are at present under no manner of rules or discipline. I think I am pretty well qualified for this place, as being a man of very strong lungs, of great insight into all the branches of our British trades and manufac tures, and of a competent skill in music. opera-glasses, fit for short-sighted people | troller-general of the London Cries, which as well as others, these glasses making the objects appear either as they are seen with the naked eye, or more distinct, though somewhat less than life, or bigger and nearer. A person may by the help of this invention, take a view of another without the impertinence of staring; at the same time it shall not be possible to know whom or what he is looking at. One may look towards his right or left hand, when he is supposed to look forwards. This is set forth at large, in the printed proposals for the sale of these glasses, to be had at Mr. Dillon's in Long-Acre, next door to the White Hart. Now, sir, as your Spectator has occasioned the publishing of this invention for the benefit of modest spectators, the inventor desires your admonitions concerning the decent use of it; and hopes, by your recommendation, that for the future beauty may be beheld without the torture and confusion which it suffers from the insolence of starers. By this means you will relieve the innocent from an insult which there is no law to punish, though it is a greater offence than many which are within the cognizance of justice. I am, sir, your most humble ABRAHAM SPY." servant, Q. No. 251.] Tuesday, December 18, 1711. Linguæ centum sunt, oraque centum, THERE is nothing which more astonishes a foreigner, and frights a country squire, than the Cries of London. My good friend Sir Roger often declares that he cannot get them out of his head or go to sleep for them, the first week that he is in town. On the contrary Will Honeycomb calls them the Ramage de la Ville, and prefers them to the sound of larks and nightingales, with all the music of the fields and woods. I have lately received a letter from some very odd fellow upon this subject, which shall leave with my reader, without saying any thing further of it. I "The Cries of London may be divided into vocal and instrumental. As for the latter, they are at present under a very great disorder. A freeman of London has the privilege of disturbing a whole street for an hour together, with the twanking of a brasskettle or a frying-pan. The watchman's thump at midnight startles us in our beds, as much as the breaking in of a thief. The sow-gelder's horn has indeed something musical in it, but this is seldom heard within the liberties. I would therefore propose, that no instrument of this nature should be made use of, which I have not tuned and licensed, after having carefully examined in what manner it may affect the ears of her majesty's liege subjects. • Vocal cries are of a much larger extent, and indeed so full of incongruities and barbarisms, that we appear a distracted city to foreigners, who do not comprehend the meaning of such enormous outcries. Milk is generally sold in a note above E-la, and in sounds so exceeding shrill, that it often sets our teeth on edge. The chimneysweeper is confined to no certain pitch; he sometimes utters himself in the deepest base, and sometimes in the sharpest treble; sometimes in the highest, and sometimes in the lowest note of the gamut. The same observation might be made on the retailers of small-coal, not to mention broken glasses or brick-dust. In these therefore, and the and mellow the voices of these itinerant like cases, it should be my care to sweeten and mellow the voices of these itinerant tradesmen, before they make their appearance in our streets, as also to accommodate their cries to their respective wares: and to take care in particular, that those may not make the most noise who have the least to sell, which is very observable in the venders of card-matches, to whom I cannot but apply the old proverb of "Much cry but little wool." "Some of these last-mentioned musicians 'SIR,-I am a man out of all business, are so very loud in the sale of these trifling and would willingly turn my head to any manufactures, that an honest splenetic genthing for an honest livelihood. I have in- tleman of my acquaintance bargained with vented several projects for raising many one of them never to come into the street millions of money without burdening the where he lived. But what was the effect of subject, but I cannot get the parliament to this contract? why, the whole tribe of cardlisten to me, who look upon me, forsooth, match-makers which frequent that quaras a crack, and a projector; so that despair-ter, passed by his door the very next day, ing to enrich either myself or my country in hopes of being bought off after the same by this public-spiritedness, I would make manner. Our news some proposals to you relating to a design 'It is another great imperfection in our which I have very much at heart, and London Cries, that there is no just time which may procure me a handsome sub-nor measure observed in them. sistence, if you will be pleased to