kindness to the old house-dog, that you an afternoon with great pleasure to yourself know my poor master was so fond of. It and to the public. It belongs to the church would have gone to your heart to have of Stebon-Heath, commonly called Stepheard the moans the dumb creature made ney. Whether or no it be that the people on the day of my master's death. He has of that parish have a particular geníus for never joved himself since; no more has any an epitaph, or that there be some poet of us. It was the melancholiest day for the among them who undertakes that work by poor people that ever happened in Wor- the great, I cannot tell; but there are more cestershire. This being all from, honoured remarkable inscriptions in that place than sir, your most sorrowful servant,

in any other I have met with; and I may • EDWARD BISCUIT. say, without vanity, that there is not a gen

tleman in England better read in tomb"P. S. My master desired, some weeks before he died, that a book which comes very much in church-yards. I shall beg

stones than myself, my studies having laid up to you by the carrier, should be given leave to send you a couple of epitaphs, for a to Sir Andrew Freeport in his name.'

sample of those I have just now mentioned. This letter, notwithstanding the poor They are written in a different manner; the butler's manner of writing it, gave us such first being in the diffused and luxuriant, the an idea of our good old friend, that upon second in the close contracted style. The the reading of it there was not a dry eye in first has much of the simple and pathetic; the club. Sir Andrew, opening the book, the second is something light, but nervous. found it to be a collection of acts of parlia- The first is thus: ment. There was in particular the Act of

• Here Thomas Sapper lies interr’d. Ah why! Uniformity, with some passages in it mark- Born in New England, did in London die; ed by Sir Roger's own hand. Sir Andrew Was the third son of eight, begot upon found that they related to two or three

His mother Martha, by his father John.

Much favour'd by his prince he 'gan to be, points which he had disputed with Sir But nipt by death at th' age of twenty-three. Roger the last time he appeared at the Fatal to him was that we small-pox name, club. Sir Andrew, who would have been

By which his mother and two brethren came

Also to breathe their last, nine years before, merry at such an incident on another occa- And now have left their father to deplore sion, at the sight of the old man's writing The loss of all his children, with his wife, burst into tears, and put the book in his

Who was the joy and comfort of his life." pocket. Captain Sentry informs me that • The second is as follows: the knight has left rings and mourning for

" Here lies the body of Daniel Saul, every one in the club.

0.

Spittlefields weaver, and that's all."

I will not dismiss you whilst I am upon

this subject, without sending a short epiNo. 518.) Friday, October 24, 1712. taph which I once met with, though I

cannot possibly recollect the place. The -Miserum est aliene incumbere fame,

thought of it is serious, and in my opinion Ne collapsa ruant subductis recta columpis.

Jud. Sat. viji. 76.

the finest that I ever met with upon this "Tis poor relying on another's fame;

occasion. You know, sir, it is usual, after For, take the pillars but away, and all

having told us the name of the person who The superstructure must in ruins fall.- Stepney. lies interred, to launch out into his praises. This being a day of business with me, I This epitaph takes a quite contrary turn, must make the present entertainment like having been made by the person himself a treat at a house-warming, out of such some time before his death. presents as have been sent me by my guests.

“ Hic jacet R. C. in expectatione diei suThe first dish which I serve up is a letter premi. Qualis erat dies iste indicabit.” come fresh to my hand.

“ Here lieth R. C. in expectation of the • MR. SPECTATOR, It is with inexpres- last day. What sort of a man he was, that sible sorrow that I hear of the death of good day will discover.” Sir Roger, and do heartily condole with

'I am, sir, &c.' you upon so melancholy an occasion. I think you ought to have blackened the

The following letter is dated from Camedges of a paper which brought us so ill

bridge. news, and to have had it stamped likewise “SIR,-Having lately read among your in black. It is expected of you that you speculations an essay upon physiognomy, I should write his epitaph, and, if possible, cannot but think, that, if you made a visit fill his place in the club with as worthy to this ancient university, you might reand diverting a member. I question not ceive very considerable lights upon that but you will receive many recommenda- subject, there being scarce a young fellow tions from the public of such as will appear in it who does not give certain indications candidates for that post.

