vine permission, which we are not to search into. You have passed that year of life wherein the most able and fortunate Captain, before your time, declared he had lived enough both to nature and to glory; and your Grace may make that reflection with much more justice. He spoke it after he had arrived at empire, by an usurpation upon those whom he had enslaved; but the Prince of Mindle heim may rejoice in a sovereignty which was the gift of him whose dominions he had preserved. Glory, established upon the uninterrupted success of honorable designs and actions, is not subject to diminution; nor can any attempts prevail against it, but in the proportion which the narrow circuit of ru mor bears to the unlimited extent of fame. We may congratulate your Grace not only upon your high achievements, but likewise upon the happy expiration of your command, by which your glory is put out of the power of fortune: And when your person shall be so too, that the Author and Disposer of all things may place you in that higher mansion of bliss and immortality which is prepared for good princes, lawgivers, and heroes, when HE, in his due time, removes them from the envy of mankind, is the hearty prayer of, My LORD, Your Grace's most obedient, most devoted, humble servant, THE SPECTATOR. THE SPECTATOR. No. 259. THURSDAY, December 27, 1711. BY STEELE. Quod decet honestum est, et quod honestum est decet. TULL What is becoming is honorable, and what is honorable is becoming.. THERE HERE are some things which cannot come under certain rules, but which one would think could not need them. Of this kind are outward civilities and salutations. These one would imagine might be regulated by every man's common sense, without the help of an instructor; but that which we call common sense suffers under that word: for it sometimes implies no more than that faculty which is common to all men, but sometimes signifies right reason, and what all men should consent to. In this latter acceptation of the phrase, it is no great wonder people err so much against it, since it is not every one who is possessed of it, and there are fewer who, Your against common rules and fashions, dare obey its dictates. As to salutations, which I was about to talk of, I observe, as I stroll about town, there are great enormities committed with regard to this particular. You shall sometimes see a man begin the offer of a salutation, and observe a forbidding air, or escaping eye, in the person he is going to salute, and stop short in the pole of his neck. This, in the person who believed he could do it with a good grace, and was refused the opportunity, is justly resented with a coldness in the whole ensuing season. great beauties, people in much favor, or by any means or for any purpose over-flattered, are apt to practise this, which one may call the preventing aspect, and throw their attention another way, lest they should confer a bow or a courtesy upon a person who might not appear to deserve that dignity. Others you shall find so obsequious, and so very courteous, as there is no escaping their favors of this kind. Of this sort may be a man who is in the fifth or sixth degree of favor with a minister: this good creature is resolved to show the world, that great honors cannot at all change his manners, he is the same civil person he ever was: he will venture his neck to bow out of a coach in full speed, at once to show he is full of business, and yet is not so taken up. as to forget his old friend. With a man who is not so well formed for courtship and elegant behavior, such a gentleman as this seldom finds his account in the return of his compliments; but he will still go on, for he is in his own way, and must not omit; let the neglect fall on your side, or where it will, his bu siness is still to be well-bred to the end. I think I have read in one of our English comedies a description of a fellow that affected knowing every body, and for want of judgment in time and place would bow and smile in the face of a judge sitting in the court; would sit in an opposite gallery, and smile in the minister's face as he came up into the pulpit, and nod as if he alluded to some familiarities between them in another place. But now I happen to speak of salutation at church, I must take notice, that several of my correspondents have importuned me to consider that subject, and settle the point of decorum in that particular. I do not pretend to be the best courtier in the world; but I have often, on public occasions, thought it a very great absurdity in the company (during the royal presence) to exchange salutations from all parts of the room, when certainly common sense should suggest, that all regards at that time should be engaged, and cannot be diverted to any other object, without disrespect to the sovereign. But as to the complaint of my correspondents, it is not to be imagined what offence some of them take at the cus tom of saluting in places of worship. I have a very angry letter from a lady, who tells me, one of her acquaintance, who out of mere pride and a pretence to be rude, takes upon her to return no civilities done to her in time of divine service, and is the most religious woman for no other reason but to appear a woman of the best quality in the church. This absurd custom had better be abolished than retained, if it were but to prevent evils of no higher nature than this is: But I am informed of objections much more considerable : a dissenter of rank and distinction was lately prevailed upon by a friend of his to come to one of the greatest congregations of the church of England about town: after the service was over, he declared he was very well satisfied with |