But besides such as are Moles through Ignorance, there
are others who are Moles through Envy. As it
is said in the Latin Proverb, ’That one
Man is a Wolf to another; [2] so generally speaking,
one Author is a Mole to another Author. It is
impossible for them to discover Beauties in one another’s
Works; they have Eyes only for Spots and Blemishes:
They can indeed see the Light as it is said of the
Animals which are their Namesakes, but the Idea of
it is painful to them; they immediately shut their
Eyes upon it, and withdraw themselves into a wilful
Obscurity. I have already caught two or three
of these dark undermining Vermin, and intend to make
a String of them, in order to hang them up in one
of my Papers, as an Example to all such voluntary
Moles.
[Footnote 1: Proverbs i 20-22.]
[Footnote 2: Homo homini Lupus. Plautus
Asin. Act ii sc. 4.]
* * * *
*
No. 125. Tuesday, July 24, 1711.
Addison.
’Ne pueri,
ne tanta animis assuescite bella:
Neu patriae validas
in viscera vertite vires.’
Vir.
My worthy Friend Sir ROGER, when we are talking of
the Malice of Parties, very frequently tells us an
Accident that happened to him when he was a School-boy,
which was at a time when the Feuds ran high between
the Roundheads and Cavaliers. This worthy Knight,
being then but a Stripling, had occasion to enquire
which was the Way to St. Anne’s Lane,
upon which the Person whom he spoke to, instead of
answering his Question, call’d him a young Popish
Cur, and asked him who had made Anne a Saint?
The Boy, being in some Confusion, enquired of the next
he met, which was the Way to Anne’s Lane;
but was call’d a prick-eared Cur for his Pains,
and instead of being shewn the Way, was told that she
had been a Saint before he was born, and would be one
after he was hanged. Upon this, says Sir ROGER,
I did not think fit to repeat the former Question,
but going into every Lane of the Neighbourhood, asked
what they called the Name of that Lane. By which
ingenious Artifice he found out the place he enquired
after, without giving Offence to any Party. Sir
ROGER generally closes this Narrative with Reflections
on the Mischief that Parties do in the Country; how
they spoil good Neighbourhood, and make honest Gentlemen
hate one another; besides that they manifestly tend
to the Prejudice of the Land-Tax, and the Destruction
of the Game.
There cannot a greater Judgment befal a Country than
such a dreadful Spirit of Division as rends a Government
into two distinct People, and makes them greater Strangers
and more averse to one another, than if they were
actually two different Nations. The Effects of
such a Division are pernicious to the last degree,
not only with regard to those Advantages which they
give the Common Enemy, but to those private Evils
which they produce in the Heart of almost every particular
Person. This Influence is very fatal both to
Mens Morals and their Understandings; it sinks the
Virtue of a Nation, and not only so, but destroys even
Common Sense.
