, for whom I have always had a mortal aversion-I mean the authors of memoirs, who are never mentioned in any works but their own, and who raise all their productions out of this single figure of speech.

Most of our modern prefaces savour very strongly of the egotism. Every insignificant author fancies it of importance to the world to know that he writ his book in the country, that he did it to pass away some of his idle hours, that it was published at the importunity of friends, or that his natural temper, studies, or conversations, directed him to the choice of his subject:

Some very great writers have been guilty of this fault. It is observed of Tully in particular, that his works run very much in the first person, and that he takes all occasions of doing himself justice, 'Does he think,' says Brutus, that his consulship deserves more applause than my putting Cæsar to death, because I am not perpetually talking of the ides of March, as he is of the nones of December?' I need not acquaint my learned reader, that in the ides of March, Brutus destroyed Cæsar, and that Cicero quashed the conspiracy of Catiline in the calends of December. How shocking soever this great man's talking of himself might have been to his contemporaries, I must confess I am never better pleased than when he is on this subject. Such openings of the heart give a man a In works of humour especially, when a thorough insight into his personal charac-man writes under a fictitious personage, the ter, and illustrate several passages in the talking of one's self may give some diversion history of his life; besides that, there is to the public; but I would advise every some little pleasure in discovering the in- other writer never to speak of himself, unfirmity of a great man, and seeing how the less there be something very considerable opinion he has of himself agrees with what in his character; though I am sensible this the world entertains of him. rule will be of little use in the world, because there is no man who fancies his thoughts worth publishing that does not look upon himself as a considerable person.

The gentlemen of Port Royal, who were more eminent for their learning and for their humility than any other in France, banished the way of speaking in the first person out of all their works, as rising from vain-glory and self-conceit. To show their particular aversion to it, they branded this form of writing with the name of an egotism; a figure not to be found among the ancient rhetoricians.

The most violent egotism which I have met with in the course of my reading, is that of Cardinal Wolsey, ego et rex meus, 'I and my king;' as perhaps the most eminent egotist that ever appeared in the world was Montaigne, the author of the celebrated Essays. This lively old Gascon has woven all his bodily infirmities into his works; and, after having spoken of the faults or virtues of any other men, immediately publishes to the world how it stands with himself in that particular. Had he kept his own counsel, he might have passed for a much better man, though perhaps he would not have been so diverting an author. The title of an Essay promises perhaps a discourse upon Virgil or Julius Cæsar; but,

-Id populus curat scilicet.'

Such informations cannot but be highly improving to the reader.

I shall close this paper with a remark upon such as are egotists in conversation: these are generally the vain or shallow part of mankind, people being naturally full of themselves when they have nothing else in them. There is one kind of egotist which is very common in the world, though I do not remember that any writer has taken notice of them; I mean those empty conceited fellows who repeat, as sayings of their own, or some of their particular friends, several jests which were made before they were born, and which every one who has conversed in the world has heard a hundred times over. A forward young fellow of my acquaintance was very guilty of this absurdity: he would be always laying a new scene for some old piece of wit, and telling us, that, as he and Jack Sucha-one were together, one or t'other of them had such a conceit on such an occasion: upon which he would laugh very heartily, and wonder the company did not join with him. When his mirth was over, I have

often reprehended him out of Terence, | Blanks are those who are planted in high Tuumne, obsecro te, hoc dictum erat? vetus credidi. But finding him still incorrigible, and having a kindness for the young coxcomb, who was otherwise a good-natured fellow, I recommended to his perusal the Oxford and Cambridge jests, with several little pieces of pleasantry of the same nature. Upon the reading of them, he was under no small confusion to find that all his jokes had passed through several editions, and that what he thought a new conceit, and had appropriated to his own use, had appeared in print before he or his ingenious friends were ever heard of. This had so good an effect upon him, that he is content at present to pass for a man of plain sense in his ordinary conversation, and is never facetious but when he knows his company.

every thing that is within reach of his cane. I
I once prevailed upon him never to carry a
stick in his hand, but this saved me nothing;
for upon seeing me do something that did
not please him, he kicked down a great jar
that cost him above ten pounds but the
week before. I then laid the fragments
together in a heap, and gave him his cane
again, desiring him that, if he chanced to
be in anger, he would spend his passion
upon the china that was broke to his hand;
but the very next day, upon my giving a
wrong message to one of the servants, he
flew into such a rage, that he swept down
a dozen tea-dishes, which to my misfortune
stood very convenient for a side blow.

where it is darkened and eclipsed by a hundred other irregular passions.

