Charles Careless shot flying by a girl of fifteen, a coach. Josiah Wither, aged threescore and three, sent John Pleadwell, esq. of the Middle Temple, I. N° 378. WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1712. Aggredere, O magnos ! aderit jam tempus honores. VIRG. Ecl. iv. 43. Mature in years, to ready honours move. I WILL make no apology for entertaining the reader Composed of several passages of Isaiah the Prophet: YE nymphs of Solyma! begin the song: Delight no more-O Thou my voice inspire, Isa. xi. 4. Ye heavens! from high the dewy nectar pour, xlv. 8. The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid, xxv. 4. All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail; Returning Justice lift aloft her scale; Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, scend. Swift fly the years,and rise the expected morn! ix. 7. Oh spring to light auspicious Babe, be born! xxxv. 2. See lofty Lebanon his head advance, See nodding forests on the mountains dance; And Carmel's flow'ry top perfumes the skies! Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers; xi. 3, 4. } xxv. 8. As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care, Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms; Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes, Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover'd o'er, The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more: But useless lances into scythes shall bend, And the broad falchion in a plough-share end. Ixv.21,22. Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son Shall finish what the short-liv'd sire begun ; xxxv.1.7.The swain in barren deserts with surprise And starts amidst the thirsty wilds to hear New falls of water murmuring in his ear: On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes, The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods. xli.19.and Waste sandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn, lv. 13. The spiry fir and shapely box adorn : To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed, xii. 6,7,8. The lambs with wolves shall grace the verdant mead, And boys in flowery bands the tyger lead ; Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise! See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend, kings, Isa. lx. 3. And heap'd with products of Sabæan springs! lx. 6. And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow. Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine! ix. lx. 19, 20. li. 6. The seas shall waste, 'the skies in smoke decay, 1. 6. and Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away; liv. 10. But fix'd His word, His saving power remains; Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns. N° 379. THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1712. T. Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter. -Science is not science till reveal'd. DRYDEN. I HAVE often wondered at that ill-natured position which has been sometimes maintained in the schools, and is comprised in an old Latin verse, namely, that A man's knowledge is worth nothing if he communicates what he knows to any one besides.' There is certainly no more sensible pleature to a good-natured man, than if he can by any means gratify or inform the mind of another. I might add, that this virtue naturally carries its own reward along with it, since it is almost impossible it should be exercised without the improvement of the person who practises it. The reading of books, and the daily occurrences of life, are continually furnishing us with matter for thought and reflection. It is extremely natural for us to desire to see such our thoughts put in the dress of words, without which, indeed, we can scarce have a clear and distinct idea of them ourselves. When they are thus clothed in expressions, nothing so truly shews us whether they are just or false, as those effects which they produce in the minds of others. I am apt to flatter myself, that, in the course of these my speculations, I have treated of several subjects, and laid down many such rules for the conduct of a man's life, which my readers were either wholly ignorant of before, or which at least those few who were acquainted with them looked upon as so many secrets they have found out for the conduct of themselves, but were resolved never to have made public. I am the more confirmed in this opinion from my having received several letters, wherein I am censured for having prostituted Learning to the embraces of the vulgar, and made her, as one of my correspondents phrases it, a common strumpet. I am charged by another with laying open the arcana or secrets of prudence to the eyes of every reader. The narrow spirit which appears in the letters of these my correspondents is the less surprising, as it has shewn itself in all ages: there is still extant an epistle written by Alexander the Great to his tutor Aristotle, upon that philosopher's publishing some part of his writings; in which the prince complains of his having made known to all the world those |