No More Learning

A thousand accidents may, indeed, awaken drones
to a more early sense of their danger and their shame. But they who are
convinced of the necessity of breaking from this habitual drowsiness, too
often relapse in spite of their resolution; for these ideal seducers are
always near, and neither any particularity of time nor place is necessary
to their influence; they invade the soul without warning, and have often
charmed down resistance before their approach is perceived or suspected.

This captivity, however, it is necessary for every man to break, who
has any desire to be wise or useful, to pass his life with the esteem
of others, or to look back with satisfaction from his old age upon his
earlier years. In order to regain liberty, he must find the means of
flying from himself; he must, in opposition to the Stoick precept, teach
his desires to fix upon external things; he must adopt the joys and the
pains of others, and excite in his mind the want of social pleasures and
amicable communication.

It is, perhaps, not impossible to promote the cure of this mental malady,
by close application to some new study, which may pour in fresh ideas,
and keep curiosity in perpetual motion. But study requires solitude, and
solitude is a state dangerous to those who are too much accustomed to
sink into themselves. Active employment or public pleasure is generally
a necessary part of this intellectual regimen, without which, though some
remission may be obtained, a complete cure will scarcely be effected.

This is a formidable and obstinate disease of the intellect, of which,
when it has once become radicated by time, the remedy is one of the
hardest tasks of reason and of virtue. Its slightest attacks, therefore,
should be watchfully opposed; and he that finds the frigid and narcotick
infection beginning to seize him, should turn his whole attention against
it, and check it at the first discovery by proper counteraction.

The great resolution to be formed, when happiness and virtue are thus
formidably invaded, is, that no part of life be spent in a state of
neutrality or indifference; but that some pleasure be found for every
moment that is not devoted to labour; and that, whenever the necessary
business of life grows irksome or disgusting, an immediate transition be
made to diversion and gaiety.

After the exercises which the health of the body requires, and which
have themselves a natural tendency to actuate and invigorate the mind, the
most eligible amusement of a rational being seems to be that interchange
of thoughts which is practised in free and easy conversation; where
suspicion is banished by experience, and emulation by benevolence; where
every man speaks with no other restraint than unwillingness to offend,
and hears with no other disposition than desire to be pleased.

There must be a time in which every man trifles; and the only choice that
nature offers us, is, to trifle in company or alone. To join profit with
pleasure, has been an old precept among men who have had very different
conceptions of profit. All have agreed that our amusements should not
terminate wholly in the present moment, but contribute more or less to
future advantage. He that amuses himself among well-chosen companions,
can scarcely fail to receive, from the most careless and obstreperous
merriment which virtue can allow, some useful hints; nor can converse
on the most familiar topicks without some casual information. The loose
sparkles of thoughtless wit may give new light to the mind, and the gay
contention for paradoxical positions rectify the opinions.

This is the time in which those friendships that give happiness or
consolation, relief or security, are generally formed. A wise and good
man is never so amiable as in his unbended and familiar intervals.
Heroick generosity, or philosophical discoveries, may compel veneration
and respect, but love always implies some kind of natural or voluntary
equality, and is only to be excited by that levity and cheerfulness
which disencumber all minds from awe and solicitude, invite the modest
to freedom, and exalt the timorous to confidence. This easy gaiety is
certain to please, whatever be the character of him that exerts it; if
our superiors descend from their elevation, we love them for lessening
the distance at which we are placed below them; and inferiors, from whom
we can receive no lasting advantage, will always keep our affections
while their sprightliness and mirth contribute to our pleasure.

Every man finds himself differently affected by the sight of fortresses
of war, and palaces of pleasure; we look on the height and strength of
the bulwarks with a kind of gloomy satisfaction, for we cannot think
of defence without admitting images of danger; but we range delighted
and jocund through the gay apartments of the palace, because nothing
is impressed by them on the mind but joy and festivity. Such is the
difference between great and amiable characters; with protectors we are
safe, with companions we are happy.




No. 90. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1751.


_In tenui labor. _
VIRG. Geor. iv. 6.

What toil in slender things!


It is very difficult to write on the minuter parts of literature without
failing either to please or instruct. Too much nicety of detail disgusts
the greatest part of readers, and to throw a multitude of particulars
under general heads, and lay down rules of extensive comprehension, is
to common understandings of little use. They who undertake these subjects
are therefore always in danger, as one or other inconvenience arises to
their imagination, of frighting us with rugged science, or amusing us
with empty sound.

In criticising the work of Milton, there is, indeed, opportunity to
intersperse passages that can hardly fail to relieve the languors of
attention; and since, in examining the variety and choice of the pauses
with which he has diversified his numbers, it will be necessary to
exhibit the lines in which they are to be found, perhaps the remarks may
be well compensated by the examples, and the irksomeness of grammatical
disquisitions somewhat alleviated.

Milton formed his scheme of versification by the poets of Greece and Rome,
whom he proposed to himself for his models, so far as the difference of
his language from theirs would permit the imitation. There are indeed
many inconveniencies inseparable from our heroick measure compared
with that of Homer and Virgil; inconveniencies, which it is no reproach
to Milton not to have overcome, because they are in their own nature
insuperable; but against which he has struggled with so much art and
diligence, that he may at least be said to have deserved success.

The hexameter of the ancients may be considered as consisting of fifteen
syllables, so melodiously disposed, that, as every one knows who has
examined the poetical authors, very pleasing and sonorous lyrick measures
are formed from the fragments of the heroick. It is, indeed, scarce
possible to break them in such a manner but that _invenias etiam disjecti
membra poetæ_, some harmony will still remain, and the due proportions
of sound will always be discovered. This measure therefore allowed great
variety of pauses, and great liberties of connecting one verse with
another, because wherever the line was interrupted, either part singly
was musical. But the ancients seem to have confined this privilege to
hexameters; for in their other measures, though longer than the English
heroick, those who wrote after the refinements of versification, venture
so seldom to change their pauses, that every variation may be supposed
rather a compliance with necessity than the choice of judgment.

Milton was constrained within the narrow limits of a measure not very
harmonious in the utmost perfection; the single parts, therefore, into
which it was to be sometimes broken by pauses, were in danger of losing
the very form of verse. This has, perhaps, notwithstanding all his care,
sometimes happened.

As harmony is the end of poetical measures, no part of a verse ought to
be so separated from the rest as not to remain still more harmonious than
prose, or to show, by the disposition of the tones, that it is part of
a verse. This rule in the old hexameter might be easily observed, but in
English will very frequently be in danger of violation; for the order
and regularity of accents cannot well be perceived in a succession of
fewer than three syllables, which will confine the English poet to only
five pauses; it being supposed, that when he connects one line with
another, he should never make a full pause at less distance than that
of three syllables from the beginning or end of a verse.

That this rule should be universally and indispensably established,
perhaps cannot be granted; something may be allowed to variety, and
something to the adaptation of the numbers to the subject; but it will
be found generally necessary, and the ear will seldom fail to suffer by
its neglect.

