[

Mr. Spectator, that a man of wit may extremely affect one for the prefent, but if he has not difcretion, his merit foon vanishes away, while a wife man that has not fo great a ftock of wit, fhall neverthelefs give you a far greater and more lafting fatisfaction: juft fo it is in a picture that is fmartly touched but not well < studied; one may call it a witty picture, though the painter in the mean time may be in danger of being called a fool. On the other hand, a picture that is thoroughly understood in the whole, and well performed in the particulars, that is, begun on the foundation of geometry, carried on by the rules of perfpective, architecture, and anatomy, and perfected by a good < harmony, a just and natural colouring, and fuch paffions, and expreffions of the mind as are almoft peculiar to Raphael; this is what you may justly ftile a wife picture, and which feldom fails to ftrike us dumb, until we can affemble all our faculties to make but a tolerable judgment upon it Other pictures are made for the eyes only, as rattles are made for children's cars; and certainly that picture that only pleafes the eye, without reprefenting fome wellchofen part of nature or other, does but fhew what fine colours are to be fold at the colour· fhop, and mocks the works of the Creator. If the beft imitator of nature, is not to be esteemed the best painter, but he that makes the greatest fhow and glare of colours; it will neceffarily · follow, that he who can array himfelf in the moft gaudy draperies is beft dreffed, and he that can speak loudeft the beft crator. Every man when he locks on a picture fhould examine it according to that fhare of reafon he is mafter of, or he will be in danger of making a wrong judgment. If men as they walk abroad would make more frequent obfervations on thofe beauties of nature which every moinent prefent themfelves to their view, they would be better judges when they faw her well imitated at home: this would help to corre& thofe errors which moft pretenders fall into, who are over-hafty in their judgments, and will not ftay to let reafon come in for a fhare in the decifion. It was for want of this that men miftake in this cafe, and in common life, a wild extravagant pencil for one that is truly bold and great, an impudent fellow for a man of true courage and bravery, hafty and unreafonable actions for enterprizes of fpirit and refolution, gaudy colouring for that which is truly beautiful, a falfe and infinuating difcourfe for fimple truth elegantly recommended. The pa rallel will hold through all the parts of life and painting too: and the virtuofos above-mentioned will be glad to fee you draw it with your terms of art. As the fhadows in a pic. ture reprefent the ferious or melancholy, fo the lights do the bright and lively thoughts: as there fhould be but one forcible light in a picture, which fhould catch the eye and fall on the hero; fo there fhould be but one object of our love, even the Author of nature. and the like reflexions well improved, might very much contribute to open the beauty of that art, and prevent young people, from being poifoned by the ill gufto of any extravagant workman that fhould be impofed upon us.

Thefe T

I am,

Sir,

Mr. Spectator,

TH

HOUGH I am a woman, yet I am one of thofe who confefs themselves highly pleafed with a fpeculation you obliged the 'world with fome time ago, from an old Greek

poet you call Simonides, in relation to the fe'veral natures and diftinctions of our own fex. 'I could not but admire how juftly the characters of women in this age, fall in with the 'times of Simonides, there being no one of thofe forts I have not at fome time or other of my life met with a fample of. But, Sir, the fub 'ject of this prefent addrefs, are a fet of women 'comprehended, I think, in the nine fpecies of that fpeculation, called the apes.; the defcrip→ tion of whom I find to be, "That they are 'fuch as are both ugly and ill-natured, who "have nothing beautiful themfelves, and endea

your moft humble fervant."

·

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6

vour to detract from or ridicule every thing "that appears fo in others." Now, Sir, this fect, as I have been told, is very frequent in the great town where you live; but as my circum'ftance of life obliges me to refide altogether in the country, though not many miles from London, I cannot have met with a great number of them, nor indeed is it a defirable acquaintance, as I have lately found by experience. You 'must know, Sir, that at the beginning of this fuminer a family of thefe apes came and fettled for the feafon not far from the place where I live. As they were ftrangers in the country, they were vifited by the ladies about them, of whom I was one, with an humanity ufual in thofe that pafs moft of their time in folitude. The apes lived with us very agreeably our own way until towards the end of the fummer, when they began to bethink themselves of returnin to town; then it was, Mr. Spectator, that they began to fet themfelves about the proper and diftinguishing bufinefs of their character; and,

