Volume Iii Part 43 (1/2)
An eminent Pagan Writer [3] has made a Discourse, to shew that the Atheist, who denies a G.o.d, does him less Dishonour than the Man who owns his Being, but at the same time believes him to be cruel, hard to please, and terrible to Human Nature. For my own part, says he, I would rather it should be said of me, that there was never any such Man as _Plutarch_, than that _Plutarch_ was ill-natured, capricious, or inhuman.
If we may believe our Logicians, Man is distinguished from all other Creatures by the Faculty of Laughter. He has an Heart capable of Mirth, and naturally disposed to it. It is not the Business of Virtue to extirpate the Affections of the Mind, but to regulate them. It may moderate and restrain, but was not designed to banish Gladness from the Heart of Man. Religion contracts the Circle of our Pleasures, but leaves it wide enough for her Votaries to expatiate in. The Contemplation of the Divine Being, and the Exercise of Virtue, are in their own Nature so far from excluding all Gladness of Heart, that they are perpetual Sources of it. In a word, the true Spirit of Religion cheers, as well as composes the Soul; it banishes indeed all Levity of Behaviour, all vicious and dissolute Mirth, but in exchange fills the Mind with a perpetual Serenity, uninterrupted Chearfulness, and an habitual Inclination to please others, as well as to be pleased in it self.
O.
[Footnote 1: Supposed to be Anthony Henley, a gentleman of property, who corresponded with Swift, was a friend of Steele's, and contributed some unidentified papers to the _Tatler_. He died in August, 1711.]
[Footnote 2: Dr. Thomas Goodwin, who was born in 1600, and educated at Cambridge. He was one of those who, like Milton's tutor, Dr. Thomas Young, went to Holland to escape from persecution, and was pastor of the English church at Arnheim, till in the Civil Wars he came to London, and sat at Westminster as one of the a.s.sembly of Divines. In 1649 Cromwell made him President of Magdalen College As Oliver Cromwell's chaplain, he prayed with and for him in his last illness. At the Restoration, Dr.
Goodwin was deprived of his post at Oxford, and he then preached in London to an a.s.sembly of Independents till his death, in 1679. His works were collected in five volumes folio.]
[Footnote 3: Plutarch, in his short Treatise 'On Superst.i.tion.']
No. 495. Sat.u.r.day, September 27, 1712. Addison.
Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido, Per d.a.m.na, per cades, ab ipso Ducit opes animumque ferro.
Hor.
As I am one, who, by my Profession, am obliged to look into all kinds of Men, there are none whom I consider with so much Pleasure, as those who have any thing new or extraordinary in their Characters, or Ways of living. For this reason I have often amused my self with Speculations on the Race of People called _Jews_, many of whom I have met with in most of the considerable Towns which I have pa.s.sed through in the Course of my Travels. They are, indeed, so disseminated through all the trading parts of the World, that they are become the Instruments by which the most distant Nations converse with one another, and by which Mankind are knit together in a general Correspondence: They are like the Pegs and Nails in a great Building, which, though they are but little valued in themselves, are absolutely necessary to keep the whole Frame together.
That I may not fall into any common beaten Tracks of Observation, I shall consider this People in three Views: First, with regard to their Number; Secondly, their Dispersion; and, Thirdly, their Adherence to their Religion: and afterwards endeavour to shew, First, what Natural Reasons, and, Secondly, what Providential Reasons may be a.s.signed for these three remarkable Particulars.
The _Jews_ are looked upon by many to be as numerous at present, as they were formerly in the Land of _Canaan_.
This is wonderful, considering the dreadful Slaughter made of them under some of the _Roman_ Emperors, which Historians describe by the Death of many Hundred Thousands in a War; and the innumerable Ma.s.sacres and Persecutions they have undergone in _Turkey_, as well as in all Christian Nations of the World. The _Rabbins_, to express the great Havock which has been sometimes made of them, tell us, after their usual manner of Hyperbole, that there were such Torrents of Holy Blood shed as carried Rocks of an hundred Yards in Circ.u.mference above three Miles into the Sea.
Their Dispersion is the second remarkable Particular in this People.
They swarm over all the _East_; and are settled in the remotest Parts of _China_: They are spread through most of the Nations of _Europe_ and _Africk_, and many Families of them are established in the _West-Indies_: not to mention whole Nations bordering on _Prester-John's_ Country, and some discovered in the inner Parts of _America_, if we may give any Credit to their own Writers.
Their firm Adherence to their Religion, is no less remarkable than their Numbers and Dispersion, especially considering it as persecuted or contemned over the Face of the whole Earth. This is likewise the more remarkable, if we consider the frequent Apostacies of this People, when they lived under their Kings, in the Land of _Promise_, and within sight of their Temple.
If in the next place we examine, what may be the Natural Reasons for these three Particulars which we find in the _Jews_, and which are not to be found in any other Religion or People, I can, in the first place, attribute their Numbers to nothing but their constant Employment, their Abstinence, their Exemption from Wars, and above all, their frequent Marriages; for they look on Celibacy as an accursed State, and generally are married before Twenty, as hoping the _Messiah_ may descend from them.