both ways find their account in the specula- are not given to be contentious, and statesmen tion of the day. And to the end that their that are out of business; in short, every one virtue and discretion may not be short, tran-' that considers the world as a theatre, and desient, intermitting starts of thoughts, I have sires to form a right judgment of those who resolved to refresh their memories from day are the actors on it. to day, till I have recovered them out of that There is another set of men that I must likedesperate state of vice and folly into which wise lay a claim to, whom I have lately called the age is fallen. The mind that lies fallow the blanks of society, as being altogether unbut a single day, sprouts up in follies that are furnished with ideas, till the business and cononly to be killed by a constant and assiduous versation of the day has supplied them. I culture. It was said of Socrates, that he have often considered these poor souls with an brought philosophy down from heaven, to eye of great commiseration, when I have inhabit among men; and I shall be ambitious heard them asking the first man they have to have it said of me, that I have brought met with, whether there was any news stirring? philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and by that means gathering together mateand colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, rials for thinking. These needy persons do at tea-tables and in coffee-houses.

not know what to talk of, till about twelve I would therefore in a very particular a clock in the morning; for by that time they manner recommend these my speculations to are pretty good judges of the weather, know all well-regulated families, that set apart an which way the wind sits, and whether the hour in every morning for tea and bread and Dutch mail be come in. As they lie at the butter; and would earnestly advise them for mercy of the first man they meet, and are their good to order this paper to be punctually grave or impertinent all the day long, accordserved up, and to be looked upon as a part of ing to the notions which they have imbibed the tea equipage.

in the morning, I would earnestly entreat Sir Francis Bacon observes, that a well- them not to stir out of their chambers till written book, compared with its rivals and they have read this paper, and do promise antagonists, is like Moses's serpent, that im- them that I will daily instil into them such mediately swallowed up and devoured those sound and wholesome sentiments, as shall of the Egyptians. I shall not be so vain as to have a good effect on their conversation for think, that where the Spectator appears,

the the ensuing twelve hours. other public prints will vanish; But shall But there are none to whom this paper will leave it to my reader's consideration, whether, be more useful, than to the female world. I Is it not much better to be let into the knowl- have often thought there has not been suffiedge of one's self, than to hear what passes cient pains taken in finding out proper emin Muscovy or Poland; and to amuse our- ployments and diversions for the fair ones. selves with such writings as tend to the wear- Their amusements seem contrived for them, ing out of ignorance, passion, and prejudice, rather as they are women, than as they are than such as naturally conduce to inflame reasonable creatures; and are more adapted hatreds, and ake enmities irreconcilable? to the sex than to the species. 'he toilet is

In the next place, I would recommend this their great scene of business, and the right paper to the daily perusal of those gentlemen adjusting of their hair the principal employwhom I cannot but consider as my good ment of their lives. The sorting of a suit of brothers and allies, I mean the fraternity of ribbons is reckoned a very good morning's Spectators, who live in the world without work; and if they make an excursion to a having anything to do in it; and either by the mercer's or a toy-shop, so great a fatigue affluence of their fortunes, or laziness of their makes them unfit for any thing else all the dispositions, have no other business with the day after. Their more serious occupations rest of mankind, but to look upon them. Un- are sewing and embroidery, and their greatest der this class of men are comprehended all drudgery the preparation of jellies and sweetcontemplative tradesmen, titular physicians, meats. This, I say, is the state of ordinary Fellows of the Royal-society, Templars that women; though I know there are multitudes

of those of a more elevated life and conversa1 retired merchants ? physicians who do not tion, that move in an exalted sphere of knowlpractice 3 dilettante scientists 4 lawyers

edge and virtue, that join all the beauties of

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the mind to the ornaments of dress, and inspire When I am in a serious humour, I very often a kind of awe and respect, as well as love, walk by myself in Westminster Abbey; where into their male beholders. I hope to encrease the gloominess of the place, and the use to the number of these by publishing this daily which it is applied, with the solemnity of the paper, which I shall always endeavour to building, and the condition of the people who make an innocent if not an improving enter- lie in it, are apt to fill the mind with a kind of tainment, and by that means at least divert melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness, that is the minds of my female readers from greater not disagreeable. I yesterday passed a whole trifles. At the same time, as I would fain afternoon in the churchyard, i he cloisters, and give some finishing touches to those which the church, amusing myself with the tombare already the most beautiful pieces in human stones and inscriptions that I met with in nature, I shall endeavour to point out all those those several regions of the dead. Most of imperfections that are the blemishes, as well them recorded nothing else of the buried as those virtues which are the embellishments person, but that he was born upon one day, of the sex. In the meanwhile I hope these my and died upon another: the whole history of gentle readers, who have so much time on his life being comprehended in those two their hands, will not grudge throwing away a circumstances that are common to all manquarter of an hour in a day on this paper, since kind. I could not but look upon these registhey may do it without any hindrance to busi- ters of existence, whether of brass or marble,

as a kind of satire upon the departed persons; I know several of my friends and well- who left no other memorial of them, but that wishers are in great pain for me, lest I should they were born, and that they died. They not be able to keep up the spirit of a paper put me in mind of several persons mentioned which I oblige myself to furnish every day: in the battles of heroic poems, who have But to make them easy in this particular, I sounding names given them, for no other will promise them faithfully to give it over as reason but that they may be killed, and are soon as I grow dull. This I know will be

celebrated for nothing but being knocked on matter of great raillery to the small Wits; who the head. will frequently put me in mind of my promise, desire me to keep my word, assure me

