fire had the leaft part in the paffion I heretofore profeffed towards you, fo has vanity no fhare in the glory to which you have now raifed • me. Innocence, knowledge, beauty, virtue, fincerity, and difcretion, are the conftant ornaments of her who has faid this of me. Fame is a babbler, but I have arrived at the higheft glory in this world, the commendation of the most deserving perfon in it.' · T I must not however engage myself blindly on the fide of the fon, to whom the fond letter above-written was directed. His father calls him a "faucy and audacious rafcal" in the firft line, and I am afraid upon examination he will prove but an ungracious youth. "To go about "railing" at his father, and to find no other place but the outfide of his letter" to tell him "that might overcomes right," if it does not difcover" his reafon to be depraved," and "that "he is either fool or mad," as the choleric old Virg. Æn. 10. ver. 824. gentleman tells him, we may at least allow that the father will do very well in endeavouring to "better his judgment, and give him a greater "fenfe of his duty." But whether this may be brought about " by breaking his head," or "giv"ing him a great knock on the skull," ought, I think, to be well confidered. Upon the whole, 1 with the father has not met with his 'match, and that he may not be as equally paired with a fon, as the mother in Virgil. No 189. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6. Patriæ pietatis imago. An image of paternal tenderness ! Th HE following letter being written to my bookfeller, upon a fubject of which I treated fome time fince, I fhall publish it in this paper, together with the letter that was inclofed in it. • Mr. Buckley, MR R. Spectator having of late defcanted upon the cruelty of parents to their children, I have been induced (at the request of feveral of Mr. Spectator's admirers) to inclofe this letter, which I affure you is the original ⚫ from a father to his own son, notwithstanding * the latter gave but little or no provocation. It would be wonderfully obliging to the world, if Mr. Spectator would give his opinion of it in • fome of his fpeculations, and particularly to (Mr. Buckley,) Your humble fervant. ‹ Sirrah, You YOU are a faucy audacious rafcal, and both fool and mad, and I care not a farthing whether you comply or no; that does * not raze out my impreffions of your infolence, going about.railing at me, and the next day to folicit my favour: thefe are inconfiftencies, • fuch as difcover thy reafon depraved. To be • brief, I never dcfire to fee your face; and, Sirrah, if you go to the work-houfe, it is no difgrace to me for you to be fupported there; and if you ftarve in the streets, I will never give ⚫ any thing underhand in your behalf. If I have any more of your fcribbling nonfenfe I will break your head the first time I fet fight on · you. You are a Rubborn beaft; is this your gratitude for my giving you money? You rogue, I'll better your judgment, and give you a greater fenfe of your duty to (I regret to say) your father, &c. 6 · z 6 P. S. It is prudence in you to keep out of my fight; for to reproach me, that Might overcomes Right, on the outfide of your letter, thall give you a great knock on the skull for • it. of the finest comedies that ever appeared upon the English ftage: I mean the part of Sir Sampfon in Love for Love. Was there ever fuch an image of paternal tendernefs! It was ufual among fome of the Greeks to make their flaves drink to excefs, and then expofe them to their children, who by that means conceived an early averfion to a vice which makes men appear fo monstrous and irrational. I have expofed this picture of an unnatural father with the fame intention, that its deformity may deter others from its resemblance. If the reader has a mind to fee a father of the fame ftamp reprefented in the most exquifite ftrokes of humour, he may meet with it in one I must here take notice of a letter which I have received from an unknown correfpondent, upon the fubject of my paper, upon which the foregoing letter is likewife founded. The writer of it feems very much concerned left that paper fhould feem to give encouragement to the difobedience of children towards their parents; but if the writer of it will take the pains to read it over again attentively, I dare fay his apprehenfions will vanish. Pardon and reconciliation are all the penitent daughter requests, and all that I contend for in her behalf; and in this cafe I may ufe the faying of an eminent wit, who, upon fome great mens preffing him to forgive his daughter who had married against his confent, told them he could refufe nothing to their inftances, but that he would have them remember there was difference between giving and forgiving. I must confefs, in all controverfies between parents and their children, I am naturally prejudiced in favour of the former. The obligations on that fide can never be acquitted, and I think it is one of the greatest