could reflect thus much, though they want fhame, they would be moved by their pity, to • abhor an impudent behaviour in the prefence of the chafte and innocent. If you will oblige ⚫ us with a Spectator on this fubject, and procure it to be pafted against every stage-coach in Great-Britain, as the law of the journey, you will highly oblige the whole fex, for which you have profeffed fo great an efteem; and in particular, the two ladies my late fellow-fuf⚫ ferers, and, Sir, your most humble servant, • Mr. Spectator, TH HE matter which I am now going to send you, is an unhappy ftory in low life, and ⚫ will recommend itself, fo that you muft excufe ⚫ the manner of expreffing it. A poor idle drunken weaver in Spitalfields has a faithful laborious wife, who by her frugality and induftry had laid by her as much money as purchafed her a ticket in the prefent lottery. She had hid this very privately in the bottom of a trunk, and had given her number to a friend and confident, who had promised to keep the fecret, and bring her news of the fuccefs. The poor adventurer was one day gone abroad, when her careless husband, fufpecting she had ⚫ faved fome money, fearches every corner, until at length he finds this fame ticket; which he • immediately carries abroad, fells, and fquanders away the money without the wife's fufpecting any thing of the matter. A day or two after this, this friend, who was a woman, comes and brings the wife word, that he had a benefit of five hundred pounds. The poor creature overjoyed, flies up ftairs to her husband, who was then at work, and defires him to leave his loom for that evening, and come and ⚫ drink with a friend of his and her's below. The man received this chearful invitation as ⚫ bad husbands fometimes do, and after a cross word er two, told her he would not come. His wife with tendernefs renewed her importunity, and at length faid to him, "My love! I have "within thefe few months, unknown to you, "fcraped together as much money as has bought up us a ticket in the lottery, and now here is "Mrs. Quick come to tell me, that it is come this morning a five hundred pound prize." The husband replies immediately. "You lie, } you flut, you have no ticket, for I have fold it." The poor woman upon this faints away in a fit, recovers, and is now run diftracted. As the had no defign to defraud her husband, but was willing only to participate in his good fortune, every one pities her, but thinks her hufband's punishment but juft. This, Sir, is matter of fact, and would, if the perfons and circumstances were greater, in a well-wrought play be called "Beautiful Diftrefs." I have only fketched it out with chalk, and know a good hand can make a moving picture with worfe materials. . they are female virtuofo's, and during the three years and a half that I have had them under my care, they never in the leaft inclined their thoughts towards any one fingle part of the cha'racter of a notable woman. Whilft they fhould have been confidering the proper ingredients for a fack-poffet, you fhould hear a difpute concerning the magnetic virtue of a load-stone, or perhaps the preffure of the atmosphere: their language is peculiar to themselves, and they fcorn to exprefs themfelves on the meaneft trifle with words that are not of a Latini derivation. But this were fupportable ftill, 'would they fuffer me to enjoy an uninterrupted 'ignorance; but unless I fall in with their abftracted ideas of things, as they call thm, I muft not expect to fmoke one pipe in quiet, In a late fit of the gout I complained of the 'pain of that distemper, when my niece Kitty 'begged leave to affure me, that whatever I might think, feveral great philofophers, both 'ancient and modern, were of opinion, that both pleasure and pain were imaginary distinctions, and that there was no fuch thing as either in • rerum natura. I have often heard them affirm, that the fire was not hot; and one day when 1, with the authority of an old fellow, defired one of them to put my blue cloke on my knees, the answered, Sir, I will reach the cloke; but take notice, I do not do it as allowing your defcription; for it might as well be called yellow as blue; for colour is nothing but the various infractions of the rays of the fun. Mifs 'Molly told me one day, that to fay fnow was white, is allowing a vulgar error; for as it contains a great quantity of nitrous particles, it might more reasonably be fuppofed to be black. In fhort, the young huffeys would perfuade me, that to believe one's eyes is a fure way to be deceived; and have often advised me, by no means, to truft any thing fo fallible as my fenfes. What I have to beg of you now is, to turn one fpeculation to the due re'gulation of female literature, fo far at least, as to make it confiftent with the quiet of fuch whofe fate it is to be liable to its infults; and to tell us the difference between a gentleman that should make cheese-cakes and raise paste, and a lady that reads Locke, and understands the mathematics. In which you will extremely • oblige Your hearty friend and humble fervant, Abraham Thrifty.' N° 243. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8. Formam quidem ipfam, Marce fili, & tanquam faciem bonefti vides: quæ fi oculis cernereretur, mirabiles amores (ut ait Plato) excitaret fapientia, Tull. Offic. You fee, my fon Marcus, the very fhape and countenance, as it were, of virtue; which if it could be made the object of fight, would (as Plato fays) excite in us a wonderful love of wisdom. DO not remember to have read any difcourfe written exprefly upon the beauty and loveliness of virtue, without confidering it as a duty, and as the means of making us happy both now and hereafter. I defign therefore this fpeculation as an effay upon that fubject, in which I fhall confider virtue no farther than as it is in itself of an amiable nature, after having premifed, that I un derftand derstand by the word virtue fuch a general notion as is affixed to it by the writers of morality, and which by devout men generally goes under the name of religion, and by men of the world under the name of honour. Hypocrify itself does great honour, or rather justice, to religion, and tacitly acknowledges it to be an ornament to human nature. The hypocrite would not be at so much pains to put on the appearance of virtue, if he did not know it was the most proper and effectual means to gain the love and efteem of mankind. We learn from Hierocles, it was a common faying among the heathens, that the wife man hates no body, but only loves the virtuous. Tully has a very beautiful gradation of thoughts to fhew how amiable virtue is. We love a vir. tuous man, fays he, who lives in the remoteft parts of the earth, though we are altogether out of the reach of his virtue, and can receive from it no manner of benefit; nay one who died feveral ages ago, raises a fecret fondness and bene volence for him in our minds, when we read his story: nay what is still more, one who has been the enemy of our country, provided his wars were regulated by justice and humanity, as in the inftance of Pyrrhus, whom Tully mentions on this occafion in oppofition to Hannibal, Such is the natural beauty and loveliness of virtue! Stoicifm, which was the pedantry of virtue, afcribes all good qualifications, of what kind foever, to the virtuous man. Accordingly Cato, in the character Tully has left of him, carried matters so far, that he would not allow any one but a virtuous man to be handfome. This indeed looks more like a philofophical rant than the real opinion of a wife man; yet this was what Cato very seriously maintained. In fhort, the Stoics thought they could not fufficiently reprefent the excellence of virtue, if they did not comprehend in the notion of it all poffible perfections; and therefore did not only fuppofe, that it was tranfcendently beautiful in itself, but that it made the very body amiable, and banished every kind of deformity from the perfon in whom it refided. It is a common obfervation, that the most abandoned to all fenfe of goodness, are apt to with thofe who are related to them of a different character; and it is very obfervable, that none are more ftruck with the charms of virtue in the fair fex, than those who by their very admiration of it are carried to a defire of ruining it. A virtuous mind in a fair body is indeed a fine picture in a good light, and therefore it is no wonder that it makes the beautiful fex all over charms. As virtue in general is of an amiable and lovely nature, there are fome particular kinds of it which are more fo than others, and these are fuch The two great ornaments of virtue, which fhew her in the most advantageous views, and make her altogether lovely are chearfulness and good-nature. Thefe generally go together, as a man cannot be agreeable to others who is not eafy within himself. They are both very requifite in a virtuous mind, to keep out melancholy from the many ferious thoughts it is engaged in, and to hinder its natural hatred of vice from fouring into feverity and cenforiousness. If virtue is of this amiable nature, what can we think of those who can look upon it with an eye of hatred and ill-will, or can fuffer their averfion for a party to blot out all the merit of the perfon who is engaged in it? A man must be exceffively ftupid, as well as uncharitable, who be lieves that there is no virtue but on his own fide, and that there are not men as honeft as himself who may differ from him in political principles. Men may oppose one another in fome particulars, but ought not to carry their hatred to thofe qualities which are of fo amiable a nature in themfelves, and have nothing to do with the points in difpute. Men of virtue, though