touch his tongue; but as to the fecond, every one will own that pleasure to be a heinous fin. The pleafure in the first cafe is of no continuance; it prevents our reafon and reflexion, and may be immediately followed by a fecret grief, to fee our neighbour's honour blafted. If it does not ceafe immediately, it is a fign that we are not difpleased with the ill nature of the fatirift, but are glad to fee him defame his enemy by all kinds of ftories; and then we deferve the punishment to which the writer of the libel is fubject. I fhall here add the words of a modern author. St. Gregory, upon excommunicating those writers who had difhonoured Caftorius, does not except those who read their works; because fays he, if calumnies have always been the delight of their hearers, and a gratification of those persons who have no other advantage over honeft men, is not he who takes pleafure in reading them as guilty as he who compofed them? It is an uncontefted maxim, that they who approve an action would certainly do it if they could; that is, if fome reafon of felf love did not hinder them. There is no difference, fays Cicero, between advifing a crime, and approving it when committed. The Roman law confirmed this maxim, having fubjected the approvers and authors of this evil to the fame penalty. We may therefore conclude, that those who are pleased with reading defamatory libels, so far as to approve the authors and difperfers of them, are as guilty as if they had compofed them; for if they do not write fuch libels themfelves, it is • because they have not the talent of writing, or because 'they will run no hazard.

The author produces other authorities to confirm his judgment in this particular.

C

VOL. VI

K

Friday,

N° 452

Friday, Auguft 8.

Eft natura hominum novitatis avida. Plin. apud Lillium. Human nature is fond of novelty.

HERE is no humour in my countrymen, which

TH

I am more inclined to wonder at, than their general thirft after news. There are about half a dozen ingenious men, who live very plentifully upon this curiofity of their fellow fubjects. They all of them receive the fame advices from abroad, and very often in the fame words; but their way of cooking it is fo different, that there is no citizen, who has an eye to the public good, that can leave the coffee-house with peace of mind before he has given every one of them a reading. These feveral dishes of news are so very agreeable to the palate of my countrymen, that they are not only pleased with them when they are ferved up hot, but when they are again fet cold before them, by thofe penetrating politicians, who oblige the public with their reflections and obfervations upon every piece of intelligence that is fent us from abroad. The text is given us by one set of writers and the comment by another.

But notwithstanding we have the fame tale told us in fo many different papers, and if occafion requires in fo many articles of the fame paper; notwithstanding in a fcarcity of foreign pofts we hear the fame ftory repeated by different advices from Paris, Bruffels, the Hague, and from every great town in Europe; notwithftanding the multitude of annotations, explanations, reflexions, and various readings which it paffes through, our time lies heavy on our hands till the arrival of a fresh mail: We long to receive further particulars, to hear what will be the next step, or what will be the confequences of that which we have already taken. A wefterly wind keeps the whole town in fufpence, and puts a ftop to conversation.

pa

This general curiofity has been raised and inflamed by our late wars, and if rightly directed might be of good ufe to a perfon who has fuch a thirft awakened in him. Why should not a man, who takes delight in reading every thing that is new, apply himself to hiftory, travels, and other writings of the fame kind, where he will find perpetual fuel for his curiofity, and meet with much more pleasure and improvement than in these pers of the week? An honest tradefman who languishes a whole fummer in expectation of a battle, and perhaps is balked at laft, may here meet with half a dozen in a day. He may read the news of a whole campaign, in lefs time than he now beftows upon the productions of a fingle poft. Fights, conquefts and revolutions lie thick together. The reader's curiofity is raised and satisfied every moment, and his paffions difappointed or gratified, without being detained in a state of uncertainty from day to day, or lying at the mercy of the fea and wind; in fhort, the mind is not here kept in a perpetual gape after knowledge, nor punished with that eternal thirst, which is the portion of all our modern news-mongers and coffee-house politicians.

All matters of fact, which a man did not know be-' fore, are news to him; and I do not fee how any haberdafher in Cheapfide is more concerned in the presen: quarrel of the cantons, than he was in that of the league. At least, I believe every one will allow me, it' is of more importance to an Englishman to know the hiftory of his ancestors, than that of his contemporaries who live upon the banks of the Danube or the Borifthenes. As for those who are of another mind, I fhall recommend to them the following letter, from a projector, who is willing to turn a penny by this remarkable curiofity of his countrymen.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

You

YOU must have obferved, that men who frequent coffee-houses, and delight in news, are pleafed 'with every thing that is matter of fact, fo it be what they have not heard before. A victory, or a defeat, ⚫are eqnally agreeable to them. The fhutting of a cardi ⚫nal's mouth pleases them one poft, and the opening of

K 2

it

it another. They are glad to hear the French court is ❝removed to Marli, and are afterwards as much delighted ⚫ with its return to Versailles. They read the advertisements with the fame curiofity as the articles of public news; and are as pleafed to hear of a pye-bald horfe that is ftrayed out of a field near Ilington, as of a 'whole troop that have been engaged in any foreign adventure. In fhort they have a relish for every thing that is news, let the matter of it be what it will; or, to speak more properly, they are men of a voracious appetite, but no tafte. Now Sir, fince the great fountain of news, I mean the war, is very near being dried up; and fince thefe gentlemen have contracted fuch an extinguishable thrift after it; I have taken their cafe and my own into confideration, and have thought of a project which may turn to the advantage of us both. I have thoughts of publishing a daily paper which fhall comprehend in it all the moft remark⚫able occurrences in every little town, village and ⚫ hamlet that lie within ten miles of London, or in other ⚫ words, within the verge of the penny-poft. I have pitched upon this fcene of intelligence for two reafons; firft because the carriage of letters will be very cheap; and fecondly, becaufe I may receive them every day. By this means my readers will have their news fresh and fresh, and many worthy citizens who cannot fleep with any fatisfaction at prefent, for want of being informed how the world goes, may go to bed contentedly, it being'my defign to put out my paper every night at nine o'clock precifely. I have already eftablished correfpondences in thefe feveral places, and received very good intelligence.

By my last advices from Knightsbridge I hear, that a horfe was clapped into the pound on the third in• ftant, and that he was not released when the letters came away.

We are informed from Pankridge, that a dozen weddings were lately celebrated in the mother church of that place, but are referred to their next letters for the names of the parties concerned.

Letters from Brumpton advise, that the widow Blight had received feveral vifits from John Mill

dew, which affords great matter of fpeculation in those parts.

By a fisherman which lately touched at HammerSmith, there is advice from Putney, that a certain perfon, well known in that place, is like to lose his election for church-warden; but this being boat news, we cannot give intire credit to it.

Letters from Paddington bring little more, than that William Squeak, the fow-gelder, paffed through that place the fifth inftant.

They advife from Fulham, that things remained there in the fame state they were. They had intelligence, juft as the letters came away, of a tub of ex⚫cellent ale juft fet abroach at Parsons Green; but this • wanted confirmation.

• I have here, Sir, given you a specimen of the news ⚫ with which I intend to entertain the town, and which, when drawn up regularly in the form of a news-paper, will, I doubt not, be very acceptable to many of thofe public-fpirited readers, who take more delight in acqainting themselves with other people's bufinefs than their own. I hope a paper of this kind, which lets us know what is done near home, may be more ufeful to us, than those which are filled with advices from Zug and Bender, and make some amends for that dearth of intelligence, which we may justly apprehend from times of peace. If I find that you receive this project favourably, I will fhortly trouble you with one or two more; and in the mean time am, moft worthy • Sir, with all due respect,

·

C

Your most obedient,

and humble fervant,

Saturday

K 3