Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

be richer than other kingdoms by as plain methods as he himself is richer than other men; though at the same time I can say this of him, that there is not a point in the compass but 5 blows home a ship in which he is an owner.

orations of Demosthenes and Tully, but not one case in the reports of our own courts. No one ever took him for a fool; but none, except his intimate friends, know that he has a great deal of wit. This turn makes him at once both disinterested and agreeable; as few of his thoughts are drawn from business, they are most of them fit for conversation. His taste of books is a little too just for the age he lives in; he has read all, but approves of 10 are very awkward in putting their talents

very few. His familiarity with the customs, manners, actions, and writings of the ancients makes him a very delicate observer of what occurs to him in the present world. He is an

Next to Sir Andrew in the club-room, sits Captain Sentry, a gentleman of great courage, good understanding, but invincible modesty. He is one of those that deserve very well, but

within the observation of such as should take notice of them. He was some years a captain, and behaved himself with great gallantry in several engagements and at several sieges; but,

excellent critic, and the time of the play is 15 having a small estate of his own, and being

next heir to Sir Roger, he has quitted a way of life in which no man can rise suitably to his merit, who is not something of a courtier as well as a soldier. I have heard him often la

his hour of business; exactly at five he passes through New Inn, crosses through Russell Court, and takes a turn at Will's till the play begins; he has his shoes rubbed and his perriwig powdered at the barber's as you go into 20 ment that in a profession where merit is placed

the Rose. It is for the good of the audience when he is at a play, for the actors have an ambition to please him.

in so conspicuous a view, impudence should get the better of modesty. When he had talked to this purpose, I never heard him make a sour expression, but frankly confess he had

The person of next consideration is Sir Andrew Freeport, a merchant of great eminence 25 left the world because he was not fit for it. A

strict honesty, and an even, regular behaviour, are in themselves obstacles to him that must press through crowds who endeavour at the same end with himself, the favour of a commander. He will, however, in his way of talk excuse generals for not disposing according to men's desert or inquiring into it; "for," says he "that great man who has a mind to help me has as many to break through to come at

in the city of London, a person of indefatigable industry, strong reason, and great experience. His notions of trade are noble and generous, and (as every rich man has usually some sly way of jesting which would make no great 30 figure were he not a rich man), he calls the sea the British Common. He is acquainted with commerce in all its parts, and will tell you that it is a stupid and barbarous way to extend dominion by arms; for true power is to be got 35 me as I have to come at him." Therefore he

will conclude that the man who would make a figure, especially in a military way, must get over all false modesty, and assist his patron against the importunity of other pretenders

He says it is a civil cowardice to be backward in asserting what you ought to expect, as it is a military fear to be slow in attacking when it is your duty. With this candour does the

by power and industry. He will often argue that if this part of our trade were well cultivated, we should gain from one nation; and if another, from another. I have heard him prove that diligence makes more lasting ac- 40 by a proper assurance in his own vindication. quisitions than valour, and that sloth has ruined more nations than the sword. He abounds in several frugal maxims, among which the greatest favourite is, "A penny saved is a penny got." A general trader of 45 gentleman speak of himself and others. The good sense is pleasanter company than a general scholar; and Sir Andrew having a natural unaffected eloquence, the perspicuity of his discourse gives the same pleasure that wit would in another man. He has made his 50 for he is never overbearing, though accustomed

fortunes himself, and says that England may

One of the less important Inns of the court, originally a hostelry. Sir Thomas More studied law for a time in this Inn.

Will's Coffee-House. There were two coffee-houses of

this name, one frequented by members of the legal 55 profession, the other (and the more celebrated one) the resort of the wits, on Russell Street. The Templar, who is represented as preferring literature to law, appears (from the hint Steele gives us of the locality) to have chosen the latter.

A tavern near Drury Lane Theatre.

same frankness runs through all his conversation. The military part of his life has furnished him with many adventures, in the relation of which he is very agreeable to the company;

to command men in the utmost degree below him; nor ever too obsequious, from a habit of obeying men highly above him.

