and cudgel'd a Body of
Smiglesians
half the length of
High-street
, 'till they had dispersed
themselves for Shelter into their respective Garrisons.
Humour, I find, went very far in
Erasmus's
Time. For that Author
tells us
, That upon the Revival of
Greek
Letters, most of the
Universities in
Europe
were divided into
Greeks
and
Trojans
. The
latter were those who bore a mortal Enmity to the Language of the
Grecians
, insomuch that if they met with any who understood it, they
did not fail to treat him as a Foe.
Erasmus
himself had, it seems, the
Misfortune to fall into the Hands of a Party of
Trojans
, who laid him
on with so many Blows and Buffets that he never forgot their Hostilities
to his dying Day.
There is a way of managing an Argument not much unlike the former, which
is made use of by States and Communities, when they draw up a hundred
thousand Disputants on each Side, and convince one another by Dint of
Sword.
certain Grand Monarch
was so sensible of his Strength in
this way of Reasoning, that he writ upon his Great Guns—
Ratio ultima
Regum, The Logick of Kings
; but, God be thanked, he is now pretty well
baffled at his own Weapons. When
was to do with a Philosopher of
this kind, one should remember the old Gentleman's Saying, who had been
engaged in an Argument with one of the
Roman
Emperors
. Upon his
Friend's telling him, That he wonder'd he would give up the Question,
when he had visibly the Better of the Dispute;
I am never asham'd
,
says he,
to be confuted by one who is Master of fifty Legions
.
I
but just mention another kind of Reasoning, which may be called
arguing by Poll; and another which is of equal Force, in which Wagers
are made use of as Arguments, according to the celebrated Line in
Hudibras
.
But the most notable way of managing a Controversy, is that which we may
call
Arguing by Torture
.
is a Method of Reasoning which has been
made use of with the poor Refugees, and which was so fashionable in our
Country during the Reign of Queen
Mary
, that in a Passage of an Author
quoted by Monsieur
Bayle
it is said the Price of Wood was raised
in
England
, by reason of the Executions that were made in
Smithfield
.
Disputants convince their Adversaries with a
Sorites
, commonly called a Pile of Faggots. The Rack is also a
kind of Syllogism which has been used with good Effect, and has made
Multitudes of Converts. Men were formerly disputed out of their Doubts,
reconciled to Truth by Force of Reason, and won over to Opinions by the
Candour, Sense and Ingenuity of those who had the Right on their Side;
but this Method of Conviction operated too slowly. Pain was found to be
much more enlightning than Reason. Every Scruple was looked upon as
Obstinacy, and not to be removed but by several Engines invented for
that Purpose. In a Word, the Application of Whips, Racks, Gibbets,
Gallies, Dungeons, Fire and Faggot, in a Dispute, may be look'd upon as
Popish Refinements upon the old Heathen Logick.
There is another way of Reasoning which seldom fails, tho' it be of a
quite different Nature to that I have last mentioned. I mean, convincing
a Man by ready Money, or as it is ordinarily called, bribing a Man to an
Opinion. This Method has often proved successful, when all the others
have been made use of to no purpose. A Man who is furnished with
Arguments from the Mint, will convince his Antagonist much sooner than
one who draws them from Reason and Philosophy. Gold is a wonderful
Clearer of the Understanding; it dissipates every Doubt and Scruple in
an Instant; accommodates itself to the meanest Capacities; silences the
Loud and Clamorous, and brings over the most Obstinate and Inflexible.
Philip of Macedon
was a Man of most invincible Reason this Way. He
refuted by it all the Wisdom of
Athens
, confounded their Statesmen,
struck their Orators dumb, and at length argued them out of all their
Liberties.
Having here touched upon the several Methods of Disputing, as they have
prevailed in different Ages of the World, I shall very suddenly give my
Reader an Account of the whole Art of Cavilling; which shall be a full
and satisfactory Answer to all such Papers and Pamphlets as have yet
appeared against the
Spectator
.
