"Men that hire out their words and anger;" that are more or less passionate according as they are paid for it, and allow their client a quantity of wrath proportionable to the fee which they receive from him. I must, however, observe to the reader, that above three parts of those whom I reckon among the litigious are such as are only quarrelsome in their hearts, and have no opportunity of shewing their passion at the bar. Nevertheless, as they do not know what strifes may arise, they appear at the hall every day, that they may shew themselves in a readiness to enter the lists, whenever there shall be occasion for them.

The peaceable lawyers are, in the first place, many of the benchers of the several inns of court, who seem to be the dignitaries of the law, and are endowed with those qualifications of mind that accomplish a man rather for a ruler than a pleader. These men live peaceably in their habitations, eating once a day, and dancing once a year,* for the honour of their respective societies. Another numberless branch of peaceable lawyers, are those young men, who being placed at the inns of court in order to study the laws of their country, frequent the playhouse more than Westminster Hall, and are seen in all public assemblies, except in a court of justice. I shall say nothing of those silent and busy multitudes that are employed within doors in the drawing up of writ ings and conveyances; nor of those greater numbers that palliate their want of business with a pretence to such chamber practice.

If, in the third place, we look into the profession of physic, we shall find a most formidable body of men. The sight of them is enough to make a man serious, for we may lay it down as a maxim, that when a nation abounds in physicians, it grows thin of people. Sir William Temple is very much puzzled to find a reason why the Northern Hive, as he calls it, does not send out such prodigious swarms, and overrun the world with Goths and Vandals, as it did formerly; but had that excellent author observed that there were no students in physic among the subjects of Thor and Woden, and that this science very much flourishes in the north at present, he might have found a better solution for this difficulty than any of those he has made use of. This body of men in our own country may be described like the British army in Cæsar's time; some of them slay in chariots, and some on foot. If the infantry do less execution than the charioteers, it is, because they cannot be carried so soon into all quarters of the town, and dispatch so much business in so short a time. Besides this body of regular troops, there are stragglers, who, without being duly listed and enrolled, do infinite mischief to those who are so unlucky as to fall into their hands.

* See Dugdale's Origines Juridicales, folio 1666.

There are, besides the above-mentioned, innumerable retainers to physic, who, for want of other patients, amuse themselves with the stifling of cats in an air-pump, cutting up dogs alive, or impaling of insects upon the point of a needle for microscopical observations, besides those that are employed in the gathering of weeds, and the chase of butterflies: not to mention the cockleshellmerchants and spider-catchers.

When I consider how each of these professions are crowded with multitudes that seek their livelihood in them, and how many men of merit there are in each of them, who may be rather said to be of the science than the profession; I very much wonder at the humour of parents, who will not rather choose to place their sons in a way of life where an honest industry cannot but thrive, than in stations where the greatest probity, learning, and good sense may miscarry. How many men are country curates, that might have made themselves aldermen of London by a right improvement of a smaller sum of money than what is usually laid out upon a learned education? A sober frugal person, of slender parts and a slow apprehension, might have thrived in trade, though he starves upon physic; as a man would be well enough pleased to buy silks of one, whom he would not venture to feel his pulse. Vagellius is careful, studious, and obliging, but withal a little thick-skulled; he has not a single client, but might have had abundance of customers. The misfortune is, that parents take a liking to a particular profession, and therefore desire their sons may be of it; whereas, in so great an affair of life, they should consider the genius and abilities of their children, more than their own inclinations.

It is the great advantage of a trading nation, that there are very few in it so dull and heavy, who may not be placed in stations of life, which may give them an opportunity of making their fortunes. A well-regulated commerce is not, like law, physic, or divinity, to be overstocked with hands; but, on the contrary, flourishes by multitudes, and gives employment to all its professors. Fleets of merchantmen are so many squadrons of floating shops, that vend our wares and manufactures in all the markets of the world, and find out chapmen under both the tropics.

ADDISON,*

C.

At the close of No. 108, he desires his readers to compare with this what is said there.

No. 22. MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1711.

Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi.

HOR. ARS POET. VER. 188.

Whatever contradicts my sense

I hate to see, and never can believe.

ROSCOMMON.

