calls Comparisons à longue queue,"long-tail'd compari"fons." I fhall conclude this paper on the first book of Milton with the answer which Monfieur Boileau makes to Perrault on this occafion; "Comparifons," he fays, "in "odes and epic poems, are not introduced only to il"luftrate and embellish the difcourfe, but to amuse and "relax the mind of the reader, by frequently difengaging "him from too painful an attention to the principal subject, and by leading him into other agreeable images. "Homer," fays he, excelled in this particular, whose "comparisons abound with fuch images of nature as are proper to relieve and diverfify his fubjects. He con"tinually inftructs the reader, and makes him take no"tice, even in objects which are every day before our "6 eyes, of fuch circumstances as we fhould not otherwife "have obferved." To this he adds, as a maxim univerfally acknowledged, "That it is not neceffary in poe"try for the points of the comparison to correfpond with one another exactly, but that a general resemblance is "fufficient, and that too much nicety in this particular "favours of the rhetorician and epigrammatift."

In fhort, if we look into the conduct of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, as the great fable is the foul of each poem, fo, to give their works an agreeable variety, their epifodes are fo many short fables, and their fimiles fo many fhort episodes; to which you may add, if you please, that their metaphors are fo many fhort fimiles. If the reader confiders the comparisons in the first book of Milton, of the fun in an eclipfe, of the fleeping Leviathan, of the bees fwarming about their hive, of the fairy dance, in the view wherein I have here placed them, he will easily discover the great beauties that are in each of those paffages,

L

VOL. IV.

K

Monday,

N° 304

Monday, February 18.

Vulnus alit venis & cæco carpitur igni.

Virg. Æn. 4. ver. 2.

A latent fire preys on his fev'rish veins.

T

HE circumftances of my correfpondent, whofe letter I now infert, are fo frequent, that I cannot want compaffion fo much as to forbear laying it before the town. There is fomething fo mean and inhuman in a direct Smithfield bargain for children, that if this lover carries his point, and obferves the rules he pretends to follow, I do not only wish him fuccefs, but also that it may animate others to follow his example. I know not one motive relating to this life which would produce fo many honourable and worthy actions, as the hopes of obtaining a woman of merit: there would ten thousand ways of industry and honeft ambition be purfued by young men, who believed that the perfons admired had value enough for their paffion to attend the event of their good fortune in all their applications, in order to make their circumftances fall in with the duties they owe to themselves, their families, and their country. All these relations a man should think of who intends to go into the ftate of marriage, and expects to make it a ftate of pleasure and fatisfaction.

I

Mr. Spectator,

Have for fome years indulged a paffion for a young lady of age and quality fuitable to my own, but very much fuperior in fortune. It is the fashion with parents, how juftly I leave you to judge, to make all regards give way to the article of wealth. From this one confideration it is that I have concealed the ardent love I have for her; but I am beholden to the force of my love for many advantages which I reaped from it towards the better conduct of my life. A certain com⚫ placency

placency to all the world, a ftrong defire to oblige wherever it lay in my power, and a circumfpect behaviour in all my words and actions, have rendered me more particularly acceptable to all my friends and acquaintance. Love has had the fame good effect upon my fortune; and I have increased in riches in proportion to my advancement in those arts which make a 6 man agreeable and amiable. There is a certain fympathy which will tell my miftrefs from these circumftances, that it is I who writ this for her reading, if you will please to infert it. There is not a downright enmity, but a great coldnefs between our parents; fo that if either of us declared any kind fentiments for each other, her friends would be very backward to lay any obligation upon our family, and mine to receive it. 'from her's. Under thefe delicate circumstances it is no eafy matter to act with fafety. I have no reafon to fancy my mistress has any regard for me, but from a very difinterested value which I have for her. If from · any hint in any future paper of your's fhe gives me the leaft encouragement, I doubt not but I fhall furmount all other difficulties; and infpired by fo noble a motive for the care of my fortune, as the belief the is to be 'concerned in it, I will not defpair of receiving her one day from her father's own hand.

• I am, Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

To his Worship the Spectator.

Clytander.'

The humble petition of Anthony Title-page, ftationer, in the centre of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields,

• Sherweth,

THAT your petitioner and his forefathers have been fellers of books for time immemorial; that your petitioner's anceitor, Crouchback Title-Page, was the firit of that vocation in Britain; who keeping his station in fair weather, at the corner of Lothbury, was by way of eminency called the stationer, a name which K 2 ⚫ from

from him all fucceeding bookfellers have affected to bear that the station of your petitioner and his father has been in the place of his prefent fettlement ever fince that fquare has been built: that your petitioner has formerly had the honour of your worship's custom, • and hopes you never had reason to complain of your pennyworths; that particularly he fold you your first Lilly's grammar, and at the fame time a Wits Commonwealth almoft as good as new: moreover, that your first rudimental effays in fpectatorship were made in your petitioner's fhop, where you often practifed for hours together, fometimes on his books upon the rails, ' fometimes on the little hieroglyphics either gilt, filvered, or plain, which the Egyptian woman on the other fide of the shop, had wrought in ginger-bread, and fometimes on the English youth, who in fundry places there were exercising themselves in the tradi ⚫tional fports of the field.

From thefe confiderations it is, that your petitioner is encouraged to apply himself to you, and to proceed humbly to acquaint your worship, that he has certain intelligence that you receive great numbers of defamaહ tory letters defigned by their authors to be published, which you throw afide and totally neglect: your petitioner therefore prays, that you will please to bestow on him thofe refufe letters, and he hopes by printing them to get a more plentiful provifion for his family; or, at the word, he may be allowed to fell them by the pound weight to his good cuftomers the pastry-cooks ⚫ of London and Westminster.

And your petitioner fhall ever pray, &c.'

• To

To the Spectator.

The humble petition of Bartholomew Ladylove, of Round-Court, in the parish of St. Martin's in the Fields, in behalf of himself and neighbours,

• Sherweth,

THAT your petitioners have with great industry

and application arrived at the most exact art of invitation or intreaty: that by a befeeching air and perfuafive addrefs, they have for many years last past peaceably drawn in every tenth paffenger, whether they intended or not to call at their fhops, to come in and buy; and from that softness of behaviour, have arrived among tradefmen at the gentle appellation of the ⚫ fawners.

That there have of late fet up amongst us certain perfons from Monmouth-ftreet and Long-lane, who by the ftrength of their arms, and loudness of their throats, draw off the regard of all paffengers from your faid petitioner; from which violence they are diftinguished by the name of the worriers.

That while your petitioners ftand ready to receive paffengers with a fubmiffive bow, and repeat with a gentle voice, "Ladies, what do you want? pray look in here," the worriers reach out their hands at piftolfhot, and feize the customers at arms-length.

That while the fawners ftrain and relax the mufcles of their faces in making diftinction between a fpinster in a coloured fcarf and an hand-maid in a ftraw-hat, the • worriers use the fame roughnefs to both, and prevail upon the eafinefs of the paffengers, to the impoverishment of your petitioners.

Your petitioners therefore most humbly pray, that the worriers may not be permitted to inhabit the politer parts of the town; and that Round-Court may re• main a receptacle for buyers of a more foft education.