Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

No 238. MONDAY, DECEMBER 3.
Nequicquam populo bibulas donaveris aures ;
Refpue quod non est

Perfius, Sat. 4. ver 50.
Please not thyself the flatt'ring crowd to hear;
'Tis fulfome stuff, to please thy itching ear.
Survey thy foul, not what thou doft appear,
But what thou art.-
DRYDEN

A

MONG all the difeafes of the mind, there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the love of flattery. For as where the juices of the body are prepared to receive a malignant influence, there the difeafe rages with moft violence; fo in this distemper of the mind, where there is ever a propenfity and inclination to fuck in the poifon, it cannot be but that the whole order of reasonable action must be overturned, for, like mufic, it

66 -So foftens and difarms the mind, "That not one arrow can refiftance find." Firft we flatter ourfelves, and then the flattery of others is fure of fuccefs. It awakens our felflove within, a party which is ever ready to revolt from our better judgment, and join the enemy without. Hence it is, that the profufion of favours we fo often fee poured upon the parafite, are reprefented to us, by our felf-love, as juftice done to the man, who fo agreeably reconciles us to ourselves. When we are overcome by such foft infinuations and enfnaring compliances, we gladly recompenfe the artifices that are made ufe of to blind our reafon, and which triumph over the weakneffes of our temper and inclinations.

whilft he receives the recompence of merit, the other whilft he fhews he knows how to difcern it; but above all, that man is happy in this art, who, like a fkilful painter, retains the features and complexion, but ftill foftens the picture into the most agreeable likeness.

There can hardly, I believe, be imagined a more defirable pleafure, than that of praise unmixed with any poffibility of flattery. Such was that which Germanicus enjoyed, when, the night before a battle, defirous of fome fincere mark of the efteem of his legions for him, he is defcribed by Tacitus liftening in a difguife to the difcourfe of a foldier, and wrapt up in the fruition of his glory, whilft with an undefigned fincerity they praised his noble and majeftic mien, his affability, his valour, conduct, and fuccefs in war. How must a man have his heart full blown with joy in fuch an article of glory as this? What a fpur and encouragement ftill to proceed in thofe fteps which had already brought him to fo pure a taste of the greatest of mortal enjoyments?

It fometimes happens, that even enemies and envious perfons beftow the fincereft marks of efteem when they leaft defign it. Such afford a greater pleasure, as extorted by merit, and freed from all fufpicion of favour or flattery. Thus it is with Malvolio; he has wit, learning, and difcernment, but tempered with an allay of envy, felf-love, and detraction. Malvolio turns pale at the mirth and good-humour of the company, if it center not in his perfon; he grows jealous and displeased when he ceafes to be the only person admired, and locks upon the commendation paid to another as a detraction from his merit, and an attempt to leffen the fuperiority he affects; but by this very method, he beftows fuch praife as can never be fufpected of flattery. His uneafinefs and diftaftes are fo many fure and certain figns of another's title to that glory he defires, and has the mortification to find himself not poffeffed of.

་་་་་

A good name is fitly compared to a precious ointment, and when we are praised with skill and decency, it is indeed the most agreeable perfume; but if too ftrongly admitted into a brain of a lefs vigorous and happy texture, it will, like too ftrong an odour, overcome the fense, and prove pernicious to thofe nerves it was intended to refresh. A generous mind is of all others the most fenfible of praife and difpraife; and a noble spirit is as much invigorated with its due proportion of honour and applaufe, as it is depreffed by neglect and contempt: but it is only perfons far above the common level who are thus affected with either of thefe extremes; as in a thermometer, it is only the pureft and moft fublimated fpirit that is either contracted or dilated by the benignity or inclemency of the feafon,

But were every man perfuaded from how mean and low a principle this paffion is derived, there can be no doubt but that the perfon who fhould åttempt to gratify it, would then be as contemptible as he is now fuccefsful. It is the defire of fome quality we are not poffeffed of, or inclination to be fomething we are not, which are the caufes of our giving ourfelves up to that man, who beftows upon us the characters and qualities of others; which perhaps fuit us as ill, and were as little defigned for our wearing, as their clothes. Instead of going out of our own complexional nature into that of others, it were a better and more laudable induftry to improve our own, and instead of a miserable copy become a good original; for there is no temper, no difpofition fo rude and untractable, but may in its own peculiar caft and turn be brought to fome agreeable ufe in converfation, or in the affairs of life. A perfon of a rougher deportment, and lefs tied up to the ufual ceremonies of behaviour, will, like Manly in the play, pleafe by the grace which nature gives to every action wherein the is complied with; the brifk and lively will not want their admirers, and even a more referved and melancholy temper may at fome times be .' agreeable.

