ἐσ This great indifference on this fubject, and the mercenary motives for making alliances, is what I think lies naturally before you, and I. beg of you to give me your thoughts upon it. My answer to Lydia was as follows, which I hope you will approve; for you are to know. the woman's family affect a wonderful ease on thefe occafions, though they expect it should be painfully received on the man's fide. • Madam. Have received your's, and knew the pruz dence of your house fo well, that I always "took care to be ready to obey your commands, "though they should be to fee you no more. "Pray give my fervice to all the good family. "Adieu, T 'fuch epiftles; and that in order hereunto Mr. Buckley may be authorised to take up of your zealous friend Mr. Charles Lillie, any quantity of words he fhall from time to time have 'occafion for. The many useful parts of knowledge which may be communicated to the public this way, 'will, we hope, be a confideration in favour of 'your petitioners. And your petitioners, &c." Note, That particular regard be had to this petition; and the papers marked letter R may be carefully examined for the future. • Mr. Spectator, I Am amazed that among all the variety of characters, with which you have enriched your fpeculations, you have never given us a < picture of thofe audacious young fellows among us, who commonly go by the name of 'fortune-ftealers. You must know, Sir, I am one who live in a continual apprehenfion of this 'fort of people that lie in wait, day and night, for our children, and may be confidered as a kind of kidnappers within the law. I am the father of a young heirefs, whom I begin to 'look upon as marriageable, and who has look→ ed upon herself as fuch for above these fix years. She is now in the eighteenth year of her age. The fortune-hunters have already caft their eyes upon her, and take care to plant themselves in her view whenever the appears in any public affembly. I have myself caught a young jackanapes with a pair of filver fringed gloves in the very fact. You must know, Sir, I have kept her as a prisoner of ftate ever finee fhe was in her teens. Her chamber-windows are cross-barr'd; she is not HERE is an elderly perfon lately left off business and fettled in our town, in order, as he thinks, to retire from the world; but he has brought with him fuch an incli 'nation to tale-bearing, that he disturbs both ' himself and all our neighbourhood. Notwith· ftanding this frailty the honeft gentleman is fo happy as to have no enemy: at the fame time he has not one friend who will venture to acquaint him with his weakness. It is not to be doubted but if this failing were fet in a proper light, he would quickly perceive the indecency and evil confequences of it. Now, Sir, this 'being an infirmity which I hope may be corrected, and knowing that he pays much deference to you, I beg that when you are at leifure, to give us a fpeculation on goffiping, you "would think of my neighbour: you will hereby < oblige feveral who will be glad to find a re⚫formation in their gray-haired friend and how becoming will it be for him, inftead of pour-permitted to go out of the house but with her " ing forth words at all adventures, "to let a keeper, who is a ftayed relation of her own; I have likewife forbid her the use of pen and ink, for this twelve month last past, and do not fuffer a band-box to be carried into her room before it has been fearched. Notwithstanding thefe precautions, I am at my wits end for fear of any sudden surprise. There were, two or three nights ago, fome fiddles heard in the street, which I am afraid portend me no good; not to mention a tall Irishman, that has been feen walking before my house more than once this winter. My kinfwoman likewife informs me, that the girl has talked to her twice or thrice of a gentleman in a fair wig, and that the loves to go to church more than ever fhe did in her life. She gave me the slip about a week ago, upon which my whole houfe was in alarm. I immediately dispatched a hue and cry after her to the 'Change, to her mantua-maker, and to the young ladies that vifit her; but after above an hour's fearch the returned of herself, having been taking a walk, 3 Ea < as the told me, by Rofamond's pond. I have hereupon turned off her woman; doubled her guards, and given new inftructions to my relation, who to give her her due, keeps a watchful eye over all her motions. This, Sir, keeps me in a perpetual anxiety, and makes me very often watch when my daughter fleeps, as I am afraid she is even with me in her turn. Now, Sir, what I would defire of you is, to represent to this fluttering tribe of young fellows, who are for making their fortunes by these indirect means, that ftealing a man's daughter for the fake of her portion, is but a kind of a tolerated robbery; and that they 'make but a poor amends to the father, whom they plunder after this manner, by going to bed with his child. Dear Sir, be fpeedy in your thoughts