recommend it to the cities of London and Westminster. The post I would aim at, is to be comp should indeed be published in a very quick time, because it is a commodity that will not keep cold. It should not, however, be cried with the same precipitation as fire. Yet this is generally the case. A bloody | battle alarms the town from one end to another in an instant. Every motion of the French is published in so great a hurry, that one would think the enemy were at our gates. This likewise I would take upon me to regulate in such a manner, that there should be some distinction made between the spreading of a victory, a march, or an encampment; a Dutch, a Portugal, or a Spanish mail. Nor must I omit under this head those excessive alarms with which several boisterous rustics infest our streets in turnip-season; and which are more inexcusable, because these are wares which are in no danger of cooling upon their hands. There are others who affect a very slow time, and are in my opinion much more tuneable than the former. The cooper in particular swells his last note in a hollow voice, that is not without its harmony; nor can I forbear being inspired with a most agreeable melancholy, when I hear that sad and solemn air with which the public are very often asked, if they have any chairs to mend? Your own memory may suggest to you many other lamentable ditties of the same nature, in which the music is wonderfully languishing and melodious. I am always pleased with that particu apples of a bellows-mender, and ginger bread from a grinder of knives and scissors. Nay, so strangely infatuated are some very eminent artists of this particular grace in a cry, that none but their acquaintance are able to guess at their profession: for who else can know, that "work if I had it," should be the signification of a corn-cutter. For as much therefore as persons of this rank are seldom men of genius or capacity, I think it would be very proper that some man of good sense and sound judgment should preside over these public cries, who should permit none to lift up their voices in our streets, that have not tuneable throats, and are not only able to overcome the noise of the crowd, and the rattling of coaches, but also to vend their respective merchandises in apt phrases, and in the most distinct and agreeable sounds. I do therefore humbly recommend myself as a person rightly qualified for this post; and if I meet with fitting encouragement, shall communicate some other projects which I have by me, that may no less conduce to the emolument of the public. I am, sir, &c. C. RALPH CROTCHET.' Erranti, passimque oculos per cuncta ferenti. lar time of the year which is proper for the No. 252.] Wednesday, December 19, 1711. pickling of dill and cucumbers; but alas! this cry, like the song of the nightingale, is not heard above two months. It would therefore be worth while to consider; whether the same air might not in some cases be adapted to other words. It might likewise deserve our most serious consideration, how far, in a well regulated city, those humorists are to be tolerated, who, not contented with the traditional cries of their forefathers, have invented particular songs and tunes of their own: such as was not many years since, the pastry-man, commonly known by the name of the Colly-Molly-Puff;* and such as is at this day the vender of powder and wash-balls, who, if I am rightly informed, goes under the name of Powder-Watt. 'MR. SPECTATOR,-I am very sorry to find by your discourse upon the eye, that you have not thoroughly studied the nature and force of that part of a beauteous face. Had you ever been in love, you would have said ten thousand things, which it seems did not occur to you. Do but reflect upon the nonsense it makes men talk, the flames which it is said to kindle, the transport it raises, the dejection it causes in the bravest men; and if you do believe those things are expressed to an extravagance, yet you will own that the influence of it is very great, which moves men to that extravagance. Certain it is, that the whole strength of the ‘I must not here omit one particular ab- mind is sometimes seated there; that a kind surdity which runs through this whole vo- look imparts all that a year's discourse ciferous generation, and which renders their could give you, in one moment. What matcries very often not only incommodious, but ters it what she says to you, altogether useless to the public. I mean, looks," is the language of all who know that idle accomplishment which they all of what love is. When the mind is thus sumthem aim at, of crying so as not to be un-med up and expressed in a glance, did you derstood. Whether or no they have learned this from several of our affected singers, I will not take upon me to say; but most certain it is, that people know the wares they deal in rather by their tunes than by their words; insomuch that I have some times seen a country-boy run out to buy * This little man was but just able to support the basket of pastry which he carried on his head, and sung In a very peculiar tone the cant words which passed into