When there is not vanity enough awake in a man to undo him, the flatterer ftirs up that dormant weakness, and infpires him with merit enough to be a coxcomb. But if flattery be the moft fordid act that can be complied with, the art of praifing justly is as commendable; for it is laudable to praife well; as poets at one and the fame time give immortality, and receive it themfelves for a reward: both are pleafed, the one

[ocr errors]

Mr. Spectator,

T'

HE tranflations which you have lately given us from the Greek, in fome of your laft papers, have been the occafion of my looking into fome of thofe authors; among whom I chanced on a collection of letters which pafs • under the name of Ariftanctus. Of all the remains of antiquity, I believe there can be nothing produced of an air fo gallant and polite each letter contains a little novel or adventure, which is told with all the beauties of language, and heightened with a luxuriance of wit. There ' are feveral of them tranflated, but with fuch ⚫ wide Qq

[ocr errors]

wide deviations from the original, and in a ⚫ftile fo far differing from the author's, that the

tranflator feems rather to have taken hints for the expreffing his own fenfe and thoughts, than to have endeavoured to render thofe of Ariftanetus. In the following translation, I have kept as near the meaning of the Greek as I could, and have only added a few words to make the fentences in English fit together a little better than they would otherwife have done. The ftory feems to be taken from that of Pigmalion and the ftatue in Ovid: some of the thoughts are of the fame turn, and the ⚫ whole is written in a kind of poetical profe.

[ocr errors]

"

N

Philopinax to Chromation.

EVER was man more overcome with fo fantastical a paflion as mine. I have painted a beautiful woman, and am defpairing, dying for the picture. My own fkill has "undone me; it is not the dart of Venus, but my own pencil has thus wounded me. Ah "me! with what anxiety am I neceffitated to adore my own idol! How miférable am I, "whilft every one must as much pity the pain"ter as he praifes the picture, and own my "torment more than equal to my art! But why do I thus complain? Have there not been more unhappy and unnatural paffions than "mine? Yes, I have feen the reprefentations "of Phædra, Narciffus, and Pafiphae. Phædra was unhappy in her love; that of Pafi"phae was monftrous; and whilft the other caught at his beloved likeness, he destroyed the watery image, which ever eluded his em"braces. The fountain reprefented Narciffus "to himfelf, and the picture both that and him, thirsting after his adored image. But I am yet lefs unhappy, I enjoy her prefence continually, and if I touch her, I deftroy not the beauteous form, but the looks pleased, and a fweet fimile fits in the charming fpace which divides her lips. One would fwear that voice "and fpeech were iffuing out, and that one's ears felt the melodious found. How often have I, deceived by a lover's credulity, heark"ened if he had not fomething to whisper me? and when fruftrated of my hopes, how often < have I taken my revenge in kiffes from her cheeks and eyes, and foftly wooed her to my embrace, whilft the, as to me it feemed, only withheld her tongue the more to inflame me? But, madman that I am, fall I be thus taken with the reprefentation only of a beauteous face, and flowing hair, and thus wafte myfelf, and melt to tears for a fhadow? Ah, fure it is fomething more, it is a reality! for fee her beauties thine out with new luftre, and the feems to upbraid me with fuch unkind reproaches. Oh may I have a living miftrefs of this form, that when I fhall compare the 6 work of nature with that of art, I may be ftill at a lofs which to choose, and be long perplexed with the pleasing uncertainty !”

[merged small][ocr errors]

The first races of mankind used to difpute, as our ordinary people do now-a-days, in a kind of wild logic, uncultivated by rules of art.

Socrates introduced a catechetical method of arguing. He would afk his adversary question upon question, until he had convinced him out of his own mouth that his opinions were wrong, This way of debating drives an enemy up into a corner, feizes all the passes through which he can make an escape, and forces him to furrender as difcretion.

Aristotle changed this method of attack, and invented a great variety of little weapons, called fyllogifms. As in the Socratic way of dispute you agree to every thing which your opponent advances, in the Ariftotelic you are ftill denying and contradicting fome part or other of what he fays. Socrates conquers you by ftratagem, Ariftotle by force: the one takes the town by fap, the other fword in hand.

