forrow and indignation, than mirth and laughter. At the fame time I allow it to be nature, but it is nature in its utmost corruption and degeneracy.

N° 66. WEDNESDAY, MAY 16.

Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos
Matura virgo, & fingitur artubus
Jam nunc, & inceftos amores

De tenero meditatur ungui.

SIR,

B

EING employed by Celimene to make up and fend to you her letter, I make bold to Rrecommend the cafe therein mentioned to your confideration, becaufe fhe and I happen to differ a little in our notions. I, who am a rough, man, am afraid the young girl is in a fair way to be spoiled; therefore pray, Mr. Spectator, let 6 us have your opinion of this fine thing called Fine-Breeding; for I am afraid it differs too much from that plain thing called Good• Breeding.

HOR. Od. III. vi. 21.

Echold a ripe and melting maid
Bound 'prentice to the wanton trade:
Ionian artifts, at a mighty price,
Inftruct her in the myfteries of vice,
What nets to fpread, where fubtle baits to lay;
And with an early hand they form the temper'd
clay.

ROSCOMMON.
HE two following letters are upon a fub-

preffed without any air of gravity.

I

ex

TAKE the freedom of afking your advice in behalf of a young country kinfwoman of mine who is lately come to town, and under my care for her education. She is very pretty, but you can't imagine how unformed a creature it is. She comes to my hands just as nature left her, half finifhed, and without any acquired improvements. When I look on her I often think of the Belle Sauvage mentioned in one of your papers. Dear Mr. Spectator, help me to make her comprehend the visible graces of fpeech, and the dumb eloquence of motion; for the is at present a perfect stranger to both. She knows no way to exprefs herself but by her $ tongue, and that always to fignify her meaning. Her eyes ferve her yet only to fee with, and he is utterly a foreigner to the language of looks and glances. In this I fancy you could help her better than any body. I have be• ftowed two months in teaching her to figh when he is not concerned, and to fmile when she is not pleafed; and am ashamed to own the makes little or no improvement. Then the is < no more able now to walk, than she was to go fat a year old. By walking you will eafily know I mean that regular but cafy motion, which gives our perfons fo irrififtible a grace as if we moved to mufic, and is a kind of difengaged figure, or, if I may fo fpeak, recitative dancing. But the want of this I cannot blame in her, for I find the has no ear, and means nothing by walking but to change her place. I could pardon too her blushing, if the knew how to carry herfelf in it, and if it did not manifeftly injure her complexion.

They tell me you are a perfon who have feen
the world, and are a judge of fine-breeding;
which makes me ambitious of fome inftruc-
tions from you for her improvement; which
when you have favoured me with, fhall fur-
ther advife with you about the difpofal of this
fair forefter in marriage; for I will make it no
fecret to you, that her perfon and education
< are to be her fortune. I am,
Sir,

Your very humble fervant,
• Celimene,

• Your most humble fervant.

The general mistake among us in the educating our children, is, that in our daughters we take care of their perfons and neglect their minds; in our fons, we are fo intent upon adorning their minds, that we wholly neglect their bodies. It is from this that you fhall fee a young lady cele brated and admired in all the affemblies about town, when her elder brother is afraid to come

that we frequently obferve a man's life is half
fpent before he is taken notice of; and a woman
in the prime of her years is out of fashion and
neglected. The boy I fhall confider upon fome
other occafion, and at present stick to the girl
and I am the more inclined to this, because I
have feveral letters which complain to me that
my female readers have not understood me fome
days last past, and take themfelves to be uncon-
cerned in the prefent turn of my writings. When
a girl is fafely brought from her nurse, before the
is capable of forming one fimple notion of any
thing in life, the is delivered to the hands of her
dancing-mafter; and with a collar round her
neck, the pretty wild thing is taught a fantasti-
cal gravity of behaviour, and forced to a parti-
cular way of holding her head, heaving her breast,
and moving with her whole body; and all this
under pain of never having an hufband, if the
steps, looks, or moves awry. This gives the
young lady wonderful workings of imagination,
what is to pafs between her and this hufband that
fhe is every moment told of, and for whom the
feems to be educated. Thus her fancy is engaged.
to turn all her endeavours to the ornament of
her perfon, as what must determine her good
and ill in this life; and the naturally thinks, if
the is tall enough, he is wife enough for any thing
for which her education makes her think he is
designed. To make her an agreeable perfon is the
main purpose of her parents; to that is all their
cofts, to that is all their care directed: and
from this general folly of parents we owe our
prefent numerous race of coquettes. These re-
flections puzzle me, when I think of giving my
advice on the fubje&t of managing the wild thing
mentioned in the letter of my correspondent. But
fure there is a middle way to be followed; the
management of a young lady's perfon is not to
be over-looked, but the erudition of her mind is
much more to be regarded. According as this
is managed, you will fee the mind follow the ap-
petites of the body, or the body exprefs the vir-
tues of the mind.

