" 'witched after another no lefs dangerous manner. Look a little that way, there goes a crowd of paffengers: they have indeed fo good a head as not to fuffer themselves to be blind 'ed by this bewitching water; the black tower is not vanifhed out of their fight, they fee it whenever they look up to it: but fee how they go fide-ways, and with their eyes downwards, as if they were mad, that they may thus rush into the net, without being beforehand troubled at the thought of fo miferable a destructiTheir wills are fo perverse, and their hearts fo fond of the pleafures of the place, that ra⚫ther than forego them they will run all hazards, and venture upon all the miferies and woes before them. on. See there that other company though they fhould drink none of the bewitching water, yet they take a course bewitching and deluding; fee how they choofe the crookedeft paths, whereby they have often the black tower behind them, and fometimes fee the radiant column fide-ways, which gives them fome weak glimpse of it. Thefe fools content themfelves with that, not knowing whether any other have any more of its influence and light than themselves this road is called that of fuperftition or human invention: they grofly overlook that which the rules and laws of the < place prescribe to them, and contrive fome other fcheme and fet of directions and prefcriptions for themfelves, which they hope will ferve their turn. He fhewed me many other kind of fools, which put me quite out of humour with the place. At laft he carried me to the right paths, when I found true and folid pleasure, which entertained me all the way until we came in clofer fight of the pillar, where the fatisfaction increased to that measure that my faculties were not able to contain it: in the training of them, I was violently waked, not a little grieved at the vanquishing of so pleasant a dream.' Glasgow, Sept. 29. N° 525. SATURDAY, Nov. I. * δ ̓ εἰς τὸ σωφρον ἐπ ̓ αὖρετην τ ̓ ἄγων έρως, Ζηλωτός ἀνθρώποισιν with kindness, who puts herself into his power for life. I have other letters on this fubject, which fay that I am attempting to make a revolution in the world of gallantry, and that the confequence of it will be, that a great deal of the sprightlieft wit and fatire of the laft age will be loft: that a bafhful fellow, upon changing his condition, will be no longer puzzled how to ftand the raillery of his facetious companions; that he need not own he married only to plunder an heiress of her fortune, nor pretend that he uses her ill, to avoid the ridiculous name of a fond husband. EURIP. That love alone, which virtue's laws controul, Deferves reception in the human foul. IT T is my cuftom to take frequent opportunities of enquiring from time to time, what fuccefs my fpeculations meet with in the town. I am glad to find in particular, that my difcourfes on marriage have been well received. A friend of mine gives me to underftand, from Doctors-Commons, that more licences have been taken out there of late than ufual. I am likewife informed of feveral pretty fellows, who have refolved to commence heads of families by the firft favourable opportunity: one of them writes me word, that he is ready to enter into the bonds of matrimony, provided I will give it him under my hand (as I now do) that a man may fhew his face in good company after he is married, and that he need not be afhamed to treat a woman Indeed, if I may speak my opinion of great part of the writings which once prevailed among us under the notion of humour, they are fuch as would tempt one to think there had been an affociation among the wits of thofe times to rally legitimacy out of our island. A ftate of wedlock was the common mark of all the adventures in farce and comedy, as well as the effayers in lampoon and fatire, to fhoot at, and nothing was a more standing jeft in all clubs of fashionable mirth and gay converfation. It was deter mined among thofe airy critics, that the appellation of a fober man fhould fignify a fpiritless fellow. And I am apt to think it was about the fame time, that good-nature, a word fo peculiarly elegant in our language, that some have affirmed it cannot well be expreffed in any other, came first to be rendered fufpicious, and in danger of being transferred from its original sense to fo diftant an idea as that of folly. I must confefs it has been my ambition, in the courfe of my writings, to restore, as well as I was able, the proper ideas of things. And as I have attempted this already on the subject of marriage in feveral papers, I fhall here add some farther obfervations which occur to me on the fame head. Nothing feems to be thought, by our fine gentlemen, fo indifpenfible an ornament in fashionable life, as love. "A knight-errant," fays Don Quixote, "without a miftrefs, is like a "tree without leaves," and a man of mode among us, who has not fome fair one to figh for, might as well pretend to appear dreffed, without his perriwig. We have lovers in profe innumerable. All our pretenders to rhyme are profeffed inamoratos; and there is fcarce a poet good or bad, to be heard of, who has not fome real or fuppofed Sachariffa to improve his vein. If love be any refinement, conjugal