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for whom you lament offers you consolation. My last breath will, if I am myself, expire in a prayer for you. I shall never see thy face again. Farewell for ever.

T.

Roscommon.

plain that those your discourses are calcu lated for none but the fashionable part of womankind, and for the use of those who are rather indiscreet than vicious. But, sir, there is a sort of prostitutes in the lower part of our sex, who are a scandal to us, No. 205.] Thursday, October 25, 1711. and very well deserve to fall under your censure. I know it would debase your paDecipimur specie recti- Hor. Ars Poet. v. 25. per too much to enter into the behaviour of Deluded by a seeming excellence. those female libertines; but as your remarks WHEN I meet with any vicious charac-on some part of it would be doing a justice ter, that is not generally known, in order to several women of virtue and honour, to prevent its doing mischief, I draw it at whose reputations suffer by it, I hope you length; and set it up as a scarecrow; by will not think it improper to give the pubwhich means I do not only make an exam-lic some accounts of this nature. You must ple of the person to whom it belongs, but know, sir, I am provoked to write you this give warning to all her majesty's subjects, letter, by the behaviour of an infamous that they may not suffer by it. Thus, to woman, who, having passed her youth in a change the allusion, I have marked out most shameless state of prostitution, is now several of the shoals and quicksands of life, one of those who gain their livelihood by and am continually employed in discovering seducing others that are younger than themthose which are still concealed; in order to selves, and by establishing a criminal comkeep the ignorant and unwary from running merce between the two sexes. Among upon them. It is with this intention that I several of her artifices to get money, she publish the following letter, which brings frequently persuades a vain young fellow, to light some secrets of this nature. that such a woman of quality, or such a celebrated toast, entertains a secret passion for him, and wants nothing but an opportunity of revealing it. Nay, she has gone so far as to write letters in the name of a woman of figure, to borrow money of one of these foolish Roderigo's, which she has afterwards appropriated to her own use. In the mean time, the person who has lent the money, has thought a lady under obligations to him, who scarce knew his name; and wondered at her ingratitude, when he has been with her, that she has not owned the favour, though at the same time he was too much of a man of honour to put her in mind of it.

'MR. SPECTATOR,-There are none of your speculations which I read over with greater delight than those which are designed for the improvement of our sex. You have endeavoured to correct our unreasonable fears and superstitions, in your seventh and twelfth papers; our fancy for equipage, in your fifteenth; our love of puppet-shows, in your thirty-first; our notions of beauty, in your thirty-third; our inclination for romances, in your thirty-seventh; our passion for French fopperies, in your forty-fifth; our manhood and party zeal, in your fifty-seventh; our abuse of dancing, in your sixty-sixth and sixty-seventh; our When this abandoned baggage meets levity, in your hundred and twenty-eighth; with a man who has vanity enough to give our love of coxcombs, in your hundred and credit to relations of this nature, she turns fifty-fourth, and hundred and fifty-seventh; him to very good account by repeating our tyranny over the hen-peckt, in your praises that were never uttered, and dehundred and seventy-sixth. You have delivering messages that were never sent. As scribed the Pict in your forty-first; the Idol the house of this shameless creature is frein your seventy-third; the Demurrer, in your quented by several foreigners, I have heard eighty-ninth; the Salamander, in your hun-of another artifice, cut of which she often dred and ninety-eighth. You have likewise raises money. The foreigner sighs after taken to pieces our dress, and represented some British beauty, whom he only knows to us the extravagances we are often guilty by fame; upon which she premises, if he of in that particular. You have fallen upon can be secret, to procure him a meeting. our patches, in your fiftieth and eighty-first; The stranger, ravished at his good fortune, our commodes, in your ninety-eighth; our gives her a present, and in a little time is fans, in your hundred and second; our introduced to some imaginary title; for you riding-habits, in your hundred and fourth; must know that this cunning purveyor has our hoop-petticoats, in your hundred and her representatives upon this occasion of twenty-seventh; besides a great many little some of the finest ladies in the kingdom, blemishes which you have touched upon in By this means, as I am informed, it is usual your several other papers, and in those enough to meet with a German count in many letters that are scattered up and foreign countries, that shall make his boasts down your works. At the same time we of favours he has received from women of must own that the compliments you pay the highest ranks, and the most unblemished our sex are innumerable, and that those characters. Now, sir, what safety is there very faults which you represent in us, are for a woman's reputation, when a lady may neither black in themselves, nor, as you be thus prostituted as it were by proxy, own, universal among us. But, sir, it is land be reputed an unchaste woman; as the

Yours,

L.

