even though it should be fuppofed they were The fertility of this province, its conveni- It is time now to fet his lofs against his profit, and to fhew for the new fubjects he had acquired, how many old ones he had loft in the acquifition: I think that in his wars he has feldom brought lefs into the field in all places than 200,000 fighting men, befides what have been left in garrifons; and I think the common computation is, that of an army, at the end of a campaign, without fieges or battles, fcarce four fifths can be mustered of those that < came into the field at the beginning of the year. His wars at feveral times until the laft peace have held about 20 years; and if 40,000 yearly left, or a fifth part of his armies, are to be multiplied by 20, he cannot have lost less than 800,ogo of his old fubjects, and all ablebodied men; a greater number than the new fubjects he had acquired. < But this lofs is not all: Providence feems to have equally divided the whole mafs of mankind into different fexes, that every woman may have her husband, and that both may equally contribute to the continuance of the fpecies. It follows then, that for all the men that have been loft, as many women must have lived fingle, and it were but charity to believe they have not done all the fervice they were capable of doing in their generation. In fo long a course of years great part of them must have died, and all the reft must go off at least without leaving any reprefentatives behind. By this account he must have loft not only 800,000 fubjects, but double that number, and all the increase that was reafonably to be expected < from it. < · the whole harveft? Parfimony and frugality 'must be ftrangers to fuch a people; for will' any man fave to-day what he has reafon to fear 'will be taken from him to-morrow? And where is the encouragement for marrying? Will any man think of raiûng children, without any affurance of cloathing for their backs, or fo 'much as food for their bellies? And thus by his fatal ambition he must have leffened the number of his fubjects not only by flaughter and deftruction, but by preventing their very births, he has done as much as was poffible towards deftroying pofterity itself. Is this then the great, the invincible Lewis? This the immortal man, the tcut-puiflant, or the almighty, as his flatterers have called him? Is this the man that is fo celebrated for his conquefts? For every subject he has acquired, he has not loft three that were his inheritance? Are not his troops fewer, and thofe neither fo 'well fed, cloathed, or paid, as they were formerly, though he has now fo much greater caufe to exert himfelf? And what can be the reafon of all this, but that his revenue is a great deal lefs, his fubjects are either poorer, or not fo many to be plundered by constant taxes for • his ufe? < 6 ¿ It is well for him he had found out a way to steal a kingdom; if he had gone on conquering as he did before, his ruin had been long 'fince finished. This brings to my mind a fay'ing of King Pyrrhus, after he had a fecond time 'beat the Romans in a pitched battle, and was 'complimented by his Generals: Yes,' fays he, (fuch another victory and and I am quite undone.) And fince I have mentioned Pyrrhus, I will end with a very good, though known ftory of this ambitious madman. When he had fhewn the utmost fondness for his expedition against the Romans, Cyneas his chief 'minifter afked him what he propofed to himfelf by this war? Why, fays Pyrrhus to conquer the Romans, and reduce all Italy to my obedience. What then? fays Cyneas. To 'pafs over into Sicily, fays Pyrrhus, and then all the Sicilians must be our fubjects. And what does your majefty intend next? Why truly, 'fays the King, to conquer Carthage and make 'myself mafter of all Africa. And what, Sir, fays the minifter, is to be the end of all your expeditions? Why then, fays the King, for the reft of our lives we will fit down to good wine. How, Sir, replied Cyneas, to better than we have now before us? Have we not already as much as we can drink? Riot and excefs are not the becoming cha'racters of princes; but if Pyrrhus and Lewis had debauched like Vitellius, they had been lefs hurtful to their people, • Your humble Servant, PHILARITHMUS.' It is faid in the laft war there was a famine in his kingdom, which fwept away two millions of his people. This is hardly credible; if the lofs was only of one fifth part of that fum, it was very great. But it is no wonder there fhould be famine, where fo much of the people's fubftance is taken away for the king's ufe, that they have not fufficient left to provide against accidents; where fo many of the men are taken from the plough to ferve the king in his wars, and a great part of the tillage left to the weaker hands of fo many women and chil'dren. Whatever was the lofs, it must undoubtedly be placed to the account of his ambition. 