a riddle, and the reader must be forced to con-offer to you some remarks upon the epistolary sider it twice or thrice, before he will know that way of writing in verse. This is a species of the Cynic's tenement is a tub, and Bacchus's cast-poetry by itself; and has not so much as been coat a hogshead, etc.

"Twas night, and heaven, a Cyclops all the day,
An Argus now, did countless eyes display;
In every window Rome her joy declares,
All bright and studded with terrestrial stars.
A blazing chain of lights her roofs entwines,
And round her neck the mingled luster shines:
The Cynic's rolling tenement conspires
With Bacchus his cast-coat to feed the fires.

The pile, still big with undiscover'd shows,
The Tuscan pile, did last its freight disclose;
Where the proud tops of Rome's new Etna rise,
Whence giants sally, and invade the skies.

While now the multitude expect the time,
And their tir'd eyes the lofty mountain climb,
A thousand iron mouths their voices try,
And thunder out a dreadful harmony:
In treble notes the small artillery plays,
The deep-mouthed cannon bellows in the bass,
The lab'ring pile now heaves, and, having given
Proofs of its travail, sighs in flames to heaven.

The clouds envelop'd heav'n from human sight,
Quench'd ev'ry star, and put out ev'ry light;
Now real thunder grumbles in the skies,
And in disdainful murmurs Rome defies:
Nor doth its answer'd challenge Rome decline;
But, while both parties in full concert join,
While heav'n and earth in rival peals resound,
The doubtful cracks the hearer's sense confound;
Whether the claps of thunderbolts they hear,
Or else the burst of cannon wounds their ear;
Whether clouds rag'd by struggling metals rent,
Or struggling clouds in Roman metals pent:
But, O my Muse, the whole adventure tell,
As ev'ry accident in order fell.

Tall groves of trees the Hadrian tower surround,
Fictitious trees with paper garlands crown'd.
These know no spring, but when their bodies sprout
In fire, and shoot their gilded blossoms out;
When blazing leaves appear above their head,
And into branching flames their bodies spread.
While real thunder splits the firmament,
And heav'n's whole roof in one vast cleft is rent,
The three-forked tongue amidst the rupture lolls,
Then drops, and on the airy turret falls.
The trees now kindle, and the garland burns,
And thousand thunderbolts for one returns:
Brigades of burning arches upward fly,

Bright spears and shining spearmen mount on high,
Flash in the clouds, and glitter in the sky.

A seven-fold shield of spheres doth heav'n defend,
And back again the blunted weapons send;
Unwillingly they fall, and dropping down,
Pour out their souls, their sulph'rous souls, and groan.
With joy, great Sir, we view'd this pompous show,
While Heav'n, that sat spectator still till now,
Itself turn'd actor, proud to pleasure you:
And so 'tis fit, when Leo's fires appear,
That Heav'n itself should turn an engineer,
That Heav'n itself should all its wonders show,
And orbs above consent with orbs below

No. 618.] WEDNESDAY, NOV. 10, 1714.
- Neque enim concludere versum
Dixeris esse satis; neque si quis scribat, uti nos
Sermoni propiora, putes hunc esse poetam.
HOR. 1 Sat. iv. 40.
"Tis not enough the measur'd feet to close:
Nor will you give a poet's name to those
Whose humble verse, like mine, approaches prose.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"You having, in your two last Spectators, given the town a couple of remarkable letters in very different styles, I take this opportunity to

*This copy of verses is a translation from the Latin in Strada's Prolusiones Academicæ, etc., and an imitation originally of the style and manner of Camillo Querno, surnamed the Arch-poet. His character and his writings were equally

singular; he was poet and buffoon to Leo X, and the common butt of that facetious pontiff and his courtiers. See Strada Prolusiones, Oxon 1746, p. 244; and Bayle's Dictionary, art.

Leo X.

hinted at in any of the Arts of Poetry that have ever fallen into my hands, neither has it in any age, or any nation, been so much cultivated as the other several kinds of poesy. A man of genius may, if he pleases, write letters in verse upon all manner of subjects that are capable of being embellished with wit and language, and may render them new and agreeable by giving the proper turn to them. But, in speaking at present of epistolary poetry, I would be understood to mean only such writings in this kind as have been in use among the ancients, and have been copied from them by some moderns. These may be reduced into two classes: in the one I shall range love-letters, letters of friendship, and letters upon mournful occasions: in the other I shall place such epistles in verse as may properly be called familiar, critical, and moral; to which may be added letters of mirth and humor. Ovid for the first, and Horace for the latter, are the best originals we have left.