of different interefts, ought to confider themfelves as more nearly united with one another, than with the vicious part of mankind, who embark with them in the fame civil concerns. We fhould bear the fame love towards a man of honour, who is a living antagonist, which Tully tells us in the fore-mentioned paffage every one naturally does to an enemy that is dead. In fhort, we should efteem virtue though in a foe, and abhor vice though in a friend. I fpeak this with an eye to those cruel treatments which men of all fides are apt to give the characters of those who do not agree with them. How many perfons of undoubted probity, and exemplary virtue, on either fide, are blackened and defamed: how many men of honour expofed to public obloquy and reproach? Thofe therefore who are either the instruments or abettors in fuch infernal dealings, ought to be looked upon as perfons who make ufe of religion to promote their caufe, not of their caufe to promote religion. No 244. MONDAY, DECEMBER 10. C Hor. Sat. 7. lib. 2. ver, 101. A judge of painting you, and man of skill. CREECH. Covent-Garden, Dec. 7. Cannot, without a double injuftice, forbear expreffing to you the fatisfaction which a whole clan of virtuofos have received from thofe hints which you have lately given the as difpofe us to do good to mankind. Temper-town on the cartons of the inimitable Raphael. ance and abftinence, faith and devotion, are in themselves perhaps as laudable as any other virtues; but thofe which make a man popular and beloved, are justice, charity, munificence, and, in fhort, all the good qualities that render us beneficial to each other. For which reafon even an extravagant man, who has nothing elfe to recommend him but a falfe generofity, is often more beloved and efteemed than a perfon of a much more finished character, who is defective in this particular, It should be methinks the business of a Spectator to improve the pleafures of fight, and there cannot be a more immediate way to it than recom'mending the study and obfervation of excellent drawings and pictures. When I first went to view thofe of Raphael which you have cele'brated, I must confefs I was but barely pleased; the next time I liked them better, but at last, as I grew better acquainted with them, I fell deeply in love with them, like wife fpeeches they funk deep into my heart; for you know, < Mr. Spectator, THO You HOUGH I am a woman, yet I am one of thofe who confefs themselves highly pleafed with a fpeculation you obliged the 'world with fome time ago, from an old Greek poet you call Simonides, in relation to the fe'veral natures and diftinctions of our own fex. I could not but admire how juftly the characters of women in this age, fall in with the 'times of Simonides, there being no one of those forts I have not at fome time or other of my life met with a fample of. But, Sir, the fub 'ject of this prefent addrefs, are a fet of women comprehended, I think, in the nine fpecies of that fpeculation, called the apes.; the defcrip→ tion of whom I find to be, "That they are 'fuch as are both ugly and ill-natured, who "have nothing beautiful themselves, and endeavour to detract from or ridicule every thing "that appears fo in others." Now, Sir, this fect, as I have been told, is very frequent in the great town where you live; but as my circum'ftance of life obliges me to refide altogether in the country, though not many miles from London, I cannot have met with a great number of them, nor indeed is it a defirable acquaintance, as I have lately found by experience. 'must know, Sir, that at the beginning of this 'fummer a family of thefe apes came and fettled for the feafon not far from the place where I live. As they were ftrangers in the country, they were vifited by the ladies about them, of whom I was one, with an humanity ufual in thofe that pafs moft of their time in folitude. The apes lived with us very agreeably our own way until towards the end of the fummer, when they began to bethink themselves of returning to town; then it was, Mr. Spectator, that they began to fet themfelves about the proper and 'diftinguifhing bufinefs of their character; and, as it is faid of evil fpirits, that they are apt to carry away a piece of the house they are about to leave, the apes, without regard to common mercy, civility, or gratitude, thought fit to mimic, and fall foul on the faces, drefs, and behaviour of their innocent neighbours, beftowing abominable cenfures and difgraceful appellations, commonly called nick-names, on all of them; and in fhort, like true fine ladies, made their honeft plainnefs and fincerity matter of ridicule. I could not but acquaint you with thefe grievances, as well at the defire of all the parties injured, as from my own inclination. I hope, Sir, if you cannot propofe intirely to reform this evil, you will take fuch notice