me. endea "MR. SPECTATOR, "I am glad I can inform you, that your vours to adorn that sex, which is the fairest part of the visible creation, are well received, and like to prove not unsuccessful. The triumph of Daphne over her sister Lætitia has been the subject of conversation at several tea-tables where I was present; and I have observed the fair circle not a little pleased to find you considering them as reasonable creatures, and endeavouring to banish that Mahometan custom, which had too much prevailed even in this island, of treating women as if they had no souls. I must do them the justice to say, that there seems to be nothing wanting to the finishing of these lovely pieces of human nature, besides the turning and applying their ambition properly, and the keeping them up to a sense of what is their true merit. Epictetus, that plain honest philosopher, as little as he had of gallantry, appears to have understood them as well as the polite St. Evremont, and has hit this point very luckily. When young women,' says he, arrive at a certain age, they hear themselves called Mistresses, and are made to believe that their only business is to please the men; they immediately begin to dress, and to place all their hopes in the adorning of their persons; it is therefore,' continues he, worth the while to endeavour by all means to make them sensible that the honour paid to them is only upon account of their conducting themselves with virtue, modesty, and discretion.' "Now to pursue the matter yet farther, and to render your cares for the improvement of the fair ones more effectual, I would propose a new method like those applications which are said to convey their virtue by sympathy; and that is, that in order to embellish the mistress, you should give a new education to the lover, and teach the men not to be any longer dazzled by false charms and unreal beauty. I cannot but think that if our sex knew always how to place their esteem justly, the other would not be so often wanting to themselves in deserving it. For as the being enamoured with a woman of sense and virtue is an improvement to a man's understanding and morals, and the passion is ennobled by the object which inspires it; so on the other side, the appearing amiable to a man of a wise and elegant mind, carries in itself no small degree of merit and accomplishment. I conclude, therefore, that one way to make the women yet more agreeable is, to make the men more virtuous. "SIR, "I am, Sir, your most humble servant, "R. B." April 26th. "Yours of Saturday last I read, not without some resentment; but I will suppose when you say you expect an inundation of ribands and brocades, and to see many new vanities which the women will fall into upon a peace with France, that you intend only the unthinking part of our sex: and what methods can reduce them to reason is hard to imagine. "But, Sir, there are others yet, that your instructions might be of great use to, who, after their best endeavours, are sometimes at a loss to acquit them selves to a censorious world. I am far from thinking you can altogether disapprove of conversation between ladies and gentlemen, regulated by the rules of honour and prudence; and have thought it an observation not ill-made, that where that was wholly denied, the women lost their wit, and the men their good manners. It is sure from those improper liberties you mentioned, that a sort of undistinguishing people shall banish from their drawing-rooms the best-bred men in the world, and condemn those that do not. Your stating this point might, I think, be of good use, as well as much oblige, Sir, your admirer and most humble servant, No answer to this, till Anna Bella sends a description of those she calls the best-bred men in the world. "MR. SPECTATOR, "I am a gentleman who for many years last past have been well known to be truly splenetic, and that my spleen arises from having contracted so great a delicacy, by reading the best authors and keeping the most refined company, that I cannot bear the least impropriety of language, or rusticity of behaviour. Now, Sir, I have ever looked upon this as a wise distemper; but by late observations find, that every heavy wretch who has nothing to say, excuses his dulness by complaining of the spleen. Nay, I saw the other day, two fellows in a tavern kitchen set up for it, call for a pint and pipes, and only by guzzling liquors to each other's health, and wasting smoke in each other's face, pretend to throw off the spleen. appeal to you whether these dishonours are to be done to the distemper of the great and the polite. I beseech you, Sir, to inform these fellows that they have not the spleen because they cannot talk without the help of a glass at their mouths, or convey their meaning to each other without the interposition of clouds. If you will not do this with all speed, I assure you, for my part, I will wholly quit the disease, and for the future be merry with the vulgar. I am, Sir, your humble servant." "SIR, "This is to let you understand that I am a reformed Starer, and conceived a detestation for that practice from what you have writ upon the subject. But as you have been very severe upon the behaviour of us men at divine service, I hope you will not be so apparently partial to the women as to let them go wholly unobserved. If they do every thing that is possible to attract our eyes, are we more culpable than they for looking at them? I happened last Sunday to be shut into a pew, which was full of young ladies, in the bloom of youth and beauty. When the service began, I had not room to kneel at the confession, but as I stood kept my eyes from wandering as well as I was able, till one of the young ladies, who is a Peeper, resolved to bring down my looks, and fix my devotion on herself. You are to know, Sir, that a Peeper works