Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

are such as are only quarrelsome in their hearts, and have no opportunity of shewing their passion at the bar. Nevertheless, as they do not know what strifes may arise, they appear at the hall every day, that they may show themselves in readiness to enter the lists, whenever there shall be occasion for them.

The peaceable lawyers are, in the first place, many of the benchers of the several inns of court, who seem to be the dignitaries of the law, and are endowed with those qualifications of mind that accomplish a man rather for a ruler than a pleader. These men live peaceably in their habitations, eating once a day, and dancing once a year, for the honour of the respective societies.1

Another numberless branch of peaceable lawyers, are those young men, who being placed at the inns of court in order to study the laws of their country, frequent the playhouse more than Westminster-hall, and are seen in all public assemblies, except in a court of justice. I shall say nothing of those silent and busy multitudes that are employed within doors, in the drawing up of writings and conveyances; nor of those greater numbers that palliate their want of business with a pretence to such chamber practice.

If, in the third place, we look into the profession of physic we shall find a most formidable body of men: the sight of them is enough to make a man serious; for we may lay it down as a maxim, that when a nation abounds in physicians, it grows thin of people. Sir William Temple is very much puzzled to find out a reason why the northern hive, as he calls it, does not send out such prodigious swarms, and over-run the world with Goths and Vandals, as it did formerly; but had that excellent author observed, that there were no students in physic among the subjects of Thor and Woden, and that this science very much flour ishes in the north at present, he might have found a better slu

V Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales.-C

tion for this difficulty than any of those he has made use of. This body of men, in our own country, may be described like the British army in Cæsar's time: some of them slay in chariots, and some on foot. If the infantry do less execution than the charioteers, it is because they cannot be carried so soon into all quarters of the town, and dispatch so much business in so short a time. Besides this body of regular troops, there are stragglers, who, without being duly listed and enrolled, do infinite mischief to those who are so unlucky as to fall into their hands.

a

There are, besides the above-mentioned, innumerable retainers to physic, who, for want of other patients, amuse themselves with the stifling of cats in an air-pump, cutting up dogs alive, or impaling of insects upon the point of a needle for microscopical observations; besides those that are employed in the gathering of weeds, and the chace of butterflies: not to mention the cockleshellmerchants and spider-catchers.

When I consider how each of these professions are crowded with multitudes that seek their livelihood in them, and how many men of merit there are in each of them, who may be rather said to be of the science, than the profession; I very much wonder at the humour of parents, who will not rather chuse to place their sons in a way of life where an honest industry cannot but thrive. than in stations where the greatest probity, learning, and good sense, may miscarry. How many men are country curates, that might have made themselves aldermen of London, by a right improvement of a smaller sum of money than what is usually laid out upon a learned education! A sober, frugal person, of slender parts, and a slow apprehension, might have thrived in trade, though he starves upon physic; as a man would be well enough pleased to buy silks of one, whom he would not venture to feel

There would be no objection to this raillery, if it were fit that raillery should be at all employed on a subject of this nature.-H.

Venture, is a neutral verb, and so cannot stand in this construction. It

his pulse. Vagellius is careful, studious and obliging, but withal a little thick-skulled; he has not a single client, but might have had abundance of customers. The misfortune is, that parents take a liking to a particular profession, and therefore desire that their sons may be of it. Whereas, in so great an affair of life, they should consider the genius and abilities of their children more than their own inclinations.1

It is the great advantage of a trading nation, that there are very few in it so dull and heavy, who may not be placed in stations of life, which may give them an opportunity of making their fortunes. A well regulated commerce is not, like law, physic, or divinity, to be overstocked with hands; but, on the contrary, flourishes by multitudes, and gives employment to all its profes.

sors.

Fleets of merchantmen are so many floating shops, that vend our wares and manufactures in all the markets of the world, and find out chapmen under both the tropics.-C.

1 This idea is carried out with much humour in the character of Will Wimble, No. 108. V. also Hon. Mr. Thomas Gules. Tatler, 256, by Steele and Addison.-G.

should be employ, call in, or some such transitive verb, of which "whom" might be governed; an! through which the person and the act, i. e. "whom' and "feel" should be cessarily connected.—H.

[graphic]

THERE is nothing that more betrays a base ungener than the giving of secret stabs to a man's reputation. and satires, that are written with wit and spirit, are lik

1 The following endorsement at the top of this paper, No. set of the Spectator, in 12mo., in the edition of 1712, which co MS. notes by a Spanish merchant, who lived at the time of t publication.

This was Mr. Blundel's opinion, and whether it was well-gr grounded, or ungrounded, probably he was not singular in th The intimacy between Swift, Steele, and Addison was now over they were about this time estranged, appears from Swift's own dated March 16, 1710-11. See Swift's Works, edit. or. 8vo., v 188. See No. 509, Blundel's MS. Note; et pussim.-C.

Neither the Spanish merchant nor Mr. Blundel did much ho dison's sincerity, for he was never on bad terms with Swift; and a very friendly letter, written several years after this, that he honoured him for his good nature.-V. vol. ii. p. 543.-G.

a The giving of. This use of the participle, instead of the is agreeable to the English idiom, and has a good effect in our which in this, as in other instances, resembles the Greek, much the Latin tongue. But our polite writers, being generally more in the latter of these languages, have gradually introduced the s or a verb in the infinitive mood, into the place of the particip they would say, "detraction," or "to detract from the reputation shews a base spirit." Yet the practice is not so far established, the other mode of expression may, sometimes (though more perhaps, than heretofore), be employed. An exact writer, inde not set out with a sentence in this form; but, in the body of a "currente calamo," he would not scruple to make use of it. Nev ploy the participle, would be finical and affected: to employ it c or frequently, would now be thought careless; but to employ it ally, contributes plainly to the variety, and, I think, to the grace. English style.-H.

darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable. For this reason I am very much troubled when I see the talents of humour and ridicule in the possession of an ill-natured man. There cannot be a greater gratification to a barbarous and inhuman wit, than to stir up sorrow in the heart of a private person, to raise uneasiness among near relations, and to expose whole families to derision, at the same time that he remains unseen and undiscovered. If, besides the accomplishments of being witty and ill-natured, a man is vicious into the bargain, he is one of the most mischievous creatures that can enter into a civil society. His satire will then chiefly fall upon those who ought to be the most exempt from it. Virtue, merit, and every thing that is praiseworthy, will be made the subject of ridicule and buffoonery. It is impossible to enumerate the evils which arise from these arrows that fly in the dark; and I know no other excuse that is or can be made for them, than that the wounds they give are only imaginary, and produce nothing more than a secret shame or sorrow in the mind of the suffering person. It must indeed be confessed, that a lampoon or a satire do not carry in them robbery or murder; but at the same time, how many are there that would not rather lose a considerable sum of money, or even life itself, than be set up as marks of infamy and derision? And in this case a man should consider, that an injury is not to be measured by the notions of him that gives, but of him that receives it.

а

Those who can put the best countenance upon the outrages of this nature which are offered them, are not without their secret anguish. I have often observed a passage in Socrates's behaviour at his death, in a light wherein none of the critics have considered it. That excellent man, entertaining his friends, a little before he

[ocr errors]

Which arise from these arrows that fly in the dark. This sentence had been more exact, and less languid, if he had said, Innumerable evils arise from those arrows that fly in the dark.-H

« ПредишнаНапред »