hersites, in his story of Mars and Venus, in his behaviour of us, and in other passages, has been observed to have lapsed into e burlesque character, and to have departed from that serious r which seems essential to the magnificence of an epic poem. I member but one laugh in the whole Æneid, which rises in the fth book, upon Monotes, where he is represented as thrown overɔard, and drying himself upon a rock. But this piece of mirth is > well-timed, that the severest critic can have nothing to say gainst it; for it is in the book of games and diversions, where the ader's mind may be supposed sufficiently relaxed for such an tertainment. The only piece of pleasantry in "Paradise Lost," where the evil spirits are described as rallying the angels upon le success of their new invented artillery. This passage I look upon > be the most exceptionable in the whole poem, as being nothing Ise but a string of puns, and those too very indifferent ones.

66

Satan beheld their plight,

And to his mates thus in derision call'd.

'O friends, why come not on those victors proud?
Ere while they fierce were coming; and when we,
To entertain them fair with open front

And breast (what could we more?) propounded terms
Of composition, straight they changed their minds,
Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell

As they would dance; yet for a dance they seem'd
Somewhat extravagant, and wild; perhaps
For joy of offer'd peace; but I suppose
If our proposals once again were heard,
We should compel them to a quick result.'

"To whom thus Belial in like gamesome mood,—
'Leader, the terms we sent were terms of weight,
Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home;
Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,
And stumbled many who receives them right,
Had need from head to foot well understand:
Not understood, this gift they have besides,
They shew us when our foes walk not upright.'
"Thus they among themselves in pleasant vein
Stood scoffing

ADDISON.

L.

No. 280. MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1711–12.

Principibus plaucuisse viris non ultima laus est.

HOR. 1, EP. XVII. 35.

To please the great is not the smallest praise. CREECH,

THE desire of pleasing makes a man agreeable or unwelcome to

those with whom he converses, according to the motive from which that inclination appears to flow. If your concern for pleasing others arises from an innate benevolence, it never fails of success; if from a vanity to excel, its disappointment is no less certait. What we call an agreeable man, is he who is endowed with the natural bent to do acceptable things from a delight he takes them merely as such; and the affectation of that character is what constitutes a fop. Under these leaders one may draw up all that who make any manner of figure, except in dumb shew. A rational and select conversation is composed of persons who have the tat of pleasing with delicacy of sentiments flowing from habita chastity of thought; but mixed company is frequently made p pretenders to mirth, and is usually pestered with constrained b scene, and painful witticisms. Now and then you meet man so exactly formed for pleasing, that it is no matter what be doing or saying; that is to say, that there need be no manner importance in it, to make him gain upon everybody who bear beholds him. This felicity is not the gift of nature only, but E be attended with happy circumstances, which add a dignity to the familiar behaviour which distinguishes him whom we call agreeable man. It is from this that everybody loves and esteems Polycarpus. He is in the vigour of his age and the gaiety of life, but has passed through very conspicuous scenes in it: though no soldier, he has shared the danger, and acted with great gallanty and generosity on a decisive day of battle. To have those qu lities which only make other men conspicuous in the world as were supernumerary to him, is a circumstance which gives weight to his most indifferent actions; for as a known credit is ready cash to a trader, so is acknowledged merit immediate distinction, and serves in the place of equipage to a gentleman. This renders Polycarpus graceful in mirth, important in business, and regarded with love in every ordinary occurrence. But not to dwell upon characters which have such particular recommendations to our hearts, let us turn our thoughts rather to the methods of pleasing which must carry men through the world who cannot pretend to such advantages. Falling in with the particular humour or manner of one above you, abstracted from the general rules of good be haviour, is the life of a slave. A parasite differs in nothing from the meanest servant, but that the footman hires himself for bodily labour, subjected to go and come at the will of his master, but the other gives up his very soul: he is prostituted to speak, and professes to think after the mode of him whom he courts. This ser vitude to a patron, in an honest nature, would be more grievous than that of wearing his livery; therefore we will speak of those methods only which are worthy and ingenuous.

The happy talent of pleasing either those above you or below you, seems to be wholly owing to the opinion they have of your sincerity. This quality is to attend the agreeable man in all the

2

actions of his life; and I think there need be no more said in honour of it, than that it is what forces the approbation even of your opponents. The guilty man has an honour for the judge who with justice pronounces against him the sentence of death itself. The author of the sentence at the head of this paper, was an excellent judge of human life, and passed his own in company the most agreeable that ever was in the world. Augustus lived amongst his friends as if he had his fortune to make in his own court. Candour and affability, accompanied with as much power as ever mortal was vested with, were what made him in the utmost manner agreeable among a set of admirable men, who had thoughts too high for ambition, and views too large to be gratified by what he could give them in the disposal of an empire, without the pleasures of their mutual conversation. A certain unanimity of taste and judgment, which is natural to all of the same order in the species, was the band of this society; and the emperor assumed no figure in it, but what he thought was his due from his private talents and qualifications, as they contributed to advance the pleasures and sentiments of the company.