love must be certainly fo in a much higher degree. There is no comparison between the frivolous affectation of attracting the eyes of women with whom you are only captivated by way of amusement, and of whom perhaps you know nothing more than their features, and a regular and uniform endeavour to make yourself valuable, both as a friend and lover, to one whom you have chofen to be the companion of your life. The first is the fpring of a thoufand fopperies, filly arti fices, falfoods, and perhaps barbarities; or at beft rifes no higher than to a kind of dancingfchool breeding, to give the perfon a more sparkling air. The latter is the parent of fubftantial virtues and agreeable qualities, and cultivates the mind while it improves the behaviour. The paffion of love to a miftrefs, even where it is moft fincere, refembles too much the flame of a fever; that to a wife is like the vital heat. I have often thought, if the letters written by men of good-nature to their wives, were to be compared with those written by men of gallantry to their miftreffes, the former, notwithstanding any inequality of ftile, would appear to have the advantage. Friendship, tenderness and constancy, dreft in a fimplicity of expreffion, recommend themselves by a more native elegance, than paffionate raptures, extravagant encomiums, and flavish adoration. If we were admitted to search the cabinet of the beautiful Narciffa, among heaps of epiftles from feveral admirers, which are there preferved with equal care, how few fhould we find but would make any one fick in the reading, except her who is flattered by them? but in how different a ftile muft the wife Benevolus, who converfes with that good fenfe and good humour among all his friends, write to a wife who is the worthy object of his utmost affection? Benevolus, both in public and private, and all occafions of life, appears to have every good quality and defirable ornament. Abroad he is reverenced and esteemed; at home beloved and happy. The fatisfaction he enjoys there, fettles into an habitual complacency, which fhines in his countenance, enlivens his wit, and feafons his converfation: even thofe of his acquaintance, who have never feen him in his re tirement, are sharers in the happiness of it; and N° 526. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3. it is very much owing to his being the beft and beft-beloved of husbands, that he is the most ftedfaft of friends, and the most agreeable of companions. -Fortiùs utere loris. There is a fenfible pleasure in contemplating fuch beautiful inftances of domeftic life. The happiness of the conjugal ftate appears heightened to the highest degree it is capable of, when we fee two perfons of accomplished minds, not only united in the fame interests and affections, but in their tafte of the fame improvements, pleasures and diverfions. Pliny, one of the finest gentlemen, and politeft writers of the age in which he lived, has left us in his letter to Hifpulla, his wife's aunt, one of the most agreeable family pieces of this kind I have ever met with. I shall end this discourse with a tranflation of it; and I believe the reader will be of my opinion, that conjugal love is drawn in it with a delicacy which makes it appear to be, as I have reprefented it, an ornament as well as a virtue. 'made. 6 If I recite any thing in public, the cannot refrain from placing herself privately in fome corner to hear, where with the ut I most delight the feafts upon my applaufes. 'Sometimes the fings my verfes, and accompa'nies them with the lute, without any master, 'except love, the best of inftructors. From 'these instances I take the most certain omens of our perpetual and increasing happiness; 'fince her affection is not founded on my youth and perfon, which must gradually decay, but 'fhe is in love with the immortal part of me, 6 my glory and reputation. Nor indeed could 'lefs be expected from one who had the happi'nefs to receive her education from you, who in 6 your house was accustomed to every thing that was virtuous and decent, and even began to 'love me by your recommendation. For, as you had always the greatest respect for my mother, you were pleafed from my infancy to form me, to commend me, and kindly to pré'fage I should be one day what my wife fancies I am. Accept therefore our united thanks ; mine, that you have, bestowed her on me, and hers, that you have given me to her, as a mutual grant of joy and felicity." PLINY to HISPULLA. As SI remember the great affection which was between you and your excellent 'brother, and know you love his daughter as · your own, fo as not only to exprefs the tendernefs of the best of aunts, but even to fupply that of the best of fathers; I am fure it will be a pleasure to you to hear that the proves worthy of her father, worthy of you, and of your and her ancestors. Her ingenuity is admirable; her frugality extraordinary. She loves me, the fureft pledge of her virtue; and adds to this a wonderful difpofition to learning, which he has acquired from her affection to me. She reads my writings, ftudies them, and even gets them by heart. You would fmile to fee the concern fhe is in when I have a caufe to plead, and the joy the