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infult, and diftemper. A woman is naturally more helpless than the other fex; and a man of honour and fenfe fhould have this in his view in all manner of commerce with her. Were this well weighed, inconfideration, ribaldry, and nonfenfe, would not be more natural to entertain women with than men; and it would be as much impertinence to go into a fhop of one of thefe young women without buying, as into that of any other trader. I thall end this fpecula-. tion with a letter I have received from a pretty milliner in the city.

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'Change, to fay fomething of my roguifh eye: and here is one who makes me once or twice a week tumble over all my goods, and then owns it was only a gallantry to see me act with these pretty hands; then lays out three-pence in a little ribband for his wristbands, and thinks he is a man of great vivacity. There is an ugly thing not far off me, whofe fhop is frequented only by people of bufinefs, that is all day long as buly as poffible. Must I that am a beauty be treated with for nothing but my beauty? Be pleased to affign rates to my kind glances, or make all pay who come to fe me, or I fhall be undone by my admirers for want of customers. Albacinda, Eudofia, and all the reft, would be ufed jutt as we are, if they were in our condition; therefore pray confider the diftrefs of us the lower order of beauties, and I shall be T

Your obliged humble servant.

N° CLVI. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29.

SED TU SIMUL OBLIGASTI

PERFIDUM VOTIS CAPUT, ENITESCIS
PULCHRIOR MULTO

HOR. L. II. OD. VIII. v. 5.

————— EUT THOU,

SINCE PERJUR'D, DOST MORE CHARMING GROW.

Do not think any thing could make a pleafanter entertainment, than the hiftory of the reigning favourites among the women from time to time about this town: in fuch an account we ought to have a faithful confeffiou of each lady for what fhe liked fuch and fuch a man, and he ought to tell us by what particular action or drefs he believed he fhould be moft fuccessful.

As for my

part, I have always made as eafy a judg inent when a man drefies for the ladies, as when he is equipped for hunting or courfing. The woman's man is a perfon in his air and behaviour quite different from the reft of our fpecies: his garb is more loofe and negligent, his manner more foft and indolent; that is to fay, in both thefe cafes there is an apparent endeavour to appear uncon cerned and carelefs. In catching birds the fowlers have a method of imitating their voices to bring them to the fnare; and your womens men have always a Amilitude of the creature they hope to

DUKE.

betray, in their own converfation. A woman's man is very knowing in all that paffes from one family to another, has little pretty officioufneffes, is not at a lofs for what is good for a cold, and it is not amifs if he has a bottle of fpirits in his pocket in case of any fudden indifpofition.

Curiofity having been my prevailing paffion, and indeed the fole entertainment of my life, I have fometimes made it my business to examine the course of intrigues as well as the manners and accomplishments of fuch as have been moft fuccefsful that way. In all my obfervation, I never knew a man of good understanding a general favourite; fome fingularity in his behaviour, fome whim in his way of life, and what would have made him ridiculous among the men, has recommended him to the other fex. I fhould be very forry to offend a people fo fortunate as thefe of whom I am fpeaking; but let any one look over the old beaux, and he will find the man of

fuccefs

uccefs was remarkable for quarrelling impertinently for their fakes, for dref fing unlike the rest of the world, or paffing his days in an infipid affiduity about the fair-fex, to gain the figure he made amongst them. Add to this that he must have the reputation of being well with other women, to please any one woman of gallantry; for you are to know, that there is a mighty ambition among the light part of the fex to gain flaves from the dominion of others. My friend Will Honeycomb fays it was a common bite with him, to lay fufpicions that he was favoured by a lady's enemy, that is fome rival beauty, to be well with herself. A little fpite is natural to a great beanty; and it is ordinary to fnap up a difagreeable fellow left another fhould have him. That impudent toad Bareface fares well among all the ladies he converfes with, for no other reafon in the world but that he has the fkill to keep them from explanation with one another. Did they know there is not one who likes him in her heart, each would declare her fcorn of him the next moment; but he is well received by them because it is the fashion, and oppofition to each other brings them infentibly into an imitation of each other. What adds to him the greatest grace is, that the pleafant thief, as they call him, is the moft inconstant creature living, has a wonderful deal of wit and humour, and never wants fomething to fay; befides all which, he has a most spiteful dangerous tongue if you fhould provoke

him.

occurrences about court and town, have that fort of good-breeding which is exclufive of all morality, and confiits only in being publicly decent, privately diffolute.

