ate produced
his own notion of an improvement upon Shakespeare's King Lear and nine
dramatic pieces, with other poetry, of which the above lines are a
specimen. Tate was in his younger days the writer of the second part of
Dryden's 'Absalom and Achithophel,' to which Dryden himself contributed
only the characters of Julian Johnson as Ben Jochanan, of Shadwell as
Og, and of Settle as Doeg. His salary as poet-laureate was L100 a year,
and a butt of canary. He died three years after the date of this
_Spectator_ a poor man who had made his home in the Mint to escape his
creditors.]

* * * * *

No. 489. Saturday, September 20, 1712. Addison.

[Greek: Bathyrrheitao mega sthenos 'Okeaneio]--Hom.

SIR,

Upon reading your _Essay_ concerning the Pleasures of the Imagination,
I find, among the three Sources of those Pleasures which you have
discovered, [that] _Greatness_ is one. This has suggested to me the
reason why, of all Objects that I have ever seen, there is none which
affects my Imagination so much as the Sea or Ocean. I cannot see the
Heavings of this prodigious Bulk of Waters, even in a Calm, without a
very pleasing Astonishment; but when it is worked up in a Tempest, so
that the Horizon on every side is nothing but foaming Billows and
floating Mountains, it is impossible to describe the agreeable Horrour
that rises from such a Prospect. A troubled Ocean, to a Man who sails
upon it, is, I think, the biggest Object that he can see in motion,
and consequently gives his Imagination one of the highest kinds of
Pleasure that can arise from Greatness. I must confess, it is
impossible for me to survey this World of fluid Matter, without
thinking on the Hand that first poured it out, and made a proper
Channel for its Reception. Such an Object naturally raises in my
Thoughts the Idea of an Almighty Being, and convinces me of his
Existence as much as a metaphysical Demonstration. The Imagination
prompts the Understanding, and by the Greatness of the sensible
Object, produces in it the Idea of a Being who is neither
circumscribed by Time nor Space.

As I have made several Voyages upon the Sea, I have often been tossed
in Storms, and on that occasion have frequently reflected on the
Descriptions of them in ancient Poets. I remember _Longinus_ highly
recommends one in _Homer_, because the Poet ha