The univerfities of Europe, for many years carried on their debates by fyllogifm, infomuch that we fee the knowledge of feveral centuries laid out into objections and anfwers, and all the good fenfe of the age cut and minced into almoft an infinitude of diftinctions.

When our univerfities found that there was no end of wrangling this way, they invented a kind of argument, which is not reducible to any mood or figure of Ariftotle. It was called the Argumentum Bafilinum, ethers write it Bacilinum or Baculinum, which is pretty well expreffed in our English word, club-law. When they were not able to confute their antagonist, they knocked him down. It was their method in thefe polemical debates, firft to difcharge their fyllogifms, and afterwards to betake themselves to their clubs, until fuch time as they had one way or other confounded their gain fayers. There is in Oxford a narrow defile, to make use of a military term, where the partifans used to encounter, for which reason it still retains the name of Logic-lane. I have heard an old gentleman, a physician, make his boasts, that when he was a young fellow, he marched feveral times at the head of a troop of Scotifts, and cudgelled a body of Smiglefians half the length of High-street, until they had difperfed themfelves for fhelter into their refpective garrifons.

This humour, 1 find, went very far in Erafmus's time. For that author tells us, that upon the revival of Greek letters, moft of the univerfities of Europe were divided into Greeks and Trojans. The latter were thofe who bore a mortal enmity to the language of the Grecians, infomuch that if they met with any who underftood it, they did not fail to treat him as a foe. Erafmus himfelf had, it feems, the misfortune Fto fall into the hands of a party of Trojans, who

laid on him with fo many blows and buffets that he never forgot their hoftilities to his dying day.

There is a way of managing an argument not much unlike the former, which is made ufe of by

by ftates and communities, when they draw up a hundred thousand difputants on each fide, and convince one another by dint of fword. A certain grand monarch was fo fenfible of his ftrength in this way of reafoning, that he writ upon his great guns-Ratio ultima Regum, "The "Logic of Kings;" but, God be thanked, he is now pretty well baffled at his own weapons. When one has to do with a philofopher of this kind, one should remember the old gentleman's faying, who had been engaged in an argument with one of the Roman emperors. Upon his friend's telling him, that he wondered he would give up the queftion, when he had vifibly the better of the difpute; " I am never afhamed," fays he, "to be confuted by one who is mafter "of fifty legions."

I fhall but just mention another kind of reafoning, which may be called arguing by poll; and another which is of equal force, in which wagers are made ufe of as arguments, according to the celebrated line of Hudibras.

But the most notable way of managing a controverfy, is that which we may call arguing by torture. This is a method of reafoning which has been made ufe of with the poor refugees, and which was fo fashionable in our country during the reign of queen Mary, that in a paffage of an author quoted by Monfieur Bale, it is faid the price of wood was raised in England, by, reafon of the executions that were made in Smithfield. Thefe difputants convince their adverfaries with a Sorites, commonly called a pile of faggots. The rack is alfo a kind of fyllogifm which has been ufed with good effect, and has made multitudes of converts. Men were formerly difputed out of their doubts, reconciled to truth by force of reafon, and won over to opinions by the candour, fenfe, and ingenuity of thofe who had the right on their fide; but this method of conviction operated too flowly. Pain was found to be much more enlightening than reafon. Every fcruple was looked upon as obftinacy, and not to be removed but by feveral engines invented for that purpofe. In a word, the application of whips, racks, gibbets, gallies, dungeons, fire and faggot, in a difpute, may be looked upon as popith reûnements upon the old heathen logic.

There is another way of reafoning which feldom fails, though it be of a quite different nature to that I have laft mentioned. I mean, convincing a man by ready money, or as it is ordinarily called, bribing a man to an opinion. This method has often proved fuccefsful, when all the others have been made ufe of to no purpofe. A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint, will convince his antagonist much fooner than one who draws them from eason and philofophy. Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding; it diffipates every doubt and fcruple in an inftant; accommodates itfelf to the meaneft capacities; filences the loud and clamorous, and brings over the moft obftinate and inflexible. Philip of Macedon was a man of moft invincible reafon this way. He refuted by it all the wisdom of Athens, confounded their ftatefmen, ftruck their orators dumb, and at length argued them out of all their liberties.