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hero in the ninth book of Dryden's Virgil | you to publish the following erratum: In is looked upon as a coward, because the the paper of Saturday, October 13, column phantom which appeared in his likeness ran 3, line 11, for " glass," read "bottle." away from Turnus? You may depend upon ROBIN GOODFELLOW." what I relate to you to be matter of fact, and the practice of more than one of these female panders. If you print this letter, I may give you some farther accounts of this No. 206.] Friday, October 26, 1711. vicious race of women. Your humble servant, BELVIDERA.'

I shall add two other letters on different subjects to fill up my paper.

'MR. SPECTATOR,-I am a country clergyman, and hope you will lend me your assistance in ridiculing some little indecencies which cannot so properly be exposed from the pulpit.

Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit,
A Diis plura feret-

Hor. Lib. 3. Od. xvi. 21.

They that do much themselves deny, Receive more blessings from the sky.-Creech. THERE is a call upon mankind to value and esteem those who set a moderate price upon their own merit; and self-denial is frequently attended with unexpected blessings, which in the end abundantly recompense such losses as the modest seem to A widow lady who straggled this sum-suffer in the ordinary occurrences of life. mer from London into my parish for the benefit of the air, as she says, appears every Sunday at church with many fashionable extravagances, to the great astonishment of my congregation.

The curious tell us, a determination in cur favour or to our disadvantage is made upon our first appearance, even before they know any thing of our characters, but from the intimations men gather from our aspect. But what gives us the most offence A man, they say, wears the picture of his is her theatrical manner of singing the mind in his countenance; and one man's Psalms. She introduces above fifty Italian eyes are spectacles to his, who looks at him airs into the hundredth psalm; and whilst to read his heart. But though that way of we begin "All people," in the old solemn raising an opinion of those we behold in tune of our forefathers, she in a quite dif-public is very fallacious, certain it is, that ferent key runs divisions on the vowels, and adorns them with the graces of Nicolini: if she meets with "eke" or "aye," which are frequent in the metre of Hopkins and Sternhold, we are certain to hear her quavering them half a minute after us, to some sprightly airs of the opera.

I am very far from being an enemy to church music; but fear this abuse of it may make my parish ridiculous, who already look on the singing psalms as an entertainment, and not part of the devotion: besides, I am apprehensive that the infection may spread; for 'Squire Squeekum, who by his voice seems (if I may use the expression) to be cut out for an Italian singer, was last Sunday practising the same airs.

I know the lady's principles, and that she will plead the toleration, which (as she fancies) allows her non-conformity in this particular; but I beg of you to acquaint her, that singing the Psalms in a different tune from the rest of the congregation, is a sort of schism not tolerated by that act. I am, sir, your very humble servant, R. S.

MR. SPECTATOR,-In your paper upon temperance, you prescribe to us a rule of drinking, out of Sir William Temple, in the following words: "The first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good-humour, and the fourth for mine enemies." Now, sir, you must know, that I have read this your Spectator, in a club whereof I am a member; when our president told us there was certainly an error in the print, and that the word glass should be bottle; and therefore has ordered me to inform you of this mistake, and to desire

those, who by their words and actions take as much upon themselves, as they can but barely demand in the strict scrutiny of their deserts, will find their account lessen every day. A modest man preserves his character, as a frugal man does his fortune; if either of them live to the height of either, one will find losses, the other errors, which he has not stock by him to make up. It were therefore a just rule, to keep your desires, your words, and actions, within the regard you observe your friends have for you, and never, if it were in a man's power, to take as much as he possibly might, either in preferment or reputation. My walks have lately been among the mercantile part of the world; and one gets phrases naturally from those with whom one converses. I say, then, he that in his air, his treatment of others, or an habitual arrogance to himself, gives himself credit for the least article of more wit, wisdom, goodness, or valour, than he can possibly produce if he is called upon, will find the world break in upon him, and consider him as one who has cheated them of all the esteem they had before allowed him. This brings a commission of bankruptcy upon him; and he that might have gone on to his life's end in a prosperous way, by aiming at more than he should, is no longer proprietor of what he really had before, but his pretensions fare as all things do which are torn instead of being divided.

