Mr. SPECTATOR, T HERE are those who take the advantage of your putting an half-penny value upon yourself above the rest of our daily writers, to defame you in public converfation, and ftrive to make you unpopular upon the account of this faid half-penny. But if I were you, I would infift upon that small acknowledgment for the fuperior merit of yours, as being a work of invention. Give me leave therefore to do you juftice, and fay in your behalf, what you cannot yourself, which is, That your writings have made learning a ⚫ more neceffary part of good-breeding than it was before you appeared: That modefty is become fashionable, and impudence ftands in need of fome wit; fince you have put them both in their proper lights. Profanenefs, lewdness, and debauchery are not now qualifications, and a man may be a very fine gentleman, tho' he is neither a keeper nor an infidel. I would have you tell the town the ftory of the Sibyls, if they deny giving you two-pence. Let them know, that thofe facred papers were valued at the ⚫ fame rate after two thirds of them were deftroyed, as • when there was the whole fet. There are so many of us who will give you your own price, that you may acquaint your non-conformist readers, That they shall not have it, except they come in within fuch a day, under three-pence. I don't know but you might bring • in the Date Obolum Bellifario with a good grace. The witlings come in clusters to two or three coffee-houses which have left you off, and I hope you will make us, who fine to your wit, merry with their characters who • ftand out against it. I am your most humble fervant. P. S. have lately got the ingenious authors of blacking for fhoes, powder for colouring the hair, pomatum for the hands, cosmetic for the face, to be your conftant customers; fo that your advertisements ⚫ will as much adorn the outward man, as your paper • does the inward. T Wednesday, N° 462 Wednesday, August 20. Nil ego prætulerim jucundo fanus amico. Hor. Sat. 5. 1. 1. V. 44 Nothing fo grateful as a pleasant friend. PE EOPLE are not aware of the very great force which pleafantry in company has upon all thofe with whom a man of that talent converfes. His faults are generally overlooked by all his acquaintance, and a certain carelesness that conftantly attends all his actions, carries him on with greater fuccefs, than diligence and affiduity does others who have no fhare of this endowment. Dacinthus breaks his word upon all occafions both trivial and important; and when he is fufficiently rai ed at for that abominable quality, they who talk of him end with, After all he is a very pleasant fellow. Dacinthus is an ill-natured husband, and yet the very women end their freedom of difcourfe upon this fubje&, But after all be is very pleasant company. Dacinthus is neither in point of honour, civility, good-breeding, or good-nature unexceptionable, and yet all is anfwered, For he is a very pleasant fellow. When this quality is confpicuous in a man who has, to accompany it, manly and virtuous fentiments, there cannot certainly be any thing which can give fo pleafing gratification as the gaiety of fuch a perfon; but when it is alone, and ferves only to gild a croud of ill qualities, there is no man fo much to be avoided as your pleafant fellow. A very pleasant fellow shall turn your good name to a jeft, make your character contemptible, debauch your wife or daughter, and yet be received by the rest of the world with welcome where ever he appears. It is very ordinary with thofe of this character to be attentive only to their own fatisfactions, and have very little bowels for the concerns or forrows of other men; nay, they are capable of purchafing their own pleafures at the expence of giving pain to others. But they who do not confider this fort of men thus carefully, are irrefiftibly expofed to their infinuations. The author of the following letter carries the matter fo high, as to intimate that the liberties of England have been at the mercy of a prince merely as he was of this pleasant character. Mr. SPECTATOR, THERE is no one paffion which all mankind fo naturally give into as pride, nor any other paffion which appears in fuch different difguifes: It is to be found in all habits and complexions. Is it not a queftion, whether it does more harm or good in the world? And if there be not fuch a thing as what we may call a virtuous and laudable pride? It is this paffion alone, when mifapplied, that lays us fo open to flatterers; and he who can agreeably condefcend to footh our humour or temper, finds always an open avenue to our foul; efpecially if the flatterer happen to be our fuperior. One might give many inftances of this in a late Englih monarch, under the title of, The gaieties of King Charles II. This prince was by nature extremely familiar, of very easy access, and much delighted to fee and be seen and this happy temper, which in the highest degree gratified his people's vanity, did him more fervice with his loving fubjects than all his other virtues, tho' it must be confeffed he had many. He ' delighted, tho' a mighty king, to give and take a jeft, as they fay; and a prince of this fortunate difpofition, 'who were inclined to make an ill use of his power, may have any thing of his people, be it never fo much to their prejudice. But this good king made generally a very innocent ufe, as to the public, of this inínaring temper; for, 'tis well known, he purfued pleasure more than ambition: He feemed to glory in being the ⚫ firft man at cock-matches, horfe- races, balls, and plays; he appeared highly delighted on thofe occafions, and never failed to warm and gladden the heart of every fpectator. He more than once dined with his good ⚫ citizens of London on their Lord-Mayor's Day, and did fo the year that Sir Robert Viner was mayor. Sir Robert was was a very loyal man, and, if you will allow the expreffion, very fond of his fovereign; but what with the joy he felt at heart for the honour done him by his prince, and thro' the warmth he was in with continual toafting healths to the royal family, his lordship grew a little fond of his majefty, and entered into a familiarity not altogether fo graceful in fo public a place. The king understood very well how to extricate himself on all kinds of difficulties, and with an hint to the company to avoid ceremony, ftole off and made to⚫wards his coach, which stood ready for him in Guild-Hall yard: But the mayor liked his company fo well, and was grown fo intimate, that he purfued him haftily, and catching him faft by the hand, cry'd out with a vehement oath and accent, Sir, you shall stay and take tother bottle. The airy monarch looked kindly at him over his fhoulder, and with a fmile and graceful air, ⚫ (for I faw him at the time and do now) repeated this line of the old fong; He that's drunk is as great as a king. and immediately turned back and complied with his ⚫ landlord. I give you this ftory, Mr. SPECTATOR, becaufe, as I faid, I faw the paffage; and I affure you it's very true, and yet no common one; and when I tell you the fequel, you will fay I have yet a better reason 'for't. This very mayor afterwards erected a ftatue of his merry monarch in Stocks-Market, and did the crown many and great fervices; and it was owing to this humour of the king, that his family had fo great · a fortune fhut up in the Exchequer of their pleafant fovereign. The many good-natured condefcenfions of this prince are vulgarly known; and it is excellently faid of him by a great hand which writ his character, • That he was not a king a quarter of an hour together in •his whole reign. He would receive vifits even from • fools and half mad-men, and at times I have met with people who have boxed, fought at back-fword, and taken poifon before King Charles II. In a word, he was so pleasant a man, that no one could be forrow K • ful ful under his government. This made him capable of baffling, with the greatest ease imaginable, all fug⚫ geftions of jealoufy, and the people could not entertain notions of any thing terrible in him, whom they faw every way agreeable. This fcrap of the familiar part of that prince's hiftory I thought fit to fend you, in compliance to the request you lately made to your correfpondents. T I am SIR, Your most humble fervant. No 463 Thursday, August 21. Omnia quæ fenfu volvuntur vota diurno, Claud. In fleep, when fancy is let loose to play, I With wonted chimes of gingling verfe delight. Was lately entertaining myfelf with comparing Homer's balance, in which Jupiter is reprefented as weighing the fates of Hector and Achilles, with a paffage of Virgil, wherein that deity is introduced as weighing the fates of Turnus and Eneas. I then con fidered |