an arduous Task; but it should comfort a glorious Spirit that it is the highest Step to which human Nature can arrive.  Triumph, Applause, Acclamation, are dear to the Mind of Man; but it is still a more exquisite Delight to say to your self, you have done well, than to hear the whole human Race pronounce you glorious, except you your self can join with them in your own Reflections.  A Mind thus equal and uniform may be deserted by little fashionable Admirers and Followers, but will ever be had in Reverence by Souls like it self.  The Branches of the Oak endure all the Seasons of the Year, though its Leaves fall off in Autumn; and these too will be restored with the returning Spring.

T.

* * * * *

No. 173.  Tuesday, September 18, 1711.  Addison.

      ’...  Remove fera monstra, tuaegue
      Saxificos vultus, quaecunque ea, tolle Medusae.’

      Ovid.  Met.

In a late Paper I mention’d the Project of an Ingenious Author for the erecting of several Handicraft Prizes to be contended for by our British Artizans, and the Influence they might have towards the Improvement of our several Manufactures.  I have since that been very much surprized by the following Advertisement which I find in the ‘Post-Boy’ of the 11th Instant, and again repeated in the ‘Post-Boy’ of the 15th.

On the 9th of October next will be run for upon Coleshill-Heath in Warwickshire, a Plate of 6 Guineas Value, 3 Heats, by any Horse, Mare or Gelding that hath not won above the Value of L5, the winning Horse to be sold for L10, to carry 10 Stone Weight, if 14 Hands high; if above or under to carry or be allowed Weight for Inches, and to be entered Friday the 5th at the Swan in Coleshill, before Six in the Evening.  Also a Plate of less Value to be run for by Asses.  The same Day a Gold Ring to be Grinn’d for by Men.

The first of these Diversions, that is to be exhibited by the L10 Race-Horses, may probably have its Use; but the two last, in which the Asses and Men are concerned, seem to me altogether extraordinary and unaccountable.  Why they should keep Running Asses at Coleshill, or how making Mouths turns to account in Warwickshire, more than in any other Parts of England, I cannot comprehend.  I have looked over all the Olympic Games, and do not find any thing in them like an Ass-Race, or a Match at Grinning.  However it be, I am informed that several Asses are now kept in Body-Cloaths, and sweated every Morning upon the Heath, and that all the Country-Fellows within ten Miles of the Swan, grinn an Hour or two in their Glasses every Morning, in order to qualify themselves for the 9th of October.  The Prize, which is proposed to be Grinn’d for, has raised such an Ambition among the Common People of Out-grinning one another, that many very discerning Persons are afraid it should spoil most of the Faces in the Country; and that a Warwickshire Man will be known by his Grinn, as Roman-Catholicks imagine a Kentish Man is by his Tail.  The Gold Ring which is made the Prize of Deformity, is just the Reverse of the Golden Apple that was formerly made the Prize of Beauty, and should carry for its Posy the old Motto inverted.