of it in fome of your future fpeculations, as may put the deferving part of our fex on their guard against thefe creatures; and at the fame time the apes may be fenfible, that this fort of mirth is fo far from an innocent di Mr. Spectator, that a man of wit may extremely affc&t one for the prefent, but if he has not difcretion, his merit foon vanishes away, while a wife man that has not fo great a stock of wit, fhall neverthelefs give you a far greater and more lafting fatisfaction: juft fo it is in a picture that is fmartly touched but not well ftudied; one may call it a witty picture, though the painter in the mean time may be in danger of being called a fool. On the other hand, a picture that is thoroughly understood in the whole, and well performed in the particulars, that is, begun on the foundation of geometry, carried on by the rules of perspective, architecture, and anatomy, and perfected by a good harmony, a juft and natural colouring, and fuch paffions, and expreffions of the mind as are almoft peculiar to Raphael; this is what you may juftly ftile a wife picture, and which feldom fails to ftrike us dumb, until we can affemble all our faculties to make but a tolerable judgment upon it Other pictures are made for the eyes only, as rattles are made for children's ears; and certainly that picture that only pleafes the eye, without reprefenting fome wellchofen part of nature or other, does but fhew what fine colours are to be fold at the colourfhop, and mocks the works of the Creator. If the beft imitator of nature, is not to be esteemed the best painter, but he that makes the greatest fhow and glare of colours; it will neceffarily follow, that he who can array himself in the moft gaudy draperies is beft dreffed, and he that can speak loudeft the beft crator. Every man when he looks on a picture fhould examine it according to that fhare of reafon he is mafter of, or he will be in danger of making a wrong judgment. If men as they walk abroad would make more frequent obfervations on those beauties of nature which every moment prefent themfelves to their view, they would be better judges when they faw her well imitated at home: this would help to corre& thofe errors which moft pretenders fall into, who are over-hafty in their judgments, and will not ftay to let reafon come in for a fhare in the decifion. It was for want of this that men miftake in this cafe, and in common life, a wild extravagant pencil for one that is truly bold and great, an impudent fellow for a man of true courage and bravery, hafty and unreasonable actions for enterprizes of fpirit and refolution, gaudy colouring for that which is truly beautiful, a falfe and infinuating difcourfe for fimple truth elegantly recommended. The pa rallel will hold through all the parts of life and painting too: and the virtuofos above-mentioned will be glad to fee you draw it with your terms of art. As the shadows in a picture reprefent the ferious or melancholy, fo the lights do the bright and lively thoughts: as there fhould be but one forcible light in a picture, which fhould catch the eye and fall on the hero; fo there fhould be but one object of our love, even the Author of nature. 6 : Thefe T and the like reflexions well improved, might very much contribute to open the beauty of that art, and prevent young people, from being poifoned by the ill gufto of any extravagant workman that fhould be impofed upon us. No 245. TUESDAY, DECEMBER İİ. T HERE is nothing which one regards fo much with an eye of mirth and pity as innocence, when it has in it a dash of folly. At the fame time that one efteems the virtue, one is tempted to laugh at the fimplicity which ac.companies it. When a man is made up wholly of the dove, without the leaft grain of the ferpent in his compofition, he becomes ridiculous in many circumftances of life, and very often difcredits his best actions. The Cordeliers tell a ftory of their founder St. Franeis, that as he -paffed the streets in the dufk of the evening, he discovered a young fellow with a maid in a corner; upon which the good man, fay they, lifted up his hands to heaven with a fecret thankfgiving, that there was ftill fo much christian charity in the world. The innocence of the faint made him miftake the kifs of a lover for a falute of charity. I am heartily concerned when I fee a virtuous man without a competent knowledge of the world; and if there be any use of thefe my papers, it is this, that without reprefenting vice under any falfe alluring notions, they give my reader an infight into the ways of men, and reprefent human nature in all its changeable colours. The man who has not been engaged in any of the follies of the world, or, as Shakespear expreffes it, "hackneyed in the << ways of men," may here find a picture of its follies and extravagancies. The virtuous and the innocent may know in