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his fancy, and fired his imagination. The same folly hinders a man from submitting his behavior to his age, and makes Clodius, who was a celebrated dancer at five-and-twenty, still love to hobble in a minuet, though he is past threescore. It is this, in a word, which fills the town with elderly fops and superannuated coquettes.

very great noise; and lifting up my eyes, I saw two figures in human shape, coming into the valley. Upon a nearer survey, I found them to be Youth and Love. The first was encircled with a kind of purple light, that spread a glory over all. the place: the other held a flaming torch in hishand. I could observe, that all the way as they Canidia, a lady of this latter species, passed by came toward us the colors of the flowers appear. me yesterday in a coach. Canidia was a haughty ed more lively, the trees shot out in blossoms, the beauty of the last age, and was followed by crowd's birds threw themselves into pairs, and serenaded of adorers, whose passions only pleased her, as them as they passed: the whole face of nature they gave her opportunities of playing the tyrant. glowed with new beauties. They were no sooner She then contracted that awful cast of the eye and arrived at the place where you lay, than they forbidding frown, which she has not yet laid seated themselves on each side of you. On their aside, and has still all the insolence of beauty approach methought I saw a new bloom arise in without its charms. If she now attracts the eyes your face, and new charms diffuse themselves over of any beholders, it is only by being remark-your whole person. You appeared more than ably ridiculous; even her own sex laugh at her affectation; and the men, who always enjoy an ill-natured pleasure in seeing an imperious beauty humbled and neglected, regard her with the same satisfaction that a free nation sees a tyrant in disgrace.

Will Honeycomb, who is a great admirer of the gallantries in King Charles the Second's reign, lately communicated to me a letter written by a wit of that age to his mistress, who it seems was a lady of Canidia's humor; and though I do not always approve of my friend Will's taste, I liked this letter so well that I took a copy of it, with which I shall here present my reader:

mortal; but to my great surprise, continued fast asleep, though the two deities made several gentle efforts to awaken you.

"After a short time, Youth (displaying a pair of wings, which I had not before taken notice of) flew off. Love still remained, and holding the torch which he had in his hand before your face, you still appeared as beautiful as ever. The glaring of the light in your eyes at length awakened you; when, to my great surprise, instead of acknowledging the favor of the deity, you frowned: upon him, and struck the torch out of his hand. into the river. The god, after having regarded you with a look that spoke at once his pity and displeasure, flew away. Immediately a kind of gloom overspread the whole place. At the same time I saw a hideous specter enter at one end of Since my waking thoughts have never been the valley. His eyes were sunk into his head, able to influence you in my favor, I am resolved his face was pale and withered, and his skin to try whether my dreams can make any impres- puckered up in wrinkles. As he walked on the sion on you. To this end I shall give you an ac-sides of the bank the river froze, the flowers faded, count of a very odd one which my fancy presented to me last night, within a few hours after I left you.

"MADAM,

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"TO CLOE.

"Methought I was unaccountably conveyed into the most delicious place mine eyes ever beheld: it was a large valley divided by a river of the purest water I had ever seen. The ground on each side of it rose by an easy ascent, and was covered with flowers of an infinite variety, which, as they were reflected in the water, doubled the beauties of the place, or rather formed an imaginary scene more beautiful than the real. On each side of the river was a range of lofty trees, whose boughs were loaded with almost as many birds as leaves. Every tree was full of harmony. "I had not gone far in this pleasant valley, when I perceived that it was terminated by a most magnificent temple. The structure was ancient and regular. On the top of it was figured the god Saturn, in the same shape and dress as the poets usually represent Time."

"As I was advancing to satisfy my curiosity by a nearer view, I was stopped by an object far more beautiful than any I had before discovered in the whole place. I fancy, Madam, you will easily guess that this could hardly be anything but yourself: in reality it was so; you lay extended on the flowers by the side of the river, so that your hands, which were thrown in a negligent posture, almost touched the water. Your eyes were closed; but if your sleep deprived me of the satisfaction of seeing then, it left me at leisure to contemplate several other charms which disappear when your eyes are open. I could not but admire the tranquillity you slept in, espezially when I considered the uneasiness you produce in so many others.

