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Creatures; as that of a greedy rapacious Aspect takes its - Name from a Cat, that of a fharp piercing Nature from =the Hawk, those of an amorous roguish Look derive - their Title even from the Sheep, and we say such an one * has a Sheep's Eye, not so much to denote the Innocence - as the fimple Slyness of the Cast: Nor is this metapho☑rical Inoculation a modern Invention, for we find Ho'mer taking the Freedom to place the Eye of an Ox, Bull, or Cow in one of his principal Goddefies, by that frequent Expreffion of

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Βοῶπις πότνια "Ηρη

NOW as to the peculiar Qualities of the Eye, that 'fine Part of our Constitution seems as much the Receptacle and Seat of our Passions, Appetites, and Inclinations, as the Mind it self; at least it is as the outward Portal to 'introduce them to the House within, or rather the common Thorough-fare to let our Affections pass in and out; Love, Anger, Pride, and Avarice, all visibly move in those little Orbs. I know a young Lady that can't see a cer'tain Gentleman pass by without shewing a secret Defire ' of feeing him again by a Dance in her Eye-balls; nay, 'she can't for the Heart of her help looking Half a Street's Length after any Man in a gay Dress. You can't behold a covetous Spirit walk by a Goldsmith's Shop, without cafting a wishful Eye at the Heaps upon the Counter. • Does not an haughty Person shew the Temper of his Soul • in the supercilious Rowl of his Eye? And how frequently in the Height of Passion does that moving Picture in our Head start and stare, gather a Redness and quick • Flashes of Lightning, and make all its Humours sparkle with Fire, as Virgil finely describes it,

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Ardentis ab ore

Scintilla absistunt : oculis micat acribus ignis.

• AS for the various Turns of Eye-fight, such as the ' voluntary or involuntary, the half or the whole Leer, • I shall not enter into a very particular Account of them; ' but let me observe, that oblique Vision, when natural, ' was anciently the Mark of Bewitchery and magical Fafci⚫ nation, and to this Day 'tis a malignant ill Look; but • when 'tis forced and affected it carries a wanton Design, and in Play-houses, and other publick Places, this ocular • In

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• Intimation is often an Affignation for bad Practices • But this Irregularity in Vision, together with such Enormities as Topping the Wink, the Circumspective Rowl, • the Side-Peep through a thin Hood or Fan, must be put in the Class of Heteropticks, as all wrong Notions of Religion are ranked under the general Name of Hererodox. All the pernicious Applications of Sight are more immediately under the Direction of a SPECTA TOR; and I hope you will arm your Readers against the • Mischiefs which are daily done by killing Eyes, in which you will highly oblige your wounded unknown Friend,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

T. B.

YOU profeffied in several Papers your particular En

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deavours in the Province of SPECTATOR, to • correct the Offences committed by Starers, who disturb whole Assemblies without any Regard to Time, • Place, or Modesty. You complained also, that a Starer is not ufually a Person to be convinced by the Reason of the Thing, nor so easily rebuked, as to amend by Admonitions. I thought therefore fit to acquaint you with a convenient Mechanical Way, which may easily prevent or correct Staring, by an Optical Contrivance of new Perspective-Glasses, short and commodious like Opera • Glasses, fit for short-fighted People as well as otherss ⚫ these Glasses making the Objects appear, either as they

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are seen by the naked Eye, or more distinct, though • somewhat less than Life, or bigger and nearer. A Per'fon may, by the Help of this Invention, take a View of another, without the Impertinence of Staring; at the * same Time, it shall not be possible to know whom or • what he is looking at. One may look towards his Right or Left Hand, when he is supposed to look for'wards: This is set forth at large in the printed Propo

fals for the Sale of these Glasses, to be had at Mr. Dillon's 'in Long-Acre, next Door to the White-Hart. Now, Sir, as your Spectator has occafioned the Publishing of this Invention for the Benefit of modest Spectators, the Inventor desires your Admonitions concerning the decent Use ' of it; and hopes, by your Recommendation, that for • the future Beauty may be beheld without the Torture Sand Confufion which it suffers from the Insolence of Starers..

• Starers. By this means you will relieve the Innocent ' from an Insult which there is no Law to punish, the it is a greater Offence than many which are within the Cognizance of Justice. I am,

SIR, Your most humble Servant,

Abraham Spy.

No 251. Tuesday, December 18.

Lingua centum funt, oraque centum,

Virg.

J

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Ferrex Vox. HERE is nothing which more astonishes a Foreigner, and frights a Country Squire, than the Cries

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of London. My good Friend Sir ROGER often declares, that he cannot get them out of his Head, or go to Sleep for them, the first Week that he is in Town. On the contrary, WILL. HONEYCOMB calls them the Ramage de la Ville, and prefers them to the Sounds of Larks and Nightingales, with all the Musick of the Fields and Woods. I have lately received a Letter from some very odd Fellow upon this Subject, which I shall leave with my Reader, without saying any thing further of it.