6 T And fo muft alfo the deftruction or banishment of 3 or 400,000 of his reformed fubjects; he could have no other reafons for valuing thofe lives fo very cheap, but only to recommend himself to the bigotry of the Spanish nation. How fhould there be induftry in a country where all property is precarious? What fubjea will fow his land that his prince may reap C N° 181. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27: His lacrymis vitam damus, & mifer efcimus ultrò. VIRG. n. 2. ver. 145. Mov'd by thefe tears, we pity and protect. AM more pleafed with a letter that is filled with touches of nature than of wit. The flowing one is of this kind. SIR, Mong all the diftreffes which happen in This inftinct in man is more general and uncircumfcribed than in brutes, as being enlarged the we of A 6 " have touched upon the marriage of children without the confent of their parents. I am ⚫ one of these unfortunate perfons, I was about fifteen when I took the liberty to choose for myfelf; and have ever fince languifhed under the difpleasure of an inexorable father, who, though he fees me happy in the best of hufbands, and bleffed with very fine children, " can never be prevailed upon to forgive me. He was fo kind to me before this unhappy accident, that indeed it makes my breach of duty in fome measure inexcufable; and at the fame <time creates in me fuch a tendernefs towards him, that I love him above all things, and would die to be reconciled to him. I have thrown myself at his feet, and befought him with tears to pardon me; but he always pushes me away, and fpurns me from him; I have ⚫ written feveral letters to him, but he will neither open nor receive them. About two years < ago fent my little boy to him, dreffed in a new apparel; but the child returned to me crying, because he faid his grandfather would " not fee him, and had ordered him to be put · out of his houfe. My mother is won over to my fide, but dares not mention me to my father for fear of provoking him. About a month ago he lay fick upon his bed, and in great danger of his life: I was pierced to the heart at the news, and could not forbear going to in< quire after his health. My mother took this opportunity of speaking in my behalf: She told him with abundance of tears, that I was come to see him, that I could not speak to her for weeping, and that I fhould certainly break · my heart if he refufed at that time to give me ⚫his blefling, and be reconciled to me. He was fo far from relenting towards me, that he bid her fpeak no more of me, unless fhe had a mind to disturb him in his laft moments; for, Sir, you must know that he has the reputation of an honeft and religious man, which makes my misfortune much the greater. God be thanked he is fince recovered; but his fevere ufage has given me fuch a blow, that I fhall foon fink under it, unless I may be relieved by any impreffions which the reading of this in your paper may make upon him. < " 6 I am, &c.' " Of all hardneffes of heart there is none fo inexcufable as that of parents towards their children. An obftinate, inflexible, unforgiving temper is odious upon all occafions; but here it is unnatural. The love, tenderness, and compaffion, which are apt to arife in us towards thofe who depend upon us, is that by which the whole world of life is upheld. The Supreme Being. by the tranfcendent excellency and goodness of his nature, extends his mercy to all his works; and becaufe his creatures have not fuch a fpontaneous benevolence and compaffion towards those who are under their care and protection, he has implanted in them an inftinct, that fupplies the place of this inherent goodnefs. I have illuftrated this kind of inftinct in former papers, and have shown how it runs through all the fpecies of brute creatures, as indeed the whole animal creation fubfifts by it. confider ourselves attentively, we shall find that we are not only inclined to love thofe who defcend from us, but that we bear a kind of or natural affection, to every thing which relies upon us for its good and prefervation. Dependence is a perpetual call upon humanity, and a greater incitement to tenderness and pity than any other motive whatsoever. The man therefore who, notwithstanding any paffion or refentment, can overcome this powerful inftinct, and extinguish natural affection, debafes his mind even below brutality, fruftrates, as much as in him lies, the great defign of Providence, and ftrikes out of his nature one of the most divine principles that is planted in it. Among innumerable arguments which might be brought against fuch an unreasonable proceeding, I fhall