But that our society may not appear a set of humourists unacquainted with the gallantries and pleasures of the age, we have among us the gallant Will Honeycomb, a gentleman who, according to his years, should be in the decline of his life; but, having been very careful

vances others. He seldom introduces the subject he speaks upon; but we are so far gone in years that he observes, when he is among us, an earnestness to have him fall on some divine 5 topic, which he always treats with much authority, as one who has no interest in this world, as one who is hastening to the object of all his wishes, and conceives hope from his decays and infirmities. These are my ordinary

ON TESTIMONIALS

of his person, and always had a very easy fortune, time has made but very little impression, either by wrinkles on his forehead or traces in his brain. His person is well turned and of a good height. He is very ready at that sort of discourse with which men usually entertain women. He has all his life dressed very well, and remembers habits as others do men. He can smile when one speaks to him, and laughs easily. He knows the history of every mode, 10 companions. and can inform you from which of the French king's wenches our wives and daughters had this manner of curling their hair, and that way of placing their hoods, whose frailty was covered by such a sort of petticoat, and whose 15 vanity to show her foot made that part of the dress so short in such a year. In a word, all his conversation and knowledge has been in the female world. As other men of his age will take notice to you what such a minister 20 Commend not, 'till a man is thoroughly known; said upon such an occasion, he will tell you, when the Duke of Monmouth danced at court, such a woman was then smitten, another was taken with him at the head of his troop in the Park. In all these important relations he has 25 consider the recommendatory epistles that

(The Spectator, No. 493, September 25, 1712) Qualem commendes etiam atque etiam adspice, ne

mox

Incutiant aliena tibi peccata pudorem.

HOR.

A rascal prais'd, you make his faults your own.

ANON.

It is no unpleasant matter of speculation to

pass round this town from hand to hand, and the abuse people put upon one another in that kind. It is indeed come to that pass, that, instead of being the testimony of merit in the person recommended, the true reading of a letter of this sort is, "The bearer hereof is so uneasy to me, that it will be an act of charity in you to take him off my hands; whether you prefer him or not, it is all one; for I have no manner of kindness for him, or obligation to him or his; and do what you please as to that." As negligent as men are in this respect, a point of honour is concerned in it; and there is nothing a man should be more ashamed of,

ever about the same time received a kind glance or a blow of a fan from some celebrated beauty, mother of the present Lord Such-a-one. If you speak of a young commoner that said a lively thing in the House, he starts up: "He 30 has good blood in his veins; Tom Mirabell begot him; the rogue cheated me in that affair; that young fellow's mother used me more like a dog than any woman I ever made advances to." This way of talking of his, very much 35 enlivens the conversation among us of a more sedate turn, and I find that there is not one of the company but myself, who rarely speak at all, but speaks of him as of that sort of man who is usually called a well-bred, fine gentle- 40 than passing a worthless creature into the man. To conclude his character, where women are not concerned, he is an honest, worthy man. I cannot tell whether I am to account him

whom I am next to speak of as one of our com

service or interests of a man who has never injured you. The women indeed are a little too keen in their resentments to trespass often this way; but you shall sometimes know, that

pany, for he visits us but seldom; but when 45 the mistress and the maid shall quarrel, and

give each other very free language, and at last the lady shall be pacified to turn her out of doors, and give her a very good word to any body else. Hence it is that you see, in a year

he does, it adds to every man else a new enjoyment of himself. He is a clergyman, a very philosophic man, of general learning, great sanctity of life, and the most exact good breeding. He has the misfortune to be of a very 50 and a half's time, the same face a domestic in

all parts of the town. Good-breeding and goodnature lead people in a great measure to this injustice: when suitors of no consideration will have confidence enough to press upon their

weak constitution, and consequently cannot accept of such cares and business as preferments in his function would oblige him to; he is therefore among divines what a chambercounsellor is among lawyers. The probity of 55 superiors, those in power are tender of speaking his mind and the integrity of his life create him followers as being eloquent or laud" ad

10. e., as others are advanced by their eloquence or by The praise of those about them.