Thus when a single syllable is cut off from the rest, it must either be
united to the line with which the sense connects it, or be sounded alone.
If it be united to the other line, it corrupts its harmony; if disjoined,
it must stand alone, and with regard to musick be superfluous; for there
is no harmony in a single sound, because it has no proportion to another.

----Hypocrites austerely talk,
Defaming as impure what God declares
_Pure_; and commands to some, leaves free to all.

When two syllables likewise are abscinded from the rest, they evidently
want some associate sounds to make them harmonious.

----Eyes----
----more wakeful than to drouze,
Charm'd with Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed
Of Hermes, or his opiate rod. _Meanwhile_
To re-salute the world with sacred light
Leucothea wak'd.

He ended, and the sun gave signal high
To the bright minister that watch'd: _he blew_
His trumpet.

First in the east his glorious lamp was seen,
Regent of day; and all th' horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude through heav'n's high road; _the gray_
Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danc'd,
Shedding sweet influence.

The same defect is perceived in the following line, where the pause is at
the second syllable from the beginning.

--------The race
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture, 'till the savage clamour drown'd
Both harp and voice; nor could the muse defend
_Her son_. So fail not thou, who thee implores.

When the pause falls upon the third syllable or the seventh, the harmony
is the better preserved; but as the third and seventh are weak syllables,
the period leaves the ear unsatisfied, and in expectation of the
remaining part of the verse.

----He, with his horrid crew,
Lay vanquish'd, rolling in the fiery gulph,
Confounded though immor_tal_. But his doom
Reserv'd him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain
Torments _him_.

God,--with frequent intercourse,
Thither will send his winged messengers
On errands of supernal grace. So sung
The glorious train ascend_ing_.

It may be, I think, established as a rule, that a pause which concludes
a period should be made for the most part upon a strong syllable, as
the fourth and sixth; but those pauses which only suspend the sense may
be placed upon the weaker. Thus the rest in the third line of the first
passage satisfies the ear better than in the fourth, and the close of the
second quotation better than of the third.

--------The evil soon
Drawn back, redounded (as a flood) on those
From whom it _sprung_; impossible to mix
With _blessedness_.

--------What we by day
Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind,
One night or two with wanton growth derides,
Tending to _wild_.

The paths and bow'rs doubt not but our joint hands
Will keep from wilderness with ease as wide
As we need walk, till younger hands ere long
Assist _us_.

The rest in the fifth place has the same inconvenience as in the seventh
and third, that the syllable is weak.

Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with fish, to graze the herb all leaving,
Devour'd each _other_: Nor stood much in awe
Of man, but fled _him_, or with countenance grim,
Glar'd on him pass_ing_.

The noblest and most majestick pauses which our versification admits, are
upon the fourth and sixth syllables, which are both strongly sounded in
a pure and regular verse, and at either of which the line is so divided,
that both members participate of harmony.

But now at last the sacred influence
Of light _appears_, and from the walls of heav'n
Shoots far into the bosom of dim night
A glimmering _dawn_: here nature first begins
Her farthest verge, and chaos to retire.

But far above all others, if I can give any credit to my own ear, is the
rest upon the sixth syllable, which, taking in a complete compass of
sound, such as is sufficient to constitute one of our lyrick measures,
makes a full and solemn close. Some passages which conclude at this stop,
I could never read without some strong emotions of delight or admiration.

Before the hills appear'd, or fountain flow'd,
Thou with the eternal wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of the almighty Father, pleas'd
With thy celestial _song_.

Or other worlds they seem'd, or happy isles,
Like those Hesperian gardens fam'd of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales,
Thrice happy isles! But who dwelt happy there,
He stayed not to in_quire_.

--------He blew
His trumpet, heard in Oreb since, perhaps
When God descended; and, perhaps, once more
To sound at general _doom_.

If the poetry of Milton be examined, with regard to the pauses and flow of
his verses into each other, it will appear, that he has performed all that
our language would admit; and the comparison of his numbers with those who
have cultivated the same manner of writing, will show that he excelled as
much in the lower as the higher parts of his art, and that his skill in
harmony was not less than his invention or his learning.




No. 91. TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1751.


_Dulcis inexpertis cultura potentis amici;_
_Expertus metuit. _
HOR. Lib. i. Ep. xviii. 86.

To court the great ones, and to sooth their pride,
Seems a sweet task to those that never tried;
But those that have, know well that danger's near.
CREECH.


The Sciences having long seen their votaries labouring for the benefit
of mankind without reward, put up their petition to Jupiter for a more
equitable distribution of riches and honours. Jupiter was moved at their
complaints, and touched with the approaching miseries of men, whom the
Sciences, wearied with perpetual ingratitude, were now threatening to
forsake, and who would have been reduced by their departure to feed in
dens upon the mast of trees, to hunt their prey in deserts, and to perish
under the paws of animals stronger and fiercer than themselves.

A synod of the celestials was therefore convened, in which it was
resolved, that Patronage should descend to the assistance of the
Sciences. Patronage was the daughter of Astrea, by a mortal father, and
had been educated in the school of Truth, by the Goddesses, whom she
was now appointed to protect. She had from her mother that dignity of
aspect, which struck terrour into false merit, and from her mistress
that reserve, which made her only accessible to those whom the Sciences
brought into her presence.

She came down, with the general acclamation of all the powers that favour
learning. Hope danced before her, and Liberality stood at her side, ready
to scatter by her direction the gifts which Fortune, who followed her,
was commanded to supply. As she advanced towards Parnassus, the cloud
which had long hung over it, was immediately dispelled. The shades,
before withered with drought, spread their original verdure, and the
flowers that had languished with chillness brightened their colours,
and invigorated their scents; the Muses tuned their harps, and exerted
their voices; and all the concert of nature welcomed her arrival.

On Parnassus she fixed her residence, in a palace raised by the Sciences,
and adorned with whatever could delight the eye, elevate the imagination,
or enlarge the understanding. Here she dispersed the gifts of Fortune with
the impartiality of Justice, and the discernment of Truth. Her gate stood
always open, and Hope sat at the portal, inviting to entrance all whom
the Sciences numbered in their train. The court was therefore thronged
with innumerable multitudes, of whom, though many returned disappointed,
seldom any had confidence to complain; for Patronage was known to neglect
few, but for want of the due claims to her regard. Those, therefore, who
had solicited her favour without success, generally withdrew from publick
notice, and either diverted their attention to meaner employments, or
endeavoured to supply their deficiencies by closer application.

In time, however, the number of those who had miscarried in their
pretensions grew so great, that they became less ashamed of their
repulses; and instead of hiding their disgrace in retirement, began to
besiege the gates of the palace, and obstruct the entrance of such as
they thought likely to be more caressed. The decisions of Patronage,
who was but half a Goddess, had been sometimes erroneous; and though
she always made haste to rectify her mistakes, a few instances of her
fallibility encouraged every one to appeal from her judgment to his own
and that of his companions, who are always ready to clamour in the common
cause, and elate each other with reciprocal applause.

