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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

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HENRY BOYLE, ESQ;

SIR,

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S the profeft defign of this work is to entertain its readers in general, without giving offence to any particular person, it would be difficult to find out so proper a patron for it as yourself, there being none whose merit is more univerfally acknowledged by all parties, and who has made himself more friends, and fewer enemies. Your great abilities, and unquestioned integrity, in those high employments which you have paffed through, would not have been able to have raised you this general approbation, had they not been accompanied with that moderation in an high fortune, and that affability of manners, which are fo confpicuous through all parts of your life. Your averfion to any oftentatious arts of setting to show those great services which you have done the public, has not likewise a little contributed to that universal acknowledgment which is paid you by your country.

The confideration of this part of your character, is that which hinders me from enlarging on those extraordinary

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traordinary talents, which have given you so great a figure in the British Senate, as well as in that elegance and politenefs which appear in your more retired converfation. I fhould be unpardonable, if, after what I have faid, I fhould longer detain you with an addrefs of this nature: I cannot, however, conclude it without owning those greater obligations which you have laid upon,

SIR,

Your moft obedient,

humble Servant,

The SPECTATOR.

THE

SPECTATOR.

N° 170. FRIDAY, SEPT. 14, 1711.

In amore bæc omnia infuns vitia: injuriæ, Sufpiciones, inimicitiæ, induciæ, Bellum, pax rurfum— Ter. Eun. Act. 1. Se. 1. All these inconveniencies are incident to love: reproaches, jealoufies, quarrels, reconcilements, war, and then peace.

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PON looking over the letters of my female correfpondents, I find several from women

complaining of jealous hufbands, and at the fame time protesting their own innocence; and defiring my advice on this occafion. I fhall therefore take this fubject into my confideration; and the more willingly, becaufe I find that the Marquis of Halifax, who, in his Advice to a Daughter, has inftructed a wife how to behave herself towards a falfe, an intemperate, a choleric, a fullen, a covetous, or a filly husband, has not spoken one word of a jealous husband.

Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehenfion that he is not equally beloved by the perfon whom he intirely loves. Now because our inward paffions and inclinations can never make themselves vifible, it is impoffible for a jealous man to be thoroughly cured of his fufpicions, His thoughts hang at best in a state of doubtfulnefs and uncertainty; and are never capable of receiving any fatisfaction on the advantageous fide; fo that his inquiries are moft fuccessful when they discover nothing. His pleasure arifes from his difappointments, and his life is fpent in pursuit of a fecret that destroys his happiness if he chance to find it.

An ardent love is always a ftrong ingredient in this paffion; for the fame affection which ftirs up the jealous man's defires, and gives the party beloved fo beautiful a figure in his imagination, makes him believe the kindles the fame paffion in others, and appears as amiable to all beholders. And as jealoufy thus arifes from an extraordinary love, it is of fo delicate a nature, that it scorns to take up with any thing less than an equal return of love. Not the warmest expreffions of affection, the fofteft and most tender hypocrify, are able to give any fatisfaction, where we are not perfuaded that the affection is real,

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Cum milite ifto præfens, abfens ut fies: Me fomnies: me expectes: de me cogites: Dies noctefque me ames: me defideres: Me fperes: me te oblectes: mecum tota fis: Meus fac fis poftremò animus, quando ego fum tuus, Ter. Eun. A&t. 1. Sc. 2. "When you are in company with that foldier, behave as if you were abfent: But continue "to love me by day and by night: Want me: "dream of me; expect me; think of me; wish "for me; delight in me: Be wholly with me: "In short, be my very foul, as I am your's."

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The jealous man's disease is of fo malignant a nature, that it converts all he takes into its own nourishment.

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A cool behaviour fets him on the rack, and is interpreted as an instance of averfion or indifference; a fond one raifes his fufpicions, and looks too much like diffimulation and artifice, If the perfon he loves be chearful, her thoughts must be employed on another; and if fad, he is certainly thinking on himself. fhort, there is no word or gefture fo infignificant, but it gives him new hints, feeds his fufpicions, and furnishes him with fresh matters of difcove ry: So that if we confider the effects of this paffion, one would rather think it proceeded from an inveterate hatred, than an exceffive love; for certainly none can meet with more difquietude and uneafinefs than a fufpected wife, if we ex. cept the jealous husband.

