To our Trufty and Wellbeloved Coufin, the SPECT ATOR-GENERAL of GREAT-BRITAIN, HANNAH R. Greeting. WHEREAS, to Our great Grief we have lately been credibly given to understand, that】 Angels, Nymphs, Goddeffes, and (Deities, have been very per⚫niciously employed, in reducing the feveral Fortreffes, ⚫ of which the Ladies in this Town are chief Commandants, and our Self having been vigorously attack'd by the fame; We therefore, out of our Princely Care of · our own Perfon, ftrictly charge and command, that all and every of the faid Appellations be forthwith banished our Dominions. So that no Student or Students in this our University of Cambridge, prefume hereafter to make use of 'em in our Prefence. And these Prefents fail not to notify to all our well-beloved Subjects, as you will answer it at Peril. your Given at our Court, at Ginger-bread-Hall, in the feventh Year of our Reign, HANNAH R. O DOWHOWOSH@#%@ N° 642. Monday, January 24. Αἰδὼς τὰ καλλᾶ καὶ ἀρετὴς Πόλις. Πρῶτον ἀγαθὸν ἀναμαρτία, δεύτερον δὲ αἰσχύνη. Demades. M Y new Printer, who is a Lover of the nicest Embellishments in his Art, faid a very sharp thing upon me the other Day, which I can the more eafily forgive him, because I know he had no manner of evil Intention in the doing of it. Mr. 'Mr. SPECTATOR, fays he, with a merry Countenance, In many of the most celebrated Coffee-boufes of this renowned City, where I meet fome of my old Ac⚫quaintance, who have been reputed smart Judges among us Publishers of Literature, I have heard you mightily extolled, for adapting patly your Motto's to the various Subjects, upon which you are wont to treat; and I have made it my Remark, that this kind of Eulogy commonly takes its Run, among the Perfons of better Heads, at the upper End of the Room; while thofe of an inferior Clafs, and that fit, as I may say, in a lower Form, have been praifing you, in your plainer Capacity, for a Man that had a fingular Delicacy of Thought, and a fine Turn, in the English, pe⚫ culiar to your felf: Since you began with me, and your new Volume, you have not given me an Opportunity of fhewing the World how cleanly and neatly I can exprefs your Mind in a Language that I am utterly unacquainted with. A little Greek will adorn the Frontifpiece wonderfully. THOUGH I don't eafily go out of my own Road, at any Time, and was lefs likely to do fo then, because I had not my Greek Spectacles by me, and was unwilling to trust to my Memory, at this Age, in an Affair of fo great Importance, yet, intending to fet an Example of Docility to my Readers, I comply'd with his Demands. However, for the Benefit of my Fair Difciples, he owns it reasonable, that I may tell it over again in English; but avers, at the fame time, that it will fpoil the Curiofity of feveral high learned Men, who will be disappointed in the vast Pride, that they ufually take in expounding thofe Mysteries, without Help, to a Circle of Mercantile Auditors, that never troubled their Heads about that unprofitable Kind of old Athenian and Roman Manufactory. I fhall, for this once, tell the Ladies, whom the Explication of this Mystery does most concern, That the First and Second Line, which look to be odd Scrawls, at the Head of this Paper, are not Characters in Art Magick, but are the proper Letters of a Language which for merly the Roman Beauties affected as much as to lifp, as themselves do the French, and fome Scraps of the Italian. And they fignify in plain English, that, 1. Modefty is the Citadel of Beauty and Virtue. MODESTY is, both in its Source, and in its Confe quence, a very great Happiness to the Fair Poffeffor of it: It arifes from a Fear of Dishonour, and a good Confcience, and is followed immediately, upon its firft Appearance, with the Reward of Honour and Efteem, paid by all thofe who discover it in any Body living. I Tis, indeed, a Virtue in a Woman (that might otherwife be very disagreeable to one) fo exquifitely delicate, that it excites in any Beholder, of a generous and manly Difpofition, almost all the Paffions, that he would be apt to conceive for the Mistress of his Heart, in Variety of Circumstances. A Woman, that is modeft, creates in us an Awe in her Company, a Wish for her Walfare, a Joy in her being actually happy, a fore and painful Sorrow if Diftrefs fhould come upon her, a ready and willing Heart to give her Confolation, and a compaffionate Temper towards her, in every little Accident of Life fhe undergoes; and, to fum up all in one Word, it causes such a kind of Angelical Love, even to a Stranger, as