But to return to our Subject. I have left the
Repository of our English Kings for the Contemplation
of another Day, when I shall find my Mind disposed
for so serious an Amusement. I know that Entertainments
of this Nature, are apt to raise dark and dismal Thoughts
in timorous Minds and gloomy Imaginations; but for
my own Part, though I am always serious, I do not
know what it is to be melancholy; and can, therefore,
take a View of Nature in her deep and solemn Scenes,
with the same Pleasure as in her most gay and delightful
ones. By this Means I can improve my self with
those Objects, which others consider with Terror.
When I look upon the Tombs of the Great, every Emotion
of Envy dies in me; when I read the Epitaphs of the
Beautiful, every inordinate Desire goes out; when I
meet with the Grief of Parents upon a Tombstone, my
Heart melts with Compassion; when I see the Tomb of
the Parents themselves, I consider the Vanity of grieving
for those whom we must quickly follow: When I
see Kings lying by those who deposed them, when I
consider rival Wits placed Side by Side, or the holy
Men that divided the World with their Contests and
Disputes, I reflect with Sorrow and Astonishment on
the little Competitions, Factions and Debates of Mankind.
When I read the several Dates of the Tombs, of some
that dy’d Yesterday, and some six hundred Years
ago, I consider that great Day when we shall all of
us be Contemporaries, and make our Appearance together.
C.
[Footnote 1: that]
[Footnote 2: had]
[Footnote 3: that]
[Footnote 4: that]
[Footnote 5: At the close of the reign of William
III. the exiled James II died, and France proclaimed
his son as King of England. William III thus
was enabled to take England with him into the European
War of the Spanish Succession. The accession
of Queen Anne did not check the movement, and, on
the 4th of May, 1702, war was declared against France
and Spain by England, the Empire, and Holland.
The war then begun had lasted throughout the Queen’s
reign, and continued, after the writing of the Spectator
Essays, until the signing of the Peace of Utrecht
on the 11th of April, 1713, which was not a year and
a half before the Queen’s death, on the 1st
of August, 1714. In this war Marlborough had
among his victories, Blenheim, 1704, Ramilies, 1706,
Oudenarde, 1708, Malplaquet, 1709. At sea Sir
George Rooke had defeated the French fleet off Vigo,
in October, 1702, and in a bloody battle off Malaga,
in August, 1704, after his capture of Gibraltar.]
[Footnote 6: Sir Cloudesly Shovel, a brave man
of humble birth, who, from a cabin boy, became, through
merit, an admiral, died by the wreck of his fleet
on the Scilly Islands as he was returning from an
unsuccessful attack on Toulon. His body was cast
on the shore, robbed of a ring by some fishermen,
and buried in the sand. The ring discovering
his quality, he was disinterred, and brought home for
burial in Westminster Abbey.]