Men have either no character at all, says a celebrated author, or it is that of being inconsistent with themselves. They find it easier to join extremities, than to be uniform and of a piece. This is finely illustrated in Xenophon's life of Cyrus the Great. That author tells us, that Cyrus having taken a most beautiful lady, named Panthea, the wife of Abradatas, committed her to the custody of Araspas, a young Persian, nobleman, who had a little before maintained in discourse that a mind truly virtuous was incapable of entertaining an unlawful passion. The young gentleman had not long been in possession of his fair captive, when a complaint was made to Cyrus, that he not only solicited the lady Panthea to receive him in the room of her In short, sir, whenever he is in a pas-absent husband, but that, finding his ension he is angry at every thing that is brit-treaties had no effect, he was preparing to tle; and if on such occasions he hath nothing make use of force. Cyrus, who loved the to vent his rage upon, I do not know whe-young man, immediately sent for him, and ther my bones would be in safety. Let me in a gentle manner representing to him his beg of you, sir, to let me know whether fault, and putting him in mind of his former there be any cure for this unaccountable assertion, the unhappy youth, confounded distemper; or if not, that you will be pleased with a quick sense of his guilt and shame, to publish this letter: for my husband having burst out into a flood of tears, and spoke as a great veneration for your writings, will follows: by that means know you do not approve of his conduct. I am, &c.'

'I then removed all my china into a room which he never frequents; but I got nothing by this neither, for my looking-glasses immediately went to rack.

No. 564.] Wednesday, July 7, 1714.

-Adsit

Regula, peccatis quæ pænas irroget æquas,
Ne scutica dignum horribili sectere flagello.
Hor. Sat. iii. Lib. 1. 117.
Let rules be fixed that may our rage contain,
And punish faults with a proportion'd pain;
And do not flay him who deserves alone
A whipping for the fault that he hath done.
Creech.

'Oh Cyrus, I am convinced that I have two souls. Love has taught me this piece of philosophy. If I had but one soul, it could not at the same time pant after virtue and vice, wish and abhor the same thing. It is certain therefore we have two souls: when the good soul rules, I undertake noble and virtuous actions; but, when the bad soul predominates, I am forced to do evil. All can say at present is, that I find my good soul, encouraged by your presence, has got the better of my bad.'

I know not whether my readers will allow of this piece of philosophy; but if they will not, they must confess we meet with as different passions in one and the same soul as can be supposed in two. We can hardly read the life of a great man who lived in former ages, or converse with any who is eminent among our contemporaries, that is not an instance of what I am saying.

IT is the work of a philosopher to be every day subduing his passions, and laying aside his prejudices. I endeavour at least to look upon men and their actions only as an impartial Spectator, without any regard to them as they happen to advance or cross my own private interest. But while I am thus employed myself, I cannot help observing how those about me suffer them- But as I have hitherto only argued against selves to be blinded by prejudice and in- the partiality and injustice of giving our clination, how readily they pronounce on judgment upon men in gross, who are such every man's character, which they can give a composition of virtues and vices, of good in two words, and make him either good and evil, I might carry this reflection still for nothing, or qualified for every thing. On farther, and make it extend to most of the contrary, those who search thoroughly their actions. If on the one hand we fairly into human nature will find it much more weighed every circumstance, we should difficult to determine the value of their fel-frequently find them obliged to do that aclow-creatures, and that men's characters are not thus to be given in general words. There is indeed no such thing as a person entirely good or bad; virtue and vice are blended and mixed together, in a great or less proportion, in every one; and if you would search for some particular good quality in its most eminent degree of perfection, you will often find it in a mind

tion we at first sight condemn, in order to avoid another we should have been much more displeased with. If on the other hand we nicely examined such actions as appear most dazzling to the eye, we should find most of them either deficient and lame in several parts, produced by a bad ambition, or directed to an ill end. The very same action may sometimes be so oddly circum

Deum namque ire per omnes
Terrasque, tractusque maris, cœlumque profundum.
Virg. Georg. iv. 221.

