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ADVERTISEMENT.
London, September 15.

WHEREAS a young Woman on horseback, in an Equestrian Habit on the 13th Instant in the Evening, met the SPECTATOR within a Mile and an half of this Town, and flying in the Face of Justice, pull'd off her Hat, in which there was a Feather, with the Mein and Air of a young Officer, faying at the same time, Your Serwant Mr. SPEC. or Words to that purpose; This is to give notice, that if any Person can discover the Name, and Place of Abode of the faid offender, so as she can be brought to Justice, the Informant shall have all fitting Encouragement.

No.486. Wednesday, September 17.

Audire eft operæ pretium procedere recte
Qui machis non vultis

Mr. SPECTATOR,

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Hor.

HERE are very many of my Acquaintance Followers of Socrates, with more particular regard to

that part of his Philosophy which we, among our • selves, call his Domesticks; under which Denomination, or • Title, we include all the Conjugal Joys and Sufferings. • We have indeed, with very great Pleasure, observed the • Honour you do the whole Fraternity of the Hen-peck'd, • in placing that illustrious Man at our Head, and it does in ⚫ a very great measure baffle the Raillery of pert Rogues, • who have no Advantage above us, but in that they are • single. But when you look about into the Crowd of • Mankind, you will find the Fair Sex reigns with greater • Tyranny over Lovers than Husbands. You shall hardly • meet one in a thousand who is wholly exempt from their • Dominion, and those that are so, are capable of no • Taste of Life, and breathe and walk about the Earth as • Infignificants. But I am going to defire your further • Favour in behalf of our harmless Brotherhood, and hope

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you will shew in a true light the unmarried Hen-peck'd, as well as you have done Justice to us, who submit to the Conduct of our Wives. I am very particularly acquainted with one who is under entire Submiffion to a kind Girl, as he calls her; and tho' he knows I have been Witness both to the ill Ufage he has received from her, and his Inability to refift her Tyranny, he still pretends to make a Jest of me for a little more than ordinary Obsequiousness to my Spouse. No longer than Tuesday laft he took me with him to visit his Mistress; and he having, it seems, been a little in Disgrace before, thought by bringing me with him she would constrain herself and insensibly fall into general Discourse with him, and so he might break the Ice, and save himself all the ordinary Compunctions and Mortifications she used to make him fuffer before she would be reconciled, after any act of Rebellion on his Part. When we came into the Room, we were received with the utmost Coldness; and when he presented me as Mr. Such-a-one, his very good Friend, she just had Patience to suffer my Salutation; but when he himself with a very gay Air, offered to follow me, she gave him a thundering Box on the Ear, called him pitiful poor-spirited Wretch, how durst he see her Face? His Wig and Hat fell on different Parts of the Floor. She seized the Wig too foon for him to recover it, and kicking it down Stairs, threw herself into an opposite Room, pulling the Door after her with a force, that you would have thought the Hinges would have given way. We went down, you must think, with no very good Countenances; and as we sneaked off, and were driving home together, he confessed to me that her Anger was thus highly raised, because he did not think fit to fight a Gentleman who had said, she was what she was; but, says he, a kind Letter or two, or fifty pieces, will put her in humour again. I asked him why he did not part with her; he answered

he loved her with all the Tenderness imaginable, and she ⚫ had too many Charms to be abandoned for a little quick' ness of Spirit. Thus does this illegitimate Hen-pecked ' over-look the Hussy's having no regard to his very • Life and Fame, in putting him upon an infamous Difpute about her Reputation; yet has he the Confidence

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to laugh at me, because I obey my poor Dear in keeping out of harm's way, and not staying too late from my own Family, to pass through the Hazards of a Town full of Ranters and Debauchees. You that are a Philofopher should urge in our behalf, but when we bear with a froward Woman, our Patience is preferved, in confideration that a Breach with her might be a Difhonour to Children who are descended from us, and whose Concern makes us tolerate a thousand Frailties, for fear they should redound Dishonour upon the Innocent. This and the like Circumstances, which carry with them the most valuable Regards of human Life, may be mentioned for our long Suffering; but in the Cafe of Gallants, they swallow ill Usage from one to whom they have no Obligation, but from a base Passion, which it is mean to indulge, and which it would be glorious to overcome.