He that is ambitious of succeeding in the Ovidian way, should first examine his heart well, and feel whether his passions (especially those of the gentler kind) play easy; since it is not his wit, but the delicacy and tenderness of his sentiments, that will affect his readers. His versification likewise should be soft, and all his numbers flowing and querulous.

"The qualifications requisite for writing epistles, after the model given us by Horace, are of a quite different nature. He that would excel in this kind must have a good fund of strong masculine sense: to this there must be joined a thorough knowledge of mankind, together with an insight into the business and the prevailing humors of the age. Our author must have his mind well-seasoned with the finest precepts of morality, and be filled with nice reflections upon the bright and the dark sides of human life; he must be a master of refined raillery, and understand the delicacies as well as the absurdities of conversation. He must have a lively turn of wit, with an easy and concise manner of expression; everymanner. He must be guilty of nothing that bething he says must be in a free and disengaged trays the air of a recluse, but appear a man of the world throughout. His illustrations, his comparisons, and the greatest parts of his images, must be drawn from common life. Strokes of satire and criticism, as well as panegyric, judiciously thrown in (and as it were by-the-bye), give a wonderful life and ornament to compositions of this kind. But let our poet, while he writes epistles, though never so familiar, still remember that he writes in verse, and must for that reason have a more than ordinary care not to fall into prose, and a vulgar diction, excepting where the nature and humor of the thing do necessarily require it. In this point Horace has been thought by some critics to be sometimes careless, as well as too negligent of his versification; of which he seems to have been sensible himself.

of writing may be made as entertaining, in their
way, as any other species of poetry, if undertaken
by persons duly qualified; and the latter sort may
be managed so as to become in a peculiar manner
instructive.
"I am," etc.

"All I have to add is, that both these manners

I shall add an observation or two to the remarks of my ingenious correspondent; and, in the first place, take notice, that subjects of the most sublime nature are often treated in the epistolary way

with advantage, as in the famous epistle of Horace | I desire Tom Truelove (who sends me a sonnet to Augustus. The poet surprises us with his pomp, upon his mistress, with a desire to print it immeand seems rather betrayed into his subject than to diately) to consider that it is long since I was in have aimed at it by design. He appears, like the love. visit of a king incognito, with a mixture of familiarity and grandeur. In works of this kind, when the dignity of the subject hurries the poet into descriptions and sentiments seemingly unpremeditated, by a sort of inspiration, it is usual for him to recollect himself, and fall back gracefully into the natural style of a letter.

I might here mention an epistolary poem, just published by Mr. Eusden, on the king's accession to the throne; wherein, among many other noble and beautiful strokes of poetry, his reader may see this rule very happily observed.

No. 619.] FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1714.

dura

Exerce imperia, et ramos compesce fluentes.
VIRG. Georg. ii. 369.

Exert a rigorous sway,

And lop the too luxuriant boughs away.

I HAVE often thought that if the several letters

which are written to me under the character of the Spectator, and which I have not made use of, were published in a volume, they would not be an unentertaining collection. The variety of the subjects, styles, sentiments, and informations, which are transmitted to me, would lead a very curious, or very idle, reader, insensibly along through a great many pages. I know some authors who would pick up a secret history out of such materials, and make a bookseller an alderman by the copy. I shall therefore carefully preserve the original papers in a room set apart for that purpose, to the end that they may be of service to posterity; but shall at present content myself with owning the receipt of several letters, lately come to my hands, the authors whereof are impatient for an answer.

Clarissa, whose letter is dated from Cornhill, desires to be eased in some scruples relating to the skill of astrologers. Referred to the dumb man for an answer.

J. C. who proposes a love case, as he calls it, to the love casuist, is hereby desired to speak of it to the minister of the parish; it being a case of con

science.

The poor young lady, whose letter is dated October 26, who complains of a harsh guardian and an unkind brother, can only have my good wishes, unless she pleases to be more particular.

The petition of a certain gentleman, whose name I have forgot, famous for renewing the curls of decayed periwigs, is referred to the censor of small

wares.

The remonstrance of T. C. against the profanation of the Sabbath by barbers, shoe-cleaners, etc., had better be offered to the society of reformers.

A learned and laborious treatise upon the art of fencing, returned to the author.