only infift on one. We make it the condition of our forgiveness that we forgive others. In our very prayers we defire no more than to be treated by this kind of retaliation. The cafe therefore before us feems to be what they call a cafe in point;' the relation between the child and father being what comes nearest to that between a creature and his Creator. If the father is inexorable to the child who has offended, let the offence be of never so high a nature, how will he addrefs himself to the Supreme Being under the tender appellation of a father, and defire of him fuch a forgiveness as he himself refufes to grant? To this I might add many other religious, as well as many prudential confiderations; but if the laft mentioned motive does not prevail, I defpair of fucceeding by any other, and shall therefore conclude my paper with a very remarkable ftory, which is recorded in an old chronicle publifhed by Freher, among the writers of the German hiftory. Eginhart, who was fecretary to Charles the Great, became exceeding popular by his behaviour in that poft. His great abilities gained him the favour of his mafier, and the esteem of the whole court. Imma, the daughter of the Emperor, was fo pleafed with his perfon and converfation, that the fell in love with him. As fhe was one of the greateft beauties of the age, Eginhart anfwered her with a more than equal return of paffion. They stifled their flames for fome time, under apprehenfion of the fatal confequences that might enfue. Eginhart at length refolving to hazard all, rather than be deprived of one whom his heart was fo much fet upon, conveyed himself one night into the princess's apartment, and knocking gently at the door, was admitted as a person who had fomething to communicate to her from the emperor. He was with her in private moft part of the night; but upon his preparing to go away about break of day, he obe ferved that there had fallen a great fnow during his ftay with the princefs. This very much perplexed him, left the prints of his feet in the fnow might make difcoveries to the King, who often ufed to vifit his daughter in the morning. He acquainted the princefs Imma with his fears; who, after fome confultations upon the matter, prevailed upon him to let her carry him through the fnow upon her own fhoulders. It happened that the Emperor not being able to fleep, was at that time up and walking in his chamber, when upon looking through the window he perceived 17 perceived his daughter tottering under her burden, N° 182. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28. Plus aloes quàm mellis habet- S all parts of human life come under my A obfervation, my reader must not make un charitable inferences from my speaking knowingly Mr. Spectator, I T is wonderful to me that among the many enormities which you have treated of, you have not mentioned that of wenching, and particularly the infnaring part; I mean, that it is a thing very fit for your pen, to expofe the villainy of the practice of deluding women. You are to know, Sir, that I myself am a woman who have been one of the unhappy that have fallen into this misfortune, and that by the infinuation of a very worthless fellow, who ferved others in the fame manner both before my ruin and fince that time. I had, as foon as the rafcal left me, fo much indignation and refolution, as not to go upon the town, as the phrafe is, but took to work for my living in an obfcure place, out of the knowledge of all with whom I was before ac• quainted. < 6 you to read the naufeous impertinences which are written on thefe occafions, and to fee the filly creatures fighing over them, it could not but be matter of mirth as well as pity. A little ''prentice girl of mine has been for fome time applied to by an Irish fellow, who dreffes very fine, and ftruts in a laced coat, and is the admiration of feamitreffes who are under age in town. Ever fince I have had fome knowledge of the matter, I have debarred my 'prentice from pen, ink, and paper. But the other day he bespoke some cra vats of me: I went out of the fhop, and left his mistress to put them up into a bandbox in order to be fent to him when his man called. When I came into the fhop again, I took occafion to fend her away, and found in the bottom of the box written these words, "Why would you ruin 6 66 • a harmless creature that loves you?" then in the lid, "There is no refifting Strephon:" I fearched a little farther, and found in the rim of the box, "At eleven o'Clock at night come "in an hackney coach at the end of our street.' This was enough to alarm me; I fent away the things, and took my measures accordingly. An hour or two before the appointed time I'examined my young lady, and found her trunk ftuffed with impertinent