Cleomira dances with all the elegance of motion imaginable; but her eyes are fo chaftifed with the fimplicity and innocence of her thoughts, that the raifes in her beholders admiration and good-will, but no loofe hope or wild imagina

tion,

C SIR,

:I

AM a man in years, and by an honeft induftry in the world have acquired enough to give my children a liberal education, though I was an utter ftranger to it myself. My eldeft daughter, a girl of fixteen, has for fome time been under the tuition of Monfieur Ri'gadoon, a dancing-master in the city; and I was prevailed upon by her and her mother to go last night to one of his balls. I muft own to you, Sir, that having never been at any fuch 'place before, I was very much pleafed and furprifed with that part of his entertainment which ⚫ he called French Dancing. There were feveral

in one of his dialogues, introduces

a philofopher chiding his friend for his being a lover of dancing, and a frequenter of balls. The other undertakes the defence of his favourite diverfion, which, he says, was at first invented by the goddess Rhea, and preferved the life of Jupiter himself, from the cruelty of his father Saturn. He proceeds to fhew, that it had been approved by the greatest men in all ages; that Homer calls Merion a Fine Dancer; and fays, that the graceful mien and great agility which he had acquired by that exercise, diftinguished him above the reft in the armies, both of Greeks and Trojans.

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He adds, that Pyrrhus gained more reputation by inventing the dance which is called after his name, than by all his other actions: that the Lacedæmonians, who were the bravest people in Greece, gave great encouragement to this diverfion, and made their Hormus, a dance much refembling the French Brawl, famous over all Afia: that there were ftill extant fome Theffa"lian statues erected to the honour of their best dancers and that he wondered how his brother philofopher could declare himself against the opi-fore, juft as my girl was going to be made a nions of those two perfons, whom he profeffed fo much to admire, Homer and Hefiod; the latter of which compares valour and dancing together; and fays, That the gods have beftowed fortitude on fome men, and on others a difpo-ed fition for dancing.'

But as the best inftitutions are liable to corruptions, fo, Sir, I must acquaint you, that 6 very great abufes are crept into this entertainment. I was amazed to fee my girl handed by, ' and handing, young fellows with fo much fa'miliarity; and I could not have thought it had been in the child. They very often made use of a most impudent and lafcivious fep called Setting, which I know not how to defcribe to you, but by telling you that it is the very reverse of back to back. At laft an impudent young dog bid the fiddlers play a dance called Moll Pately, and after having made two or three capers, ran to his partner, locked his arms in hers, and whisked her round cleverly above ground in fuch a manner, that I, who fat upon one of the loweft benches, faw further above her shoe than I can think fit to acquaint you with. I 'could no longer endure these enormities; where

whirligig, I ran in, seized on the child, and carried her home.

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"

Laftly, he puts him in mind that Socrates, who, in the judgment of Apollo, was the wifest of men, was not only a profeffed admirer of this exercise in others, but learned it himself when

he was an old man.

Among the rest, I observed one, which, I think, they call Hunt the Squirrel, in which ' while the woman flies the man pursues her; but as foon as the turns, he runs away, and 'fhe is obliged to follow.

7

The moral of this dance does, I think, very ' aptly recommend modesty and difcretion to the 'female fex.

Sir, I am not yet old enough to be a fool. I 'fuppofe this diverfion might be at first invent

to keep up a good understanding between young men and women, and fo far I am not againit it; but I fhall never allow of these things. I know not what you will fay to this cafe at prefent, but am sure that, had you been with me, you would have seen matter of great fpeculation. I am,

Sir, yours, &c.'