on this fubject, that, if poffible, they may appear before the disbanding of the arm ⚫ I am, Sir, Your most humble fervant, Tim. Watchwell.' Themiftocles, the great Athenian general, being asked whether he would choose to marry his daughter to an indigent man of merit, or to a worthlefs man of an eftate, replied, that he fhould prefer a man without an eftate, to an eftate without a man. The worst of it is, our modern fortune-hunters are thofe who turn their heads that way, because they are good for nothing else. If a young fellow finds he can make nothing of Coke and Littleton, he provides himfelf with a ladder of ropes, and by that means very often enters upon the premises. The fame art of fcaling has likewife been practifed with good fuccefs by many military engineers. Stratagems of this nature make parts and industry fuperfluous, and cut short the way to riches. Nor is vanity a lefs motive than idlenefs to this kind of mercenary purfuit. A fop, who admires his perfon in a glafs, foon enters into a refolution of making his fortune by it, not questioning but every woman that falls in his way will do him as much juftice as he does himfelf, When an heires fees a man throwing particular graces into his ogle, or talking loud within her hearing, the ought to look to herfelf; but if withal the obferves a pair of red heels, a patch, or any other particularity in his dress, the cannot take too much care of her perfon, Thefe are baits not to be trified with, charms that have done a world of execution, and made their way into hearts which have been thought impregnaable. The force of a man with thefe qualifications is fo well known, that I am credibly informed there are feveral female undertakers about Cottilus, after having made his applications to more than you meet with in Mr. Cowley's ballad of miftreffes, was at last smitten with a city lady of 20,000l. fterling; but died of old age before he could bring matters to bear. Nor must I here omit my worthy friend Mr. Honeycomb, who has often told us in the club, that for twenty years fucceffively, upon the death of a childless rich man, he immediately drew on his boots, called for his horfe, and made up to the widow. When he is rallied upon his ill fuccefs, Will, with his ufual gaiety tells us, that he always found her pre-engaged. the 'Change, who upon the arrival of a likely man out of a neighbouring kingdom, will furnish him with proper drefs from head to foot, to be paid for at a double price on the day of marriage. We must however diftinguish between fortune-hunters and fortune-stealers. The first are thofe affiduous gentlemen who employ their whole lives in the chace, without ever coming at the quarry. Suffenus has combed and powdered at the ladies for thirty years together, and taken his ftand in a fide-box, until he is grown wrinkled under their eyes. He is now laying the fame fnare for the prefent generation of beauties, which he practifed on their mothers, Widows are indeed the great game of your fortune-hunters. There is fcarce a young fellow in the town of fix foot high, that has not paffed in review, before one or other of these wealt! y relicts. Hudibras's Cupid, who "Upon a widow's jointure land.” is daily employed in throwing darts, and kindling flames. But as for widows, they are fuch a fubtle generation of people, that they may be left to their own conduct; or if they make a falfe ftep in it, they are answerable for it to no body but themfelves. The young innocent creatures who have no knowledge and experience of the world, are thofe whofe fafety I would principally confult in this fpeculation. The ftealing of fuch an one should, in my opinion, be as punishable as a rape. Where there is no judgment there is no choice; and why the inveigling a woman before the is come to years of difcretion, fhould not be as criminal as the fe ducing of her before the is ten years old, I am at a lofs to comprehend. L T is a very melancholy reflexion, that men are ufually to weak, that it is abfolutely neceffary for them to know forrow and pain, to be in their right fenfes. Profperous people, for happy there are none, are hurried away with a fond fenfe of their prefent condition, and thoughtless of the mutability of fortune: fortune is a term which we muft ufe in such difcourfes as thefe, for what is wrought by the unfeen hand of the Difpofer of all things. But methinks the difpofition of a mind which is truly great, is that which makes misfortunes and forrows little when they befal oufelves, great and lamentable when they befal other men. The most unpardonable malefactor in the world going to his death and bearing bearing it with compofure, would win the pity of those who should behold him; and this not because his calamity is deplorable, but because he feems himself not to deplore it: we fuffer for him who is lefs fenfible of his own mifery, and are inclined to defpife him who finks under the weight of his diftreffes. On the other