the exceptions they have against them, and are mortgaged into promises out of their impatience of importunity. In this latter case, it would be a very useful inquiry to know the

history of recommendations. There are, you
must know, certain abettors of this way of
torment, who make it a profession to manage
the affairs of candidates. These gentlemen
let out their impudence to their clients, and
supply any defective recommendation, by
informing how such and such a man is to be
attacked. They will tell you, get the least
scrap from Mr. Such-a-one, and leave the rest
to them. When one of these undertakers has 10
your business in hand, you may be sick, absent
in town or country, and the patron shall be
worried, or you prevail. I remember to have
been shown a gentleman some years ago, who

know I live in taverns; he is an orderly sober rascal, and thinks much to sleep in an entry until two in the morning. He told me one day, when he was dressing me, that he won5 dered I was not dead before now, since I went to dinner in the evening, and went to supper at two in the morning. We were coming down Essex-street one night a little flustered,1 and I was giving him the word to alarm the watch;2 he had the impudence to tell me it was against the law. You that are married, and live one day after another the same way, and so on the whole week, I dare say will like him, and he will be glad to have his meat in due season. service to your lady. Yours,

punished a whole people for their facility in 15 The fellow is certainly very honest.

giving their credentials. This person had belonged to a regiment which did duty in the

West Indies, and, by the mortality of the place, happened to be commanding-officer in

My

"J. T."

Now this was very fair dealing. Jack knew

the colony. He oppressed his subjects with 20 very well, that though the love of order made

a man very awkward in his equipage, it was a valuable quality among the queer people who live by rule; and had too much good sense and good-nature to let the fellow starve, because

great frankness, till he became sensible that he was heartily hated by every man under his command. When he had carried his point to be thus detestable, in a pretended fit of dishumour, and feigned uneasiness of living where 25 he was not fit to attend his vivacities. he found he was so universally unacceptable, he communicated to the chief inhabitants a design he had to return for England, provided they would give him ample testimonials of their approbation. The planters came into 30 it to a man, and, in proportion to his deserving the quite contrary, the words justice, generosity, and courage, were inserted in his commission, not omitting the general good-liking of people of all conditions in the colony. The 35 ask so as to have reason to complain of a degentleman returns for England, and within a few months after came back to them their governor, on the strength of their own testimonials.

I shall end this discourse with a letter of recommendation from Horace to Claudius Nero. You will see in that letter a slowness to ask a favour, a strong reason for being unable to deny his good word any longer, and that it is a service to the person to whom he recommends, to comply with what is asked: all which are necessary circumstances both in justice and good-breeding, if a man would

nial; and indeed a man should not in strictness ask otherwise. In hopes the authority of Horace, who perfectly understood how to live with great men, may have a good effect

condition, and the confidence of those who apply to them without merit, I have translated the epistle.

Such a rebuke as this cannot indeed happen 40 towards amending this facility in people of to easy recommenders, in the ordinary course of things, from one hand to another; but how would a man bear to have it said to him, "The person I took into confidence on the credit you gave him, has proved false, unjust, and has not 45. answered any way, the character you gave me of him?"

"Sir,

TO CLAUDIUS NERO

"Septimius, who waits upon you with this, is very well acquainted with the place you are pleased to allow me in your friendship. For

I cannot but conceive very good hopes of that rake Jack Toper of the Temple, for an honest scrupulousness in this point. A friend 50 when he beseeches me to recommend him

[blocks in formation]

myself against his ambition to be yours, as
long as I possibly could; but fearing the impu-
tation of hiding my power in you out of mean
and selfish considerations, I am at last pre-
vailed upon to give you this trouble. Thus to
avoid the appearance of a greater fault, I
have put on this confidence. If you can for-
give this transgression of modesty in behalf of
a friend, receive this gentleman into your
interests and friendship, and take it from me 10 torments, it finally hardens.
that he is an honest and a brave man."

all the conflicts wherein he received them. Let sighs and tears, and fainting under the lightest strokes of adverse fortune, be the portion of those unhappy people whose tender minds a 5 long course of felicity has enervated: while such, as have passed through years of calamity, bear up, with a noble and immovable constancy, against the heaviest. Uninterrupted misery has this good effect, as it continually