The morofe philofopher is fo much affected by these, and fome other authorities, that he becomes a convert to his friend, and defires he would take him with him when he went to his next ball.

I love to shelter myself under the examples of great men; and I think, I have fufficiently fhewed that it is not below the dignity of these my speculations to take notice of the following let-ged to dwell almoft a minute on the fair one's ter, which, I fuppofe, is fent me by fome fub- lips, or they will be too quick for the mufic, ftantial tradefman about Change. and dance quite out of time.

I must confefs I am afraid that my correfpondent had too much reafon to be a little out of humour at the treatment of his daughter; but I conclude that he would have been much more fo, had he feen one of thofe kiffing dances in which Will. Honeycomb affures mc they are obli

>

I am not able however to give my final fentence against this diverfion; and am of Mr. Cowley's opinion, that fo much of dancing, at least, as belongs to the behaviour and an handfome carriage of the body, is extremely useful, if not abfolutely neceffary.

We generally form fuch ideas of people at first fight, as we are hardly ever perfuaded to lay afide afterwards: for this reafon, a man would wish to have nothing difagreeable or uncomely in his ap-' proaches, and to be able to enter a room with a good grace.

I might add, that a moderate knowledge in the little rules of good-breeding gives a man fome affurance, and makes him easy in all companies. M For

For want of this, I have feen a profeffor of a liberal fcience at a lofs to falute a lady; and a moft excellent mathematician not able to determine

whether he could itand or fit while my lord drank

to him.

It is the proper business of a dancing mafter to regulate thefe matters; though I take it to be a juft obfervation, that unless you add fomething of your own to what these fine gentlemen teach you, and which they are wholly ignorant of themfelves, you will much fooner get the character of an affected fop, than of a well bred man.

As for Country-Dancing, it must indeed be confeffed that the great familiarities between the two fexes on this occafion may fometimes produce very dangerous confequences; and I have often thought that few ladies hearts are fo obdurate as not to be melted by the charms of mufic, the force of motion, and an handfome young fellow who is continually playing before their eyes, and convincing then that he has the perfect ufe of all his limbs.

Bur as this kind of dance is the particular invention of our own country, and as every one is more or lefs a proficient in it, I would not difcountenance it; but rather fuppofe it may be practifed innocently by others, as well as myfelf who 4 often partner to my landlady's eldest daugh

ter.

POSTSCRIPT.

4

Tully was the first who obferved, that friendfhip improves happinefs and abates mifery, by the doubling of our joy and dividing our grief; a thought in which he hath been followed by all the effayers upon friendship, that have written fince his time. Sir Francis Bacon has finely defcribed other advantages, or, as he calls them, fruits of friendship; and indeed there is no fubject of morality which has been better handled and more exhausted than this. Among the feveral fine things which have been spoken of it, I shall beg leave to quote fome out of a very ancient author, whofe book would be regarded by our modern wits as one of the most fhining tracts of morality that is extant, if it appeared under the name of a Confucius, or of any celebrated Grecian philo fopher; I mean the little apocryphal treatise entitled, The wisdom of the Son of Sirach. How finely as he defcribed the art of making friends, by an obliging and affable behaviour; and laid 'From the Three Chairs in the Piazza, Covent- down that precept which a late excellent author Garden. has delivered as his own, That we should have · many well-wishers, but few friends?' Sweet language will multiply friends; and a fairfpeaking tongue will increafe kind greetings. Be in peace with many, nevertheless have but one counsellor of a thoufand.' With what prudence does he caution us in the choice of our friends; and with what strokes of nature, I could' almost say of humour, has he defcribed the behaviour of a treacherous and felf-interefted friend? 'If thou wouldst get a friend, prove him first, and be not hafty to credit him: for fome man is a friend for his own occafion, and will not abide in the day of thy trouble. And there is a friend, who being turned to emnity and ftrife will difcover thy reproach. Again, Some friend is a companion at the table, and will not 'continue in the day of thy affliction: butin thy

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profperity he will be as thyfelf, and will be bold over thy fervants. If thou be brought low he 'will be against thee, and hide himself from thy 'face.' What can be more strong and pointed than the following verfe? Separate thyfelf from thine enemies, and take heed of thy friends.' In the next words he particularizes one of those fruits of friendship, which is described at length OVID. Met. i. 355. by the two famous authors above-mentioned, and falls into a general elogium of friendship, which is very juft as well as very fublime. A faithful friend is a strong defence; and he that hath found fuch an one, hath found a treafure. Nothing doth countervail a faithful friend, and his

Having heard a good character of the collection of pictures which is to be exposed to fale on Friday next; and concluding from the following letter, that the perfon who collected them is a man of no unelegant tafte, I will be fo much his friend as to publish it, provided the reader will only look upon it as filling up the place of an advertifement.