"While I was wholly taken up in these reflections, the doors of the temple flew open, with a

the trees shed their blossoms, the birds dropped.
from off the boughs, and fell dead at his feet. By
these marks I knew him to be Old Age. You
were seized with the utmost horror and amaze-
ment at his approach. You endeavored to have
fled, but the phantom caught you in his arms. You
may easily guess at the change you suffered in this
embrace. For my own part, though I am still
too full of the dreadful idea, I will not shock you
with a description of it. I was so startled at the
sight, that my sleep immediately left me, and I
found myself awake, at leisure to consider of a
dream which seems too extraordinary to be with-
out a meaning. I am, Madam, with the greatest
passion,
"Your most obedient,

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No. 302.] FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1711-12.
-Lachrymæque decoræ,

Gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus.
VIRG. Æn., v, 343.
Becoming sorrows, and a virtuous mind
More lovely in a beauteous form enshrin'd.

I READ What I give for the entertainment of this
day with a great deal of pleasure, and publish it
just as it came to my hands. I shall be very glad
to find there are many guessed at for Emilia.
"MR. SPECTATOR,

"If this paper has the good fortune to be honored with a place in your writings, I shall be the more pleased, because the character of Emilia is not an imaginary but a real one. I have industriously obscured the whole by the addition of one or two circumstances of no consequence, that the person it is drawn from might still be concealed,

and that the writer of it might not be in the least suspected, and for some other reasons, I choose not to give it in the form of a letter: but if, beside the faults of the composition, there be any thing in it more proper for a correspondent than the Spectator himself to write, I submit it to your better judgment, to receive any other model you think fit.

"I am, Sir,

"Your very humble Servant."

There is nothing which gives one so pleasing a prospect of human nature, as the contemplation of wisdom and beauty: the latter is the peculiar portion of that sex which is therefore called fair; but the happy concurrence of both these excel. lencies in the same person, is a character too celestial to be frequently met with. Beauty is an overweening self-sufficient thing, careless of providing itself any more substantial ornaments; nay, so little does it consult its own interests, that it too often defeats itself, by betraying that innocence, which renders it lovely and desirable. As therefore virtue makes a beautiful woman appear more beautiful, so beauty makes a virtuous woman really more virtuous. While I am considering these two perfections gloriously united in one person, I cannot help representing to my mind the image of Emilia.

Were I to relate that part of Emilia's life which has given her an opportunity of exerting the heroism of Christianity, it would make too sad, too tender a story; but when I consider her alone in the midst of her distresses, looking beyond this gloomy vale of affliction and sorrow, into the joys of heaven and immortality, and when I see her in conversation thoughtless and easy, as if she were the most happy creature in the world, I am transported with admiration. Surely never did such a philosophic soul inhabit such a beauteous form! For beauty is often made a privilege against thought and reflection; it laughs at wisdom, and will not abide the gravity of its instructions.

Were I able to represent Emilia's virtues in their proper colors, and their due proportions, love or flattery might perhaps be thought to have drawn the picture larger than life; but as this is but an imperfect draught of so excellent a character, and as I cannot, I will not, hope to have any interest in her person, all that I can say of her is but impartial praise extorted from me by the prevailing brightness of her virtues. So rare a pattern of female excellence ought not to be concealed, but should be set out to the view and imitation of the world; for how amiable does virtue appear thus, as it were, made visible to us, in so fair an example!

Who ever beheld the charming Emilia, without Honoria's disposition is of a very different turn: feeling in his breast at once the glow of love, and her thoughts are wholly bent upon conquest and the tenderness of virtuous friendship? The un- arbitrary power. That she has some wit and studied graces of her behavior, and the pleasing beauty nobody denies, and therefore has the esteem accents of her tongue, insensibly draw you on to of all her acquaintance as a woman of an agree wish for a nearer enjoyment of them; but even her able person and conversation; but (whatever her smiles carry in them a silent reproof to the im- husband may think of it) that is not sufficient for pulses of licentious love. Thus, though the at- Honoria: she waves that title to respect as a mean tractives of her beauty play almost irresistibly acquisition, and demands veneration in the right upon you, and create desire, you immediately of an idol; for this reason, her natural desire of stand corrected, not by the severity, but the de- life is continually checked with an inconstant cency, of her virtue. That sweetness and good-fear of wrinkles and old age. humor, which is so visible in her face, naturally Emilia cannot be supposed ignorant of her perdiffuses itself into every word and action: a man must be a savage, who, at the sight of Emilia, is not more inclined to do her good, than gratify himself. Her person as it is thus studiously enbellished by nature, thus adorned with unpremeditated graces, is a fit lodging for a mind so fair and lovely; there dwell rational piety, modest hope, and cheerful resignation.

