The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 3,418 pages of information about The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 3,418 pages of information about The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

  With brightest beams let the Sun shine
  On Orra Moor. 
  Could I be sure
  That from the top o’ th’ lofty Pine
  I Orra Moor might see,
  I to his highest Bough would climb,
  And with industrious Labour try
  Thence to descry
  My Mistress if that there she be. 
  Could I but know amidst what Flowers
  Or in what Shade she stays,
  The gaudy Bowers,
  With all their verdant Pride,
  Their Blossoms and their Sprays,
  Which make my Mistress disappear;
  And her in envious Darkness hide,
  I from the Roots and Beds of Earth would tear.

In the same chapter another song is given of which there is a version in No. 406 of the Spectator.]

* * * * *

No. 367.  Thursday, May 1, 1712.  Addison.

  ‘—­Periturae parcite chartae.’

  Juv.

I have often pleased my self with considering the two kinds of Benefits which accrue to the Publick from these my Speculations, and which, were I to speak after the manner of Logicians, I would distinguish into the Material and the Formal.  By the latter I understand those Advantages which my Readers receive, as their Minds are either improv’d or delighted by these my daily Labours; but having already several times descanted on my Endeavours in this Light, I shall at present wholly confine my self to the Consideration of the former.  By the Word Material I mean those Benefits which arise to the Publick from these my Speculations, as they consume a considerable quantity of our Paper Manufacture, employ our Artisans in Printing, and find Business for great Numbers of Indigent Persons.

Our Paper-Manufacture takes into it several mean Materials which could be put to no other use, and affords Work for several Hands in the collecting of them, which are incapable of any other Employment.  Those poor Retailers, whom we see so busy in every Street, deliver in their respective Gleanings to the Merchant.  The Merchant carries them in Loads to the Paper-Mill, where they pass thro’ a fresh Set of Hands, and give life to another Trade.  Those who have Mills on their Estates, by this means considerably raise their Rents, and the whole Nation is in a great measure supply’d with a Manufacture, for which formerly she was obliged to her Neighbours.

The Materials are no sooner wrought into Paper, but they are distributed among the Presses, where they again set innumerable Artists at Work, and furnish Business to another Mystery.  From hence, accordingly as they are stain’d with News or Politicks, they fly thro’ the Town in Post-Men, Post-Boys, Daily-Courants, Reviews, Medleys, and Examiners.  Men, Women, and Children contend who shall be the first Bearers of them, and get their daily Sustenance by spreading them.  In short, when I trace in my Mind a Bundle of Rags to a Quire of Spectators, I find so many Hands employ’d in every Step they take thro their whole Progress, that while I am writing a Spectator, I fancy my self providing Bread for a Multitude.

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The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.