< Mr. Spectator,

I

Your most humble Servant,

Alice Threadneedle.'

Round-Houfe, Sept. 9. AM a man of pleasure about town, but by the ftupidity of a dull rogue of a Juftice of 6 peate, and an infolent conftable, upon the oath of an old harridan, am imprisoned here for theft, when I defigned only fornication. The midnight magiftrate, as he conveyed me along, had you in his mouth, and faid this would make a pure ftory for the Spectator. I hope, Sir, you will not pretend to wit, and take the part of dull rogues of bufinefs. The world is fo altered of late years, that there was not a man who would knock down a watchman in my behalf, but I was carried off with as much triumph as if I had been a pickpocket. At this rate, there is an end of all the wit and humour in the world. The time was when all the honeft whore-mafters in the neighbourhood would have rofe against the cuckolds to my rescue. If fornication is to be fcandalous, half the fine things that have been writ by moit of the wits of the the laft age may be burnt by the common hangman. Harkee, Spec, do not be queer; after having done fome things pretty well, do not begin to write at that rate that no Gentleman can read thee. Be true to love, and burn your Seneca. You do not expect me to write my name from hence, but I am

Your unknown humble, &c. N° 183. SATURDAY, SEPT. 29. *Ιδμεν ψεύδια πολλά λέγειν ἐτυμοισιν ὁμοῖα, Ἴδμεν δ ̓ εὖτ ̓ ἐέθλωμεν, αληθέα μυθήσασθαι.

HESIOD.

Sometimes fair truth in fiction we difguife, Sometimes prefent her naked to men's eyes.

F

ABLES were the first pieces of wit that made their appearance in the world, and have been fill highly valued not only in times of the greateft fimplicity, but among the most polite ages of mankind. Jotham's fable of the trees is the oldest that is extant, and as beautiful as any that have been made fince that time. Nathan's fable of the poor man and his lamb is likewife more ancient than any that is extant, befides the above-mentioned, and had so good an effect, as to convey inftruction to the ear of a king without offending it, and to bring the man after God's own heart to a right sense of his guilt and his duty. We find Æfop in the most diftant ages of Greece; and if we look into the very beginning of the commonwealth of Rome, we fee a mutiny among the common people appeafed by the fable of the belly and the limbs, which was indeed very proper to gain the attention of an incenfed rabble, at a time when perhaps they would have torn to pieces any man who had preached the fame doctrine to them in an open and direct manner. As fables took their birth in the very infancy of learning, they never flourished more than when learning was at its greatest height. To juf tify this affertion, I fhall put my reader in mind of Horace, the greatest wit and critic in the Auguftan age; and of Boileau, the moft correct poet among the moderns: not to mention La Fontaine, who hy this way of writing is come more into vogue than any other author of our tines.

The fables I have here men oned are raised altogether upon brutes and vegetables, with fome of our own species mixt among them, when the moral hath fo required. But beides this kind of fable, there is another in which the actors are paffions, virtues, vices, and other imaginary perfons of the like nature. Some of the ancient critics will have it, that the Iliad and Odyfley of Homer are fables of this nature; and that the feveral names of Gods and heroes are nothing elfe but the affections of the mind in a vifible fhape and character. Thus they tell us, that Achilles, in the fit Iliad, reprefents anger, or the irafcible part of human nature; that upon drawing his fword against his fuperior in a full affembly, Pallas is only another name for reafon, which checks and advifes him upon that occafion; and at her first appearance touches him upon the head, that part of the man being looked upon as the feat of reafon. And thus of the rest of the poem. As for the Ouyfiey, I think it is plain that Horace confidered it as one of thefe allegorical fables, by the moral which he has given us of feveral parts of it. The greatest Italian wits have applied themielves to the writing of this latter kind of fables: as Spenfer's Fairy Queen is one continued series of them from the beginning to the end of that admirable work. If we look into the fineft profe-authors of antiquity, fuch as Cicero, Plato, Xenophon, and many others, we fhall find that this was likewife their favourite kind of fable. I fhall only farther obferve upon it, that the firft of this fort that made any confiderable figure in the world was that of Hercules meeting with pleafure and virtue; which was invented by Prodicus, who lived before Socrates, and in the firft dawnings of philofophy. He ufed to travel through Greece by virtue of this fable, which procured him a kind reception in all the market-towns, where he never failed telling it as foon as he had gathered an audience about him.