Henry St. John, Viscount
Bolingbroke1

1678-1751

FROM REFLECTIONS UPON EXILE

(1716)

Such is the language of philosophy: and happy is the man who acquires the right of holding it. But this right is not to be acquired by pathetic discourse. Our conduct can alone 15 give it us; and therefore, instead of presuming on our strength, the surest method is to confess our weakness, and, without loss of time, to apply ourselves to the study of wisdom. This was the advice which the oracle gave to 20 Zeno,2 and there is no other way of securing our tranquillity amidst all the accidents to which human life is exposed. Philosophy has, I know, her Thrasos, as well as war: and among her sons many there have been, who, while

Dissipation of mind, and length of time, are the remedies to which the greatest part of mankind trust in their afflictions. But the first of these works a temporary, the second 25 they aimed at being more than men, became a slow, effect: and both are unworthy of a wise man. Are we to fly from ourselves that we may fly from our misfortunes, and fondly to imagine that the disease is cured, because we find means to get some moments of respite 30 dict ourselves to none. Let us hear them all,

something less. The means of preventing this danger are easy and sure. It is a good rule to examine well before we addict ourselves to any sect: but I think it is a better rule, to ad

with a perfect indifferency, on which side the truth lies: and, when we come to determine, let nothing appear so venerable to us as our own understandings. Let us gratefully accept

from pain? Or shall we expect from time, the physician of brutes, a lingering and uncertain deliverance? Shall we wait to be happy till we can forget that we are miserable, and owe to the weakness of our faculties a tranquillity 35 the help of every one who has endeavoured to

correct the vices, and strengthen the minds of men; but let us choose for ourselves, and yield universal assent to none. Thus, that I may instance the sect already mentioned,

which ought to be the effect of their strength? Far otherwise. Let us set all our past and our present afflictions at once before our eyes. Let us resolve to overcome them, instead of flying from them, or wearing out the sense of them by 40 when we have laid aside the wonderful.and long and ignominious patience. Instead of palliating remedies, let us use the incisionknife and the caustic, search the wound to the bottom, and work an immediate and radical

cure.

surprising sentences, and all the paradoxes of the Portique, we shall find in that school such doctrines as our unprejudiced reason submits to with pleasure, as nature dictates, and as 45 experience confirms. Without this precaution, we run the risk of becoming imaginary kings,

The recalling of former misfortunes serves to fortify the mind against latter. He must blush to sink under the anguish of one wound, who surveys a body seamed over with the scars of many, and who has come victorious out of 50

1 Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, wit, politician, and philosopher, the friend of Pope, the political ally of Swift, and the political antagonist of Walpole, was one of the most brilliant figures in the England of Queen Anne. Shortly before the Queen's death, he was prominent in an intrigue to secure the succession of the Stuarts, and after the triumph of the house of Hanover, in 1715, he was compelled to take refuge in France. It was during this enforced residence abroad, after the collapse of his political schemes that, endeavoring, or perhaps affecting to console himself with philosophy, he wrote his Reflections Upon Exile.

2 A Greek stoic philosopher of the third century. Upon Zeno's consulting the oracle, what course was fittest for a man to take that intended to regulate and govern his life after the best manner? the Deity returned for answer that he should keep consortship with the dead. Upon which he fell to reading the lives of the ancients. "Life of Zeno," in Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Philosophers.

i. e., her men like Thrasos, a blustering, braggart, captain in one of Terence's comedies. Cf. thrasonical, boasting, vain-glorious.

4i. e., the Portico, or the Porch. The school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Cyprus, was called Stoic, from the Greek word Stoa, a porch, because Zeno taught in a famous portico in Athens, known as the "Painted Porch," or "the Porch." Hence paradoxes of the Portique paradoxes of the stoics, or of the philosophers of the Porch.

and real slaves. With it we may learn to assert our native freedom, and live independent on fortune.

dained. But the greatest part of their ordinances are abrogated by the wise.