Hope was a steady friend of the disappointed, and Impudence incited
them to accept a second invitation, and lay their claim again before
Patronage. They were again, for the most part, sent back with ignominy,
but found Hope not alienated, and Impudence more resolutely zealous; they
therefore contrived new expedients, and hoped at last to prevail by their
multitudes, which were always increasing, and their perseverance, which
Hope and Impudence forbad them to relax.

Patronage having been long a stranger to the heavenly assemblies, began to
degenerate towards terrestrial nature, and forget the precepts of Justice
and Truth. Instead of confining her friendship to the Sciences, she
suffered herself, by little and little, to contract an acquaintance with
Pride, the son of Falsehood, by whose embraces she had two daughters,
Flattery and Caprice. Flattery was nursed by Liberality, and Caprice by
Fortune, without any assistance from the lessons of the Sciences.

Patronage began openly to adopt the sentiments and imitate the manners of
her husband, by whose opinions she now directed her decisions with very
little heed to the precepts of Truth; and as her daughters continually
gained upon her affections, the Sciences lost their influence, till none
found much reason to boast of their reception, but those whom Caprice or
Flattery conducted to her throne.

The throngs who had so long waited, and so often been dismissed for want
of recommendation from the Sciences, were delighted to see the power of
those rigourous Goddesses tending to its extinction. Their patronesses
now renewed their encouragements. Hope smiled at the approach of Caprice,
and Impudence was always at hand to introduce her clients to Flattery.

Patronage had now learned to procure herself reverence by ceremonies and
formalities, and, instead of admitting her petitioners to an immediate
audience, ordered the ante-chamber to be erected, called among mortals,
the _Hall of Expectation_. Into this hall the entrance was easy to those
whom Impudence had consigned to Flattery, and it was therefore crowded
with a promiscuous throng, assembled from every corner of the earth,
pressing forward with the utmost eagerness of desire, and agitated with
all the anxieties of competition.

They entered this general receptacle with ardour and alacrity, and made
no doubt of speedy access, under the conduct of Flattery, to the presence
of Patronage. But it generally happened that they were here left to their
destiny, for the inner doors were committed to Caprice, who opened and
shut them, as it seemed, by chance, and rejected or admitted without any
settled rule of distinction. In the mean time, the miserable attendants
were left to wear out their lives in alternate exultation and dejection,
delivered up to the sport of Suspicion, who was always whispering into
their ear designs against them which were never formed, and of Envy,
who diligently pointed out the good fortune of one or other of their
competitors. Infamy flew round the hall, and scattered mildews from her
wings, with which every one was stained; Reputation followed her with
slower flight, and endeavoured to hide the blemishes with paint, which
was immediately brushed away, or separated of itself, and left the stains
more visible; nor were the spots of Infamy ever effaced, but with limpid
water effused by the hand of Time from a well which sprung up beneath the
throne of Truth.

It frequently happened that Science, unwilling to lose the ancient
prerogative of recommending to Patronage, would lead her followers into
the Hall of Expectation; but they were soon discouraged from attending,
for not only Envy and Suspicion incessantly tormented them, but Impudence
considered them as intruders, and incited Infamy to blacken them. They
therefore quickly retired, but seldom without some spots which they could
scarcely wash away, and which shewed that they had once waited in the
Hall of Expectation.

The rest continued to expect the happy moment, at which Caprice should
beckon them to approach; and endeavoured to propitiate her, not with
Homerical harmony, the representation of great actions, or the recital
of noble sentiments, but with soft and voluptuous melody, intermingled
with the praises of Patronage and Pride, by whom they were heard at once
with pleasure and contempt.

Some were indeed admitted by Caprice, when they least expected it, and
heaped by Patronage with the gifts of Fortune, but they were from that
time chained to her foot-stool, and condemned to regulate their lives by
her glances and her nods: they seemed proud of their manacles, and seldom
complained of any drudgery, however servile, or any affront, however
contemptuous; yet they were often, notwithstanding their obedience,
seized on a sudden by Caprice, divested of their ornaments, and thrust
back into the Hall of Expectation.

Here they mingled again with the tumult, and all, except a few whom
experience had taught to seek happiness in the regions of liberty,
continued to spend hours, and days, and years, courting the smile of
Caprice by the arts of Flattery; till at length new crowds pressed in
upon them, and drove them forth at different outlets into the habitations
of Disease, and Shame, and Poverty, and Despair, where they passed the
rest of their lives in narratives of promises and breaches of faith, of
joys and sorrows, of hopes and disappointments.

The Sciences, after a thousand indignities, retired from the palace
of Patronage, and having long wandered over the world in grief and
distress, were led at last to the cottage of Independence, the daughter
of Fortitude; where they were taught by Prudence and Parsimony to support
themselves in dignity and quiet.




No. 92. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1751.


_Jam nunc minaci murmure cornuum_
_Perstringis aures: jam litui strepunt. _
HOR. Lib. ii. Ode i. 17.

Lo! now the clarion's voice I hear,
Its threat'ning murmurs pierce mine ear,
And in thy lines with brazen breath
The trumpet sounds the charge of death.
FRANCIS.


It has been long observed, that the idea of beauty is vague and undefined,
different in different minds, and diversified by time or place. It has
been a term hitherto used to signify that which pleases us we know not
why, and in our approbation of which we can justify ourselves only by
the concurrence of numbers, without much power of enforcing our opinion
upon others by any argument but example and authority. It is, indeed, so
little subject to the examinations of reason, that Paschal supposes it to
end where demonstration begins, and maintains, that without incongruity
and absurdity we cannot speak of _geometrical beauty_.

To trace all the sources of that various pleasure which we ascribe to the
agency of beauty, or to disentangle all the perceptions involved in its
idea, would, perhaps, require a very great part of the life of Aristotle
or Plato. It is, however, in many cases apparent, that this quality
is merely relative and comparative; that we pronounce things beautiful
because they have something which we agree, for whatever reason, to call
beauty, in a greater degree than we have been accustomed to find it in
other things of the same kind; and that we transfer the epithet as our
knowledge increases, and appropriate it to higher excellence, when higher
excellence comes within our view.

Much of the beauty of writing is of this kind; and therefore Boileau
justly remarks, that the books which have stood the test of time, and
been admired through all the changes which the mind of man has suffered
from the various revolutions of knowledge, and the prevalence of contrary
customs, have a better claim to our regard than any modern can boast,
because the long continuance of their reputation proves that they are
adequate to our faculties, and agreeable to nature.

It is, however, the task of criticism to establish principles; to improve
opinion into knowledge; and to distinguish those means of pleasing which
depend upon known causes and rational deduction, from the nameless and
inexplicable elegancies which appeal wholly to the fancy, from which we
feel delight, but know not how they produce it, and which may well be
termed the enchantresses of the soul. Criticism reduces those regions
of literature under the dominion of science, which have hitherto known
only the anarchy of ignorance, the caprices of fancy, and the tyranny
of prescription.

There is nothing in the art of versifying so much exposed to the power
of imagination as the accommodation of the sound to the sense, or the
representation of particular images, by the flow of the verse in which
they are expressed. Every student has innumerable passages, in which
he, and perhaps he alone, discovers such resemblances; and since the
attention of the present race of poetical readers seems particularly
turned upon this species of elegance, I shall endeavour to examine how
much these conformities have been observed by the poets, or directed by
the criticks, how far they can be established upon nature and reason, and
on what occasions they have been practised by Milton.