Cunning people, hypocrites, all who are but half virtuous, or half wise, are incapable of tasting the refined pleasure of such an equal company as could wholly exclude the regard of fortune in their conversations. Horace, in the discourse from whence I take the hint of the present speculation, lays down excellent rules for conduct in conversation with men of power; but he speaks it with an air of one who had no need of such an application for any thing which related to himself. It shews he understood what it was to be a skilful courtier, by just admonitions against importunity, and shewing how forcible it was to speak modestly of your own wants. There is indeed something so shameless in taking all opportunities to speak of your own affairs, that he who is guilty of it towards him on whom he depends, fares like the beggar who exposes his sores, which, instead of moving compassion, makes the man he begs of turn away from the object.

I cannot tell what is become of him, but I remember about sixteen years ago an honest fellow, who so justly understood how disagreeable the mention or appearance of his want would make him, that I have often reflected upon him as a counterpart of Irus, whom I have formerly mentioned.* This man, whom I have missed for some years in my walks, and have heard was some way employed about the army, made it a maxim, that good wigs, delicate linen, and a cheerful air, were, to a poor dependant, the same that working tools are to a poor artificer. It was no small entertainment to me, who knew his circumstances, to see him, who had fasted two days, attribute the thinness they told him of to the violence of some gallantries he had lately been guilty of. The

VOL. II.

• No. 264. See also No. 360.

сс

skilful dissembler carried on this with the utmost address; and if any suspected his affairs were narrow, it was attributed to indulging himself in some fashionable vice rather than an irreproachable poverty, which saved his credit with those on whom he depended.

The main art is to be as little troublesome as you can, and make all you hope for come rather as a favour from your patron than claim from you. But I am here prating of what is the methed of pleasing so as to succeed in the world, when there are crowds who have, in city, town, court, and country, arrived to considerable acquisitions, and yet seem incapable of acting in any constant tebour of life, but have gone on from one successful error to another; there fore I think I may shorten this inquiry after the method of plea ing; and as the old beau said to his son, once for all, “Pra Jack, be a fine gentleman;" so may I, to my reader, abridge instructions, and finish the art of pleasing in a word, " Be rich."

STEELE.

No. 281. TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1711-12.

Τ

Pectoribus inhians spirantia consulit exta. VIR. AN. IV. 64.
Anxious the reeking entrails he consults.

HAVING already given an account of the dissection of a bear's head, with the several discoveries made on that occasion, I shall here, according to my promise, enter upon the dissection of 1 coquette's heart, and communicate to the public such particu larities as we observe in that curious piece of anatomy.

I should perhaps have waved this undertaking, had not I been put in mind of my promise by several of my unknown corres pondents, who are very importunate with me to make an example of the coquette, as I have already done of the beau. It is there fore in compliance with the request of friends, that I have looked over the minutes of my former dream, in order to give the public an exact relation of it, which I shall enter upon without further preface.

Our operator, before he engaged in this visionary dissection, told us that there was nothing in his art more difficult than to lay open the heart of a coquette, by reason of the many labyrinths and recesses which are to be found in it, and which do not appear in the heart of any other animal.

He desired us first of all to observe the pericardium, or outward case of the heart, which he did very attentively; and by the help of our glasses discerned in it millions of little scars, which seemed

See No. 752.

to have been occasioned by the points of innumerable darts and arrows that from time to time had glanced upon the outward coat; though we could not discover the smallest orifice, by which any of them had entered and pierced the inward substance.

Every smatterer in anatomy knows that this pericardium, or case of the heart, contains in it a thin reddish liquor, supposed to be bred from the vapours which exhale out of the heart, and, being stopped here, are condensed into this watery substance. Upon examining this liquor, we found that it had in it all the qualities of that spirit which is made use of in the thermometer, to show the change of weather.

Nor must I here omit an experiment one of the company assured us he himself had made with this liquor, which he found in great quantity about the heart of a coquette whom he had formerly dissected. He affirmed to us, that he had actually inclosed it in a small tube, made after the manner of a weather-glass; but, that instead of acquainting him with the variations of the atmosphere, it showed him the qualities of those persons who entered the room where it stood. He affirmed also, that it rose at the approach of a plume of feathers, an embroidered coat, or a pair of fringed gloves; and that it fell as soon as an ill-shaped periwig, a clumsy pair of shoes, or an unfashionable coat came into his house. Nay, he proceeded so far as to assure us, that upon his laughing aloud when he stood by it, the liquor mounted very sensibly, and immediately sunk again upon his looking serious. In short, he told us, that he knew very well by this invention whenever he had a man of sense or a coxcomb in his room.

Having cleared away the pericardium, or the case, and liquor above-mentioned, we came to the heart itself. The outward sur face of it was extremely slippery, and the mucro, or point, so very cold withal, that upon endeavouring to take hold of it, it glided through the fingers like a smooth piece of ice.

The fibres were turned and twisted in a more intricate and perplexed manner than they are usually found in other hearts; insomuch that the whole heart was wound up together in a Gordian knot, and must have had very irregular and unequal motions, while it was employed in its vital function.

One thing we thought very observable, namely, that upon examining all the vessels which came into it, or issued out of it, we could not discover any communication that it had with the tongue.

We could not but take notice likewise that several of those little nerves in the heart which are affected by the sentiments of love, hatred, and other passions, did not descend to this before us from the brain, but from the muscles which lie about the eye.

Upon weighing the heart in my hand, I found it to be ex tremely light, and consequently very hollow, which I did not