of his particular humour and disposition, Since I am talking of death, and have conformable to the rules of that art. In mentioned an epitaph, I must tell you, sir, courts and cities every body lays a conthat I have made a discovery of a church- straint upon his countenance, and endeayard in which I believe you might spend / vours to look like the rest of the world; but the youth of this place, having not yet , which I mean that system of bodies into formed themselves by conversation, and which nature has so curiously wrought the the knowledge of the world, give their mass of dead matter, with the several relalimbs and features their full play.

tions which those bodies bear to one an* As you have considered human nature other; there is still, methinks, something in all its lights, you must be extremely well more wonderful and surprising in contemapprized, that there is a very close corres-plations on the world of life, by which I pondence between the outward and the mean all those animals with which every inward man; that scarce the least dawn- part of the universe is furnished. The maing, the least parturiency towards a thought terial world is only the shell of the Unican be stirring in the mind of man, without verse, the world of life are its inhabitants. producing a suitable revolution in his ex- If we consider those parts of the material teriors, which will easily discover itself to world which lie the nearest to us, and are an adept in the theory of the phiz. Hence therefore subject to our observation and init is that the intrinsic worth and merit of a quiries, it is amazing to consider the infinity son of Alma Mater is ordinarily calculated of animals with which it is stocked. Every from the cast of his visage, the contour of part of matter is peopled; every green leaf his person, the mechanism of his dress, the swarms with inhabitants. There is scarce disposition of his limbs, the manner of his a single humour in the body of a man, or gait and air, with a number of circum- of any other animal, in which our glasses stances of equal consequence and informa- do not discover myriads of living creatures. tion. The practitioners in this art often The surface of animals is also covered with make use of a gentleman's eyes to give other animals, which are in the same manthem light into the posture of his brains; ner the basis of other animals that live take a handle from his nose to judge of the upon it; nay, we find in the most solid size of his intellects; and interpret the bodies, as in marble itself, innumerable overmuch visibility and pertness of one ear cells and cavities that are crowded with as an infallible mark of reprobation, and a such imperceptible inhabitants as are too sign the owner of so saucy a member fears little for the naked eye to discover. On the neither God nor man. In conformity to other hand, if we look into the more bulky this scheme, a contracted brow, a lumpish parts of nature, we see the seas, lakes, an! downcast look, a' sober sedate pace, with rivers, teeming with numberless kinds of both hands dangling quiet and steady, in living creatures. We find every mountain lines exactly parallel to each lateral pocket and marsh, wilderness and wood, plentiof his galligaskins, is logic, metaphysics, fully stocked with birds and beasts; and and mathematics, in perfection. So like every part of matter affording proper newise the belles-lettres, are typified by a cessaries and conveniencies for the livelisaunter in the gait, a fall of one wing of hood of multitudes which inhabit it. the peruke backward, an insertion of one The author* of the Plurality of Worlds hand in the fob, and a negligent swing of draws a very good argument from this conthe other, with a pinch of right fine Bar- sideration for the peopling of every planet; celona between finger and thumb, a due as indeed it seems very probable, from the quantity of the same upon the upper lip, analogy of reason, that if no part of matter, and a 'noddle case loaden with pulvil. which we are acquainted with, lies waste Again, a grave solemn stalking pace is and useless, those great bodies which are heroic poetry and politics; an unequal one, at such a distance from us, should not be a genius for the ode, and the modern ballad; desert and unpeopled, but rather that they and an open breast, with an audacious dis- should be furnished with beings adapted to play of the Holland shirt, is construed a their respective situations. fatal tendency to the art military.

Existence is a blessing to those beings "I might be much larger upon these only which are endowed with perception; hints, but I know whom I write to. If you and is in a manner thrown away upon dead can graft any speculation upon them, or matter, any farther than as it is subservient turn them to the advantage of the persons to beings which are conscious of their existconcerned in them, you will do a work ence. Accordingly we find, from the bodies very becoming the British Spectator, and which lie under our observation, that matoblige, your very humble servant,

ter is only made as the basis and support • TOM TWEER.' of animals, and that there is no more of the

one than what is necessary for the existence

of the other. No. 519.] Saturday, October 25, 1712. Infinite goodness is of so communicative a Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitaque volantum, ferring of existence upon every degree of

nature, that it seems to delight in the conEt que marmoreo fert monstra sub æquore pontus.