Homer, the father of all poetical beauty, has been particularly celebrated
by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, as "he that, of all the poets, exhibited
the greatest variety of sound; for there are," says he, "innumerable
passages, in which length of time, bulk of body, extremity of passion,
and stillness of repose; or, in which, on the contrary, brevity, speed,
and eagerness, are evidently marked out by the sound of the syllables.
Thus the anguish and slow pace with which the blind _Polypheme_ groped
out with his hands the entrance of his cave, are perceived in the cadence
of the verses which describe it. "

Κυκλωψ δε στεναχων τε και ωδινων οδυνησι,
Χερσι ψηλοφοων. ----

Meantime the Cyclop raging with his wound,
Spreads his wide arms, and searches round and round.
POPE.

The critick then proceeds to shew, that the efforts of Achilles struggling
in his armour against the current of a river, sometimes resisting and
sometimes yielding, may be perceived in the elisions of the syllables,
the slow succession of the feet, and the strength of the consonants.

Δεινον δ' αμφ' Ἁχιληα κυκωμενον ἱστατο κυμα
Ωθει δ' εν σακει πιπτων ῥοος· ουδε ποδεσσιν
Εσκε στηριξασθαι. ----

So oft the surge, in wat'ry mountains spread,
Beats on his back, or bursts upon his head,
Yet, dauntless still, the adverse flood he braves,
And still indignant bounds above the waves.
Tir'd by the tides, his knees relax with toil;
Wash'd from beneath him, slides the slimy soil.
POPE.

When Homer describes the crush of men dashed against a rock, he collects
the most unpleasing and harsh sounds.

Συν δε δυω μαρψας, ὡστε σκυλακας ποτι γαιη
Κοπτ'· εκ δ' εγκεφαλος χαμαδις ῥεε, δευε δε γαιαν.

------His bloody hand
Snatch'd two, unhappy! of my martial band,
And dash'd like dogs against the stony floor:
The pavement swims with brains and mingled gore.
POPE.

And when he would place before the eyes something dreadful and
astonishing, he makes choice of the strongest vowels, and the letters
of most difficult utterance.

Τη δ' επι μεν Γοργω βλοσυρωπις εστεφανωτο
Δεινον δερκομενη· περι δε Δειμος τε Φοβος τε.

Tremendous Gorgon frown'd upon its field,
And circling terrors fill'd th' expressive shield.
POPE.

Many other examples Dionysius produces; but these will sufficiently shew,
that either he was fanciful, or we have lost the genuine pronunciation;
for I know not whether, in any one of these instances, such similitude
can be discovered. It seems, indeed, probable, that the veneration with
which Homer was read, produced many suppositious beauties: for though it
is certain, that the sound of many of his verses very justly corresponds
with the things expressed, yet, when the force of his imagination, which
gave him full possession of every object, is considered, together with
the flexibility of his language, of which the syllables might be often
contracted or dilated at pleasure, it will seem unlikely that such
conformity should happen less frequently even without design.

It is not however to be doubted, that Virgil, who wrote amidst the light
of criticism, and who owed so much of his success to art and labour,
endeavoured, among other excellencies, to exhibit this similitude; nor
has he been less happy in this than in the other graces of versification.
This felicity of his numbers was, at the revival of learning, displayed
with great elegance by Vida, in his Art of Poetry.

Haud satis est illis utcunque claudere versum. ----
Omnia sed numeris vocum concordibus aptant,
Atque sono quæcunque canunt imitantur, et apta
Verborum facie, et quæsito carminis ore.
Nam diversa opus est veluti dare versibus ora,----
Hic melior motuque pedum, et pernicibus alis,
Molle Viam tacito lapsu per levia radit:
Ille autem membris, ac mole ignavius ingens
Incedit tardo molimine subsiden le.
Ecce aliquis subit egregio pulcherrimus ore,
Cui lætum membris Venus omnibus afflat honorem.
Contra alius rudis, informes ostendit et artus,
Hirsutumque supercilium, ac caudam sinuosam,
Ingratus visu, sonitu illætabilis ipso. ----
Ergo ubi jam nautæ spumas salis ære ruentes
Incubere mari, videas spumare reductis
Convulsum remis, rostrisque stridentibus æquor.
Tunc longe sale saxa sonant, tunc et freta ventis
Incipiunt agitata tumescere: littore fluctus
Illidunt rauco, atque refracta remurmurat unda
Ad scopulos, cumulo insequitur præruptus aquæ mons. ----
Cum vero ex alto speculatus cærula Nereus
Leniit in morem stagni, placidæque paludis,
Labitur uncta vadis abies, natat uncta carina. ----
Verba etiam res exiguas angusta sequuntur,
Ingentesque juvant ingentia: cuncta gigantem
Vasta decent, vultus immanes, pectora lata,
Et magni membrorum artus, magna ossa, lacertique.
Atque adeo, siquid geritur molimine magno,
Adde moram, et pariter tecum quoque verba laborent
Segnia: seu quando vi multa gleba coactis
Æternum frangenda bidentibus, æquore seu cum
Cornua velatarum obvertimus antennarum.
At mora si fuerit damno, properare jubebo.
Si se forte cava extulerit mala vipera terra,
Tolle moras, cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor:
Ferte citi flammas, date tela, repellite pestem.
Ipse etiam versus ruat, in præcepsque feratur,
Immenso cum præcipitans ruit Oceano nox,
Aut cum perculsus graviter procumbit humi bos.
Cumque etiam requies rebus datur, ipsa quoque ultro
Carmina paulisper cursu cessare videbis
In medio interrupta: quiêrunt cum freta ponti,
Postquam auræ posuere, quiescere protinus ipsum
Cernere erit, mediisque incœptis sistere versum.
Quid dicam, senior cum telum imbelle sine ictu
Invalidus jacit, et defectis viribus æger?
Num quoque tum versus segni pariter pede languet:
Sanguis hebet, frigent effœtæ in corpore vires.
Fortem autem juvenem deceat prorumpere in arces,
Evertisse domos, præfractaque quadrupedantum
Pectora pectoribus perrumpere, sternere turres
Ingentes, totoque, ferum dare funera campo.
LIB. iii. 365.