with her hands, eyes, and fan; one of which is continually in motion, while she thinks she is not actually the admiration of some ogler or starer in the congregation. As I stood utterly at a loss how to behave myself, surrounded as I was, this Peeper so placed herself as to be kneeling just before me. She displayed the most beautiful bosom imaginable, which heaved and fell with some fervour, while a delicate and well-shaped arm held a fan over her face. It was not in nature to command one's eyes from this object. I could not avoid taking notice also of her fan, which had on it various figures very improper to behold on that occasion. There lay in the body of the piece a Venus, (under a purple canopy furled with curious wreaths of drapery,) half naked, attended with a train of Cupids, who were busied in fanning her as she slept. Behind her was drawn a satyr peeping over the silken fence, and threatening to break through it. I frequently offered to turn my sight another way, but was still detained by the fascination of the Peeper's eyes, who had long practised a skill in them to recal the parting glances of her beholders. You see my complaint, and I hope you will take these mischievous people, the Peepers, into your consideration. I doubt not but you will think a Peeper as much more pernicious than a Starer, as an ambuscade is more to be feared than an open assault. Some indeed will affirm that they are a kind of Peripatetics, because we see them continually walking about. But I would have these gentlemen consider, that though the ancient Peripatetics walked much. yet they wrote much also; witness to the sorrow of this sect, Aristotle and others: whereas it is notorious that most of our professors never lay out a farthing either in pen, ink, or paper. Others are for deriving them from Diogenes, because several of the leading men of the sect have a great deal of cynical humour in them, and delight much in sunshine. But then, again, Diogenes was content to have his constant habitation in a narrow tub, whilst our philosophers are so far from being of his opinion, that it is death to them to be confined within the limits of a good handsome convenient chamber but for half "I am, Sir, your most obedient servant.” an hour. Others there are, who from the clearness This Peeper using both fan and eyes, to be consi- of their heads deduce the pedigree of loungers from dered as a Pict, and proceed accordingly. that great man (I think it was either Plato or So"KING LATINUS TO THE SPECTATOR, GREETING, Crates) who, after all his study and learning, professed, that all he then knew was, that he knew "Though some may think we descend from our nothing. You easily see this is but a shallow arguimperial dignity in holding correspondence with a ment, and may be soon confuted. private literato, yet as we have great respect to all good intentions for our service, we do not esteem it observations from time to time upon these sages; "I have with great pains and industry made my beneath us to return you our royal thanks for what and having now all materials ready, am compiling a you published in our behalf, while under confinement treatise, wherein I shall set forth the rise and proin the enchanted castle of the Savoy, and for yourgress of this famous sect, together with their maxins, mention of a subsidy for a prince in misfortune. This your timely zeal has inclined the hearts of divers to be aiding unto us, if we could propose the means. We have taken their good-will into consideration, and have contrived a method which will be easy to those who shall give the aid, and not unacceptable to us who receive it. A concert of music shall be prepared at Haberdasher's hall, for Wednesday the second of May, and we will honour the said entertainment with our own presence, where each person shall be assessed but at two shillings and sixpence. What we expect from you is, that you publish these our royal intentions, with injunction that they be read at all tea-tables within the cities of London and Westminster; and so we bid you heartily farewell. "LATINUS, 66 King of the Vescians. "Given at our court in Vinegar-yard, Story the third from the earth, April 28, 1711." R. No. 54.] WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 1711. —— Strenua nos exercet inertia.-HOR. 1. Ep. xi. 28. Laborious idleness our powers employs. THE following letter being the first that I have received from the learned university of Cambridge, I could not but do myself the honour of publishing it. It gives an account of a new sect of philosophers which has arose in that famous residence of learning; and is, perhaps, the only sect this age is likely to produce. "MR. SPECTATOR, Cambridge, April 26. "Believing you to be a universal encourager of liberal arts and sciences, and glad of any information from the learned world, I thought an account of a sect of philosophers very frequent among us, but not taken notice of, as far as I can remember, by any writers, either ancient or modern, would not be un acceptable to you. The philosophers of this sect are, in the language of our university, called loungers. I am of opinion that, as in many other things, so likewise in this, the ancients have been defective, viz., in mentioning no philosophers of this sort. austerities, manner of living, &c. Having prevailed : As the dial to the sun, Some are Our younger students are content to carry their speculations as yet no farther than bowling-greens, billiard-tables, and such-like places. This may serve for a sketch of my design; in which I hope I shall have your encouragement. "I am, Sir, yours." I must be so just as to observe, I have formerly seen of this sect at our other university; though not distinguished by the appellation which the learned historian my correspondent reports they bear at Cambridge. They were