N° 222. Wednesday, November 14. Cur alter fratrum ceffare, & ludere, & ungi, Mr. SPECTATOR, T Hor. HERE is one Thing I have often looked for in your Papers, and have as often wondered to find my felf difappointed; the rather, because I think it a Subject every way agreeable to your Defign, and by being left unattempted by others, feems referved as a • proper Employment for you: I mean a Difquifition, from whence it proceeds, that Men of the brightest Parts, and moft comprehenfive Genius, compleatly furnifhed with Talents for any Province in humane Affairs; fuch as by their wife Leffons of Oeconomy to o⚫thers have made it evident, that they have the juftest No⚫tions of Life, and of true Senfe in the Conduct of it from what unhappy contradictious Caufe it proceeds, • that Persons thus finished by Nature and by Art, should fo often fail in the Management of that which they fo < well understand, and want the Addrefs to make a right Application of their own Rules. This is certainly a prodigious Inconsistency in Behaviour, and makes much fuch a Figure in Morals as a monftruous Birth in Na< turals, with this Difference only, which greatly aggravates the Wonder, that it happens much more frequently; and what a Blemish does it caft upon Wit and Learning in the general Account of the World? And in how disadvantageous a Light does it expofe them to the Bufy Clafs of Mankind, that there fhould be fo many Instances of Perfons who have fo conducted their Lives in fpight of thefe tranfcendent Advantages, as neither to be happy in themselves, nor ufeful to their Friends; when every Body fees it was in intirely in their own Power to be eminent in both these • Characters? For my part, I think there is no Refle⚫ction more aftonifhing, than to confider one of these Gentlemen spending a fair Fortune, running in every Body's Debt without the leaft Apprehenfion of a future Reckoning, and at laft leaving not only his own Children, but poffibly thofe of other People, by his Means, in ftarving Circumftances; while a Fellow whom one would fcarce fufpect to have a humane Soul, fhall perhaps raise a vaft Eftate out of Nothing, and be the Founder of a Family capable of being very confiderable in their • Country, and doing many illuftrious Services to it. That this Obfervation is juft, Experience has put it be yond all Difpute. But though the Fact be fo evident and glaring, yet the Caufes of it are ftill in the Dark; ⚫ which makes me perfwade my self, that it would be no unacceptable Piece of Entertainment to the Town, to inquire into the hidden Sources of fo unaccountable an : Evil. I am, SIR, Your most humble Servant. WHAT this Correfpondent wonders at, has been Matter of Admiration ever fince there was any fuch Thing as humane Life. Horace reflects upon this Inconfiftency very agreeably in the Character of Tigellius, whom he makes a mighty Pretender to Oeconomy, and tells you, you might one Day hear him fpeak the moft philofophick Things imaginable concerning being contented with a little, and his Contempt of every thing but mere Neceffaries, and in half a Week after spend a thousand Pound. When he fays this of him with relation to Expence, he defcribes him as unequal to himself in every other Circumftance of Life. And indeed, if we confider lavish Men carefully, we. fhall find it always proceeds from a certain Incapacity of poffeffing themselves, and finding Enjoyment in their own Minds. Mr. Dryden has expreffed this very excellently in the Cha nacter of Zimri. A Man fo various, that he feem'd to be In fquandring Wealth was his peculiar Art, THIS loofe State of the Soul hurries the Extravagant from one Purfuit to another; and the Reason that his Expences are greater than another's, is, that his Wants are alfo more numerous. But what makes fo many go on in this Way to their Lives End, is, that they certainly do not know how contemptible they are in the Eyes of the rest of Mankind, or rather, that indeed they are not fo contemptible as they deferve. Tully fays, it is the greatest Wickedness to leffen your paternal Etate. And if a Man would thoroughly confider how much worfe than Banishment it must be to his Child, to ride by the Eftate which fhould have been his, had it not been for his Father's Injuftice to him, he would be fmitten with the Reflection more deeply than can be' understood by any but one who is a