After this fhort preface, which I have made up of fuch materials as my memory does at prefent fuggeft to me, before I prefent my reader with a fable of this kind, which I design as the entertainment of the prefent paper, I muft in a few words open the occafion of it.

In the account which Plato gives us of the converfation and behaviour of Socrates, the morning he was to die, he tells the following circumftance.

When Socrates his fetters were knocked off (as was ufual to be done on the day that the condemned perfon was to be executed) being feated in the midft of his difciples, and laying one of his legs over the other, in a very unconcerned pofture, he began to rub it where it had been galled by the iron; and whether it was to fhew the indifference with which he entertained the thoughts of his approaching death, or (after his ufual manner) to take every occafion of philofophifing upon fome ufeful fubject, he obferved the pleasure of that fenfation which now arose in thofe very parts of his leg, that just before had been fo much pained by the fetter. Upon this he reflected on the nature of pleasure and pain in general, and how conftantly they fucceed one another. To this he added, that if a man of good genius for a fable were to reprefent the nature of pleasure and pain in that way of writing, he would probably join them together after such a manner, that it would be impoffible for the one to come into any place, without being followed by the other.

It is poffible, that if Plato had thought it proper at fuch a time to defcribe Socrates launching

fent it to you, not only as it reprefents the actions of Nicholas Hart, but as it feems a very very natural picture of the life of many an honeft English Gentleman, whofe whole hiftory often confifts of yawning, nodding, ftretching, turning, fleeping, drinking, and the like extraordinary particulars. I do not queftion, Sir, that, if you pleafed, you could put out an advertisement not < unlike the above-mentioned, of feveral men of figure; that Mr. John fuch-a-one, Gentleman, ⚫or Thomas fuch-a-one, Efquire, who slept in the country last summer, intends to fleep in town this winter. The worst of it is, that the drowly · part of our species is chiefly made up of very < honest Gentlemen, who live quietly among their neighbours without ever disturbing the public peace they are drones without ftings. I could heartily with, that feveral turbulent, reftlefs, ambitious fpirits, would for a while change places with these good men, and enter themfelves into Nicholas Hart's fraternity. Could one but lay afleep a few bufy heads which I could name, from the firft of November next to the firft of • May enfuing, I queftion not but it would very much redound to the quiet of particular perfons, as well as to the benefit of the public.

a

But to return to Nicholas Hart: I believe, Sir, you will think it a very extraordinary cir< cumftance for a man to gain his livelihood by fleeping, and that reft fhould procure a man fuftenance as well as induftry; yet fo it is that Nicholas got last year enough to fupport himself for a twelvemonth. I am likewife informed < that he has this year had a very comfortable nap. < The poets value themselves very much for fleep ing on Parnaffus, but I never heard they got a groat by it: on the contrary, our friend Nicholas gets more by fleeping than he would by working, and may be more properly faid, than ever Homer was, to have had golden dreams. Juvenal indeed mentions a drowsy husband who raised an et ♦tate by fnoring,but then he is reprefented to have ⚫flept what the common people call a Dog's fleep; or if his fleep was real his wife was awake, and about her bufinefs. Your pen, which loves to • moralize upon all fubjects, may raise something, methinks, on this circumftance alfo, and point out to us thofe fets of men, who instead of grow. ing rich by an honeft induftry, recommend themselves to the favours of the Great, by ⚫ making themselves agreeable companions in the • participations of luxury and pleasure.