fhews when it is over. She finds means to have the first news brought her of the fuccefs I meet with in court, how I am heard and what decree is · Keep a ftiff rein. I AM very loth to come to extremities with the young gentlemen mentioned in the following letter, and do not care to chaftife them with my own hand, until I am forced by provocations too great to be fuffered without the abfolute deftruction of my fpectatorial dignity. The crimes of thefe offenders are placed under the obfervation of one of my chief officers, who is posted just at the entrance of the pafs between London and Westminster. As I have great confidence in the capacity, refolution and integrity of the perfon deputed by me to give an account of enormities, doubt not but I fhall foon have before me all proper notices which are requifite for the amendment of manners in public, and the instruction of each individual of the human fpecies in what is due from him, in respect to the whole body of mankind. The prefent paper fhall confift only of the above-mentioned letter, and the copy of a deputation which I have given to my trufty friend Mr. John Sly; wherein he is charged to notify to me all that is neceffary for my animadverfion upon the delinquents mentioned by my corre fpondent, as well as all others defcribed in the faid deputation. OVID. Met. 1. 2. ver. 127. Addifon. To the Spectator-General of Great-Britain, 'I grant it does look a little familiar, but I must call you • Dear Dumb, B EINC got again to the farther end of the Widow's coffee-house, I shall from hence 'give you fome account of the behaviour of our hackney coachmen fince my laft. These indefatigable gentlemen, without the leaft defign, Kk 2 I dare < " 6 < · < B I dare fay, of felf-intereft or advantage to < K " ⚫ of fome hundreds of as hopeful young gentle ( " men as myself should fuffer through their folly. It is not, however, for me to direct you what to do; but, in fhort, if our coachmen will 'drive on this trade, the very first of them that 'I do find meditating in the streets, I fhall make bold to take the number of his chambers, to'gether with a note of his name, and difpatch them to you, that you may chastise him at your "own difcretion. To my loving and well-beloved John Sly, haberdafher of hats, and tobacconist, between the cities of London and Westminster. W Hereas frequent diforders, affronts, and indignities, omiffions, and trefpåffes, for which there are no remedies by any form of law, but which apparently disturb and difquiet the minds of men, happen near the place of your refidence; and that you are, as well by your commodious fituation, as the good parts with which you are endowed, properly qualified for the obfervation of the faid offences; I do hereby authorife and depute you, from the hours of nine in the morning, until four in the afternoon, to keep a ftrict eye upon all perfons and things that are conveyed in coaches, carried in carts, or walk on foot from the city of London, to the city of Westminster, or from the city of Weftminfter to the city of London, within the faid hours. You are therefore not to depart from your obfervatory at the end of Devereux-Court during the faid space of each day, but to obferve the behaviour of all perfons who are fuddenly transported from tamping on pebbles to fit at eafe in chariots, what notice they take of their foot-acquaintance, and fend me the speedieft advice, when they are guilty of over-looking, turning from, or appearing grave and diftant to their old friends. When man and wife are in the fame coach, you are to fee whether they appear pleafed or tired with each other, and whether they carry the due mean in the eye of the world, between fondnefs and coldnefs. You are carefully to behold all fuch as fhall have addition of honour or riches, and report whether they preferve the countenance they had before fuch addition. As to perfons on foot, you are to be attentive whether they are pleafed with their condition, and are dreffed fuitable to it; but efpecially to diftinguifh fuch as appear discreet, by a low-heel fhoe, with the decent ornament of a leather-garter: to write down the names of such country gentlemen as, upon the approach of peace, have left the hunting for the military cock of the hat: of ail who ftrut, make a noife, and fwear at the drivers of coaches to make haste, when they fee it impoffible they fhould pafs: of all young gentlemen in coach-boxes, who labour at a perfection in what they are fure to be excelled by the meaneft of the people. You are to do all that in you lies that coaches and paffengers give way according to the courfe of bufnefs, nefs, all the morning in term-time towards Westminfter, the reft of the year towards the Exchange. Upon thefe directions, together with other fecret articles herein incloted, you are to govern yourself, and givé advertisement thereof to me at all convenient and fpectatorial hours, when men of bufinefs are to be feen. Hereof you are not to fail. Given under my feal of office. T The Spectator. N° 527. TUESDAY, Nov. 4. Facilè invenies & pejorem, & pejùs moratam ; You will eafily find a worse woman; a better the fun never fhone upon. I AM fo tender of my women-readers, that I cannot defer the publication of any thing which concerns their happiness or quiet. The repofe of a married woman is confulted in the firft of the following letters, and the felicity of a maiden lady in the fecond. I call it a felicity to have the addreffes of an agreeable man: and I think I have not any where seen a prettier application of a poetical story than that of his, in making the tale of Cephalus and Procris the hiftory picture of a fan in fo gailant a manner as he addrefes it. But fee the letters. 