of this duty, as well as of all others. He directed them to the proper object of adoration, and taught them, according to the third rule abovementioned, to apply themfelves to him in their clofets, without fhow or oftentation, and to worship him "in fpirit and in truth." As the Lacedemonians in their form of prayer implored the gods in general to give them all good things fo long as they were virtuous, we ask in particular, that our offences may be forgiven, as we "forgive thofe of others." If we look into the fecond rule which Socrates has prefcribed, namely, that we fhould apply ourselves to the knowledge of fuch things as are beft for us; this too is explained at large in the doctrines of the gofpel, where we are taught in feveral inftances to regard thofe things as curfes, which appear as bleffings in the eye of the world; and on the contrary, to esteem those things as bleffings, which to the generality of mankind appear as curfes. Thus in the form which is preferibed to us we only pray for that happincfs which is our chief good, and the great end of our exiftence, when we petition the Supreme Being for "the "coming of his kingdom," being folicitous for no other temporal bleflings but our "daily fufOn the other fide, we pray against nothing but fin, and against evil in general, leaving it with Omnifcience to determine what is really fuch. If we look into the firft of Socrates his rules of prayer, in which he recommends the above-mentioned form of the ancient poet, we find that form not only comprehended, but very much improved by the petition, wherein we pray to the Supreme Being that "his will may be "done" which is of the fame force with that form which our Saviour ufcd, when he prayed against the most painful and most ignominious of deaths, "Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done." This comprehenfive petition is the moft humble, as well as the most prudent, that can be offered up from the creature to his Creator, as it fuppofes the Supreme Being wills nothing but what is for our good, and that he knows better than ourfelves what is fo. tenance. าง highest ftrains of mirth and laughter: it is therefore a melancholy profpect when we see a numerous affembly loft to all ferious entertainments, and fuch incidents, as fhould move one fort of concern, excite in them a quite contrary one. In the tragedy of Macbeth, the other night, when the lady who is confcious of the crime of murdering the king, feems utterly aftonished at the news, and makes an exclamation at it, inftead of the indigration which is natural to the occafion, that expreffion is received with a loud laugh: they were as merry when a criminal was ftabbed. It is certainly an occafion of rejoicing when the wicked are feized in their defigns; but I think it is not such a triumph as is exerted by laughter. You may generally obferve, that the appetites are focner moved than the paffions: a fly expreffion which alludes to bawdry, puts a whole row into a pleafing fairk; when a good fentence that defcribes an inward fentiment of the foul, is received with the greateft coldness and indifference. A correfpondent of mine, upon this fubject, has divided the female part of the audience, and accounts for their prepoffeffions against this reasonable delight in the following The prude, fays he, as the acts always manner. in contradiction, fo fhe is gravely fullen at a comedy, and extravagantly gay at a tragedy. The coquette is fo much taken up with throwing her eyes around the audience, and confidering the effect of them, that the cannot be expected to obferve the actors but as they are her rivals, and take off the obfervation of the men from herfelf. Befides thefe fpecies of women, there are the examples, or the first of the mode: thefe are to be fuppofed too well acquainted with what the actor is going to fay to be moved at it. After thefe one might mention a certain flippant fet of females who are mimics, and are wonderfully diverted with the conduct of all the people around them, and are fpectators only of the au dience. But what is of all the most to be la, mented, is the lofs of a party whom it would be worth preferving in their right fenfes upon all Loccafions, and these are those whom we may indifferently call the innocent or the unaffected. You may fometimes fee one of thefe fenfibly touched with a well-wrought incident; but then fhe is immediately fo impertinently obferved by perior of her own fex, that he is afhamed, and the men, and frowned at by fome infenfible sulofes the enjoyment of the moft laudable concern, pity. Thus the whole audience is afraid of letting fall a tear, and fhun as a weakness