letters,and an old feroll of parch ment in Latin, which her lover had fent her as a fettlement of fifty pounds a year: among other things, there was also the best lace I had in my fhop to make him a prefent for cravats. I was very glad of this laft circumftance, because I could very confcientiously fwear against him that he had enticed my L fervant away, and was her accomplice in robbing me: I procured a warrant against him accordingly. Every thing was now prepared, and the tender hour of love approaching, I, who had acted for myself in my youth the fame fenfelefs part, knew how to manage accordingly: therefore, after having locked up my maid, and not being fo much unlike her in height and shape, as in a huddled way not to pass for her, I delivered the bundle defigned to be carried off to her lover's man, who came with the fignal to receive them. Thus I followed after to the coach, where when I faw his mafter take them in, I cried out thieves! thieves and the conftable with his attendants feized my expecting lover. I kept myself un• obferved until I faw the crowd fufficiently increased, and then appeared to declare the goods to be mine; and had the fatisfaction to fee my man of mode put into the Round-Houfe, with the stolen wares by him, to be produced in, evidence against him the next morning. This matter is notoriously known to be fact; and I have been contented to fave my 'prentice, and take a year's rent of this mortified lover, not to appear. farther in the matter. This was fome penance: but, Sir, is this enough for a villainy of much more pernicious confequence than the trifles for which he was to have been indicted? Should not you, and all men of any parts or honour, put things upon fo right a foot, as that such a rafcal fhould not laugh at the imputation of what he was really guilty, and dread of being accused of that for which he was arrested? 6 In a word, Sir, it is in the power of you, and fuch as I hope you are, to make it as infamous to rob a poor creature of her honour as her It is the ordinary practice and bufinefs of life, with a fet of idle fellows about this town, to write letters, fend meffages, and form appoint-clothes. I leave this to your confideration, only ⚫ments with little raw unthinking girls, and leave them after poffeffion of them, without any mercy, to shame, infamy, poverty, and difeafe. Were take leave (which I cannot do without fighing) to remark to you, that if this had been the fente • of of mankind thirty years ago, I fhould have avoided a life spent in poverty and shame. I am, SIR, Your most humble Servant, Alice Threadneedle.' • Mr. Spectator, I L Round-Houfe, Sept. 9. AM a man of pleasure about town, but by the ftupidity of a dull rogue of a Juftice of peace, and an infolent conftable, upon the oath of an old harridan, am imprisoned here for theft, when I defigned only fornication. The midnight magiftrate, as he conveyed me along, had you in his mouth, and faid this would make a pure ftory for the Spectator. I hope, Sir, you will not pretend to wit, and take the part of dull rogues of bufinefs. The world is fo altered of late years, that there was not a man who would knock down a watchman in my behalf, but I was carried off with as much triumph as if I had been a pickpocket. At this rate, there is an end of all the wit and humour in the world. The time was when all the honeft whore-mafters in the neighbourhood would have rofe against the cuckolds to my rescue. If fornication is to be fcandalous, half the fine things that have been writ by moit of the wits of the the laft age may be burnt by the common hangman. Harkee, Spec, do not be queer; after having done fome things pretty well, do not begin to write at that rate that no Gentleman can read thee. Be true to love, and burn your Seneca. You do not expect me to write my name from hence, but I am Your unknown humble, &c. No 183. SATURDAY, SEPT. 29. Ιδμεν ψεύδεα πολλα λέγειν ἐτύμοισιν ὁμοῖα, Ιδμεν δ' εὖτ ̓ ἐέθλωμεν, αληθέα μυθήσασθαι. HESIOD. Sometimes fair truth in fiction we difguife, Sometimes prefent her naked to men's eyes. The fables I have here men, oned are raifed altogether upon brutes and vegetables, with fome of our own fpecies mixt among them, when the moral hath fo required. But des this kind of fable, there is another in which the actors are paffions, virtues, vices, and other imaginary perfons of the like nature. Some of the ancient critics will have it, that the Iliad and Odyfiey of Homer are fables of this nature; and that the feveral names of Gods and heroes are nothing elfe but the affections of the mind in a vifible fhape and character. Thus they tell us, that Achilles, in the fit liiad, reprefents anger, or the irafcible part of human nature; that upon drawing his fword