THE Word SPECTATOR being most usually understood as one of the audience at public representations in our theatres, I seldom fail of many letters relating to plays and operas. But, indeed, there are such monstrous things done in both, that if one had not been an eye-witness of them, one could not believe that such matters had really been exhibited. There is very little which concerns human life, or is a picture of nature, that is regarded by the greater part of the company. The understanding is dismissed from our entertainments. Our mirth is the laughter of fools, and our admiration the wonder of idiots; else such improbable, monstrous, and incoherent dreams could not go off as they do, not only without the utmost scorn and contempt, but even with the loudest ap plause and approbation. But the letters of my correspondents will represent this affair in a more lively manner than any discourse of my own; I shall therefore give them to my reader with only this preparation, that they all come from players, and that the business of playing is now so managed that you are not to be surprised when I say one or two of them are rational, others sensitive and vegetative actors, and others wholly inanimate. I shall not place these as I have named them, but as they have precedence in the opinion of their audiences.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"Your having been so humble as to take notice of the epistles of other animals, emboldens me, who am the wild boar that was killed by Mrs. Tofts, to represent to you, that I think I was hardly used in not having the part of the lion in Hydaspes given to me. It would have been but a natural step for me to have personated that noble creature, after having behaved myself to satisfaction in the part above-mentioned. That of a lion is too great a character for one that never trod the stage before but upon two legs. As for the little resistance which I made, I hope it may be excused, when it is considered that the dart was thrown at me by so fair a hand. I must confess I had but just put on my brutality; and Camilla's charms were such, that beholding her erect mien, hearing her

charming voice, and astonished with her graceful motion, I could not keep up to my assumed fierceness, but died like a man.

MR. SPECTATOR,

"This is to let you understand, that the playhouse is a representation of the world in nothing so much as in this particular, that no one rises in it according to his merit. I have acted several parts of household-stuff with great applause for many years; I am one of the men in the hangings in the Emperor of the Moon; I have twice performed the third chair in an English opera; and have rehearsed the pump in the Fortune-Hunters. I am now grown old, and hope you will recommend me so effectually, as that may say something before I go off the stage; in which you will do a great act of charity to

I

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"Your most humble servant,

46 WILLIAM SCRENE.

"Understanding that Mr. Screne has writ to you, and desired to be raised from dumb and still parts, I desire, if you give him motion or speech, that you would advance me in my way, and let me keep on in what I humbly presume I am a master, to wit, in representing human and still life together. I have several times acted one of the finest flower-pots in the same opera wherein Mr. Serene is a chair; therefore, upon his promotion, request that I may succeed him in the hangings, with my hand in the orangeYour humble servant,

trees.

SIR,

"

66 RALPH SIMPLE."

"Drury Lane, March 24, 1710-11.

"I saw your friend the Templar this evening in the pit, and thought he looked very little pleased with the representation of the mad scene of The Pilgrim. I wish, Sir, you would do us the favour to animadvert frequently upon the false taste the town is in, with relation to plays as well as operas. It certainly requires a degree of understanding to play justly; but such is our condition, that we are to suspend our reason to perform our parts. As to scenes of madness, you know, Sir, there are noble instances of this kind in Shakespeare; but then it is the disturbance of a noble mind, from generous and humane resentments. It is like that grief which we have for the decease of our friends. It is no diminution, but a recommendation of human nature, that in such in

I should, therefore, in this particular, recommend to my countr men the example of the French stage, where the kings and quee always appear unattended, and leave their guards behind t scenes. I should likewise be glad if we imitated the French banishing from our stage the noise of drums, trumpets, and huzza which is sometimes so very great, that when there is a batt in the Haymarket Theatre, one may hear it as far as Charin

cross.

I have here only touched upon those particulars which are ma use of to raise and aggrandize the persons of a tragedy; and she shew in another paper the several expedients which are practis by authors of a vulgar genius to move terror, pity, or admiratio in their hearers.

The tailor and painter often contribute to the success of tragedy more than the poet. Scenes affect ordinary minds much as speeches; and our actors are very sensible, that a we dressed play has sometimes brought them as full audiences as well-written one. The Italians have a very good phrase to expre this art of imposing upon the spectators by appearances; th call it the "Fourberia della scena,' "The knavery, or trickish pa of the drama." But however the show and outside of the trage may work upon the vulgar, the more understanding part of th audience immediately see through it, and despise it.

A good poet will give the reader a more lively idea of an aru or a battle in a description, than if he actually saw them draw up in squadrons and battalions, or engaged in the confusion of fight. Our minds should be opened to great conceptions, and i flamed with glorious sentiments by what the actor speaks, mo than by what he appears. Can all the trappings of equipage of king or hero, give Brutus half that pomp and majesty which receives from a few lines in Shakespeare?

ADDISON.

C.