I must farther acquaint you, Sir, that one of the most eminent pens in Grub-freet is now em ployed in writing the dream of this miraculous fleeper, which I hear will be of a more than ordinary length, as it must contain all the particulars that are fuppofed to have paffed in his imagination during fo long a fleep. He is fail to have gone already through three days and three nights of it, and to have comprised in them the • most remarkable paffages of the four firft empires of the world. If he can keep free from party • ftrokes, his work may be of ufe; but this I much • doubt, having been informed by one of his friends and confidents, that he has fpoken fome things of Nimrod with too great freedom.

No 185.
No 185. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2.
Tantæne animis cœleftibus iræ ?

TH

VIRG. EN. 1. ver. 15.

And dwells fuch fury in celestial breasts? HERE is nothing in which men more deceive themselves than in what the world calls zeal. There are fo many paffions which hide themselves under it, and fo many mischiefs arising from it, that fome have gone fo far as to fay it would have been for the benefit of mankind if it had never been reckoned in the catalogue of virtues. It is certain, where it is once laudable and prudential, it is an hundred times criminal and erroneous; nor can it be otherwise, if we confider that it operates with equal violence in all religions, however oppofite they may be to

one another, and in all the sub-divifions of each religion in particular.

We are told by fome of the Jewish Rabbins, that the first murder was occafioned by a reli hiftory of zeal from the days of Cain to our own gious controverfy; and if we had the whole times, we should fee it filled with so many feenes of laughter and bloodshed, as would make a wife man very careful how he fuffers himself to be actuated by fuch a principle, when it only re gards matters of opinion and fpeculation.

And

I would have every zealous man examine his heart thoroughly, and, I believe, he will often find, that what he calls a zeal for his religion, is differs from another in opinion, fets himself above either pride, intereft, or ill-nature. A man, who him in his own judgment, and in feveral parti culars pretends to be the wifer perfon. This is a great provocation to the proud man, and gives a very keen edge to what he calls his zeal. that this is the cafe very often, we may observe from the behaviour of fome of the most zealous for orthodoxy, who have often great friendships and intimacies with vicious immoral men, provided they do but agree with them in the fame fcheme of belief. The reafon is, because the vicious believer gives the precedency to the vir tuous man, and allows the good chriftian to be the worthier perfon, at the fame time that he cannot come up to his perfections. This we find exemplified in that trite paffage which we fee quoted in almost every system of ethics, though. upon another occafion.

-Video meliora proboque, Deteriora fequor

OVID. Met. 1. 7. ver. 20.

I fee the right, and I approve it too;
Condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue.
TATE.

On the contrary, it is certain, if our zeal were true and genuine, we should be much more angry with a finner than a heretic; fince there are feveral cafes which may excufe the latter before his great Judge, but none which can excufe the former.

Intereft is likewife a great inflamer, and fets a man on perfecution under the colour of zeal. For this reafon we find none are fo forward to promote the true worship by fire and fword, as those who find their prefent account in it. But I fhall extend the word Intereft to a larger meaning than what is generally given it, as it relates

to our fpiritual fafety and welfare, as well as to our temporal. A man is glad to gain numbers on his fide, as they serve to strengthen him in his private opinions. Every profelyte is like a new argument for the establishment of his faith. It makes him believe that his principles carry conviction with them, and are the more likely to be true, when he finds they are conformable to the reason of others, as well as to his own. And that this temper of mind deludes a man very often into an opinion of his zeal, may appear from the common behaviour of the Atheift, who maintains and spreads his opinions with as much heat as those who believe they do it only out of a paffion for God's glory,

Ill-nature is another dreadful imitator of zeal. Many a good man may have a natural rancour and malice in his heart, which has been in fome meafure quelled and fubdued by religion; but if it finds any pretence of breaking out, which does not feem to him inconsistent with the duties of a chriftian, it throws off all reftraint, and rages in its full fury. Zeal is therefore a great eafe to a malicious man, by making him believe he does God fervice, whilft he is gratifying the bent of a perverfe revengeful temper. For this reafon we find, that most of the maffacres and devastations, which have been in the world, have taken their rife from a furious pretended zeal.