speculation what they could never arrive at by practice, and by this means avoid the fnares of the crafty, the corruptions of the vicious, and the reafonings of the prejudiced. Their minds may be opened with, out being vitiated. * - C It is with an eye to my following correfpondent, Mr. Timothy Doodle, who feems a very well-meaning man, that I have written this fhort preface, to which I fhall fubjoin a letter from the faid Mr. Doodle. I SIR, ject, I will be fo free as to tell you how my wife and I país away thefe tedious winter evenings with a great deal of pleasure. Tho' the be young and handfome, and good-hu'moured to a miracle, the does not care for gadding abroad like others of her fex. There ' is a very friendly man, a colonel in the army, whom I am mightily obliged to for his civilities, that comes to fee me almost every night; for he is not one of those giddy young fellow's that cannot live out of a play-houfe. When we are together, we very often make a party at blind-man's buff, which is a fport that I like the better, because there is a good deal of exercise in it. The colonel and I are blinded by turns, and you would laugh your heart out to fee what pains my dear takes to hoodwink us, fo that it is impoffible for us to fee the leaft glimpse of light. The poor colonel fometimes hits his nofe against a poft, and makes us die with laughing. I have generally the good luck not to hurt myself, but am very often above half an hour before I can catch either of them: for you must know we hide ourfelves up and down in corners, that we 'may have the more fport. I only give you this hint as a fample of such innocent diverfions as I would have you recommend; and am, Most esteemed Sir, 6 your ever loving friend, Timothy Doodle." The following letter was occafioned by my laft Thursday's paper upon the abfence of lov ers, and the methods therein mentioned of making fuch abfence supportable. SIR, A MONG the feveral ways of confolation which abfent lovers make ufe of while their fouls are in that ftate of departure, which you fay is death in love, there are fome very material ones that have efcaped your notice. Among thefe, the first and most received is a crooked fhilling, which has administered great comfort to our forefathers, and is ftill made ufe of on this occafion with very good effect in moft part of her majefty's dominions. There are fome, I know, who think a crown-piece cut into two equal parts, and preferved by the diftant lovers, is of more fovereign virtue than the former. But fince opinions are divided in this particular, why may not the fame perfons make ufe of both? The figure of a heart, whether cut in ftone or caft in metal, whether bleeding upon an altar, ftuck with darts, or held in the hand of a Cupid, has always been looked upon as talifmanic in diftreffes of this nature. I am acquainted with many a brave fellow, who carries his miftrefs in the lid of a fnuff-box, and by that expedient has fupported • himself under the abfence of a whole campaign. For my own part, I have tried all thefe remedies, but never found fo much benefit from any as from a ring, in which my miftrefs's hair Could heartily with that you would let us know your opinion upon feveral innocent diverfions which are in ufe among us, and which are very proper to pafs away a winter, night for thefe who do not care to throw away their time at an opera, or at the play-houfe. I would gladly know in particular, what notion you have of hot-cockles; as also whether you think that questions and commands, mottoes, fimiles, and crofs-purposes, have not more mirth and wit in them, than thofe public diverfions which are grown fo very fashionable among us. If you would recommend to our wives and daughters, who read your papers with a great deal of pleafure, fome of thofe fports and paftimes that may be practifedis platted together very artificially in a kind of within doors, and by the fire-fide, we who are 'masters of families' fhould be hugely obliged to you. I need not tell you that I would have these sports and paftimes not only merry but innocent, for which reafon I have not mentioned either whift or lanterloo, nor indeed fo much as one-and-thirty. After having communicated to you my request upon this fub.............. true lover's knot. As I have received great benefit from this fecret, think myself obliged to communicate it to the public, for the good of my fellow fubjects. I defire you will add this letter as an appendix to your confolations 6. upon abfence; and am, Your very humble fervant, RA T-B.' I fhall 'SIR, HIS will give you to understand, that there is at prefent in the fociety, whereof I am a member, a very confiderable body of Trojans, who, upon a proper occafion, would not fail to declare ourselves. In the mean while we do all we can to annoy our enemies by ftratagem, and are refolved by the first