views, and, I hope, have received fome advantage by it, if what Waller fays be true, that The foul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Then furely fickness, contributing no less than old age to the shaking down this fcaffolding of the body, may discover the inward ftructure, more plainly. Sickness is a fort of early old age; it teaches us a diffidence in our earthly state, and infpires us with the thoughts of a future, better than a thousand volumes of philofophers and divines. It gives fo warning a concuffion to thofe props of our vanity, our ftrength and youth, that we think of fortifying ourselves within, when there is fo little dependence upon our outworks. Youth at the very best is but a betrayer of human life in a gentler and fmoother manner than age: it is like a ftream that nourishes a plant upon a bank, and caufes it to flourish and bloffom to the fight, but at the fame time is undermining it at the root in fecret. My youth. has dealt more fairly and openly with me; it has afforded several prospects of my danger, and given me an advantage not very common to young men, that the attractions of the world have not dazzled me very much; and I begin where most people end, with a full conviction of the emptiness of all forts of ambition, and the unfatisfactory nature of all human pleafures. When a fmart fit of fickness tells me this fcurvy tenement of my body will fall in a little time, I am even as unconcerned as was that honeft Hibernian, who be-ing in bed in the great: ftorm fome years ago, and told the houfe would tumble over his head, made answer, What care I for the houfe? I am only a lodger. I fancy it is the best time to die when one is in the best humour; and fo exceffively weak as I now am, I may fay with confcience, that I am not at all uneafy at the thought, that many men, whom I never had any efteem for, are likely to enjoy this world after me. When I reflect what an inconfiderable little atom every fingle: fingle man is, with refpect to the whole creation, methinks, it is a fhame to be concerned at the removal of fuch a trivial animal as I am. The morning after my exit, the fun will rife as bright as ever, the flowers fmell as fweet, the plants fpring as green, the world will proceed in its old courfe, people will laugh as heartily, and marry as fast as they were used to do. The memory of man (as it is elegantly expreffed in the book of Wifdom) paffeth away as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but one day. There are reafons enough in the fourth chapter of the fame book, to make any young man contented with the profpect of death. "For honourable age is not that which "standeth in length of time, or is meafured by num"ber of years. But wifdom is the grey hair to men, and an unspotted life is old age. He was taken a"way speedily, left wickedness fhould alter his underftanding, or deceit beguile his foul." &c. I am Your, &c. IV LETTER IV. To Mr. STEELE. Nov. 7, 1712. WAS the other day in company with five or fix men of fome learning; where chancing to mention the famous verfes which the Emperor Adrian spoke on his death-bed, they were all agreed that it was a piece of gaiety unworthy of that prince in thofe circumftances. I could not but differ from this opinion: methinks it was by no means a gay, but a very ferious foliloquy to his foul at the point of its departure; in which sense I naturally took the verfes at my firft reading them, when I was very young, and before I knew what interpretation the world generally put upon them. Animula vagula, blandula, Que Que nunc abibis in loca? Alas! my foul! Thou pleafing companion of this body, thou fleeting thing that art now deferting it! "Whither art thou flying? To what unknown scene? "All trembling, fearful, and penfive! What now is "become of thy former wit and humour? Thou shalt "jeft and be gay no more." I confess I cannot apprehend where lies the trifling in all this it is the most natural and obvious reflection imaginable to a dying man: and if we confider the Emperor was a heathen, that doubt concerning the future ftate of his foul will seem fo far from being the effect of want of thought, that it was fcarce reasonable he fhould think otherwise; not to mention that here is a plain confeffion included of his belief in its immortality. The diminutive epithets of vagula, blandula, and the reft, appear not to me as expreffions of levity, but rather of endearment and concern; fuch as we find in Catullus, and the authors of Hendeca-fyllabi after him, where they are used to exprefs the utmost love and tenderness for their mistreffes.. -If you think me right in my notion of the last words of Adrian, be pleafed to infert it in the Spectator; if not, to fupprefs it. I am, &c. ADRIANI MORIENTI9 AD ANIMAM, TRANSLATED. Ah fleeting spirit! wand'ring fire, That long haft warm'd my tender breast, Whither, ah whither art thou flying! LET I LETTER V. Mr. STEELE to Mr. POP E. Nov. 12, 1712. HAVE read over your Temple of Fame twice, and cannot find any thing amifs, of weight enough to call a fault, but fee in it a thousand thousand beauties. Mr. Addison fhall fee it to-morrow: after his perufal of it, I will let you know his thoughts. I defire you would let me know whether you are at leifure or not? I have a defign which I fhall open a month or two hence, with the affiftance of the few like yourfelf. If your thoughts are unengaged, I fhall explain myself further. Your, &c. I am LETTER. VI. The Anfwer. Nov. 16, 1712. OU oblige me by the indulgence you have shown. You * to the poem I fent you, but will oblige me much more by the kind feverity I hope for from you. No errors are so trivial, but they deserve to be mended.— But fince you fay you fee nothing that may be called a fault, can you but think it fo, that I have confined the attendance of guardian spirits to Heaven's favourites only? I could point you to feveral, but it is my bufinefs to be informed of thofe faults I do not know; and as for those I do, not to talk of them, but to correct them. You fpeak of that poem in a ftyle I neither merit, nor expect; but, I affure you, if you freely This is not now to be found in the Temple of Fame, which was the poem here spoken of. VOL. V. mark or dash out, I fhall look upon your blots to be its greatest beauties: I mean, if Mr. Addison and yourfelf should like it in the whole; otherwife the trouble of correction is what I would not take, for I was really fo diffident of it as to let it lie by me thefe two years*, just as you now fee it. I am afraid of nothing fo much as to impofe any thing on the world which is unworthy of its acceptance. As to the last period of your letter, I fhall be very ready and glad to contribute to any defign that tends to the advantage of mankind, which, I am fure, all yours do. I wish I had but as much capacity as leifure, for I am perfectly idle: (a fign I have not much capacity). If you will entertain the best opinion of me, be pleafed to think me your friend. Affure Mr. Addifon of my most faithful fervice, of every one's esteem he must be affured already. I am Your, &c. AM forry you publifhed that notion about Adrian's verfes as mine: had I imagined you would use my name, I should have expreffed my fentiments with more modefty and diffidence. I only fent it to have your opinion, and not to publifh my own, which I diftrufted. But, I think the fuppofition you draw from the notion of Adrian's being addicted to magic, is a little uncharitable, (" that he might fear no fort of deity, "good or bad"), fince in the third verfe he plainly teftifies his apprehenfion of a future ftate, by being folicitous whither his foul was going. As to what you mention of his ufing gay and ludicrous expreffions, I * Hence it appears this poem was writ before the author was twenty-two years old. |