reflexions upon human nature that paternal inftinet fhould be a stronger motive to love than filial gratitude; that the receiving of favours should be a lefs inducement to good-will, tenderness and commiseration, than the conferring of them; and that the taking care of any perfon fhould endear the child or dependent more to the parent or benefactor, than the parent or benefactor to the child or dependent; yet fo it happens, that for one cruel parent we meet with a thousand undutiful children. This is indeed wonderfully contrived (as I have formerly obferved) for the fupport of every living fpecies; but at the fame time that it fhews the wisdom of the Creator, it difcovers the imperfection and degeneracy of the creature, The The obedience of children to their parents is the bafis of all government, and fet forth as the measure of that obedience which we owe to thofe whom Providence hath placed over us. It is father Le Compte, if I am not mistaken, who tells us how want of duty in this particular is punished among the Chinese, infomuch that if a fon fhould be known to kill, or fo much as to ftrike his father, not only the criminal but his whole family would be rooted out, nay the inhabitants of the place where he lived would be put to the fword, nay the place itself would be rafed to the ground, and its foundations fown with falt for, fay they, there must have been an utter depravation of manners in that clan or fociety of people who could have bred up among them fo horrid an offender. To this I fhall add a paffage out of the firft book of Herodotus. That hiftorian in his account of the Perfian cuftoms and religion tells us, It is their opinion that no man ever killed his father, or that it is poffible fuch a crime fhould be in nature; but that if any thing like it should ever happen, they conclude that the reputed fon must have been illegitimate, fuppofitious, or begotten in adultery. Their opinion in this particular fhews fufficiently what a notion they must have had of undutifulness in general. L No 190. MONDAY, OCTOBER 8. Servitus crefcit nova― HOR. Od. §. 1. 2. ver. 18, A fervitude to former times unknown. ! ST INCE I made fome reflexions upon the general negligence ufed in the cafe of regard towards women, or, in other words, fince I talked of wenching, I have had epiftles upon that subject, which I fhall, for the prefent entertainment, infert as they lie before me. Mr. Spe Fator, A S your fpeculations are not confined to any part of human life, but concern the wicked as well as the good, I must defire your 'favourable acceptance of what I, a poor ftroiling girl about town, have to fay to you. I " was told by a Roman-Catholic gentleman who picked me up last week, and who, I hope, is abfolved for what paffed between us; I fay I " was told by fuch a perfon, who endeavoured to convert me to his own religion, that in countries where popery prevails, befides the advantage of licensed ftews, there are large endowments given for the Incurabili, I think he called them, fuch as are paft all remedy, and are allowed fuch maintenance and fupport as to keep them without farther care till they expire. This manner of treating poor finners has, me thinks, great humanity in it; and as you are a perfon who pretend to carry your reflexions upon all fubjects whatever that occur to you, with candour, and act above the sense of what 'mifinterpretation you may meet with, I beg the favour of you to lay before all the world the unhappy condition of us poor vagrants, who are really in a way of labour inftead of idlenefs. There are crowds of us whofe manner of livelihood has long ceased to be pleafing to and who would willingly lead a new life, if the rigour of the virtuous did not for ever expel us from coming into the world again. us; As it now happens, to the eternal infamy of the male fex, falfhood among you is not re-. proachful, but credulity in women is infa-, mous. ( < Give me leave, Sir, to give you my history. You are to know that I am a daughter of a man of a good reputation, tenant to a man of quality. The heir of this great houfe took it in his head to caft a favourable eye upon me, and fucceeded. I do not pretend to fay he promifed me marriage: I was not a creature 'filly enough to be taken by fo foolish a story: but he ran away with me up to this town, and introduced me to a grave matron, with whom I boarded for a day or two with great gra'vity, and was not a little pleafed with the change of my condition, from that of a country life to the finest company, as I believed, in the whole world. My humble fervant made me understand that I should be always kept in the plentiful condition I then enjoyed: when after a very great fondnefs towards me, he one 'day took his leave of me for four or five days. 