VIRG. N. II. VER. 570.

MR. SPECTATOR,

Am very forry to find by your difcourfe upon eye, that you have not thoroughly ftudied the nature and force of that part of a beauteous face. Had you ever been in love, you would have faid ten thousand things, which it feems did not occur to you: do but reflect upon the nonfenfe it makes men talk, the flames which it is faid to kindle, the transport it raises, the dejection it caufes in the bravest men; and if you do believe thofe things are expreffed 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 ftrength of the mind is fometimes feated there; that a kind look imparts all, that a year's difcourfe could give you, in one moment. What matters it what the fays to you? See how the looks, is the language of all who know what love is. When the mind is thus fummed up and expreffed in a glance, did you never cbierve a fudden joy arife in the countenance of a lover? Did you never fee the attendance of years paid, over-paid, in an instant? You a Spectator, and not know that the intelligence of affection is carried on by the eye only; that good-breeding has made the tongue falfify the heart, and act a part of continual constraint, while nature has preserved the eyes to herself, that the may not be difguiled or mifre

prefented. The poor bride can give her hand, and fay- I do," with a languishing air, to the man fhe is obliged by cruel parents to take for mercenary reafons, but at the fame time the cannot look as if fhe loved; her eye is full of forrow, and reluctance fits in a tear, while the offering of the facrifice 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 fee, from those who come to be feen? I am a woman turned of thirty, and am on the obfervation a little; therefore if you or your correfpondent had confulted me in your difcourte on the eye, I could have told you that the eye of Leonora is flily watchful while it looks negligent; the looks round her without the help of the glaffes you fpeak of, and yet feems to be employed on objects directly before her, This eye is what affects chance medley, and on a fudden, as if it attended to another thing, turns all it's charms against an ogler. The eye of Lufitania is an inftrument of premeditated murder; but the defign being visible, deftroys the execution of it; and with much more beauty than that of Leonora, it is not half fo mifchievous. There is a brave foldier's daughter in town, that by her eye has been the death of more than ever her father made fly before him. A beautiful eye makes filence eloquent,

eloquent, a kind eye makes contradiction an affent, an enraged eye makes beauty deformed. This little member gives life to every other part about us; and I believe the story of Argus implies no more than that the eye is in every part, that is to fay, every other part would be mutilated, were not it's force reprefented more by the eye than even by itfeif. But this is heathen Greek to thofe who have not converfed by glances. This, Sir, is a language in which there can be no deceit, nor can a skilful obferver be impofed upon by looks even among politicians and courtiers. If you do me the honour to print this among your fpeculations, I fhall in my next make you a prefent of secret history, by tranflating all the looks of the next affembly of ladies and gentlemen into words, to adorn fome future paper. I am, Sir, your faithful friend,

you think of the filent flattery of their pretty faces, and the perfuafion which even an infipid difcourfe 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 poffeffed of fome fprings of rhetoric which men want, fuch as tears, fainting fits, and the like, which I have seen employed upon occafion with good fuccefs. You must know I am a plain man, and love my money; yet I have a fpoufe who is fo great an orator in this way, that the draws from me what fums fhe

pleafes. Every room in my house is furnished with trophies of her eloquence, rich cabinets, piles of china, Japan fcreens, and costly jars; and if you were to come into my great parlour, you would fancy yourself in an India warehoufe: befides this, the keeps a squirrel, and I am doubly taxed to pay for the china he breaks. She is feized with periodical fits about the time of the fubfcriptions to a new opera, and is drowned in tears after having feen any woman there in finer cloaths than herfelf: these are arts of perfuafion purely feminine, and which a tender heart cannot refift. What I would therefore defire of you is, to prevail with your friend who has promifed to diffect a female tongue, that he would at the fame time give us the anatomy of a female eye, and explain the fprings and fluices which feed it with fuch ready fupplies of moisture; and likewife fhew by what means, if poffible, they may be ftopped at a reafonable expence: or indeed, fince there is fomething fo moving in the very image of weeping beauty, it would be worthy his art to provide, that thefe eloquent drops may no more be lavished on trifles, or employed as fervants to their wayward wills; but reserved for ferious occafions in life, to adorn generous pity, true penitence, or real for

cepts in it, which he may not meet with in Ariftotle, and which were not commonly known by all the poets of the Auguftan age. His way of exprelling and applying them, not his invention of them, is what we are chiefly to admire.

