and in the full Enjoyment of Eternity. What Man can think of him felf as called out and feparated from nothing, of his being made a confcious, a reafonable and a happy Creature; in fhort, of being taken in as a Sharer of Existence and a kind of Partner in Eternity, without being fwailowed up in Wonder, in Praife, in Adoration! It is indeed a 1hought too big for the Mind of Man, and rather to be entertained in the Secrecy of Devotion, and in the Silence of the Soul, than to be expreffed by Words. The Supreme Being has not given us Powers or Faculties fufficient to extol and magnify fuch unutterable Goodness.

IT is however fome Comfort to us, that we shall be always doing what we shall be never able to do, and that a Work which cannot be finished, will however be the Work of an Eternity.

No. 591. Wednesday, September 8.

Tenerorum lufor amorum.

Ovid.

I

HAVE juft received a Letter from a Gentleman, who tells me he has obferved, with no fmall Concern, that my Papers have of late been very barren in relation to Love; a Subject which, when agreeably handled, can scarce fail of being well received by both Sexes.

IF my Invention therefore should be almoft exhaufted on this Head, he offers to ferve under me in the Quality of a Love Cafuift; for which Place he conceives himself to be thoroughly qualified, having made this Faffion his principal Study, and obferved it in all its different Shapes and Appearances, from the fifteenth to the forty-fifth Year of his Age.

He

HE affures me with an Air of Confidence, which I hope proceeds from his real Abilities, that he does not doubt of giving Judgment to the Satisfaction of the Parties concerned, on the most nice and intricate Cafes which can happen in an Amour; as,

How great the Contraction of the Fingers must be, before it amounts to a Squeeze by the Hand.

WHAT can be properly termed an abfolute Denial from a Maid, and what from a Widow.

WHAT Advances a Lover may prefume to make, after having received a Pat upon his Shoulder from his Miftrefs's Fan.

WHETHER a Lady, at the first Interview, may allow an humble Servant to kiss her Hand.

How far it may be permitted to carefs the Maid, in order to fucceed with the Mistress.

WHAT Constructions a Man may put upon a Smile, and in what Cafes a Frown goes for nothing.

ON what Occafions a sheepish Look may do Service, &c.

As a farther Proof of his Skill, he has alfo fent me feveral Maxims in Love, which he affures me are the Refult of a long and profound Reflection, fome of which I think myfelf obliged to communicate to the Publick, not remembring to have feen them before in any Author.

THERE are more Calamities in the World arifing from Love than from Hatred.

LOVE is the Daughter of Idleness, but the Mother of Difquietude.

MEN of grave Natures (fays Sir Francis Bacon) are the most conftant; for the fame Reafon Men fhould ⚫ be more conftant than Women.

THE Gay Part of Mankind is most amorous, the • Serious moft loving.

A Coquet often lofes her Reputation, whilft fhe ferves her Virtue.

A Prude often preferves her Reputation when she has left her Virtue.

'Love refines a Man's Behaviour, but makes a Woman ridiculous.

• LOVE

LOVE is generally accompanied with Good-will in the Young, Intereft in the Middle-aged, and a Paf'fion too grofs to name in the Old.

THE Endeavours to revive a decaying Paffion generally extinguish the Remains of it.

A Woman who from being a Slattern becomes overneat, or from being over-neat becomes a Slattern, is moft certainly in Love.

I fhall make Ufe of this Gentleman's Skill as I fee Occafion; and fince I am got upon the Subject of Love, fhall conclude this Paper with a Copy of Verses which were lately fent me by an unknown Hand, as I look upon them to be above the ordinary Run of Sonne

teers.

THE Author tells me they were written in one of his despairing Fits; and I find entertain fome Hopes that his Mistress may pity fuch a Paffion as he has defcribed, before the knows that fhe is herself Corinna.

