of Delphos pronounced to Cicero when he consulted what Course of Studies he should pursue, we should see almost every Man as eminent in his proper Sphere as Tully was in his, and should in a very short time find Impertinence and Affectation banished from among the Women, and Coxcombs and false Characters from among the Men.  For my Part, I could never consider this preposterous Repugnancy to Nature any otherwise, than not only as the greatest Folly, but also one of the most heinous Crimes, since it is a direct Opposition to the Disposition of Providence, and (as Tully expresses it) like the Sin of the Giants, an actual Rebellion against Heaven.

Z.

[Footnote 1: 

  Continuo has leges aeternaque foedera certis
  Imposuit natura locis.

Virg.]

* * * * *

No. 405.  Saturday, June 14, 1712.  Addison.

[Greek:  Oi de panaemerioi molpae theon hilaskonto, Kalon aeidontes paiaeona kouroi Achaion, Melpontes Ekaergon.  Ho de phrena terpet akouon.]

  Hom.

I am very sorry to find, by the Opera Bills for this Day, that we are likely to lose the greatest Performer in Dramatick Musick that is now living, or that perhaps ever appeared upon a Stage.  I need not acquaint my Reader, that I am speaking of Signior Nicolini. [1] The Town is highly obliged to that Excellent Artist, for having shewn us the Italian Musick in its Perfection, as well as for that generous Approbation he lately gave to an Opera of our own Country, in which the Composer endeavoured to do Justice to the Beauty of the Words, by following that Noble Example, which has been set him by the greatest Foreign Masters in that Art.

I could heartily wish there was the same Application and Endeavours to cultivate and improve our Church-Musick, as have been lately bestowed on that of the Stage.  Our Composers have one very great Incitement to it:  They are sure to meet with Excellent Words, and, at the same time, a wonderful Variety of them.  There is no Passion that is not finely expressed in those parts of the inspired Writings, which are proper for Divine Songs and Anthems.

There is a certain Coldness and Indifference in the Phrases of our European Languages, when they are compared with the Oriental Forms of Speech:  and it happens very luckily, that the Hebrew Idioms run into the English Tongue with a particular Grace and Beauty.  Our Language has received innumerable Elegancies and Improvements, from that Infusion of Hebraisms, which are derived to it out of the Poetical Passages in Holy Writ.  They give a Force and Energy to our Expressions, warm and animate our Language, and convey our Thoughts in more ardent and intense Phrases, than any that are to be met with in our own Tongue.  There is something so pathetick in this kind of Diction, that it often sets the Mind in a Flame, and makes our Hearts burn within us.  How cold and dead does a Prayer