per manuring, neceffary pruning, and an artful management of our tender inclinations and first spring of life: Thefe obvious fpeculations made me at length conclude, that there is a fort of vegetable principle in the mind of every man when he comes into the world. • In infants the feeds lie buried and undiscovered, till ⚫ after a while they sprout forth in a kind of rational leaves, which are words; and in due feason the flowvers begin to appear in variety of beautiful colours, and all the gay pictures of youthful fancy and imagination; at laft the fruit knits and is formed, which is green, perhaps, firft, and four, unpleasant to the taite, and not fit to be gathered; till ripened by due care and application it discovers itself in all the noble productions of philofophy, mathematics, clofe reasoning, and handfom argumentation: And these fruits, when they arrive at juft maturity, and are of a good kind, afford the most vigorous nourishment to the minds of men. I reflected further on the intellectual leaves before-mentioned,. ⚫ and found almoft as great a variety among them as in the vegetable world. I could easily obferve the fmooth 'fhining Italian leaves; the nimble French afpen always in motion; the Greek and Latin ever-greens, the Spanish myrtle, the English oak, the Scorch thistle, the Irifh fhambrogue, the prickly German and Dutch holly, the Polish and Ruffian nettle, befides a vast number of exotics imported from Afia, Africa, and America. I faw feveral barren plants, which bore only leaves, ' without any hopes of flower or fruit: The leaves of fome were fragrant and well-fhaped, and others illfcented and irregular. I wondered at a fet of old ⚫ whimsical botanists, who spent their whole lives in the contemplation of fome withered Egyptian, Coptic, Armenian, or Chinese lēaves, while others made it their bufinefs to collect in voluminous herbals all the feveral leaves of fome one tree. The flowers afford a meft. diverting entertainment in a wonderful variety of figures, colours and scents; however, most of them ⚫ withered foon, or at beft are but Annuals. Some profeffed florifts make them their contant fudy a d employment and delpite al! fuit; and now and then a few fanciful people spend all their time in the cultiva ⚫tion tion of a fingle tulip, or a carnation: But the moft agree. ⚫able amusement feems to be the well choofing, mixing, ⚫ and binding together thefe flowers in pleafing nofegays. to prefent to ladies. The fcent of Italian flowers is obferved, like their other perfumes, to be too ftrong, and to hurt the brain; that of the French with glaring gaudy colours, yet faint and languid; German and Northern flowers have little or no fmell, or sometimes. an unpleasant one. The ancients had a fecret to give a lafting beauty, colour, and fweetness to fome of their choice flowers, which flourish to this day, and which • few of the moderns can effect. These are becoming enough and agreeable in their feafon, and do often handiomly adorn an entertainment, but an over-fond• nefs of them feems to be a disease. It rarely happens to find a plant vigorous enough, to have (like an orangetree) at once beautiful fhining leaves, flagrant flowers, and delicious nourishing fruit. 6 6 Dear SPEC, YOU SIR, Yours, &c. August 6, 1712. YOU have given us, in your Spectator of Saturday laft, a very excellent difcourfe upon the force of ⚫ custom, and its wonderful efficacy in making every thing pleasant to us. I cannot deny but that I received above two pennyworth of inftruction from your paper, and in the general was very well pleafed with it, but I am ⚫ without a compliment. fincerely troubled that I cannot exactly be of your opinion, That it makes every thing pleafing to us. In fhort, I have the honour to be yok'd to a young lady, who is, in plain English, for her standing, a very eminent fcold. She began to break her mind very freely both to me and to her fervants ' about two months after our nuptials; and tho' I have been accustomed to this humour of hers this three years, yet I do not know what's the matter with me, but I am no more delighted with it than I was at the very first. I have advised with her relations about her, and they all tell me that her mother and her grandmother before her were both taken much after the fame manner; fo that fince it runs in the blood, I have but small hopes of her recovery. I should be glad to have a • little ་ ་ little of your advice in this matter: I would not willingly trouble you to contrive how it may be a pleafure to me; if you will but put me in a way that I may bear it with indifference, I shall rest satisfied. Dear