For God the whole created mass inspires:
'Thro' heaven and earth, and ocean's depths he throws
His influence round, and kindles as he goes.-Dryden

stanced, that it is difficult to determine No. 565.] Friday, July 9, 1714. whether it ought to be rewarded or punished. Those who compiled the laws of England were so sensible of this, that they have laid it down as one of their first maxims, 'It is better suffering a mischief than an inconvenience;' which is as much as to say, in other words, that since no law can I was yesterday, about sun-set, walking take in or provide for all cases, it is better in the open fields, until the night insensibly private men should have some injustice fell upon me. I at first amused myself with done them than that a public grievance all the richness and variety of colours which should not be redressed. This is usually appeared in the western parts of heaven; pleaded in defence of all those hardships in proportion as they faded away and went which fall on particular persons on particu-out, several stars and planets appeared one lar occasions, which could not be foreseen after another, until the whole firmament when a law was made. To remedy this was in a glow. The blueness of the ether however as much as possible, the court of was exceedingly heightened and enlivened chancery was erected, which frequently by the season of the year, and by the rays mitigates and breaks the teeth of the com- of all those luminaries that passed through mon law, in cases of men's properties, while it. The galaxy appeared in its most beautiin criminal cases there is a power of par-ful white. To complete the scene, the full doning still lodged in the crown.

Notwithstanding this, it is perhaps impossible in a large government to distribute rewards and punishments strictly proportioned to the merits of every action. The Spartan commonwealth was indeed wonderfully exact in this particular; and I do not remember in all my reading to have met with so nice an example of justice as that recorded by Plutarch, with which I shall close my paper of this day.

moon rose at length in that clouded majesty which Milton takes notice of, and opened to the eye a new picture of nature, which was more finely shaded, and disposed among softer lights than that which the sun had before discovered to us.

As I was surveying the moon walking in her brightness, and taking her progress among the constellations, a thought rose in me which I believe very often perplexes and disturbs men of serious and contemThe city of Sparta being unexpectedly plative natures. David himself fell into it attacked by a powerful army of Thebans, in that reflection, when I consider the was in very great danger of falling into the heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon hands of their enemies. The citizens sud- and the stars which thou hast ordained; denly gathered themselves into a body, what is man that thou art mindful of him, fought with a resolution equal to the neces- and the son of man that thou regardest sity of their affairs, yet no one so remark- him!' In the same manner, when I conably distinguished himself on this occasion, sidered that infinite host of stars, or, to to the amazement of both armies, as Isidas speak more philosophically, of suns which the son of Phoebidas, who was at that time were then shining upon me, with those inin the bloom of his youth, and very remark-numerable sets of planets or worlds which able for the comeliness of his person. He were moving round their respective suns was coming out of the bath when the alarm when I still enlarged the idea, and supposed was given, so that he had not time to put another heaven of suns and worlds rising on his clothes, much less his armour; how- still above this which we discovered, and ever transported with a desire to serve his these still enlightened by a superior firmacountry in so great an exigency, snatching ment of luminaries, which are planted at so up a spear in one hand and a sword in the great a distance, that they may appear to other, he flung himself into the thickest the inhabitants of the former as the stars do ranks of his enemies. Nothing could with- to us; in short, while I pursued this thought, stand his fury: in what part soever he fought I could not but reflect on that little insignihe put the enemies to flight without receiv-ficant figure which I myself bore amidst ing a single wound.-Whether, says Plutarch, he was the particular care of some god, who rewarded his valour that day with an extraordinary protection, or that his enemies, struck with the unusualness of his dress, and beauty of his shape, supposed him something more than man, I shall not determine.

The gallantry of this action was judged so great by the Spartans, that the ephori, or chief magistrates, decreed he should be presented with a garland; but, as soon as they had done so, fined him a thousand drachmas for going out to the battle unarmed.

the immensity of God's works.