I love to fee a man zealous in a good matter, and especially when his zeal fhews itfelf for adyancing morality, and promoting the happiness of mankind; but when I find the instruments he works with are racks and gibbets, gallies and dungeons; when he imprifons mens perfons, confifcates their eftates, ruins their families, and burns the body to fave the foul, I cannot stick to pronounce of fuch a one that (whatever he may think of his faith and religion) his faith is vain, and his religion unprofitable.

After having treated of thefe falfe zealots in religion, I cannot forbear mentioning a montrous fpecies of men, who one would not think had any existence in nature, were they not to be met with in ordinary converfation. I mean the zealots in atheism. One would fancy that thefe men, though they fall short, in every other refpect, of thofe who make a profeffion of religion, would at least outshine them in this particular, and be exempt from that fingle fault which feems to grow out of the imprudent fervours of religion : But fo it is, that infidelity is propagated with as much fierceness and contention, wrath and indignation, as if the fafety of mankind depended upon it. There is fomething fo ridiculous and perverfe in this kind of zealots, that one does not know how to fet them out in their proper colours. They are a fort of gamefters, who are eternally upon the fret, though they play for nothing, They are perpetually teizing their friends to come over to them, though at the fame time they allow that neither of them fhall get any thing by the bargain, In fhort, the zeal of spreading atheifm is, if poffible, more abfurd than atheism itfelf.

Since I have mentioned this unaccountable zeal which appears in atheifts and infidels, I muft farther obferve that they are likewife in a moft particular manner poffeffed with the fpirit of bigotry. They are wedded to opinions full of contradiction and impoffibility, and at the fame time look upon the fmalleft difficulty in an article of faith as a fufficient reason for rejecting it.

Notions that fall in with the common reafon of mankind, that are conformable to the fenfe of all ages and all nations, not to mention their tendency for promoting the happiness of societies, or particular perfons, are exploded as errors and prejudices; and fchemes erected in their stead that are altogether monstrous and irrational, and require the most extravagant credulity to embrace them. I would fain afk one of these bigotted infidels, fuppofing all the great points of atheism, as the cafual or eternal formation of the world, the materiality of a thinking substance, the mortality of the foul, the fortuitous organization of the body, the motions and gravitation of matter, with the like particulars, were laid together and formed into a kind of creed, according to the opinions of the most celebrated atheifts; I fay, fuppofing fuch a creed as this were formed, and impofed upon any one people in the world, whether it would not require an infinitely greater measure of faith, than any fet of articles which they fo violently oppofe? Let me therefore advife this generation of wranglers, for their own and for the public good, to act at least fo confiftently with themfelves, as not to burn with zeal for irreligion, and with bigotry for nonsense.

A believer may be excufed by the most hardened atheist for endeavouring to make him a convert, because he does it with an eye to both their interefts. The atheift is inexcufable who tries to gain over a believer, because he does 'not propofe the doing himself or the believer any good by fuch a converfion.

The prospect of a future ftate is the fecret comfort and refreshment of my foul; it is that which makes nature look gay about me; it doubles all my pleasures, and fupports me under all my afflictions. I can look at difappoint. ments and misfortunes, pain and ficknefs, death itself, and, what is worfe than death, the lofs of thofe that are dearest to me with indifference, fo long as I keep in view the plea fures of eternity, and the ftate of being in which there will be no fears nor apprehenfions, 'pains nor forrows, fickness nor feparation. Why will any man be fo impertinently officious as to tell me all this is only fancy and delufion? Is there any merit in being the meffenger of ill news? If it is a dream, let me enjoy it, fince it makes me both the happier and better man. Hh 2

• I must