SPEC, Your very humble fervant. P. S. I must do the poor girl the juftice to let you 'know, that this match was none of her own choosing, (or indeed of mine either ;) in confideration of which I ' avoid giving her the least provocation; and indeed we live better together than ufually folks do who hated one ⚫ another when they were first joined: To evade the fin against parents, or at leaft to extenuate it, my dear rails at my father and mother, and I curfe hers for making the match. Mr. SPECTATOR, I Like the theme you lately gave out extremely, and fhould be as glad to handle it as any man living: But I find myself no better qualified to write about money than about my wife; for, to tell you a fecret 'which I defire may go no farther, I am mafter of neither of thofe fubjects. Yours, August 8, 1712. Mr. SPECTATOR, I Pill Garlick. Defire you would print this in Italick, so as it may be generally taken notice of. It is defigned only to admonish all perfons, who fpeak either at the bar, pulpit, or any public affembly whatsoever, how they ⚫ difcover their ignorance in the ufe of fimiles. There are in the pulpit itself, as well as in other places, fuch grofs abufes in this kind, that I give this warning to all I know. I thall bring them for the future before your Spectatorial authority. On Sunday laft, one, who shall be nameless, reproving feveral of his congregation for standing at prayers, was pleased to fay, One would think like the elephant, you had no knees. Now I myfelf faw an elephant in Bartholomew-Fair kneel down to take on his back the ingenious Mr. William Penkethman. Your most humble fervant. Wed T N° 456 Wednesday, April 13. De quo libelli in celeberrimis locis proponuntur, huic ne perire quidem tacitè conceditur. TULL. The man, whofe conduct is publicly arraign'd, is not fuffer'd even to be ruin'd quietly. TWAY, in his tragedy of Venice Preferv'd, has described the mifery of a man, whose effects are in the hands of the law, with great fpirit. The bitterness of being the fcorn and laughter of bafe minds, the anguish of being infulted by men hardened beyond the fenfe of fhame or pity, and the injury of a man's fortune being wafted, under pretence of justice, are excellently aggravated in the following speech of Pierre to Faffier: I pass'd this very moment by thy doors, And found them guarded by a troop of villains: Nothing Nothing indeed can be more unhappy than the condition of bankruptcy. The calamity which happens to us by ill fortune, or by the injury of others, has in it fome confolation; but what arifes from our own misbehaviour or error, is the state of the most exquifite forrow. When a man confiders not only an ample fortune, but even the very neceffaries of life, his pretence to food itself at the mercy of his creditors, he cannot but look upon himself in the state of the dead, with his cafe thus much worfe, that the laft office is performed by his adverfaries instead of his friends. From this hour the cruel world does not only take poffeffion of his whole fortune, but even of every thing elfe, which had no relation to it. All his indifferent actions have new interpretations put upon them; and those whom he has favoured in his former life, discharge themselves of their obligations to him, by joining in the reproaches of his enemies. It is almoft incredible that it should be fo; but it is too often feen that there is a pride mixed with the impatience of the creditor, and there are who would rather recover their own by the downfal of a profperous man, than be difcharged to the common fatisfaction of themselves and their creditors. The wretched man, who was lately master of abundance, is now under the direction of others; and the wisdom, oeconomy, good sense and skill in human life before, by reafon of his prefent misfortune, are of no ufe to him in the difpofition of any thing. The incapacity of an infant or a lunatic is defigned for his provifion and accommodation; but that of a bankrupt, without any mitigation in refpect of the accidents by which it arrived, is calculated for his utter ruin, except there be a remainder ample enough after the discharge of his creditors to bear alfo the expence of rewarding those by whose means the effect of all his labour was transferred from him. The man is to look on and fee others giving directions upon what terms and conditions his goods are to be purchased, and all this nfually done not with an air of trustees to difpofe of his effects, but deftroyers to divide and tear them to pieces. There is fomething facred in mifery to great and good minds; for this reafon all wife lawgivers have been extremely |