Many of the prevailing passions of mankind do undeservedly pass under the name of religion; which is thus made to express itself in action, according to the nature of the constitution in which it resides; so that were we to make a judgment from appearances, one would imagine religion in some is little better than sullenness and reserve, in many fear, in others the despondings of a melancholy complexion, in others the formality of insignificant unaffecting observances, in others severity, in others ostentation. In Emilia it is a principle founded in reason, and enlivened with hope; it does not break forth into irregular fits and sallies of devotion, but it is a uniform and consistent tenor of action; it is strict without severity; compassionate without weakness; it is the perfection of that good-humor which proceeds from the understanding, not the effect of an easy con

stitution.

By a generous sympathy in nature, we feel ourselves disposed to mourn when any of our fellowcreatures are afflicted; but injured innocence and beauty in distress is an object that carries in it something inexpressibly moving; it softens the most manly heart with the tenderest sensations of love and compassion, until at length it confesses its humanity, and flows out into tears.

This

sonal charms, though she seems to be so; but she
will not hold her happiness upon so precarious a
tenure, while her mind is adorned with beauties
of a more exalted aud lasting nature. When in
the full bloom of youth and beauty we saw her
surrounded with a crowd of adorers, she took no
pleasure in slaughter and destruction, gave no
false deluding hopes which might increase the
torments of her disappointed lovers; but having
for some time given to the decency of a virgin
coyness, and examined the merit of their several
pretensions, she at length gratified her own, by
resigning herself to the ardent passion of Bromius
Bromius was then master of many good qualities
and a moderate fortune, which was soon after un-
expectedly increased to a plentiful estate.
for a good while proved his misfortunes, as it
furnished his inexperienced age with the oppor
tunities of evil company, and a sensual life. He
might have longer wandered in the labyrinths of
vice and folly, had not Emilia's prudent conduct
won him over to the government of his reason.
Her ingenuity has been constantly employed in
humanizing his passions, and refining his plea
sures She has showed him, by her own example,
that virtue is consistent with decent freedoms,
and good-humor, or rather that it cannot subsist
without them. Her good sense readily instructed
her, that a silent example, and an easy unrepining
behavior, will always be more persuasive than
the severity of lectures and admonitions; and that
there is so much pride interwoven into the make
of human nature, that an obstinate man must only
take the hint from another, and then be left to ad
vise and correct himself. Thus by an artful traip

of management, and unseen persuasions, having more intensely, and dart a stronger light than at first brought him not to dislike, and at length to others; so, notwithstanding I have already shown be pleased with that which otherwise he would Milton's poem to be very beautiful in general, I not have borne to hear of, she then knew how to shall now proceed to take notice of such beauties press and secure this advantage; by approving it as appear to me more exquisite than the rest. as his thought, and seconding it as his proposal. Milton has proposed the subject of his poem in By this means she has gained an interest in some the following verses: of his leading passions, and made them accessory to his reformation,

There is another particular of Emilia's conduct which I cannot forbear mentioning: to some, perhaps, it may at first sight appear but a trifling inconsiderable circumstance; but, for my part, I think it highly worthy of observation, and to be recommended to the consideration of the fair sex. I have often thought wrapping-gowns and dirty linen, with all that huddled economy of dress which passes under the name of "a mob," the bane of conjugal love, and one of the readiest means imaginable to alienate the affection of a husband, especially a fond one. I have heard some ladies who have been surprised by company in such a dishabille, apologize for it after this manner: Truly, I am ashamed to be caught in this pickle: but my husband and I were sitting all alone by ourselves, and I did not expect to see such good company." This, by the way, is a fine compliment to the good man, which it is ten to one but he returns in dogged answers and a churlish behavior, without knowing what it is that puts him out of humor.