Virg. Æn. vi. 728. perceptive being. As this is a speculation Hence men and beasts the breath of life obtain,

which I have often pursued with great And birds of air, and monsters of the main. pleasure to myself, I shall enlarge farther

Dryden. Though there is a great deal of pleasure

* Fontenelle.- This book was published in 1686, and in contemplating the material world, by ! obtained for the author great reputation.

upon it, by considering that part of the beings which are of a superior nature to scale of beings which comes within our him; since there is an infinitely greater knowledge.

space and room for different degrees of There are some living creatures which perfection between the Supreme Being and are raised just above dead matter. To man, than between man and the most desmention only that species of shell-fish, picable insect. This consequence of so which are formed in the fashion of a cone, great a variety of beings which are superior that grow to the surface of several rocks, to us, from that variety which is inferior and immediately die upon their being se- to us, is made by Mr. Locke, in a passage vered from the place where they grow. which I shall here set down, after having There are many other creatures but one premised, that, notwithstanding there is remove from these, which have no other such infinite room between man and his sense but that of feeling and taste. Others Maker for the creative power to exert ithave still an additional one of hearing; self in, it is impossible that it should ever others of smell, and others of sight. It is be filled up, since there will be still an inwonderful to observe by what a gradual finite gap or distance between the highest progress the world of life advances through created being and the Power which proa prodigious variety of species, before a duced him. creature is formed that is complete in all its • That there should be more species of senses; and even among these there is such intelligent creatures above us, than there a different degree of perfection in the senses are of sensible and material below us, is which one animal enjoys beyond what ap- probable to me from hence: that in all the pears in another, that, though the sense in visible corporeal world we see no chasms, different animals be distinguished by the or no gaps, All quite down from us the same common denomination, it seems al-descent is by easy steps, and a continued most of a different nature. If after this we series of things, that in each remove differ look into the several inward perfections of very little one from the other. There are cunning and sagacity, or what we generally fishes that have wings, and are not strancall instinct, we find them rising after the sers to the airy region; and there are some same manner imperceptibly one above an- birds that are inhabitants of the water, other, and receiving additional improve- whose blood is as cold as fishes, and their ments, according to the species in which flesh so like in taste, that the scrupulous they are implanted. This progress in na- are allowed them on fish days. There are ture is so very gradual, that the most per animals so near of kin both to birds and fect of an inferior species comes very near beasts, that they are in the middle between to the most imperfect of that which is im- both. Amphibious animals link the terresmediately above it.

trial and aquatic together. Seals live at The exuberant and overflowing goodness land and at sea, and porpoises have the of the Supreme Being, whose mercy ex- warm blood and the entrails of a hog; not tends to all his works, is plainly seen, as I to mention what is confidently reported have before hinted, from his having made of mermaids, or sea-men, there are some so very little matter, at least what falls brutes that seem to have as much knowwithin our knowledge, that does not swarm ledge and reason as some part that are with life. Nor is his goodness less seen in called men; and the animal and vegetable the diversity than in the multitude of living kingdoms are so nearly joined, that if you creatures. Had he only made one species will take the lowest of one, and the highest of animals, none of the rest would have en-of the other, there will scarce be perceived joyed the happiness of existence: he has, any great difference between thein; and so therefore, specified in his creation every de- on until we come to the lowest and the gree of life, every capacity of being. "The most inorganical parts of matter, we shall whole chasm in nature, from a plant to a man, find every where that the several species is filled up with diverse kinds of creatures, are linked together, and differ but in alrising one over another, by such a gentle and most insensible degrees. And, when we easy ascent, that the little transitions and de- consider the infinite power and wisdom of viations from one species to another are al- the Maker, we have reason to think that it most insensible. This intermediate space is suitable to the magnificent harmony of is so well husbanded and managed, that the universe, and the great design and inthere is scarce a degree of perception finite goodness of the architect, that the which does not appear in some one part of species of creatures should also by gentle the world of life. Is the goodness or the degrees ascend upward from us toward his wisdom of the Divine Being more mani- infinite perfection, as we see they gradually fested in this his proceeding?

descend from us downward: which if it be There is a consequence, besides those I probable, we have reason then to be perhave already mentioned, which seems very suaded that there are far more species of naturally deducible from the foregoing creatures above us than there are beneath; considerations. If the scale of being rises we being in degrees of perfection much by such a regular progress so high as man, more remote from the infinite being of God, we may, by a parity of reason, suppose that than we are from the lowest state of being, it still proceeds gradually through those and that which approaches nearest to no

thing. And yet of all those distinct species | meekness, good nature, and complacency. we have no clear distinct ideas.'

