her share, she sung the Old Man's Wish' to Sir Roger. The knight left the room for some time after supper, and writ the following billet, which he conveyed to Sukey, and Sukey to her friend Will Honeycomb. Will has given it to Sir Andrew Freeport, who read it last night to the club. · MADAM, I AM not so mere a country gentleman, but I can guess at the law-business you had at the Temple. If you would go down to the country, and leave off all your vanities but your singing, let me know at my lodgings in Bow-street, Covent-garden, and you shall be encouraged by Your humble servant, 6 ROGER DE COVERLEY.' My good friend could not well stand the raillery which was rising upon him; but, to put a stop to it, I delivered Will Honeycomb the following letter, and desired him to read it to the board. MR. SPECTATOR, HAVING seen a translation of one of the chapters in the Canticles into English verse inserted among your late papers 2; I have ventured to send you the viith chapter of the Proverbs in a poetical dress. If you think it worthy appearing among your speculations, it will be a sufficient reward for the trouble of • Your constant reader, 'A. B.' See Songs and other Poems, by Alexander Brome," Svo. 1664. Song xxvii.-It may be imagined, by what followed, that the Song was not of the most chaste description. 2 N° 388. "My son, th' instruction that my words impart, Grave on the living tablet of thy heart; And all the wholesome precepts that I give, "Once from my window as I cast mine eye "Just as the sun withdrew his cooler light, And evening soft led on the shades of night, He stole in covert twilight to his fate, And pass'd the corner near the harlot's gate! Loose her attire, and such her glaring dress, By which the wanton conquer heedless hearts: Here all her store of richest odours meets, I have collected there-I want but thee. "Upon her tongue did such smooth mischief dwell, Lest they too late of her fell power complain, STEELE. T. N° 411. SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1712. PAPER 1. ON THE PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION. CONTENTS. The perfection of our sight above our other senses. The pleasures of the imagination arise originally from sight. The pleasures of the imagination divided under two heads. The pleasures of the imagination in some respects equal to those of the understanding. The extent of the pleasures of the imagination. The advantages a man receives from a relish of these pleasures. In what respect they are preferable to those of the understanding. Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius antè LUCR. lib. i. ver. 925. —Inspired I trace the Muses' seats, Untrodden yet: 'tis sweet to visit first Untouch'd and virgin streams, and quench my thirst. CREECH. OUR sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments. The sense of feeling can indeed give us a notion of extension, shape, and all other ideas that enter at the eye, except colours; but at the same time it is very much straitened and confined in its operations, to the number, bulk, and distance of its parti cular objects. Our sight seems designed to supply all these defects, and may be considered as a more delicate and diffusive kind of touch, that spreads itself over an infinite multitude of bodies, comprehends the largest figures, and brings into our reach some of the most remote parts of the universe. It is this sense which furnishes the imagination with its ideas; so that by 'the pleasures of the imagination,' or 'fancy' (which I shall use promiscuously) I here mean such as arise from visible objects, either when we have them actually in our view, or when we call up their ideas into our minds by paintings, statues, descriptions, or any the like occasion. We cannot indeed have a single image in the fancy that did not make its first entrance through the sight; but we have the power of retaining, altering, and compounding those images, which we have once received, into all the varieties of picture and vision that are most agreeable to the imagination: for by this faculty a man in a dungeon is capable of entertaining himself with scenes and landscapes more beautiful than any that can be found in the whole compass of nature. There are few words in the English language which are employed in a more loose and uncircumscribed sense than those of the fancy and the imagination. I therefore thought it necessary to fix and determine the notion of these two words, as I intend to make use of them in the thread of my following speculations, that the reader may conceive rightly what is the subject which I proceed upon. I must therefore desire him to remember, that by the pleasures of the imagination,' I mean only such pleasures as arise originally from sight, and that I divide these pleasures into two kinds: my design being first of all to |