There is no one living would deny Cinna the applause of an agreeable and facetious wit; or could possibly pretend that there is not something inimitably unforced and diverting in his manner of delivering all his

sentiments in his conversation, if he were chantments by which all the world are beable to conceal the strong desire of applausewitched) are to him uncommon benefits and which he betrays in every syllable he ut-new acquisitions. Health is not eaten up ters. But they who converse with him, see that all the civilities they could do to him, or the kind things they could say to him, would fall short of what he expects; and therefore, instead of showing him the esteem they have for his merit, their reflections turn only upon that they observe he has of it himself.

with care, nor pleasure interrupted by envy. It is not to him of any consequence what this man is famed for, or for what the other is prefered. He knows there is in such a place an uninterrupted walk; he can meet in such a company an agreeable conversation. He has no emulation, he is no man's rival, but every man's well-wisher; can look at a prosperous man, with a pleasure in reflecting that he hopes he is as happy as himself: and has his mind and his fortune (as far as prudence will allow) open to the unhappy and to the stranger.

If you go among the women, and behold Gloriana trip into a room with that theatrical ostentation of her charms, Mirtilla with that soft regularity in her motion, Chloe with such an indifferent familiarity, Corinna with such a fond approach, and Roxana with such a demand of respect in the great gravity of her entrance; you find all the sex who understand themselves and act naturally, wait only for their absence, to tell you that all these ladies would impose themselves upon you; and each of them carry in their behaviour a consciousness of so much more than they should pretend to, that they lose what would other-panions are agreeable if they are civil and wise be given them.

Lucceius has learning, wit, humour, eloquence, but no ambitious prospects to pursue with these advantages, therefore to the ordinary world he is perhaps thought to want spirit, but known among his friends to have a mind of the most consummate greatness. He wants no man's admiration, is in no need of pomp. His clothes please him if they are fashionable and warm; his comwell-natured. There is with him no occasion for superfluity at meals, for jollity in company; in a word, for any thing extraordinary to administer delight to him. Want of prejudice, and command of appetite, are the companions which make his journey of life so easy, that he in all places meets with more wit, more good cheer, and more good humour, than is necessary to make him enjoy himself with pleasure and satisfaction. T..

I remember the last time I saw Macbeth, I was wonderfully taken with the skill of the poet, in making the murderer form fears to himself from the moderation of the prince whose life he was going to take away. He says of the king: He bore his faculties so meekly;' and justly inferred from thence, that all divine and human power would join to avenge his death, who had made such an abstinent use of dominion. All that is in a man's power to do to advance his own pomp and glory, and forbears, is so much laid up against the day No. 207.] Saturday, October 27, 1711. of distress; and pity will always be his portion in adversity, who acted with gentleness in prosperity.

The great officer who foregoes the advantages he might take to himself, and renounces all prudential regards to his own person in danger, has so far the merit of a volunteer; and all his honours and glories are unenvied, for sharing the common fate with the same frankness as they do, who have no such endearing circumstances to part with. But if there were no such considerations as the good effect which selfdenial has upon the sense of other men towards us, it is of all qualities the most desirable for the agreeable disposition in which it places our own minds. I cannot tell what better to say of it, than that it is the very contrary of ambition; and that modesty allays all those passions and inquietudes to which that vice exposes us, He that is moderate in his wishes from reason and choice, and not resigned from sourness, distaste, or disappointment, doubles all the pleasures of his life. The air, the season, a sunshiny day, or a fair prospect, are instances of happiness, and that which he enjoys in common with all the world, (by his exemption from the en

Omnibus in terris, quæ sunt a Gadibus usque
Auroram et Gangem, panci dignoscere possant
Vera bona, atque illis multum diversa, remota
Erroris nebula-
Jur. Sat. 1. L

Look round the habitable world, how few
Know their own good, or, knowing it, parsme?
How rarely reason guides the stubborn choice,
Prompts the fond wish, or lifts the suppliant voice?
Dryd Jansen, &c.

In my last Saturday's paper I laid down some thoughts upon devotion in general, and shall here show what were the notions of the most refined heathens on this subject, as they are represented in Plato's dialogue upon prayer, entitled Alcibiades the Second, which doubtless gave occasion to Juvenal's tenth satire, and to the second satire of Persius; as the last of these aut thors has almost transcribed the preceding dialogue, entitled Alcibiades the First, in his fourth satire.