his name, Colly-Molly-Puff. There is a half sheet print of him in the Set of London Cries, M. Lauron, del. P. Tempest, cxc. Granger's Biographical History of England. see how she never observe a sudden joy arise in the countenance of a lover. Did you never see the attendance of years paid, overpaid, in an instant? You a Spectator, and not know that the intelligence of affection is carried made the tongue falsify the heart, and act on by the eye only; that good-breeding has * ADAPTED With various power the wonder-working eye Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos, time, as well as other eloquent speakers of both universities, yet I agree with you, that women are better qualified to succeed in oratory than the men, and believe this is to be resolved into natural causes. You have mentioned only the volubility of their tongues: but what do you think of the silent flattery of their pretty faces, and the persuasion which even an insipid discourse carries with it when flowing from beautiful lips, to which it would be cruel to deny any thing? It is certain, too, that they are possessed of some springs of rhetoric which men want, such as tears, fainting-fits, and the like, which I have seen employed upon occasion, with good success. You must know that I am a plain man, and love my money; yet I have a spouse who is so great an orator in this way, that she draws from me what sums she pleases. Every room in my house is furnished with trophies of her eloquence, rich cabinets, piles of china, japan screens, and costly jars; and if you were to come into my great parlour, you would fancy yourself in an India warehouse. Besides this, she keeps a squirrel, and I a part of continual restraint, while_nature | have heard many eminent pleaders in my has preserved the eyes to herself, that she may not be disguised or misrepresented. The poor bride can give her hand and say, "I do," with a languishing air, to the man she is obliged by cruel parents to take for mercenary reasons, but at the same time she cannot look as if she loved: her eye is full of sorrow, and reluctance sits in a tear, while the offering of a sacrifice is performed in what we call the marriage ceremony. Do you never go to plays? Cannot you distinguish between the eyes of those who go to see, from those who come to be seen? I am a woman turned of thirty, and am on the observation a little; therefore if you, or your correspondent, had consulted me in your discourse on the eye, I could have told you that the eye of Leonora is slily watchful while it looks negligent; she looks round her without the help of the glasses you speak of, and yet seems to be employed on objects directly before her. This eye is what affects chance-medley, and on a sudden, as if it attended to another thing, turns all its charms against an ogler. The eye of Lusitania is an instrument of premeditated murder; but the design being visible, de-am doubly taxed to pay for the china he stroys the execution of it; and with much breaks. She is seized with periodical fits more beauty than that of Leonora, it is not about the time of the subscriptions to a new half so mischievous. There is a brave sol- opera, and is drowned in tears after having dier's daughter in town, that by her eye seen any woman there in finer clothes than has been the death of more than ever her herself. These are arts of persuasion purely father made fly before him. A beautiful feminine, and which a tender heart cannot eye makes silence eloquent, a kind eye resist. What I would therefore desire of makes contradiction an assent, an enraged you, is, to prevail with your friend who has eye makes beauty deformed. This little promised to dissect a female tongue, that member gives life to every other part about he would at the same time give us the anatomy us, and I believe the story of Argus im- of a female eye, and explain the springs and plies no more, than that the eye is in every sluices which feed it with such ready suppart; that is to say, every other part would plies of moisture; and likewise show by be mutilated, were not its force represent- what means, if possible, they may be stoped more by the eye than even by itself. ped at a reasonable expense. Or indeed, But this is heathen Greek to those who since there is something so moving in the have not conversed by glances. This, sir, very image of weeping beauty, it would be is a language in which there can be no de-worthy his art to provide, that these eloceit, nor can a skilful observer be imposed upon by looks, even among politicians and courtiers. If you do me the honour to print this among your speculations, I shall in my next make you a present of secret history, by translating all the looks of the next assembly of ladies and gentlemen into words, to adorn some future paper. I am, sir, your No. 253.] Thursday, December 20, 1711. faithful friend, MARY HEARTFREE.' 'MR. SPECTATOR,-I have a sot of a husband that lives a very scandalous life; who wastes away his body and fortune in debaucheries; and is immoveable to all the arguments I can urge to him. I would gladly know whether in some cases a cudgel may not be allowed as a good figure of speech, and whether it may not be lawfully used by a female orator. Your humble servant, BARBARA CRABTREE.’ quent drops may no more be lavished on trifles, or employed as servants to their wayward wills: but reserved for serious occasions in life, to adorn generous pity, true penitence, or real sorrow. I am, &c.' T. THERE is nothing which more denotes a and detraction. This passion reigns more great mind than the abhorrence of envy among bad poets than among any other set of men. 'MR. SPECTATOR,-Though I am a As there are none more ambitious of fame, practitioner in the law of some standing, and than those who are conversant in poetry, it mention what Monsieur Boileau has so very well enlarged upon in the preface to his works, that wit and fine writing do not consist so much in advancing things that are new, as in giving things that are known an agreeable turn. It is impossible for us, who live in the later ages of the world, to make observations in criticism, morality, or in any art or science, which have not been touched upon by others. We have little else left us, but to represent the common sense of mankind in more strong, more beautiful, or more uncommon lights. If a reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but very few precepts in it, which he may not meet with in Aristotle, and which were not commonly known by all the poets of the Augustan age. His way of expressing and applying them, not his invention of them, is what we are chiefly to admire. is very natural for such as have not succeeded in it to depreciate the works of those who have. For since they cannot raise themselves to the reputation of their fellow-writers, they must endeavour to sink that to their own pitch, if they would still keep themselves upon a level with them. The greatest wits that ever were produced in one age, lived together in so good an understanding, and celebrated one an other with so much generosity, that each of them receives an additional lustre from his contemporaries, and is more famous for having lived with men of so extraordinary a genius, than if he had himself been the sole wonder of the age. I need not tell my reader that I here point at the reign of Augustus, and I believe he will be of my opinion, that neither Virgil nor Horace would have gained so great a reputation in the world, had they not been the friends and admirers of each other. Indeed all the For this reason I think there is nothing great writers of that age, for whom singly in the world so tiresome as the works of we have so great an esteem, stand up to- those critics who write in a positive doggether as vouchers for one another's repu-matic way, without either language, genius, tation. But at the same time that Virgil was celebrated by Gallus, Propertius, Horace, Varius, Tucca, and Ovid, we know that Bavius and Mævius were his declared foes and calumniators. In our own country a man seldom sets up for a poet, without attacking the reputation of all his brothers in the art. The ignorance of the moderns, the scribblers of the age, the decay of poetry, are the topics of detraction with which he makes his entrance into the world: but how much more noble is the fame that is built on candour and ingenuity, according to those beautiful lines of Sir John Denham, in his poem on Fletcher's works! But whither am I stray'd? I need not raise Trophies to thee from other men's dispraise: Nor is thy fame on lesser ruins built, Nor needs thy juster title the foul guilt Of Eastern kings, who, to secure their reign, Must have their brothers, sons, and kindred slain. I am sorry to find that an author, who.is very justly esteemed among the best judges, has admitted some strokes of this nature into a very fine poem; I mean the Art of Criticism, which was published some months since, and is a master-piece in its kind. The observations follow one another like those in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical regularity which would have been requisite in a prose author. They are some of them uncommon, but such as the reader must assent to, when he sees them explained with that elegance and perspicuity in which they are delivered. As for those which are the most known, and the most received, they are placed in so beautiful a light, and illustrated with such apt allusions, that they have in them all the graces of novelty, and make the reader, who was before acquainted with them, still more convinced of their truth and solidity And here give me leave to or imagination. If the reader would see how the best of the Latin critics wrote, he may find their manner very beautifully described in the characters of Horace, Petronius, Quintilian, and Longinus, as they are drawn in the essay of which I am now speaking. Since I have mentioned Longinus, who in his reflections has given us the same kind of sublime which he observes in the several passages that occasioned them; I cannot but take notice that our English author has, after the same manner, exemplified several of his precepts in the very precepts themselves. I shall produce