'Tis not enough his verses to complete,
In measure, number, or determin'd feet.
To all, proportion'd terms he must dispense,
And make the sound a picture of the sense;
The correspondent words exactly frame,
The look, the features, and the mien the same.
With rapid feet and wings, without delay,
This swiftly flies, and smoothly skims away:
This blooms with youth and beauty in his face,
And Venus breathes on ev'ry limb a grace;
That, of rude form, his uncouth members shows,
Looks horrible, and frowns with his rough brows;
His monstrous tail, in many a fold and wind,
Voluminous and vast, curls up behind;
At once the image and the lines appear,
Rude to the eye, and frightful to the ear.
Lo! when the sailors steer the pond'rous ships,
And plough, with brazen beaks, the foamy deeps,
Incumbent on the main that roars around,
Beneath the lab'ring oars the waves resound;
The prows wide echoing through the dark profound.
To the loud call each distant rock replies;
Tost by the storm the tow'ring surges rise;
While the hoarse ocean beats the sounding shore,
Dash'd from the strand, the flying waters roar,
Flash at the shock, and gathering in a heap,
The liquid mountains rise, and over-hang the deep.
But when blue Neptune from his car surveys,
And calms at one regard the raging seas,
Stretch'd like a peaceful lake the deep subsides,
And the pitch'd vessel o'er the surface glides.
When things are small, the terms should still be so;
For low words please us when the theme is low.
But when some giant, horrible and grim,
Enormous in his gait, and vast in every limb,
Stalks tow'ring on; the swelling words must rise
In just proportion to the monster's size.
If some large weight his huge arms strive to shove,
The verse too labours; the throng'd words scarce move.
When each stiff clod beneath the pond'rous plough
Crumbles and breaks, th' encumber'd lines must flow.
Nor less, when pilots catch the friendly gales,
Unfurl their shrouds, and hoist the wide-stretch'd sails.
But if the poem suffers from delay,
Let the lines fly precipitate away,
And when the viper issues from the brake,
Be quick; with stones, and brands, and fire, attack
His rising crest, and drive the serpent back.
When night descends, or stunn'd by num'rous strokes,
And groaning, to the earth drops the vast ox;
The line too sinks with correspondent sound
Flat with the steer, and headlong to the ground.
When the wild waves subside, and tempests cease,
And hush the roarings of the sea to peace;
So oft we see the interrupted strain
Stopp'd in the midst--and with the silent main
Pause for a space--at last it glides again.
When Priam strains his aged arms, to throw
His unavailing jav'line at the foe;
(His blood congeal'd, and ev'ry nerve unstrung)
Then with the theme complies the artful song;
Like him, the solitary numbers flow,
Weak, trembling, melancholy, stiff, and slow.
Not so young Pyrrhus, who with rapid force
Beats down embattled armies in his course.
The raging youth on trembling Ilion falls,
Burns her strong gates, and shakes her lofty walls;
Provokes his flying courser to the speed,
In full career to charge the warlike steed:
He piles the field with mountains of the slain;
He pours, he storms, he thunders thro' the plain. --PITT.

From the Italian gardens Pope seems to have transplanted this flower, the
growth of happier climates, into a soil less adapted to its nature, and
less favourable to its increase.

Soft is the strain, when Zephyr gentle blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud billows lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow;
Nor so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.

From these lines, laboured with attention, and celebrated by a rival wit,
may be judged what can be expected from the most diligent endeavours
after this imagery of sound. The verse intended to represent the whisper
of the vernal breeze, must be confessed not much to excel in softness
or volubility: and the smooth stream runs with a perpetual clash of
jarring consonants. The noise and turbulence of the torrent, is, indeed,
distinctly imaged, for it requires very little skill to make our language
rough: but in these lines, which mention the effort of Ajax, there is no
particular heaviness, obstruction, or delay. The swiftness of Camilla is
rather contrasted than exemplified; why the verse should be lengthened
to express speed, will not easily be discovered. In the dactyls used
for that purpose by the ancients, two short syllables were pronounced
with such rapidity, as to be equal only to one long; they, therefore,
naturally exhibit the act of passing through a long space in a short
time. But the Alexandrine, by its pause in the midst, is a tardy and
stately measure; and the word _unbending_, one of the most sluggish and
slow which our language affords, cannot much accelerate its motion.

These rules and these examples have taught our present criticks to inquire
very studiously and minutely into sounds and cadences. It is, therefore,
useful to examine with what skill they have proceeded; what discoveries
they have made; and whether any rules can be established which may guide
us hereafter in such researches.




No. 93. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1751.


_----Experiar, quid concedatur in illos,_
_Quorum flaminia tegitur cinis atque Latina. _
JUV. Sat. i. 170.

More safely truth to urge her claim presumes,
On names now found alone on books and tombs.


There are few books on which more time is spent by young students, than
on treatises which deliver the characters of authors; nor any which
oftener deceive the expectation of the reader, or fill his mind with
more opinions which the progress of his studies and the increase of his
knowledge oblige him to resign.

Baillet has introduced his collection of the decisions of the learned, by
an enumeration of the prejudices which mislead the critick, and raise the
passions in rebellion against the judgment. His catalogue, though large,
is imperfect; and who can hope to complete it? The beauties of writing
have been observed to be often such as cannot in the present state of
human knowledge be evinced by evidence, or drawn out into demonstrations;
they are therefore wholly subject to the imagination, and do not force
their effects upon a mind pre-occupied by unfavourable sentiments, nor
overcome the counteraction of a false principle or of stubborn partiality.

To convince any man against his will is hard, but to please him against
his will is justly pronounced by Dryden to be above the reach of human
abilities. Interest and passion will hold out long against the closest
siege of diagrams and syllogisms, but they are absolutely impregnable
to imagery and sentiment; and will for ever bid defiance to the most
powerful strains of Virgil or Homer, though they may give way in time to
the batteries of Euclid or Archimedes.

In trusting therefore to the sentence of a critick, we are in danger not
only from that vanity which exalts writers too often to the dignity of
teaching what they are yet to learn, from that negligence which sometimes
steals upon the most vigilant caution, and that fallibility to which the
condition of nature has subjected every human understanding; but from
a thousand extrinsick and accidental causes, from every thing which can
excite kindness or malevolence, veneration or contempt.

Many of those who have determined with great boldness upon the various
degrees of literary merit, may be justly suspected of having passed
sentence, as Seneca remarks of Claudius,

_Una tantum parte audita,_
_Sæpe et nulla,_

without much knowledge of the cause before them: for it will not easily
be imagined of Langbaine, Borrichius, or Rapin, that they had very
accurately perused all the books which they praise or censure: or that,
even if nature and learning had qualified them for judges, they could
read for ever with the attention necessary to just criticism. Such
performances, however, are not wholly without their use; for they are
commonly just echoes to the voice of fame, and transmit the general
suffrage of mankind when they have no particular motives to suppress it.

Criticks, like the rest of mankind, are very frequently misled by
interest. The bigotry with which editors regard the authors whom they
illustrate or correct, has been generally remarked. Dryden was known to
have written most of his critical dissertations only to recommend the
work upon which he then happened to be employed: and Addison is suspected
to have denied the expediency of poetical justice, because his own Cato
was condemned to perish in a good cause.

There are prejudices which authors, not otherwise weak or corrupt, have
indulged without scruple; and perhaps some of them are so complicated
with our natural affections, that they cannot easily be disentangled from
the heart. Scarce any can hear with impartiality a comparison between the
writers of his own and another country; and though it cannot, I think, be
charged equally on all nations, that they are blinded with this literary
patriotism, yet there are none that do not look upon their authors with
the fondness of affinity, and esteem them as well for the place of their
birth, as for their knowledge or their wit. There is, therefore, seldom
much respect due to comparative criticism, when the competitors are of
different countries, unless the judge is of a nation equally indifferent
to both. The Italians could not for a long time believe, that there
was any learning beyond the mountains; and the French seem generally
persuaded, that there are no wits or reasoners equal to their own. I can
scarcely conceive that if Scaliger had not considered himself as allied
to Virgil, by being born in the same country, he would have found his
works so much superior to those of Homer, or have thought the controversy
worthy of so much zeal, vehemence, and acrimony.