the best and worthieft part of our fenfe. N° 208. MONDAY, OCTOBER 29. I HAVE feveral letters from people of good fenfe, who lament the depravity or poverty of tafe the town is fallen into with relation to plays and public fpectacles. A lady in particular obferves, that there is fuch a levity in the minds of her own fex, that they seldom attend any thing but impertinences. It is indeed prodigious to obferve how little notice is taken of the most exalted parts of the best tragedies of Shakespear; nay, it is not only visible that fenfuality has devoured all greatness of foul, but the under-paffion, as I may fo call it, of a noble fpirit, pity, feems to be a ftranger to the generality of an audience. The minds of men are indeed very differently difpofed; and the reliefs from care and attention are of one fort in a great spirit, and of another in an ordinary one, The man of a great heart " and a ferious complexion, is more pleafed with inftances of generofity and pity, than the light and ludicrous..fpirit can poffibly be with the SIR, A S you are one that doth not only pretend to reform, but effect it amongst people of any fenfe; makes me (who am one of the greateft of your admirers) give you this trouble to defire you will fettle the method of us fe'males knowing when one another is in town; for they have now got a trick of never fending to their acquaintance when they firft come; and if one does not vifit them within the week which they stay at home, it is a mortal quarrel. Now, dear Mr. Spec. either command them to put it in the advertisement of your paper, which is generally read by our fex, or elfe order them to breathe their faucy footmen, who are good for nothing elfe, by fending them to tell all their acquaintance. If you think to print this, pray put it in a better ftile, as to the fpelling part. The town is now filling every day, and ⚫ it cannot be deferred, because people take advantage of one another by this means and break off acquaintance, and are rude: therefore pray put this in your paper as foon as you can poffibly, to prevent any future mifcarriages of this nature, 1 am, as I ever shall be, Dear Spec, Your most obedient humble fervant, 'Mary Meanwell. • Pray settle what is to be a proper notification ' of a perfon's being in town, and how that ⚫ differs according to people's quality.' I Mr. Spectator, October the 20th. Have been out of town, fo did not meet with your paper dated September the 28th, wherein you, to my heart's defire, expofe that curfed vice of infnaring poor young girls, and < drawing them from their friends. I affure you without flattery it has faved a 'prentice of ⚫ mine from ruin; and in token of gratitude as well as for the benefit of my family, I have put • it in a frame and glass, and hung it behind my • counter. I shall take care to make my young ones read it every morning to fortify them against fuch pernicious rafcals. I know not whether what you writ was matter of fact, or your own invention; but this I will take my oath on, the first part is fo exactly like what happened to my 'prentice, that had I read your paper then, I fhould have taken your method to have fecured a villain. Go on and profper. Your moft obliged humble fervant.' • Mr. Spectator, Íthout raillery, I defire you to infert W this word for word in your next, as you value a lover's prayers. You fee it is an hue and cry after a ftray heart, with the marks and blemishes under-written, which whoever fhall bring to you, fhall receive fatisfaction. Let me beg of you not to fail, as you remember the paffion you had for her to whom you lately ended a paper. "Noble, generous, great and good, < Panting, trembling, fighing, dying, No 209. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30. own times with thofe which prevailed in the times of his forefathers'; and drawing a parallel in his mind between his own private character, and that of other perfons, whether of his own age, or of the ages that went before him. The contemplation of mankind under thefe changeable colours, is apt to fhame us out of any particular vice, or animate us to any particular virtue; to make us pleased or displeased with ourselves in the most proper points, to clear our minds of prejudice and prepoffeffion, and rectify that narrownefs of temper which inclines us to think amifs of thofe who differ from ourselves. If we look into the manners of the most remote ages of the world, we discover human nature in her fimplicity; and the more we come downward towards our own times, may obferve her hiding herself in artifices and refinements, polished infenfibly out of her original plainnefs, and at length intirely