EACH IN THREE VOLS., PRICE 10s. 6d. CHARLES KNIGHT'S SILAKSPERE. NAPIER'S HISTORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR. With Maps and Plans. LONGFELLOW'S WORKS-Poems-Prose Dante. BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON. With Illustrations. MOTLEY'S RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC. BYRON'S POETICAL WORKS. A NEW EDITION REPRODUCING THE ORIGINAL TEXT BOTH AS FIRST ISSUED WITH INTRODUction, notes, and index BY HENRY MORLEY PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. II. LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LIMITED BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL GLASGOW, MANCHESTER, AND NEW YORK No. 203.] THE THE SPECTATOR. Tuesday, October 23, 1711. Phoebe pater, si das hujus mihi nominis usum, Ov. Met. [Addison. HERE is a loose Tribe of Men whom I have not yet taken Notice of, that ramble into all the Corners of this great City, in order to seduce such unfortunate Females as fall into their Walks. These abandoned Profligates raise up Issue in every Quarter of the Town, and very often, for a valuable Consideration, father it upon the Church-warden. By this means there are several Married Men who have a little Family in most of the Parishes of London and Westminster, and several Batchelors who are undone by a Charge of Children. When a Man once gives himself this Liberty of preying at large, and living upon the Common, he finds so much Game in a populous City, that it is surprising to consider the Numbers which he sometimes propagates. We see many a young Fellow who is scarce of Age, that could lay his Claim to the Fus trium Liberorum, or the Privileges which were granted by the Roman Laws to all such as were Fathers of three Children: Nay, I have heard a Rake [who] was not quite five and twenty, declare himself the Father of a seventh Son, and very prudently determine to breed him up a Physician. In short, the Town is full of these young Patriarchs, not to mention several batter'd Beaus, who, like heedless Spendthrifts that squander away their Estates before they are Masters of them, have raised up their whole Stock of Children before Marriage. I must not here omit the particular Whim of an Impudent VOL. II. 1 [that] B |