The Spectator Volume Iii Part 115

The following Account, which came to my Hands some time ago, may be no disagreeable Entertainment to such of my Readers, as have tender Hearts and nothing to do.

_Mr._ SPECTATOR,

'A Friend of mine died of a Feaver last Week, which he caught by walking too late in a dewy Evening amongst his Reapers. I must inform you that his greatest Pleasure was in Husbandry and Gardening. He had some Humours which seemed inconsistent with that good Sense he was otherwise Master of. His Uneasiness in the Company of Women was very remarkable in a Man of such perfect Good-breeding, and his avoiding one particular Walk in his Garden, where he had used to pa.s.s the greatest Part of his Time, raised abundance of idle Conjectures in the Village where he lived. Upon looking over his Papers we found out the Reason, which he never intimated to his nearest Friends. He was, it seems, a pa.s.sionate Lover in his Youth, of which a large Parcel of Letters he left behind him are a Witness. I send you a Copy of the last he ever wrote upon that Subject, by which you will find that he concealed the true Name of his Mistress under that of _Zelinda._

'A long Month's Absence would be insupportable to me, if the Business I am employed in were not for the Service of my_ Zelinda_, and of such a Nature as to place her every Moment in my Mind. I have furnished the House exactly according to your Fancy, or, if you please, my own; for I have long since learned to like nothing but what you do. The Apartment designed for your Use is so exact a Copy of that which you live in, that I often think my self in your House when I step into it, but sigh when I find it without its proper Inhabitant. You will have the most delicious Prospect from your Closet-window that_ England _affords: I am sure I should think it so, if the Landskip that shows such Variety did not at the same time suggest to me the Greatness of the s.p.a.ce that lies between us.

'The Gardens are laid out very beautifully; I have dressed up every Hedge in Woodbines, sprinkled Bowers and Arbours in every Corner, and made a little Paradise round me; yet I am still like the first Man in his Solitude, but half blest without a Partner in my Happiness. I have directed one Walk to be made for two Persons, where I promise ten thousand Satisfactions to my self in your Conversation. I already take my Evening's Turn in it, and have worn a Path upon the Edge of this little Alley, while I soothed my self with the Thought of your walking by my Side. I have held many imaginary Discourses with you in this Retirement; and when I have been weary have sat down with you in the midst of a Row of Jessamines. The many Expressions of Joy and Rapture I use in these silent Conversations have made me for some Time the Talk of the Parish; but a neighbouring young Fellow, who makes Love to the Farmer's Daughter, hath found me out, and made my Case known to the whole Neighbourhood.

'In planting of the Fruit-Trees I have not forgot the Peach you are so fond of. I have made a Walk of Elms along the River Side, and intend to sow all the Place about it with Cowslips, which I hope you will like as well as that I have heard you talk of by your Father's House in the Country.

'Oh!_ Zelinda, _What a Scheme of Delight have I drawn up in my Imagination! What Day-Dreams do I indulge my self in! When will the Six Weeks be at an End, that lye between me and my promised Happiness?

'How could you break off so abruptly in your last, and tell me you must go and dress for the Play? If you loved as I do, you would find no more Company in a Crowd, than I have in my Solitude._

'I am, _&c._'

'On the Back of this Letter is written, in the Hand of the Deceased, the following Piece of History.

Mem. _Having waited a whole Week for an Answer to this Letter, I hurried to Town, where I found the Perfidious Creature married to my Rival. I will bear it as becomes a Man, and endeavour to find out Happiness for my self in that Retirement, which I had prepared in vain for a false ungrateful Woman._

I am, _&c._

No. 628. Friday, December 3, 1714.

'Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis avum.'

Hor.

_Mr._ SPECTATOR,

'There are none of your Speculations which please me more than those upon Infinitude and Eternity. [1] You have already considered that Part of Eternity which is past, and I wish you would give us your Thoughts upon that which is to come.

'Your Readers will perhaps receive greater Pleasure from this View of Eternity than the former, since we have every one of us a Concern in that which is to come: Whereas a Speculation on that which is past is rather curious than useful.

'Besides, we can easily conceive it possible for successive Duration never to have an End; tho', as you have justly observed, that Eternity which never had a Beginning is altogether incomprehensible; That is, we can conceive an Eternal Duration which _may be_, though we cannot an Eternal Duration which _hath been_; or, if I may use the Philosophical Terms, we may apprehend a _Potential_ though not an _Actual_ Eternity.

