" begged of him to return them. He, with the fame odious pretence to freedom and gaiety, fwore he would read them. I grew more importunate, he more curious, till at laft, with an indignation arifing from a pathon I then firft difcovered in him, he threw the papers into the fire, fwearing that fince he was not to read them, the man who writ them fhould never be fo happy as to have me read them, over again. It is infignificant to tell you my tears and reproaches made the boisterous calf leave the room afhamed and out of countenance, when I had leifure to ruminate on this accident with more than ordinary forrow: however, fuch was then my confidence in my husband, that I writ to him the misfortune, and defired another paper of the fame kind. He deferred writing two or three pofts, and at last answered me in general, That he could not then fend me what I asked for; but when he could find a proper conveyance, I should be fure to have it. From this time his letters were more cold every day than other, and as he grew indifferent " I grew jealous. This has at laft brought me to town, where I find both the witnefes of my " marriage dead, and that my husband, after three months cohabitation, has buried a young lady whom he married in obedience to his father. In a word, he thuns and difowns me. Should I come to the house and confront him, the father would join in fupporting him against me, though he believed my ftory; 'fhould I talk it to the world, what reparation can I expect for an injury I cannot make out? I believe he means to bring me through neceffity, to refign my pretenfions to him for fome provifion for my life: but I will die first. Pray bid him remember what he faid, and how he was charmed when he laughed at the heedlefs difcovery I often made of myfelf; let him remember how awkward I was in my diffem<bled indifference towards him before company; afk him how I, who could never conceal my love for him, at his own requeft can part with him for ever? Oh, Mr. Spectator, fenfible fpirits ⚫ know no indifference in marriage; what then do you think is my piercing affiction!] leave you to reprefent my diftress your own way, in which I defire you to be speedy, if you have compaffion for innocence expofed to • infamy. < < T "Octavia.' N° 23. TUESDAY, MARCH 11. -Modò vir, modò fœmina― In pertinence, than in crimes and immoralities. Offences of this latter kind are not to be dallied with, or treated in fo ludicrous a manner. fhort, my journal only holds up folly to the light, and fhews the disagreeablenefs of fuch actions as are indifferent in themselves, and blameable only as they proceed from creatures endowed with reafon. VIRG. : Sometimes a man, fometimes a woman. THE journal, with which I prefented my reader on Tuesday laft, has brought me in feveral letters, with accounts of many private lives caft into that form. I have the Rake's Journal, the Sot's Journal, the Whoremafter's Journal, and among feveral others a very curious piece, entitled, The Journal of a Mohock. By thefe inftances I find that the intention of my laft Tuesday's paper has been miftaken by many of my readers. I did not defign fo much to expofe vice as idlenefs, and aimed at thofe perfons who pass away their time rather in trifle and im My following correfpondent, who calls herfelf Clarinda, is fuch a journalist as I require: she feems by her letter to be placed in a modish state of indifference between vice and virtue, and to be fufceptible of either, were there proper pains taken with her. Had her journal been filled with gallantries, or fuch occurrences as had fhewn her wholly divefted of her natural innocence, notwithstanding it might have been more pleasing to the generality of readers, I fhould not have published it; but as it is only the picture of a life filled with a fashionable kind of gaiety and lazinefs, I fhall fet down five days of it, as I have received it from the hand of my fair correspond ent. Dear Mr. Spectator, Y OU having fet your readers an exercise in one of your laft week's papers, I have 'performed mine according to your orders, and herewith fend it you inclofed. You must know, Mr. Spectator, that I am a maiden lady of a good fortune, who have had several matches offered me for thefe ten years laft paft, and and have at prefent warm applications made to me by a very pretty fellow. As I am at my • own disposal, come up to town every winter, and pafs my time in it after the manner you will find in the following journal, which I began to write upon the very day after your Spec< tator upon that subject.' " Sent Frank to know how my lady Hectic rested From three to four. Dinner cold before I fat From four to eleven. Saw company. Mr. Loft Twelve o'clock at night. Went to bed. Friday. Eight in the morning. A-bed. Read over all Mr. Froth's letters. Cupid and Veny. Ten o'clock. Stay'd within all Day, not at home. From ten to twelve. In conference with my mantua-maker. Sorted a fuit of ribbons. Broke my blue china cup. From twelve to one. Shut myself up in my chamber, practifed lady Betty Modely's fkuttle. One in the afternoon. Called for my flowered Eyes aked and head out of order. Threw by my From three to four. Dined. Con From four to twelve. Changed my mind, Between twelve and one, Dreamed that Mr. From dinner to fix, Drank tea. Turned off a footman for being rude to Veny. Six o'clock. Went to the opera. I did not Eleven at night. Went to