hand, without any touch of envy, a temperate and well-governed mind looks down on fuch as are exalted with fuccefs, with a certain fhame for the imbecillity of human nature, that can fo far fo: get how liable it is to calamity, as to grow giday with only the fufpence of forrow, which is the portion of all men. He therefore who turns his face from the unhappy man, who will not look again when his eye is caft upon modeft forrow, who fhuns affliction like a contagion, does but pamper himself up for a facrifice, and contract in himself a greater aptitude to mifery by attempting to escape it. A gentleman, where I happened to be last night, fell into a difcourfe which I thought fhewed a good difcerning in him: he took notice that whenever men have looked into their heart for the idea of true excellency in human nature, they have found it to confift in fuffering after a right manner and with a good grace. Heroes are always drawn bearing forrows, ftruggling with adverfities, undergoing all kinds of hardships, and having in the fervice of mankind a kind of appetite to difficulties and dangers. The gentleman went on to obferve, that it is from this fecret fenfe of the high merit which there is in patience under calamities, that the writers of romarices, when they attempt to furnish out characters of the higheft excellence, ranfack nature for things terrible; they raife a new creation of monsters, dragons, and giants: where the danger ends, the hero ceafes; when he has won an empire, or gained his miftrefs, the rest of his ftory is not worth relating. My friend carried his discourse so far as to fay, that it was for higher beings than men to join happinefs and greatnefs in the fame ideas; but that on our condition we have no conception of fuperlative excellence, or heroifm, but as it is furrounded with a shade of distress. of difficulties, the reflexion, that his anguish is not aggravated with the comparison of past pleafures which upbraid his prefent condition. Tully tells us a story after Pompey, which gives us a good tafte of the pleasant manner the men of wit and philofophy had in old times of alleviating the diftreffes of life by the force of reafon and philofophy. Pompey, when he came to Rhodes, had a curiofity to vifit the famous philofopher Poffidonius; but finding him in his fick bed, he bewailed the misfortune that he should not hear a difcourfe from him: but you may, answered Poffidonius; and immediately entered into the point of ftoical philofophy, which fays pain is not an evil. During the difcourfe, upon every puncture he felt from his diftemper, he smiled and cried out, pain! pain! be as impertinent and troublefom as you pleafe, I shall never own that thou art an evil. • Mr. Spectator, Having feen in feveral of your papers, a concern for the honour of the clergy, ' and their doing every thing as becomes, their 'character, and particularly performing the public fervice with a due zeal and devotion; I am the more encouraged to lay before them, by your means, feveral expreffions used by fome of them in their prayers before fermon, which I am not well fatisfied in: as their giving fome titles and epithets to great men, which are indeed due to them in there feveral Fanks and stations, but not properly used, I think, in our prayers. Is it not contradiction to fay, illuftrious, right reverend, and right honourable poor finners? Thefe diftinctions are fuited only to our ftate here, and have no 'place in heaven? we fee they are omitted in the liturgy; which I think the clergy thould take for their pattern in their own forms of ⚫ devotion. There is another expreffion which 'I would not mention, but that I have heard it feveral times before a learned congregation, to bring in the laft petition of the prayer in thefe words, "O let not the Lord be angry and I "will speak but this once;" as if there was no 'difference between Abraham's interceding for Sodom, for which he had no warrant as we can find, and our afking those things which we are required to pray for; they would there'fore have much more reafon to fear his anger if they did not make fuch petitions to him. There is another pretty fancy: when a young man has a mind to let us know who gave him his fcarf, he fpeaks a parenthesis to the Almighty, blefs," as I am in duty bound to "pray," the right honourable the countefs; is 6 not that as much as to fay, blefs her, for thou ⚫ knoweft I am her chaplain? It is certainly the proper education we should give ourselves, to be prepared for the ill events and accidents we are to meet with in a life fentenced to be a scene of forrow: but instead of this expectation, we foften ourfelves with profpects of conftant delight, and deftroy in our minds the feeds of fortitude and virtue, which fhould fupport us in hours of anguish. The conftant pursuit of pleasure has in it fomething infolent and improper for our being. There is a pretty fober livelinefs in the ode of Horace to Delius, where he tells him, "loud