There is, indeed, one prejudice, and only one, by which it may be doubted
whether it is any dishonour to be sometimes misguided. Criticism has so
often given occasion to the envious and ill-natured of gratifying their
malignity, that some have thought it necessary to recommend the virtue
of candour without restriction, and to preclude all future liberty of
censure. Writers possessed with this opinion are continually enforcing
civility and decency, recommending to criticks the proper diffidence of
themselves, and inculcating the veneration due to celebrated names.

I am not of opinion that these professed enemies of arrogance and severity
have much more benevolence or modesty than the rest of mankind; or that
they feel in their own hearts, any other intention than to distinguish
themselves by their softness and delicacy. Some are modest because
they are timorous, and some are lavish of praise because they hope to
be repaid.

There is indeed some tenderness due to living writers, when they attack
none of those truths which are of importance to the happiness of mankind,
and have committed no other offence than that of betraying their own
ignorance or dulness. I should think it cruelty to crush an insect
who had provoked me only by buzzing in my ear; and would not willingly
interrupt the dream of harmless stupidity, or destroy the jest which
makes its author laugh. Yet I am far from thinking this tenderness
universally necessary; for he that writes may be considered as a kind of
general challenger, whom every one has a right to attack; since he quits
the common rank of life, steps forward beyond the lists, and offers his
merit to the publick judgment. To commence author is to claim praise,
and no man can justly aspire to honour, but at the hazard of disgrace.
But whatever be decided concerning contemporaries, whom he that knows
the treachery of the human heart, and considers how often we gratify
our own pride or envy under the appearance of contending for elegance
and propriety will find himself not much inclined to disturb; there can
surely be no exemptions pleaded to secure them from criticism, who can
no longer suffer by reproach, and of whom nothing now remains but their
writings and their names. Upon these authors the critick is undoubtedly
at full liberty to exercise the strictest severity, since he endangers
only his own fame, and, like Æneas when he drew his sword in the
infernal regions, encounters phantoms which cannot be wounded. He may
indeed pay some regard to established reputation; but he can by that
shew of reverence consult only his own security, for all other motives
are now at an end.

The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous,
because the influence of his example is more extensive; and the interest
of learning requires that they should be discovered and stigmatized,
before they have the sanction of antiquity conferred upon them, and
become precedents of indisputable authority.

It has, indeed, been advanced by Addison, as one of the characteristicks
of a true critick, that he points out beauties rather than faults. But
it is rather natural to a man of learning and genius to apply himself
chiefly to the study of writers who have more beauties than faults to
be displayed: for the duty of criticism is neither to depreciate, nor
dignify by partial representations, but to hold out the light of reason,
whatever it may discover; and to promulgate the determinations of truth,
whatever she shall dictate.




No. 94. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1751.


_----Bonus atque fidus_
_Judex * * * * per obstantes catervas_
_Explicuit sua victor arma. _
HOR. Lib. iv. Od. ix. 40.

Perpetual magistrate is he
Who keeps strict justice full in sight;
Who bids the crowd at awful distance gaze,
And virtue's arms victoriously displays.
FRANCIS.


The resemblance of poetick numbers, to the subject which they mention or
describe, may be considered as general or particular; as consisting in
the flow and structure of a whole passage taken together, or as comprised
in the sound of some emphatical and descriptive words, or in the cadence
and harmony of single verses.

The general resemblance of the sound to the sense is to be found in every
language which admits of poetry, in every author whose force of fancy
enables him to impress images strongly on his own mind, and whose choice
and variety of language readily supply him with just representations. To
such a writer it is natural to change his measure with his subject, even
without any effort of the understanding, or intervention of the judgment.
To revolve jollity and mirth necessarily tunes the voice of a poet to gay
and sprightly notes, as it fires his eye with vivacity; and reflection
on gloomy situations and disastrous events, will sadden his numbers,
as it will cloud his countenance. But in such passages there is only
the similitude of pleasure to pleasure, and of grief to grief, without
any immediate application to particular images. The same flow of joyous
versification will celebrate the jollity of marriage, and the exultation
of triumph; and the same languor of melody will suit the complaints of an
absent lover, as of a conquered king.

It is scarcely to be doubted, that on many occasions we make the musick
which we imagine ourselves to hear, that we modulate the poem by our own
disposition, and ascribe to the numbers the effects of the sense. We may
observe in life, that it is not easy to deliver a pleasing message in
an unpleasing manner, and that we readily associate beauty and deformity
with those whom for any reason we love or hate. Yet it would be too
daring to declare that all the celebrated adaptations of harmony are
chimerical; that Homer had no extraordinary attention to the melody of
his verse when he described a nuptial festivity;

Νυμφας δ' εκ θαλαμων, δαιδων ὑπολαμπομεναων,
Ηγινεον ανα αστυ, πολυς δ' ὑμεναιος ορωρει.

Here sacred pomp and genial feast delight,
And solemn dance, and hymeneal rite;
Along the street the new-made brides are led,
With torches flaming, to the nuptial bed;
The youthful dancers, in a circle, bound
To the soft flute, and cittern's silver sound.
POPE.

That Vida was merely fanciful, when he supposed Virgil endeavouring to
represent, by uncommon sweetness of numbers, the adventitious beauty
of Æneas;

_Os, humerosque Deo similis: namque ipse decoram_
_Cæsariem nato genetrix, lumenque juventæ_
_Purpureum, et lætos oculis afflârat honores. _

The Trojan chief appeared in open sight,
August in visage, and serenely bright.
His mother goddess, with her hands divine,
Had form'd his curling locks, and made his temples shine;
And giv'n his rolling eyes a sparkling grace,
And breath'd a youthful vigour on his face.
DRYDEN.

Or that Milton did not intend to exemplify the harmony which he mentions:

Fountains! and ye that warble as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs! warbling tune his praise.