'In the evening of the fame day my good landlady came to me, and obferving me very penfive, began to comfort me, and with a smiletold me I muft fee the world. When I was deaf to all the could fay to divert me, the be< gan to tell me with a very frank air that I muft be treated as I ought, and not take these squea 'mith humours upon me, for my friend had left 'me to the town; and, as their phrafe is, the expected I would fee company, or I must be treated like what I had brought myself to. This put me into a fit of crying: And I im'mediately, in a true fenfe of my condition, threw myfelf on the floor, deploring my fate, calling upon all that was good and facred to fuccour me. While I was in all this agony, I obferved a decript old fellow come into the room, and looking with a fenfe of pleasure in his face at all my vehemence and tranfport. In a pause of my diftrefs I heard him fay to the fhameless old woman who stood by me, she is certainly a new face, or elfe the acts it rarely. With that the Gentlewoman, who was making her market of me, in all the turns of my perfon, the heaves of my paffion, and the suitable chan < ges of my posture, took occafion to commend my neck, my fhape, my eyes, my limbs. All this was accompanied with such speeches as you may have heard horfe-courfers make in the fale of nags, when they are warranted for their 'foundness. You understand by this time that I was left in a brothel, and expofed to the next bidder, that could purchase me of my patronefs. This is fo much the work of hell; the pleasure in the poffeffion of us wenches abates in proportion to the degrees we go beyond the bounds of innocence; and no man is gratified, if there is nothing left for him to debauch. "Well, Sir, my firft man, when I came upon the town, was Sir Jeoffry Foible, who was ex'tremely lavish to me of his money, and took fuch a fancy to me that he would have carried me off, if my patronefs would have taken any reasonable terms for me: but as he was old, his covetoufnefs was his ftrongeft paffion, and poor I was foon left exposed to be the common refufe of all the rakes and debauchees in town. < ' ⚫ " I cannot tell whether you will do me juftice or no, until I fee whether you print this or not; ' otherwife, as I now live with Sal, I could give " you 1 1 you a very juft account of who and who is to 'gether in this town. You perhaps will not believe it; but I know one who pretends to be · a very good Proteftant who lies with a Roman Catholic: but more of this hereafter, as you please me. There do come to our houfe the greatest politicians of the age; and Sal is more fhrewd than any body thinks: no body can ⚫ believe that fuch wife men could go to baudy⚫houfes out of idle purpofes; I have heard them ⚫ often talk of Auguftus Cæfar, who had intrigues with the wives of fenators, not out of wantonnefs but ftratagem. < Mr. Spectator, < < I AM an idle young woman that would work for my livelihood, but that I am kept in fuch a manner as I cannot ftir out. My tyC rant is an old jealous fellow, who allows me nothing to appear in. I have but one fhoe and one flipper: no head-drefs, and no upper petAs you fet up for a reformer, I defire < you would take me out of this wicked way, and keep me yourself. < < <ticoat. ‹ EVE AFTERDAY.' · · • Mr. Spectator, I AM to complain to you of a fet of impertinent coxcombs, who vifit the apartments ⚫ of us women of the town, only, as they call it, ⚫ to fee the world. I must confefs to you, this to men of delicacy might have an effect to cure them; but as they are ftupid, noify and drunken fellows, it tends only to make vice in them felves, as they think, pleasant and humorous, and at the fame time naufeous in us. I fhall, Sir, hereafter from time to time give you the ' names of these wretches who pretend to enter our houses merely as fpectators. Thefe men ⚫ think it wit to ufe us ill: pray tell them, however worthy we are of fuch treatment, it is unworthy them to be guilty of it towards us. Pray, Sir, take notice of this, and pity the 'oppreffed I wish we could add to it the 'innocent.' T S N° 191. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9. ἦλον ὄνειρον Hom. Il. 2. ver. 6. Deluding vifion of the night. POPE. OME ludicrous fchoolmen have put the cafe, that if an afs were placed between two bundles of hay, which affected his fenfes equally on each fide, and tempted him in the very fame degree, whether it would be poffible for him to cat of either. They generally determine this queftion to the difadvantage of the afs, who they fay would ftarve in the midst of plenty, as not having a fingle grain of free-will to determine him more to the one than to the other. The bundle of hay on either fide ftriking his fight and fmell in the fame proportion, would keep him in a perpetual fufpence, like the two magnets which, travellers have told us, are placed one of them in the roof, and the other in the floor of Mahomet's burying place at Mecca, and by that means, fay they, pull the impofture's iron coffin with fuch an equal attraction, that it hangs in the air between both of them. As for the afs's behaviour in fuch nice circumftances, whether he would ftarve fooner