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as it is faid of evil fpirits, that they are apt to carry away a piece of the house they are about to leave, the apes, without regard to common mercy, civility, or gratitude, thought fit to mimic, and fall foul on the faces, dress, and behaviour of their innocent neighbours, beftowing abominable cenfures and difgraceful appellations, commonly called nick-names, on all of them; and in fhort, like true fine ladies, made their honeft plainnefs and fincerity matter of ridicule. I could not but acquaint you with thefe grievances, as well at the defire of all the parties injured, as from my own inclination. I hope, Sir, if you cannot propofe intirely to reform this evil, you will take fuch notice of it in fome of your future fpeculations, as may put the deferving part of our fex on their guard against thefe creatures; and at the fame time the apes may be fenfible, that this fort of mirth is fo far from an innocent diverfion, that it is in the highest degree that vice which is faid to comprehend all others. I am, Sir, 'your humble fervant, Conftantia Field.'

SIR,

Could heartily with that you would let us know your opinion upon feveral innocent diverfions which are in ufe among us, and which are very proper to pafs away a winter night for thofe who do not care to throw away their time at an opera, or at the play-houfe. I would gladly know in particular, what notion you have of hot-cockles; as alfo whether you think that questions and commands, mottoes, fimiles, and cross-purposes, have not more mirth and wit in them, than thofe public diverfions which are grown fo very fashionable 6 among us. If you would recommend to our 6 wives and daughters, who read your papers with a great deal of pleafure, fome of thofe fports and paftimes that may be practifed within doors, and by the fire-fide, we who are mafters of families' fhould be hugely obliged to you. I need not tell you that I would have thefe fports and paftimes not only merry but innocent, for which reafon I have not men- · tioned either whift or lanterloo, nor indeed fo much as one-and-thirty. After having communicated to you my request upon this fub............

I fhall conclude this paper with a letter from an univerfity gentleman, occafioned by my last Tuefday's paper, wherein 1 gave fome account of the great feuds which happened formerly in thofe learned bodies, between the modern Greeks and Trojans.

SIR,

T

·

HIS will give you to understand, that C there is at prefent in the fociety, whereof I am a member, a very confiderable body of Trojans, who, upon a proper occafion, would not fail to declare ourselves. In the mean while we do all we can to annoy our enemies by stratagem, and are refolved by the fift op< portunity to attack Mr. Joshua Barnes, whom < we look upon as the Achilles of the oppofite parC ty. As for myself, I have had the reputation " ever fince I came from 'chool, of being a trufty Trojan, and am refolved never to give quarter to the fmalleft particle of Greek, wherever I chance to meet it. It is for this reason I take ⚫ it very ill of you, that you sometimes hang out Greek colours at the head of your paper, and fometimes give a word of the enemy even in the body of it. When I meet with any thing of this nature, I throw down your fpeculations upon the table, with that form of words which "we make ufe of when we declare war upon an author.

C

innocent, tender, and helpless infant, and give it up to a woman that is, ten thousand to one, 'neither in health nor good condition, neither 'found in mind nor body, that has neither honour nor reputation, neither love nor pity for the poor babe, but more regard for the money than for the child, and never will take farther care of it than what by all the encouragement of money and prefents fhe is forced to; like

fop's earth, which would not nurfe the plant of another ground, although never fo 'much improved, by reafon that plant was not of its own production. And fince another's child is no more natural to a nurfe than a

• Troilus.

No 246. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 12.
και Οὐκ ἄρα σοὶ γε πατὴς ἦν ἱππότα Πηλεύς,
Οὐδε Θέτις μύτης· γλαυκὴ δὲ σ ̓ ἔτικε θάλασσα,
Πέτραι τ' ηλίβατοι, ὅτι τοι νόος ἐςὶν ἀπηγὴς.
Hom. Iliad. 16. v. 33.
No amorous hero ever gave thee birth,
Nor ever tender goddefs brought thee forth:
Some rugged rock's hard entrails gave thee form,
And raging feas produc'd thee in a storm:
A foul well fuiting thy tempestuous kind,
So rough thy manners, fo untam'd thy mind.

• Mr. Spectator,

As

"

S your paper is part of the equipage of the tea-table, I conjure you to print what I now write to you; for I have no other 6 way to communicate what I have to fay to the fair fex on the most important circumftance of life, even the care of children. I do not • understand that you profefs your paper is always to confift of matters which are only to < entertain the learned and polite, but that it may agree with your defign to publish fome which may tend to the information of mankind <in general; and when it does fo, you do more than writing wit and humour. Give me leave then to tell you, that of all the abufes that ever you have as yet endeavoured to reform, certainly not one wanted fo much your affiftance as the abufe in nurfing children. It is unmerciful to fee, that a woman endowed with all the perfections and bleffings of nature, can, as foon as the is delivered, turn off her

Græcum eft, non poteft legi."