goodnatur'd Brothers and Sifters ufually bear towards one another. IT adds wonderfully to the Make of a Face; andĮ have feen a pretty well turn'd Forehead, fine fet Eyes, and what your Poets call, a Row of Pearl fet in Coral, fhewn by a pretty Expanfion of two Velvet Lips that cover'd 'em, (that would have tempted any fober Man living of my own Age, to have been a little loofe in his Thoughts, and to have enjoy d a painful Pleasure amidst his Impotency,) lofe all their Virtue, all their Force and Efficacy, by having an ugly Caft of Boldness very difcernibly fpread out at large over all thofe alluring Features. At the fame time Modefty will fill up the Wrinkles of old Age with Glory; make Sixty blush it felf into Sixteen; and help a Green-fick Girl to defeat the Satyr of à false waggish Lover, who might compare her Colour, when the in a fhe look'd like a Ghoft, to the blowing of the Rofe-bud, by blushing herself into a Bloom of Beauty; and might make what he meant a Reflexion, a real Compliment, at any Hour of the Day, in spite of his Teeth. It has a prevailing Power with me, whenever I find it in the Sex. I, who have the common Fault of old Men, to be very four and humourfom, when I drink my Watergruel in a Morning, fell into a more than ordinary Pet with a Maid, whom I call my Nutfe, from a conftant Tenderness, that I have obferved her to exercife towards me beyond all my other Servants; I perceived her Flush and Glow in the Face, a manner, which I could plainly difcern, proceeded not from Anger or Refentment of my Correction, but from a good-natur'd Regret, upon a Fear that he had offended her grave old Mafter. I was fo heartily pleafed, that I eafed her of the honeft Trouble fhe underwent inwardly for my fake; and, giving her half a Crown, I told her it was a Forfeit due to her, because I was out of Humour with her without any Reafon at all. And as the is fo gentlehearted, I have diligently avoided giving her one harth' Word ever since; and I find my own Reward in it: For not being fo Tefty as I ufed, has made me much hailer and stronger than I was before. THE pretty, and witty, and virtuous Simplicia, was, the other Day, a vifiting with an old Aunt of hers, that I verily believe has read the Atalantis: She took a Story out there, and drefs'd up an old honeft Neighbour in the fecond-hand Clothes of Scandal. The young Creature hid her Face with her Fan, at every Burft and Peal of Laughter, and blufh'd for her guilty Parent by which the aton'd, methought, for every Scandal that ran round the beautiful Circle. I re AS I was going home to Bed that Evening, I could, not help thinking of her all the Way I went." prefented her to my felf, as fhedding Holy Blood every time the blushed, and as being a Martyr in the Cause of Virtue. And afterwards, when I was putting on my Night cap, I could not drive the Thought out of my Head, but that I was young enough to have a Child by her; and that it would be an Addition to the Reputation I have in the Study of Wisdom, to VOL. IX. C marry marry to fo much Youth and Modefty, even in Age. I know there have not been wanting many wicked Objections against this Virtue; one is grown infufferably common, The Fellow blushes, he is guilty. I fhould fay rather, He blushes, therefore he is innocent. I believe the fame Man, that firit had that wicked Imagination of a Blub's being the Sign of Guilt, reprefented Goodnature to be Folly; and that he himself was the most inhuman and impudent Wretch alive. The Author of Cato, who is known to be one of the most modeft, and moft ingenious Perfons of the Age we now live in, has given this Virtue a delicate Name, in the Tragedy of Cato, where the Character of Marcia is first opened to us. I would have all Ladies, who have a mind to be thought well-bred, to think seriously on this Virtue, which he fo beautifully calls The Sanctity of Manners. B N° 643. Friday, January 28. T Equam memento rebus in arduis Ab infolenti temperatam Lætitia Hor. O be joyful that we reap any temporal Advantage from the Loffes and Misfortunes of others, is a fordid miferly Pleasure, that can't break in upon the Mind of any Creature whatsoever, who has any Remains of Humanity left within him, and who has not remov'd himself, as far as is in his Power, from his own Species, and got, as near as he can, to be upon the Level with the Beasts of Prey. However, that fuch is the Temper of fome Wretches, who walk upright, and have the Stature, and wear all the beautiful Proportions of Man; Man, that noble Species, which God created |