than violate his neutrality to the two bundles of hay, I fhall not prefume to determine: but only take notice of the conduct of our own fpecies in the fame perplexity, When a man has a mind to venture his money in a lottery, every figure of it appears equally alluring, and as likely to fucceed as any of its fellows. They all of them have the fame pretenfions to good-luck, ftand upon the fame foot of competition, and no manner of reafon can be given why a man fhould prefer one to the other before the lottery is drawn. In this cafe therefore caprice very often acts in the place of reafon, and forms to itself fome groundless imaginary motive, where real and fubftantial ones are wanting. I know a well-meaning man that is very well pleafed to rifk his good-fortune upon the number 1711, because it is the year of our Lord. I am acquainted with a tacker that would give a good deal for the number 134. On the contrary I have been told of a certain zealous diffenter, who being a great enemy to popery, and believing that bad men are the moft fortunate in this world, will lay two to one on the number 666 against any other number, becaufe, fays he, it is the number of the beat. Several would prefer the number 12,000 before any other, as it is the number of the pounds in the great prize. In short, fome are pleafed to find their own age in their number; fome that they have got a number which makes a pretty appearance in the cyphers; and others because it is the fame number that fucceeded in the last lottery. Each of thefe, upon no other grounds, thinks he ftands faireft for the great lot, and that he is poffeffed of what may not be improperly called "The Golden Number." Thefe principles of election are the pastimes and extravagancies of human reafon, which is of fo bufy a nature, that it will be exerting itfelt in the meaneft trifles, and working even when it wants materials. The wifeft of men are fometimes actuated by fuch unaccountable motives, as the life of the fool and the fuperftitious is guided by nothing else. I am furprised that none of the fortune-tellers, or, as the French call them, the Difeurs de bonne Avanture, who publish their bills in every quarter of the town, have not turned our lotteries to their advantage: Did any of them fet up for a cafter of fortunate figures, what might he not get by his pretended difcoveries and predictions? I remember among the advertisements in the Poft-Boy of September the 27th, I was furprifed to fee the following one: "This is to give notice, That ten fillings over "and above the market price, will be given for the "ticket in 1,500,000l. Lottery, N° 132, by Nath. "Cliff, at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheap" fide." This advertisement has given great matter of fpeculation to coffee houfe theorifts. Mr. Cliff's principles and converfation have been canvaffed upon upon this occafion, and various conjectures made comes into our hands; but if we anticipate our good fortune, we thall loofe the pleafure of it when it arrives, and may poffibly never poffefs what we have fo foolishly counted upon. L Mr. Spectator, AM the perfon that lately advertised I would give ten fhillings more than the current price for the ticket No. 132 in the lottery ¿ now drawing; which is a fecret I have communicated to fome friends, who rally me incefYou must know fantly upon that account. I have but one ticket, for which reafon, and a certain dream I have lately had more than once, I was refolved it thould be the number I moft approved. I am fo pofitive I have pitched upon the great lot, that I could almoft lay all I am worth of it. My vifions are fo frequent and ftrong upon this occafion, that I have not only poffeffed the lot, but difpofed of the money which in all probability it will fell for This morning in particular, I fet up an equipage which I look upon to be the gayeft in the town; the liveries are very rich, but not gaudy. I thould be very glad to fee a fpeculation or two upon lottery fubjects, in which you will oblige all people concerned, and in partiYour most humble fervant, George Golling." P. S. Dear Spec. if I get the 12,000 pound, I will make thee a handfome present.' ? cular After having wished my correfpondent good luck, and thanked him for his intended kindness, I thall for this time difimifs the fubject of the lottery, and only obferve that the greateft part of mankind are in fome degree guilty of my friend Goiling's extravagance. We are apt to rely upon future profpects, and become really expenfive while we are only rich in poffibility. We live up to our expectations, not to our poffeffions, and make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we are. We out-run our prefent income, as not doubting to difburfe ourselves out of the profits of fome future place, project or reverfion that we have in view. It is through this temper of mind, which is fo common among us, that we fee tradefmen break, who have met with no misfortunes in their