Were the sun, which enlightens this part of the creation, with all the host of planetary worlds that move about him, utterly extinguished and annihilated, they would not be missed more than a grain of sand upon the sea-shore. The space they possess is so exceedingly little in comparison of the whole, that it would scarce make a blank in the creation. The chasm would be imperceptible to an eye that could take in the whole compass of nature, and pass from one end of the creation to the other; as it is possible there may be such a sense in ourselves hereafter, or in creatures which are at pre

sent more exalted than ourselves. We see supports the whole frame of nature. His many stars by the help of glasses, which creation, and every part of it, is full of him. we do not discover with our naked eyes; There is nothing he has made that is either and the finer our telescopes are, the more so distant, so little, or so inconsiderable still are our discoveries. Huygenius carries which he does not essentially inhabit. His this thought so far, that he does not think substance is within the substance of every it impossible there may be stars whose light being, whether material or immaterial, and is not yet travelled down to us since their as intimately present to it as that being is first creation. There is no question but the to itself. It would be an imperfection in universe has certain bounds set to it; but him, were he able to remove out of one when we consider that it is the work of in-place into another, or to withdraw himself finite power, prompted by infinite goodness, with an infinite space to exert itself in, how can our imagination set any bounds to it? To return therefore to my first thought: I could not but look upon myself with secret horror, as a being that was not worth the smallest regard of one who had so great a work under his care and superintendency. I was afraid of being overlooked amidst the immensity of nature, and lost among that infinite variety of creatures, which in all probability swarm through all these immeasurable regions of matter.

from any thing he has created, or from any part of that space which is diffused and spread abroad to infinity. In short, to speak of him in the language of the old philosopher, he is a Being whose centre is every where, and his circumference no where.

In the second place, he is omniscient as well as omnipresent. His omniscience indeed necessarily and naturally flows from his omnipresence; he cannot but be conscious of every motion that arises in the whole material world, which he thus essentially pervades, and of every thought In order to recover myself from this mor- that is stirring in the intellectual world, to tifying thought, I considered that it took its every part of which he is thus intimately rise from those narrow conceptions which united. Several moralists have considered we are apt to entertain of the divine nature. the creation as the temple of God, which We ourselves cannot attend to many differ- he has built with his own hands, and which ent objects at the same time. If we are is filled with his presence. Others have careful to inspect some things, we must of considered infinite space as the receptacle, course neglect others. This imperfection, or rather the habitation, of the Almighty: which we observe in ourselves, is an im- but the noblest and most exalted way of perfection that cleaves in some degree to considering this infinite space is that of Sir creatures of the highest capacities, as they Isaac Newton, who calls it the sensorium are creatures, that is, beings of finite and of the Godhead. Brutes and men have limited natures. The presence of every their sensoriola, or little sensoriums, by created being is confined to a certain mea- which they apprehend the presence and sure of space, and consequently his observa- perceive the actions of a few objects that tion is stinted to a certain number of objects. lie contiguous to them. Their knowledge The sphere in which we move, and act, and observation turn within a very narrow and understand, is of a wider circumfer- circle. But as God Almighty cannot but ence to one creature than another, accord-perceive and know every thing in which ing as we rise one above another in the scale of existence. But the widest of these our spheres has its circumference. When, therefore, we reflect on the divine nature, we are so used and accustomed to this imperfection in ourselves, that we cannot forbear in some measure ascribing it to him in whom there is no shadow of imperfection. Our reason indeed assures us that his attributes are infinite; but the poorness of our conceptions is such, that it cannot for-round with the immensity of the Godhead. bear setting bounds to every thing it contemplates, until our reason comes again to our succour, and throws down all those little prejudices which rise in us unawares, and are natural to the mind of man.

We shall therefore utterly extinguish this melancholy thought, of our being overlooked by our Maker in the multiplicity of nis works, and the infinity of those objects among which he seems to be incessantly employed, if we consider, in the first place, that he is omnipresent; and, in the second, that he is omniscient.

If we consider him in his omnipresence, his being passes through, actuates, and

he resides, infinite space gives room to infinite knowledge, and is, as it were, an organ to omniscience.

Were the soul separate from the body, and with one glance of thought should start beyond the bounds of the creation, should it for millions of years continue its progress through infinite space with the same activity, it would still find itself within the embrace of its Creator, and encompassed

Whilst we are in the body he is not less present with us because he is concealed from us. 'O that I knew where I might find him,' says Job. Behold I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand, where he does work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him.' In short, reason, as well as revelation assures us, that he cannot be absent from us, notwithstanding he is undiscovered by us.

In this consideration of God Almighty's omnipresence and omniscience, every un comfortable thought vanishes. He cannot