But, indeed, when in a serious and lonely In this system of being, there is no crea- hour I present my departed consort to my ture so wonderful in its nature, and which imagination, with that air of persuasion in so much deserves our particular attention, her countenance when I have been in pasas man, who fills up the middle space be- sion, that sweet affability when I have been tween the animal and intellectual nature, in good humour, that tender compassion the visible and invisible world, and is when I have had any thing which gave me that link in the chain of beings which has uneasiness; I confess to you I am inconsolable, been often termed the nexus utriusque and my eyes gush with grief, as if I had mundi. So that he, who in one respect, seen her just then expire. In this condition being associated with angels and archan- I am broken in upon by a charming young gels, may look upon a Being of infinite woman, my daughter, who is the picture perfection, as his father, and the highest of what her mother was on her weddingorder of spirits as his brethren, may in an- day. The good girl strives to comfort me; other respect say to corruption, Thou art but how shall I let you know that all the my father; and to the worm, Thou art my comfort she gives me is to make my tears mother and my sister.'

O. flow more easily? The child knows she

quickens my sorrows, and rejoices my heart at the same time. Oh, ye learned! tell me

by what word to speak a motion of the soul No. 520.] Monday, October 27, 1712. for which there is no name. When she

kneels, and bids me be comforted, she is Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus Tam chari capitis ? Hor. Od. xxiv. Lib. 1. 1.

my child: when I take her in my arms, and

bid her say no more, she is my very wife, And who can grieve too much? What time shall end and is the very comforter I lament the loss Our mourning for so dear a friend ?-Creech

of. I banish her the room, and weep aloud •Mr. SpectATOR,—The just value you that I have lost her mother, and that I have expressed for the matrimonial state have her. is the reason that I now venture to write to • Mr. Spectator, I wish it were possible you, without fear of being ridiculous, and for you to have a sense of these pleasing confess to you that though it is three months perplexities;

you might communicate to the since I lost a very agreeable woman who guilty part of mankind that they are incawas my wife, my sorrow is still fresh; and pable of the happiness which is in the very I am often, in the midst of company, upon sorrows of the virtuous. any circumstance that revives her memory, • But pray spare me a little longer; give with a reflection what she would say or do me leave to tell you the manner of her on such an occasion: I say upon any occur- death. She took leave of all her family, rence of that nature, which I can give you and bore the vain application of medicines a sense of, though I cannot express it whol- with the greatest patience imaginable. ly, I am all over softness, and am obliged When the physician told her she must certo retire and give way to a few sighs and tainly die, she desired, as well as she could, tears before I can be easy. I cannot but that all who were present, except myself, recommend the subject of male widowhood might depart the room. She said she had to you, and beg of you to touch upon it by nothing to say, for she was resigned, and I the first opportunity. To those who had knew all she knew that concerned us in not lived like husbands during the lives of this world; but she desired to be alone, their spouses, this would be a tasteless jum- that in the presence of God only she might, ble of words; but to such (of whom there are without interruption, do her last duty to me, not a few) who have enjoyed that state with of thanking me for all my kindness to her: the sentiments proper for it, you will have adding that she hoped in my last moments every line, which hits the sorrow, attended I should feel the same comfort for my goodwith a tear of pity and consolation; for I ness to her, as she did in that she had acknow not by what goodness of Providence quitted herself with honour, truth, and it is that every gush of passion is a step to- virtue to me. wards the relief of it; and there is a certain • I curb myself, and will not tell you that comfort in the very act of sorrowing, which, this kindness cut my heart in twain, when I suppose, arises from a secret conscious- I expected an accusation for some passionness in the mind, that the affliction it is un- ate starts of mine, in some parts of our time der flows from a virtuous cause. My con- together, to say nothing but thank me for cern is not indeed so outrageous as at the the good, if there was any good suitable to first transport; for I think it has subsided her own excellence! All that I had ever rather into a soberer state of mind than any said to her, all the circumstances of sorrow actual perturbation of spirit. There might and joy between us, crowded upon my be rules formed for men's behaviour on this mind in the same instant: and when, immegreat incident, to bring them from that diately after, I saw the pangs of death come misfortnne into the condition I am at pre- upon that dear body which I had often emsent; which is, I think, that my sorrow has braced with transport: when I saw those converted all roughness of temper into cherishing eyes begin to be ghastly, and