Having here touched upon the feveral methods of difputing, as they have prevailed in different ages of the world, I fhall very fuddenly give my

reader an account of the whole art of cavilling; which fhall be a full and fatisfactory answer to all fuch papers and pamphlets as have yet appeared against the Spectator.

N° 240. WEDNESDAY, Dec. 5.

· Aliter non fit, avite, liber.

C

Mart. Ep. 17, lib. z.

Of fuch materials, Sir, are books compos'd,
• Mr. Spectator,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Aty, and understand thus much of liberal

AM one of the most genteel trades in the

education, as to have an ardent ambition of being useful to mankind, and to think that the chief end of being as to this life. I had thefe good impreffions given me from the handfome behaviour of a learned, generous, and wealthy man towards me, when I firs began the world. Some diffatisfaction be tween me and my parents made me enter into it with lefs relifh of bufinefs than I ought; and to turn off this uneafinefs I gave myself to 'criminal pleasures, fome exceffes, and a general loose conduct. I know not what the excellent man above-mentioned faw in me, but he def'cended from the fuperiority of his wisdom and merit, to throw himself frequently into my company. This made me foon hope that I had fomething in me worth cultivating, and his 'conversation made me fenfible of fatisfactions in a regular way, which I had never before 'imagined. When he was grown familiar with me, he opened himself like a good angel, and 'told me, he had long laboured to ripen me ' into a preparation to receive his friendfhip and advice, both which I fhould daily command, ' and the ufe of any part of his fortune, to apply the measures he thould propofe to me, for the improvement of my own. I affure you, I cannot recollect the goodness and confusion of the good man when he spoke to this purpofe to me, without melting into tears; but in a word, Sir, I muft haften to tell you, that my heart burns with gratitude towards him, and 'he is fo happy a man, that it can never be in my power to return him his favours in kind, but I am fure I have made him the most ' agreeable fatisfaction T could poffibly, in being ready to ferve others to my utmoft ability, as far as is confiftent with the prudence 'he prescribes to me. Dear Mr. Spectator, I do not owe to him only the good-will and esteem of my own relations, who are people of diftinction, the prefent eafe and plenty of my circumftances, but alfo the government of my 'paffions, and the regulation of my defires. I doubt not, Sir, but in your imagination fuch 'virtues as thefe of my worthy friend, bear as 'great a figure as actions which are more glittering in the common eftimation. What I would ask of you, is to give us a whole Spec tator upon heroic virtue in common life, which 'may incite men to the fame generous inclinations, as have by this admirable perfon been thewn to, and raised in,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Sir, your most humble fervant,"

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

< Mr. Spectator,

Semperque relinqui

Sola fibi, femper longam incomitata videtur
Ire viam.
Virg. Æn. 4. ver. 466.

-She feems alone

To wander in her fleep thro' ways unknown,
Guidelefs and dark.

[ocr errors]

• Mr. Spectator,

T

DRYDEN

A Ma country gentleman, of a good plenti- No 241. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6. tuletate, and live as the reft of my neighbours with great hofpitality. I have been ever reckoned among the ladies the beft company in the world, and have accefs as a fort of favourite. I never came in public but I faluted them, though in great affemblies, all around, where it was feen how genteelly I avoided hampering my fpurs in their petticoats, whilst I moved amongst them; and on the other fide how prettily they curtfied and received me, ftanding in < proper rows, and advancing as fast as they faw their elders, or their betters, difpatched by me. But fo it is, Mr. Sptator, that all our goodbreeding is of late loft by the unhappy arrival of a courtier, ordown gentleman, who came lately among us: this perfon wherever he came into a room made a profound bow, and fell back, then recovered with a foft air, and made " a bow to the next, and fo' to one or two more, and then took the crofs of the room, by paffing by them in a continued bow until he arrived at the perfon he thought proper particularly to entertain. This he did with fo good a grace and affurance, that it is taken for the prefent fa fhion! and there is no young gentlewoman within feveral miles of this place has been kiffed ever fince his firft appearance among us. We country gentlemen cannot begin again and learn these fine and referved airs; and our con• verfation is at a stand, until we have your judg-wifhing for his return. ment for or againft kiffing, by way of civility or falutation; which is impatiently expected by your friends of both fexes, but by none fo