Father. Sure there can be nothing more afflicting, than to think it had been happier for his Son to have been born of any other Man living than himself. IT is not perhaps much thought of, but it is certainly a very important Leffon, to learn how to enjoy ordinary Life, and to be able to relifh your Being without the Transport of fome Paffion, or Gratification of fome Appetite. For want of this Capacity, the World is filled with Whetters, Tipplers, Cutters, Sippers, and all the numerous Train of thofe who, for want of Thinking, are forced to be ever exercifing their Feeling or Tafting. It would be hard on this Occafion to mention the harmless Smoakers of Tobacco and Takers of Snuff. 4 THE THE flower Part of Mankind, whom my Correfpondent wonders fhould get Eftares, are the more immediately formed for that Purfuit: They can expect diftant Things without Impatience, becaufe they are not carried out of their Way either by violent Paffion, or keen Appetite to any thing. To Men addicted to Delights, Bufinefs is an Interruption; to fuch as are cold to Delights, Business is an Entertainment. For which Reafon it was faid to one who commended a dull Man for his Application, No · Thanks to him; if he had no Business, he would have nothing to do. T N° 223. Thursday, November 15. Ofuavis anima! qualem bonam W Phæd. HEN I reflect upon the various Fate of thofe Multitudes of ancient Writers who flourished in Greece and Italy, I confider Time as an immenfe Ocean, in which many noble Authors are entirely fwallowed up, many very much fhattered and damaged, fome quite dif-jointed and broken into Pieces, while fome have wholly efcaped the common Wreck; but the Number of the laft is very fmall. Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vafto. AMONG the mutilated Poets of Antiquity, there is none whofe Fragments are fo beautiful as thofe of Sappho. They give us a Tafte of her Way of Writing, which is perfectly conformable with that extraordinary Character we find of her, in the Remarks of thofe great Criticks who were converfant with her Works when they were entire. One may fee by what is left of them, that the followed Nature in all her Thoughts, without defcending to thofe little Points, Conceits, and Turns of Wit with which many of our modern Lyricks Lyricks are fo miferably infected. Her Soul feems to have been made up of Love and Poetry: She felt the Paffion in all its Warmth, and defcribed it in all its Symptoms. She is called by ancient Authors the Tenth Mufe; and by Plutarch is compared to Cacus the Son of Vulcan, who breathed out nothing but Flame. I do not know, by the Character that is given of her Works, whether it is not for the Benefit of Mankind that they are loft. They were filled with fuch bewitching Tenderness and Rapture, that it might have been dangerous to have given them a Reading. AN inconftant Lover, called Phaon, occafioned great Calamities to this poetical Lady. She fell defperately in Love with him, and took a Voyage into Sicily, in Purfuit of him, he having withdrawn himfelf thither on purpose to avoid her. It was in that lfland, and on this Occafion, fhe is fuppofed to have made the Hymn to Venus, with a Tranflation of which I fhall prefent my Reader. Her Hymn was ineffectual for the procuring that Happiness which the prayed for in it. Phaon was ftill obdurate, and Sappho fo tranfported with the Violence of her Paffion, that he was refolved to get rid of it at any Price. THERE was a Promontory in Acarnania called Leucate, on the Top of which was a little Temple dedicated to Apollo. In this Temple it was ufual for defpairing Lovers to make their Vows in fecret, and afterwards to fling themselves from the Top of the Precipice into the Sea, where they were fometimes taken up alive. This Place was therefore called, The Lover's Leap; and whether or no the Fright they had been in, or the Refolution that could pufh them to fo dreadful a Remedy, or the Bruises which they often received in their Fall, banifhed all the tender Sentiments of Love, and gave their Spirits another Turn; those who had taken this Leap were obferved never to relapfe into that Paffion. Sappho tried the Cure, but perifhed in the Experiment. AFTER having given this fhort Account of Sappho fo far as it regards the following Ode, I fhall fubjoin the Tranflation of it as it was fent me by a Friend, whofe |