The speakers, in this dialogue upon prayer, are Socrates and Alcibiades; and the substance of it (when drawn together out of the intricacies and digressions) as follows

Socrates meeting his pupil Alcibiades, as he was going to his devotions, and observing his eyes to be fixed upon the earth with

use of to draw down blessings upon himself, and to render his prayers acceptable, would be to live in a constant practice of his duty towards the gods, and towards men. Under this head he very much recommends a form of prayer the Lacedemonians make use of, in which they petition the gods to give them all good things so long as they were virtuous.' Under this head, likewise, he gives a very remarkable account of an oracle to the following purpose:

great seriousness and attention, tells him, | him that the best methods he could make that he had reason to be thoughtful on that occasion, since, it was possible for a man to bring down evils upon himself by his own prayers, and that those things which the gods send him in answer to his petitions, might turn to his destruction. This, says he, may not only happen when a man prays for what he knows is mischievous in its own nature, as Oedipus implored the gods to sow dissention between his sons; but when he prays for what he believes would be for his good, and against what he believes would be to his detriment. This the philosopher shows must necessarily happen among us, since most men are blinded with ignorance, prejudice, or passion, which hinder them from seeing such things as are really beneficial to them. For an instance, he asks Alcibiades, whether he would not be thoroughly pleased and satisfied if that god, to whom he was going to address himself, should promise to make him the sovereign of the whole earth! Alcibiades answers, that he should, doubtless, look upon such a promise as the greatest favour that could be bestowed upon him. Socrates then asked him, if after receiving this great favour he would be contented to lose his life? Or if he would receive it though he was sure he should make an ill use of it? To both which questions Alcibiades answers in the negative. Socrates then shows him, from the examples of others, how these might very probably be the effects of such a blessing. He then adds, that other reputed pieces of good-fortune, as that of having a son, or procuring the highest post in a government, are subject to the like fatal consequences; which nevertheless, says he, men ardently desire, and would not fail to pray for, if they thought their prayers might be effectual for the obtaining of them.

Having established this great point, that, all the most apparent blessings in this life are obnoxious to such dreadful consequences, and that no man knows what in its event would prove to him a blessing or a curse, he teaches Alcibiades after what manner he ought to pray.

In the first place, he recommends to him, as the model of his devotions, a short prayer which a Greek poet composed for the use of his friends, in the following words: "O Jupiter, give us those things which are good for us, whether they are such things as we pray for, or such things as we do not pray for: and remove from us those things which are hurtful, though they are such things as we pray for.'

In the second place, that his disciple may ask such things as are expedient for him, he shows him, that it is absolutely necessary to apply himself to the study of true wisdom, and to the knowledge of that which is his chief good, and the most suitable to the excellency of his nature.

In the third and fast place, he informs

When the Athenians in the war with the Lacedemonians received many defeats both by sea and land, they sent a message to the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, to ask the reason why they who erected so many temples to the gods, and adorned them with such costly offerings; why they who had instituted so many festivals, and accompanied them with such pomps and ceremonies; in short, why they who had slain so many hecatombs at their altars, should be less successful than the Lacedemonians, who fell so short of them in these particulars? To this, says he, the oracle made the following reply: I am better pleased with the prayers of the Lacedemonians than with all the oblations of the Greeks.' As this prayer implied and encouraged virtue in those who made it; the philosopher proceeds to show how the most vicious man might be devout, so far as victims could make him, but that his offerings were regarded by the gods as bribes, and his petitions as blasphemies. He likewise quotes on this occasion two verses out of Homer,* in which the poet says, that the scent of the Trojan sacrifices were carried up to heaven by the winds; but that it was not acceptable to the gods, who were displeased with Priam and all his people.'

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The conclusion of this dialogue is very remarkable. Socrates having deterred Alcibiades from the prayers and sacrifice which he was going to offer, by setting forth the above mentioned difficulties of performing that duty as he ought, adds these words: We must therefore wait until such time as we may learn how we ought to behave ourselves towards the gods, and towards men.'-'But when will that time come,' says Alcibiades, and who is it that will instruct us? for I would fain see this man, whoever he is.' It is one,' says Socrates, who takes care of you; but as Homer tells us, that Minerva removed the mist from Diomede's eyes that he might plainly discover both gods and men,† so the darkness that hangs upon your mind must be removed before you are able to discern what is good and what is evil. '—' Let him remove from my mind,' says Alcibiades, the darkness and what else he pleases, I am determined to refuse nothing he shall order me, whoever he is, so that I may become the better man by it.' The remaining

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part of this dialogue is very obscure: there is something in it that would make us think Socrates hinted at himself, when he spoke of this divine teacher who was to come into the world, did not he own that he himself was in this respect as much at a loss, and in as great distress as the rest of mankind. Some learned men look upon this conclusion as a prediction of our Saviour, or at least that Socrates, like the high priest, prophesied unknowingly, and pointed at that Divine Teacher who was to come into the world some ages after him. However that may be, we find that this great philosopher saw by the light of reason, that it No. 208.] Monday, October 29, 1711.

