with fair full-bottomed periwigs. I could scarce keep him this morning from going out open-breasted." My friend, who is always extremely delighted with her agreeable humor, made her sit down with us. She did it with that easiness which is peculiar to women of sense; and to keep up the good humor she had brought in with her, turned her raillery upon me. “Mr. Bickerstaff, you remember you followed me one night from the play-house; suppose you should carry me thither tomorrow night, and lead me into the front box."8 This put us into a long field of discourse about the beauties who were mothers to the present, and shone in the boxes twenty years ago. I told her I was glad she had transferred so many of her charms, and I did not question but her eldest daughter was within half-a-year of being a toast.9 We were pleasing ourselves with this fantastical preferment of the young lady, when on a sudden we were alarmed with the noise of a drum, and immediately entered my little godson to give me a point of war.10 His mother, between laughing and childing, would have put him out of the room; but I would not part with him so. I found, upon conversation with him, though he was a little noisy in his mirth, that the child had excellent parts,11 and was a great master of all the learning on the other side eight years old. I perceived him a very great historian in Esop's Fables; but he frankly declared to me his mind, that he did not delight in that learning, because he did not believe they were true; for which reason I found he had very much turned his studies, 6. full-bottomed periwigs. Large curled wigs, reaching to the shoulders, such as are familiar in the pictures of Addison and Steele. 7. open-breasted. That is, with the then fashionable long waistcoat unfastened over the chest, "out of an affectation of youth," as Steele put it in another essay (Tatler No. 246). 8. front box. At this period the gentlemen occupied the side boxes at the theater, the ladies those in front of the stage. 9. toast. A belle, in whose honor toasts would be drunk at parties. 10. point of war. A short roll on the drum, used as a signal. 11. parts. Abilities. for about a twelvemonth past, into the lives and adventures of Don Belianis12 of Greece, Guy of Warwick,13 the Seven Champions,11 and other historians of that age. I could not but observe the satisfaction the father took in the forwardness of his son; and that these diversions might turn to some profit, I found the boy had made remarks15 which might be of service to him during the course of his whole life. He would tell you the mismanagements of John Hickerthrift,16 find fault with the passionate temper in Bevis of Southampton,17 and loved Saint George for being the champion of England; and by this means had his thoughts insensibly molded into the notions of discretion, virtue, and honor. I was extolling his accomplishments, when the mother told me that the little girl who led me in this morning was in her way a better scholar than he. "Betty," said she, "deals chiefly in fairies and sprites, and sometimes in a winter night will terrify the maids with her accounts, until they are afraid to go up to bed." I sat with them until it was very late, sometimes in merry, sometimes in serious discourse, with this particular pleasure, which gives the only true relish to all conversation, a sense that every one of us liked each other. I went home, considering the different conditions of a married life and that of a bachelor; and I must confess it struck me with a secret concern, to reflect that whenever I go off I shall leave no 12. Don Belianis. The hero of an extravagant Spanish romance by Fernandez. 13. Guy of Warwick. A legendary English hero, whose adventures were narrated in many popular romances. 14. the Seven Champions. National heroes (St. George, St. Patrick, St. Andrew, St. David, St. Denis, St. Anthony, and St. James) whose stories were related in a long romance called The Famous History of the Seven Champions of Christendom, by Richard Johnson, 1596-1616. 15. made remarks. Observed matters. 16. John Hickerthrift. A mythical boy (called also Tom Hickathrift), reputed to have had extraordinary strength, wherewith he slew giants, played merry pranks, etc. 17. Bevis of Southampton. The hero of another widely popular romance of the sixteenth century. traces behind me. In this pensive mood I returned to my family; that is to say, to my maid, my dog, and my cat, who only can be the better or worse for what happens to me. THE ART OF CONFERRING BENEFITS [Spectator, No. 248. Friday, December 14, 1711.] THERE are none who deserve superiority over others in the esteem of mankind, who do not make it their endeavor to be beneficial to society, and who, upon all occasions which their circumstances of life can administer, do not take a certain unfeigned pleasure in conferring benefits of one kind or other. Those whose great talents and high birth