I give you this hint, that you may for the fu

C

" ture abstain from any fuch hoftilities at your

"

¿

peril.

plant to a strange and different ground, how can it be fuppofed that the child should thrive? and if it thrives, muft it not imbibe the grofs humours and qualities of the nurfe, like a plant in a different ground, or like a graft up

"

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on a different ftock? Do not we obferve, that

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a lamb fucking a goat changes very much its nature, nay even its fkin and wool into the goat kind? The power of a nurse over a child by infusing into it, with her milk, her qualities and difpofition, is fufficiently and daily obferved: hence came that old faying concerning an ill-natured and malicious fellow, that he had imbibed his malice with his nurse's

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milk, or that fome brute or other had been his nurfe. Hence Romulus and Remus were faid 6 to have been nurfed by a wolf, Telephus the 'fon of Hercules by a hind, Pelias the fon of Neptune by a mare, and Ægifthus by a goat; not that they had actually fucked fuch creatures, as fome fimpletons have imagined, but that their nurfes had been of fuch a nature and temper, and infufed fuch into them.

Many inftances may be produced from good authorities and daily experience, that children actually fuck in the feveral paffions and de'praved inclinations of their nurfes, as anger, 'malice, fear, melancholy, sadness, defire, and averfion. This Diodorus, lib. 2. witnesses, when he speaks, faying, That Nero the empe'ror's nurfe had been very much addicted to drinking; which habit Nero received from his nurse, and was to very particular in this, that the people took fo much notice of it, as inftead of Tiberius Nero, they called him Biberius Mero. The fame Diodorus alfo relates of Caligula, predeceffor to Nero, that his nurse used to moiften the nipples of her breast frequently with blood, to make Caligula take the better hold of them; which, fays Diodorus, was the caufe that made him fo blood-thirsty and cruel all his life-time after, that he not only com'mitted frequent murder by his own hand, but

likewife wished that all human kind wore but

" POPE.

one neck, that he might have the pleasure to cut it off. Such like degeneracies aftonish the parents, who not knowing after whom the child can take, fee one incline to ftealing, another to drinking, cruelty, ftupidity; yet all thefe are not minded. Nay, it is eafy to de'monftrate, that a child, although it be born 'from the beft of parents, may be corrupted by an ill-tempered nurfe. How many children do we fee daily brought into fits, confumptions, rickets, &c. merely by fucking sheir nurses when in a paflion or fury? But indeed almoft any disorder of the nurfe is a diforder to the child, and few nurses can be found in this town but what labour under fome diftemper

6

· per or other. The first question that is generally

afked a young woman that wants to be a nurfe, No° 247. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13. "Why the should be a nurse to other people's

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children; is anfwered by her having an ill husband, and that she must make shift to live. I think now this very answer is enough to give any body a fhock, if duly confidered; for an ill husband may, or ten to one if he does not, bring home to his wife an ill diftemper, or at leaft vexation and disturbance. Befides, as the takes the child out of mere neceffity, her food ⚫ will be accordingly, or elfe very coarfe at beft; whence proceeds an ill-concocted and coarse food for the child; for as the blood, fo is the milk; and hence I am very well affured pro⚫ ceeds the fcurvy, the evil, and many other diftempers. I beg of you, for the fake of the many poor infants that may and will be faved by weighing this cafe seriously, to exhort the people with the utmost vehemence to let the children fuck their own mothers, both for the ⚫ benefit of mother and child. For the general · argument, that a mother is weakened by giving 'fuck to her children, is vain and fimple; I will ⚫ maintain that the mother grows ftronger by it, and will have her health better than fhe would have otherwise: She will find it the greatest · cure and prefervative for the vapours and fu⚫ture miscarriages, much beyond any other remedy whatsoever. Her children will be like giants, whereas otherwife they are but living ⚫ mhadows and like unripe fruit; and certainly if a woman is ftrong enough to bring forth a child, the is beyond all doubt ftrong enough to nurfe it afterwards. It grieves me to obferve ⚫ and confider how many poor children are daily ' ruined by careless nurses; and yet how tender ought they to be of a poor infant, fince the leaft hurt or blow, especially upon the head, may make it senseless, stupid, or otherwife mi❝ferable for ever?

