The Spectator Volume I Part 109

[Footnote 2: The Camisars, or French Prophets, originally from the Cevennes, came into England in 1707. With violent agitations and distortions of body they prophesied and claimed also the power to work miracles; even venturing to prophesy that Dr Ernes, a convert of theirs, should rise from the dead five months after burial.]

[Footnote 3: The]

[Footnote 4: Not a new paragraph in the first issue.]

[Footnote 5: in]

[Footnote 7: Not a new paragraph in the first issue.]

[Footnote 8: that]

No. 161. Tuesday, Sept. 4, 1711. Budgell.

'Ipse dies agitat festos: Fususque per herbam, Ignis ubi in medio et Socii cratera coronant, Te libans, Lenaee, vocat: pecorisque magistris Velocis Jaculi certamina ponit in ulmo, Corporaque agresti nudat praedura Palaestra.

Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini, Hanc Remus et Frater: Sic fortis Etruria crevit, Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma.'

Virg. 'G.' 2.

I am glad that my late going into the Country has encreased the Number of my Correspondents, one of whom sends me the following Letter.

_SIR_,

'Though you are pleased to retire from us so soon into the City, I hope you will not think the Affairs of the Country altogether unworthy of your Inspection for the future. I had the Honour of seeing your short Face at Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY'S, and have ever since thought your Person and Writings both extraordinary. Had you stayed there a few Days longer you would have seen a Country _Wake_, which you know in most Parts of _England_ is the _Eve-Feast of the Dedication of our Churches_. I was last Week at one of these a.s.semblies which was held in a neighbouring Parish; where I found their _Green_ covered with a promiscuous Mult.i.tude of all Ages and both s.e.xes, who esteem one another more or less the following Part of the Year according as they distinguish themselves at this Time. The whole Company were in their Holiday Cloaths, and divided into several Parties, all of them endeavouring to shew themselves in those Exercises wherein they excelled, and to gain the Approbation of the Lookers on.

I found a Ring of Cudgel-Players, who were breaking one another's Heads in order to make some Impression on their Mistresses Hearts. I observed a l.u.s.ty young Fellow, who had the Misfortune of a broken Pate; but what considerably added to the Anguish of the Wound, was his over-hearing an old Man, who shook his Head and said, _That he questioned now if black Kate would marry him these three Years_. I was diverted from a farther Observation of these Combatants, by a Foot-ball Match, which was on the other side of the _Green_; where _Tom Short_ behaved himself so well, that most People seemed to agree _it was impossible that he should remain a Batchelor till the next Wake_. Having played many a Match my self, I could have looked longer on this Sport, had I not observed a Country Girl, who was posted on an Eminence at some Distance from me, and was making so many odd Grimaces, and writhing and distorting her whole Body in so strange a Manner, as made me very desirous to know the Meaning of it. Upon my coming up to her, I found that she was overlooking a Ring of Wrestlers, and that her Sweetheart, a Person of small Stature, was contending with an huge brawny Fellow, who twirled him about, and shook the little Man so violently, that by a secret Sympathy of Hearts it produced all those Agitations in the Person of his Mistress, who I dare say, like _Caelia_ in _Shakespear_ on the same Occasion, could have _wished herself invisible to catch the strong Fellow by the Leg_.

The Squire of the Parish treats the whole Company every Year with a Hogshead of Ale; and proposes a _Beaver-Hat_ as a Recompense to him who gives most _Falls_. This has raised such a Spirit of Emulation in the Youth of the Place, that some of them have rendered themselves very expert at this Exercise; and I was often surmised to see a Fellow's Heels fly up, by a Trip which was given him so smartly that I could scarce discern it. I found that the old Wrestlers seldom entered the Ring, till some one was grown formidable by having thrown two or three of his Opponents; but kept themselves as it were in a reserved Body to defend the Hat, which is always hung up by the Person who gets it in one of the most Conspicuous Parts of the House, and looked upon by the whole Family as something redounding much more to their Honour than a Coat of Arms. There was a Fellow who was so busy in regulating all the Ceremonies, and seemed to carry such an Air of Importance in his Looks, that I could not help inquiring who he was, and was immediately answered, _That he did not value himself upon nothing, for that he and his Ancestors had won so many Hats, that his Parlour looked like a Haberdashers Shop:_ However this Thirst of Glory in them all, was the Reason that no one Man stood _Lord of the Ring_ for above three _Falls_ while I was amongst them.

The young Maids, who were not Lookers on at these Exercises, were themselves engaged in some Diversion; and upon my asking a Farmer's Son of my own Parish what he was gazing at with so much Attention, he told me, _That he was seeing_ Betty Welch, whom I knew to be his Sweet-Heart, _pitch a Bar_.

In short, I found the men endeavoured to shew the Women they were no Cowards, and that the whole Company strived to recommend themselves to each other, by making it appear that they were all in a perfect State of Health, and fit to undergo any Fatigues of bodily Labour.

Your Judgment upon this Method of _Love_ and _Gallantry_, as it is at present practised amongst us in the Country, will very much oblige,

_SIR, Yours_, &c.'