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Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,

Sing, heavenly Muse!

These lines are, perhaps, as plain, simple, and unadorned, as any of the whole poem, in which particular the author has conformed himself to the example of Homer, and the precept of Horace. His invocation to a work which turns in a great measure upon the creation of the world, is very properly made to the Muse who inspired Moses in those books from whence our author drew his subject, and to the Holy Spirit, who is therein represented as operating after a particular manner in the first production of nature. This whole exordium rises very happily into noble language and sentiments, as I think the transition to the fable is exquisitely beautiful and natural.

The nine days' astonishment, in which the angels lay entranced after their dreadful overthrow and fall from heaven, before they could recover either the use of thought or speech, is a noble circumstance, and very finely imagined. The division of hell into seas of fire, and into firm ground impregnated with the same furious element, with that particular circumstance of the exclusion of Hope from those infernal regions, are instances of the same great and fruitful invention.

Emilia's observation teaches her, that as little inadvertencies and neglects cast a blemish upon a great character; so the neglect of apparel, even among the most intimate friends, does insensibly lessen their regards to each other, by creating a familiarity too low and contemptible. She under- The thoughts in the first speech and descripstands the importance of those things which the tion of Satan, who is one of the principal actors generality account trifles; and considers every- in this poem, are wonderfully proper to give us a thing as a matter of consequence that has the least full idea of him. His pride, envy, and revenge, tendency toward keeping up or abating the affec-obstinacy, despair, and impenitence, are all of tion of her husband: him she esteems as a fit object to employ her ingenuity in pleasing, because he is to be pleased for life.

By the help of these, and a thousand other nameless arts, which it is easier for her to practice than for another to express, by the obstinacy of her goodness and unprovoked submission, in spite of all her afflictions and ill-usage, Bromius is become a man of sense and a kind husband, and Emilia a happy wife.

Ye guardian angels, to whose care Heaven has intrusted its dear Emilia, guide her still forward in the paths of virtue, defend her from the insolence and wrongs of this undiscerning world: at length, when we must no more converse with such purity on earth, lead her gently hence, innocent and unreprovable, to a better place, where, by an easy transition from what she now is, she may shine forth an angel of light.-T.

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them very artfully interwoven. In short, his first
speech is a complication of all those passions
which discover themselves separately in several
other of his speeches in the poem. The whole
part of this great enemy of mankind is filled with
such incidents, as are very apt to raise and terrify
the reader's imagination. Of this nature, in the
book now before us, is his being the first that
awakens out of the general trance, with his pos-
ture on the burning lake; his rising from it, and
the description of his shield and spear:

Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate,
With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes
That sparkling blaz'd, his other parts beside
Prone on the flood extended long and large,
Lay floating many a rood-

Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
His mighty stature; on each hand the flames
Driv'n backward slope their pointing spires, and roll'd
In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale.
Then, with expanded wings he steers his flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air
That felt unusual weight-

-His pond'rous shield,

Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast; the broad circumference

Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artists view
At ev'ning from the top of Fesole,

Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers, or mountains, on her spotty globe.
His spear (to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast
Of some great admiral, were but a wand)
He walk'd with, to support uneasy steps
Over the burning marl-

angels that lay plunged and stupified in the sea
To which we may add his call to the fallen

of fire:

He call'd so loud, that all the hollow deep
Of hell resounded.

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"

The reader will pardon me if I insert as a note on this beautiful passage, the account given us by the late ingenious Mr. Maundrell of this ancient piece of worship, and probably the first occasion of such a superstition. We came to a fair large river; doubtless the ancient river Adonis, as famous for the idolatrous rites performed here in lamentation of Adonis. We had the fortune to see what may be supposed to be the occasion of that opinion which Lucian relates concerning this river, viz: That this stream, at certain seasons of the year, especially about the feast of Adonis, is of a bloody color; which the heathens locked upon as proceeding from a kind of sympathy in the river for the death of Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar in the mountains, out of which this stream rises. Something like this we saw actually come to pass; for the water was stained to a surprising redness: and, as we observed in traveling, had discolored the sea a great way into a reddish hue, occasioned doubtless by a sort of minium, or red earth, washed into the river by the violence of the rain, and not by any stain from Adonis's blood."