'ftormed that he was made a member of too numerous a fociety. He had, it feems, liftened 'most of the time my coufin and I were together. As jealous ears always hear double, fo he heard enough to make him mad; and as jealous eyes always fee through magnifying glaffes, fo he was certain it could not be I. whom he had seen, a beardless strippling, but 'fancied he faw a gay gentleman of the Temple, ten years older than myfelf; and for that reafon, I prefume, durft not come in, nor take any notice when I went out. He is perpetu < ally afking his wife if fhe does not think the time long (as she said she should) until the fee 'her coufin again. Pray, Sir, what can be <done in this cafe? I have writ to him to affure him I was at his houfe all that afternoon expecting to fee him: his anfwer is, it is only a trick of hers, and that he neither • can nor will believe me. The parting kifs ! find mightily nettles him, and confirms him in all his errors. Ben'Johnfon, as I remember, makes a foreigner in one of his comedies, admire the desperate valour of the bold English, "who let out their wives to all encounters." The general cuftom of falutation fhould excufe the favour done me, or you should lay down rules when fuch diftinctions are to be given or omitted. You cannot imagine, Sir, how 'troubled I am for this unhappy lady's misfor· tune, and beg you would infert this letter, that the husband may reflect upon this accident coolly. It is no fmall matter, the cafe of a 'virtuous woman for her whole life: I know • Mr. Spectator, · T is now almoft three months fince I was in town about fome business; and the hurry ' of it being over, I took coach one afternoon, and drove to see a relation, who married about 'fix years ago a wealthy citizen. I found her at home, but her husband gone to the Exchange, and expected back within an hour at the fartheft. After the ufual falutations of kindness, and a hundred questions about friends in the country, we fat down to piquet, played two or three games, and drank tea. I fhould have told you that this was my fecond time of 'feeing her fince marriage; but before the lived at the fame town where I went to fchool; fo that the plea of a relation, added to the innocence of my youth, prevailed upon her good'humour to indulge me in a freedom of converfation as often, and oftner, than the strict difcipline of the fchool would allow of. You may easily imagine after fuch an acquaintance we might be exceeding merry without any offencé, as in calling to mind how many inventions I have been put to in deluding the mafter, how many hands forged for excufes, how many times been fick in perfect health, for I was then never fick but at fchool, and only then becaufe out of her company. We had whiled away three hours after this manner, ' when I found it paft, five: and not expecting her husband would return until late, rofe up, told her I fhould go early next morning for the country: fhe kindly answered fhe was afraid it would be long before the faw me again; fo I tock my leave and parted. Now, Sir, I had not been got home a fortnight, when I received a letter from a neighbour of theirs, that ever fince that fatal afternoon the lady had been moft inhumanly treated, and the husband publicly " " " he will conform to any regularities (though " more ftrict than the common rules of our country require) to which his particular temper fall incline him to oblige her. This accident puts me in mind how generously Pisiftratus the Athenian tyrant behaved himfelf on a like occafion, when he was inftigated by his 'wife to put to death a young gentleman, because being paffionately fond of his daughter, he kiffed her in public as he met her in the ftrect;" "What (faid he) fhall we do to thofe who are C "6 our enemies, if we do thus to thofe who are "our friends?" I will not trouble you much longer, but am exceedingly concerned left this accident may caufe a virtuous lady to lead a miferable life with a husband, who has no grounds for his jealousy but what I have faithfully related, and ought to reckoned none. It is to be feared too, if at laft he fees his miftake, yet people will be as flow and unwilling in difbelieving fcandal as they are quick and for'wardin believing it. I shall endeavour to enliven this plain and honest letter with Ovid's relation about Cybele's image. The fhip wherein it was abroad was ftranded at the mouth of the Tiber, and the men were unable to move it, until Claudia, a virgin, but fufpected of unchastity, by a flight pull hawled it in. The ⚫ftory is told in the fourth book of the Fafti, She spoke, and touch'd the cord with glad "furprize, "(The truth was witnefs'd by ten thousand eyes) "The pitying goddefs