Rejecting therefore the judgment of those who determine according to popular opinions, 5 or the first appearances of things, let us examine what exile really is. It is then, a change of place; and, lest you should say that I diminish the object, and conceal the most shocking parts of it, I add, that this change of place

In order to which great end, it is necessary that we stand watchful, as sentinels, to discover the secret wiles and open attacks of this capricious goddess, before they reach us. Where she falls upon us unexpected, it is hard to resist; but those who wait for her, will repel her with ease. The sudden invasion of an 10 is frequently accompanied by some or all of

enemy overthrows such as are not on their guard; but they who foresee the war, and prepare themselves for it before it breaks out, stand, without difficulty, the first and the

the following inconveniences: by the loss of the estate which we enjoyed, and the rank which we held; by the loss of that consideration and power which we were in possession

fiercest onset. I learned this important lesson 15 of; by a separation from our family and our

friends; by the contempt which we may fall into; by the ignominy with which those who have driven us abroad, will endeavour to sully the innocence of our characters, and to justify the injustice of their own conduct.

long ago, and never trusted to fortune even while she seemed to be at peace with me. The riches, the honours, the reputation, all the advantages which her treacherous indulgence poured upon me, I placed so, that she might 20 snatch them away without giving me any disturbance. I kept a great interval between me and them. She took them, but she could not tear them from me. No man suffers by bad fortune, but he who has been deceived 25 by good. If we grow fond of her gifts, fancy that they belong to us, and are perpetually to remain with us, if we lean upon them, and expect to be considered for them; we shall sink into all the bitterness of grief, as soon as 30 these false and transitory benefits pass away, as soon as our vain and childish minds, unfraught with solid pleasures, become destitute even of those which are imaginary. But if we do not suffer ourselves to be transported 35 tyrants, and he took off ignominy from the

by prosperity, neither shall we be reduced by adversity. Our souls will be of proof against the dangers of both these states: and, having explored our strength, we shall be sure of it;

Banishment, with all its train of evils, is so far from being the cause of contempt, that he who bears up with an undaunted spirit against them, while so many are dejected by them, erects on his very misfortunes a trophy to his honour: for such is the frame and temper of our minds, that nothing strikes us with greater admiration than a man intrepid in the midst of misfortunes. Of all ignominies an ignominious death must be allowed to be the greatest; and yet where is the blasphemer who will presume to defame the death of Socrates? This saint entered the prison with the same countenance with which he reduced thirty

place: for how could it be deemed a prison when Socrates was there? Phocion was led to execution in the same city. All those who met the sad procession, cast their eyes to the ground,

for in the midst of felicity, we shall have tried 40 and with throbbing hearts bewailed, not the how we can bear misfortune.

innocent man, but Justice herself, who was in him condemned. Yet there was a wretch found, for monsters are sometimes produced in contradiction to the ordinary rules of nature,

It is much harder to examine and judge, than to take up opinions on trust; and there fore the far greatest part of the world borrow, from others, those which they entertain con- 45 who spit in his face as he passed along. Phocion

wiped his cheek, smiled, turned to the magistrate, and said, "Admonish this man not to be so nasty for the future."

cerning all the affairs of life and death. Hence it proceeds that men are so unanimously eager in the pursuit of things, which, far from having any inherent real good, are varnished over with a specious and deceitful gloss, and contain 50 for virtue is in every condition the same, and

Ignominy then can take no hold on virtue;

challenges the same respect. We applaud the world when she prospers; and when she falls into adversity we applaud her. Like the temples of the gods, she is venerable even in

nothing answerable to their appearances. Hence it proceeds, on the other hand, that, in those things which are called evils, there is nothing so hard and terrible as the general cry of the world threatens. The word exile comes 55 her ruins. After this must it not appear a

indeed harsh to the ear, and strikes us like a melancholy and execrable sound, through a certain persuasion which men have habitually concurred in. Thus the multitude has or

5 An Athenian statesman and soldier, who helped to defeat the Spartans in a sea-fight off Naxos, and who repulsed on land the army of Philip of Macedon. Coming, later, into opposition to Demosthenes, he was falsely accused of treason and executed at Athens, B. C. 317.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »