fight intimations will give you to understand, that ( there are numberlefs little crimes which children take no notice of while they are doing, which upon reflection, when they shall themselves become fathers, they will look upon with the utmost forrow and contrition, that they did not regard, before those whom they offended were to be no more feen. How many thousand things do I remember, which would have highly pleafed my father, and I omitted for no other reafon, but that I thought what he propofed the effect of humour and old age, which I am now convinced had reafon and good fenfe in it. I cannot now go into the parlour to him, and make his heart glad with an account of a matter which was of no confequence, but that I told it, and acted in it. The god man and woman are long fince in their graves, who used to fit and plot the welfare of us their children, while, perhaps, we were fometimes laughing at the old folks at another end of the house. The truth of it is, were we merely to follow nature in thefe great duties of life, though we have a ftrong inftinet towards the performing of them, we should be on both fides very deficient. Age is fo unwelcome to the generality of mankind, and growth towards manhood fo defirable to all, that refignation to decay is too difficult a task in the father; and deference, amidft the impulfe of gay defires, appears unreafonable to the fon. There are fo few who can grow old with a good grace, and yet fewer who can come flow enough into the world, that a father, were he to be actuated by his defires, and a fon, were he to confult himfelf only, could neither of them behave himself as he ought to the other. But when reafon interpofes against inftinet, where it would carry either out of the interefts of the other, there arifes that happieft intercourfe of good offices between thofe deareft relations of human life. The father, according to the opportunities which are offered to him, is throwing down bleffings on the fon, and the fon endeavouring to appear the worthy offspring of fuch a father. It is after this manner that Camillus. and his firft-born dwell together. Camillus enjoys a pleafing and indolent old age, in which paflion is

fubdued, and reafon exalted. He waits the day of his diffolution with a refignation mixed with delight, and the fon fears the acceffion of his father's fortune with diffidence, left he fhould not enjoy or become it as well as his predeceffor. Add to this, that the father knows he leaves a friend to the children of his friends, an eafy landlord to his tenants, and an agreeable companion to his acquaintance. He believes his fon's behaviour will make him frequently remembered, but never wanted. This commerce is fo well cemented, that without the pomp of faying, 86 Son, be a friend to fuch a one when I am gone;" Camillus knows, being in his favour, is direction enough to the grateful youth who is to fucceed him, without the admonition of his mentioning it. These gentlemen are honoured in all their neighbourhood, and the fame effect which the court has on the manners of a kingdom, their characters have on all who live within the influence of them.

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My fon and I are not of fortune to communicate our good actions or intentions to fo many as these gentlemen do; but I will be bold to fay, my fon has, by the applaufe and approbation which his behaviour towards me has gained him, occafioned that many an old man, befides myself, has rejoiced. Other mens children follow the example of mine, and I have the inexpreffible happiness of overhearing our neighbours, as we ride by, point to their children, and fay, with a voice of joy, there they go.

You cannot, Mr. SPECTATOR, pafs your time bet ⚫ter than in infinuating the delights which thefe relations well regarded beftow upon each other. Ordinary paffages are no longer fuch, but mutual love gives an importance to the moft indifferent things, and a merit to actions the moft infignificant. When we look round the world, and obferve the many nifunderstandings which are created by the malice and infinuation of the ⚫ meaneft servants between people thus related, how neceffary will it appear that it were inculcated that men would be upon their guard to fupport a conftancy of affection, and that grounded upon the principles of reafon, not the impulfes of inftin&?

It is from the common prejudices which men receive 'from their parents, that hatreds are kept alive from one generation to another; and when men act by in'stinct, hatreds will defcend when good offices are forgotten. For the degeneracy of human life is fuch, that our anger is more easily transferred to our children than 'cur love. Love always gives fomething to the object it delights in, and anger fpoils the perfon against whom it is moved of fomething laudable in him: from this degeneracy therefore, and a fort of felf-love, we are more prone to take up the ill-will of our parents, than to follow them in their friendships.

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One would think there fhould need no more to make men keep up this fort of relation with the utmoft farctity, than to examine their own hearts. If every father ⚫ remembered his own thoughts and inclinations when he was a fon, and every fon remembered what he expected from his father, when he himself was in a state of dependence, this one reflection would preferve men 'from being diffolute or rigid in thefe feveral capacitics. The power and fubjection between them, when broken, make them more emphatically tyrants and rebels against each other, with greater cruelty of heart, than the difruption of ftates and empires can poffibly pro'duce. I hall end this application to you with two letters which paffed between a mother and fon very • lately, and are as follows:

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• Dear Frank,

IF the pleafures, which I have the grief to bear you purfue in town, do not take up all your time, do not deny your mother so much of it, as to read riously this letter. You faid before Mr. Letacre, that an old woman might live very well in the country < upon half my jointure, and that your father was a fond fool to give me a rent-charge of eight hundred a year to the prejudice of his fon. What Letacre faid to you upon that occafion, you ought to have borne with more decency, as he was your father's well beloved fervant, than to have called him country-put. In the first place, Frank, I muft tell you, I will have my rent duly paid, for I will make up to your fifters for

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the partiality I was guilty of, in making your father do fo much as he has done for you. I may, it seems, live upon half my jointure! I lived upon much less, Frank, when I carried you from place to place in thefe arms, and could neither eat, drefs, or mind any thing for feeding and tending you a weakly child, and fhedding tears when the convulfions you were then troubled with returned upon you. By my care you out-grew them, to throw away the vigour of your youth in the arms of harlots, and deny your mother what is not yours to detain. Both fifters are crying to fee the paffion which I fmother; but if you pleafe to go on thus like a gentleman of the town, and forget all regards to yourself and family, I fhall immediately enter upon your eftate for the arrear due to me, and without one tear more contemn you for forgetting the fondness of your mother, as much as you have the example of your father. O Frank, do I live to omit writing myself,

MADAM,

your

Your affectionate mother,

'A. T.

J WILL come down to-morrow and pay the money on my knees. Pray write fo no more. I will take care you never fhall, for I will be for ever here after

Your moft dutiful fon,

F. T.

I will bring down new heads for my fifters. Pray let all be forgotten.'

N° 264.

Wednesday, January 2.

IT

-Secretum iter & fallentis femita vitæ.

HOR. Ep. 18. lib. 1. ver. 103.

Close retirement, and a life by stealth. CREECH.

T has been from age to age an affectation to love the pleasure of folitude, among those who cannot poffibly be fuppofed qualified for paffing life in that manner. This people have taken up from reading the many agreeable things which have been writ on that fubject, for which we are beholden to excellent perfons who delighted in being retired and abftracted from the pleafures that inchant the generality of the world. This way of life is recommended indeed with great beauty, and in fuch a manner as difpofes the reader for the time to a pleafing forgetfulness, or negligence of the particular hurry of life in which he is engaged, together with a longing for that state which he is charmed with in defcription. But when we confider the world itfelf, and how few there are capable of a religious, learned, or philofophic folitude, we fhall be apt to change a regard to that fort of folitude, for being a little fingular in enjoying time after the way a man himself likes beft in the world, without going fo far as wholly to withdraw from it. I have often obferved, there is not a man breathing who does not differ from all other men, as much in the fentiments of his mind, as the features of his face. The felicity is, when any one is fo happy as to find out and follow what is the proper bent of his genius, and turn all his endeavours to exert himself according as that prompts him. Inftead of this, which is an innocent method of enjoying a man's felf, and turning out of the general tracks wherein you have crouds of rivals, there are those who purfue their own way out of a fourness and fpirit of contradiction: these men do every thing which they are able to fupport, as if guilt and impunity could!