mirth, or "immoderate forrow, inequality of behaviour "either in profperity or adverfity, are alike un"graceful in man that is born to die." Moderation in both circumftances is peculiar to generous minds: men of that fort ever taste the T gratifications of health, and all other advantages of life, as if they were liable to part with them, and when bereft of them, refign them with a greatnefs of mind which fhews, they know their value and duration. The contempt of pleasure is a certain preparatory for the contempt of pain without this the mind is as it were taken fuddenly by an unforeseen event; but he that has always, during health and profperity, been abstinent in his fatisfactions, enjoys in the worst Your humble fervant, · J. O,' No. 313 'It may be objected to this method, that con verfation is not the only thing neceffary, but that unless it be a converfation with fuch as are in fome measure their equals in parts and years, there can be no room for emulation, contention, and feveral of the most lively. paffions of the mind; which, without being fometimes moved, by thefe means, may poffibly contract a dulnefs and infenfibility. One of the greatest writers our nation ever produced obferves, that a boy who forms parties, and makes himself popular in a fchool or a college, would act the fame part with equal eafe in a fenate or a privy-council; and Mr. Ofburn, fpeaking like a man verfed in the ways of the world, affirms, that the well laying and carrying on of a defign to rob an orchard, trains up a youth infenfibly to caution, fecrecy, and circumfpection, and fits him for matters of greater importance. In short, a private education feems the most natural method for the forming of a virtuousman; a public education for making a man of bufinefs. The first would furnish out a good fubject for Plato's republic, the latter a member for a community over run with artifice and corruption. * It must however be confeffea, that a person · at the head of a, public fchool has fometimes fo many boys under his direction, that it is impoffible he fhould extend a due proportion of his care to each of them. This is however, in reality, the fault of the age, in which 'we often fee twenty parents, who, though each expects his fon fhould be made a fcholar, are not contented alltogether to make it worth while for any man of a liberal education to take upon him the care of their in It is certain from Suetonius, that the Romans thought the education of their children a bufinefs properly belonging to the parents themfelves; and Plutarch, in the life of Marcus Cato, tells us, that as foon as his fon was capable of learning, Cato would fuffer no body to teach him but himself, though he had a fervant named Chilo, who was an excellent gram-ftruction. <marian, and who taught a great many other ⚫ youths. On the contrary, the Greeks feemed more • inclined to public schools and feminaries. A private education promises in the first place virtue and good-breding; a public chool manly affurance, and an early knowledge in the ways of the world. Mr. Locke, in his celebrated treatife of Edu cation, confeffes that there are inconveniencies to be feared on both fides; "If," fays he, "I keep my fon at home, he is in danger of becoming my young mafter; if I fend him abroad, it is scarce poffible to keep him from "the reigning contagion of rudenefs and vice. "He will perhaps be more innocent at home, but more ignorant of the world, and more "fheepish when he comes abroad." However, as this learned author afferts, that virtue is much more difficult to be attained than knowledge of the world, and that vice is a more ftubborn, as well as a more dangerous fault than fheepishneís he is altogether for a private education; and the more fo, because he does not fee why a youth, with right management, might not attain the fame affurance in his father's houfe, as at a public fchool. To this end he advises parents to accuftom their fons to whatever strange faces come to the houfe; to take them with them when they vifit their neighbours, and to engage them in converfation with men of parts and breeding. 6 In our great fchools indeed this fault has been of late years rectified, fo that we have at prefent not only ingenious men for the chief masters, but fuch as have proper ushers and affiftants under them. I must nevertheless own, that for want of the fame encourage" ment in the country, we have many a promifing genius fpoiled and abused in thofe little feminaries. I am the more inclined to this opinion, having myself experienced the ufage of two rural mafters, each of them very unfit for the trust they took upon them to discharge. The firft impofed much more upon me than my parts, though none of the weakeft, could endure; and ufed me barbaroufly for not per 'forming impoffibilities. The latter was of quite another temper, and a boy, who would run upon his errands, wash his coffee-pos, or ring the bell, might have as little converfation 