C%

Onceal, fond Man, conceal the mighty Smart,
Nor tell Corinna fhe has fir'd thy Heart.
In vain would fit thou complain, in vain pretend
To afk a Pity which he must not lend.
She's too much thy Superior to comply,
And too too fair to let thy Paffion dye.
Languifh in fecret, and with dumb Surprize
Drink the refiflefs Glances of her Eyes.
At awful Distance entertain thy Grief,
Be fill in Pain, but never afk Relief.
Ne'er tempt her Scorn of thy confuming State;
Be any way undone, but fly her Hate.
Thou must fubmit to fee thy Charmer blefs
Some happier Youth that shall admire her lefs;
Who in that lovely Form, that heav'nly Mind,
Shall miss ten thousand Beauties thou could' ft find;
Who with low Fancy fhall approach her Charms,
While half enjoy'd fhe finks into his Arms.
She knows not, must not know, thy nobler Fire,
Whom she, and whom the Mufes do inspire ;

Her

Her Image only fhall thy Breaft employ,

And fill thy captiv'd Soul with Shades of foy;
Direct thy Dreams by Night, thy Thoughts by Day;
And never, never, from thy Bofom ftray.

එම එම එම එම එම එම එම " එම එම එම එම එම එම

No. 592.

Friday, September 10.

Studium fine divite Vena.

Hor.

LOOK upon the Play-house as a World within itself. They have lately furnished the middle Region of it with a new Set of Meteors, in order to give the Sublime to many modern Tragedies. I was there last Winter at the first Rehearsal of the new Thunder, which is much more deep and fonorous than any hitherto made use of. They have a Salmoneus behind the Scenes, who plays it off with great Succefs. Their Lightnings are made to flash more brifkly than heretofore; their Clouds are also better furbelow'd, and more voluminous; not to mention a violent Storm locked up in a great Cheft that is defigned for the Tempeft. They are alfo provided with above a dozen Showers of Snow, which, as I am informed, are the Plays of many unfuccefsful Poets, artificially cut and fhred for that Ufe. Mr. Rimer's Edgar is to fall in Snow at the next acting of King Lear, in order to heighten, or rather alleviate the Diftrefs of that unfortunate Prince; and to ferve by way of Decoration to a Piece which that great Critick has written againft.

I Do not indeed wonder that the Actors should be fuch profeffed Enemies to thofe among out Nation who are commonly known by the Name of Criticks, fince it is a Rule among thefe Gentlemen to fall upon a Play, not because it is ill written, but because it takes. Several of them lay it down as a Maxim, That whatever Dramatick Performance has a long Run, muft of Nereflity be good for nothing; as though the first Precept 3

in

in Poetry were not to pleafe. Whether this Rule holds good or not, I fhall leave to the Determination of those who are better Judges than myfelf: If it does, I am fure it tends very much to the Honour of thofe Gentlemen who have established it; few of their Pieces having been difgraced by a Run of three Days, and most of them being fo exquifitely written, that the Town would never give them more than one Night's Hearing.

I have a great Efteem for a true Critick, fuch as Ariftotle and Longinus among the Greeks, Horace and Quintilian among the Romans, Boileau and Dacier among the French. But it is our Misfortune, that fome who fet up for profeffed Criticks amongst us are fo ftupid, that they do not know how to put ten Words together with Elegance or common Propriety, and withal fo illiterate, that they have no Tafte of the learned Languages, and therefore criticife upon old Authors only at fecond Hand. They judge of them by what others have written, and not by any Notions they have of the Authors themselves. The Words Unity, A&tion, Sentiment, and Diction, pronounced with an Air of Authority, give them a Figure among unlearned Readers, who are apt to believe they are very deep, because they are unintelligible. The ancient Criticks are full of the Praises of their Contemporaries; they difcover Beauties which escaped the Obfervation of the Vulgar, and very often find out Reasons for paliating and excufing fuch little Slips and Overfights as were committed in the Writings of eminent Authors. On the contrary, moft of the Smatterers in Criticifm who appear among us, make it their Business to vilify and depreciate every new Production that gains Applaufe, to defcry imaginary Blemishes, and to prove by far-fetched Arguments, that what pafs'd for Beauties in any celebrated Piece are Faults and Errors. In fhort, the Writings of these Criticks compared with thofe of the Ancients, are like the Works of the Sophifts compared with thofe of the old Philofophers.

ENVY and Cavil are the natural Fruits of Laziness and Ignorance; which was probably the Reafon, that in the Heathen Mythology Momus is faid to be the VOL. VIII.

Son