bufinefs; and men of estates reduced to poverty, who have never fuffered from loffes or repairs, tenants, taxes, or law-fuits. In fhort, it is this foolish fanguine temper, this depending upon contingent futurities, that occafions romantic generofity, chimerical grandeur, fenfelefs oftentation, and generally ends in beggary and ruin. The man who will live above his prefent circumftances, is in great danger of living in a lirtle time much beneath them, or as the Italian proverb runs, The man who lives by hope will die by hun• ger." It thould be an indifpenfible rule in life to contract our defires to our prefent condition, and whatever may be our expectations, to live within the compafs of what we actually poffefs. It will be time enough to enjoy an citate when it Uno ore omnes omnia Bona dicere, & laudare fortunas meas, Qui gnatum haberem tali ingenio præditum. Ter. Andr. Act. 1. Sc. 1. All men agreed in complimenting me, and applauded my good fortune in being the father of fo towardly a fon. I Stood the other day, and beheld a father fitting in the middle of a room with a large family of children about him; and methought I could obferve in his countenance different motions of delight, as he turned towards the one and the other of them. The man is a perfon moderate in his defigns for their preferment and welfare; and as he has an eafy fortune, he is not folicitous to make a great one. His eldeft fon is a child of a very towardly difpofition, and as much as the father loves him, I dare fay he will never be a knave to improve his fortune. I do not know any man who has a jufter relish of life than the perfon I am fpeaking of, or keeps a better guard against the terrors of want, or the hopes of gain. It is ufual in a crowd of children, for the parent to name out of his own flock all the great officers of the kingdom. There is fomething fo very furprifing in the parts of a child of a man's own, that there is nothing too great to be expected from his endowments. I know a good woman who has but three fons, and there is, the fays, nothing fhe expects with more certainty, than that the thall fee one of them a bishop, the other a judge, and the third a court phyfician. The humour is, that any thing which can happen to any man's child is expected by every man for his own. But my friend, whom I was going to fpeak of, does not flatter himself with fuch vain expectations, but has his eye more upon the vir tue and difpofition of his children, than their advancement or wealth. Good habits are what will certainly improve a man's fortune and reputation; but on the other fide, affluence of fortune will not as probably produce good affections of the mind. It is very natural for a man of a kind difpofition, to amufe himself with the promises his imagination makes to him of the future condition of his children, and to represent to himfelf the figure they fhall bear in the world after he has left it. When his profpects of this kind are agreeable, his fondness gives as it were a longer date to his own life; and the furvivorship of a worthy man in his fon is a pleafure fcarce inferior to the hopes of the continuance of his own life. That man is happy who can believe of his fon, that he will efcape the follies and indifcretions of which he himfelf was guilty, and purfue and improve every thing that was valuable in him. The continuance of his virtue is much more to be regarded than that of his life; but it is the moft lamentable of all reflexions, to think that the heir of fortune is fuch a one as will be a firanger to his friends, alienated from the fame interefts, and a man's a pro h a promoter of every thing which he himfelf difapproved. An eftate in poffeffion of fuch a fucceffor to a good man, is worfe than laid wafte; and the family, of which he is the head, is in a more deplorable condition than that of being extinct. When I vifit the agreeable feat of my honoured friend Ruricola, and walk from room to room revolving many pleafing occurrences, and the expreffions of many juft fentiments, I have heard him utter, and fee his booby heir in pain while he is doing the honours of his houfe to the friend of his father, the heavinefs it gives one is not to be expreffed. Want of genius is not to be imputed to any man, but want of humanity is a man's own fault. The fon of Ruricola (whofe life was one continued feries of worthy actions and gentleman-like inclinations) is the companion of drunken clowns, and knows no fenfe of praife but in the flattery he receives from his own fervants; his pleafures are mean and inordinate, his language bafe and filthy, his behaviour rough and abfurd. Is this creature to be accounted the fucceffor of a man of virtue, wit, and breeding? At the fame time that I have this melancholy profpect at the house where I miss my old friend, I can go to a gentleman's not far off it, where he has a daughter, who is the picture both of his body and mind, but both improved with the beauty and modefty