unbounded force of thinking, as well as a most exquisite address, extensively and wisely indulged to me by the supreme powers.' My author, I will dare to assert, shews the most universal knowledge of any writer who has appeared this century: he is a poet and merchant, which is seen in two masterwords, 'Credit blossoms: he is a grammarian and a politician; for he says, 'The uniting of the two kingdoms is the emphasis of the security of the protestant succession.' Some would be apt to say, he is a conjurer; for he has found, that a republic is not made up of every body of animals, but is composed of men only, and not of horses. Liberty and property have chosen their retreat within the emulating circle of an human commonwealth.' He is a physician; for he says, I observe a constant equality in its pulse, and a just quickness of its vigorous circulation. And again, 'I view the strength of our constitution plainly appear in the sanguine and ruddy complexion of a well-contented city.' He is a divine: for he says, 'I cannot but bless myself.' And indeed this excellent treatise has had that good effect upon me, who am far from being superstitious, that I also cannot but bless myself.' * 6 * *This day is published, a treatise called The Difference between Scandal and Admonition, by Isaac Bickerstaff, esq. And on the 1st of July next, you may expect A Prophecy of Things past; wherein the art of fortune-telling is laid open to the meanest capacity. And the Monday following, Choice Sentences for the company of masons and bricklayers, to be put upon new houses, with a translation of all the Latin sentences that have been built of late years; together with a comment upon stone-walls. By the same hand. STEELE. N° 18. SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1709. Quicquid agunt homines nostri est farrago libelli. JUV. Sat. i. 85, 86. Whatever good is done, whatever ill- From my own Apartment, May 20. It is observed too often that men of wit do so much employ their thoughts upon fine speculations, that things useful to mankind are wholly neglected; and they are busy in making emendations upon some enclitics' in a Greek author, while obvious things, that every man may have use for, are wholly overlooked. It would be an happy thing, if such as have real capacities for public service were employed in works of general use; but because a thing is every body's business, it is nobody's business; this is for want of pub lic spirit. As for my part, who am only a student, and a man of no great interest, I can only remark things, and recommend the correction of them to higher powers. There is an offence I have a thousand times lamented, but fear I shall never see remedied; which is, that in a nation where learning is so frequent as in Great-Britain, there should be so many gross errors as there are in the very directions of things, wherein accuracy is necessary for the conduct of life. This is notoriously observed by all men of letters when I Particles in the Greek language, which throw back the accent on the foregoing syllable. they first come to town (at which time they are usually curious that way) in the inscriptions on sign posts. I have cause to know this matter as well as any body; for I have, when I went to Merchant Taylors' school, suffered stripes for spelling after the signs I observed in my way; though at the same time I must confess staring at those inscriptions first gave me an idea and curiosity for medals in which I have since arrived at some knowledge. Many a man has lost his way and his dinner by this general want of skill in orthography: for, considering that the painters are usually so very bad, that you cannot know the animal under whose sign you are to live that day, how must the stranger be misled, if it be wrong spelled, as well as ill painted ? I have a cousin now in town, who has answered under batchelor at Queen's college, whose name is Humphrey Mopstaff (he is a-kin to us by his mother): this young man, going to see a relation in Barbican, wandered a whole day by the mistake of one letter, for it was written, this is the Beer,' instead of this is the Bear.' He was set right at last, by inquiring for the house, of a fellow who could not read, and knew the place mechanically, only by having been often drunk there. But, in the name of goodness, let us make our learning of use to us, or not. Was not this a shame, that a philosopher should be thus directed by a cobler? I will be sworn, if it were known how many have suffered in this kind by false spelling since the Union, this matter would not long lie thus. What makes these evils the more insupportable is, that they are so easily amended, and no 2 Founded by the worshipful company whose name it bears, 1561. thing done in it. But it is so far from that, that the evil goes on in other arts as well as orthography; places are confounded, as well for want of proper distinctions, as things for want of true characters. Had I not come by the other day very early in the morning, there might have been mischief done: for a worthy North Briton was swearing at Stocks-market, that they would not let him in at his lodgings; but I, knowing the gentleman, and observing him look often at the king on horseback, and then double his oaths, that he was sure he was right, found he mistook that for Charing-cross, by the erection of the like statue in each place 3. I grant, private men may distinguish their abodes as they please: as one of my acquaintance who lives at Marybone+, has put a good sentence of his own invention upon his dwelling-place, to find out where he lives: he is so near 3 These two equestrian statues were very unlike. The one was made by the famous La Seur, for king Charles I.; the other was originally intended for John Sobieski, king of Poland, and, mutatis mutandis, erected in honour of king Charles II. The Turk underneath the horse was cleverly metamorphosed into Oliver Cromwell; but his turban escaped unnoticed, or unaltered, to testify the truth. The one is of brass blackened, the other was of white marble, &c. See Spec. No 462, note. 4 The duke of Buckingham was humorously said to have lived at Marybone; as he was almost every day on the bowling-green there, and seldom left it till he could see no longer. 5 On Buckingham-house (now the Queen's palace) were originally these inscriptions: On the front, Sic siti lætantur Lares: On the back front, Rus in urbe. On the side next the road, Spectator fastidiosus sibi molestus. On the north side, Lente incæpit, citò perfecit. London, that his conceit is this, the country in town; or, the town in the country; for you know, if they are both in one, they are all one. Besides that the ambiguity is not of great consequence; if you are safe at the place, it is no matter if you do not distinctly know where the place is. But to return to the orthography of public places; I propose, that every tradesman in the cities of London and Westminster shall give me six-pence a quarter for keeping their signs in repair, as to the grammatical part; and I will take into my house a Swiss count of my acquaintance, who can remember all their names without book, for dispatch sake, setting up the head of the said foreigner for my sign; the features being strong, and fit for hanging high. St. James's Coffee-house, May 20. 6 The approach of the peace strikes a panic through our armies, though that of a battle could never do it, and they almost repent of their bravery, that made such haste to humble themselves and the French king. The duke of Marlborough, though otherwise the greatest general of the age, has plainly shewn himself unacquainted with the arts of husbanding a war. He might have grown as old as the duke of Alva, or prince Waldeck in the Low Countries, and yet have got reputation enough every year for any reasonable man: for the command of general in Flanders hath been ever looked upon as a provision for life. For my part, I cannot see how his grace can answer it to the world, for the great eagerness he hath shewn to 6 A hit at John James Heidegger, esq. remarkable for his strong memory and strange features. See No 12, note. The title of Count was given to him in ridicule. |