The Muse, if fir’d with thy enlivening Beams,
  Perhaps shall aim at more exalted Themes,
  Record our Monarch in a nobler Strain,
  And sing the opening Wonders of his Reign;
  Bright_ CAROLINA’s heavenly Beauties trace,
  Her valiant CONSORT, and his blooming Race. 
  A Train of Kings their fruitful Love supplies,
  A glorious Scene to Albion’s ravish’d Eyes;
  Who sees by BRUNSWICK’s Hand her Sceptre sway’d,
  And through his Line from Age to Age convey’d.’

[Footnote 1:  [artless Muse the]]

[Footnote 2:  he burns].

* * * * *

No. 621.  Wednesday, November 17, 1714.

’—­postquam se lumine puro Implevit, stellasque vagas miratur et Astra Fixa Polis, vidit quanta sub nocte jaceret Nostra dies, risitque sui ludibria—­’

  Lucan.

The following Letter having in it some Observations out of the common Road, I shall make it the Entertainment of this Day.

  Mr.  SPECTATOR,

’The common Topicks against the Pride of Man which are laboured by florid and declamatory Writers, are taken from the Baseness of his Original, the Imperfections of his Nature, or the short Duration of those Goods in which he makes his Boast.  Though it be true that we can have nothing in us that ought to raise our Vanity, yet a Consciousness of our own Merit may be sometimes laudable.  The Folly therefore lyes here:  We are apt to pride our selves in worthless, or perhaps shameful Things; and, on the other hand, count that disgraceful which is our truest Glory.

’Hence it is, that the Lovers of Praise take wrong Measures to attain it.  Would a vain Man consult his own Heart, he would find that if others knew his Weaknesses as well as he himself doth, he could not have the Impudence to expect the publick Esteem.  Pride therefore flows from want of Reflection, and Ignorance of our selves.  Knowledge and Humility come upon us together.

’The proper way to make an Estimate of our selves, is to consider seriously what it is we value or despise in others.  A Man who boasts of the Goods of Fortune, a gay Dress or a new Title, is generally the Mark of Ridicule.  We ought therefore not to admire in our selves, what we are so ready to laugh at in other Men.

’Much less can we with Reason pride our selves in those things, which at some time of our Life we shall certainly despise.  And yet, if we will give our selves the Trouble of looking backward and forward on the several Changes, which we have already undergone and hereafter must try, we shall find that the greater Degrees of our Knowledge and Wisdom, serve only to shew us our own Imperfections.

’As we rise from Childhood to Youth, we look with Contempt on the Toys and Trifles which our Hearts have hitherto been set upon.  When,