peculiar to her fex. It is the who fupplies the lofs of her father to the world; the without his name or fortune is the truer memorial of him, than her brother who fucceeds him in both. Such an offspring as the eldeft fon of my friend perpetuates his father in the fame manner as the appearance of his ghoft would: it is indeed Ruricola, but it is Ruricola grown frightful. I know not to what to attribute the brutal turn which this young man has taken, except it may be to a certain feverity and diftance which hfs father ufed towards him, and might, perhaps, have occafioned a diflike to thofe modes of life which were not made amiable to him by freedom and affability. We may promife ourselves that no fuch excrefcence will appear in the family uf the Cornelii, where the father lives with his fons like their eldest brother, and the fons converfe with him as if they did it for no other reafon but that he is the wifeft man of their acquaintance. As the Cornelii are eminent traders, their good correfpondence with each other is ufeful to all that know them, as well as to themselves; and their friendship, good-will, and kind offices, are difpofed of jointly as well as their fortune, fo that no one ever obliged one of them, who had not the obligation multiplied in returns from them all. It is the most beautiful object the eyes of man can behold, to fee a man of worth and his fon live in an intire unreferved correfpondence. The mutual kindness and affection between them give an inexpreffible fatisfaction to all who know then. It is a fublime pleafure which increafes by the participation. It is as facred as friendship, as pleafurable as love, and as joyful as religion, This ftate of mind does not only diffipate forrow, which would be extreme without it, but enlarges pleasures which would otherwise be contemptile. The most indifferent thing has its force and beauty when it is fpoke by a kind father, and an infignificant triffe has its weight when offered by a dutiful child. I know not how to exprefs it, but I think I may call it a tranfplanted felflove. All the enjoyments and fufferings which a man meets with are regarded only as they concern him in the relation he has to another. A man's very honour receives a new value to him, when he thinks that when he is in his grave, it will be had in remembrance that fuch an action was done by such a one's father. Such confiderations fweeten the old man's evening, and his foliloquy delights him when he can fay to himself, No man can tell my child his father was eihter unmerciful and unjuft: My fon fhall meet many a man who fhall say to him, I was obliged to thy father, and be my child a friend to his child for ever. It is not in the power of all men to leave illuftrious names or great fortunes to their pofterity, but they can very much conduce to their having induftry, probity, valour, and juftice: it is in every man's power to leave his fon the honour of defcending from a virtuous man, and add the bleffings of heaven to whatever he leaves him. I fhall end this rhapfody with a letter to an excellent young man of my acquaintance, who has lately loft a worthy father. • Dear Sir, I Know no part of life more impertinent than the office of adminiftering confolation: I will not enter into it. for I cannot but applaud · your grief. The virtuous principles you had from that excellent man, whom you have loft, have wrought in you as they ought, to make 6 a youth of three and twenty incapable of comfort upon coming into poffeffion of a great for6 tune. I doubt not but you will honour his < memory by a modeft enjoyment of his eftate; and fcorn to triumph over his grave, by employing in riot, exceís, and debauchery, what he purchafed with fo much industry, prudence, and wifdom. This is the true way to thew the fenfe you have of the lofs, and to take away the diftrefs of others upon the occafion. You cannot recall your father by your grief, but you may revive him to his friends by your conduct.' " T N° 193. THURSDAY, OCT. II. Ingentem foribus domus alta fuperbis Mané falutentum totis vomit adibus undam. Virg. Georg. 2. ver. 461. His Lordship's palace, from its ftately doors, A flood of levee hunting mortals pours. W HEN we look round us, and behold the ftrange variety of faces and perfons which fill the streets with business and hurry, it is no unpleafant amufement to make gueffes at their different purfuits, and judge by their countenances what it is that fo anxioufly engages their prefent attention. Of all this bufy crowd, there are none who would give a man inclined to fuch inquiries better diverfion for, his thoughts, than thofe whom we call good courtiers, and fuch as were affiduous at the levees of great men. worthies are got into a habit of being fervile with an air, and enjoy a certain vanity in being known for understanding how the world paffes. In the pleasure of this they can rife early, go abroad Heek and well-dreffed, with, no other hope or I i 2 purpofe Thefe |
