gentle Ufage? It is the common Vice of Children to run too much among the Servants; from fuch as are educated in these Places they would fee nothing but Löwliness in the Servant, which would not be difingenuous in the Child. All the ill Offices and defamatory Whifpers which take their Birth from Domefticks, would be prevented, if this Charity could be made univerfal; and a good Man might have a Knowledge of the whole Life of the Perfons he defigns to take into his Houfe for his own Service, or that of his Family or Children long before they were admitted. This would create endearing Dependencies: and the Obligation would have a paternal Air in the Mafter, who would be relieved from much Care and Anxiety from the Gratitude and Diligence of an humble Friend attending him as his Servant. I fall into this Difcourfe from a Let ter fent to me, to give me notice that Fifty Boys would be Cloathed, and take their Seats (at the Charge of fome generous Benefactors) in St. Bride's Church on Sunday next. I wish I could promise to my felf any thing which my Correfpondent feems to expect from a Publication of it in this Paper; for there can be nothing added to what fo many excellent and learned Men have faid on this Occafion: But that there may be fomething here which would move a generous Mind, like that of him who writ to me, I fhall tranfcribe an handfome Paragraph of Dr. Snape's Sermon on these Charities, which my Correfpondent inclosed with this Letter. THE wife Providence has amply compensated the Dif advantages of the Poor and Indigent, in wanting many of the Conveniencies of this Life, by a more abundant Provifion for their Happiness in the next. Had they been higher born or more richly endowed, they would have wanted this Manner of Education, of which thofe only enjoy the Benefit, who are low enough to fubmit to it; where they have fuch Advantages without Money, and without Price, as the Rich cannot purchase with it. The Learning which is given, is generally more edifying to them, than that which is fold to others: Thus do they become more exalted in Goodness, by being depreffed in For tune, and their Poverty is, in Reality, their Preferment. T Thursday. VOL. IV. H N% 295. Thursday, February 7. Prodiga non fentit pereuntem fœmina cenfum: Mr. SPECTATOR, Am turned of my great Climacteric, and am naturally a Man of a meek Temper. About a dozen Years ago I was married, for my Sins, to a young • Woman of a good Family, and of an high Spirit; but ⚫ could not bring her to close with me, before I had en⚫tered into a Treaty with her longer than that of the • Grand Alliance. Among other Articles, it was therein ftipulated, that she should have 400l. a Year for Pin-money, which I obliged my felf to pay Quarterly into the ⚫ hands of one who acted as her Plenipotentiary in that Affair. I have ever fince religioufly obferved my part in ⚫ this folemn Agreement. Now, Sir, fo it is, that the Lady ⚫ has had feveral Children fince I married her; to which, < if I fhould credit our malicious Neighbours, her Pin< money has not a little contributed. The Education of these my Children, who, contrary to my Expectation, are born to me every Year, ftraitens me fo much, that I have begged their Mother to free me from the Obligation of the above-mentioned Pin-money, that it ⚫ may go towards making a Provifion for her Family. This Propofal makes her noble Blood fwell in her Veins, in⚫ fomuch that finding me a little tardy in her laft Quarter's Payment, the threatens me every Day to arrest me; and proceeds fo far as to tell me, that if I do not do her Juftice, I fhall dye in a Jayl. To this fhe adds, when ⚫ her Paffion will let her argue calmly, that she has several Play-Debts on her Hand, which must be discharged very fuddenly, and that she cannot lofe her Money as ⚫ becomes a Woman of her Fashion, if she makes me any • Abate ⚫ Abatements in this Article. I hope, Sir, you will take an Occafion from hence to give your Opinion upon a Subject which you have not yet touched, and inform us if there are any Precedents for this Ufage among our Ancestors; or whether you find any mention of Pin-money in Grotius, Puffendorf, or any other of the Civilians. Iam ever the humbleft of your Admirers, Jofiah Fribble, Efq; AS there is no man living who is a more profeffed Advocate for the fair Sex than my self, so there is none that would be more unwilling to invade any of their ancient Rights and Privileges; but as the Doctrine of Pinmoney is of a very late Date, unknown to our Great Grandmothers, and not yet received by many of our Modern Ladies, I think it is for the Interest of both Sexes to keep it from spreading. Mr. FRIBBLE may not, perhaps, be much mistaken where he intimates, that the fupplying a Man's Wife with Pin-money, is furnishing her with Arms against himself, and in a manner becoming acceffary to his own Dishonour. We may, indeed, generally obferve, that in proportion as a Woman is more or lefs Beautiful, and her Husband advanced in Years, she stands in need of a greater or lefs number of Pins, and upon a Treaty of Marriage, rifes or falls in her Demands accordingly. It must likewife be owned, that high Quality in a