opportunity to attack Mr. Joshua Barnes, whom " we look upon as the Achilles of the oppofite party. As for myself, I have had the reputation ever fince I came from 'chool, of being a trusty Trojan, and am refolved never to give quarter to the fmalleft particle of Greek, wherever I chance to meet it. It is for this reason I take ' it very ill of you, that you sometimes hang out Greek colours at the head of your paper, and fometimes give a word of the enemy even in the body of it. When I meet with any thing of this nature, I throw down your fpeculations upon the table, with that form of words which we make ufe of when we declare war upon an author. • Mr. Spectator, РОРЕ. S your paper is part of the equipage of the tea-table, I conjure you to print what I now write to you; for I have no other 6 way to communicate what I have to fay to the fair fex on the most important circumftance of life, even the care of children. I do not • understand that you profefs your paper is always to confift of matters which are only to entertain the learned and polite, but that it may agree with your defign to publish fome which may tend to the information of mankind < in general; and when it does fo, you do more than writing wit and humour. Give me leave then to tell you, that of all the abufes that • ever you have as yet endeavoured to reform, <certainly not one wanted fo much your affiftance as the abuse in nurfing children. It is unmerciful to fee, that a woman endowed with all the perfections and bleffings of nature, can, as foon as the is delivered, turn off her 6 innocent, tender, and helpless infant, and give it up to a woman that is, ten thousand to one, 'neither in health nor good condition, neither 'found in mind nor body, that has neither honour nor reputation, neither love nor pity for the poor babe, but more regard for the money than for the child, and never will take farther care of it than what by all the encouragement of money and prefents he is forced to; like fop's earth, which would not nurfe the plant of another ground, although never fo 'much improved, by reason that plant was not of its own production. And fince another's child is no more natural to a nurse than a plant to a strange and different ground, how can it be supposed that the child should thrive? and if it thrives, muft it not imbibe the grofs 'humours and qualities of the nurfe, like a plant in a different ground, or like a graft upon a different ftock? Do not we obferve, that a lamb fucking a goat changes very much its nature, nay even its fkin and wool into the goat kind? The power of a nurse over a child by infusing into it, with her milk, her qualities and difpofition, is fufficiently and daily obferved: hence came that old faying concerning an ill-natured and malicious fellow, that he had imbibed his malice with his nurse's milk, or that fome brute or other had been his nurfe. Hence Romulus and Remus were faid to have been nurfed by a wolf, Telephus the 'fon of Hercules by a 'hind, Pelias the fon of Neptune by a mare, and Ægifthus by a goat; not that they had actually fucked fuch creatures, as fome fimpletons have imagined, but that their nurfes had been of fuch a nature and temper, and infused such into them. Many inftances may be produced from good authorities and daily experience, that children actually fuck in the feveral paffions and de"praved inclinations of their nurfes, as anger, • avertion. 'malice, fear, melancholy, fadnefs, defire, and This Diodorus, lib. 2. witnesses, ' when he speaks, faying, That Nero the empe'ror's nurfe had been very much addicted to drinking; which habit Nero received from his nurse, and was fo very particular in this, that the people took fo much notice of it, as inftead of Tiberius Nero, they called him Biberius Mero. The fame Diodorus alfo relates of Caligula, predeceffor to Nero, that his nurse used to moisten the nipples of her breaft frequently with blood, to make Caligula take the better hold of them; which, fays Diodorus, was the caufe that made him fo blood-thirsty and cruel all his life-time after, that he not only com'mitted frequent murder by his own hand, but likewife wished that all human kind wore but 6 one neck, that he might have the pleasure to < cut it off. Such like degeneracies astonish the parents, who not knowing after whom the child can take, fee one incline to ftealing, another to drinking, cruelty, ftupidity; yet all thefe are not minded. Nay, it is eafy to de 'monftrate, that a child, although it be born 'from the best of parents, may be corrupted by an 1-tempered nurfe. How many children do we fee daily brought into fits, confumptions, rickets, &c. merely by fucking sheir nurfes when in a paffion or fury? But indeed almoft any disorder of the nurfe is a diforder to the child, and few nurses can be found in this town but what labour under some distem |