Being that his will may be done: which is of the same force with that form which our Saviour used, when he prayed against the most painful and most ignominious of deaths, Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.' This comprehensive petition is the most humble, as well as the most prudent, that can be offered up from the creature to his Creator, as it supposes the Supreme Being wills nothing but what is for our good, and that he knows better than ourselves what is so.

was suitable to the goodness of the divine nature, to send a person into the world who should instruct mankind in the duties of religion, and, in particular, teach them how to pray.

-Veniunt spectentur ut ipse.

L.

Ovid. Ars Am. Lib. 1. 92.

To be themselves a spectacle they come. I HAVE Several letters of people of good sense who lament the depravity or poverty of taste the town is fallen into with relation to plays and public spectacles. A lady in particular observes, that there is such a levity in the minds of her own sex, that they seldom attend to any thing but impertinences. It is indeed prodigicus to observe

Whoever reads this abstract of Plato's discourse on prayer, will, I believe, naturally make this reflection, That the great founder of our religion, as well by his own example, as in the form of prayer which he taught his disciples, did not only keep up to those rules which the light of nature had suggested to this great philoso-how little notice is taken of the most exaltpher, but instructed his disciples in the ed parts of the best tragedies in Shakswhole extent of this duty, as well as of all peare; nay, it is not only visible that senothers. He directed them to the proper suality has devoured all greatness of soul, object of adoration, and taught them, ac- but the under-passion (as I may so call it) cording to the third rule above-mentioned, of a noble spirit, Pity, seems to be a stranger to apply themselves to him in their closets, to the generality of an audience. The minds without show or ostentation, and to worship of men are indeed very differently disposed; him in spirit and in truth." As the Lacede- and the reliefs from care and attention are monians in their form of prayer implored of one sort in a great spirit, and of another the gods in general to give them all good in an ordinary one. The man of a great things so long as they were virtuous, we heart, and a sericus complexion, is more ask in particular that our offences may be pleased with instances of generosity and forgiven, as we forgive those of others.' If pity, than the light and ludicrous spirit can we look into the second rule which Socrates possibly be with the highest strains of mirth has prescribed, namely, that we should and laughter. It is therefore a melancholy apply ourselves to the knowledge of such prospect when we see a numerous assemthings as are best for us, this too is explain-bly lost to all serious entertainments, and ed at large in the doctrines of the gospel, such incidents as should move cne sort of where we are taught in several instances to concern, excite in them a quite contrary regard those things as curses, which appear one. In the tragedy of Macbeth, the other as blessings in the eye of the world; and, on night, when the lady who is conscious of the contrary, to esteem those things as the crime of murdering the king seems utblessings, which to the generality of man-terly astonished at the news, and makes an kind appear as curses. Thus in the form which is prescribed to us, we only pray for that happiness which is our chief good, and the great end of our existence, when we petition the Supreme Being for the coming of his kingdom, being solicitous for no other temporal blessings but our daily sustenance. On the other side, we pray against nothing but sin, and against evil in general, leaving it with Omniscience to determine what is really such. If we look into the first of Socrates his rules of prayer, in which he recommends the above-mentioned form of the ancient poet, we find that form not only comprehended, but very much improved in the petition, wherein we pray to the Supreme

• Caiaphas, John xi. 42.

exclamation at it, instead of the indignation which is natural to the occasion, that expression is received with a loud laugh. They were as merry when a criminal was stabbed. It is certainly an occasion of rejoicing when the wicked are seized in their designs; but I think it is not such a triumph as is exerted by laughter.

petites are socner moved than the passions. You may generally observe, that the apA sly expression which alludes to bawdry, puts a whole row into a pleasing smirk; when a good sentence that describes an inward sentiment of the soul, is received with the greatest coldness and indifference. A correspondent of mine, upon this subject, has divided the female part of the audience, and accounts for their prepossessions against

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