test the Truth
of the Old Bible. Their Dispersion spreads these Witnesses thro' all
parts of the World. The Adherence to their Religion makes their
Testimony unquestionable. Had the whole Body of the _Jews_ been
converted to Christianity, we should certainly have thought all the
Prophecies of the old Testament, that relate to the Coming and History
of our Blessed Saviour, forged by Christians, and have looked upon them,
with the Prophecies of the _Sybils_, as made many Years after the Events
they pretended to foretell.

O.

* * * * *

No. 496. Monday, September 29, 1712. Steele.

'Gnatum pariter uti his decuit aut etiam amplius,
Quod illa aetas magis ad haec utenda idonea est.'

Terent. Heaut. A. 1. Sc. 1.

_Mr_. SPECTATOR,

'Those Ancients who were the most accurate in their Remarks on the
Genius and Temper of Mankind, by considering the various Bent and
Scope of our Actions throughout the Progress of Life, have with great
Exactness allotted Inclinations and Objects of Desire particular to
every Stage, according to the different Circumstances of our
Conversation and Fortune, thro' the several Periods of it. Hence they
were disposed easily to excuse those Excesses which might possibly
arise from a too eager Pursuit of the Affections more immediately
proper to each State: They indulged the Levity of Childhood with
Tenderness, overlooked the Gayety of Youth with Good-nature, tempered
the forward Ambition and Impatience of ripen'd Manhood with
Discretion, and kindly imputed the tenacious Avarice of old Men to
their want of relish for any other Enjoyment. Such Allowances as these
were no less advantageous to common Society than obliging to
particular Persons; for by maintaining a Decency and Regularity in the
Course of Life, they supported the Dignity of human Nature, which then
suffers the greatest Violence when the Order of things is inverted;
and in nothing is it more remarkably vilify'd and ridiculous, than
when Feebleness preposterously attempts to adorn it self with that
outward Pomp and Lustre, which serve only to set off the Bloom of
Youth with better advantage. I was insensibly carried into Reflections
of this nature, by just now meeting _Paulino_ (who is in his
Climacterick) bedeck'd with the utmost Splendour of Dress and
Equipage, and giving an unbounded Loose to all m