C.
Defile
The followers of the famous scholastic philosopher, Duns
Scotus (who taught at Oxford and died in 1308), were Realists, and the
Scotists were as Realists opposed to the Nominalists, who, as followers
of Thomas Aquinas, were called Thomists. Abuse, in later time, of the
followers of Duns gave its present sense to the word Dunce.
The followers of Martin Simglecius a Polish Jesuit, who
taught Philosophy for four years and Theology for ten years at Vilna, in
Lithuania, and died at Kalisch in 1618. Besides theological works he
published a book of Disputations upon Logic.
Erasm.
Epist
.
Louis XIV.
Adrian, cited in Bacon's
Apophthegms
.
Hudibras, Pt. II. c. i, v. 297. See [Volume 1 links:
to
. ]
And. Ammonius in Bayle's
Life
of him, but the saying was of
the reign of Henry VIII.
A Sorites, in Logic,—from
Greek: sôrós
a heap—is a
pile of syllogisms so compacted that the conclusion of one serves as a
premiss to the next.
Contents
Contents, p.2
|
Wednesday, December 5, 1711 |
Steele |
—Aliter not fit, Avite, liber.
Mart.
Mr.
Spectator,
I am of one of the most genteel Trades in the City, and understand
thus much of liberal Education, as to have an ardent Ambition of being
useful to Mankind, and to think That the chief End of Being as to this
Life. I had these good Impressions given me from the handsome
Behaviour of a learned, generous, and wealthy Man towards me when I
first began the World. Some Dissatisfaction between me and my Parents
made me enter into it with less Relish of Business than I ought; and
to turn off this Uneasiness I gave my self to criminal Pleasures, some
Excesses, and a general loose Conduct. I know not what the excellent
Man above-mentioned saw in me, but he descended from the Superiority
of his Wisdom and Merit, to throw himself frequently into my Company.
This made me soon hope that I had something in me worth cultivating,
and his Conversation made me sensible of Satisfactions in a regular
Way, which I had never before imagined. When he was grown familiar
with me, he opened himself like a good Angel, and told me, he had long
laboured to ripen me into a Preparation to receive his Friendship and
Advice, both which I should daily command, and the Use of any Part of
his Fortune, to apply the Measures he should propose to me, for the
Improvement of my own. I assure you, I cannot recollect the Goodness
and Confusion of the good Man when he spoke to this Purpose to me,
without melting into Tears; but in a word, Sir, I must hasten to tell
you, that my Heart burns with Gratitude towards him, and he is so
happy a Man, that it can never be in my Power to return him his
Favours in Kind, but I am sure I have made him the most agreeable
Satisfaction I could possibly,
in being ready to serve others to my
utmost Ability, as far as is consistent with the Prudence he
prescribes to me. Dear Mr.
Spectator, I do not owe to him only the
good Will and Esteem of my own Relations, (who are People of
Distinction) the present Ease and Plenty of my Circumstances, but also
the Government of my Passions, and Regulation of my Desires. I doubt
not, Sir, but in your Imagination such Virtues as these of my worthy
Friend, bear as great a Figure as Actions which are more glittering in
the common Estimation. What I would ask of you, is to give us a whole
Spectator upon Heroick Virtue in common Life, which may incite Men
to the same generous Inclinations, as have by this admirable Person
been shewn to, and rais'd in,
Sir, Your most humble Servant.
Mr.
Spectator,
I am a Country Gentleman, of a good plentiful Estate, and live as the
rest of my Neighbours with great Hospitality. I have been ever
reckoned among the Ladies the best Company in the World, and have
Access as a sort of Favourite. I never came in Publick but I saluted
them, tho' in great Assemblies, all round, where it was seen how
genteelly I avoided hampering my Spurs in their Petticoats, while I
moved amongst them; and on the other side how prettily they curtsied
and received me, standing in proper Rows, and advancing as fast as
they saw their Elders, or their Betters, dispatch'd by me. But so it
is, Mr.
