is paffe d away in vanity, and among the fhadows of pomp and greatnefs, he may fee it finely drawn in the fame place. In the mean time, fince it is neceffary in the prefent conftitution of things, that order and diftinction fhould be kept in the world, we fhould be happy, if thofe who enjoy the upper ftations in it, would endeavour to furpafs others in virtue, as much as in rank, and by their humanity and condefcenfion make their fuperiority eafy and acceptable to those who are beneath them; and if, on the contrary, those who are in meaner pots of life, would confider how they may better their condition hereafter, and by juft deference and fubmiffion to their fuperiors, make them happy in thofe bleffings with which Providence has thought fit to diftinguifh them.

SPECTATOR, Vol. III. No. 219,

WESTMINSTER-ABBEY.

WHEN I am in a ferious humour, I very often

walk by myfelf in Westminster-Abbey; where the gloominefs of the place, and the ufe to which it is applied, with the folemnity of the building, and the condition of the people who lie in it, are apt to fill the mind With a kind of melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness, that is not difagreeable. I yesterday paffed a whole afternoon in the church-yard, the cloisters, and the church, amusing myself with the tombftones and infcriptions, that I met with in thofe feveral regions of the dead. Moft of them recorded nothing elfe of the buried perfon, but that he was born upon one day and died upon another: The whole hiftory of his life being comprehended in thofe two circumftances, that are common to all mankind. I could not but look upon thofe registers of existence, whether of brafs or marble, as a kind of fatyr upon the departed perfons; who had left no other memorial of them, but that they were born, and that they died.

Upon my going into the church, I entertained myfelf with the digging of a grave; and faw in every fhovel-full of it that was thrown up, the fragment of a bone or fkull intermixt with a kind of fresh mouldering earth that fome time or other had a place in the

compofition of an human body. Upon this I began to confider with myfelf what innumerable multitudes of people lay confufed together under the pavement of that ancient Cathedral; how men and women, friends and enemies, priefts and foldiers, monks and prebendaries, were crumbled amongst one another, and blended together in the fame common mafs; how beauty, ftrength, and youth, with old age, weaknefs, and deformity, lay undistinguished in the fame promiscuous heap of matter.

After having thus furveyed this great magazine of mortality, as it were in the lump; I examined it more particularly by the accounts which I found on several of the monuments which are raised in every quarter of that ancient fabrick. Some of them were covered with fuch extravagant epitaphs, that if it were poffible for the dead perfon to be acquainted with them, he would blush at the praises which his friends have bestowed upon him. There are others fo exceffively modeft, that they deliver the character of the perfon departed, in Greek or Hebrew, and by that means are not understood once in a twelve month. In the po etical quarter, I found their were poets who had no monuments, and monuments who had no poets; I obferved indeed that the prefent war had filled the church with many of thefe uninhabited monuments, which had been erected to the memory of perfons whofe bodies were perhaps buried in the plains of Blenheim, or in the bofom of the ocean.

I could not but be very much delighted with feve ral modern epitaphs, which are written with great elegance of expreffion, and juftnefs of thought; and therefore do honour to the living, as well as to the dead. As a foreigner is very apt to conceive an idea of the ignorance or politenefs of a nation, from the turn of their public monuments and infcriptions, they fhould be fubinitted to the perufal of men of learning and genius, before they are put in execution. Sir Cloudefley Shovel's monument has very often given me great offence: Inftead of the brave, rough English Admiral, which was the diftinguishing character of VOL. II. Le 2

that plain, gallant man, he is reprefented on his tomb by the figure of a beau, dreffed in a long perriwig, and repofing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopy of state. The infcription is answerable to the monument; for inftead of celebrating the many remarkable actions he had performed in the fervice of his country, it acquaints us only with the manner of his death, in which it was impoffible for him to reap any honour. The Dutch, whom we are apt to defpife for want of genius, fhew an infinitely greater taste of antiquity and politeness in their buildings and works of this nature, than what we meet with in those of our own country. The monuments of their Admirals, which have been erected at the public expence, reprefent them like themselves; and are adorned with roftral crowns, and naval ornaments; with beautiful feftoons of fea-weeds, fhells, and coral.

