terrible; they raise a new creation of monsters, dragons and giants; where the danger ends, the hero ceases; when he has won an empire, or gained his mistress, the rest of his story is not worth relating. My friend carried his discourse so far as to say, that it was for higher beings than men to join happiness and greatness in the same idea; but that in our condition we have no conception of superlative excellence or heroism, but as it is surrounded with a shade of distress. It is certainly the proper education we should give ourselves, to be prepared for the ill events and accidents we are to meet with in a life sentenced to be a scene of sorrow: but instead of this expectation, we soften ourselves with prospects of constant delight, and destroy in our minds the seeds of fortitude and virtue, which should support us in hours of anguish. The constant pursuit of pleasure has in it something insolent and improper for our being. There is a pretty sober liveliness in the ode of Horace to Delius, where he tells him, loud mirth or immoderate sorrow, inequality of behaviour either in prosperity or adversity, are alike ungraceful in man that is born to die. Moderation in both circumstances is peculiar to generous minds; men of that sort ever taste the gratifications of health, and all other advantages of life, as if they were liable to part with them, and when bereft of them, resign them with a greatness of mind which shows they know their value and duration. The contempt of pleasure is a certain preparatory for the contempt of pain; without this, the mind is as it were taken suddenly by an unforeseen event; but he that has always, during health and pros perity, been abstinent in his satisfactions, enjoys, in the worst of difficulties, the reflection that his anguish is not aggravated with the comparison of past pleasures which upbraid his present condition. Tully tells us a story after Pompey which gives us a good taste of the pleasant manner the men of wit and philosophy had in old times, of alleviating the distresses of life by the force of reason and philosophy. Pompey, when he came to Rhodes, had a curiosity to visit the famous philosopher Possidonius; but finding him in his sick-bed, he bewailed the misfortune that he should not hear a discourse from him; but you may, answered Possidonius; and immediately entered into the point of Stoical philosophy, which says pain is not an evil. During the discourse, upon every puncture he felt from his distemper, he smiled and cried out, Pain, pain, be as impertinent and troublesome as you please, I shall never own that thou art an evil.' 'MR. SPECTATOR, 6 6 Having seen in several of your papers, a concern for the honour of the clergy, and their doing every thing as becomes their character, and particularly performing the public service with a due zeal and devotion, I am the more encouraged to lay before them, by your means, several expressions used by some of them in their prayers before sermon, which I am not well satisfied in: as their giving some titles and epithets to great men, which are indeed due to them in their several ranks and stations, but not properly used, I think, in our prayers. Is it not contradiction to say, illustrious, right reverend, and right honourable poor sinners? These distinctions are suited only to our state here, and have no place in heaven: we see they are omitted in the liturgy; which I think the clergy should take for their pattern in their own forms of devotion.* There is another expression which I would not mention, but that I have heard it several times before a learned congregation, to bring in the last petition of the prayer in these words, "O let not the Lord be angry and I will speak 'but this once;" as if there was no difference between Abraham's interceding for Sodom, for which he had no warrant as we can find, and our asking those things which we are required to pray for: they would therefore have much more reason to fear his anger if they did not make such petitions to him. There is another pretty fancy: when a young man has a mind to let us know who gave him his scarf, he speaks a parenthesis to the Almighty, "bless, as I am in duty bound to pray, the right honourable the Countess;" is not that as much as to say, "bless her, for thou knowest I am her chaplain?" Your humble servant, STEELE. 'J. O.' T. * The following passage stood in the original folio edition: Another expression, which I take to be improper, is the whole race of mankind,' when they pray for all men: for race signifies lineage or descent; and if the race of mankind may be used for the present generation, though I think not very fitly, the whole race takes in all from the beginning to the end of the world. No. 313. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28. Exigite ut mores teneros seu pollice ducat, Juv. SAT. Bid him besides his daily pains employ To perfect symmetry in every part. CH. DRYDEN. I SHALL give the following letter no other recommendation, than by telling my readers that it comes from the same hand with that of last Thursday. 6 SIR, I send you, according to my promise, some farther thoughts on the education of youth, in which I intend to discuss that famous question, "whether the education at a public school, or under a private tutor, is to be preferred?" (See Nos. 307, 337.) 'As some of the greatest men in most ages have been of very different opinions in this matter, I shall give a short account of what I think may be best urged on both sides, and afterwards. leave every person to determine for himself. 6 It is certain from Suetonius, that the Romans thought the education of their children a business properly belonging to the parents themselves; and Plutarch, in the life of Marcus Cato, tells us, that as soon as his son was capable of learning, Cato would suffer nobody to teach him but himself, though he had a servant named Chilo, who was an excellent grammarian, and who taught a great many other youths. On the contrary, the Greeks seemed more inclined to public schools and seminaries. 'A private education promises, in the first place, virtue and good breeding; a public school, manly assurance, and an early knowledge in the ways of the world. Mr. Locke, in his celebrated treatise of education, confesses that there are inconveniences to be feared on both sides: "If," says he, "I keep my son at home, he is in danger of becoming my young master; if I send him abroad, it is scarce possible to keep him from the reigning contagion of rudeness and vice. He will perhaps be more innocent at home, but more ignorant of the world, and more sheepish when he comes abroad." However, as this learned author asserts, "That virtue is much more difficult to be obtained than a knowledge of the world; and that vice is a more stubborn, as well as a more dangerous fault than sheepishness, he is altogether for a private education; and the more so, because he does not see why a youth, with right management, might not attain the same assurance in his father's house as at a public school. To this end he advises parents to accustom their sons to whatever strange faces come to the house; to take them with them when they visit their neighbours, and to engage them in conversation with men of parts and breeding." 'It may be objected to this method, that conversation is not the only thing necessary; but that unless it be a conversation with such as are in some measure their equals in parts and years, VOL. VI.-16 |