SIR,

I

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Am a Man out of all Business, and would willingly ' turn my Head to any thing for an honest Livelihood. • I have invented several Projects for raising many Mil'lions of Money without burthening the Subject, but I cannot get the Parliament to listen to me, who look upon me, forsooth, as a Crack, and a Projector; fo that ' despairing to enrich either my felf or my Country by ⚫ this Publick-spiritedness, I wou'd make some Proposals

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to you relating to a Design which I have very muchat • Heart, and which may procure me an handsome Subsistance, if you will be pleased to recommend it to the Cities of London and Westminster.

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THE Post I would aim at, is to be ComptrollerGeneral of the London Cries, which are at present un• der no manner of Rules or Discipline. I think I am pretty well qualified for this Place, as being a Man of very strong Lungs, of great Infight into all the Branches ' of our British Trades and Manufactures, and of a competent Skill in Musick.

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THE Cries of London may be divided into Vocal and Inftrumental. As for the latter, they are at present under a very great Disorder. A Freeman of London has the Privilege of disturbing a whole Street for an Hour • together, with the Twanking of a Brass-Kettle or a Fry <ing-Pan. The Watchman's Thump at Midnight startles * us in our Beds, as much as the Breaking in of a Thief. The Sowgelder's Horn has indeed something mufical in ' it, but this is seldom heard within the Liberties. I would therefore propose, that no Instrument of this Nature 'should be made use of, which I have not tuned and licensed, ' after having carefully examined in what manner it may ' affect the Ears of Her Majesty's liege Subjects.

VOCAL Cries are of a much larger Extent, and in • deed so full of Incongruities and Barbarisms, that weappear a distracted City to Foreigners, who do not com'prehend the Meaning of such enormous Outcries. Milk ' is generally said in a Note above Ela, and in Sounds fo 'exceeding shrill, that it often fets our Teeth on Edge. • The Chimney-sweeper is confined to no certain Pitch; ⚫ he sometimes utters himself in the deepest Base, and 'sometimes in the sharpest Treble ; sometimes in the highest, and sometimes in the lowest Note of the Ga'mut. The fame Observation might be made on the Re'tailers of Small coal, not to mention broken Glaffes or Brick-dust. In these therefore, and the like Cases, it ' should be my Care to sweeten and mellow the Voices ' of these itinerant Tradesmen, before they make their < Appearance in our Streets, as also to accommodate their 'Cries to their respective Wares; and to take Care in ' particular, that those may not make the most Noise who have the least to sell, which is very observable in the Venders of Card-matches, to whom I cannot but apply the old Proverb of Much Cry but little Wool.

SOME of these last mentioned Musicians are so ve'ry loud in the Sale of these trifling Manufactures, that an honest splenatick Gentleman of my Acquaintance bargained with one of them never to come into the Street where he lived: But what was the Effect of this

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• Contract? Why, the whole Trible of Card-match-makers < which frequent the Quarter, passed by his Door the very next Day, in Hopes of being bought off after the fame

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manner.

'IT is another great Imperfection in our London Cries, that there is no just Time nor Measure observed in them.

Our News should indeed be published in a very quick * Time, because it is a Commodity that will not keep <cold. It should not, however, be cried with the fame

Precipitation as Fire: Yet this is generally the Cafe: A < Bloody Bartle alarms the Town from one End to ano<ther in an Instant. Every Motion of the French is pub< lished in so great a Hurry, that one would think the

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Enemy were at our Gates. This likewise I would take < upon me to regulate in such a manner, that there should • be some Distinction made between the spreading of a Victory, a March, or an Incampment, a Dutch, a Portugal, or a Spanish Mail. Nor must I omit under this Head, those excessive Alarms with which several boiste'rous Rufticks infest our Streets in Turnip-Season; and • which are more inexcusable, because these are Wares which are in no Danger of cooling upon their Hands.

THERE are others who affect a very flow Time, < and are, in my Opinion, much more tunable than the < former; the Cooper in particular swells his last Note in 'an hollow Voice, that is not without its Harmony; nor

can I forbear being inspired with a most agreeable Melancholy, when I hear that fad and folemn Air with < which the Publick is very often asked, if they have any Chairs to mend? Your own Memory may suggest to you many other lamentable Ditties of the same Nature, ' in which the Musick is wonderfully languishing and meClodious.

I am always pleased with that particular Time of the • Year which is proper for the Pickling of Dill and Cucum'bers; but alas, this Cry, like the Song of the Nightingale, ' is not heard above two Months. It would therefore be ' worth while to confider, whether the fame Air might not in some Cases be adapted to other Words.

• IT might likewise deserve our most serious Confi⚫deration, how far, in a well regulated City, those Hu• mourists are to be tolerated, who, not contented with the

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