loft under form and ceremony, and, what we call, good-breeding. Read the by the most ancient writers, both facred and proaccounts of men and women as they are given us fane, and you would think you were reading the history of another fpecies. who inftruct us more openly in the manners of Among the writers of antiquity, there are none their respective times in which they lived, than those who have employed themselves in fatire, under what drefs foever it may appear; as there are directly into the ways of men, and set their misno other authors whofe province it is to enter fo carriages in fo ftrong a light. Simonides, a poet famous in his generation, is, extant; and, as fome fay, of the first that was I think, author of the oldeft fatire that is now ever written. This poet flourished about four hundred years after the fiege of Troy; and thews, coarseness of the age in which he lived. by his way of writing, the fimplicity, or rather I have taken notice, in my hundred and fixty. firft fpeculation, that the rule of obferving what the French call the Bienfeance, in an allufion, has been found out of latter years; and that the ancients, provided there was a likeness in their fithe decency of the comparifon. The fatire or iammilitudes, did not much trouble themfelves about bics of Simonides, with which I fhall entertain my readers in the prefent paper, are a remarkable inftance of what I formerly advanced. The fubject of this fatire is woman. He defcribes the fex in their feveral characters, which he derives to them from a fanciful fuppofition raised upon the doctrine of præ-existence. He tells us, that the gods formed the fouls of women out of those feeds and principles which compofe feveral kinds of animals and elements; and that their good or bad difpofitions arifes in them according as T fuch and fuch feeds and principles predominate in their conftitutions. I have tranflated the author very faithfully, and if not word for word, which our language would not bear, at leaft fo as to comprehend every one of his fentiments, without adding one thing of my own. I have already apologized for this author's want of delicacy, and must further premife, that the following fatire affects only fome of the lower part of the fex, and not thofe who have been refined by a polite education, which was not fo common in the age of this poet. Simonides. Of earthly goods the best, is a good wife; TH HERE are no authors I am more pleafed with, than those who fhew human nature in a variety of views, and defcribe the feveral ages of the world in their different manners. A reader cannot be more rationally entertained, than by comparing the virtues and vices of his "In the beginning God made the fouls of "womankind out of different materials, and in a separate state from their bodies. "The "The fouls of one kind of women were form"ed out of thofe ingredients which compofe a "fwine. A woman of this make is a flut in "her house and a glutton at her table. She is "uncleanly in her perfon, a flattern in her drefs, " and her family is no better than a dunghill. "A fecond fort of female foul was formed out "of the fame materials that enter into the com"pofition of a fox. Such an one is what we call 66 a notable difcerning woman, who has an in"fight into every thing, whether it be good or "bad. In this fpecies of females there are fome "virtuous and fome vicious. "A third kind of women were made up of ca"nine particles. Thefe are what we commonly call fcolds, who imitate the animals out of "which they were taken,, that are always bufy "and barking, that fnarl at every one who comes "in their way, and live in perpetual clamour. "The fourth kind of women were made out of the earth. Thefe are your fluggards, who pass away their time in indoknce and igno"rance, hover over the fire a whole winter, and "apply themfelves with alacrity to no kind of "bufinefs but eating. "The fifth fpecies of females were made out "of the fea. Thefe are women of variable un" even tempers, fometimes all ftorm and tempeft, "fometimes all calm and funfhine. The ftranger "who fees one of thefe in her files and finooth"nefs, would cry her up for a miracle of good "humour; but on a fudden her looks and words "are changed, he is nothing but fury and out" rage, noife and hurricane, "The fixth fpecies were made up of the in"gredients which compofe an afs, or a beaft of "burden, Thefe are naturally exceeding flothful, but upon the husband's exerting his authority, will live upon hard fare, and do every "thing to pleafe him. They are however far from being averfe to venereal pleasure, and "feldom refufe a male companion. "The cat furnished materials