That Milton understood the force of sounds well adjusted, and knew the
compass and variety of the ancient measures, cannot be doubted; since he
was both a musician and a critick; but he seems to have considered these
conformities of cadence, as either not often attainable in our language,
or as petty excellencies unworthy of his ambition: for it will not be
found that he has always assigned the same cast of numbers to the same
objects. He has given in two passages very minute descriptions of angelic
beauty; but though the images are nearly the same, the numbers will be
found, upon comparison, very different:

And now a stripling cherub he appears,
Not of the prime, yet such as in his face
Youth smil'd celestial, and to every limb
_Suitable grace diffus'd, so well he feign'd;_
Under a coronet his flowing hair
_In curls on either cheek play'd: wings he wore_
_Of many a coloured plume, sprinkled with gold. _

Some of the lines of this description are remarkably defective in harmony,
and therefore by no means correspondent with that symmetrical elegance
and easy grace, which they are intended to exhibit. The failure, however,
is fully compensated by the representation of Raphael, which equally
delights the ear and imagination:

A seraph wing'd: six wings he wore to shade
His lineaments divine; the pair that clad
Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast
With regal ornament: the middle pair
Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round
Skirted his loins and thighs, with downy gold,
And colours dipp'd in heav'n; the third his feet
Shadow'd from either heel with feather'd mail,
Sky-tinctur'd grain! like Maia's son he stood,
And shook his plumes, that heav'nly fragrance fill'd
The circuit wide. ----

The adumbration of particular and distinct images by an exact and
perceptible resemblance of sound, is sometimes studied, and sometimes
casual. Every language has many words formed in imitation of the noises
which they signify. Such are _stridor_, _balo_, and _beatus_, in Latin; and
in English to _growl_, to _buzz_, to _hiss_, and to _jarr_. Words of this
kind give to a verse the proper similitude of sound, without much labour
of the writer, and such happiness is therefore to be attributed rather to
fortune than skill; yet they are sometimes combined with great propriety,
and undeniably contribute to enforce the impression of the idea. We hear
the passing arrow in this line of Virgil;

Et fugit _horrendum stridens_ elapsa sagitta;
Th' impetuous arrow whizzes on the wing.
POPE.

And the creaking of hell-gates, in the description by Milton;

--------Open fly
With impetuous recoil and jarring sound
Th' infernal doors: and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder. ----

But many beauties of this kind, which the moderns, and perhaps the
ancients, have observed, seem to be the product of blind reverence acting
upon fancy. Dionysius himself tells us, that the sound of Homer's verses
sometimes exhibits the idea of corporeal bulk. Is not this a discovery
nearly approaching to that of the blind man, who, after long inquiry into
the nature of the scarlet colour, found that it represented nothing so
much as the clangour of a trumpet? The representative power of poetick
harmony consists of sound and measure; of the force of the syllables
singly considered, and of the time in which they are pronounced. Sound
can resemble nothing but sound, and time can measure nothing but motion
and duration.

The criticks, however, have struck out other similitudes; nor is there any
irregularity of numbers which credulous admiration cannot discover to be
eminently beautiful. Thus the propriety of each of these lines has been
celebrated by writers whose opinion the world has reason to regard:

_Vertitur interea cœlum, et ruit oceano nox. _

Meantime the rapid heav'us rowl'd down the light,
And on the shaded ocean rush'd the night.
DRYDEN.

_Sternitur, exanimisque tremens procumbit humi bos. _

Down drops the beast, nor needs a second wound;
But sprawls in pangs of death, and spurns the ground.
DRYDEN.

_Parturiunt montes, nascitur ridiculus mus. _

The mountains labour, and a mouse is born.
ROSCOMMON.

If all these observations are just, there must be some remarkable
conformity between the sudden succession of night to day, the fall of an
ox under a blow, and the birth of a mouse from a mountain; since we are
told of all these images, that they are very strongly impressed by the
same form and termination of the verse.

We may, however, without giving way to enthusiasm, admit that some
beauties of this kind may be produced. A sudden stop at an unusual
syllable may image the cessation of action, or the pause of discourse;
and Milton has very happily imitated the repetitions of an echo:

--------I fled, and cried out _death_:
Hell trembled at the hedious name, and sigh'd
From all her caves, and back resounded _death_.

The measure of time in pronouncing may be varied so as very strongly
to represent, not only the modes of external motion, but the quick or
slow succession of ideas, and consequently the passions of the mind.
This at least was the power of the spondaick and dactylick harmony, but
our language can reach no eminent diversities of sound. We can indeed
sometimes, by encumbering and retarding the line, show the difficulty
of a progress made by strong efforts and with frequent interruptions, or
mark a slow and heavy motion. Thus Milton has imaged the toil of Satan
struggling through chaos;

So he with difficulty and labour hard
Mov'd on: with difficulty and labour he--

Thus he has described the leviathans or whales;

Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait.

But he has at other times neglected such representations, as may be
observed in the volubility and levity of these lines, which express an
action tardy and reluctant.

--------Descent and fall
To us is adverse. Who but felt of late,
When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear
Insulting, and pursu'd us through the deep,
With what confusion and laborious flight
We sunk thus low! Th' ascent is easy then.

In another place, he describes the gentle glide of ebbing waters in a line
remarkably rough and halting;

--------Tripping ebb; that stole
With soft foot tow'rds the deep who now had stopp'd
His sluices.

It is not, indeed, to be expected, that the sound should always assist the
meaning, but it ought never to counteract it; and therefore Milton has
here certainly committed a fault like that of a player, who looked on the
earth when he implored the heavens, and to the heavens when he addressed
the earth.

Those who are determined to find in Milton an assemblage of all the
excellencies which have ennobled all other poets, will perhaps be
offended that I do not celebrate his versification in higher terms; for
there are readers who discover that in this passage,

So stretch'd out huge in length the arch-fiend lay,

a _long_ form is described in a _long_ line; but the truth is, that
length of body is only mentioned in a _slow_ line, to which it has only
the resemblance of time to space, of an hour to a maypole.

The same turn of ingenuity might perform wonders upon the description of
the ark:

Then from the mountains hewing timber tall,
Began to build a vessel of huge bulk;
Measur'd by cubit, length, and breadth, and height.

In these lines the poet apparently designs to fix the attention upon
bulk; but this is effected by the enumeration, not by the measure; for
what analogy can there be between modulations of sound, and corporeal
dimensions?

Milton indeed seems only to have regarded this species of embellishment so
far as not to reject it when it came unsought; which would often happen
to a mind so vigorous, employed upon a subject so various and extensive.
He had, indeed, a greater and nobler work to perform; a single sentiment
of moral or religious truth, a single image of life or nature, would
have been cheaply lost for a thousand echoes of the cadence of the sense;
and he who had undertaken to _vindicate the ways of God to man_, might
have been accused of neglecting his cause, had he lavished much of his
attention upon syllables and sounds.




No. 95. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1751.


_Parcus Deorum cultor et infrequens,_
_Insanientis dum sapientiæ_
_Consultus erro; nunc retrorsum_
_Vela dare, atque iterare cursus_
_Cogor relictos. _
HOR. Lib. i. Od. xxxiv. 1.

A fugitive from heav'n and prayer,
I mock'd at all religious fear,
Deep scienc'd in the mazy lore
Of mad philosophy; but now
Hoist sail, and back my voyage plow
To that blest harbour, which I left before.
FRANCIS.


TO THE RAMBLER.

SIR,

There are many diseases both of the body and mind, which it is far easier
to prevent than to cure, and therefore I hope you will think me employed
in an office not useless either to learning or virtue, if I describe the
symptoms of an intellectual malady, which, though at first it seizes only
the passions, will, if not speedily remedied, infect the reason, and, from
blasting the blossoms of knowledge, proceed in time to canker the root.

