Volume Iii Part 74 (1/2)
[Footnote 1: Age.]
No. 550. Monday, December 1, 1712. Addison.
'Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor HIATU?'
Hor.
Since the late Dissolution of the Club whereof I have often declared my self a Member, there are very many Persons who by Letters, Pet.i.tions, and Recommendations, put up for the next Election. At the same time I must complain, that several indirect and underhand Practices have been made use of upon this Occasion. A certain Country Gentleman begun to _tapp_ upon the first Information he received of Sir ROGER'S Death; when he sent me up word, that if I would get him chosen in the Place of the Deceased, he would present me with a Barrel of the best _October_ I had ever drank in my Life. The Ladies are in great Pain to know whom I intend to elect in the Room of WILL. HONEYCOMBE. Some of them indeed are of Opinion that Mr. HONEYCOMBE did not take sufficient care of their Interests in the Club, and are therefore desirous of having in it hereafter a Representative of their own s.e.x. A Citizen who subscribes himself _Y. Z._ tells me that he has one and twenty Shares in the _African_ Company, and offers to bribe me with the odd one in case he may succeed Sir ANDREW FREEPORT, which he thinks would raise the Credit of that Fund. I have several Letters, dated from _Fenny Man's_, by Gentlemen who are Candidates for Capt. SENTRY'S Place, and as many from a Coffee-House in _Paul's_ Church-yard of such who would fill up the Vacancy occasioned by the Death of my worthy Friend the Clergyman, whom I can never mention but with a particular Respect.
Having maturely weighed these several Particulars, with the many Remonstrances that have been made to me on this Subject, and considering how invidious an Office I shall take upon me, if I make the whole Election depend upon my single Voice, and being unwilling to expose my self to those Clamours, which, on such an Occasion, will not fail to be raised against me for Partiality, Injustice, Corruption, and other Qualities which my Nature abhors, I have formed to my self the Project of a Club as follows.
I have thoughts of issuing out Writs to all and every of the Clubs that are established in the Cities of _London_ and _Westminster_, requiring them to chuse out of their respective Bodies a Person of the greatest Merit, and to return his name to me before _Lady-day_, at which time I intend to sit upon Business.
By this means I may have Reason to hope, that the Club over which I shall preside will be the very Flower and Quintescence of all other Clubs. I have communicated this my Project to none but a particular Friend of mine, whom I have celebrated twice or thrice for his Happiness in that kind of Wit which is commonly known by the Name of a Punn. The only Objection he makes to it is, that I shall raise up Enemies to my self if I act with so regal an Air; and that my Detractors, instead of giving me the usual t.i.tle of SPECTATOR, will be apt to call me the _King of Clubs_.
But to proceed on my intended Project: It is very well known that I at first set forth in this Work with the Character of a silent Man; and I think I have so well preserved my Taciturnity, that I do not remember to have violated it with three Sentences in the s.p.a.ce of almost two Years.
As a Monosyllable is my Delight, I have made very few Excursions in the Conversations which I have related beyond a Yes or a No. By this Means my Readers have lost many good things which I have had in my Heart, though I did not care for uttering them.
Now in order to diversify my Character, and to shew the World how well I can talk if I have a Mind, I have Thoughts of being very loquacious in the Club which I have now under Consideration. But that I may proceed the more regularly in this Affair, I design, upon the first Meeting of the said Club, to have _my Mouth opened_ in form; intending to regulate my self in this Particular by a certain Ritual which I have by me, that contains all the Ceremonies which are practised at the opening of the Mouth of a Cardinal. I have likewise examined the forms which were used of old by _Pythagoras_, when any of his Scholars, after an Apprentices.h.i.+p of Silence, was made free of his Speech. In the mean time, as I have of late found my Name in foreign Gazettes upon less Occasions, I question not but in their next Articles from _Great Britain_, they will inform the World that _the_ SPECTATOR'S _Mouth is to be opened on the twenty-fifth of_ March _next_. [1] I may perhaps publish a very useful Paper at that Time of the Proceedings in that Solemnity, and of the Persons who shall a.s.sist at it. But of this more hereafter.
O.
[Footnote 1: On the twelfth of the following March appeared the first number of Steele's _Guardian_. Addison's attempt to revive the _Spectator_ was not made until June, 1714.]
No. 551. Tuesday, December 2, 1712.
'Sic Honor et Nomen divinis vatibus atque Carminibus venit.'
Hor.
Mr. SPECTATOR,
When Men of worthy and excelling Genius's have obliged the World with beautiful and instructive Writings, it is in the nature of Grat.i.tude that Praise should be returned them, as one proper consequent Reward of their Performances. Nor has Mankind ever been so degenerately sunk, but they have made this Return, and even when they have not been wrought up by the generous Endeavour so as to receive the Advantages designed by it. This Praise, which arises first in the Mouth of particular Persons, spreads and lasts according to the Merit of Authors; and when it thus meets with a full Success changes its Denomination, and is called _Fame_. They who have happily arrived at this, are, even while they live, enflamed by the Acknowledgments of others, and spurred on to new Undertakings for the Benefit of Mankind, notwithstanding the Detraction which some abject Tempers would cast upon them: But when they decease, their Characters being freed from the Shadow which _Envy_ laid them under, begin to s.h.i.+ne out with greater Splendour; their Spirits survive in their Works; they are admitted into the highest Companies, and they continue pleasing and instructing Posterity from Age to Age. Some of the best gain a Character, by being able to shew that they are no Strangers to them; and others obtain a new Warmth to labour for the Happiness and Ease of Mankind, from a Reflection upon those Honours which are paid to their Memories.