It is wonderful how far a fond opinion of herself can carry a woman, to make her have the leaft regard to a professed known woman's man: but as fcarce one of all the women who are in the tour of gallantries ever hears any thing of what is the common sense of sober minds, but are entertained with a continual round of flatteries, they cannot be mistreffes of them elves enough to make arguments for their own conduct from the behaviour of thefe men to others. It is fo far otherwife, that a generat fame of falfhood in this kind, is a recommendation; and the coxcomb, loaded with the favours of many others, is received like a victor that difdains his trophies, to be a victim to the present charmer.

If you fee a man more full of gefture than ordinary in a public affembly, if loud upon no occafion, if negligent of the company round, him, and yet laying wait for destroying by that negligence, you may take it for granted that he has ruined many a fair-one. The woman's man expreffes himfelf wholly in that motion which we call ftrutting: an elevated cheft, a pinched hat, a meafurable fep, and a fly furveying eye, are the marks of him. Now and then you fee a gentleman with all these accomplishments; but alas, any one of them is enough to undo thousands: when a gentleman with fuch perfections adds to it fuitable learning, there fhould be public warning of his refidence in town, that we may remove our wives and daughters. It happens fometimes that such a fine man has read all the mifcellany poems, a few of our comedies, and has the tranflation of Ovid's Epiftles by heart. Oh if it were poffible that fuch a one could be as true as he is charming! But that is too much, the women will fhare fuch a dear falfe man: a little gallantry to hear him talk one would indulge one's felf in, let him reckon the ticks of one's fan, fay fomething of the Cupids in it; and then call one fo many foft names which a man of his learning has at his fingers-ends, There fure is fome excufe for frailty,

To make a woman's man, he must not be a man of fenfe, or a fool; the business is to entertain, and it is much better to have a faculty of arguing, than a capacity of judging right. But the pleafanteft of all the women's equipage are your regular vifitants; these are volunteers in their fervice, without hopes of pay or preferment: it is enough that they can lead out from a public place, that they are admitted on a public day, and can be allowed to pafs away part of that heavy load, their time, in the company of the fair. But commend me above all others to thofe who are known for your ruiners of ladies; thefe are the choiceft fpirits which our age produces. We have feveral of thefe irrefiftible tlemen among us when the company is in town. Thele fellows are accomplish- ' when attacked by fuch force against a ed with the knowledge of the ordinary 'weak woman.' Such is the foliloquy

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of many a lady one might name, at the fight of one of thele who makes it no iniquity to go on from day to day in the fin of woman-flaughter.

It is certain that people are got into a way of affetation, with a manner of overlooking the moft folid virtues, and admiring the most trivial excellencies. The woman is fo far from expecting to be contemned for being a very injudici

ous filly animal, that while fhe can preferve her features and her mien, the knows fhe is ft the object of defire; and there is a fort of fecret ambition, from reading frivolous books, and keeping as frivolous company, each fide to be amiable in perfection, and arrive at the characters of the dear deceiver and the perjured fair.

N° CLVII. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30.

GENIUS NATALE COMES QUI TEMPERAT ASTRUM, NATURÆ DEUS HUMANÆ, MORTALIS IN UNUM

T

QUODQUE CAPUT

HOR. EP. II. L. 2. V. 187.

I

Am

IMITATED.

-THAT DIRECTING POW'R,

WHO FORMS THE GENIUS IN THE NATAL HOUR:
THAT GOD OF NATURE, WHO, WITHIN US STILL,
INCLINES OUR ACTION, NOT CONSTRAINS OUR WILL.

very much at a lofs to exprefs by any word that occurs to me in our language that which is understood by Indoles in Latin. The natural difpofition to any particular art, fcience, profeffion, or trade, is very much to be confulted in the care of youth, and flu. died by men for their own conduct when they form to themfelves any fcheme of life. It is wonderfully hard indeed for a man to judge of his own capacity impartially; that may look great to me which may appear little to another, and I may be carried by fondness towards myfelf fo far, as to attempt things too high for my talents and accomplish ments; but it is not methinks fo very difficult a matter to make a judgment of the abilities of others, efpecially of thofe who are in their infancy. My common-place book directs me on this occafion to mention the dawning of great ness in Alexander, who being asked in his youth to contend for a prize in the Olympick games, anfwered he would, if he had kings to run against him. Caffius, who was one of the conspirators agalnit Cafer, gave as great a proof of his temper, when in his childhood he Atruck a play-fellow, the fon of Sylla, for faying his father was mafter of the Roman people. Scipio is reported to have antwered, when fome flatterers at fupper were afking him what the Romans should do for a general after his