bed. Melancholy dreams, Methought Nicolini faid he was Mr. Froth. Sunday. Indifpofed. Monday. Eight o'clock. Waked by Mifs man according to appointment. Told me that my lover's name began with a G. Mem. The conjurer was within a letter of Mr. Froth's name, &c. Upon looking back into this my journal, I find that I am at a lofs to know whether I pafs my time well or ill; and indeed never thought of confidering how I did it before I perused your fpeculation upon that fubject. I fcarce find a fingle action in thefe five days that I can thoroughly approve of, except the working upon the violet-leaf, which I am refolved to finish the first day I am at leifure. As for Mr. Froth and Veny, I did not think they took up fo much of my time and thoughts as I find they do upon my jourual. The latter of them I will turn off, if you infift upon it; and if Mr. Froth does not bring matters to a conclufion very fuddenly, I will not let my life run away in a dream. Your humble fervant, 'Clarinda,' To refume one of the morals of firft my paper, i would have her confider what a pretty figure and to confirm Clarinda in her good inclinations, fhe would make among pofterity, where the hiftory of her whole life published like thefe five I fhall conclude my paper with an days of it. epitaph written by an uncertain author on Sir Philip Sidney's fifter, a lady, who feems to have been of a temper very much different from that noble, that I dare fay my reader will pardon me of Clarinda. The last thought of it is fo very the quotation. On the Countefs Dowager of Pembroke. Underneath this marble hearfe N° 324. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12. O curve in terris animæ, & cæleftium inanes! T HE materials you have collected together towards a general History of Clubs, make fo bright a part of your speculations, that I think it is but a juftice we all owe the learnMr.ed world to furnish you with fuch affistance as 3 may promote that useful work. For this rea fon I could not forbear communicating to you fome imperfect informations of a fet of men (if you will allow them a place in that fpecies of being) who have lately erected themselves into a nocturnal fraternity under the title of the Mohock-Club, a name borrowed it feems from a fort of Cannibals in India, who fubfift by plundering and devouring all the nations about them, The prefident is ftiled Emperor of the Mohocks; and his arms are a Turkish crefcent, which his imperial majesty bears at prefent in a very extraordinary manner engraven upon lis forehead. " L O fouls, in whom no heavenly fire is found, • Mr. Spectator. 1711-12. C In or 'forehead. Agreeable to their name, the avowed " " " I must own, Sir, thefe are only broken incoherent memoirs of this wonderful fociety, but they are the best I have been yet able to procure; for being but of late established, it is not ripe for a juft hiftory. And to be ferious, the chief defign of this trouble is to hinder it from < ever being fo. You have been pleased out of a concern for the good of your countrymen, to aft under the character of Spectator, not only the part of a looker-on, but an overfeer of their < < actions; and whenever fuch enormities as this infeft the town, we immediately fly to you for redrefs. I have reafon to believe that fome • thoughtless youngsters, out of a falfe notion of bravery, and an immoderate fondness to be diftinguiih'd for fellows of fire, are infenfibly hurried into this fenfelefs fcandalous project: fuch will probably stand corrected by your reproofs, efpecially if you inform them that it is not courage for half a fcore fellows, mad with wine and luft, to fet upon two or three foberer than themfelves; and that the manners of Indian favages are no becoming accomplishents to an English fine gentleman, Such of them as have been bullies and fccwerers of a long ftanding, and are grown veterans in this kind of service, are, 1 fear, too hardened to receive any impreffions from your admonitions. But I beg you would recommend to their perufal your ninth fpeculation: they may there be taught to take warning from the club of Duellifts; and be put in mind, that the common fate of thofe SIR, Your moft humble Servant, Philanthropos.' The following letter is of a quite contrary naferve at the fame view, how amiable ignorance ture; but I add it here, that the reader may obmay be when it is fhewn in its fimplicities, and how deteftable in barbarities. It is written by an honeft countryman to his mitrefs, and came to the hands of a lady of good fense wrapped about a thread-paper, who has long kept it by her as an image of artless love. To her I very much respect, Mrs. Margaret and oh that I could write loving Mrs. Margaret Clark, I pray you let affection excufe prefumption. Having been fo happy as to enjoy the fight of your sweet countenance and comely body, fometimes when I had occafion to buy treacle or liquorish pow. der at the apothecaries 1hop, I am fo enamoured with you, that I can no more keep close my 'flaming defire to become your fervant. And I am the more bold now to write to your fweet felf, because I am now my own man, and may match where I pleafe; for my father is taken away, and now I am come to my living which is ten yard land, and a houfe; and there is never a yard of land in our field but it is as well worth ten pounds a year, as a thief is worth a halter, and all my brothers and fifters are 'provided for: befides I have good houfholdftuff, though I fay it, both brafs and pewter, linens and woollens; and though my houfe be thatch'd, yet, if you and I match, it fhall go hard but I will have one half of it flated. If you think well of this motion, I will wait upon < you as foon as my new cloaths is made and hay-harveft is in. I could, though I fay it, have good-The reft is torn off; and pofterity must be contented to know, that Mrs. Margaret Clark was very pretty, but are left in the dark as to the name of her lover. T 6 N° 325. THURSDAY, MARCH 13. Quid fruftra fimulacra fugacia captas? OVID Metam. 