• Γλαυκόν τε Μεδόντα τε Θερσιλοχον τε.” 1 that it is high time to give over, with many

- HOM. other little pleasantries of the like nature, "Glaucumque, Medontaque, Thersilochumque." which men of a little smart genius cannot

- VIRG. forbear throwing out against their best friends, when they have such a handle given them of The life of these men is finely described in being witty. But let them remember that I Holy Writ by “the path of an arrow,” which is do hereby enter my caveat against this piece immediately closed up and lost. of raillery.

Upon my going into the church, I entertained myself with the digging of a grave;

and saw in every shovel-full of it that was THOUGHTS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY

thrown up, the fragment of a bone or skull

intermixed with a kind of fresh mouldering NO. 26. FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1711

earth, that some time or other had a place in Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas

the composition of an human body. Upon Regumque turres, o beate Sexii.

this I began to consider with myself, what inVitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam, numerable multitudes of people lay confused Jam te premet nor, fabulaeque manes,

together under the pavement of that ancient Et domus exilis Plutonia.

cathedral; how men and women, friends and Hor. i. Od. iv. 13.

enemies, priests and soldiers, monks and

prebendaries, were crumbled amongst 1 With equal foot, rich friend, impartial fate Knocks at the cottage, and the palace gate:

another, and blended together in the same Life's span forbids thee to extend thy cares,

common mass ; how beauty, strength, and And stretch thy hopes beyond thy years : youth, with old age, weakness, and deformity, Night soon will seize, and you must quickly go To story'd ghosts, and Pluto's house below.

Glaucus, and Medon, and Thersilochus."

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lay undistinguished in the same promiscuous with in those of our own country. The monuheap of matter.

ments of their admirals, which have been After having thus surveyed this great maga- erected at the public expense, represent them zine of mortality, as it were in the lump, I ex- like themselves, and are adorned with rostral" amined it more particularly by the accounts crowns and naval ornaments, with beautiful which I found on several of the monuments festoons of sea-weed, shells, and coral. which are raised in every quarter of that But to return to our subject. I have left ancient fabric. Some of them were covered the repository of our English kings for the with such extravagant epitaphs, that if it contemplation of another day, when I shall were possible for the dead person to be ac- find my mind disposed for so serious an amusequainted with them, he would blush at the ment. I know that entertainments of this praises which his friends have bestowed on nature are apt to raise dark and dismal him. There are others so excessively modest, thoughts in timorous minds and gloomy that they deliver the character of the person imaginations; but for my own part, though I departed in Greek or Hebrew, and by that am always serious, I do not know what it is means are not understood once in a twelve- to be melancholy; and can therefore take a month. In the poetical quarter, I found there view of nature in her deep and solemn scenes, were poets who had no monuments, and mon- 'with the same pleasure as in her most gay and uments which had no poets. I observed, in- delightful ones. By this means I can improve deed, that the present war had filled the myself with those objects, which others conchurch with many of these uninhabited monu- sider with terror. When I look upon the ments, which had been erected to the memory tombs of the great, every emotion of envy of persons whose bodies were, perhaps, buried dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the in the plains of Blenheim, or in the bosom of beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; the ocean.

when I meet with the grief of parents upon I could not but be very much delighted with a tomb-stone, my heart melts with compasseveral modern epitaphs, which are written sion: when I see the tomb of the parents with great elegance of expression and justness themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving of thought, and therefore do honour to the for those whom we must quickly follow. living as well as to the dead. As a foreigner When I see kings lying by those who deposed is very apt to conceive an idea of the igno- them, when I consider rival wits placed side rance or politeness of a nation from the turn by side, or the holy men that divided the of their public monuments and inscriptions, world with their contests and disputes, I they should be submitted to the perusal of reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the men of learning and genius before they are little competitions, factions, and debates of put in execution. Sir Cloudesley Shovel's 1 mankind. When I read the several dates of monument has very often given me great the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and offence. Instead of the brave, rough, English some six hundred years ago, I consider that admiral, which was the distinguishing char- great day when we shall all of us be contemacter of that plain, gallant man, he is repre- poraries, and make our appearance together. sented on his tomb by the figure of a beau, dressed in a long periwig, and reposing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopy of

THE HEAD-DRESS state. The inscription is answerable to the monument; for, instead of celebrating the NO. 98. FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1711 many remarkable actions he had performed in the service of his country, it acquaints us

Tanta est quaerendi cura decoris.2 only with the manner of his death, in which it

- Juv. Sat. vi. 500. was impossible for him to reap any honour. The Dutch, whom we are apt to despise for There is not so variable a thing in nature as want of genius, show an infinitely greater taste a lady's head-dress. Within my own memory of antiquity and politeness in their buildings I have known it rise and fall above thirty and works of this nature, than what we meet

a crown adorned with figures of prows of ships 1 Drowned at sea, 1707

2 So studiously their persons they adorn.

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