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THESE Sort of Fellows are very numerous, and some have been confpicuously such, without Shame, nay they have carried on the Jest in the very Article of Death, and, to the Diminution of the Wealth and Happiness of their Families, in bar of those honourably near to them, have left immenfe Wealth to their Paramours. What is this but being a Cully in the Grave! Sure this is being Hen-peck'd with a Vengeance! But without dwelling upon these less frequent Instances of eminent Cullyifm, what is there so common as to hear a Fellow curse his Fate that he cannot get rid of a Paffion to a Jilt, and quote an Half-Line out of a Mifcellany Poem to prove his Weakness is natural? If they will go on thus, I have nothing to say to it: But then let them not pretend to be free all this while, and laugh at us poor married Patients.

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I have known one Wench in this Town carry an haughty Dominion over her Lovers so well, that she ⚫ has at the same time been kept by a Sea-Captain in the 4 Straits, a Merchant in the City, a Country Gentleman in Hampshire, and had all her Correspondences managed by one she kept for her own Uses. This happy Man (as the Phrafe is) used to write very punctually every Poft, Letters for the Mistress to transcribe. He would fit in his Night-Gown and Slippers, and be as grave giving

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an Account, only changing Names, that there was nothing in those idle Reports they had heard of such a • Scoundrel as one of the other Lovers was; and how ' could he think she could condescend so low, after fuch

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a fine Gentleman as each of them? For the fame Epistle faid the same thing to and of every one of them. And so Mr. Secretary and his Lady went to • Bed with great Order.

• To be short, Mr. SPECTATOR, we Husbands • shall never make the Figure we ought in the Imagina• tions of young Men growing up in the World, except you can bring it about that a Man of the Town shall be as infamous a Character as a Woman of the Town. But • of all that I have met in my time, commend me to Betty Duall: She is the Wife of a Sailor, and the kept • Mistress of a Man of Quality; she dwells with the • latter during the Sea-faring of the former. The Husband asks no Questions, fees his Apartments fur' nished with Riches not his, when he comes into Port, ' and the Lover is as joyful as a Man arrived at his Haven when the other puts to Sea. Betty is the most eminently victorious of any of her Sex, and ought to 'stand recorded the only Woman of the Age in which ' she lives, who has possessed at the same time two ' abused, and two contented

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No.487. Thursday, September 18.

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Cum proftrata fopore

Urget membra quies, & mens fine pondere ludit. Petr. HO' there are many Authors, who have written on Dreams, they have generally confidered them only as Revelations of what has already happened in distant Parts of the World, or as Presagers of what is to happen in future Periods of Time.

I shall confider this Subject in another Light, as Dreams may give us some Idea of the great Excellency of an human Soul, and fome Intimation of its I ndependency on Matter.

In the first Place, our Dreams are great Instances of that Activity which is natural to the human Soul, and which it is not in the Power of Sleep to deaden or abate: When the Man appears tired and worn out with the Labours of the Day, this active Part in his Compofition is still bufied and unwearied. When the Organs of Sense want their due Repose and necessary Reparations, and the Body is no longer able to keep Pace with that spiritual Substance to which it is united, the Soul exerts her self in her several Faculties, and continues in the Action till her Partner is again qualified to bear her Company. In this Cafe Dreams look like the Relaxations and Amusements of the Soul, when she is disincumbred of her Machine, her Sports and Recreations, when she has laid her Charge afleep.

In the second place, Dreams are an Instance of that Agility and Perfection which is natural to the Faculties of the Mind, when they are difengaged from the Body. The Soul is clogged and retarded in her Operations, when the acts in Conjunction with a Companion that is so heavy and unwieldy in its Motions. But in Dreams it is wonderful to observe with what a Sprightliness and Alacrity she exerts herself. The Slow of Speech makeunpremeditated Harangues, or converse readily in Languages that they are but little acquainted with. The Grave abound in Pleafantries, the Dull in Repartees and Points of Wit. There is not a more painful Action of the Mind, than Invention; yet in Dreams it works with that Eafe and Activity, that we are not fenfible when the Faculty is employed. For instance, I believe every one, some time or other, dreams that he is reading Papers, Books, or Letters; in which cafe the Invention prompts so readily, that the Mind is imposed upon, and mistakes its own Suggestions for the Compofitions of another.

I shall, under this Head, quote a Passage out of the Religio Medici, in which the ingenious Author gives an Account of himself in his dreaming and his waking Thoughts. We are somewhat more than ourselves in our Sleeps, and the Slumber of the Body seems to be but the Waking of the Soul. It is the Ligation of Sense, but the Liberty of Reason; and our waking Conceptions do not match the Fancies of our Sleeps. At my Nativity my Afcendant

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