་

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‹

But I cannot well leave this fubject as yet;
⚫ for it seems to me very unnatural, that a wo-
man that has fed a child as part of herself for
• nine months, should have no defire to nurse it
farther, when brought to light and before her
< eyes, and when by its cry it implores her affift-
C ance and the office of a mother. Do not the
very cruelleft of brutes tend their young ones
⚫ with all the care and delight imaginable? For
⚫ how can fhe be called a mother that will not
nurfe her young ones? The earth is called, the
⚫ mother of all things, not becaufe fhe produces,
⚫ but, because the maintains and nurfes what the
produces. The generation of the infant is the
• effect of defire, but the care of it argues virtue
and choice. I am not ignorant but that there
⚫ are some cases of neceffity where a mother
• cannot give fuck, and then out of two evils the
leaft must be chofen; but there are so very few,
⚫ that I am fure in a thousand there is hardly
• one real inftance; for if a woman does but
know that her husband can spare about three
or fix fhillings a week extraordinary, although
this is but feldom confidered, the certainly,
⚫ with the affiftance of her goffips, will foon
perfuade the good man to fend the child to
nurfe, and eafily impofe upon him by pretend
⚫ ed indifpofition. Thus cruelty is fupported
by fashion, and nature gives place to custom.
SIR,
your humble fervant,'

T

Τῶν δ ̓ ἀκάμαλος ξέει αὐδή

'Ex souátur ndeła.

Hefiod.

Their untir'd lips a wordy torrent pour.

WE

E are told by fome ancient authors, that Socrates was instructed in eloquence by a woman, whofe name, if I am not mistaken, was Afpafia. I have indeed very often looked upon that art as the most proper for the female fex, and I think the universities would do well to confider whether they fhould not fill the rhetoric chairs with the profeffors.

It has been faid in the praise of some men, that they could talk whole hours together upon any thing; but it must be owned to the honour of the other fex, that there are many among them who can talk whole hours together upon nothing. I have known a woman branch out into a long extempore differtation upon the edging of a petticoat, and chide her fervant for breaking a china cup, in all the figures of rhetoric.

Were women admitted to plead in courts of judicature, I am perfuaded they would carry the eloquence of the bar to greater heights than it has yet arrived at. If any one doubts this, let him but be prefent at thofe debates which frequently arife among the ladies of the British fishery.

The firft kind therefore of female orators which I fhall take notice of, are those who are employed in ftirring up the paffions, a part of rhetoric in which Socrates his wife had perhaps made a greater proficiency than his above-mentioned teacher.

The

The fecond kind of female orators are thofe who deal in invectives, and who are commonly known by the name of the cenforious. imagination and elocution of this set of rhetori cians is wonderful. With what a fluency of invention, and copiousness of expreffion, will they enlarge upon every little flip in the behaviour of another? With how many different circumstan. ces, and with what variety of phrafes, will they tell over the fame ftory? I have known an old lady make an unhappy marriage the fubject of a month's converfation. She blamed the bride in one place; pitied her in another: laughed at her in a third; wondered at her in a fourth; was angry with her in a fifth; and in short, wore out a pair of coach-horfes in expreffing her concern for her. At length, after having quite exhausted the fubject on this fide, fhe made a vifit to the new-married pair, praised the wife for the prudent choice fhe had made, told her the unreasonable reflexions which fome malicious people had caft upon her, and defired that they might be bet ter acquainted. The cenfure and approbation of this kind of women are therefore only to be con fidered as helps to difcourfe.

A third kind of female orators may be comprehended under the word goffips. Mrs. Fiddle Faddle is perfectly accomplished in this fort of eloquence; the launches out into defcriptions of chriftenings, runs divifions upon an head-drefs, knows every difh of meat that is served up in her neighbouroood, and entertains her company a whole afternoon together with the wit of her little boy, before he is able to speak.

Rra

The

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Mr. Spectator, that a man of wit may extremely affect one for the prefent, but if he has not difcretion, his merit foon vanishes away, while a wife man that has not fo great a flock of wit, fhall neverthelefs give you a far greater and more lafting fatisfaction: juft fo it is in a picture that is fmartly touched but not well ftudied; one may call it a witty picture, though the painter in the mean time may be in danger of being called a fool. On the other hand, a picture that is thoroughly understood in the whole, and well performed in the particulars, that is, begun on the foundation of geometry, carried on by the rules of perspective, architecture, and anatomy, and perfected by a good harmony, a juft and natural colouring, and fuch paffions, and expreffions of the mind as are almoft peculiar to Raphael; this is what you may justly ftile a wife picture, and which feldom fails to ftrike us dumb, until we can affemble all our faculties to make but a tolerable

