to come over himself, and all his Family, within few Months, is fenfible they want Breeding enough for our Congregations, and has fent his two eldest Daughters to learn to dance, that they may not misbehave themselves at Church: It is worth confidering whether, in regard to aukward People with fcrupulous Confciences, a good Christian of the best Air in the World ought not rather to deny herself the Opportunity of fhewing fo many Graces, than keep a bashful Profelyte without the Pale of the Church.

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N° 260.

Friday, November 28.

Singula de nobis anni prædantur euntes. Hor.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

Am now in the fixty fifth Year of my Age, and having been the greater Part of my Days a Man of Pleasure, the Decay of my Faculties is a Stagnation of my Life. But how is it, Sir, that my Appetites are increased upon me with the Lofs of Power to gratify them? I write this, like a Criminal, to warn People to enter upon what Reformation they please to make in ⚫themselves in their Youth, and not expect they shall be capable of it from a fond Opinion fome have often in ⚫ their Mouths, that if we do not leave our Defires they will leave us. It is far otherwife; I am now as vain in my Drefs, and as flippant if I fee a pretty Woman, as when in my Youth I ftood upon a Bench in the Pit to furvey the whole Circle of Beauties. The Folly is fo extravagant with me, and I went on with fo little • Check of my Defires, or Refignation of them, that I can affure you, I very often, meerly to entertain my own Thoughts, fit with my Spectacles on, writing • Love-Letters to the Beauties that have been long fince ⚫ in their Graves. This is to warm my Heart with the ⚫ faint Memory of Delights which were once agreeable to me; but how much happier would my Life have

• been

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• been now, if I could have looked back on any worthy Action done for my Country? If I had laid out that which I profufed in Luxury and Wantonness, in Acts of Generofity or Charity; I have lived a Batchelor to this Day; and instead of a numerous Offspring, with which, in the regular Ways of Life, I might poffibly have delighted my felf, I have only to amufe my felf with the Repetition of Old Stories and Intrigues which no one ⚫ will believe I ever was concerned in. I do not know ' whether you have ever treated of it or not; but you 'cannot fall on a better Subject, than that of the Art of growing old. In fuch a Lecture you must propofe, that no one fet his Heart upon what is tranfient; the Beauty grows wrinkled while we are yet gazing at her. The witty Man finks into an Humorist imperceptibly, for want of reflecting that all Things around him are in a • Flux, and continually changing: Thus he is in the Space of ten or fifteen Years furrounded by a new Set of People, whofe Manners are as natural to them as his Delights, Method of Thinking, and Mode of Living, were formerly to him and his Friends. But the Mischief is, he looks upon the fame Kind of Errors which ⚫ he himself was guilty of with an Eye of Scorn, and with that fort of Ill-will which Men entertain against each ⚫ other for different Opinions: Thus a crafy Conftitution, and an uneafy Mind is fretted with vexatious Paffions for young Mens doing foolishly what it is Folly to do at all. Dear Sir, this is my prefent State of Mind; I • hate those I should laugh at, and envy thofe I contemn. The Time of Youth and vigorous Manhood, paffed the Way in which I have difpofed of it, is attended with thefe Confequences; but to those who live and pass away Life as they ought, all Parts of it are equally pleafant; only the Memory of good and worthy Actions is a Feaft which muft give a quicker Relifh to the Soul ⚫ than ever it could poflibly tafte in the highest Enjoyments • or Jollities of Youth. As for me, if I fit down in my great Chair and begin to ponder, the Vagaries of a Child are not more ridiculous than the Circumstances which are heaped up in my Memory; fine Gowns, Country Dances, Ends of Tunes, interrupted Converfations, and midnight Quarrels, are what must neceffari

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ly compofe my Soliloquy. I beg of you to print this, that fome Ladies of my Acquaintance, and my Years, may be perfuaded to wear warm Night-Caps this cold • Seafon : and that my old Friend Jack Tawdry may buy ⚫ him a Cane, and not creep with the Air of a Strut. I muft add to all this, that if it were not for one Pleafure, which I thought a very mean one 'till of very late Years, I fhould have no one great Satisfaction left; but <if I live to the 10th of March, 1714, and all my Securities are good, I should be worth Fifty thousand Pound. I am, SIR,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Your most bumble Servant,

Jack Afterday.

