No. 606. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1714. ། Longum cantu solata laborem, Arguto conjux percurrit pectine telas. VIRG. Georg. i. ver. 294. Mean time at home The good wife singing plies the various loom. · Mr. SPECTATOR, HAVE a couple of nieces under my direction, who so often run gadding abroad, that I do not know where to have them. Their dress, their tea, and their visits, take up all their time, and they go to bed as tired with doing no thing, as I am after quilting a whole under-petticoat. The only time they are not idle, is while they read your Spectators; which being dedicated to the interests of virtue, I desire you to recommend the long-neglected art of needle-work. Those hours which in this age are thrown away in dress, plays, visits, and the like, were employed, in my time, in writing out receipts, or working beds, chairs, and hangings, for the family. For my part, I have plied my needle these fifty years, and by my good will would never have it out of my hand. It grieves my heart to see a couple of proud idle flirts sipping their tea, for a whole afternoon, in a great room hung round with the industry of their great-grandmother. Pray, Sir, take the laudable mystery of embroidery into your serious consideration; and, as you have a great deal of the virtue of the last age in you, continue your endeavours to reform the present. I am, &c. In obedience to the commands of my venerable correspondent, I have duly weighed this important subject, and promise myself, from the arguments here laid down, that all the fine ladies of England will be ready, as soon as their mourning is over *, to appear covered with the work of their own hands. * The general mourning on the death of Queen Anne What a delightful entertainment must it be to the fair sex, whom their native modesty, and the tenderness of men towards them, exempts from public business, to pass their hours in imitating fruits and flowers, and transplanting all the beauties of nature into their own dress, or raising a new creation in their closets and apartments? How pleasing is the amusement of walking among the shades and groves planted by themselves, in surveying heroes slain by the needle, or little Cupids, which they have brought into the world without pain? This is, methinks, the most proper way wherein a lady can shew a fine genius; and I cannot forbear wishing that several writers of that sex.had chosen to apply themselves rather to tapestry than rhyme. Your pastoral poetesses may vent their fancy in rural landscapes, and place despairing shepherds under silken willows, or drown them in a stream of mohair. The heroic writers may work up battles as successfully, and inflame them with gold, or stain them with crimson. Even those who have only a turn to a song, or an epigram, may put many valuable stitches into a purse, and crowd a thousand graces into a pair of garters. If I may, without breach of good manners, imagine that any pretty creature is void of genius, and would perform her part herein but very awkwardly, I must nevertheless insist upon her working, if it be only to keep her out of harm's way. Another argument for busying good women in works of fancy is, because it takes them off from scandal, the usual attendant of tea-tables, and all other inactive scenes of life. While they are forming their birds and beasts, their neighbours will be allowed to be the fathers of their own children; and whig and tory will be but seldom mentioned where the great dispute is, whether blue or red is the more proper colour. How much greater glory would Sophronia do the general, if she would choose rather to work the battle of Blenheim in tapestry, than signalize herself with so much vehemence against those who are Frenchmen in their hearts! A third reason that I shall mention, is the profit that is brought to the family where these pretty arts are encouraged. It is manifest that this way of life not only keeps fair ladies from running out into expences, but is How memor at the same time an actual improvement. able would that matron be, who shall have it inscribed upon her monument, That she wrought out the whole Bible in tapestry, and died in a good old age, after having covered three hundred yards of wall in the mansion house!' The premises being considered, I humbly submit the following proposals to all mothers in Great Britain: 1. That no young virgin whatsoever be allowed to receive the addresses of her first lover but in a suit of her own embroidering. to 2. That before every fresh servant, she be obliged appear with a new stomacher at the least. 3. That no one be actually married, until she hath the child-bed pillows, &c. ready stitched, as likewise the mantle for the boy quite finished. These laws, if I mistake not, would effectually restore the decayed art of needle-work, and make the virgins of Great Britain exceedingly nimble-fingered in their busi ness. There is a memorable custom of the Grecian ladies in this particular preserved in Homer, which I hope will have a very good effect with my country women. A wi̟dow, in ancient times, could not, without indecency, receive a second husband, until she had woven a shrowd for her deceased lord, or the next of kin to him. Accordingly, the chaste Penelope, having, as she thought, lost Ulysses at sea, employed her time in preparing a winding-sheet for Laertes, the father of her husband. The story of her web being very famous, and yet not sufficiently known in its several circumstances, I shall give it to my reader, as Homer makes one of her wooers relate it. "Sweet hope she gave to every youth apart, Thus she: nor did my friends mistrust the guile! ADVERTISEMENT. Dr. Cairns, a gradual, challenges all the gradual doctors, of Great Britain, to discourse with him of the nature of metals, and their medicinal virtues, and of the universal medicine; and, until he find one fitter for the title, he declareth himself professor of ocult philosophy and alchymy. And in his chamber, every Thursday, at four o'clock, he will make a discourse of the greatest secrets in nature. He expected and invited the most learned audience that the kingdom affords [nam ignoti multa cupido]; and promised a discourse of the greatest secrets in nature, not only suitable to their titles and his, but to the highest attainments of human understanding. Dr. Cairns lives the next door but one to the Riding-house in Berwick-street, near Marlborough-street. Each paying half-a-crown.' No. 607. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1714. Dicite To Paean, et Io bis dicite Pœan : OVID. Ars Am. 1. i. ver. 1. Now Io Pean sing, now wreaths prepare, The prey is fall'n in my successful toils. • Mr. SPECTATOR, 'HAVING ANON. AVING in your paper of Monday last* published my report on the case of Mrs. Fanny Fickle, wherein I have taken notice, that love comes after marriage; I hope * NO. 605. your readers are satisfied of this truth, that as love generally produces matrimony, so it often happens that matrimony produces love. 'It perhaps requires more virtue to make a good husband or wife than what go to the finishing any the most shining character whatsoever. Discretion seems absolutely necessary; and accordingly we find that the best husbands have been most famous for their wisdom Homer, who hath drawn a per-fect pattern of a prudent man, to make it the more complete, hath celebrated him for the just returns of fidelity and truth to his Penelope; insomuch that he refused the caresses of a goddess for her sake; and, to use the expression of the best pagan authors, "Vetulam suam prætulit immortalitati," his old woman was dearer to him than immortality. • Virtue is the next necessary qualification for this domestic character, as it naturally produces constancy and mutual esteem. Thus Brutus and Portia were more re markable for virtue and affection than any others of the age in which they lived. Good-nature is a third necessary ingredient in the marriage state, without which it would inevitably sour upon a thousand occasions. When greatness of mind is joined with this amiable quality, it attracts the admiration and esteem of all who behold it. Thus Cæsar, not more remarkable for his fortune and valour than for his humanity, stole into the hearts of the Roman people, when, breaking through the custom, he pronounced an oration at the funeral of his first and best-beloved wife. Good-nature is insufficient, unless it be steady and uniform, and accompanied with an evenness of temper, which is above all things to be preserved in this friendship contracted for life. A man must be easy within himself before he can be so to his other self. Socrates and Marcus Aurelius are instances of men, who, by the strength of philosophy, having entirely composed their minds, and subdued their passions, are celebrated for good husbands; notwithstanding the first was yoked with Xantippe, and the other with Faustina. If the wedded pair would but habituate themselves for the first year to bear with one another's faults, the difficulty would be pretty well conquered. This mutual sweetness of temper |