But to return to our subject: I have left the repofitory of one of our English Kings for the contemplation of another day, when I fhall find myself difpofed for fo ferious an amusement. I know that entertainments of this nature are apt to raise dark and dismal thoughts in timorous minds, and gloomy imaginations; but for my own part, though I am always ferious, I do not know what it is to be melancholy; and can therefore take a view of nature in her deep and folemn fcenes, with the fame pleasure as in her most gay and delightful ones. By this means I can improve myfelf with thofe objects, which others confider with terror. When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate detire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tomb ftone, my heart melts with compallion; when I fee the tomb of the parents themfeives, I confider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: When I fee kings lying by thole who depofed them, when I confider rival wits placed fide by fide, or the holy men who divided the world with their contefts and difputes, I reflect with forrow and attouifhment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the

feveral dates of the tombs, of fome who died yesterday,. and fome fix hundred years ago, I confider that great day when we fhall all of us be cotemporaries, and make our appearance together.

SPECTATOR, Vol. I. No. 26.

YARICO-Her Story.

ARIETTA is vifited by all perfons of both fexes,

who have any pretence to wit and gallantry. She is in that time of life which is neither affected with the follies of youth, or infirmities of age; and her converfation is fo mixed with gaiety and prudence, that fhe is agreeable both to the young, and the old. Her behaviour is very frank, without being in the least blameable And as fhe is out of the track of any amorous or ambitious purfuits of her own, her vifitants entertain her with accounts of themselves very freely, whether they concern their paffions or their interefts. I made her a vifit this afternoon, hav ng been formerly introduced to the honour of her ac quaintance, by my friend WILL HONEYCOMB, who has prevailed upon her to admit me fometimes into. her affembly, as a civil, inoffenfive man. I found her accompanied with one perfon only, a common-place talker, who, upon my entrance, arose, and after a very flight civility, fat down again; then turning to Arietta, purfuel his difcourfe, which I found was upon the old topic of conftancy in love. He went on with great facility in repeating what he talks of every day in his life; and with the ornaments of infignificant laughs and geftures, enforced his arguments by quotations out of plays and fongs, which allude to the perjuries of the fair, and the general levity of women. Methought he trove to fhine more than ordinarily in his talkative way, that he might infult my filence, and diftinguifh himself before a woman of Arietta's taste and understanding. She had often an inclination to interrupt him, but could find no oppor unity, till the larum ceased of itself; which did not till he had repeated and murdered the celebrated ftory of the Ephefran matron.

When he had a little recovered herself from the

serious anger she was in, fhe replied in the following

manner :

Sir, when I confider how perfectly new all you have faid on this fubject is, and that the story you have given us, is not quite two thousand years old, I cannot but think it a piece of presumption to difpute with you : But your quotations put me in mind of the fable of the lion and the man. The man walking with that noble animal, fhewed him, in the oftentation of human fuperiority, the fign of a man killing a lion. Upon which the lion faid very juftly, we lions are none of us painters, elfe we could fhew a hundred men killed by lions, for one lion killed by a man. You men are writers, and can reprefent us women as unbecoming as you please in your works, while we are unable to return the injury. Such a writer, I doubt not was the celebrated Petronius, who invented the pleasant aggravations of the frailty of the Ephefian lady; but when we confider this question between the fexes, which has been either a point of difpute or raillery ever fince there were men and women, let us take facts from plain people, and from fuch as have not either ambition or capacity to embellish their narrations with any beauties of imagination. I was the other day amufing myself with Ligon's account of Barbadoes: And, in anfwer to your well-wrought tale, I will give you (as it dwells upon my memory) out of that honeft. traveller, in his fifty fifth page, the hiftory of Inkle and Xarico.

Mr. Thomas Inkle, of London, aged twenty years, embarked in the Downs, on the fhip called the Achil les, bound for the Weft-Indies, on the 16th of June, 1674, in order to improve his fortune by trade and merchandise. Our adventurer was the third fon of an eminent citizen, who had taken particular care to inítil into his mind an early love of gain, by making. him perfect mafter of numbers, and confequently giving him a quick view of lofs and advantage, and preventing the natural impulfes of his paffions, by prepoffeffion towards his interefts. With a mind thus turned, young Inkle had a perfon every way agreeable, a ruduy vigour in his countenance, ftrength