eafily comply'd, "Follow'd in triumph, and adorn'd her guide; "While Claudia, blushing still for paft difgrace, "March'd filent on with a flow folemn pace: "Nor yet from fome was all distrust remov'd, "Tho' heav'n fuch virtue by fuch wonders "prov'd." • Mr. Spectator, Y " OU will oblige a languishing lover, if you will please to print the inclofed verfes in your next paper. If you remember the Metamorphofis, you know Procris, the fond wife of Cephalus, is faid to have niade her huf. band, who delighted in the fports of the wood, a prefent of an unerring javelin. In procefs of time he was fo much in the foreft, that his lady fufpected he was pursuing fome nymph, under the pretence of following a chafe more ⚫ innocent. Under this fufpicion the hid herfelf among the trees, to obferve his motions. While the lay concealed, her husband, tired ' with the labour of hunting came, within her hearing. As he was fainting with heat, he cried out, "Aura veni; oh charming air ap"proach." C < The unfortunate wife, taking the word air to be the name of a woman, began to move among the bushes; and the husband believing it a deer, threw his javelin and killed her. This history painted on a fan, which I prefented to a lady, gave occafion to my growing · poetical. < 'I am, Sir, Your very humble fervant, 'Philagnotes.' "Come gentle air: th' Æolian shepherd faid, "While Procris panted in the secret shade; "Come, gentle air! the fairer Delia cries, "While at her feet her swain expiring lies. "Lo the glad gales o'er all her beauties ftray, "Breathe on her lips, and in her bofom play. "In Delia's hand this toy is fatal found, "Nor did that fabled dart more furely wound. "Both gifts deftructive to the givers prove, "Alike both lovers fall by those they love: "Yet guiltless too this bright destroyer lives, "At random wounds, nor knows the wound she "gives: "She views the ftory with attentive eyes, "And pities Procris, while her lover dies." kind; but have now taken pen, ink, and pa < per, and am refolved to unbosom myself to you, and lay before you what grieves me and ' all the fex. You have very often mentioned particular hardships done to this or that lady; but, methinks, you have not in any one fpe'culation directly pointed at the partial freedom men take, the unreasonable confinement women are obliged to, in the only circumftance in which we are neceffarily to have a commerce with them, that of love. The cafe of celibacy is the great evil of our nation; and the indulgence of the vicious conduct of men in that ftate, with the ridicule to which women are expofed, though ever so virtuous, if 'long unmarried, is the root of the greatest irregularities of this nation. To fhew you, Sir, that though you never have given us the cata'logue of a lady's library as you promised, we 'read good books of our own choofing, I fhall infert on this occafion a paragraph or two out ' of Echard's Roman Hiftory. In the 44th page of the fecond volume the author obferves, that Auguftus, upon his return to Rome at the end of a war, received complaints that too great a number of the young men of quality were un'married. The Emperor thereupon affembled the whole Equeftrian order; and having sepa'rated the married from the fingle, did particu 6 lar honours to the former, but he told the latter, that is to fay, Mr. Spectator, he told the bachelors, "That their lives and actions had "been fo peculiar, that he knew not by what "name to call them; not by that of men, for "they performed nothing that was manly; not "by that of citizens, for the city might perish "notwithstanding their care; nor by that of "Romans, for they defigned to extirpate the "Roman name." "Then proceeding to fhew his tender care and hearty affection for his 'people, he further told them, "That their "courfe of life was of fuch pernicious confe"quence to the glory and grandeur of the Ro"C man nation, that he could not choofe but tell "them, that all other crimes put together could "not equalize theirs: for they were guilty of "murder, in not suffering thofe to be born "which fhould proceed from them; of impiety, "in caufing the names and honours of their "anceftors to ceafe; and of facrilege, in def"troying their kind, which proceed from the "immortal gods, and human nature, the prin"cipal thing confecrated to them: therefore in "this refpect, they diffolved the government, in "difobeying its laws; betrayed their country, "by making it barren and wafte; nay, and de"molished their city, in depriving it of inha"bitants. And he was fenfible that all this "proceeded not from any kind of virtue or ab"ftinence, but from a loofenefs and wanton"nefs, which ought never to be encouraged in "any civil government." There are no particulars dwelt upon that let us into the conduct of these young worthies, whom this great Emperor treated with fo much juftice and indignation; but any one who obferves what paffes in this town, may very well frame to himself a notion of their riots and debaucheries all night, and their apparent preparations for them all day. It is not to be doubted but thefe Romans never paffed any of their time innocently but when they were afleep, and never flept but when they were weary and < . |
