les can embroider them. I love
Birds and Beasts as well as you, but am content to fancy them when
they are really made. What do you think of Gilt Leather for Furniture?
There's your pretty Hangings for a Chamber; [2] and what is more, our
own Country is the only Place in _Europe_ where Work of that kind is
tolerably done. Without minding your musty Lessons: I am this Minute
going to _Paul's_ Church-Yard to bespeak a Skreen and a Set of
Hangings; and am resolved to encourage the Manufacture of my Country.'

_Yours_,

CLEORA.

[Footnote 1: Oct. 20, 1714, was the day of the Coronation of George I.]

[Footnote 2: There was at this time a celebrated manufactory of tapestry
at Chelsea.]

* * * * *

No. 610 Friday, October 22, 1714.

'Sic, cum transierint mei
Nullo cum strepitu dies,
Plebeius moriar senex.
Illi mors gravis incubat,
Qui, notus nimis omnibus,
Ignotus moritur sibi.'

Seneca.

I have often wondered that the _Jews_ should contrive such a worthless
Greatness for the Deliverer whom they expected, as to dress him up in
external Pomp and Pageantry, and represent him to their Imagination, as
making Havock amongst his Creatures, and acted with the poor Ambition of
a _Caesar_ or an _Alexander_. How much more illustrious doth he appear in
his real Character, when considered as the Author of universal
Benevolence among Men, as refining our Passions, exalting our Nature,
giving us vast Ideas of Immortality, and teaching us a Contempt of that
little showy Grandeur, wherein the _Jews_ made the Glory of their
Messiah to consist!

_Nothing_ (says _Longinus_) _can be Great, the Contempt of which is
Great_. The Possession of Wealth and Riches cannot give a Man a Title to
Greatness, because it is looked upon as a Greatness of Mind, to contemn
these Gifts of Fortune, and to be above the Desire of them. I have
therefore been inclined to think, that there are greater Men who lie
concealed among the Species, than those who come out, and draw upon
themselves the Eyes and Admiration of Mankind. _Virgil_ would never have
been heard of, had not his Domestick Misfortunes driven him out of his
Obscurity, and brought him to _Rome_.

If we suppose that there are Spirits or Angels who look into the Ways of
Men, as it is highly probable there are, both from Reason and
Revelation; how different are the Notions which they