for a feventh "fpecies of women, who are of a melancholy, "froward, unamiable nature, and fo repugnant "to the offers of love, that they fly in the face of "their husband when he approaches them with "conjugal endearments. This fpecies of women "are likewife fubject to little thefts, cheats,, and "pilferings. "The mare with a flowing mane, which was "never broke to any fervile toil and labour, com"pofed an eighth fpecies of women. Thefe are I fhall conclude thefe iambics with the motto of this paper, which is a fragment of the fame author: A man cannot poffefs any thing that "is better than a good woman, nor any thing that "is worse than a bad one." As the poet has fhewn a great penetration in this diverfity of female characters, he has avoided the fault which Juvenal and Monfieur Boileau are guilty of, the former in his fixth, and the other in his last fatire, where they have endeavoured to expofe the fex in general, without doing justice to the valuable part of it. Such levelling fatires are of no use to the world, and for this reafon I have often wondered how the French author above-mentioned, who was a man of exquifite judgment, and a lover of virtue, could think human nature a proper fubje&t for fatire in another of his celebrated pieces, which is called "The "fatire upon man." What vice or frailty can a difcourfe correct, which cenfures the whole fpecies alike, and endeavours to fhew by fome fuperfcial ftrokes of wit, that brutes are the more excellent creatures of the two A fatire fhould expofe nothing but what is corrigible, and make a due difcrimination between thofe who are, and those who are not the proper objects of it. L No 210. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 31. Nefcio quomodo inboeret in mentilus quafi feculorum quoddam augurium futurorum; idque in maximis ingeniis altiffimifque animis exiftit maximè & apparet facilime Cic. Tufc. Quæft, There is, I know not how, in the minds of men a certain prefage, as it were, of a future exiftence; and this takes the deepest root, and is moft difcoverable in the greatest geniufes and < moft exalted fouls. SIR, To the Spectator. A M fully perfuaded that one of the best "they who have little regard for their husbands,prings of generous and worthy actions, is "who pafs away their time in dreffing, bathing, "and perfuming; who throw their hair into "the niceft curls, and trick it up with the fairest "flowers and garlands. A woman of this fpe"cies is a very pretty thing for a stranger to look upon, but very detrimental to the owner, un"lefs it be a king or prince who takes a fancy to fuch a toy. "The ninth fpecies of females were taken out "of the ape. Thefe are fuch as are both ugly and ill-natured, who have nothing beautiful in themfelves, and endeavour to detract from "or ridicule every thing, which appears fo in "others. "The tenth and laft fpecies of women were "made out of the bee; and happy is the man who gets fuch an cne for his wife. She is altogether faultlefs and unblameable; her family «flourishes and improves by her good manage the having generous and worthy thoughts of ourselves. Whoever has a mean opinion of the dignity of his nature, will act in no higher a rank than he has allotted himself in his own eftimation. If he confiders his being as circumfcribed by the uncertain term of a few years, his defigns will be contracted into the fame narrow fpan he imagines is to bound his exiftence. How can he exalt his thoughts to any thing great and nobie, who only believes that, after a thort turn on the stage of this < world, he is to fink into oblivion, and to lofe his confcioufnefs for ever? For this reafon I am of opinion, that fo ufeful and elevated a contemplation as that of the foul's immortality cannot be refumed too often. There is not a more improving exercife to the human mind, than to be frequently reviewing its own great privileges and endowments; the mass of inanimate beings, that it equally deferves our admiration and pity. The mystery ' of fuch men's unbelief is not hard to be penetrated; and indeed amounts to nothing more than a fordid hope that they fhall not be immortal, becaufe they dare not be fo. This brings me back to my firft obfervation, and gives me occafion to fay further, that as very great fatisfaction to confider the best and wifeft of mankind in all nations and ages, afferting, as with one voice, this their birthright, and to find it ratified by an exprefsworthy actions fpring from worthy thoughts, • revelation. At the fame time if we turn our thoughts inward upon ourselves, we may meet with a kind of fecret fenfe concurring with the proofs of our own immortality. You