But the great unhappiness of this paffion is, that it naturally tends to alienate the affection which it is fo folicitous to ingrofs; and that for thefe two reafons, becaufe it lays too great a constraint on the words and actions of the fufpected perfon, and at 1e fame time thews you have no honourable opinion of her; both of which are strong motives to averfion,

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Nor is this the worft effect of jealoufy; for it often draws after it a more fatal train of confequences, and makes the person you sufpect guilty of the very crimes you are fo much afraid of. It is very natural for fuch who are treated ill and upbraided falfely, to find out an intimate friend that will hear their complaints, condole their fufferings, and endeavour to footh, and affuage their fecret refentments. Befides, jealoufy puts a woman often in mind of an ill thing that fhe would not otherwife perhaps have thought of, and fills her imagination with fuch an unlucky idea, as in time grows familiar, excites defire, and lofes all the fhame and horror which might at firft attend it. Nor is it a wonder if fhe who fuffers wrongfully in a man's opinion of her, and has therefore nothing to forfeit in his esteem, refolves to give him reafon for his fufpicions, and to enjoy the pleasure of the crime, fince fhe muft undergo the ignominy. Such probably were the confiderations that directed the wife man in his advice to husbands; Be not jealous over the wife of thy bofom, and teach her not an evil lejon against thyfelf. Ecclus.

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And here, among the other torments which this paffion produces, we may ufually obferve that none are greater mourners than jealous men, when the person who provoked their jealoufy is taken from them. Then it is that their love breaks out furiously, and throws off all the mixtures of fufpicion which choaked and fmothered it before. The beautiful parts of the character rife uppermoft in the jealous husband's memory, and upbraid him with the ill ufage of fo divine a creature as was once in his poffeffion; whilst all the little imperfections, that were before fo uneafy to him, wear off from his remembrance, and Thew themfelves no more.

We may fee by what has been faid, that jealousy takes the deepefc root in men of amorous difpofitions; and of these we may find three kinds who are most over-run with it.

The firft are thofe who are confcicus to themfelves of any infirmity, whether it be weakness, old age, deformity, ignorance, or the like. Thefe men are fo well acquainted with the unamiable part of themselves, that they have not the confidence to think they are really beloved; and are fo diftrustful of their own merits, that all fondnefs towards them puts them out of countenance, and looks like a jeft upon their perfons. They grow fufpicious on their firft looking in a glass, and are ftung with jealousy at the fight of a wrinkle. A handfome fellow immediately alarms them, and every thing that looks young or gay turns their thoughts upon their wives.

A fecond fort of men, who are moft liable to this paffion, are thofe of cunning, wary, and diftrustful tempers. It is a fault very justly found in hiftories compofed by politicians, that they leave nothing to chance or humour, but are fill for deriving every action from fome plot or contrivance, for drawing up a perpetual scheme of caufes and events, and preferving a conftant correfpondence between the camp and the council table. And thus it happens in the affairs of love with men of too refined a.thought. They put a conftruction on a look, and find out a defign in a smile; they give.new fenfes and fignifications to words and actions; and are ever tormenting themfelves with fancies of their own raifing. They generally act in a difguife them

felves, and therefore mistake all outward shows and appearances for hypocrify in others; so that I believe no men fee lefs of the truth and reality of things, than thefe great refiners upon inci dents, who are fo wonderfully fubtle and overwife in their conceptions.

Now what thefe men fancy they know of women by reflection, your lewd and vicious men believe they have learned by experience. They have feen the poor husband fo mifled by tricks and artifices, and in the midst of his inquiries fo loft and bewildered in a crooked intrigue, that they ftill fufpect an under- plot in every female action; and efpecially when they fee any refemblance in the behaviour of two perfons, are apt to fancy it proceeds from the fame defign in both. Thefe men therefore bear hard upon the fufpected party, purfue her clofe through all her turnings and windings, and are too well acquainted with the chace, to be flung off by any falfe fteps or doubles: Befides, their acquaintance and converfation has lain wholly among the vicious part of women-kind, and therefore it is no wonder they cenfure all alike, and look upon the whole fex as a fpecies of impoftors. But if, notwithstanding their private experience, they can get over these prejudices, and entertain a favourable opinion of fome women; yet their own loofe defires will stir up new fufpicions from another fide, and make them believe all men fubject to the fame inclinations with themselves.

Whether thefe or other motives are most predominant, we learn from the modern hiftories of America, as well as from our own experience in this part of the world, that jealousy is no northern paffion, but rages most in those nations that lie nearest the influence of the fun. It is a misfortune for a woman to be born between the tropicks; for there lie the hottest regions of jealoufy, which as you come northward coels all along with the climate, until you scarce meet with any thing like it in the polar circle. Our own nation is very temperately fituated in this refpect; and if we meet with fome few disordered with the violence of this paffion, they are not the proper growth of our country, but are many degrees nearer the fun in their conftitutions than in their climate.

After this frightful account of jealousy, and the perfons who are most subject to it, it will be but fair to fhew by what means the paffion may be best allayed, and thofe who are poffeffed with it fet at eafe. Other faults indeed are not under the wife's jurifdiction, and fhould, if poffible, efcape her obfervation; but jealoufy calls upon her particularly for its cure, and deferves all her art and application in the attempt: Befides, fhe has this for her encouragement, that her endeavours will be always pleasing, and that he will ftill find the affection of her husband rifing towards her in proportion as his doubts and fufpicions vanifh; for, as we have feen all along, there is fo great a mixture of love in jealoufy, as is well worth the feparating. But this shall be the fubject of another paper.

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