'with any of the claffics as he thought fit. I have known a lad of this place excufed his exercife for affifting the cook-maid; and re member a neighbouring gentleman's fon was among us five years, most of which time he employed in airing and watering our mafter's gray pad. I fcorned to compound for my faults, by doing any of thefe elegant offices, and was accordingly the beft fcholar, and the worft ufed of any boy in the fchool.. I fhall conclude this difcourfe with an advantage mentioned by Quintilian, as accompa nying a public way of education, which I have not yet taken notice of; namely, that we very often contract fuch friendships at school, as are a fervice to us all the following parts of our lives. I fhall give you under this head, a story very well known to feveral perfons, and which you may depend upon as real truth. Every one, who is acquainted with Weft, minfter-school, knows that there is a curtain which used to be drawn across the room, to feparate the upper fchool from the lower. A youth happened, by fome mischance, to tear the above-mentioned curtain: the feverity of the mafter was too well known for the crimi nal to expect any pardon for fuch a fault; fo that the boy, who was of a meek temper, was terrified to death at the thoughts of his appearance, when his friend who fat next to him, bade him be of good cheer, for that he would C take the fault on himself. He kept his word accordingly. As foon as they were grown up to be men, the civil war broke out, in which our two friends took the oppofite fides, one of them followed the parliament, the other the royal party., As their tempers were different, the youth, who had torn the curtain, endeavoured to raife himself on the civil lift, and the other, 'who had borne the blame of it, on the military: the first fucceeded fo well, that he was in a fhort time made a judge under the Protector. The other was engaged in the unhappy enterprife of Penruddock and Grove in the weft. I fuppofe, Sir, I need not acquaint you with the event of that undertaking. Eve"" ry one knows that the royal party was routed, and all the heads of them, among whom was the curtain champion, imprisoned at Exeter. It happened to be his friend's lot at that time to go the western circuit: the trial of the rebels, as they were then called, was very 'fhort, and nothing now remained but to pass fentence on them; when the judge hearing the name of his old friend, and obferving his face more attentively, which he had not seen for many years, afked him, if he was not formerly a Westminster-fcholar? By the anfwer, he was foon convinced that it was his former generous friend; and, without faying any thing more at that time, made the beft of his way to London, where employing all his power and intereft with the Protector, he faved his friend from the fate of his unhappy affociates. The gentleman, whofe life was thus preferved by the gratitude of his fchool-fellow, was afterwards the father of a fon, whom he lived to fee promoted in the church, and who • ftill deservedly fills one of the highest stations in it.' X I Am a young man about eighteen years of age, and have been in love with a young woman of the fame age about this half year. 'I go to fee her fix days in the week, but never could have the happiness of being with ler alene. If any of her friends are at home fhe will fee me in their company; but if they be not in the way, the flies to her chamber. I can dif'cover no figns of her averfion; but either a fear of falling into the toils of matrimony, or a childish timidity, deprives us of an interview 6 apart, and drives us upon the difficulty of languishing out our lives in fruitless expectation. Now, Mr. Spectator, if you think us ripe for œconomy, perfuade the dear creature, that to pine away into barrennefs and deformity under a mother's fhade, is not fo honourable, nor does the appear fo amiable, as he would in 'full bloom. I cannot comply with the request of Mr. Trott's letter; but let it go juft as it came to my hands, for being fo familiar with the old gentleman, as rough as he is to him. Since Mr. Trott has an ambition to make him his fatherin-law, he ought to treat him with more refpect; befides, his ftile to me might have been more diftant than he has thought fit to afford me moreover, his mistress fhall continue in her confinement, until he has found out which word in his letter is not rightly spelt. • Mr. Spectator, I Shall ever own myself your obliged humble fervant for the advice you gave me concerning my dancing; which unluckily came too late for, as I faid, I would not leave off 'capering until I had your opinion of the mat'ter; I was at our famous affembly the day before I received your papers, and there was obferved by an old gentleman, who was informed I had a refpect for his daughter; he 'told me I was an infignificant little fellow, and faid that for the future he would take care of his child; fo that he did not doubt but to 'crofs |