their last struggle to be to fix themselves mean, that can report what they have seen on me, how did I lose all patience! She or heard: and this through incapacity or expired in my arms, and in my distraction prejudice, one of which disables almost I thought I saw her bosom still heave. every man who talks to you from representThere was certainly life yet still left. I ing things as he ought. For which reason cried, she just now spoke to me. But, alas! I I am come to a resolution of believing nogrew giddy, and all things moved about me, thing I hear; and I contemn the man given from the distemper of my own head; for to narrations under the appellation of “a the best of women was breathless, and gone matter-of-fact man:” and, according to me, for ever.

a matter-of-fact man is one whose life and Now the doctrine I would, methinks, conversation is spent in the report of what have you raise from this account I have is not matter-of-fact. given you, is, that there is a certain equa- • I remember when prince Eugene was nimity in those who are good and just, which here there was no knowing his height or runs into their very sorrow, and disappoints figure, until you, Mr. Spectator, gave the the force of it. Though they must pass public satisfaction in that matter. In relathrough afflictions in common with all who tions, the force of the expression lies very are in human nature, yet their conscious often more in the look, the tone of voice, integrity shall undermine their affliction; or the gesture, than the words themnay, that very affliction shall add force to selves; which, being repeated in any other their integrity, from a reflection of the use manner by the undiscerning, bear a very of virtue in the hour of affliction. I sat down different interpretation from their original with a design to put you upon giving us meaning.. I must confess I formerly have rules how to overcome such griefs as these, turned this humour of mine to very good but I should rather advise you to teach men account; for whenever I heard any'narrato be capable of them.

tion uttered with extraordinary vehemence, • You men of letters have what you call and grounded upon considerable authority, the fine taste in your apprehensions of what I was always ready to lay any wager that it is properly done or said. There is some- was not so. Indeed, I never pretended to thing like this deeply grafted in the soul be so rash as to fix the matter any particuof him who is honest and faithful in all his lar way in opposition to theirs; but as there choughts and actions. Every thing which are a hundred ways of any thing happenis false, vicious, or unworthy, is despicable ing, besides that it has happened, I only to him, though all the world should ap- controverted its falling out in that one manprove it. At the same time he has the most ner as they settled it, and left it to the lively sensibility in all enjoyments and suf- ninety-nine other ways, and consequently ferings which it is proper for him to have had more probability of success. I had where any duty of life is concerned. To arrived at a particular skill in warming want sorrow when you in decency and truth a man so far in his narrations as to make should be afflicted, is, I should think, a him throw in a little of the marvellous, and greater instance of a man's being a block- then, if he has much fire, the next degree head, than not to know the beauty of any is the impossible. Now this is always the passage in Virgil. You have not yet ob- time for fixing the wager. But this requires served, Mr Spectator, that the fine gentle- the nicest management, otherwise very men of this age set up for hardness of heart; probably the dispute may arise to the old and humanity has very little share in their determination by battle. In these conceits pretences. He is a brave fellow who is al- I have been very fortunate, and have won ways ready to kill a man he hates, but he some wages of those who have professedly does not stand in the same degree of esteem valued themselves upon intelligence, and who laments for the woman he loves. I have put themselves to great charge and should fancy you might work up a thousand expense to be misinformed considerably pretty thoughts, by reflecting upon the sooner than the rest of the world. persons most susceptible of the sort of sor- • Having got a comfortable sum by this row I have spoken of; and I dare say you my opposition to public report, I have will find, upon examination, that they are brought myself now to so great a perfection the wisest and the bravest of mankind' who in attention, more especially to party-relaare the most capable of it. I am, sir, your tion, that, at the same time I seem with humble servant,

F. J.

greedy ears to devour up the discourse, I • Norwich, 7th October, 1712.' T.

certainly do not know one word of it, but pursue my own course of thought, whether

upon business or amusement, with much No. 521.] Tuesday, October 28, 1712.

tranquillity; I say inattention, because a

late act of parliament* has secured all Vera redit facies, dissimulata perit.-P. Arb. party-liars from the penalty of a wager, The real face returns, the counterfeit is lost. and consequently made it unprofitable to

MR. SPECTATOR, I have been for many years loud in this assertion, that contingency relating to the war with France were de