ever looked upon as a people that impaired themselves more by their strict application to the rules of their order, than any other students whatever. Others seldom hurt themselves any farther than to gain weak eyes, and sometimes head-aches; but these philosophers are seized all over with a general inability, indolence, and weariness, and a certain impatience of the place they are in, with a heaviness in removing to another. The loungers are satisfied with being merely part of the number of mankind, without distinguishing themselves from amongst them. They may be said rather to suffer their time to pass than to spend it, without regard to the past, or prospect of the future. All they know of life is only the present instant, and do not taste even that. When one of this order happens to be a man of fortune, the expense of his time is transferred to his coach and horses, and his life is to be measured by their motion, not his own enjoyments or sufferings. The chief entertainment one of these philosophers can possibly propose to himself, is to get a relish of dress. This, methinks, might diversify the person he is weary of (his own dear self) to himself. I have known these two amusements make one of these philosophers make a very tolerable figure in the world; with variety of dresses in public assemblies in town, and quick inotion of his horses out of it, now to Bath, now to Tunbridge, then to Newmarket, and then to London, he has in process of time brought it to pass, that his coach and his horses have been mentioned in all those places. When the loungers leave an academic life, and, instead of this more elegant way of appearing in the polite world, retire to the seats of their ancestors, they usually join in a pack of dogs, and employ their days in defending their poultry from foxes. I do not know any other method, that any of this order has ever taken to make a noise in the world; but I shall inquire into such about this town as have arrived at the dignity of being loungers by the force of natural parts, without having ever seen a university; and send my correspondent, for the embellishment of his book, the names and history of those who pass their lives without any incidents at all; and how they shift coffee-houses and chocolatehouses from hour to hour, to get over the insupportable labour of doing nothing.-R. No. 55.1 THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1711. PERS. Sat. v. 129. Our passions play the tyrants in our breasts The former, MOST of the trades, professions, and ways of living among mankind, take their original either from the love of pleasure, or the fear of want. when it becomes too violent, degenerates into luxury, and the latter into avarice. As these two principles of action draw different ways, Persius has given us a very humorous account of a young fellow who was roused out of his bed in order to be sent upon a long voyage by Avarice, and afterward over-persuaded and kept at home by Luxury. I shall set down the pleadings of these two imaginary persons they are in the original, with Mr. Dryden's trans lation of them: Mane, piger, stertis: surge, inquit Avaritia, eja Baro, regustatum digito terebrare salinum Quid petis? Ut nummi, quos hic quincunce modesto Vive memor lethi: fugit hora. Hoc quod loquor, inde est SAT. v. 132. Whether alone, or in thy harlot's lap, At his command th` unwilling sluggard wakes. For, not to live at ease, is not to live. Death stalks behind thee, and each flying hour formidable states in the world were subdued by the Surge Negas: instal: surge, inquit. Non queo. Surge. to alarm them from abroad, indulge themselves in Et quid again? Rogitas? saperdas advehe ponto, Verte aliquid, jura. Sed Jupiter audiet. Ehru' the enjoyment of all the pleasures they can get into their possession; which naturally produces avarice, and an immoderate pursuit after wealth and riches. As I was humouring myself in the speculation of these two great principles of action, I could not forbear throwing my thoughts into a little kind of allegory or fable, with which I shall here present my reader. several notions altogether as improbable. Some of Plato's followers in particular, when they talk of the world of ideas, entertain us with substances and beings no less extravagant and chimerical. Many Aristotelians have likewise spoken as unintelligibly of their substantial forms. I shall only instance Albertus Magnus, who, in his dissertation upon the loadstone, observing that fire will destroy its magnetic virtues, tells us that he took particular notice of one as it lay glowing amidst a heap of burning coals, and that he perceived a certain blue vapour to arise from it, which he believed might be the substantial form, that is, in our West Indian phrase, the soul of the loadstone. Happy in their mistake. THE Americans believe that all creatures have souls, nct only men and women, but brutes, vegetables, nay, even the most inanimate things, as stocks and stones. They believe the same of all the works There were two very powerful tyrants engaged of art, as of knives, boats, looking-glasses; and in a perpetual war against each other; the name that as any of these things perish, their souls go into of the first was Luxury, and of the second Avarice. another world, which is inhabited by the ghosts of The aim of each of them was no less than univer- men and women. For this reason they always place sal monarchy over the hearts of mankind. Lux-by the corpse of their dead friend a bow and arrows, ury had many generals under him, who did him that he may make use of the souls of them in the great service, as Pleasure, Mirth, Pomp, and Fa-other world, as he did of their wooden bodies in this. shion. Avarice was likewise very strong in his How absurd soever such an opinion as this may ap officers, being faithfully served by