Amidst those impieties which this enraged The passage in the catalogue, explaining the spirit utters in other places of the poem, the manner how spirits transform themselves by conauthor has taken care to introduce none that is not traction or enlargement of their dimensions, is inbig with absurdity, and incapable of shocking a troduced with great judgment, to make way for religious reader; his words, as the poet himself several surprising accidents in the sequel of the describes them, bearing only a "semblance of poem. There follows one at the very end of the worth, not substance." He is, likewise, with first book, which is what the French critics cali great art described as owning his adversary to be marvelous, but at the same time probable, by reaAlmighty. Whatever perverse interpretation he son of the passage last mentioned." As soon as the puts on the justice, mercy, and other attributes of infernal palace is finished, we are told the multithe Supreme Being, he frequently confesses his tude and rabble of spirits immediately shrunk omnipotence, that being the perfection he was themselves into a small compass, that there might forced to allow him, and the only consideration be room for such a numberless assembly in this which could support his pride under the shame of capacious hall. But it is the poet's refinement his defeat. upon this thought which I most admire, and which indeed is very noble in itself. For he tells us, that notwithstanding the vulgar among the fallen spirits contracted their forms, those of the first rank and dignity still preserved their natural dimensions:

Nor must I here omit that beautiful circumstance of his bursting out into tears, upon his survey of those innumerable spirits whom he had involved in the same guilt and ruin with himself:

-Ile now prepar'd

To speak whereat their doubled ranks they bend
From wing to wing, and half inclose him round
With all his peers: Attention held them mute.
Thrice he essay'd, and thrice, in spite of scorn,
Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth-

The catalogue of evil spirits has abundance of learning in it, and a very agreeable turn of poetry, which rises in a great measure from its describing the places where they were worshiped, by those beautiful marks of rivers so frequent among the ancient poets. The author had, doubtless, in this place Homer's catalogue of ships, and Virgil's list of warriors, in his view. The characters of Moloch and Belial prepare the reader's mind for their respective speeches and behavior in the second and sixth books. The account of Thammuz is finely romantic, and suitable to what we read among the ancients of the worship which was paid to that idol;

-Thammuz came next behind,
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
In am'rous ditties all a summer's day;
While smooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the sea, suppos'd with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love tale
Infected Sion's daughter with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch
Ezekiel saw; when, by the vision led,
His eyes survey'd the dark idolatries
Of alienated Judah-

* This quotation from Milton, and the paragraph immediately following it were not in the first publication of this paper in folio.

Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms
Reduc'd their shapes immense, and were at large,
Though without number, still amidst the hall
Of that infernal court. But far within,
And in their own dimensions like themselves,
The great seraphic lords and cherubim
In close recess and secret conclave sat,
A thousand demi-gods on golden seats,
Frequent and full-

The character of Mammon, and the description of the Pandæmonium, are full of beauties.

There are several other strokes in the first book wonderfully poetical, and instances of that sub lime genius so peculiar to the author. Such is the description of Azazel's stature, and the infernal standard which he unfurls; as also of that ghastly light by which the fiends appear to one another in their place of torments:

The seat of desolation, void of light,

Save what the glimm'ring of those livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful-

The shout of the whole host of fallen angels when drawn up in battle array:

-The universal host up sent

A shout that tore hell's concave, and beyond
Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.

The review, which the leader makes of his in fernal army:

-He through the armed files

Darts his experienc'd eye, and scon traverse

The whole battalion views, their order due,
Their visages and stature as of gods,

Their number last he sums; and now his heart
Distends with pride, and hard'ning in his strength
Glories-

of each poem, so to give their works an agreeable variety, their episodes are so many short fables, and their similes so many short episodes; to which you may add, if you please, that their metaphors are so many short similes. If the reader

The flash of light which appeared upon the considers the comparisons in the first book of Mildrawing of their swords:

He spake; and to confirm his words out flew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty cherubim: the sudden blaze
Far round illumin'd hell.

The sudden production of the Pandæmonium :

Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
Rose like an exhalation, with the sound
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet.

