BELIEF OF THE ANCIENTS. 167 men of those admirable enforcements of morality, which the apostle has drawn from the history of our blessed Saviour. If our modern infidels considered these matters with that candour and seriousness which they deserve, we should not see them act with such a spirit of bitterness, arrogance, and malice; they would not be raising such insignificant cavils, doubts, and scruples, as may be started against every thing that is not capable of mathematical demonstration; in order to unsettle the minds of the ignorant, disturb the public peace, subvert morality, and 10 throw all things into confusion and disorder. If none of these reflexions can have any influence on them, there is one that perhaps may, because it is adapted to their vanity, by which they seem to be guided much more than their reason. I would therefore have them consider, that the wisest and best of men, in all ages of the world, have been those who lived up to the religion of their country when they saw nothing in it opposite to morality, and to the best lights they had of the Divine Nature. Pythagoras's first rule directs us to worship the gods as it is ordained by law, for that is the most natural interpretation of the precept. So20 crates, who was the most renowned among the heathens both for wisdom and virtue, in his last moments desires his friends to offer a cock to Esculapius"; doubtless out of a submissive deference to the established worship of his country. Xenophon tells us, that his prince (whom he sets forth as a pattern of perfection) when he found his death approaching, offered sacrifices on the mountains to the Persian Jupiter, and the sun, according to the custom of the Persians; for those are the words of the historian ". Nay the Epicureans and atomical philosophers shewed a very remarkable modesty in this particular; for though the being of 30 a God was entirely repugnant to their scheme of natural philosophy, they contented themselves with the denial of a Providence, asserting at the same time the existence of gods in general, because they would not shock the common belief of mankind, and the religion of their country.-L No. 189.-On Unnatural Fathers and filial ingratitude. Patriæ pietatis imago. VIRG. Æn. x. 824. The following letter being written to my bookseller, upon a subject of which I treated some time since, I shall publish it in this paper, together with the letter that was inclosed in it. 'MR. BUCKLEY, 'Mr. Spectator having of late descanted upon the cruelty of parents to their children, I have been induced (at the request of several of Mr. Spectator's admirers) to inclose this letter, which I assure you is the original from a father to his own son, notwithstanding the latter gave but little or no proIo vocation. It would be wonderfully obliging to the world, if Mr. Spectator would give his opinion of it in some of his speculations, and particularly to 'SIRRAH, '(Mr. Buckley) 'Your humble servant.' 'You are a saucy audacious rascal, and both fool and mad, and I care not a farthing whether you comply or no; that does not raze out my impressions of your insolence, going about railing at me, and the next day to solicit my favour: these are incon20 sistencies, such as discover thy reason depraved. To be brief, I never desire to see your face: and, Sirrah, if you go to the work-house, it is no disgrace to me for you to be supported there; and if you starve in the streets, I'll never give any thing underhand in your behalf. If I have any more of your scribbling nonsense, I'll break your head the first time I set sight on you. You are a stubborn beast: is this your gratitude for my giving you money? You rogue, I'll better your judgment, and give you a greater sense of your duty to (I regret to say), your father, &c. 30 'P. S.-It is prudence for you to keep out of my sight; for to reproach me that might overcomes right on the outside of your letter, I shall give you a great knock on the skull for it.' Was there ever such an image of paternal tenderness! It was 1 The reference is to No. 181: omitted (except as to a part) from this selection. LIKE FATHER LIKE SON. 169 usual among some of the Greeks to make their slaves drink to excess, and then expose them to their children, who by that means conceived an early aversion to a vice which makes men appear so monstrous and irrational". I have exposed this picture of an unnatural father with the same intention, that its deformity may deter others from its resemblance. If the reader has a mind to see a father of the same stamp represented in the most exquisite strokes of humour, he may meet with it in one of the finest comedies that ever appeared upon the English stage; I 10 mean the part of Sir Samson in Love for Love". I must not however engage myself blindly on the side of the son, to whom the fond letter above-written was directed. His father calls him a saucy and audacious rascal in the first line, * and I am afraid upon examination he will prove but an ungracious youth. To go about railing at his father, and to find no other place but the outside of his letter to tell him that might overcomes right, if it does not discover his reason to be depraved, and that he is either fool or mad, as the choleric old gentleman tells him, we may at least allow that the father will do very well in endeavour20 ing to better his judgment, and give him a greater sense of his duty. But whether this may be brought about by breaking his head, or giving him a great knock on the skull, ought, I think, to be well considered. Upon the whole, I wish the father has not met with his match, and that he may not be as equally paired with a son as the mother in Virgil. Crudelis tu quoque mater: Ecl. viii. 48. 