SIR,
May 16, 1711,
S you are a Spectator, I think we, who
make it our business to exhibit any thing

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to public view, ought to apply ourselves to you for your approbation. I have travelled Europe, to furnish out a fhow for you, and have brought with me what has been admired in every country through which I paffed. You have declared in many papers, that your greatest delights are thofe of the eye, which I do not doubt but I fhall gratify with as beautiful objects as yours ever beheld. If caftles, forefts, ruins fine women, and graceful men, can please you. I dare promife you much fatisfaction, if you will appear at my auction on Friday next. A fight is, 1 fuppofe, as grateful to a Spectator, as a treat to another perfon, and therefore I hope you will pardon this invitation from,

in difcourfe; but, instead of this, we find that converfation is never fo much straitned and confined as in numerous affemblies. When a multitude meet together upon any subject of discourse, their debates are taken up chiefly with forms and general pofitions; nay, if we come into a more contracted affembly of men and women, the talk generally runs upon the weather, fashion, news, and the like public topics. In proportion as converfation gets into clubs and knots of friends, it defcends into particulars, and grows more free and communicative: but the moft open, instructive, and unreferved difcourfe, is that which paffes between two perfons who are familiar and intimate friends. On thefe occafions, a man gives a loose to every paffion and every thought that is uppermoft, difcovers his moft retired opinions of perfons and things, tries the beauty and strength of his fentiments, and expofes his whole foul to the

examination of his friend.

X

SIR,

Your moft obedient humble fervant,
"J. Graham.

No. 68. FRIDAY, MAY 18.

Nos duo turba fumus-
We two are a multitude,

NE would think that the larger the company is in which we are engsged, the greater variety of thoughts and fubjects would be ftarted

6

excellency is unvaluable. A faithful friend is the medicine of life; and they that fear the Lord fhall find him. Whofo feareth the Lord 'fhall direct his friendship aright; for as he is, fo fhall his neighbour,' that is, his friend, be alfo.' I do not remember to have met with any faying that has pleafed me more than that of a friend's being the medicine of life, to exprefs the efficacy of friendship in healing the pains and anguish which naturally cleave to cur exiftence in this world; and am wonderfully pleafed with the turn in the laft fentence, That a virtuous man fhall as a bleffing meet with a friend who is as virtuous as himfelf. There is another faying in the fame author, which would have been very much admired in an heathen writer; Forfake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as C new wine: when it is old thou fhalt drink it with pleasure.' With what ftrength of allufion, and force of thought, has he defcribed the breaches and violations of friendship? Whofo cafteth a stone at the birds, frayeth them away; and he that upbraideth his friend, breaketh friendship. Though thou draweft a fword at a friend, yet despair not; for there may be ⚫ reconciliation; except for upbraiding, or pride, < or difclofing of fecrets, or a treacherous wound; for, for these things every friend will depart.' We may obferve in this, and feveral other precepts in this author, thofe little familiar inftances and illuftrations which are fo much admired in the moral writings of Horace and Epictetus. There are very beautiful inftances of this nature in the following paffages, which are likewife written upon the fame fubject: Whofo difcovereth fecrets, lofeth his credit, and fhall never 'find a friend to his mind. Love thy friend, and be faithful unto him; but if thou bewray'eft his fecrets, follow no more after him: for as a man hath destroyed his enemy, 'fo haft thou loft the love of thy friend; as one that letteth a bird go out of his hand, fo haft thou let thy friend go, and fhalt not get him again; follow after him no more, for he is too far off; he is as a roe escaped out of the snare. As for a wound, it may be bound up, and after reviling there may be reconciliation; but he that bewrayeth fecrets, is without hope.'