To the gentleman of Oxford, who desires me to insert a copy of Latin verses, which were denied a place in the university books. Answer: Non

umque prematur in annum.

To my learned correspondent who writes against Masters' gowns, and poke sleeves, with a word in defense of large scarfs. Answer: I resolve not to raise animosities among the clergy.

To the lady who writes with rage against one of her own sex, upon the account of party warmth. Answer: Is not the lady she writes against reck

oned handsome?

I shall answer a very profound letter from my old friend the upholsterer, who is still inquisitive whether the king of Sweden be living or dead, by whispering him in the ear, that I believe he is alive.

Let Mr. Dapperwit consider, What is that long story of the cuckoldom to me?

At the earnest desire of Monimia's lover, who declares himself very penitent, he is recorded in my paper by the name of the faithful Castalio.

The petition of Charles Cocksure, which the petitioner styles "very reasonable," rejected. The memorial of Philander, which he desires may be dispatched out of hand, postponed.

I desire S. R. not to repeat the expression “under the sun," so often in his next letter.

The letter of P. S., who desires either to have it printed entire, or committed to the flames; not to be printed entire.

No. 620.] MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1714.

Hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti sæpius audis.
VIRG. En. vi. 791.

Behold the promis'd chief!

HAVING lately presented my reader with a copy of verses full of the false sublime, I shall here communicate to him an excellent specimen of the true; though it hath not been yet published, the judicious reader will readily discern it to be the work of a master; and if he hath read that noble poem on the prospect of peace, he will not be at a loss to guess at the author:

THE ROYAL PROGRESS.

When Brunswick first appeared, each honest heart,
Intent on verse, disdained the rules of art;
For him the songsters, in unmeasur❜d odes
De bas'd Alcides, and dethron'd the gods.
In golden chains the kings of India led,
Or rent the turban from the sultan's head.
One, in old fables, and the pagan's strain,
With nymphs and tritons, wafts him o'er the main;
Another draws fierce Lucifer in arms,

And fills the infernal region with alarms;
A third awakes some druid to foretell
Each future triumph from his dreary cell.
Exploded fancies! that in vain deceive,

While the mind nauseates what she can't believe.
My Muse th' expected hero shall pursue
From clime to clime, and keep him still in view;
His shining march describe in faithful lays,
Content to paint him, nor presume to praise;
Their charms, if charms they have, the truth supplies,
And from the theme unlabor'd beauties rise.

By longing nations for the throne design'd,
And call'd to guard the rights of human kind;
With secret grief his godlike soul repines,
And Britain's crown with joyless luster shines,
While pray'rs and tears his destin'd progress stay,
And crowds of mourners choke their sovereign's way,
Not so he march'd when hostile squadrons stood
In scenes of death, and fir'd his generous blood;
When his hot courser paw'd th' Hungarian plain,
And adverse legions stood the shock in vain.
His frontiers pass'd, the Belgian bounds he views,
And cross the level fields his march pursues;
Here pleas'd the land of freedom to survey,
He greatly scorns the thirst of boundless sway.
O'er the thin soil, with silent joy, he spies
Transplanted woods and borrow'd verdure rise;
Where ev'ry meadow won with toil and blood
From haughty tyrants and the raging flood,
With fruits and flowers the careful hind supplies,
And clothes the marshes in a rich disguise."
Such wealth for frugal hands doth Heav'n decree,
And such thy gifts, celestial Liberty!

Through stately towns, and many a fertile plain,
The pomp advances to the neighboring main,

extravagance of youth. Old age fills us with mortifying reflections upon a life misspent in the pursuit of anxious wealth, or uncertain honor. Agreeable to this gradation of thought in this life, it may be reasonably supposed that, in a future state, the wisdom, the experience, and the maxims of old age, will be looked upon by a separate spirit in mych the same light as an ancient man now sees the little follies and toyings of infants. pomps, the honors, the policies, and arts of mortal "In my twenty-second year I found a violent men, will be thought as trifling as hobby-horses, affection for my cousin Charles's wife growing mock battles or any other sports that now em-upon me, wherein I was in danger of succeeding, ploy all the cunning, and strength, and ambition if I had not upon that account begun my travels of rational beings, from four years old to nine or into foreign countries.

est stations. The following extract out of the pri vate papers of an honest country gentleman will set this matter in a clear light. Your reader will, perhaps, conceive a greater idea of him from these actions done in secret, and without a witness, than of those which have drawn upon them the admiration of multitudes.

ten.