have, in my opinion, raised a good prefumptive argument from the increafing appetite the mind has to knowledge, and to the extending its own faculties, which cannot be accomplifhed, as the more refrained perfection of lower creatures may, in the limits of a short life. I think another probable conjecture may be raised from our appetite to duration itself, and from a reflexion on our progress thro' the ⚫ several stages of it! "We are complaining," as · you obferve in a former fpeculation, "of the "fhortness of life, and yet are perpetually hur"rying over the parts of it to arrive at certain "little fettlements, or imaginary points of rest, "which are difperfed up and down in it." Now let us confider what happens to us when ⚫ we arrive at thefe "imaginary points of reft :” Do we stop our motion, and fit down fatisfied in the fettlement we have gained? or are we 'not removing the boundary, and marking out new points of reft, to which we prefs forward ' with the like eagernefs, and which cease to be fuch as faft as we attain them? Our cafe is like that of a traveller upon the Alps, who should 'fancy that the top of the next hill must end his journey, because it terminates his profpect; but he no fooner arrives at it than he fees new ground and other hills beyond it, and continues to travel on as before. fo worthy thoughts are likewife the confequence of worthy actions: but the wretch who has degraded himfelf below the character of immortality, is very willing to refign his pretenfions to it, and to fubftitute in its room a dark negative happiness in the extinction of his being. The admirable Shakespear has given us a ftrong image of the unfupported condition of 'fuch a perfon in his last minutes in the fecond part of King Henry the fixth, where cardinal Beaufort, who had been concerned in the murder of the good Duke Humphrey, is reprefented on his death-bed. After fome thort confufed fpeeches which fhew an imagination disturbed with guilt, just as he was expiring, King Henry ftanding by him full of compaffion, fays, "Lord Cardinal! if thou think'ft on Heav'n's "blifs, "Hold up thy hand, make signal of that hope! "He dies, and makes no fign!". The defpair which is here fhewn, without a 'word or action on the part of the dying perfon, ' is beyond what could be painted by the most forcible expreffions whatever. I fhall not pursue this thought farther, but only add, that as annihilation is not to be had with a wish, fo it is the most abject thing in the world to wish it. What are honour, fame, 'wealth, or power, when compared with the generous expectation of a being without end, and a happiness adequate to that being? 'I fhall trouble you no farther; but with a certain gravity which thefe thoughts have given me, I reflect upon fome things people fay of you, as they will of men who diftinguish ther felves, which I hope are not true; and wish 'you as good a man as you are an author. I am, SIR, This is fo plainly every man's condition in life, that there is no one who has obferved any thing, but may obferve, that as faft as his time wears away, his appetite to fomething future remains. The ufe therefore I would make of it is this, that fince nature, as fome love to exprefs it, does nothing in vain, or, to speak properly, fince the Author of our being has planted 'no wandering paffion in it, no defire which has not its object, futurity is the proper object of Z the paffion fo conftantly exercifed about it; and this reftleffness in the prefent, this affigning Your most obedient humble fervant, Fitis meminerit nos jocari fabulis. ' ourselves over to farther ftages of duration, this No 211. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER I• fucceffive grafping at fomewhat ftill to come, appears to me, whatever it may to others, as a kind of inftin&t or natural symptom which the ⚫ mind of man has of its own immortality. I take it at the fame time for granted, that the immortality of the foul is fufficiently eftablished by other arguments: and if fo, this ap'petite, which otherwife would be very unaccountable and abfurd, feems very reafonable, and adds strength to the conclufion. But I am amazed when I confider there are creatures capable of thought, who, in spite of every argument, can form to themfelves a fullen fatisfaction in thinking otherwife. There is fomething fo pitifully mean in the inverted ambition of that man who can hope for annihilation, and pleafe himself to think that his whole fabric. 