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SPECTATO R.

VOLUME THE SECO N D.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. COOTE, No. 14. RED-LION-STREET, CLERKENWELL, BY VIRTUE OF A LATE DECISION IN THE HOUSE OF PEERS,

MDCCLXXVIII,

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ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

CHARLES LORD HALIFAX.

MY LORD,

Simil

Imilitude of manners and ftudies is ufually mentioned as one of the strongeft motives to affection and esteem; but the paffionate veneration I have for your Lordship, I think, flows from an admiration of Qualities in you, of which in the whole course of these Papers I have acknowledged myself incapable. While I busy myself as a stranger upon earth, and can pretend to no other than being a Looker-on, you are confpicuous in the busy and polite world, both in the World of Men, and that of Letters: While I am filent and unobferved in public meetings, you are admired by all that approach you as the Life and Genius of the conversation. What an happy conjunction of different talents meets in him whofe whole difcourfe is at once animated by the ftrength and force of Reason, and adorned with all the graces and embellishments of Wit? When learning irradiates common life, it is then in its higheft ufe and perfection; and it is to fuch as your Lordship, that the Sciences owe the efteem which they have with the active part of

mankind.

mankind. Knowledge of books in reclufe men, like that fort of lantern which hides him who carries it, and serves only to pass through secret and gloomy paths of his own; but in the poffeffion of a man of business, it is as a torch in the hand of one who is willing and able to fhew thofe, who were bewildered, the way which leads to their profperity and welfare. A generous concern for your country, and a paffion for every thing which is truly great and noble, are what actuate all your life and actions; and I hope you will forgive me that I have an ambition this book may be placed in the Library of fo good a Judge of what is valuable, in that Library where the choice is fuch, that it will not be a difparagement to be the meaneft author in it. Forgive me, my Lord, for taking this occafion of telling all the world how ardently I love and honour you, and that I am, with the utmost gratitude for all your favours,

My LORD,

Your Lordship's

moft obliged

moft obedient, and

most humble Servant,

THE SPECTATOR.

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BOUT the middle of laft winter I went to fee an Opera at the Theatre in the Hay-market, where I could not but take notice of two parties of very fine women, that had placed themselves in the oppofite fide-boxes, and feemed drawn up in a kind of battle array one against another. After a fhort furvey of them, I found they were patched differently; the faces on one hand being spotted on the right fide of the forehead, and those upon the other on the left. I quickly perceived that they caft hoftile glances upon one another; and that their patches were placed in those different fituations, as party-fignals to distinguish friends from foes. In the middle-box beween these two oppofite bodies, were feveral ladies who patched indifferently on both fides of their faces, and feemed to fit there with no other intention but to fee the Opera. Upon inquiry I found, that the body of Amazons on my right hand were Whigs, and thofe on my left, Tories; and that those who had placed themselves in the middle-boxes were a neutral party, whofe faces had not yet declared themfelves. Thefe laft, however, as I afterwards found, diminished daily, and took their party with one fide or the other: infomuch that I obferved in feveral of them, the patches, which were before difperfed equally, are now all gone over to the Whig or Tory fide of the face. The cenforious fay, that the men, whose hearts are aimed at, are very often the occafions that one part of the face is thus dishonoured, and lies under a kind of difgrace, while the other is fo much fet off and adorned by the owner; and that the patches turn to the right or to the left, according to the principles of the man who is most in favour. But whatever may be the motives of a few fantastical coquettes, who do not patch for the public good fo much as for their own private advantage, it is certain, that there are feveral women of honour who patch out of principle, and with an eye to the intereft of their country. Nay, I am informed that fome of them adhere fo ftedfaftly to their party, and are fo far from facrificing their zeal for the public to their paffion for any particular perfon, that in a late draught of marriage-articles a lady has ftipulated with her husband, that,

whatever his opinions are, the shall be at liberty to patch on which fide the pleases.

I must here take notice, that Rofalinda, a famous Whig partisan, has most unfortunately a very beautiful mole on the Tory part of her forehead; which being very conspicuous, has occafioned many mistakes, and given an handle to her enemies to mifreprefent her face, as though it had revolted from the Whig intereft. But whatever this natural patch may seem to intimate, it is well known that her notions of government are ftill the fame. This unlucky mole, however, has misled several coxcombs: and like the hanging out of falfe colours, made some of them converfe with Rofalinda in what they thought the spirit of her party, when on a fudden fhe has given them an unexpected fire, that has funk them all at once.

If Rofalinda is unfortunate in her mole, Nigranilla is as unhappy in a pimple, which forces her, against her inclinations, to patch on the Whig fide.

I am told that many virtuous matrons, who formerly have been taught to believe that this artificial fpotting of the face was unlawful, are now reconciled by a zeal for their caufe, to what they could not be prompted by a concern for their beauty. This way of declaring war upon one another, puts me in mind of what is reported of the tigrefs, that several spots rife in her skin when he is angry, or as Mr. Cowley has imitated the verfes that ftand as the motto of this paper,

She fwells with angry pride,

“And calls forth all her spots on ev'ry side.” When I was in the Theatre the time abovementioned, I had the curiofity to count the patches on both fides, and found the Tory patches to be about twenty ftronger than the Whig; but to make amends for this fmall inequality, I the next morning found the whole puppet- fhow filled with faces fpotted after the Whiggish manner. Whether or no the ladies had retreated hither in order to rally their forces, I cannot tell; but the next night they came in fo great a body to the Opera, that they outnumbered the enemy.

This account of party-patches will, I am afraid, appear improbable to those who live at a distance from the fashionable world: but as it is a diftinction of a very fingular nature, and what perhaps may never meet with a parallel, I think I should not have difcharged the office of a faithful Spec tator, had not I recorded it. Р

I have

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