NUMB.

ADDISON

.

ADDISON

.

STEELE

answer

ADDISON

STEELE

ORATOR HENLEY

ADDISON

507 On party lies

508 Description of a tavern-tyrant-Complaint against

a coxcomb

STÉELE

509 On abuses at the Royal Exchange-Maxims of

thrift

510 On the irresistible power of beauty.
511 Will Honeycomb's proposal of a fair for marriage

-Sale of unmarried women

512 On giving advice

513 Meditation on death, a hymn

514 Vision of Mount Parnassus

515 Letters from a town coquette to her friend, and

516 On persecution--Character of William III.

517 Death of Sir Roger de Coverley

518 Letters on epitaphs

University physiognomy

519 Meditation on animal life
520 On the death of a beloved wife

FRANCHAM
521 On the uncertainty and absurdity of public reports STEELE
522 Advice to ladies on marriage
523 Poetry too often mixed with mythology-Edict

on that subject
524 On visions
Visions of worldly and heavenly wisdom

DUNLOP AND MONTGOMERY

525 Success of the Spectators-on marriage-Letter

of Pliny to Hispulla

526 On templars turning hackney-coachmen-Com-

mission to Mr. John Sly

527 Letter on a jealous husband

From a languishing lover

528 Complaints of Rachel Welladay against the

ADDISON

STEELE

.

HUGHES

.

STEELE

NUMB.

STEELE

ADDISON

533 Letters on parents forcing the inclinations of their

children-on rudeness and impudence

534 Letters, from a spoilt rich beauty-Dapperwit's

question—from a grocer in love from an idol

-a minute from Mr. Sly

535 On vain hopes of temporal objects—Story of

Alnaschar

536 The author's interview with a lady-her letter on

proper employment for beaux-Character of a

shoeing-horn.

537 On the dignity of human nature

538 On extravagance in story-telling --Epitaph in

Pancras churchyard

• ADDISON

539 The intentions of a widow respecting her suitors · STEELE
On delay in marriage

. BUDGELL
On a clergyman spoiling one of Tillotson's ser-

HUGHES

.

mons

.

.

HUGHES

THE

SPECTATOR.

No. 461. TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1712.

Sed non ego credulus illis.

VIRG. Ecl. ix. 34.

But I discern their flatt'ry from their praise.

DRYDEN.

For want of time to substitute something else in the room of them, I am at present obliged to publish compliments above my desert in the following letters. It is no small satisfaction, to have given occasion to ingenious men to employ their thoughts upon sacred subjects, from the approbation of such pieces of poetry as they have seen in my Saturday's papers. I shall never publish verse on that day but what is written by the same hand* ; yet shall I not accompany those writings with eulogiums, but leave them to speak for themselves.

'FOR THE SPECTATOR.

MR, SPECTATOR,
- You

very much promote the interests of virtue, while you reform the taste of a profane age; and persuade us to be entertained with divine poems, while we are distinguished by so many thousand humours, and split into so many different sects and

# Addison.

VOL. VII.

B

parties; yet persons of every party, sect, and humour, are fond of conforming their taste to yours.

You can transfuse your own relish of a poem into all your readers, according to their capacity to receive; and when you recommend the pious passion that reigns in the verse, we seem to feel the devotion, and grow proud and pleased inwardly, that we have souls capable of relishing what the Spectator approves.

Upon reading the hymns that you have published in some late papers, I had a mind to try yesterday whether I could write one. The cxivth psalm appears to me an admirable ode, and I began to turn it into our language. As I was describing the journey of Israel from Egypt, and added the divine presence amongst them, I perceived a beauty in this psalm which was entirely new to me, and which I was going to lose; and that is, that the poet utterly conceals the presence of God in the beginning of it, and rather lets a possessive pronoun go without a substantive, than he will so much as mention any thing of divinity there.

“ Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion or kingdom." The reason now seems evident, and this conduct ne cessary: for, if God had appeared before, there could be no wonder why the mountains should leap and the sea retire; therefore, that this convulsion of nature may be brought in with due surprise, his name is not mentioned till afterward; and then, with a very agreeable turn of thought, God is introduced at once in all his majesty. This is what I have attempted to imitate in a translation without paraphrase, and to preserve what I could of the spirit of the sacred author.

* If the following essay be not too incorrigible, bestow upon it a few brightenings from your genius, that I may learn how to write better, or to write no more.

Your daily admirer and

humble servant, &c.

PSALM CXIV.

I.
« When Israel, freed from Pharaoh's hand,

Left the proud tyrant and his land,
The tribes with cheerful homage own
Their King, and Judah was his throne.

II.
4 Across the deep their journey lay,

The deep divides to make them way;
The streams of Jordan saw,

and fled
With backward current to their head,

III.
" The mountains shook like frighted sheep,

Like lambs the little hillocks leap;
Not Sinai on her base could stand,
Conscious of sov'reign power at hand,

IV.
6 What power could make the deep divide ?

Make Jordan backward roll his tide ?
Why did ye leap, ye little hills ?
And whence the fright that Sinai feels ?

V.
“ Let every mountain, ev'ry flood,

Retire, and know th' approaching God,
The King of Israel. See him here:
Tremble, thou earth, adore and fear.

VI.
“ He thunders and all nature mourns,

The rock to standing pools he turris,
Flints spring with fountains at his word,
And fires and seas confess their Lord *."

MR. SPECTATOR,

• THERE are those who take the advantage of your putting a halfpenny value upon yourself above the rest of our daily writers, to defame

you

in public conversation, and strive to make you unpa pular upon the account of this said halfpenny. But,