'fhall one day crumble into duft, and mix with Phædr. lib. 1. Prol. Let it be remember'd that we sport in fabled fto ries. H AVING lately tranflated the fragment of an old poet which defcribes womankind under feveral characters, and fuppofes, them to have drawn their different manners and difpofitions from thofe animals and elements out of which he tells us they were compounded; I had fome thoughts of giving the fex their revenge, by laying together in another paper the many vicious characters which prevail in the male world, and fhewing the different ingredients that go to the making up of fuch different humours and conftitutions. Horace has a thought which is Mm fome fomething akin to this, when, in order to excufe himf. If to his mitrefs, for an invective which he had written againft her, and to account for that un eafonable fury with which the heart of man is often tranfported, he tells us, that when Prometheus made his man of clay, in the kneading up of the heart, he feafened it with fome furious particies of the lion. But upon turning this plan to and fro in my thoughts, I obferved fo many unaccountable humours in man, that I did not know cut of what animals to fetch them. Male fouls are diverfified with fo many characters, that the world has not variety of materials fufficient to furnish out their different tempers and inclinations. The creation, with all its animals and elements, would not be large enough to fupply their several extravagancies. duced. My following correfpondents will shew. what I there obferved, that the fpeculation of that day affects only the lower part of the fex. From my houfe in the Strand, October 30, 1711. 6 Initead therefore of purfuing the thought of "Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies, Plato in the vifion of Erus the Armenian, which I may poffibly make the fubject of a future fpeculation, records fome beautiful tranfmigrations; as that the foul of Orpheus, who was mufical, melancholy, and a woman-hater, entered into a fwan; the foul of Ajax, which was all wrath and fiercenefs, into a lion; the foul of Agamemnon, that was rapacious and imperial, into an eagle; and the foul of Therfites, who was a mimic and a buffoon, into a mon. key. Mr. Congreve, in a prologue to one of his comedies, has touched upon this doctrine with great humour. "Thus Ariftotle's foul of old that was, <. May now be damn'd to animate an afs; I fhall fill up this paper with fome letters which my last Tuesday's fpeculation has pro that I am a bee. My fhop, or if you please to call it fo, my cell, is in that great hive of fe 'males which goes by the name of "The NewExchange," where I am daily employed in gathering together a little ftock of gain from the 'fineft flowers about the town, I mean the ladies and the beaux. I have a numerous swarm of children, to whom I give the best education I am able: but, Sir, it is my misfortune to be 'married to a drone, who lives upon what I get, ' without bringing any thing into the common 'ftock. Now, Sir, as on the one hand I take care not to behave myself towards him like a wafp, fo likewife I would not have him look upon me as an humble-bee; for which reason 'I do all I can to put him upon laying up pro• vifions for a bad day, and frequently reprefent to him the fatal effects his floth and negligence may bring upon us in our old age. I must beg that you will join with me in your good ad'vice upon this occafion, and you will for ever • oblige "Your humble fervant, 'Meliffa.' I SIR, Piccadilly, October 31, 1711. AM joined in wedlock for my fins to one of thofe fillies who are described in the old poet with that hard name you gave us the other day. She has a flowing mane, and a skin as foft as filk: but, Sir, fhe paffes half her life at her glass, and almoft ruins me in ribbons. For my own part, I am a plain handicraft man, and in danger of breaking by her laziness and ex'penfiveness. Pray, mafter, tell me in your next paper, whether I may not expect of her fo 'much drudgery as to take care of her family, and to curry her hide in cafe of refufal. "Your loving friend, 6 'Barnaby Brittle,, Cheapfide, October 30. AM mightily pleafed with the humour of the cat; be fo kind as to enlarge upon that • fubject. 6 Your's till death, Jofiah Henpeck.' P. S. You must know I am married to a SIR, Wapping, October 31. 1711. VER fince your Spectator of Tuesday laft 'pleased to call me his Oceana, because the foolith old poet that you have tranflated fays, that the fouls of fome women are made of fea-water. This, it feems, has encouraged my faucebox to be witty upon me. When I am angry, 'he cries pr'ythee my dear be calm; when I chide one of my fervants, pr'ythee child do not blufter. He had the impudence about an hour ago to tell me, that he was a fea-faring man, and must expect to divide his life between ftorm |