6

much as

Your humble fervant,

HOUGH you have confidered virtuous love in most of its diftreffes, I do not re'member that you have given us any differtation upon the abfence of lovers, or laid down any methods how they fhould fupport themselves under thofe long feparations which they are 6 fometimes forced to undergo. I am at prefent in this unhappy circumftance, having parted with the best of hufbands, who is abroad in the fervice of his country, and may not poffibly return for fome years. His warm and generous affection while we were together, with the tendernefs which he expreffed to me at parting, make his abfence almoft infupportable. I think of him every moment of the day, and meet him every night in my dreams. Every thing I fee 'puts me in mind of him. I apply myself with more than ordinary diligence to the care of his 'family and his eftate; but this, inftead of relieving me, gives me but fo many occafions of I frequent the rooms where I used to converfe with him, and not

[ocr errors]

meeting him there, fit down in his chair, and fall a weeping. I love to read the books he delighted in, and to converfe with the perfons whom he esteemed. I vifit his picture a hun Ruftic Sprightly, dred times a day, and place myself over-against it whole hours together. I pafs a great part of ( my time in the walks where I ufed to lean upon his arm, and recollect in my mind the difcourfes which have there paffed between us: I look < over the feveral profpects and points of view which we used to furvey together, fix my eye upon the objects which he has made me take notice of, and call to mind a thoufand agreeable remarks which he has made on thofe occafions. I write to him by every conveyance, and contrary to other people, am always in good hu

• Mr. Spectator, Dec. 3, 1711 Was the other night at Philafter, where I expected to hear your famous trunk-maker, but was unhappily difappointed of his company, and faw another perfon who had the like ambition to distinguish himself in a noify manner, partly by vociferation or talking loud, and partly by his bodily agility. Thit was a very lufty fellow, but withal a fort of beau, who getting into one of the fide-boxes on the ftage be⚫fore the curtain drew, was difpofed to fhew themour when an east wind blows, because it fel

[ocr errors]

whole audience his activity by leaping over the fpikes; he paffed from thence to one of the entering doors, where he took fnuff with a tolerable good grace, difplayed his fine clothes, made two or three feint paffes at the curtain with his cane, then faced about and appeared at the other door: here he affected to furvey the whole house, bowed and fmiled at random, and then fhewed his teeth, which were fome of them indeed very white: after this he retired behind the curtain, and obliged us with several views of his perfon from every opening.

[ocr errors]

< During the time of acting, he appeared fre-
quently in the prince's apartment, made one
at the hunting-match, and was very forward in
the rebellion. If there were no injunctions to
the contrary, yet this practice must be confeffed
to diminish the pleasure of the audience, and for
that reafon prefumptuous and unwarrantable:
but fince her majefty's late command has made
it criminal, you have authority to take notice of it.
Sir, Your humble fervant,
• Charles Eafy??

dom fails of bringing me a letter from him,
Let me intreat you, Sir, to give me your advice
upon this occafion, and to let me know how
I may relieve myself in this my widowhood,
I am,

Sir, your very humble fervant,
Afteria,

Abfence is what the poets call death in love, and has given occafion to abundance of beautiful complaints in thefe authors who have treated of this paffion in verse. Ovid's Epiftles are full of them. Otway's Monimia talks very tenderly upon this fubject.

"It was not kind

To leave me like a turtle, here alone, "To droop and mourn the abfence of mate. "When thou art from me, every place is defert, "And I, methinks, am favage and forlorn. "Thy prefence only 'tis can make me blest, "Heal my unquiet mind, and tune my foul."

The

The confolations of lovers on thefe occafions are very extraordinary. Befides thofe mentioned by Afteria, there are many other motives of comfort, which are made ufe of by abfent lov

ers.

I remember in one of Scudery's romances, a couple of honourable lovers agreed at their parting to fet afide one half hour in the day to think of each other during a tedious abfence. The romance tells us, that they both of them pun^tually obferved the time thus agreed upon and that whatever company or bufinefs they were engaged in, they left it abruptly as foon as the clock warned them to retire. The romance further adds, that the lovers expected the return of this ftated hour with as much impatience, as if it had been a real affignation, and enjoyed an imaginary happiness that was almoft as pleafing to them as what they would have found from a real meeting. It was an inexpreffible fatisfaction to thefe divided lovers, to be affured that each was at the fame time employed in the fame kind of contemplation, and making equal returns of tenderness and affection.

