Letter No. 245. Tuesday, December 11, 1711. Addison.
Ficta Voluptatis causa sint proxima Veris.
Hor.
There is nothing which one regards so much with an Eye of Mirth and Pity as Innocence, when it has in it a Dash of Folly. At the same time that one esteems the Virtue, one is tempted to laugh at the Simplicity which accompanies it. When a Man is made up wholly of the Dove, without the least Grain of the Serpent in his Composition, he becomes ridiculous in many Circumstances of Life, and very often discredits his best Actions. The Cordeliers tell a Story of their Founder St. Francis, that as he passed the Streets in the Dusk of the Evening, he discovered a young Fellow with a Maid in a Corner; upon which the good Man, say they, lifted up his Hands to Heaven with a secret Thanksgiving, that there was still so much Christian Charity in the World. The Innocence of the Saint made him mistake the Kiss of a Lover for a Salute of Charity. I am heartily concerned when I see a virtuous Man without a competent Knowledge of the World; and if there be any Use in these my Papers, it is this, that without presenting Vice under any false alluring Notions, they give my Reader an Insight into the Ways of Men, and represent human Nature in all its changeable Colours. The Man who has not been engaged in any of the Follies of the World, or, as Shakespear expresses it, hackney'd in the Ways of Men, may here find a Picture of its Follies and Extravagancies. The Virtuous and the Innocent may know in Speculation what they could never arrive at by Practice, and by this Means avoid the Snares of the Crafty, the Corruptions of the Vicious, and the Reasonings of the Prejudiced. Their Minds may be opened without being vitiated.
It is with an Eye to my following Correspondent, Mr. Timothy Doodle, who seems a very well-meaning Man, that I have written this short Preface, to which I shall subjoin a Letter from the said Mr. Doodle.
SIR,
I could heartily wish that you would let us know your Opinion upon
several innocent Diversions which are in use among us, and which are
very proper to pass away a Winter Night for those who do not care to
throw away their Time at an Opera, or at the Play-house. I would
gladly know in particular, what Notion you have of Hot-Cockles; as
also whether you think that Questions and Commands, Mottoes, Similes,
and Cross-Purposes have not more Mirth and Wit in them, than those
publick Diversions which are grown so very fashionable among us. If
you would recommend to our Wives and Daughters, who read your Papers
with a great deal of Pleasure, some of those Sports and Pastimes that
may be practised within Doors, and by the Fire-side, we who are
Masters of Families should be hugely obliged to you. I need not tell
you that I would have these Sports and Pastimes not only merry but
innocent, for which Reason I have not mentioned either Whisk or
Lanterloo, nor indeed so much as One and Thirty. After having
communicated to you my Request upon this Subject, I will be so free as
to tell you how my Wife and I pass away these tedious Winter Evenings
with a great deal of Pleasure. Tho she be young and handsome, and
good-humoured to a Miracle, she does not care for gadding abroad like
others of her Sex. There is a very friendly Man, a Colonel in the