have placed them in conspicuous stations of life are indispensably obliged to exert some noble inclinations for the service of the world, or else such advantages become misfortunes, and shade and privacy are a more eligible portion. Where opportunities and inclinations are given to the same person, we sometimes see sublime instances of virtue, which so dazzle our imaginations that we look with scorn on all which in lower scenes of life we may ourselves be able to practice. But this is a vicious way of thinking; and it bears some spice of romantic madness for a man to imagine that he must grow ambitious, or seek adventures, to be able to do great actions. It is in every man's power in the world who is above mere poverty, not only to do things worthy, but heroic. The great foundation of civil virtue is self-denial; and there is no one above the necessities of life but has opportunities of exercising that noble quality, and doing as much as his circumstances will bear for the ease and convenience of other men; and he who does more than ordinarily men practice upon such occasions as occur in his life, deserves the value of his friends, as if he had done enterprises which are usually attended with the highest glory. Men of public spirit differ rather in their circumstances than their virtue; and the man who does all he can, in a low station, is more a hero than he who omits any worthy action he is able to accomplish in a great one. It is not many years ago since Lapirius,1 in wrong of his elder brother, came to a great estate by gift of his father, by reason of the dissolute behavior of the first-born. Shame and contrition reformed the life of the disinherited youth, and he became as remarkable for his good qualities as formerly for his errors. Lapirius, who observed his brother's amendment, sent him on a New Year's Day in the morning the following letter: Honored Brother: I enclose to you the deeds whereby my father gave me this house and land. Had he lived till now, he would not have bestowed it in that manner; he took it from the man you were, and I restore it to the man you are. I am, Sir, your affectionate brother, P. T. As great and exalted spirits undertake the pursuit of hazardous actions for the good of others, at the same time gratifying their passion for glory, so do worthy minds in the domestic way of life deny themselves many advantages, to satisfy a generous benevolence, which they bear to their friends oppressed with distresses and calamities. Such natures one may call stores of Providence, which are actuated by a secret celestial influence to undervalue the ordinary gratifications of wealth, to give comfort to an heart loaded with affliction, to save a falling family, to preserve a branch of trade in their neighborhood, and give work to the industrious, preserve the portion of the helpless infant, and raise the head of the mourning father. People whose hearts are wholly bent towards pleasure or intent upon gain, never hear of the noble occurrences among men of industry and humanity. It would look 1. Lapirius. A mere type-name, in Latin form according to literary usage. like a city romance to tell them of the generous merchant who the other day sent this billet to an eminent trader, under difficulties to support himself, in whose fall many hundreds besides himself had perished; but because I think there is more spirit and true gallantry in it than in any letter I have ever read from Strephon to Phillis,3 I shall insert it even in the mercantile honest style in which it was sent. Sir: I have heard of the casualties which have involved you in extreme distress at this time, and, knowing you to be a man of great good nature, industry, and probity, have resolved to stand by you. Be of good cheer; the bearer brings with him five thousand pounds, and has my order to answer your drawing as much more on my account. I did this in haste, for fear I should come too late for your relief; but you may value yourself with me to the sum of fifty thousand pounds; for I can very cheerfully run the hazard of being so much less rich than I am now, to save an honest man whom I love. Your friend and servant, W. S. I think there is somewhere in Montaigne mention made of a family-book, wherein all the occurrences that happened from generation of that house to another were recorded. Were there such a method in the families which are concerned in this generosity, it would be an hard task for the greatest in Europe to give in their own an instance of a benefit better placed, or conferred with a more graceful air. It has been heretofore urged how barbarous and inhuman is any unjust step made to the disadvantage of a trader; and by how much such an act towards him is detestable, by so much an act of kindness towards him is laudable. I remember to have heard 2. had perished. Would have perished. 3. Strephon to Phillis. Type-names of lovers in the pastoral school of poetry. |