Spectator, that all our good Breeding is of late lost by the
unhappy Arrival of a Courtier, or Town Gentleman, who came lately
among us: This Person where-ever he came into a Room made a profound
Bow, and fell back, then recovered with a soft Air, and made a Bow to
the next, and so to one or two more, and then took the Gross of the
Room, by passing by them in a continued Bow till he arrived at the
Person he thought proper particularly to entertain. This he did with
so good a Grace and Assurance, that it is taken for the present
Fashion; and there is no young Gentlewoman within several Miles of
this Place has been kissed ever since his first Appearance among us.
We Country Gentlemen cannot begin again and learn these fine and
reserved Airs; and our Conversation is at a Stand, till we have your
Judgment for or against Kissing, by way of Civility or Salutation;
which is impatiently expected by your Friends of both Sexes, but by
none so much as
Your humble Servant,
Rustick Sprightly.
December 3, 1711.
Mr.
Spectator,
I
was the other Night at
Philaster1, where I expected to hear your
famous Trunk-maker, but was happily disappointed of his Company, and
saw another Person who had the like Ambition to distinguish himself in
a noisy manner, partly by Vociferation or talking loud, and partly by
his bodily Agility. This was a very lusty Fellow, but withal a sort of
Beau, who getting into one of the Side-boxes on the Stage before the
Curtain drew, was disposed to shew the whole Audience his Activity by
leaping over the Spikes; he pass'd from thence to one of the entering
Doors, where he took Snuff with a tolerable good Grace, display'd his
fine Cloaths, made two or three feint Passes at the Curtain with his
Cane, then faced about and appear'd at t'other Door: Here he affected
to survey the whole House, bow'd and smil'd at random, and then shew'd
his Teeth, which were some of them indeed very white: After this he
retired behind the Curtain, and obliged us with several Views of his
Person from every Opening.
During the Time of Acting, he appear'd frequently in the Prince's
Apartment, made one at the Hunting-match, and was very forward in the
Rebellion. If
there were no Injunctions to the contrary, yet this
Practice must be confess'd to diminish the Pleasure of the Audience,
and for that Reason presumptuous and unwarrantable: But since her
Majesty's late Command has made it criminal
2, you have Authority to
take Notice of it.
Sir,
Your humble Servant,
Charles Easy.
T.
Beaumont and Fletcher's
Philaster
had been acted on the
preceding Friday, Nov. 30. The Hunt is in the Fourth Act, the Rebellion
in the Fifth.
At this time there had been added to the playbills the line
By her Majesty's Command no Person is to be admitted behind the
Scenes.
Contents
Contents, p.2
|
Thursday, December 6, 1711 |
Addison |
—Semperque relinqui
Sola sibi, semper longam incomitata videtur
Ire viam—
Virg.
Mr. Spectator,
Though you have considered virtuous Love inmost of its Distresses, I
do not remember that you have given us any Dissertation upon the
Absence of Lovers, or laid down any Methods how they should support
themselves under those long Separations which they are sometimes
forced to undergo. I am at present in this unhappy Circumstance,
having parted with the best of Husbands, who is abroad in the Service
of his Country, and may not possibly return for some Years. His warm
and generous Affection while we were together, with the Tenderness
which he expressed to me at parting, make his Absence almost
insupportable. I think of him every Moment of the Day, and meet him
every Night in my Dreams. Every thing I see puts me in mind of him. I
apply myself with more than ordinary Diligence to the Care of his
Family and his Estate; but this, instead of relieving me, gives me but
so many Occasions of wishing for his Return. I frequent the Rooms
where I used to converse with him, and not meeting him there, sit down
in his Chair, and fall a weeping. I love to read the Books he
delighted in, and to converse with the Persons whom he esteemed. I
visit his Picture a hundred times a Day, and place myself over-against
it whole Hours together. I pass a great part of my Time in the Walks
where I used to lean upon his Arm, and recollect in my Mind the
Discourses which have there passed between us: I look over the several
Prospects and Points of View which we used to survey together, fix my
Eye upon the Objects which he has made me take notice of, and call to
mind a thousand [agreeable] Remarks which he has made on those
Occasions. I write to him by every Conveyance, and contrary to other
People, am always in good Humour when an East-Wind blows, because it
seldom fails of bringing me a Letter from him. Let me entreat you,
Sir, to give me your Advice upon this Occasion, and to let me know how
I may relieve my self in this my Widowhood.
