fortunes, when there were fo few that could with conftancy bear the favour of their very 'creatures.' My author in these loose hints has one paffage that gives us a very lively idea of the uncommon genius of Pharamond. He met with one man whom he had put to all the usual proofs he had made of those he had a mind to know thoroughly, and found him for his purpose. In difcourfe with him one day, he gave him an opportunity of saying how much would fatisfy all his wishes. The prince immediately revealed himself, doubled the fum, and spoke to him in this manner. "Sir, You have twice what you defired, by the "favour of Pharamond; but look to it, that you are fatisfied with it, for it is the last you shall ever receive. I from this mo"ment confider you as mine; and to make you truly fo, I give you my royal word you "shall never be greater or less than you are at prefent. Answer me not, (concluded the prince fmiling) but enjoy the fortune I have put you in, which is above my own condi"tion; for you have hereafter nothing to hope σε 66 "or to fear." His Majefty having thus well chofen and bought a friend and companion, he enjoyed alternately all the pleasures of an agreeable private man, and a great and powerful monarch. He gave himself, with his companion, the name of the merry tyrant; for he punished his courtiers for their infolence and folly, not by any act of pubVOL. I. Gg lie lic disfavour, but by humorously practising upon their imaginations. If he obferved a man untractable to his inferiors, he would find an opportunity to take fome favourable notice of him, and render him infupportable. He knew all his own looks, words, and actions had their interpretations; and his friend Monfieur Eucrate (for fo he was called) having a great foul without ambition, he could communicate all his thoughts to him, and fear no artful ufe would be made of that freedom. It was no fmall delight when they were in private, to reflect upon all which had paffed in public. he Pharamond would often, to fatisfy a vain fool of power in his country, talk to him in a full court, and with one whisper make him despise all his old friends and acquaintance. He was come to that knowledge of men by long obfervation, that he would profess altering the whole mafs of blood in fome tempers, by thrice fpeaking to them. As fortune was in his power, gave himfelf conftant entertainment in managing the mere followers of it with the treatment they deferved. He would, by a fkilful caft of his eye, and half a finile, make two fellows who hated, embrace, and fall upon each other's necks with as much eagerness, as if they followed their real inclinations, and intended to ftifle one another. When he was in high good humour, he would lay the fcene with Eucrate, and on a public night exercife the paffions of his whole court. He was pleafed to fee an haughty beauty watch watch the looks of the man fhe had long defpifed, from obfervation of his being taken notice of by Pharamond; and the lover conceive higher hopes, than to follow the woman he was dying for the day before. In a court, where men speak affection in the strongest terms, and diflike in the fainteft, it was a comical mixture of incidents to fee difguifes thrown afide in one cafe, and increased on the other, according as favour or disgrace attended the refpective objects of men's approbation or difefteem. Pharamond, in his mirth upon the meannefs of mankind, ufed to fay, As he could take away a man's five fenfes, he 'could give him an hundred. The man in difgrace fhall immediately lofe all his natural endowments, and he that finds favour have the <attributes of an angel.' He would carry it fo far as to fay, It fhould not be only fo in the opinion of the lower part of his court, but the 'men themfelves fhall think thus meanly or greatly of themselves, as they are out, or in the good graces of a court.' A monarch who had wit and humour like Pharamond, must have pleasures which no man elfe can ever have opportunity of enjoying. He gave fortune to none but thofe whom he knew could receive it without tranfport. He made a noble and generous ufe of his obfervations, and did not regard his minifters as they were agreeable to himself, but as they were useful to his kingdom. By this means, the king appeared in every officer of state; and no man had a participation of the power, who had not a similitude of the virtue of Pharamond*. R+. N° 77. Tuesday, May 29, 1711. Non convivere licet, nec urbe tota MY Y friend WILL HONEYCOMB is one of thofe fort of men who are very often abfent in converfation, and what the French call a reveur and a diftrait. A little before our Club-time last night, we were walking together in Somerset garden, where WILL had picked up a finall pebble of fo odd a make, that he faid he would prefent it to a friend of his, an eminent virtuofo. After we had walked fome time, I made a full stop with my face towards the weft, which WILL knowing to be my ufual method of afking what's o'clock, in an afternoon, immediately pulled out his watch, and told me we had feven minutes good. We took a turn or two more, when to my great furprise, I faw him fquir away his watch a confiderable way into the Thames, and with great fedatenefs in This looks put up the pebble, he had before found, in his fob. As I have naturally an averfion to much speaking, and do not love to be the mes* See N° 84, N° 97, &c. + By STEELE. See N°6, ad f. fenger fenger of ill news, efpecially when it comes too late to be useful, I left him to be convinced of his mistake in due time, and continued my walk, reflecting on thefe little abfences and diftractions in mankind, and refolving to make them the fubject of a future Speculation. I was the more confirmed in my defign, when I confidered that they were very often blemishes in the characters of men of excellent fenfe; and helped to keep up the reputation of that Latin proverb, which Mr. Dryden has tranflated in the following lines; Great wit to madness fure is near ally'd, My reader does I hope, perceive, that I diftinguish a man who is abfent, because he thinks of fomething elfe, from one who is abfent, because he thinks of nothing at all. The latter is too innocent a creature to be taken notice of; but the distractions of the former may I believe, be generally accounted for from one of thefe reafons. Either their minds are wholly fixed on fome particular fcience, which is often the cafe of mathematicians and other learned men; or are wholly taken up with fome violent paffion, fuch as anger, fear, or love, which ties the mind to fome diftant object; or, laftly, these distractions proceed from a certain vivacity and fickleness in a man's temper, which while it raifes up infinite numbers of Ideas in the mind, is continu* “Nullum magnum ingenium fine mixtura dementia." SENECA De Tranquil, Anim. cap. xv. |