Cato: A Tragedy, and Selected Essays

Spectator 237 (December 1, 1711)

1. “From the blind much of the truth is hidden.” Seneca Oedipus 295. Spectator, No. 237 Saturday, December 1, 1711 Visu carenti magna Pars Veri latet. Senec. in Oedip.1 It is very reasonable to believe, that part of the Pleasure which happy Minds shall enjoy in a future State, will arise from an enlarged Contemplation of the Divine Wisdom in the Government of the World, and a Discovery of the secret and amazing Steps of Providence, from the Beginning to the End of Time. Nothing seems to be an Entertainment more adapted to the Nature of Man, if we consider that Curiosity is one of the strongest and most lasting Appetites implanted in us, and that Admiration is one of our most pleasing Passions ; and what a perpetual Succession of Enjoyments will be afforded to both these, in a Scene so large and various as shall then be laid open to our View in the Society of superior Spirits, who perhaps will joyn with us in so delightful a Prospect. It is not impossible, on the contrary, that part of the Punishment of such as are excluded from Bliss may consist not only in their being denied this Privilege, but in having their Appetites at the same time vastly encreased, without any Satisfaction afforded to them. In these, the vain Pursuit of Knowledge shall, perhaps, add to their Infelicity , and bewilder them in Labyrinths of Error, Darkness, Distraction , and Uncertainty of every thing but their own Evil State. Milton has thus represented the fallen Angels reasoning together in spectator 237 145 2. John Milton Paradise Lost ii.557– 61. 3. Plato The Republic 377b–383c. a kind of Respite from their Torments, and creating to themselves a new Disquiet amidst their very Amusements; he could not properly have described the Sports of condemned Spirits, without that Cast of Horror and Melancholy he has so judiciously mingled with them. Others apart sate on a Hill retir’d, In Thoughts more elevate, and reason’d high Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate, Fixt Fate, Free will, Foreknowledge absolute, And found no End, in wandring Mazes lost.2 In our present Condition, which is a middle State, our Minds are, as it were, chequered with Truth and Falshood; and as our Faculties are narrow and our Views imperfect, it is impossible but our Curiosity must meet with many Repulses. The Business of Mankind in this Life being rather to act than to know, their Portion of Knowledge is dealt to them accordingly. From hence it is, that the Reason of the Inquisitive has so long been exercised with Difficulties, in accounting for the promiscuous Distribution of Good and Evil to the virtuous and the wicked in this World. From hence come all those Pathetical Complaints of so many Tragical Events, which happen to the Wise and the Good; and of such surprizing Prosperity, which is often the Lot of the Guilty and the Foolish; that Reason is sometimes puzzled, and at a loss what to pronounce upon so mysterious a Dispensation. Plato expresses his Abhorrence of some Fables of the Poets, which seem to reflect on the Gods as the Authors of Injustice;3 and lays it down as a Principle, that whatever is permitted to befal a Just Man, whether Poverty, Sickness, or any of those things which seem to be Evils, shall either in Life or Death conduce to his Good. My Reader will observe how agreeable this Maxim is to what we find delivered by a greater Authority. Seneca has written a Discourse purposely on this Subject, in which he takes Pains, after the Doctrine of 146 selected essays 4. Demetrius Phalereus (d. 280 b.c.), Athenian orator and rhetorician, one of the first Peripatetics. He served as governor of Athens from 317 to 307 b.c. 5. Seneca On Providence 3.3: “Among the many fine sayings of our friend Demetrius there is one, which I just heard; it still rings and sings in my ears. ‘No man,’ said he, ‘seems to me more unhappy than one who has never met with adversity.’” See also On Providence 2.5– 6 and 9–12. 6. I Corinthians 13:12. the Stoicks, to shew, that Adversity is not in it self an Evil; and mentions a noble Saying of Demetrius,4 That nothing wou’d be more Unhappy than a Man who had never known Af...