I am, Sir, Your most humble Servant,
Asteria.
Absence is what the Poets call Death in Love, and has given Occasion to
abundance of beautiful Complaints in those Authors who have treated of
this Passion in Verse.
Ovid's
Epistles are full of
.
Otway's
Monimia
talks very tenderly upon this Subject
.
It was not kind
To leave me like a Turtle, here alone,
To droop and mourn the Absence of my Mate.
When thou art from me, every Place is desert:
And I, methinks, am savage and forlorn.
Thy Presence only 'tis can make me blest,
Heal my unquiet Mind, and tune my Soul.
The Consolations of Lovers on these Occasions are very extraordinary.
Besides those mentioned by
Asteria
, there are many other Motives of
Comfort, which are made use of by absent Lovers.
I remember in one of
Scudery's
Romances, a Couple of honourable Lovers
agreed at their parting to set aside one half Hour in the Day to think
of each other during a tedious Absence. The Romance tells us, that they
both of them punctually observed the Time thus agreed upon; and that
whatever Company or Business they were engaged in, they left it abruptly
as soon as the Clock warned them to retire. The Romance further adds,
That the Lovers expected the Return of this stated Hour with as much
Impatience, as if it had been a real Assignation, and enjoyed an
imaginary Happiness that was almost as pleasing to them as what they
would have found from a real Meeting. It was an inexpressible
Satisfaction to these divided Lovers, to be assured that each was at the
same time employ'd in the same kind of Contemplation, and making equal
Returns of Tenderness and Affection.
If I may be allowed to mention a more serious Expedient for the
alleviating of Absence, I shall take notice of one which I have known
two Persons practise, who joined Religion to that Elegance of Sentiments
with which the Passion of Love generally inspires its Votaries. This
was, at the Return of such an Hour, to offer up a certain Prayer for
each other, which they had agreed upon before their Parting. The
Husband, who is a Man that makes a Figure in the polite World, as well
as in his own Family, has often told me, that he could not have
supported an Absence of three Years without this Expedient.
Strada, in one of his Prolusions,
gives an Account of a
chimerical Correspondence between two Friends by the Help of a certain
Loadstone,
had such Virtue in it, that if it touched two several
Needles, when one of the Needles so touched
began
, to move, the
other, tho' at never so great a Distance, moved at the same Time, and in
the same Manner. He tells us, that the two Friends, being each of them
possessed of one of these Needles, made a kind of a Dial-plate,
inscribing it with the four and twenty Letters, in the same manner as
the Hours of the Day are marked upon the ordinary Dial-plate. They then
fixed one of the Needles on each of these Plates in such a manner, that
it could move round without Impediment, so as to touch any of the four
and twenty Letters. Upon their Separating from one another into distant
Countries, they agreed to withdraw themselves punctually into their
Closets at a certain Hour of the Day, and to converse with one another
by means of this their Invention. Accordingly when they were some
hundred Miles asunder, each of them shut himself up in his Closet at the
Time appointed, and immediately cast his Eye upon his Dial-plate. If he
had a mind to write any thing to his Friend, he directed his Needle to
every Letter that formed the Words which he had occasion for, making a
little Pause at the end of every Word or Sentence, to avoid Confusion.
The Friend, in the mean while, saw his own sympathetick Needle moving of
itself to every Letter which that of his Correspondent pointed at. By
this means they talked together across a whole Continent, and conveyed
their Thoughts to one another in an Instant over Cities or Mountains,
Seas or Desarts.