The

MEMOIRS.

"Mem. Never to tell this to Ned, lest he should think hardly of his deceased father: though he continues to speak ill of me for that very reason.

"Prevented a scandalous lawsuit betwixt my nephew Harry and his mother, by allowing her underhand, out of my own pocket, so much money yearly as the dispute was about.

"A little after my return into England, at a pri"If the notion of a gradual rise in beings from vate meeting with my uncle Francis, I refused the the meanest to the Most High be not a vain imag-offer of his estate, and prevailed upon him not to ination, it is not improbable that an angel looks disinherit his son Ned. down upon a man as a man doth upon a creature which approaches the nearest to the rational nature. By the same rule, if I may indulge my fancy in this particular, a superior brute looks with a kind of pride on one of an inferior species. If they could reflect, we might imagine, from the gestures of some of them, that they think themselves the sovereigns of the world. and that all things were made for them. Such a thought would not be more absurd in brute creatures than one which men are apt to entertain, namely, that all the stars in the firmament were created only to please their eyes and amuse their imaginations. Mr. Dryden, in his fable of the Cock and the Fox, makes a speech for his hero, the cock, which is a pretty instance for this purpose.

Then turning, said to Partlet, 'See, my dear, How lavish nature hath adorn'd the year; How the pale primrose and the violet spring, And birds essay their throats, disus'd to sing; All these are ours, and I with pleasure see Man strutting on two legs, and aping me.' "What I would observe from the whole is this, that we ought to value ourselves upon those things only which superior beings think valuable, since that is the only way for us not to sink in our own esteem hereafter."

"Procured a benefice for a young divine, who is sister's son to the good man who was my tutor, and hath been dead twenty years. "Gave ten pounds to poor Mrs. H's widow.

-, my friend "Mem. To retrench one dish at my table, until I have fetched it up again.

"Mem. To repair my house and finish my gardens, in order to employ poor people after harvesttime.

“Ordered John to let out goodman D——————'s sheep that were pounded, by night; but not to let his fellow-servants know it.

"Prevailed upon M. T. Esq., not to take the law of the farmer's son for shooting a partridge, and to give him his gun again.

"Paid the apothecary for curing an old woman that confessed herself a witch.

gar.

Gave away my favorite dog, for biting a beg

"Made the minister of the parish and a whig justice of one mind, by putting them upon ex

No. 622.] FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1714.. plaining their notions to one another.

-Fallentis semita vitæ.-HOR. 1. Ep. xviii. 103.
-A safe private quiet, which betrays
Itself to ease, and cheats away the days.-POOLEY.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"In a former speculation you have observed, that true greatness does not consist in that pomp and noise wherein the generality of mankind are apt to place it. You have there taken notice that virtue in obscurity often appears more illustrious in the eye of superior beings, than all that passes for grandeur and magnificence among men.

"When we look back upon the history of those who have borne the part of kings, statesmen, or commanders, they appear to us stripped of those outside ornaments that dazzle their cotemporaries; and we regard their persons as great or little in proportion to the eminence of their virtues or vices. The wise sayings, generous sentiments, or disinterested conduct of a philosopher under mean circumstances of life, set him higher in our esteem than the mighty potentates of the earth, when we view them both through the long prospect of many ages. Were the memoirs of an obscure man, who lived up to the dignity of his nature, and according to the rules of virtue, to be laid before us, we should find nothing in such a character which might not set him on a level with men of the high

"Mem. To turn off Peter for shooting a doe while she was eating acorns out of his hand. "When my neighbor John, who hath often injured me, comes to make his request to-morrow: "Mem. I have forgiven him.

"Laid up my chariot, and sold my horses, to relieve the poor in a scarcity of corn.

"In the same year remitted to my tenants a fifth part of their rents.

"As I was airing to-day, I fell into a thought that warmed my heart, and shall, I hope, be the better for it as long as I live.

"Mem. To charge my son in private to erect no monument for me; but not to put this in my last will."

No. 623.] MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1714.

Sed mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat;
Vel pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,
Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundam,
Ante, pudor, quam te violem, aut tua jura resolvam.
Ille meos, primus qui me sibi junxit, amores
Abstulit; ille habeat secum, servetque sepulcro.
VIRG. Æn. iv. 24.

But first let yawning earth a passage rend,
And let me thro' the dark abyss descend:
First let avenging Jove, with flames from high,
Drive down this body to the nether sky,