I was born in the house of discord. My parents were of unsuitable ages,
contrary tempers, and different religions, and therefore employed the
spirit and acuteness which nature had very liberally bestowed upon both,
in hourly disputes, and incessant contrivances to detect each other
in the wrong; so that from the first exertions of reason I was bred a
disputant, trained up in all the arts of domestick sophistry, initiated
in a thousand low stratagems, nimble shifts, and sly concealments; versed
in all the turns of altercation, and acquainted with the whole discipline
of _fending_ and _proving_.

It was necessarily my care to preserve the kindness of both the
controvertists, and therefore I had very early formed the habit of
suspending my judgment, of hearing arguments with indifference, inclining
as occasion required to either side, and of holding myself undetermined
between them till I knew for what opinion I might conveniently declare.

Thus, Sir, I acquired very early the skill of disputation; and, as we
naturally love the arts in which we believe ourselves to excel, I did not
let my abilities lie useless, nor suffer my dexterity to be lost for want
of practice. I engaged in perpetual wrangles with my school-fellows, and
was never to be convinced or repressed by any other arguments than blows,
by which my antagonists commonly determined the controversy, as I was,
like the Roman orator, much more eminent for eloquence than courage.

At the university I found my predominant ambition completely gratified
by the study of logick. I impressed upon my memory a thousand axioms,
and ten thousand distinctions, practised every form of syllogism, passed
all my days in the schools of disputation, and slept every night with
Smiglecius[55] on my pillow.

You will not doubt but such a genius was soon raised to eminence by
such application. I was celebrated in my third year for the most artful
opponent that the university could boast, and became the terrour and envy
of all the candidates for philosophical reputation.

My renown, indeed, was not purchased but at the price of all my time and
all my studies. I never spoke but to contradict, nor declaimed but in
defence of a position universally acknowledged to be false, and therefore
worthy, in my opinion, to be adorned with all the colours of false
representation, and strengthened with all the art of fallacious subtilty.

My father, who had no other wish than to see his son richer than himself,
easily concluded that I should distinguish myself among the professors
of the law; and therefore, when I had taken my first degree, dispatched
me to the Temple with a paternal admonition, that I should never suffer
myself to feel shame, for nothing but modesty could retard my fortune.

Vitiated, ignorant, and heady as I was, I had not yet lost my reverence
for virtue, and therefore could not receive such dictates without
horrour; but, however, was pleased with his determination of my course
of life, because he placed me in the way that leads soonest from the
prescribed walks of discipline and education, to the open fields of
liberty and choice.

I was now in the place where every one catches the contagion of vanity,
and soon began to distinguish myself by sophisms and paradoxes. I declared
war against all received opinions and established rules, and levelled my
batteries particularly against those universal principles which had stood
unshaken in all the vicissitudes of literature, and are considered as the
inviolable temples of truth, or the impregnable bulwarks of science.

I applied myself chiefly to those parts of learning which have filled
the world with doubt and perplexity, and could readily produce all the
arguments relating to matter and motion, time and space, identity and
infinity.

I was equally able and equally willing to maintain the system of Newton or
Descartes, and favoured occasionally the hypothesis of Ptolemy, or that
of Copernicus. I sometimes exalted vegetables to sense, and sometimes
degraded animals to mechanism.

Nor was I less inclined to weaken the credit of history, or perplex the
doctrines of polity. I was always of the party which I heard the company
condemn.

Among the zealots of liberty I could harangue with great copiousness upon
the advantages of absolute monarchy, the secrecy of its counsels, and the
expedition of its measures; and often celebrated the blessings produced
by the extinction of parties, and preclusion of debates.

Among the assertors of regal authority, I never failed to declaim with
republican warmth upon the original charter of universal liberty, the
corruption of courts, and the folly of voluntary submission to those whom
nature has levelled with ourselves.

I knew the defects of every scheme of government, and the inconveniences
of every law. I sometimes shewed how much the condition of mankind would
be improved, by breaking the world into petty sovereignties, and sometimes
displayed the felicity and peace which universal monarchy would diffuse
over the earth.

To every acknowledged fact I found innumerable objections; for it was my
rule, to judge of history only by abstracted probability, and therefore
I made no scruple of bidding defiance to testimony. I have more than once
questioned the existence of Alexander the Great; and having demonstrated
the folly of erecting edifices like the pyramids of Egypt, I frequently
hinted my suspicion that the world had been long deceived, and that they
were to be found only in the narratives of travellers.

It had been happy for me could I have confined my scepticism to historical
controversies and philosophical disquisitions; but having now violated
my reason, and accustomed myself to inquire not after proofs, but
objections, I had perplexed truth with falsehood, till my ideas were
confused, my judgment embarrassed, and my intellects distorted. The habit
of considering every proposition as alike uncertain, left me no test by
which any tenet could be tried; every opinion presented both sides with
equal evidence, and my fallacies began to operate upon my own mind in
more important inquiries. It was at last the sport of my vanity to weaken
the obligations of moral duty, and efface the distinctions of good and
evil, till I had deadened the sense of conviction, and abandoned my heart
to the fluctuations of uncertainty, without anchor and without compass,
without satisfaction of curiosity, or peace of conscience, without
principles of reason, or motives of action.

Such is the hazard of repressing the first perceptions of truth, of
spreading for diversion the snares of sophistry, and engaging reason
against its own determinations.

The disproportions of absurdity grow less and less visible, as we are
reconciled by degrees to the deformity of a mistress; and falsehood, by
long use, is assimilated to the mind, as poison to the body.

I had soon the mortification of seeing my conversation courted only by
the ignorant or wicked, by either boys who were enchanted by novelty, or
wretches, who having long disobeyed virtue and reason, were now desirous
of my assistance to dethrone them.

Thus alarmed, I shuddered at my own corruption, and that pride by which
I had been seduced, contributed to reclaim me. I was weary of continual
irresolution, and a perpetual equipoise of the mind; and ashamed of
being the favourite of those who were scorned and shunned by the rest
of mankind.

I therefore retired from all temptation to dispute, prescribed a new
regimen to my understanding, and resolved, instead of rejecting all
established opinions which I could not prove, to tolerate though not adopt
all which I could not confute. I forebore to heat my imagination with
needless controversies, to discuss questions confessedly uncertain, and
refrained steadily from gratifying my vanity by the support of falsehood.

By this method I am at length recovered from my argumental delirium, and
find myself in the state of one awakened from the confusion and tumult
of a feverish dream. I rejoice in the new possession of evidence and
reality, and step on from truth to truth with confidence and quiet.

I am, Sir, &c.

PERTINAX.

[Footnote 55: A Polish writer, whose "Logick" was formerly held in great
estimation in this country, as well as on the continent. ]




No. 96. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1751.


_Quod si Platonis musa personat verum,_
_Quod quisque discit, immemor recordatur. _
BOETHIUS.

Truth in Platonick ornaments bedeck'd,
Inforc'd we love, unheeding recollect.


It is reported of the Persians, by an ancient writer, that the sum of
their education consisted in teaching youth _to ride, to shoot with the
bow, and to speak truth_.

The bow and the horse were easily mastered, but it would have been happy
if we had been informed by what arts veracity was cultivated, and by
what preservatives a Persian mind was secured against the temptations
to falsehood.