If Monsieur
Scudery
, or any other Writer of Romance, had introduced a
Necromancer, who is generally in the Train of a Knight-Errant, making a
Present to two Lovers of a Couple of those above-mentioned Needles, the
Reader would not have been a little pleased to have seen them
corresponding with one another when they were guarded by Spies and
Watches, or separated by Castles and Adventures.
In the mean while, if ever this Invention should be revived or put in
practice, I would propose, that upon the Lover's Dial-plate there should
be written not only the four and twenty Letters, but several entire
Words which have always a Place in passionate Epistles, as
Flames,
Darts, Die, Language, Absence, Cupid, Heart, Eyes, Hang, Drown
, and the
like. This would very much abridge the Lover's Pains in this way of
writing a Letter, as it would enable him to express the most useful and
significant Words with a single Touch of the Needle.
C.
Orphan
, Act II.
In one of Strada's Prolusions he
; Lib. II. Prol. 6.
begun
, and in first reprint.
Contents
Contents, p.2
|
Friday, December 7, 1711 |
Steele |
Creditur, ex medio quia res arcessit, habere
Sudoris minimum—
Hor.
Mr.
Spectator,
Your Speculations do not so generally prevail over Men's Manners as I
could wish.
A former Paper of yours
1 concerning the Misbehaviour of
People, who are necessarily in each other's Company in travelling,
ought to have been a lasting Admonition against Transgressions of that
Kind: But I had the Fate of your Quaker, in meeting with a rude Fellow
in a Stage-Coach, who entertained two or three Women of us (for there
was no Man besides himself) with Language as indecent as was ever
heard upon the Water. The impertinent Observations which the Coxcomb
made upon our Shame and Confusion were such, that it is an unspeakable
Grief to reflect upon them. As much as you have declaimed against
Duelling, I hope you will do us the Justice to declare, that if the
Brute has Courage enough to send to the Place where he saw us all
alight together to get rid of him, there is not one of us but has a
Lover who shall avenge the Insult. It would certainly be worth your
Consideration, to look into the frequent Misfortunes of this kind, to
which the Modest and Innocent are exposed, by the licentious Behaviour
of such as are as much Strangers to good Breeding as to Virtue.
Could
we avoid hearing what we do not approve, as easily as we can seeing
what is disagreeable, there were some Consolation; but since
in a Box
at a Play,2 in an Assembly of Ladies, or even in a Pew at Church,
it is in the Power of a gross Coxcomb to utter what a Woman cannot
avoid hearing, how miserable is her Condition who comes within the
Power of such Impertinents? And how necessary is it to repeat
Invectives against such a Behaviour? If the Licentious had not utterly
forgot what it is to be modest, they would know that offended Modesty
labours under one of the greatest Sufferings to which human Life can
be exposed. If one of these Brutes could reflect thus much, tho' they
want Shame, they would be moved, by their Pity, to abhor an impudent
Behaviour in the Presence of the Chaste and Innocent. If you will
oblige us with a
Spectator on this Subject, and procure it to be
pasted against every Stage-Coach in
Great-Britain, as the Law of the
Journey, you will highly oblige the whole Sex, for which you have
professed so great an Esteem; and in particular, the two Ladies my
late Fellow-Sufferers, and,
Sir,
Your most humble Servant,
Rebecca Ridinghood.
Mr.
Spectator,
The Matter which I am now going to send you, is an unhappy Story in
low Life, and will recommend it self, so that you must excuse the
Manner of expressing it. A poor idle drunken Weaver in
Spittle-Fields has a faithful laborious Wife, who by her Frugality
and Industry had laid by her as much Money as purchased her a Ticket
in the present Lottery. She had hid this very privately in the Bottom
of a Trunk, and had given her Number to a Friend and Confident, who
had promised to keep the Secret, and bring her News of the Success.
