by Error, fired by Self-Conceit, and given up to be trained in all the courfes of Vanity, till Scorn or Poverty come upon us. Thefe expreffions were no fooner handed about, but I immediately faw a general diforder, till at laft there was a parting in one place, and a grave old man, decent and refolute, was led forward to be punished for the words he had uttered. He appeared inclined to have spoken in his own defence, but I could not obferve that any one was willing to hear him. Vanity cast a fcornful fmile at him; Self-Conceit was angry; Flattery, who knew him for Plain-dealing, put on a Vizard, and turned away; Affectation tofled her fan, made mouths, and called him Envy or Slander; and Fashion would have it, that at least he must be Ill-Manners. Thus flighted and defpifed by all, he was driven out for abufing people of merit and figure; and I heard it firmly refolved, that he should be used no better wherever they met with him hereafter. I had already feen the meaning of moft part of that warning which he had given, and was coufidering how the latter words fhould be fulfilled, when a mighty noise was heard without, and the door was blackned by a numerous train of harpies crouding in upon us. Folly and Broken-Credit were feen in the house before they entered. Trouble, Shame, Infamy, Scorn and Poverty brought up the rear. Vanity, with her Cupid and Graces, difappeared; her fubjects ran into holes and corners; but many of them were found and carried off (as I was told by one who flood near me) either to prifons or cellars, folitude, or little company, the mean arts or the viler crafts of life. But thefe, added he with a disdainful air, are fuch who would fondly live here, when their merits neither matched the luftre of the place, nor their riches its expences. We have feen fuch fcenes as thefe before now; the glory you faw will all return when the hurry is over. I thanked him for his information, and believing him fo incorrigible as that he would ftay till it was his turn to be taken, I made off to the door, and overtook fome few, who, though they would not hearken to Plain dealing, were now terrified to good purpose by the example of others: But when they had touched the threshold, it was a strange shock to them to find that the the delufion of Error was gone, and they plainly dif cerned the building to hang a little up in the air without any real foundation. At first we faw nothing but a defperate leap remained for us, and I a thousand times blamed my unmeaning curiofity that had brought me into fo much danger. But as they began to fink lower, in their own minds, methought the palace funk along with us, till they were arrived at the due point of Esteem which they ought to have for themselves; then the part of the building in which they stood touched the earth, and we departing out, it retired from our eyes. Now, whether they who stayed in the palace were fenfible of this defcent, I cannot tell; it was then my opinion that they were not. However it be, my dream broke up at it, and has given me occafion all my life to reflect upon the fatal confequences of following the fuggeftions of Vanity. Mr. SPECTATOR, I Write to you to defire, that you would again touch upon a certain enormity, which is chiefly in use among the politer and better-bred part of mankind; I mean the ceremonies, bows, curtfies, whisperings, fmiles, winks, nods, with other familiar arts of falutation, which take up in our churches fo much time, that might be better employed, and which seem so utterly inconfiftent with the duty and true intent of our entring into thofe religious affemblies. The refemblance which this bears to our indeed proper behaviour in theatres, may be fome inftance of its incongruity in the above-mentioned places. In Roman catholic churches and chapels abroad, I myself have obferved, more than once, perfons of the first quality, of the nearest relation, and intimateft acquaintance, paffing by one another unknowing as it were, and unknown, and with fo little notices of each other, that it looked like having their minds more fuitably and more ⚫folemnly engaged; at least it was an acknowledgment that they ought to have been fo. I have been told the fame even of the Mahometans, with relation to the propriety of their demeanour in the conventions of their erroneous worship: And I cannot but think either of of them fufficient and laudable patterns of our imitation in this particular. I cannot help upon this occafion remarking on the • excellent memories of thofe devotionifts, who upon returning from church fhall give a particular account how two or three hundred people were dreffed; a thing, by reason of its variety, fo difficult to be digefted and • fixed in the head, that 'tis a miracle to me how two poor hours of divine fervice can be time fufficient for fo elaborate an undertaking, the duty of the place too being jointly, and, no doubt, oft pathetically performed along with it. Where it is faid in Sacred Writ, that the woman ought to have a covering on her head • because of the angels, that laft word is by fome thought to be metaphorically ufed, and to fignify young men. Allowing this interpretation to be right, the text may not appear to be wholly foreign to our prefent purpole. T When you are in a difpofition proper for writing on fuch a fubject, I earnestly recommend this to you, and am, SIR, ***** Your very humble fervant. N° 461 Tuesday, August 19. -Sed non Ego credulus illis. Virg. Ecl. 9. v. 34. But I difcern their flatt'ry from their praife. F DRYDEN. OR want of time to fubftitute fomething elfe in the room of them, I am at prefent obliged to publish compliments above my defert in the following letters. It is no small fatisfaction, to have given occafion to ingenious men to employ their thoughts upon facred fubjects from the approbation of fuch pieces of poetry as they have feen in my Saturday's papers. I fhall fhall never publish verse on that day but what is written by the fame hand; yet fhall I not accompany thofe writings with Eulogiums, but leave them to fpeak for themselves. For the SPECTATOR. Mr. SPECTATOR, CU very much promote the interefts of virtue while you reform the tafle of a profane age, and perfuade us to be entertained with divine poems, whilft we are diftinguished by fo many thousand humours, and fplit into fo many different fects and parties; yet perfons of every party, fect, and humour are fond of conforming their tafte to yours. You can transfufe your own relish of a poem into all your readers, according to their capacity to receive; and when you recommend the pious pafiion that reigns in the verfe, we feem to • feel the devotion, and grow proud and pleas'd inwardly, that we have fouls capable of relishing what the SPECTATOR approves. Upon reading the hymns that you have published in fome late papers, I had a mind to try yesterday ⚫ whether I could write one. The cxivth Pfalm appears to me an admirable ode, and I began to turn it into our language. As I was defcribing the journey of Ifrael from Egypt, and added the Divine Prefence amongst them, I perceived a beauty in this Pfalm which was intirely new to me, and which I was going to lofe; and that is, that the poet utterly conceals the prefence ⚫ of God in the beginning of it, and rather lets a poffeffive pronoun go without a fubftantive, than he will fo ⚫ much as mention any thing of divinity there. Judah was his fanctuary, and Ifrael bis dominion or kingdom. The reason now feems evident, and this conduct neceffary: For if God had appeared before, there could be no wonder why the mountains fhould leap and the fea retire; therefore that this convulfion of nature may be brought in with due furprife, his name is not men⚫tioned till afterward, and then with a very agreeable turn of thought God is introduced at once in all his majefty. This is what I have attempted to imitate in a tranflation without paraphrafe, and to preferve what I could of the spirit of the Sacred Author. If the following effay be not too incorrigible, beftow upon it a few brightnings from your genius, that I may learn how to write better, or to write no more. Your daily admirer and humble fervant, &c. W I. HEN Ifrael, freed from Pharoah's hand The tribes with chearful homage own II. Across the deep their journey lay, III. The mountains book like frighted sheep, IV. What pow'r could make the deep divide? And whence the fright that Sinai feels? Let ev'ry mountain, ev'ry flood VI. He thunders, and all nature mourns ; Mr. |