30 Or like the crow and her egg, in the Greek proverb, Κακοῦ κόρακος κακὸν ὠόν. Of a bad crow the bad egg. I must here take notice of a letter which I have received from an unknown correspondent, upon the subject of my paper, upon which the foregoing letter is likewise founded. The writer of it seems very much concerned lest that paper should seem to give encouragement to the disobedience of children towards their parents; but if the writer of it will take the pains to read it over again attentively, I dare say his apprehensions will vanish. Par don and reconciliation are all the penitent daughter requests, and all that I contend for in her behalf; and in this case I may use the saying of an eminent wit, who, upon some great men's pressing him to forgive his daughter, who had married against his consent, told them he could refuse nothing to their instances, but that he would have them remember there was a difference between giving and forgiving. I must confess, in all controversies between parents and their children, I am naturally prejudiced in favour of the former. 10 The obligations on that side can never be acquitted, and I think it is one of the greatest reflexions upon human nature, that paternal instinct should be a stronger motive to love than filial gratitude; that the receiving of favours should be a less inducement to good-will, tenderness, and commiseration, than the con- ' ferring of them; and that the taking care of any person should endear the child or dependent more to the parent or benefactor, than the parent or benefactor to the child or dependent; yet so it happens, that for one cruel parent we meet with a thousand undutiful children. This is indeed wonderfully contrived (as I 20 have formerly observed) for the support of every living species; but at the same time that it shews the wisdom of the Creator, it discovers the imperfection and degeneracy of the creature. The obedience of children to their parents is the basis of all government, and set forth as the measure of that obedience which we owe to those whom providence hath placed over us. It is Father Le Compte", if I am not mistaken, who tells us how want of duty in this particular is punished among the Chinese, insomuch that if a son should be known to kill, or so much as to strike his father, not only the criminal, but his whole 30 family, would be rooted out, nay, the inhabitants of the place where he lived would be put to the sword, nay, the place itself would be razed to the ground, and its foundation sown with salt: for, say they, there must have been an utter depravation of manners in that clan or society of people who could have bred up among them so horrid an offender. To this I shall add a passage out of the first book of Herodotus1. That historian, in his account of the Persian customs and religion, tells us, it is their opinion, that no man ever killed his father, or that it is possible such a crime should be in nature; but that if any thing like it 1 Chap. 137. SOCRATES ON PRAYER. 171 should ever happen, they conclude that the reputed son must have been illegitimate, suppositious, or begotten in adultery. Their opinion in this particular shews sufficiently what a notion · they must have had of undutifulness in general.-L. No. 207.-On Prayer; counsel of Socrates on this head; his rules compared with the teaching of Christ. Omnibus in terris, quæ sunt a Gadibus usque Juv. Sat. x. I. Look round the habitable world, how few DRYDEN. In my last Saturday's paper1 I laid down some thoughts upon devotion in general; and shall here shew what were the notions of the most refined heathens on this subject, as they are represented in Plato's dialogue upon prayer, entitled Alcibiades the second, which doubtless gave occasion for Juvenal's tenth satire, 10 and to the second satire of Persius; as the last of these authors has almost transcribed the preceding dialogue, entitled Alcibiades the first, in his fourth satire. The speakers in this dialogue upon prayer are Socrates and Alcibiades; and the substance of it (when drawn together out of the intricacies and digressions) as follows. Socrates meeting his pupil Alcibiades, as he was going to his devotions, and observing his eyes to be fixed upon the earth with great seriousness and attention, tells him that he had reason to be thoughtful on that occasion, since it was possible for a man to 20 bring down evils upon himself by his own prayers, and that those things which the gods send him in answer to his petitions might turn to his destruction: this, says he, may not only happen when a man prays for what he knows is mischievous in his own nature, as Edipus implored the gods to sow dissension between his sons; but when he prays for what he believes would be for his good, and against what he believes would be to his detriment. This the philosopher shews must necessarily happen among us, since most men are blinded with ignorance, prejudice, or passion, 1 No. 201: omitted from this selection. |