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In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow,
Thou'rt fuch a touchy, tefty, pleafant fellow;
Haft fo much wit, and mirth, and fpleen about
thee,

Among the feveral qualifications of a good friend, this wife man has very juftly fingled out conftancy and faithfulness as the principal: to thefe, others have added virtue, knowledge, difcretion, equality in age and fortune, and as Cicero calls it, Morum Comitas, a pleasantnefs of temper.' If I were to give my opinion upon fuch an exhaufted fubject, I should join to thefe other qualifications, a certain equability or evennefs of behaviour. A man often contracts a friendship with one whom perhaps he does not find out till after a year's converfation; when on a fudden fome latent ill humour breaks out upon him, which he never difcovered or fufpected at his first entering into an intimacy with him. There are feveral perfons who in fome certain periods of their lives are inexpreffibly agreeable, and in others as odious and deteftable. Martial has given us a very pretty picture of one of this fpecies in the following epigram: Difficilis, facilis, jucundus, acerbus es idem, Nec tecum poffum vivere, nec fine te.

There is no living with thee, nor without thee.
It is very unlucky for a man to be entangled in a
friendship with one, who by thefe changes and
viciffitudes of humour is fometimes amiable and
fometimes odious: and as moft men are at fome
mind, it should be one of the greatet talks of
times in an admirable frame and difpofition of
wifdom to keep ourselves well when we are fo,
able part of our character.
and never to go out of that which is the agree

N° 69, SATURDAY, MAY 19.

Hic fegetes, illic veniunt feliciùs uvæ;
Arborei fetus alibi atque injufja virefcunt

Gramina. Nonne vides, croceos ut Tmolus odores,
India mittit ebur, molles fua thura Sabæi?
At Chalybes nudi ferrum, virofaque pontus
Caftarea, Eliadum palmas Epirus equarum?
Continuò bas leges æternaque fœdera certis
Impofuit natură locis→→
VIRG. Georg. i. 54.

This ground with Bacchus, that with Ceres fuits;
That other loads the trees with happy fruits;
A fourth with grafs, unbidden, decks the ground;
Thus Tmolus is with yellow faffron crown'd;
India black ebon and white iv'ry bears;
And foft Idume weeps her od'rous tears:
Thus Pontus fends her bever ftones from far;
And naked Spaniards temper fteel for war:
Epirus for th' Elean chariot breeds
(In hopes of palms) a race of running fteeds.
This is th' original contract; thefe the laws
Impos'd by nature, and by nature's caufe.

DRYDEN.

TH

HERE is no place in town which I fo much love to frequent as the Royal-Exchange. It gives me a fecret fatisfaction, and, in fome measure, gratifies my vanity, as I am an Englishman, to fee fo rich an affembly of country-men and foreigners confulting together upon the private bufinefs of mankind, and making this metropolis a kind of Emporium for the whole earth. I must confess I look upon High-Change to be a great council, in which all confiderable nations have their reprefentatives. Factors in the trading world are what ambaffadors are in the politic world; they negotiate affairs, conclude treaties, and maintain a good correfpondence between thofe wealthy focieties of men that are divided from one another by feas and oceans, or live on the different extremities of a continent. I have often been pleafed to hear difputes adjufted between an inhabitant of Japan and an alderman of London, or to fee a fubject of the Great Mogul entering into a league with one of the Czar of Mufcovy. I am infinitely delighted in mixing with thefe feveral minifters of commerce, as they are diftinguifhed by the different walks and different languages: fometimes I am justled among a hody of Arminians: fometimes I am loft in a crowd of Jews; and sometimes make one in a groupe of Dutchmen. I am a Dane, Swede, or Frenchman, at different times; or rather fancy myfelf like the old philofopher, who, upon being asked what countryman he was, Epig. xii, 47, replied, that he was a citizen of the world.

felves under Indian canopies. My friend Sir An drew calls the vineyards of France our Gardens ; the fpice-iflands, our hot-beds; the Perfians our filk-weavers, and the Chinefe our potters. Nature indeed furnishes us with the bare receffaries of life; but traffic gives us a great variety of what is ufeful, and at the fame time fupplies us with every thing that is convenient and ornamental. Nor is it the leaft part of this our happiness, that whilft we enjoy the remotest products of the north and fouth, we are free from thofe extremities of. weather which give them birth: that our eyes are refreshed with the green fields of Britain, at the fame time that our palates are feafted with fruits that rife between the tropics.