YOU OU will infinitely oblige a diftreffed Lover, if you will infert in your very next Paper the following Letter to my Mistress. You must know, I am not a • Perfon apt to defpair, but she has got an odd Humour of ftopping fhort unaccountably, and, as fhe her felf told • a Confident of hers, she has cold Fits. These Fits shall • last her a Month or fix Weeks together; and as fhe falls • into them without Provocation, fo it is to be hoped fhe • will return from them without the Merit of new Ser•vices. But Life and Love will not admit of fuch Intervals, therefore pray let her be admonished as follows.

Madam,

I

Love you, and I honour you; therefore pray do not tell me of waiting till Decencies, till Forms, till Humours are confulted and gratified. If you have that happy Conftitution as to be indolent for ten Weeks to'gether, you should confider that all that while I burn in Impatiences and Fevers; but ftill you fay it will be Time enough, tho' I and you too grow older while we are yet talking. Which do you think the more reasonable, that you should alter a State of Indifference for Happiness, and that to oblige me, or live in Torment, and that to lay no manner of Obligation upon you? While I indulge your Infenfibility I am doing nothing; if you

favour my Paffion, you are bestowing bright Defires, gay Hopes, generous Cares, noble Refolutions and tranfporting Raptures upon,

Madam,

Your most devoted humble Servant,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

HERE's a Gentlewoman lodges in the fame Houfe

with me, that I never did any Injury to in my whole Life; and fhe is always railing at me to those ⚫ that she knows will tell me of it. Don't you think fhe is in Love with me? Or would you have me break my 'Mind yet or not?

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Your Servant.

T. B.

am in Love

• I a in a Am a Footman in a great Family, and am in Love

laft Night in the Hall thefe Holidays; when I lay down and was blinded, fhe pulled off her Shoe, and hit me ⚫ with the Heel fuch a Rap, as almost broke my Head to Pieces. Pray, Sir, was this Love or Spite?

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N° 261. Saturday, December 29.

ΓάμΘ- ν' ἀνθρώποισιν ευκλαῖον κακόν. Frag. vet. Po.

M

Y Father, whom I mentioned in my firft Speculation, and whom I must always name with Honour and Gratitude, has very frequently talked to me upon this Subject of Marriage. I was in my younger Years engaged, partly by his Advice, and partly by my own Inclinations, in the Courtship of a Perfon who had a great deal of Beauty, and did not at my firft Approachés feem to have any Averfion to me; but as my natural Taciturnity hindred me from fhewing my self to the best Advantage, fhe by degrees began to look upon

me

me as a very filly Fellow, and being refolved to regard Merit more than any Thing else in the Perfons who made their Applications to her, the married a Captain of Dragoons who happened to be beating up for Recruits in thofe Parts.

THIS unlucky Accident has given me an Averfion to pretty Fellows ever fince, and difcouraged me from trying my Fortune with the fair Sex. The Obfervations which I made in this Conjuncture, and the repeated Advices which I received at that Time from the good old Man above-mentioned, have produced the following Effay upon Love and Marriage.

THE pleasantest Part of a Man's Life is generally that which paffes in Courtship, provided his Paffion be fincere, and the Party beloved kind with Difcretion. Love, Defire, Hope, all the pleafing Motions of the Soul rife in the Purfuit.

IT is easier for an artful Man who is not in Love, to perfuade his Mistress he has a Paffion for her, and to fucceed in his Purfuits, than for one who loves with the greatest Violence. True Love has ten thousand Griefs, Impatiences and Refentments, that render a Man unamiable in the Eyes of the Perfon whofe Affection he folicits; befides, that it finks his Figure, gives him Fears, Apprehenfions and Poornefs of Spirit, and often makes him appear ridiculous where he has a mind to recommend himself.

THOSE Marriages generally abound most with Love and Conftancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship. The Paffion fhould ftrike Root, and gather Strength before Marriage be grafted on it. A long Courfe of Hopes and Expectations fixes the Idea in our Minds, and habituates us to a Fondnefs of the Perfon beloved.

THERE is Nothing of fo great Importance to us, as the good Qualities of one to whom we join ourselves. for Life; they do not only make our present State agree able, but often determine our Happiness to all Eternity. Where the Choice is left to Friends, the chief Point under Confideration is an Estate: Where the Parties choose for themselves, their Thoughts turn moft upon the Perfon. They have both their Reasons. The firft would procure many Conveniencies and Pleafures of Life to the

Party