1 3. v. 432, [From the fable of NARCISSUS.] W ADDISON. ILL Honeycomb diverted us laft night with an acount of a young fellow's firit difcovering his paffion to his miftrefs. The young lady was one, it feems, who had long before conceived a favourable opinion of him, and was ftill in hopes that he would some time or other make his advances. As he was one day talking with her in company of her two fifters, the converfation happening to turn upon love, each of the young ladies was, by way of rallery, recommending a wife to him; when, to the no fmall furprize of her who languished for him in fecret, he told them with a more than ordinary seriousness, that his heart had been long engaged to one whofe name he thought himself obliged to conceal; but that he could fhew her picture in the lid of his fnuff-box. The young lady, who found herself moft fenfibly touched by this confeffion, took the first opportunity that offered of fnatching his box out of his hand. He feemed defirous of recover, ing it, but finding her refolved to look into the lid, begged her that if she should happen to know the perfon, she would not reveal her name. Upon carrying it to the window, fhe was agreeably furprised to find there was nothing within the lid but a little looking-glafs, in which after fhe had viewed her own face with more than ordinary pleasure than fhe had ever done before, the re, turned the box with a fmile, telling him, fhe could not but admire at his choice. Will fancying that this ftory took, immediately fell into a differtation on the usefulness of looking-glaffes; and applying himself to me, afked if there were any looking-glaffes in the times of the Greeks and Romans; for that he had often observed in the tranflations of poems out of thofe languages, that people generally talked of fecing themselves in wells, fountains, lakes, and rivers : nay, fays he, I remember Mr. Dryden in his Ovid tells us of a fwinging fellow called Polypheme, that made ufe of the fea for his looking-glafs, and could never drefs himself to advantage but in a calm. My friend Will, to fhew us the whole compafs of his learning upon this subject, further informed us that there were still feveral nations in the world fo very barbarous as not to have any looking-glaffes among them; and that he had lately read a voyage to the South-Sea, in which it is faid, that the ladies of Chili always dreffed their heads over a bafon of water, I am the more particular in my account of Will's last night's lecture on thefe natural mirrours, as it seems to bear fome relation to the following letter, which I received the day before. SIR, HAVE read your last Saturday's obferva I tions on the fourth book of Milton with great fatisfaction, and am particularly pleafed with the hidden moral which you have taken notice of in feveral parts of the poem. The defign of this letter is to defire your thoughts, whether there may not alfo be fome moral 'couched under that place in the fame book where the poet lets us know, that the first woman immediately after her creation ran to a looking-glafs, and became fo enamoured of her f own face, that she had never removed to view any of the other works of nature, had fhe not heen led off to a man. If you think fit to fet down the whole paffage from Milton, your readers will be able to judge for themselves, and the quotation will not a little contribute to the filling up of you paper. $ Your humble Servant, The laft confideration urged by my querift is fo ftrong, that I cannot forbear clofing with it. The paffage he alludes to, is part of Eve's Speech to Adam, and one of the most beautiful paffages in the whole poem. R. T.' That day I oft remember, when from sleep His flesh, his bone; to give thee being I lent Out of my fide to thee, nearest my heart, Subftantial life, to have thee by my fide, Henceforth an individual folace dear: Part of my foul, I seek thee, and thee claim X. Y OUR correfpondent's letter relating to Fortune-Hunters, and your fubfequent difcourfe upon it, have given me encourage'ment to fend you a ftate of my cafe, which 'you will fee, that the matter co nplained of is a common grievance both to city and country. · COWLEY. " · I am a country gentleman of between five and fix thousand a year. It is my misfortune to have a very fine park and an only daughter; upon which account I have been fo plagued " with deer-ftcalers and fops, that for these four years paft I have fcarce enjoyed a moment's reft. I look upon myself to be in a state of war, and am forc'd to keep as conftant watch in my feat, as a governor would do that commanded a town on the frontier of an enemy's country. I have indeed pretty well fecur'd my park, having for this purpofe provided myself upwards of fix years, have had four children, and my wife is now big with the fifth The expences the