6

in our difquifitions when we meditate on ' him, who is environed with fo much glory and perfection, who is the fource of being, the fountain of all that exiftence which we and his whole creation derive from him. Let us therefore with the utmost humility acknowledge, that, as fome being must necefsarily have existed from eternity, fo this being does exift after an incomprehenfible manner, fince it is impoffible for a being to have exifted from eternity after our manner or notions of 'existence. Revelation confirms thefe natural dictates of reafon in the accounts which it gives us of the divine exiftence, where it tells us, that he is the fame yesterday, today, and for ever; that he is the ALPHA and OMEGA, the beginning and the ending; that a thousand years are with him as one day, and one day as a thousand years; by which, and the like expreffions, we are taught that his existence with relation to time or duration ' is infinitely different from the existence of any of his creatures, and confequently that it is impoffible for us to frame any adequate conceptions of it.

In the firft revelation which he makes of his own being he entitles himself, I AM "that I AM;' and when Mofes defires to know what name he fhall give him in his embaffy ' to Pharaoh, he bids him fay that I AM hath "fent you.' Our great Creator, by this reve'lation of himself, does in a manner exclude every thing elfe from a real existence, and

'diftinguishes

diftinguishes himself from his creatures as the only being which truly and really exists. The ancient platonic notion, which was drawn from fpeculations of eternity, wonderfully agrees with this revelation which God has made of himself. There is nothing, fay they, which in reality exifts, whofe exiftence, as we call it, is pieced up of past, prefent, and to come. Such a flitting and fuc• ceffive existence is rather a fhadow of exiftence, and fomething which is like it, than existence itfelf. He only properly exifts whofe exiftence is entirely prefent; that is, in other words, who exifts in the moft perfect manner, and in fuch a manner as we have no • idea of.

• I fhall conclude this Speculation with one ufeful inference. How can we fufficiently proftrate ourselves and fall down before our Maker, when we confider that ineffable goodnefs and wifdom which contrived this exiftence for finite natures? What must be the overflowings of that good-will, which prompted our Creator to adapt existence to beings, in whom it is not neceffary; especially when we confider that he himself was before in the complete poffeffion of existence and of happiness, and in the full enjoyment of eternity? What man can think of himself as called out and feparated from nothing, of his being made a confcious, a reasonable and happy creature, in fhort, of being taken in as a sharer of existence, and a kind of partner in

eternity,

up in

eternity, without being fwallowed wonder, in praife, in adoration! It is indeed a thought too big for the mind of man, and ' rather to be entertained in the fecrecy of devotion, and in the filence of his foul, than to 'be expreffed by words. The Supreme BEING ' has not given us powers of faculties fufficient to extol and magnify fuch unutterable good• nefs.

It is however fome comfort to us, that we 'fhall be always doing what we fhall be never

able to do, and that a work which cannot be 'finifhed will however be the work of an eternity.'

N° 591. Wednesday, September 8, 1714.

Tenerorum lufor amorum.

**

OVID. Trift. 3 El. iii. 73

• Love the foft fubject of his fportive muse.'

HAVE just received a letter from a gentle

finall concern, that

my Papers have of late been

* By ADDISON.

Mr. Tickell, Dr. Birch, Dr. Johnson, and all his biographers, take notice of ADDISON's original defign of entering into holy orders; it is therefore very probable, that this Paper, and many others of the fame ferious nature were written in some shape or other long before these publications in the SPECTATOR, &c.

very

very barren in relation to LOVE*; a subject which, when agreeably handled, can fcarcely fail of being well received by both sexes.

If my invention therefore fhould be almost exhausted on this head, he offers to ferve under me in the quality of a love-cafuift; for which place he conceives himself to be thoroughly qualified, having made this paffion his principal ftudy, and obferved it in all its different shapes and appearances, from the fifteenth to the fortyfifth year of his age.

He affures me with an air of confidence, which I hope proceeds from his real abilities, that he does not doubt of giving judgment to the fatisfaction of the parties concerned on the moft nice and intricate cafes which can happen in an amour; as,

How great the contraction of the fingers must be before it amounts to a fqueeze by the

hand.

What can be properly termed an absolute denial from a maid, and what from a widow. What advances a lover may prefume to make, after having received a pat upon his fhoulder from his miftrefs's fan.

Whether a lady, at the first interview, may allow an humble fervant to kifs her hand.

How far it may be permitted to carefs the maid in order to fucceed with the mistress.

What conftructions a man may put upon a fmile, and in what cafes a frown goes for nothing.

See Nos. 602, 605, 614, 623, and 625.

On

On what occafions a fheepish look may do fervice, &c.

As a farther proof of his fkill, he also sent me several maxims in love, which he affures me are the refult of a long and profound reflection, fome of which I think myself obliged to communicate to the public, not remembering to have feen them before in any author.

There are more calamities in the world arifing from love than from hatred.

Love is the daughter of idleness, but the mother of difquietude.

Men of grave natures, fays Sir Francis Bacon, are the most conftant; for the fame • reafon men fhould be more conftant than

women.

The gay part of mankind is most amorous, the ferious moft loving.

A coquette often lofes her reputation while 'fhe preserves her virtue.

A prude often preferves her reputation when he has loft her virtue.

'Love refines a man's behaviour, but makes a woman's ridiculous.

Love is generally accompanied with goodwill in the young, intereft in the middleaged, and a paffion too grofs to name in the • old.

The endeavours to revive a decaying paffion generally extinguish the remains of it.

A woman who from being a flattern becomes over-neat, or from being over-neat becomes a flattern, is most certainly in love.' VOL. VIII.

I fhall