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lying down by the sides of fountains, or resting on beds of flowers'; and could hear a confused harmony of singing birds, falling waters, human voices, and musical instruments. Gladness grew in me 5 upon the discovery of so delightful a scene. I wished for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away to those happy seats; but the genius told me. there was no passage to them, except through the gates of death that I saw opening every moment 10 upon the bridge. The islands,' said he,' that lie so fresh and green before thee, and with which the whole face of the ocean appears spotted as far as thou canst see, are more in number than the sands on the sea-shore; there are myriads of islands 15 behind those which thou here discoverest, reaching further than thine eye or even thine imagination can extend itself. These are the mansions of good men after death, who according to the degree and kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are distributed 20 among these several islands, which abound with pleasures of different kinds and degrees, suitable to the relishes and perfections of those who are settled in them; every island is a paradise accommodated to its respective inhabitants. Are not these, 25 O Mirzah, habitations worth contending for? Does life appear miserable, that gives thee opportunities of earning such a reward? is death to be feared that will convey thee to so happy an existence? Think not man was made in vain, who has such 30 an eternity reserved for him.' I gazed with inexpressible pleasure on these happy islands. At length said I, 'Show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie hid under those dark clouds which

cover the ocean on the other side of the rock of adamant.' The genius making me no answer, I turned about to address myself to him a second time, but I found that he had left me; I then turned again. to the vision which I had been so long contemplat- 5 ing, but instead of the rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the long hollow valley of Bagdat, with oxen, sheep, and camels, grazing upon the sides of it.'

The end of the first vision of Mirzah.

No. 165.1 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8. [1711.]

Si forte necesse est,

Fingere cinctutis non exaudita Cethegis,

Continget: dabiturque licentia sumpta pudenter.-HOR.

I HAVE often wished, that as in our constitution 10 there are several persons whose business it is to watch over our laws, our liberties and commerce, certain 2 men might be set apart as superintendents of our language, to hinder any words of a foreign coin from passing among us; and in particular to 15 prohibit any French phrases from becoming current in this kingdom, when those of our own stamp are altogether as valuable. The present war has so adulterated our tongue with strange words that it would be impossible for one of our great grand- 20 fathers to know what his posterity have been doing, were he to read their exploits in a modern news

1 In 1711, this is wrongly numbered 166, with following motto: Semivirumque bovem semibovemque virum.-—OVID.

2 1711, that certain.

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paper. Our warriors are very industrious in propagating the French language, at the same time that they are so gloriously successful in beating down their power. Our soldiers are men of strong 5 heads for action, and perform such feats as they are not able to express. They want words in their own tongue to tell us what it is they achieve, and therefore send us over accounts of their performances in a jargon of phrases, which they learn 10 among their conquered enemies. They ought however to be provided with secretaries and assisted by our foreign ministers, to tell their story for them in plain English, and to let us know in our mothertongue what it is our brave countrymen are about. 15 The French would indeed be in the right to publish the news of the present war in English phrases, and make their campaigns unintelligible. Their people might flatter themselves that things are not so bad as they really are, were they thus palliated with 20 foreign terms, and thrown into shades and obscurity: But the English cannot be too clear in their narrative of those actions, which have raised their country to a higher pitch of glory than it ever yet arrived at, and which 5 will be still the more admired 25 the better they are explained.

For my part, by that time a siege is carried on two or three days, I am altogether lost and bewildered in it, and meet with so many inexplicable difficulties, that I scarce know which side has the 30 better of it, till I am informed by the Tower guns that the place is surrendered. I do indeed make

3 1711, by foreign ministers.

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1711, that can tell . . . and let us know.

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1711, that I do not know.

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some allowances for this part of the war, fortifications having been foreign inventions, and upon that account abounding in foreign terms. But when we have won battles which may be described in our own language, why are our papers filled 5 with so many unintelligible exploits, and the French obliged to lend us a part of their tongue before we can know how they are conquered? They must be made accessary to their own disgrace, as the Britons were formerly so artificially wrought in 10 the curtain of the Roman theatre, that they seemed to draw it up, in order to give the spectators an opportunity of seeing their own defeat celebrated upon the stage: for so Mr. Dryden has translated that verse in Virgil:

Atque intertexti tollant aulæa Britanni.

Which interwoven Britons seem to raise,

And show the triumph that their shame displays.

15

The histories of all our former wars are transmitted to us in our vernacular idiom, to use the phrase of a great modern critic. I do not find in any of our chronicles, that Edward III. ever reconnoitered the enemy, though he often discovered 20 the posture of the French, and as often vanquished them in battle. The Black Prince passed many a river without the help of pontoons, and filled a ditch with faggots as successfully as the generals of our times do it with fascines. Our commanders 25 lose half their praise, and our people half their joy, by means of those hard words and dark expressions

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in which our newspapers do so much abound. I have seen many a prudent citizen, after having read every article, enquire of his next neighbour what news the mail had brought.

I remember in that remarkable year when our country was delivered from the greatest fears and apprehensions, and raised to the greatest height of gladness it had ever felt since it was a nation; I mean the year of Blenheim, I had the copy of a 10 letter sent me out of the country, which was written from a young gentleman in the army to his father, a man of a good estate and plain sense: as the letter was very modishly chequered with this modern military eloquence, I shall present my reader with a 15 copy of it.

"SIR,

"Upon the junction of the French and Bavarian armies they took post behind a great morass which they thought impractica ble. Our general the next day sent a party of horse to recon20 noitre them from a little hauteur, at about a quarter of an hour's distance from the army, who returned again to the camp unobserved through several defiles, in one of which they met with a party of French that had been marauding, and made them all prisoners at discretion. The day after a drum arrived at our 25 camp, with a message which he would communicate to none but the general; he was followed by a trumpet, who they say behaved himself very saucily, with a message from the duke of Bavaria. The next morning our army being divided into two corps, made a movement towards the enemy: you will hear in the public prints 30 how we treated them, with the other circumstances of that glorious day. I had the good fortune to be in the regiment that pushed the Gens d'Arms. Several French battalions, who some say were a corps de réserve, made a show of resistance; but it only proved a gasconade. for upon our preparing to fill up a little

8 at about a mile's distance.

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