Hunger, Indus-pear, our European philosophers have maintained try, Care, and Watchfulness: he had likewise a privy-counsellor who was always at his elbow, and whispering something or other in his ear: the name of this privy-counsellor was Poverty. As Avarice conducted himself by the counsels of Poverty, his antagonist was entirely guided by the dictates and advice of Plenty, who was his first counsellor and minister of state, that concerted all his measures for him, and never departed out of his sight. While these two great rivals were thus contending for empire, their conquests were very various :-Luxury got possession of one heart, and Avarice of another. The father of a family would often range himself under the banners of Avarice, and the son under those of Luxury. The wife and husband would. often declare themselves on the two different parties; nay, the same person would very often side with one in his youth, and revolt to the other in his old age. Indeed the wise men of the world stood neuter; but, alas! their numbers were not considerable. At length, when these two potentates had wearied themselves with waging war upon one another, they agreed upon an interview, at which none of their counsellors were to be present. It is said that Luxury began the parley, and after having represented the endless state of war in which they were engaged, told his enemy, with a frankness of The visionary, whose name was Marraton, after heart which is natural to him, that he believed they having travelled for a long space under a hollow two should be very good friends, were it not for the mountain, arrived at length on the confines of this instigations of Poverty, that pernicious counsellor, world of spirits, but could not enter it by reason of who made an ill use of his ear, and filled him with a thick forest made up of bushes, brambles, and groundless apprehensions and prejudices. To this pointed thorns, so perplexed and interwoven with Avarice replied, that he looked upon Plenty (the one another, that it was impossible to find a passage first minister of his antagonist) to be a much more through it. Whilst he was looking about for some destructive counsellor than Poverty, for that he was track or pathway that might be worn in any part of perpetually suggesting pleasures, banishing all the it, he saw a huge lion couched under the side of it, necessary cautions against want, and consequently who kept his eye upon him in the same posture as undermining those principles on which the govern- when he watches for his prey. The Indian immement of Avarice was founded. At last, in order to diately started back, whilst the lion rose with a an accommodation, they agreed upon this prelimi- spring, and leaped towards him. Being wholly desnary; that each of them should immediately dis-titute of all other weapons, he stooped down to take miss his privy-counsellor. When things were thus far adjusted towards a peace, all other differences were soon accommodated, insomuch that for the future they resolved to live as good friends and confederates, and to share between them whatever conquests were made on either side. For this reason we now find Luxury and Avarice taking possession of the same heart, and dividing the same person between them. To which I shall only add, that since the discarding of the counsellors above mentioned, Avarice supplies Luxury in the room of Plenty, as Luxury prompts Avarice in the place of Poverty. There is a tradition among the Americans, that one of their countrymen descended in a vision to the great repository of souls, or, as we call it here, to the other world: and that upon his return he gave his friends a distinct account of every thing he saw among those regions of the dead. A friend of mine, whom I have formerly mentioned, prevailed upon one of the interpreters of the Indian kings, to inquire of them, if possible, what tradition they have among them of this matter: which, as well as he could learn by those many questions which he asked them at several times, was in substance as follows: a huge stone in his hand; but to his infinite surprise grasped nothing, and found the supposed stone to be only the apparition of one. If he was disappointed on this side, he was as much pleased on the other, when he found the lion, which had seized on his left shoulder, had no power to hurt him, and was only the ghost of that ravenous creature which it appeared to be. He no sooner got rid of his impotent enemy, but he marched up to the wood, and after having surveyed it for some time, endeavoured to press into one part of it that was a little thinner than the rest; when again, to his great surprise, he found the bushes made no resistance, but that he walked through briars and brambles with the same ease as through the open air; and in short, that the whole wood was nothing else but a wood of shades. He immediately concluded, that this huge thicket of thorns and brakes was designed as a kind of fence or quickset hedge to the ghosts it enclosed; and that probably their soft substances might be torn by these subtle points and prickles, which were too weak to make any impressions on flesh and blood. With this thought, he resolved to travel through this intricate wood; when by degrees he felt a gale of perfumes breathing upon him, that grew stronger and sweeter in proportion as he advanced. He had not proceeded much farther, when he observed the thorns and briers to end, and give place to a thousand beautiful green trees covered with blossoms of the finest scents and colours, that formed a wilderness of sweets, and were a kind of lining to those ragged scenes which he had before passed through. As he was coming out of this delightful part of the wood, and entering upon the plains it enclosed, he saw several horsemen rushing by him, and a little while after heard