againft his fuperior in a full affembly, Pallas is only another name for reafon, which checks and advifes him upon that occafion; and at her first appearance touches him upon the head, that part of the man being looked upon as the feat of reafon. And thus of the reft of the poem. As for the Ouyfiey, I think it is plain that Horace confidered it as one of thefe allegorical fables, by the moral which he has given us of feveral parts of it. The greatest Italian wits have applied themselves to the writing of this latter kind of fables: as Spenfer's Fairy Queen is one continued feries of them from the beginning to the end of that admirable work. If we look into the finest profe-authors of antiquity,fuch as Cicero, Plato, Xenophon, and many others, we thall find that this was likewife their favourite kind of fable. I fhall only farther obferve upon it, that the first of this fort that made any confiderable figure in the world was that of Hercules meeting with pleafure and virtue; which was invented by Prodicus, who lived before Socrates, and in the firft dawnings of philofophy. He ufed to travel through Greece by virtue of this fable, which procured him a kind reception in all the market-towns, where he never failed telling it as foon as he had gathered an audience about him. 20% F ABLES were the first pieces of wit that made their appearance in the world, and have been fill highly valued not only in times of the greateft fimplicity, but among the moft polite ages of mankind. Jotham's fable of the trees is the oldeft that is extant, and as beautiful as any that have been made fince that time. Nathan's fable of the poor man and his lamb is likewife more ancient than any that is extant, befides the above-mentioned, and had fo good an effect, as to convey inftruction to the ear of a king without offending it, and to bring the man after God's own heart to a right fenfe of his guilt and his duty. We find fop in the most diftant ages of Greece; and if we look into the very beginning of the commonwealth of Rome, we fee a mutiny among the common people appeafed by the fable of the belly and the limbs, which was indeed very proper to gain the attention of an incenfed rabble, at a time when perhaps they would have torn to pieces any man who had preached the fame doctrine to them in an open and direct manner. As fables took their birth in the very infancy of learning, they never flourished more than when learning was at its greatest height. To juf tify this affertion, I fhall put my reader in mind of Horace, the greateft wit and critic in the Auguftan age; and of Boileau, the moft correct poet among the moderns: not to mention La Fontaine, who hy this way of writing is come more into vogue than any other auther of our tines. After this fhort preface, which I have made up of fuch materials as my memory does at prefent fuggeft to me, before I prefent my reader with a fable of this kind, which I defign as the entertainment of the prefent paper, I muft in a few words open the occafion of it. In the account which Plato gives us of the converfation and behaviour of Socrates, the morning he was to die, he tells the following circumftance. When Socrates his fetters were knocked off (as was ufual to be done on the day that the condemned perfon was to be executed) being feated in the midft of his difciples, and laying one of his legs over the other, in a very unconcerned pofture, he began to rub it where it had been galled by the iron; and whether it was to fhew the indifference with which he entertained the thoughts of his approaching death, or (after his ufual manner) to take every occafion of philofophifing upon fome useful fubject, he observed the pleasure of that fenfation which now arose in thofe very parts of his leg, that just before had been fo much pained by the fetter. Upon this he reflected on the nature of pleasure and pain in general, and how conftantly they fucceed one another. To this he added, that if a man of good genius for a fable were to reprefent the nature of pleasure and pain in that way of writing, he would probably join them together after fuch a manner, that it would be impoffible for the one to come into any place, without being followed by the other. It is poffible, that if Plato had thought it proper at fuch a time to defcribe Socrates launching out into a difcourfe which was not of a piece with the bufinefs of the day, he would have enlarged upon this hint, and have drawn it out into fome beautiful allegory or fable. But fince he has not done it, I fhall attempt to write one myself in the fpirit of that divine author. a paffport from pain, there to dwell with mifery, "vice, and the furies. Or on the contrary, if he had ❝in him a certain proportion of good, he should be "There were two families which from the be-dispatched into heaven by a paflport from plea"ginning of the world were as oppofite to each fure, there to dwell with happiness, virtue, and "other as light and darkness. The one of them "the gods." L lived in Heaven, and the other in Hell. The "youngest defcendant of the firft family was "pleafure, who was the daughter of happiness, "who was the child of virtue, who was the off"fpring of the gods. Thefe, as I said before, had "their habitation in heaven. The youngest of "the oppofite family was pain, who was the ❝fon of mifery, who was the child of vice, who "was the offspring of the furies. The habitation ❝of this race of beings was in hell. "The middle ftation of nature between thefe W two oppofite extremes was the earth, which was inhabited by creatures of a middle kind, neither "fo virtuous as the one, nor fo vicious as the "other, but partaking of the good and bad quali"ties of these two oppofite families. Jupiter con"fidering that thefe fpecies commonly called man, ❝was too virtuous to be miferable, and too vicious ❝ to be happy; that he might make a distinction "between the good and the bad, ordered the two youngest of the above-mentioned families, "pleasure who was the daughter of happiness, "and pain who was the fon of mifery, to meet "one another upon this part of nature which « in the half-way between them, having promifed "to fettle it upon them both, provided they could "agree upon the divifion of it, fo as to fhare man"kind between them. "poffeffed the fpecies 'indifferently; upon the death of every fingle perfon, if he was found to "have in him a certain proportion of evil, he "fhould be dispatched into the infernal regions by truth of it is, they generally found upon fearch, that in the most vicious man pleasure might lay "a claim to an hundredth part, and that in the "moft virtuous man pain might come in for at least "two thirds. This they faw would occafion endlefs difputes between them, unless they could ❝ come to fome accommodation. To this end there was a marriage propofed between them, " and at length concluded: by this means it is "that we find pleasure and pain are fuch conftant yoke-fellows, and that they either make their vifits together, or are never far afunder. If pain "comes into an heart, he is quickly followed by pleafure; and if pleafure enters, you may be fure "pain is not far off. But notwithstanding this marriage was very "convenient for the two parties, it did not feem "to answer the intention of Jupiter in fending "them among mankind. To remedy therefore "this inconvenience, it was ftipulated between "them by article, and confirmed by the confent "of each family, that notwithstanding they here N° 184. MONDAY, OCTOBER I. -Opere in longo fas eft obrepere fomnum. SIR, 6 OU have already obliged the world with a difcourfe upon grinning, and have fince 6 proceeded to whistling, from whence you at C length came to yawning; from this, I think, " "Pleasure and pain were no fooner met in their "new habitation, but they immediately agreed you may make a very natural tranfition to fleeping. I therefore recommend to you for the fubject of a paper the following advertisement, C upon this point, that pleasure fhould take pof-which about two months ago was given into "feffion of the virtuous, and pain of the vicious "part of that species which was given up to them. "But upon examining to which of them any in<dividual they met with belonged, they found "each of them had a right to him; for that, ever body's hands, and may be seen with fome 'additions in the Daily Courant of Auguft the ninth. contrary to what they had feen in their old places of refidence, there was no perfon fo vicious << who had not fome good in him, nor any perfon "fo virtuous who had not in him fome evil. The HEN a man has difcovered a new vein of humour, it often carries him much farther than he expected from it. My correfpondents take the hint I give them, and purfue it into fpeculations which I never thought of at my first tarting it. This has been the fate of my paper on the match of grinning, which has already produced a fecond paper on parrallel fubjects, and brought me the following letter by the laft poft. I shall not premife any thing to it farther, than that it is built on matter of fact, and is as follows. Nicholas Hart, who flept last year at St. Bar "tholomew's befpital, intends to fleep this year at "the Cock and Bottle in Little-Britain.' Having fince inquired into the matter of fact, I find that the above-mentioned Nicholas Hart is every year seized with a periodical fit of fleeping, which begins upon the fifth of Auguft, and " ends on the eleventh of the fame month: That |
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