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both their hands, feemed to think they were exactly alike, except the inftruments which he took for parts of his hands. When he had continued in this amazement for fome time, his mother could not longer beart the agitations of fo many paffions as thronged upon her; but fell upon his neck, crying out, My Son, my Son! The youth knew her voice, and could fpeak no more than, O me are you my mother? and fainted. The whole room you will eafily conceive, were very affectionately employed in recovering him; but above all, the young gentlewoman who loved him, and whom he loved, fhrieked in the loudeft manner. That voice feemed to have a fudden effect upon him as he recovered, and he fhewed a double curiofity in obferv. ing her as the fpoke, and called to him; till at last he broke out, What has been done to me? Whither am I carried? Is all this about me the thing I have fo_often heard of? Is this the light? Is this feeing? Were you always thus happy, when you faid you were al ways glad to fee each other? Where is Tem who used to lead me? But I could now, methinks go any where without him. He offered to move, but feemed afraid of every thing around him. When they faw his dif fculty, they told him, till he became better acquaint ed with his new being, he muft let the fervant ftill lead him. The boy was called for and prefented to him. Mr. Cafwell afked him what fort of being he took Tom to be before he had feen him. He anfwer- ed, he believed there was not fo much of him as of himself; but he fancied him the fame fort of creature. The noife of this fudden change made all the neighbourhood throng to the place where he was. As he faw the crowd thickening, he defired Mr. Caswell to tell him how many there were in all to be feen. The gentleman fmiling, anfwered him, that it would be very proper for him to return to his late condition, and fuffer his eyes to be covered till they had received, trength; for he might remember well enough, that by degrees he had from little and little come to the. frength he had at prefent, in his ability of walking and.. moving; and that it was the fame thing with his eyes, «

which he faid would lofe the power of continuing to him that wonderful tranfport he was now in, except - he would be contented to lay afide the ufe of them till they were strong enough to bear the light without fo much feeling as he knew he underwent at present. With much reluctance he was prevailed upon to have his eyes bound, in which condition they kept him in a dark room, till it was proper to let the organ receive its objects without further precaution. During the time of this darkness he bewailed himfelf in the most diftreffed manner, and accused all his friends, complaining that fome incantation had been wrought upon him, and fome ftrange magic ufed to deceive him into an opinion that he had enjoyed what they call fight. He added, that the impreffions then let in upon his foul would certainly distract him, if he were not fo at prefent. At another time he would strive to name the perfons he had feen among the crowd after he was couched, and would pretend to fpeak, in perplexed terms of his own making, of what he in that short time obferved. But on the 6th inftant it was thought proper to unbind his head; and the young woman whom he loved was inftructed to open his eyes accordingly, as well to endear herfelf to him by fuch a circumstance as to moderate his extacies by the perfuafion of a voice which had fo much power over him as hers ever had. When this beloved young woman began to take off the binding off his eyes, fhe talked to him as follows:

"Mr. William, I am now taking the binding off; though when I confider what I am doing, I tremble with the apprehenfion, that (though I have from my very childhood loved you, dark as you were, and though you had conceived fo ftrong a love for me, yet) you will find that there is fuch a thing as Beauty, which may enfnare you into a thoufand paffions, of which you are now innocent, and take you from me forever. But before I put myself to that hazard, tell me in what manner that love you always professed to me, ever entered into your heart; for its ufual admiffion is at the eves."

The young man answered, "Dear Lydia, if I am to lofe my fight, the foft pantings which I have always felt when I heard your voice; if I am no more to distinguish the step of her I love when the approaches me, but to change that fweet and frequent pleasure for fuch an amazement as I knew the little time I lately faw; or, If I am to have any thing befides which may take from me the fenfe I have of what appeared moft pleafing to me at that time (which apparition it feems was you) pull out thefe eyes before they lead me to be ungrateful to you or unto myself. I wish for them but to fee you; pull them out, if they are to make me forget you.'

Lydia was extremely fatisfied with these affurances,, and pleafed herself with playing with his perplexities. In all his talk to her, he fhewed but very faint ideas of any thing which had not been received at the ears, and closed his proteftations to her by faying, that if he were to fee Valentia and Barcelona whom he fuppof;ed the most efteemed of all women, by the quarrel there was about them, he would never like any other But Lydia.