POFE.

death- Take Marius. Marius was then a very boy, and had given no inftances of his valour; but it was vifible to Scipio from the manners of the youth, that he had a foul formed for the attempt and execution of great undertakings. I must confefs I have very often with much forrow bewailed the misfortune of the children of Great Bri 'tain, when I confider the ignorance and undifcerning of the generality of schoolmafters. The boasted liberty we talk of is but a mean reward for the long fervitude, the many heart achs and terrors, to which our childhood is exposed in going, through a grammar-school many of thefe ftupid tyrants exercife their cruelty-without any manner of diftinction of the capacities of children, or the intention of parents in their be half. There are many excellent tem pers which are worthy to be nourished and cultivated with all poffible diligence and care, that were never defigned to be acquainted with Ariftotle, Tully, or Virgil; and there are as many who have capacities for understanding every word thofe great perfons have writ, and yet

were not born to have any relifh of their writings. For want of this common and obvious difcerning in those who have the care of youth, we have fo many hundred unaccountable creatures every age whipped up into great fcholars, that are for ever near a right understanding,

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and will never arrive at it. These are
the fcandal of letters, and these are ge-
nerally the men who are to teach others.
The fenfe of fhame and honour is enough
to keep the world itfelf in order without
corporal punishment, much more to train
the minds of uncorrupted and innocent
children. It happens, I doubt not, more
than once in a year, that a lad is chaf-,
tifed for a blockhead, when it is a good
apprehenfion that makes him incapa-
ble of knowing what his teacher means:
a brisk imagination very often may fug-
get an error, which a lad could not
have fallen into, if he had been as heavy
in conjecturing as his mafter in explain-
ing: but there is no mercy even towards
a wrong interpretation of his meaning,.
the fufferings of the fcholar's body are
to rectify the mistakes of his mind.

I am confident that no boy who will not be allured to letters without blows, will ever be brought to any thing with them. A great or good mind muft neceflarily be the worfe for fuch indignities; and it is a fad change to lofe of it's virtue for the improvement of it's knowledge. No one who has gone through what they call a great fchool, but mutt remember to have feen children of excellent and ingenuous natures, as has afterwards appeared in their manhood; I fay no man has paffed through this way of education but must have seen an ingenuous creature expiring with fhame, with pale looks, befeeching forrow, and filent tears, throw up it's honeft eyes, and kneel on it's tender knees to an inexorable blockhead, to be forgiven the falfe quantity of a word in making a Latin verfe: the child is punished, and the next day he commits à like crime, and fo a third with the fame confequence. I would fain afk any reasonable man whether this lad, in the fimplicity of his native innocence, full of fhame, and capable of any impreffion from that grace of foul, was not fitter for any purpofe in this life, than after that spark of virtue is extinguished in him, though he is able to write twenty verfes in an evening?

Seneca fays, after his exalted way of talking- As the immortal gods never 'learnt any virtue, though they are endued with all that is good; fo there are fome men who have fo natural a propensity to what they should follow, that they learn it almoft as foon as

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they hear it. Plants and vegetables are cultivated into the production of finer fruit than they would yield without that care; and yet we cannot entertain hopes of producing a tender confcious fpirit into acts of virtue, without the fame method as is ufed to cut timber, or give new fhape to a piece of frone.

It is wholly to this dreadful practice that we may attribute a certain hardness and ferocity which fome men, though liberally educated, carry about them in all their behaviour. To be bred like a gentleman, and punished like a malefactor, muft, as we fee it does, produce that illiberal faucinefs which we fee fometimes in men of letters.

The Spartan boy who fuffered the fox, which he had ftolen and hid under his coat, to eat into his bowels, I dare fay had not half the wit or petulance which we learn at great fchools among us; but the glorious fenfe of honour, or rather fear of fhame, which he demonftrated in that action, was worth all the learning in the world without it.