has put me to in procuring what fhe has longed for during her pregnancy with them, would not only have handfomely de'fray'd the charges of the month, but of their education too; as not to confine itself to the ufual objects of eatables and drinkables, but running out after equipages and furniture, and 'the like extravagancies. To trouble you only 'with a few of them; when he was with child of Tom, my eldeft fon, she came home one day of four keepers who are left-handed, and han-juft fainting, and told me the had been vifiting dle a quarter-ftaff beyond any other fellows in the country. And for the guard of my house, ⚫ befides a band of pensioner matrons and an old 'maiden relation whom I keep on conftant duty, 6 a relation, whofe husband had made her a prefent of a chariot, and a stately pair of horfes; and that he was pofitive he could not breath 'a week longer, unlefs fhe took the air in the fellow to it of her own within that time: this, rather than lofe an heir, I readily complied with. Then the furniture of her best room 'must be instantly changed, or she should mark the child with fome of the frightful figures in the old-fashioned tapeftry. Well, the Uphol, fterer was called, and her longing faved that 'bout. When the went with Molly, the had 'fixed her mind upon a new fet of plate, and as " I have blunderbuffes always charged, and foxgins planted in private places about my garden, of which I have given frequent notice in my 'neighbourhood; yet fo it is, that in fpite of all " my care, I fhall every now and then have a faucy rafcal ride by reconnoitring (as I think you call it) under my windows, as fprucely dreffed as if he were going to a ball. I am aware of this way of attacking a miftrefs on horseback, having heard that it was a common practice in Spain; and have therefore taken care to < remove my daughter from the road-fide of the houfe, and to lodge her next the garden. But < to cut fhort my story? what can a man do af" ter all? I durft not ftand for member of parliament last election, for fear of fome ill confequence from my being off my poft. What I would therefore defire of you, is, to promote a project I have fet on foot; and upon which I have writ to fome of my friends; and that is, that care may be taken to fecure our daughters by law, as well as our deer,; and that fome honeft gentleman of a public fpirit, would move for leave to bring in a bill for the better preferving of the female game. : much china as would have furnished an Indian 'fhop: thefe alfo 1 chearfully granted, for fear of being father to an Indian Pagod. Hitherto I found her demands rofe upon every conceffion; and had the gone on, I had been ruined: but by good fortune, with her third, which was Peggy, the height of her imagination came down to the corner of a venison pasty, and brought her once even upon her knees to gnaw off the ears of a pig from the fpit. The grati'fications of her palate were easily preferred to 'thofe of her vanity; and sometimes a partridge I am, Mr. Spectator, Mile-End-Green, March 6, 1711-12. ERE is a young man walks by our door every day about the dufk of the evening. He looks up at my window, as if to fee me; and if I fteal towards it to peep at him, he turns another way, and looks frightened at finding what he was looking for. The air is very cold; and pray let him know that if he knocks at the door, he will be carried to the parlour fire, and I will come down foon after, and give him an opportunity to break his mind. 'I am, SIR, SIR, If I obferve he cannot fpeak, I'll give him time to recover himself, and afk him how he ' does.' Your humble fervant, Dear Sir, I BEG you to print this without delay, and by the first opportunity give us the natural caufes of longing in woman; or put me out of fear that my wife will one time or other be delivered of fomething as monrous as any thing that has yet appeared to the world; for they fay that the child is to bear a refemblance of what was defir'd by the mother, I have been married C or a quail, a wheat-ear, or the peftle of a lark, were chearfully purchased; nay, I could be con' tented though I were to feed her with green pease in April, or cherries in May. But with the babe the now goes, fhe is turned girl again, and fallen to eating of chalk, pretending 'twill make the child's fkin white; and nothing will ferve her but I must bear her company, to prevent its having a fhade of my brown. In this, however I have ventur'd to deny her. No longer ago than yesterday, as we were coming to town, the faw a parcel of crows fo heartily at break'faft upon a piece of horfe-flefh, that fhe had C < " an invincible defire to partake with them, and (to my infinite furprife) begged the coachman to cut her off a flice as if it were for himself, which the fellow did; and as foon as fhe came home the fell to it with fuch an appetite that 'fhe feemed rather to devour than eat it. What her next fally will be, I cannot guefs: but in the mean time my requeft to you is, that if there be any way to come at thefe wild unac'countable rovings of imagination by reason and argument, you'd fpeedily afford us your affift¬ ance. This exceeds the grievance of pin-money, and I think in every settlement there ought 'to be a claufe inferted, that the father should be anfwerable for the longings of his daughter, But I fhall impatiently expect your thoughts in this matter; and am, Sir, Your most obliged, and |