The poor Adventurer was one Day gone abroad, when her careless
Husband, suspecting she had saved some Money, searches every Corner,
till at length he finds this same Ticket; which he immediately carries
abroad, sells, and squanders away the Money without the Wife's
suspecting any thing of the Matter. A Day or two after this, this
Friend, who was a Woman, comes and brings the Wife word, that she had
a Benefit of Five Hundred Pounds. The poor Creature over-joyed, flies
up Stairs to her Husband, who was then at Work, and desires him to
leave his Loom for that Evening, and come and drink with a Friend of
his and hers below. The Man received this chearful Invitation as bad
Husbands sometimes do, and after a cross Word or two told her he
wou'dn't come.
His Wife with Tenderness renewed her Importunity, and
at length said to him, My Love! I have within these few Months,
unknown to you, scraped together as much Money as has bought us a
Ticket in the Lottery, and now here is Mrs. Quick
come3 to tell
me, that 'tis come up this Morning a Five hundred Pound Prize. The
Husband replies immediately, You lye, you Slut, you have no Ticket,
for I have sold it. The poor Woman upon this Faints away in a Fit,
recovers, and is now run distracted. As she had no Design to defraud
her Husband, but was willing only to participate in his good Fortune,
every one pities her, but thinks her Husband's Punishment but just.
This, Sir, is Matter of Fact, and would, if the Persons and
Circumstances were greater, in a well-wrought Play be called
Beautiful Distress. I have only sketched it out with Chalk, and know
a good Hand can make a moving Picture with worse Materials.
Sir, &c.
Mr.
Spectator,
I am what the World calls a warm Fellow, and by good Success in Trade
I have raised myself to a Capacity of making some Figure in the World;
but no matter for that. I have now under my Guardianship a couple of
Nieces, who will certainly make me run mad; which you will not wonder
at, when I tell you they are Female Virtuosos, and during the three
Years and a half that I have had them under my Care, they never in the
least inclined their Thoughts towards any one single Part of the
Character of a notable Woman.
Whilst they should have been considering
the proper Ingredients for a Sack-posset, you should hear a Dispute
concerning the
magnetick4, Virtue of the
Loadstone, or perhaps the Pressure of the Atmosphere: Their Language
is peculiar to themselves, and they scorn to express themselves on the
meanest Trifle with Words that are not of a
Latin Derivation. But
this were supportable still, would they suffer me to enjoy an
uninterrupted Ignorance; but, unless I fall in with their abstracted
Idea of Things (as they call them) I must not expect to smoak one Pipe
in Quiet. In a
late Fit of the Gout I complained of the Pain of that
Distemper when my Niece
Kitty begged Leave to assure me, that
whatever I might think, several great Philosophers, both ancient and
modern, were of Opinion, that both Pleasure and Pain were imaginary
Distinctions5, and that there was no such thing as either
in
rerum Natura. I have often heard them affirm that the Fire was not
hot; and one Day when I, with the Authority of an old Fellow, desired
one of them to put my blue Cloak on my Knees; she answered, Sir, I
will reach the Cloak; but take notice, I do not do it as allowing your
Description; for it might as well be called Yellow as Blue; for Colour
is nothing but the various Infractions of the Rays of the Sun.
Miss
Molly told me one Day; That to say Snow was white, is allowing a
vulgar Error; for as it contains a great Quantity of nitrous
Particles, it might
more reasonably be supposed to6 be black. In
short, the young Husseys would persuade me, that to believe one's Eyes
is a sure way to be deceived; and have often advised me, by no means,
to trust any thing so fallible as my Senses. What I have to beg of you
now is, to turn one Speculation to the due Regulation of Female
Literature, so far at least, as to make it consistent with the Quiet
of such whose Fate it is to be liable to its Insults; and to tell us
the Difference between a Gentleman that should make Cheesecakes and
raise Paste, and a Lady that reads
Locke, and understands the
Mathematicks. In which you will extreamly oblige
Your hearty Friend and humble Servant,
Abraham Thrifty.