Mr. Spectator,

ΤΗ

HOUGH I am a woman, yet I am one of thofe who confefs themfelves highly pleafed with a fpeculation you obliged the 'world with fome time ago, from an old Greek poet you call Simonides, in relation to the fe'veral natures and diftinctions of our own fex. I could not but admire how juftly the charac'ters of women in this age, fall in with the ' times of Simonides, there being no one of those forts I have not at fome time or other of my life met with a fample of. But, Sir, the fub'ject of this prefent addrefs, are a fet of women comprehended, I think, in the nine fpecies of that fpeculation, called the apes; the defcrip→ tion of whom I find to be, "That they are 'fuch as are both ugly and ill-natured, who "have nothing beautiful themselves, and endea

Sir,

·

judgment upon it Other pictures are made for the eyes only, as rattles are made for children's cars; and certainly that picture that only pleafes the eye, without reprefenting fome wellchofen part of nature or other, dees but shew what fine colours are to be fold at the colour< fhop, and mocks the works of the Creator. If the beft imitator of nature, is not to be esteemed the best painter, but he that makes the greatest fhow and glare of colours; it will neceffarily · follow, that he who can array himself in the moft gaudy draperies is beft dreffed, and he that can fpeak loudeft the beft crator. Every man when he locks on a picture fhould examine it according to that fhare of reafon he is mafter of, or he will be in danger of making a wrong judgment. If men as they walk abroad would make more frequent obfervations on thofe beauties of nature which every moment prefent themselves to their view, they would be better judges when they faw her well imitated at home: this would help to correc thofe errors which moft pretenders fall into, who are over-hafty in their judgments, and will not ftay to let reafon come in for a fhare in the decifion. It was for want of this that men miftake in this cafe, and in common life, a wild extravagant pencil for one that is truly bold and great, an impudent fellow for a man of true courage and bravery, hafty and unreasonable actions for enterprizes of fpirit and refolution, gaudy colouring for that which is truly beautiful, a falfe and infinuating difcourfe for fimple truth elegantly recommended. The parallel will hold through all the parts of life and painting too: and the virtuofos above-mentioned will be glad to fee you draw it with your terms of art. As the shadows in a pic. ture reprefent the ferious or melancholy, fo the lights do the bright and lively thoughts: as there fhould be but one forcible light in a picture, which fhould catch the eye and fall on the hero; fo there fhould be but one object of our love, even the Author of nature. and the like reflexions well improved, might < very much contribute to open the beauty of that art, and prevent young people, from being poifoned by the ill gufto of any extravagant workman that fhould be impofed upon us.

Thefe T

1 am,

< your moft humble fervant."

6

·

6

vour to detract from or ridicule every thing "that appears fo in others." Now, Sir, this fect, as I have been told, is very frequent in the great town where you live; but as my circum'ftance of life obliges me to refide altogether in the country, though not many miles from London, I cannot have met with a great number of them, nor indeed is it a defirable acquaintance, as I have lately found by experience. You 'must know, Sir, that at the beginning of this 'fuminer a family of thefe apes came and fettled for the feafon not far from the place where I live. As they were ftrangers in the country, they were vifited by the ladies about them, of whom I was one, with an humanity ufual in thofe that pafs moft of their time in folitude. The apes lived with us very agreeably our own way until towards the end of the fummer, when they began to bethink themfelves of returning to town; then it was, Mr. Spectator, that they began to fet themfelves about the proper and diftinguifhing bufinefs of their character; and,

<

<

·

<

as it is faid of evil fpirits, that they are apt to carry away a piece of the house they are about to leave, the apes, without regard to common mercy, civility, or gratitude, thought fit to mimic, and fall foul on the faces, drefs, and behaviour of their innocent neighbours, beftowing abominable cenfures and difgraceful appellations, commonly called nick-names, on all of them; and in fhort, like true fine ladies, made their honeft plainnefs and fincerity matter of ridicule. I could not but acquaint you with thefe grievances, as well at the defire of all the parties injured, as from my own inclination. I hope, Sir, if you cannot propofe intirely to reform this evil, you will take such notice of it in fome of your future fpeculations, as may put the deferving part of our fex on their guard against thefe creatures; and at the fame time the apes may be fenfible, that this fort of mirth is fo far from an innocent diverfion, that it is in the highest degree that vice which is faid to comprehend all others. I am, • Sir,

"

I your humble fervant,
Conftantia Field.'

N.