two or three instances of this kind. Speaking of the insipid smoothness which some readers are so much in love with, he has the following verses: These equal syllables alone require, line, the expletive 'do,' in the third, and A needless Alexandrine ends the song, 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, The beautiful distich upon Ajax in the foregoing lines, puts me in mind of a description in Homer's Odyssey, which none of the critics have taken notice of It is where Sisyphus is represented lifting his stone up the hill, which is no sooner carried to the top of it, but it immediately tumbles to the bottom. This double motion of the stone is admirably described in the numbers of these verses; as in the four first it is heaved up by several spondees, intermixed with proper breathing places, and at last trundles down in a continued line of dactyls: Και μην Σισυφον, εισείδον, κρατερ' αλγε' εχοντα, Ήτοι ο μεν σκηριπτομενος χερσιν τε ποσιν τε, Odyss. 1. 11. I turn'd my eye, and as I turn'd survey'd It would be endless to quote verses out of Virgil which have this particular kind of beauty in the numbers: but I may take a several of them which have escaped the an occasion in a future paper to show observation of others. No. 254.] Friday, December 21, 1711. Σεμνος έρως αρετης, ο δε κυπριδος αχος οφελλει, Virtuous love is honourable, but lust increaseth sorrow. WHEN I consider the false impressions which are received by the generality of the world, I am troubled at none more than a certain levity of thought, which many young women of quality have entertained, to the hazard of their characters, and the certain misfortune of their lives. The first of the following letters may best represent the faults I would now point at, and the answer to it, the temper of mind in a contrary character. 'MY DEAR HARRIOT,-If thou art she, but oh how fallen, how changed, what an apostate! how lost to all that is gay and agreeable! To be married I find is to be buried alive; I cannot conceive it more dismal to be shut up in a vault to converse with the shades of my ancestors, than to be carried down to an old manor-house in the country, and confined to the conversation of a sober husband, and an awkward chambermaid. For variety, I suppose you may entertain yourself with madam in her *By the Earl of Roscommon. grogram gown, the spouse of your parish vicar, who has by this time, I am sure, well furnished you with receipts for making salves and possets, distilling cordial waters, making syrups, and applying poultices. 'Blest solitude! I wish thee joy, my dear, of thy loved retirement, which indeed you would persuade me is very agreeable, and different enough from what I have here described: but, child, I am afraid thy brains are a little disordered with romances and novels. After six months marriage to hear thee talk of love, and paint the country scenes so softly, is a little extravagant; one would think you lived the lives of sylvan deities, or roved among the walks of Paradise, like the first happy pair. But pray thee leave these whimsies, and come to town in order to live and talk like other mortals. However, as I am extremely interested in your reputation, I would willingly give you a little good advice at your first appearance under the character of a married woman. It is a little insolent in me, perhaps, to advise a matron; but I am so afraid you will make so silly a figure as fond wife, that I cannot help warning you St. James's Park together; if you presume not to appear in any public places with your husband, and never to saunter about to enter the ring at Hyde Park together, the least notice of one another at the playyou are ruined for ever; nor must you take house or opera, unless you would be laughed at for a very loving couple, most happily paired in the yoke of wedlock. I would recommend the example of an acquaintance of ours to your imitation; she is the most negligent and fashionable wife in the world; she is hardly ever seen in the same place with her husband, and if they happen to meet, you would think them perfect him in his absence; and takes care he shall strangers; she was never heard to name never be the subject of any discourse that she has a share in. I hope you will propose this lady as a pattern, though I am very much afraid you will be so silly to think Portia, &c., Sabine and Roman wives, much brighter examples. I wish it may never come into your head to imitate those antiquated creatures, so far as to come into public in the habit as well as air of a Roman matron. You make already the ontertainment at Mrs. Modish's tea-table; she says she always thought you a discreet person, and qualified to manage a family with admirable prudence; she dies to see. what demure and serious airs wedlock has given you, but she says, she shall never forgive your choice of so gallant a man as Bellamour, to transform him into a mere sober husband: it was unpardonable. You see, my dear, we all envy your happiness, and no person more than your humble servant, LYDIA.' Be not in pain, good madam, for my appearance in town; I shall frequent no |