It is, methinks, a very melancholy confideration, that a little negligence can spoil us, but great induftry is neceffary to improve us; the most excellent natures are foon depreciated, but evil tempers are long before they are exalted into good habits. To help this by pu nifhments, is the fame thing as killing a man to cure him of a diftemper; when he comes to fuffer punifliment in that one circumstance, he is brought below the existence of a rational creature, and is in the fate of a brute that moves only by the admonition of ftripes. But fince this cuftom of educating by the lash is fuffered by the gentry of Great Britain, I would prevail only that honeft heavy lads may be difiniffed from flavery fooner than they are at prefent, and not whipped on to their fourteenth and fifteenth year, whether they expect any progrefs from them or not. Let the child's capacity be forthwith examined, and he fent to fome mechanic way of life, without refpect to his birth, if nature defigned him for nothing higher: le him go before he has innocently fuffered, and is debafed into a dereliction of mind for being what it is no guilt to be, a plain man. I would not here be fuppofed to have faid, that our learned men of either robe who have been whipped at fchool, are not still men of nobie an I

libera!

liberal minds; but I am fure they had been much more fo than they are, had they never fuffered that infamy.

But though there is fo little care, as I have obferved, taken, or obfervation made of the natural ftrain of men, it is no fmall comfort to me, as a Spectator, that there is any right value fet upon the bona Indoles of other animals; as appears by the following adverufement handed about the county of Lincoln, and fubfcribed by Enos Thomas, a person whom I have not the honour to know, but fuppofe to be profoundly learned in horie-fresh.

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A chefnut horfe called Cæfar, brod by James Darcy, Efq. at Sedbury, near Richinond, in the county of York; his grandam was his old royal mare, and got by Blunderbuis, which was got by Hemfly-Turk, and he got by Mr. Courant's Arabian, which got 'Mr. Minthul's Jews-trump, Mr.Cæ. far fold him to a nobleman, coming 'five years old, when he had but one fweat, 'for three hundred guineas. A guinea a leap and trial, and a shilling

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N° CLVIII. FRIDAY, AUGUST 31.

NOS HÆC NOVIMUS ESSE NIHIL.

WE KNOW THESE THINGS TO BE MERE TRIFLES.

UT of a firm regard to impartiality, I print thefe letters, let them make for ine or not.

I

MR. SPECTATOR,

Have obferved through the whole courfe of your rhapfodics, as you once very well called them, you are very induftrious to overthrow all that many your fuperiors who have gone before you have made their rule of writing. I am now between fifty and fixty, and had the honour to be well with the firit men of taite and gallantry in the joyous reign of Charles the Second: we then had, I humbly prefume, as good understandings among us as any now can pretend to. As for yourself, Mr. Spectator, you feem with the utmost arrogance to undermine the very fundamentals upon which we conducted ourfelves. It is monstrous to fet up for a man of wit, and yet deny that honour in a woman is any thing elfe but peevishness, that in clination is the best rule of life, or virtue and vice any thing else but health and difeafe. We had no more to do but to put a lady in good-humour, and all we could with followed of course. Then again, your Tully, and your difcourfes of another life, are the very bane of mirth and good-humour. Pr'ythee do not value thyfelf on thy reafon, at that exorbitant rate, and the dignity of human nature; take my word for it, a feting-dog has as good reafon as any man

MARTIAL.

in England. Had you, as by your diurnais one would think you do, fet up for being in vogue in town, you fhould have fallen in with the bent of paffion and appetite; your fongs had then been in every pretty mouth in England, and your little diftichs had been the maxims of the fair and the witty to walk by: but alas, Sir, what can you hope for from entertaining people with what must needs make them like themselves worse than they did before they read you? Had you made it your bufinefs to defcribe Corinna charming, though inconftant, to find fomething in human nature itself to make Zoilus excufe himfelf for being fond of her; and to make every man in good commerce with his own reflections, you had done fomething worthy our applaufe; but indeed, Sir, we fhall not commend you for difap. proving us. I have a great deal more to fay to you, but I shall fum it up all in this one remark; in fhort, Sir, you do not write like a gentleman. I am, Sir, your most humble fervant.

MR. SPECTATOR,

THE other day we were several of

us at a tea-table, and according to custom and your own advice had the Spectator read among us: it was that paper wherein you are pleased to treat with great freedom that character which you call a woman's man. We gave up all the kinds you have mentioned, ex

cept

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