The artificial illuminations made in it:

-From the arch'd roof

Pendent by subtile magic, many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets,* fed
With Naphtha and Asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky.-

There are also several noble similes and allusions in the first book of Paradise Lost. And here I must observe, that when Milton alludes either to things or persons, he never quits his simile until it rises to some very great idea, which is often foreign to the occasion that gave birth to it. The resemblance does not, perhaps, last above a line or two, but the poet ruus on with the hint until he has raised out of it some glorious image or sentiment, proper to inflame the mind of the reader, and to give it that sublime kind of entertainment which is suitable to the nature of an heroic poem. Those who are acquainted with Homer's and Virgil's way of writing, cannot but be pleased with this kind of structure in Milton's similitudes. I am the more particular on this head, because ignorant readers, who have formed their taste upon the quaint similes and little turns of wit, which are so much in vogue among modern poets, cannot relish these beauties, which are of a inuch higher nature, and are therefore apt to censure Milton's comparisons, in which they do not see any surprising points of likeness. Monsieur Perrault was a man of this vitiated relish, and for that very reason has endeavored to turn into ridicule several of Homer's similitudes, which he calls "comparaisons a longue queue," "long-tailed comparisons." I shall conclude this paper on the first book of Milton with the answer which Monsieur Boileau makes to Perrault on this occasion: Comparisons," says he," in odes and epic poems, are not introduced only to illustrate and embellish the discourse, but to amuse and relax the mind of the reader, by frequently disengaging him from too painful an attention to the principal subject, and by leading him into other agreeable images. Homer, says he, excelled in this particular, whose comparisons abound with such images of nature as are proper to relieve and diversify his subjects. He continually instructs the reader, and makes him take notice, even in objects which are every day before his eyes, of such circumstances as he should not otherwise have observed. To this he adds, as a maxim universally acknowledged, "that it is not necessary in poetry for the points of the comparison to correspond with one another exactly, but that a general resemblance is sufficient, and that too much nicety in this particular savors of the rhetorician and epigrammatist.

In short, if we look into the conduct of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, as the great fable is the soul

*Cresset, i. e., a blazing light set on a beacon, in French "croisette," because Leacons formerly had crosses on their tops-Jouxson.

ton, of the sun in an eclipse, of the sleeping leviathan, of the bees swarming 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 passages.-L.

No. 304.] MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1711-12.
Vulnus alit venis et cæco carpitur igni.
VIRG. En., iv, 2.

A latent fire preys on his feverish veins.
THE circumstances of my correspondent, whose
letter I now insert, are so frequent, that I cannot
want compassion so much as to forbear laying it
before the town. There is something so mean
and inhuman in a direct Smithfield bargain for
children, that if this lover carries his point, and
observes the rules he pretends to follow, I do not
only wish him success. but also that it may ani-
mate others to follow his example. I know not
one motive relating to this life which could pro-
duce so many honorable and worthy actions, as
the hopes of obtaining a woman of merit. There
would ten thousand ways of industry and honest
ambition be pursued by young men, who believed
that the persons admired had value enough for
their passion to attend the event of their good
fortune in all their applications, in order to make
their circumstances fall in with the duties they
owe to themselves, their families, and their coun-
try. All these relations a man should think of
who intends to go into the state of marriage, and
expects to make it a state of pleasure and satis-
faction.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"I have for some years indulged a passion for a young lady of age and quality suitable to my own, but very much superior in fortune. It is the fashion with parents (how justly I leave you to judge) to make all regards give way to the article of wealth. From this one consideration 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 toward the better conduct of my life. A certain complacency to all the world, a strong desire to oblige wherever it lay in my power, and a circumspect behavior in all my words and actions, have rendered me more particularly acceptable to all my friends and acquaintance. Love has had the same good effect upon my fortune, and I have increased in riches, in proportion to my advancement in those arts which make a man agreeable and amiable. There is a certain sympathy which will tell my mistress from these circumstances, that it is I who wrote this for her reading, if you will please to insert it. There is not a downright enmity, but a great coldness between our parents; so that if either of us declared any kind sentiments for each other, her friends would be very backward to lay an obligation upon our family, and mine to receive it from hers. Under these delicate circumstances it is no easy matter to act with safety. I have no reason to fancy my mistress has any regard for me, but from a very disinterested value which I have for her. If from any hint in any future paper of yours she gives me the least encouragement, I doubt not but I

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