TATLER, Vol. II. No. 55.

BOOKS.

ARISTOTLE tells us, that the world is a copy or

tranfcript of those ideas which are in the mind of the first being; and that thofe ideas which are in the mind of man, are a tranfcript of the world. To this we may add, that words are the tranfcript of thofe ideas which are in the mind of man, and that writing or printing are the tranfcript of words.

As the Supreme Being has expreffed, and as it were printed his ideas in the creation, men exprefs their ideas in books, which by the great invention of thefe latter ages may laft as long as the fon and moon, and perish only in the wreck of nature. Thus Cowley, in his poem on the refurrection, mentioning the destruction of the univerfe, has thofe admirable lines;

Now all the wide extended fky,

And all the harmonious worlds on high,
And Virgil's facred works, shall die.

}

There is no other method of fixing thofe thoughts which arife and difappear in the mind of man, and tranfmitting them to the last period of time; no other method of giving permanency to our ideas, and preferving the knowledge of any particular perfon, when his body is mixed with the common mass of matter, and his foul retired into the world of fpirits. Books

are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation, as prefents to the posterity of thofe who are yet unborn.

All other arts of perpetuating our ideas continue but a fhort time. Statues can last but a few thoufand of years, edifices fewer, and colours ftill fewer than edifices. Michael Angelo, Fontana, and Raphael, will hereafter be what Phidias, Vitruvius, and Appelles, are at prefent; the names of great ftatuaries, architects, and painters, whofe works are loft. The feveral arts are expreffed in mouldering materials: Nature finks under them, and is not able to fupport the ideas which are impreffed upon it.

The circumftance which gives authors an advantage above all thofe great mafters, is this; that they can. multiply their originals, or rather can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which fhall be as valuable as the originals themfelves. This gives a great author fomething like a profpect of eternity, but at the fame time deprives him of thofe other advantages which artifts meet with. The artift finds greater returns in profit, as the author in fame. What an ineftimable price would a Virgil, or a Homer, a Cicero, or an Ariftotle bear, were their works, like a ftatue, a building, or a picture, to be confined only in one. place, and made the property of a single perfon

If writings are thus durable, and may pafs from age to age throughout the whole courfe of time, how areful fhould an author be of committing any thing

to print that may corrupt pofterity, and poifon the minds of men with vice and error! Writers of great talents, who employ their parts in propagating immorality and feafoning vicious fentiments with wit and humour, are to be looked upon as the pefts of fociety, and the enemies of mankind. They leave books behind them (as it is faid of those who die in diftempers which breed an ill-will towards their own fpecies) to fcatter infection, and destroy their pofterity. They act the counterparts of a Confucius or a Socrates, and feem to have been fent into the world to `deprave human nature, and fink it into the condition of brutality.

I have feen fome Roman Catholic, authors who tell us that vicious writers continue in purgatory, fo long as the influence of their writings continues upon pofterity. For purgatory, fay they, is nothing elfe but a cleaning us of our fins, which cannot be faid to be done away so long as they continue to operate and corrupt mankind. The vicious author, fay they, fins after death; and fo long as he continues to fin, fo long must he expect to be punished. Though the Roman Catholic notion of purgatory be indeed very ridiculous, one cannot but think that if the foul, after death, has any knowledge of what paffes in this world, that of an immoral writer would receive much more regret from the fenfe of corrupting, than fatisfaction from the thought of pleafing his furviving

admirers.

To take off from the feverity of this fpeculation, I all conclude this paper with the story of an atheiftica author, who at a time when he lay dangeroufly fick,and had defired the affiftance of a neighbouring Cura confeiled to him with great contrition, that nothing at more heavy at his heart, than the fenfe of his having feduced the age by his writings, and that their evil uence was likely to continue after death. The Curate, upon farther examination, finding the penitent in thetmolt agonies of defpair, and being himself a man oearning, told him that he hoped his cafe was not fo fperate as he apprehended, fince he

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