Mistress does very much inflame this Article in the Marriage Reckoning. BUT where the Age and Circumftances of both Parties are pretty much upon a level, I cannot but think the infifting upon Pin-Money is very extraordinary; and yet we find several Matches broken off upon this very Head. What would a Foreigner or one who is a Stranger to this Practice, think of a Lover that forfakes his Mistress, because he is not willing to keep her in Pins; but what would he think of the Mistress, should he be informed that fhe asks five or fix hundred Pounds a Year for this Ufe? Should a Man unacquainted with our Cuftoms be told the Sums which are allowed in Great-Britain, under the Title of Pin-money, what a prodigious Confumption of Pins would he think there was in this Ifland? a Pin a Day, fays our frugal Proverb, is a Groat a Year, fo that ac H 2 cording cording to this Calculation, my Friend Fribble's Wife muft every Year make ufe of Eight millions fix hundred and forty thousand new Pins. I am not ignorant that our British Ladies alledge they comprehend under this general Term feveral other Conveniencies of Life; I could therefore wifh, for the Honour of my Country-women, that they had rather called it Needle-money, which might have implied fomething of Good-housewifry, and not have given the malicious World occafion to think, that Drefs and Trifle have always the uppermoft Place in a Woman's Thoughts. I know feveral of my fair Readers urge, in defence of this Practice, that it is but a neceffary Provifion they make for themselves, in cafe their Husband proves a Churl or a Mifer; fo that they confider this Allowance as a kind of Alimony, which they may lay their Clain to without actually feparating from their Husbands. But with Submiffion, I think a Woman who will give up her felf to a Man in Marriage, where there is the leaft Room for fuch an Apprehenfion, and truft her Perfon to one whom she will not rely on for the common Neceffaries of Life, may very properly be accufed (in the Phrase of an homely Proverb) of being Penny wife and Pound foolish. IT is obferved of over-cautious Generals, that they never engage in a Battle without fecuring a Retreat, in cafe the Event fhould not anfwer their Expectations; on the other hand, the greatest Conquerors have burnt their Ships, or broke down the Bridges behind them, as being determined either to fucceed or die in the Engagement. In the fame manner I fhould very much fufpect a Woman who takes fuch Precautions for her Retreat, and contrives Methods how the may live happily, without the Affecti on of one to whom the joins herfelf for Life. Separate Purfes between Man and Wife are, in my Opinion, as unnatural as feparate Beds. A Marriage cannot be happy, where the Pleasures, Inclinations, and Interests of both Parties are not the fame. There is no greater Incitement to Love in the Mind of Man, than the Senfe of a Perfon's depending upon him for her Eafe and Happiness; as a Woman ufes all her Endeavours to pleafe the Perfon whom he looks upon as her Honour, her Comfort, and her Support. FOR FOR this Reason I am not very much furprized at the Behaviour of a rough Country Squire, who, being not a little fhocked at the Proceeding of a young Widow that would not recede from her Demands of Pin-money, was fo enraged at her mercenary Temper, that he told her in great Wrath, As much as the thought him her Slave, he would fhew all the World he did not care a Pin for her.' Upon which he flew out of the Room, and never faw her more. 6 SOCRATES, in Plato's Alcibiades, fays, he was informed by one who had travelled through Perfia, that as he paffed over a great Tract of Lands, and inquired what the Name of the Place was, they told him it was the Queen's Girdle; to which he adds, that another wide Field which lay by it, was called the Queen's Veil; and that in the fame Manner there was a large Portion of Ground fet afide for every part of her Majefty's Drefs. Thefe Lands might not be improperly called the Queen of Perfia's Pin-money. I remember my Friend Sir ROGER, who I dare fay never read this Paffage in Plato, told me fome time fince that upon his courting the Perverfe Widow (of whom I have given an Account in former Papers) he had difpofed of an hundred Acres in a Diamond-Ring, which he would have presented her with, had the thought fit to accept it; and that upon her Wedding-Day fhe fhould have carried on her Head fifty of the tallest Oaks upon his Estate. He further informed me that he would have given her a Cole-pit to keep her in clean Linen, that he would have allowed her the Profits of a Windmill for her Fans, and have prefented her once in three Years with the Sheering of his Sheep for her Under-Petticoats. To which the Knight always adds, that though he did not care for fine Cloaths himself, there fhould not have been a Woman in the Country better dreffed than my Lady Coverley. Sir ROGER, perhaps, may in this, as well as in many other of his Devices, appear fomething odd and fingular, but if the Humour of Pin-money prevails, I think it would be very proper for every Gentleman of an Estate to mark out fo many Acres of it under the Title of The Pins. L |