the cry of a pack of dogs. He had not listened long before he saw the apparition of a milk-white steed, with a young man on the back of it, advancing upon full stretch after the souls of about a hundred beagles, that were hunting down the ghost of a hare, which ran away before them with an unspeakable swiftness. As the man on the milk-white steed came by him, he looked upon him very attentively, and found him to be the young prince Nicharagua, who died about half a year before, and, by reason of his great virtues, was at that time lamented over all the western parts of America. He had no sooner got out of the wood, but he was entertained with such a landscape of flowery plains, green meadows, running streams, sunny hills, and shady vales, as were not to be represented by his own expressions, nor, as he said, by the conceptions of others. This happy region was peopled with innumerable swarms of spirits, who applied themselves to exercises and diversions, according as their fancies led them. Some of them were tossing the figure of a quoit; others were pitching the shadow of a bar; others were breaking the apparition of a horse; and multitudes employing themselves upon ingenious handicrafts with the souls of departed utensils, for that is the name which in the. Indian language they give their tools when they are burnt or broken. he travelled through this delightful scene, he was very often tempted to pluck the flowers that rose every where about him in the greatest variety and profusion, having never seen several of them in his own country; but he quickly found, that though they were the objects of his sight, they were not liable to his touch. He at length came to the side of a great river, and being a good fisherman himself, stood upon the banks of it some time to look upon an angler that had taken a great many shapes of fishes, which lay flouncing up and down by him. As I should have told my reader, that this Indian had been formerly married to one of the greatest beauties of his country, by whom he had several children. This couple were so famous for their love and constancy to one another, that the Indians to this day, when they give a married man joy of his wife, wish they may live together like Marraton and Yaratilda. Marraton had not stood long by the fisherman when he saw the shadow of his beloved Yaratilda, who had for some time fixed her eye upon him, before he disovered her. Her arms were stretched out towards him, 4oods of tears ran down her eyes: her looks, ber hands, har voice, called him over to her; and at the same time seemed to tell him that the river was impassable. Who can describe the passion made up of joy, sorrow, love, desire, astonishment, that rose in the Indian upon the sight of his dear Yaratilda? He could express it by nothing but his tears, which ran like a river down his cheeks as he looked upon her. He had not stood in this posture long, before he plunged into the stream that lay before him; and finding it to be nothing but the phantom of a river, stalked on the bottom of it till he arose on the other side. At his approach Yaratilda flew into his arms, whilst Marraton wished himself disencumbered of that body which kept her from his embraces. After many questions and endearments on both sides, she conducted him to a bower which she had dressed with all the ornaments that could be met with in those blooming regions. She had made it gay beyond imagination, and was every day adding something new to it. As Marraton stood astonished at the unspeakable beauty of her habitation, and ravished with the fragrancy that came from every part of it, Yaratilda told him that she was preparing this bower for his reception, as well knowing that his piety to his God, and his faithful dealing towards men, would certainly bring him to that happy place whenever his life should be at an end. She then brought two of her children to him, who died some years before, and resided with her in the same delightful bower; advising him to breed up those others which were still with him in such a manner, that they might hereafter all of them meet together in this happy place. The tradition tells us farther, that he had afterward a sight of those dismal habitations which are the portion of ill men after death; and mentions several molten seas of gold, in which were plunged the souls of barbarous Europeans, who put to the sword so many thousands of poor Indians for the sake of that precious metal. But having already touched upon the chief points of this tradition, and exceeded the measure of my paper, I shall not give any further account of it.-C. No. 57. SATURDAY, MAY 5, 1711. What sense of shame in woman's breast can lie, Inur'd to arms, and her own sex to fly? WHEN the wife of Hector, in Homer's Iliad, discourses with her husband about the battle in which he was going to engage, the hero, desiring her to leave the matter to his care, bids her go to her maids, and mind her spinning: by which the poet intimates, that men and women ought to busy themselves in their proper spheres, and on such matters only as are suitable to their respective sex. I am at this time acquainted with a young gentleman, who has passed a great part of his life in the nursery, and upon occasion can make a caudle or a sack-posset better than any man in England. He is likewise a wonderful critic in cambric and muslins, and he will talk an hour together upon a sweet-meat. He entertains his mother every night with observations that he makes both in town and and court: as what lady shews the nicest fancy in her dress; what man of quality wears the fairest wig; who has the finest linen, who the prettiest snuff-box; with many other the like curious re marks, that may be made in good company. On the other hand, I have very frequently the opportunity of seeing a rural Andromache, whe |