If I would here put on the Scholar and Politician, I might inform my Readers how these bodily Exercises or Games were formerly encouraged in all the Commonwealths of _Greece_; from whence the _Romans_ afterwards borrowed their _Pentathlum_, which was composed of _Running, Wrestling, Leaping, Throwing_, and _Boxing_, tho' the Prizes were generally nothing but a Crown of Cypress or Parsley, Hats not being in fashion in those Days: That there is an old Statute, which obliges every Man in _England_, having such an Estate, to keep and exercise the long Bow; by which Means our Ancestors excelled all other Nations in the Use of that Weapon, and we had all the real Advantages, without the Inconvenience of a standing Army: And that I once met with a Book of Projects, in which the Author considering to what n.o.ble Ends that Spirit of Emulation, which so remarkably shews it self among our common People in these Wakes, might be directed, proposes that for the Improvement of all our handicraft Trades there should be annual Prizes set up for such Persons as were most excellent in their several Arts. But laying aside all these political Considerations, which might tempt me to pa.s.s the Limits of my Paper, I confess the greatest Benefit and Convenience that I can observe in these Country Festivals, is the bringing young People together, and giving them an Opportunity of shewing themselves in the most advantageous Light. A Country Fellow that throws his Rival upon his Back, has generally as good Success with their common Mistress; as nothing is more usual than for a nimble-footed Wench to get a Husband at the same time she wins a Smock. Love and Marriages are the natural Effects of these anniversary a.s.semblies. I must therefore very much approve the Method by which my Correspondent tells me each s.e.x endeavours to recommend it self to the other, since nothing seems more likely to promise a healthy Offspring or a happy Cohabitation. And I believe I may a.s.sure my Country Friend, that there has been many a Court Lady who would be contented to exchange her crazy young Husband for _Tom Short_, and several Men of Quality who would have parted with a tender Yoke-fellow for _Black Kate_.

I am the more pleased with having _Love_ made the princ.i.p.al End and Design of these Meetings, as it seems to be most agreeable to the Intent for which they were at first inst.i.tuted, as we are informed by the learned Dr. _Kennet_, [1] with whose Words I shall conclude my present Paper.

_These Wakes_, says he, _were in Imitation of the ancient [Greek: agapai], or Love-Feasts; and were first established in_ England _by Pope_ Gregory _the Great, who in an Epistle to_ Melitus _the Abbot gave Order that they should be kept in Sheds or Arbories made up with Branches and Boughs of Trees round the Church_.

He adds,

_That this laudable Custom of Wakes prevailed for many Ages, till the nice Puritans began to exclaim against it as a Remnant of Popery; and by degrees the precise Humour grew so popular, that at an_ Exeter _a.s.sizes the Lord Chief Baron_ Walter _made an Order for the Suppression of all Wakes; but on Bishop_ Laud's _complaining of this innovating Humour, the King commanded the Order to be reversed_.

X.

[Footnote 1: 'Parochial Antiquities' (1795), pp. 610, 614.]

No. 162 Wednesday, September 5, 1711 Addison

'... Servetur ad imum, Qualis ab incoepto processerit, et sibi constet.'

Hor.

Nothing that is not a real Crime makes a Man appear so contemptible and little in the Eyes of the World as Inconstancy, especially when it regards Religion or Party. In either of these Cases, tho' a Man perhaps does but his Duty in changing his Side, he not only makes himself hated by those he left, but is seldom heartily esteemed by those he comes over to.

In these great Articles of Life, therefore, a Man's Conviction ought to be very strong, and if possible so well timed that worldly Advantages may seem to have no Share in it, or Mankind will be ill natured enough to think he does not change Sides out of Principle, but either out of Levity of Temper or Prospects of Interest. Converts and Renegadoes of all Kinds should take particular care to let the World see they act upon honourable Motives; or whatever Approbations they may receive from themselves, and Applauses from those they converse with, they may be very well a.s.sured that they are the Scorn of all good Men, and the publick Marks of Infamy and Derision.

Irresolution on the Schemes of Life [which [1]] offer themselves to our Choice, and Inconstancy in pursuing them, are the greatest and most universal Causes of all our Disquiet and Unhappiness. When [Ambition [2]] pulls one Way, Interest another, Inclination a third, and perhaps Reason contrary to all, a Man is likely to pa.s.s his Time but ill who has so many different Parties to please. When the Mind hovers among such a Variety of Allurements, one had better settle on a Way of Life that is not the very best we might have chosen, than grow old without determining our Choice, and go out of the World as the greatest Part of Mankind do, before we have resolved how to live in it. There is but one Method of setting our selves at Rest in this Particular, and that is by adhering stedfastly to one great End as the chief and ultimate Aim of all our Pursuits. If we are firmly resolved to live up to the Dictates of Reason, without any Regard to Wealth, Reputation, or the like Considerations, any more than as they fall in with our princ.i.p.al Design, we may go through Life with Steadiness and Pleasure; but if we act by several broken Views, and will not only be virtuous, but wealthy, popular, and every thing that has a Value set upon it by the World, we shall live and die in Misery and Repentance.

One would take more than ordinary Care to guard ones self against this particular Imperfection, because it is that which our Nature very strongly inclines us to; for if we examine ourselves throughly, we shall find that we are the most changeable Beings in the Universe. In respect of our Understanding, we often embrace and reject the very same Opinions; whereas Beings above and beneath us have probably no Opinions at all, or at least no Wavering and Uncertainties in those they have.