'This Notion of a future Eternity, which is natural to the Mind of Man, is an unanswerable Argument that he is a Being designed for it; especially if we consider that he is capable of being Virtuous or Vicious here; that he hath Faculties improvable to all Eternity, and by a proper or wrong Employment of them, may be happy or miserable throughout that infinite Duration. Our Idea indeed of this Eternity is not of an adequate or fixed Nature, but is perpetually growing and enlarging itself toward the Object, which is too big for human Comprehension. As we are now in the Beginnings of Existence, so shall we always appear to our selves as if we were for ever entring upon it.

After a Million or two of Centuries, some considerable Things, already past, may slip out of our Memory; which, if it be not strengthened in a wonderful Manner, may possibly forget that ever there was a Sun or Planets. And yet, notwithstanding the long Race that we shall then have run, we shall still imagine ourselves just starting from the Goal, and find no Proportion between that s.p.a.ce which we know had a Beginning, and what we are sure will never have an End.

'But I shall leave this Subject to your Management, and question not but you will throw it into such Lights as shall at once improve and entertain your Reader.

'I have enclos'd sent you a Translation [2] of the Speech of _Cato_ on this Occasion, which hath accidentally fallen into my Hands, and which for Conciseness, Purity, and Elegance of Phrase, cannot be sufficiently admired.

ACT V. SCEN. I.

CATO _solus, &c_.

'Sic, sic se habere rem necesse prorsus est, Ratione vincis, do lubens ma.n.u.s_, Plato.

_Quid enim dedisset, Quae dedit frustra nihil, aeternitatis insitam cupidinem Natura? Quorsum haec dulcis Expectatio; Vitaeque non explenda melioris sitis?

Quid vult sibi aliud iste redeundi in nihil Horror, sub imis quemque agens precordiis?

Cur territa in se refugit anima, cur tremit Attonita, quoties, morte ne pereat, timet?

Particula nempe est cuique nascenti indita Divinior; quae corpus incolens agit; Hominique succinit, Tua est aeternitas, aeternitas! O lubric.u.m nimis aspici, Mixtumque dulci Gaudium formidine?

Quae demigrabitur alia hinc in corpora?

Quae Terra mox incognita? Quis...o...b..s novus Manet incolendus? Quanta erit mutatio?

Haec intuenti spatia mihi quaqua patent Immensa: Sed caliginosa nox premit; Nec luce clara vult videri singula.

Figendus hic pes; certa sunt haec hactenus: Si quod gubernet Numen Humanum genus, (At, quod gubernet, esse clamant omnia) Virtute non gaudere certe non potest: Nec esse non Beata, qua gaudet, potest.

Sed qua Beata sede? Quove in tempore?

Haec quanta quanta terra, tola est_ Caesaris.

_Quid dubius haeret animus usque adeo? Brevi Hic nodum hic omnem expediet. Arma en induor_ Ensi manum admovens, _In utramque partem facta; quaeque vim inferant, Et quae propulsent! Dextera intentat necem; Vitam sinistra: Vulnus haec dabit ma.n.u.s; Altera medelam vulneris: Hic ad exitum Deducet, ictu simplici; haec vetant mori.

Secura ridet anima mucronis minas, Ensesque strictos, interire nescia.

Extinguet aetas sidera diuturnior: aetate languens ipse Sol, obscurius Emittet Orbi consenescenti jubar: Natura et ipsa sentiet quondam vices aetatis, annis ipsa deficiet gravis: At tibi juventus, at tibi immortalitas, Tibi parta Divm est vita. Periment mutuis Elementa sese, et interibunt ictibus: Tu permanebis sola semper integra, Tu cuncta rerum qua.s.sa, cuncta naufraga, Jam portu in ipso tuta, contemplabere.

Compage rupta, corruent in se invicem, Orbesque fractis ingerentur orbibus; Illaesa tu sedebis extra Fragmina.'

ACT V. SCENE I.

_CATO_ alone, &c.

'It must be so--_Plato_, thou reason'st well-- Else whence this pleasing Hope, this fond Desire, This Longing after Immortality?

Or whence this secret Dread, and inward Horror, Of falling into Nought? Why shrinks the Soul Back on her self, and startles at Destruction?

'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us; 'Tis Heaven it self, that points out an Hereafter, And intimates Eternity to Man.

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful, Thought!

Through what Variety of untry'd Being, Through what new Scenes and Changes must we pa.s.s!

The wide, th' unbounded Prospect, lyes before me; But Shadows, Clouds, and Darkness rest upon it.

Here will I hold. If there's a Pow'r above us, (And that there is all Nature cries aloud Through all her Works) He must delight in Virtue; And that which he delights in, must be happy.

But when! or where!--This World was made for _Caesar._ I'm weary of Conjectures--This must end 'em.

Laying his Hand on his Sword._