If Monfieur Scudery, or any other writer of romance, had introduced a necromancer, who is generally in the train of a knight-errant, making a present to two lovers of a couple of these abovementioned needles, the reader would not have been a little pleased to have seen them corres ponding with one another when they were guarded by fpies and watches, or feparated by castles and adventures,

In the mean while, if ever this invention fhould be revived or put in practife, I would propofe, that upon the lover's dial-plate there fhould be written not only the four and twenty letters, but feveral intire words which have always a place in paffionate epiftles, as "flames, darts, die, lan

guifh, abfence, Cupid, heart, eyes, hang, "drown," and the like. This would very much "abridge the lover's pains in this way of writing a letter, as it would enable him to exprefs the moft ufeful and fignificant words with a fingle touch of the needle.

N° 242. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7.
Creditur, ex medio quia res arceffit, babere
Sudoris minimum-

task.

C

Hor. Ep. 1. lib 2. ver. 168.

If I may be allowed to mention a more ferious expedient for the alleviating of abfence, I fhall take notice of one which I have known two perfons practife, who joined religion to that elegance of fentiments with which the paffion of love ge- To write on vulgar themes, is thought an easy nerally infpires its votaries. This was, at the return of fuch an hour, to offer up a certain prayer for each other, which they had agreed upon before their parting. The hufband, who is a man that makes a figure in the polite world, as well as in his own family, has often told me, that he could not have fupported an abfence of three years without this expedient.

Strada, in one of his prolufions, gives an account of a chimerical correfpondence between two friends by the help of a certain loadstone, which had fuch virtue in it, that if it touched two feveral needles, when one of the needles fo touched began to move, the other, though at never fo great a distance, moved at the fame time, and in the fame manner. He tells us, that the two friends, being each of them poffeffed of one of thefe needles, made a kind of a dial-plate, inscribing it with the four and twenty letters, in the fame manner as the hours of the day are marked upon the ordinary dial-plate. They then fixed one of the needles on each of these plates in fuch a manner, that it could move round without impediment, fo as to touch any of the four and twenty letters. Upon their feparating from one another into diftant countries, they agreed to withdraw themselves punctually into their closets at a certain hour of the day, and to converse with one another by means of this their invention. Accordingly when they were fome hundred miles afunder, each of them fhut himself up in his clofet at the time appointed, and immediately caft his eye upon his dial-plate. If he had a mind to write any thing to his friend, he directed his needie to every letter that formed the words which he had occafion for, making a little paufe at the end of every word or fentence, to avoid confufion. The friend, in the mean while, faw his own fympathetic needle moving of itself to every letter which that of his correfpondent pointed at. By this means they talked together across a whole continent, and conveyed their thoughts to one another in an inftant over cities or mountains, feas or defarts.

• Mr. Spectator,

Y

OUR fpeculations do not fo generally prevail over men's manners as I could with. A former paper of your's concerning the misbehaviour of people, who are neceffarily in each other's company in travelling, ought to have been a lafting admonition against tranfgreffions of that kind: but I had the fate of your Quaker, in meeting with a rude fellow in a stage-coach, who entertained two or three women of us, for there was no man befides himself with language as indecent as ever was heard upon the water. The impertinent obfervations which the coxcomb made upon our 'fhame and confufion were fuch, that it is an unfpeakable grief to reflect upon them.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

As

much as you have declaimed against duelling, I hope you will do us the juftice to declare, that if the brute has courage enough to fend to the place where he saw us all alight together to get rid of him, there is not one of us but has a lover who fhall avenge the infult. It would certainly be worth your confideration, to look into the frequent misfortunes of this kind, to which the modeft and innocent are expofed, by the licentious behaviour of fuch as are as much ftrangers to good-breeding as to virtue. Could we avoid hearing what we do not approve, as eafily as we can seeing what is difagreeable, there were fome confolation; but fince in a box at a play, in an affembly of ladies, or even in a pew at church, it is in the power of a grofs coxcomb to utter what a woman cannot avoid hearing, how miferable is her condition who ' comes within the power of fuch impertinents? and how neceffary is it to repeat invectives against fuch a behaviour? If the licentious had not utterly forgot what it is to be modeft, they 'would know that offended modefty labours under one of the greatest fufferings to which human life can be expofed. If one of thefe brutes

could

« VorigeDoorgaan »