Fer this reafon I think there is nothing in the world fo tirefome as the works of thofe critics who write in a pofitive dogmatic way, without either language, genius, or imagination. If the reader would fee how the best of the Latin critics writ, he may find their manner very beautifully defcribed 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 fame kind of fublime, which he obferves in the feveral paffages that occafioned them; I cannot but take notice, that our English author has after the fame manner exemplified feveral of his precepts in the very precepts themfelves. I thal produce two or three inftances of his kind. Speaking of the infipid fmoothneis which fome readers are fo much in love with, he has the following verfes.

Thefe equal fyllables alone require,
Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire,
While expletives their feeble aid do join,
And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.

The gaping of the vowels in the fecond line, the expletive do in the third, and the ten monofyllables in the fourth, give fuch a beauty to this paffage, as would have been very much admired in an ancient poet. The reader may obferve the following lines in the fame

view

A needlefs Alexandrine ends the fong, That like a wounded fnake drags it's flow length along.

And afterwards,

"Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, The found must seem an echo to the fenfe. Soft is the train when Zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in fmoother numbers flows;

But when loud furges lafh the founding fhore, The hoarfe rough verfe fhould like the tor

rent roar.

When Ajax ftrives fome rock's vaft weight to throw,

The line too labours, and the words move flow;

Not fo, when fwift Camilla fcours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.

The beautiful diftich upon Ajax in the foregoing lines, puts me in mind of a defcription in Homer's Odyffey, which none of the critics have taken notice of It is where Sifyphus is reprefented lifting his ftone up the hill, which is no fooner carried to the top of it, but it immediately tumbles to the bottom. This double motion of the ftone is admirably defcribed in the numbers of thefe verfes; as in the four firft it is heaved up by feveral Spondees intermixed with proper breathing places, and at laft trundles down in a continual line of Dactyls.

It would be endlefs to quote verfes out of Virgil which have this particular kind of beauty in the numbers; but I may take an occafion in a future paper to fhew feveral of them which have efcaped the obfervation of others.

I cannot conclude this paper without taking notice that we have three poems in our tongue, which are of the same nature, and each of them a mafter-piece in it's kind; the effay on tranflated verie, the eflay on the art of poetry, and the effay upon criticism.

C

N° CCLIV.

preffions 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 beit reprefent the faults I would now point at, and the anfwer to it the temper of mind in a contrary character.

MY DEAR HARRIOT,

IF thou art the, but oh how fallen, how changed, what an apoftate! how loft to all that is gay and agreeable! To be married I find is to be buried alive; I cannot conceive it more difmal to be fhut up in a vault to converfe with the fhades of my ancestors, than to be car. ried down to an old manor-house in the country, and confined to the converfation of a fober husband and an aukward chamber-maid. For variety I fuppofe you may entertain yourself with Madam in her grogram gown, the spouse of your parish viçar, who has by this time I am fure well furnished you with receipts for making falves and poffets, diftilling cordial-waters, making fyrups, and applying poultices.

Bleft folitude! I wish thee joy, my dear, of thy loved retirement, which indeed you would perfuade me is very agreeable, and different enough from what I have here defcribed: but, child, I am afraid thy brains are a little difordered with romances and novels; after fix months marriage to hear thee talk of love, and paint the country fcenes fo foftly, is a little extravagant; one would think you lived the lives of fylvan deities, or roved among the walks of paradife, like the first happy pair. But pr'y thee leave thefe whimfies, 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

little infolent in me, perhaps, to advise a matron; but I am fo afraid you will make fo filly a figure as a fond wife, that I cannot help warning you not to appear in any public places with your hufband, and never to faunter about St, James's Park together: if you prefume to enter the ring at Hyde-Park together, you are ruined for ever; nor muft you take the leaft notice of one another at the play houfe or opera, unless you would be laughed at for a very loving couple moft happily paired in the yoke of wedlock. I would recommend the example of an acquaintance of ours to your imitation; he is the moft negligent and fashionable wife in the world; the is hardly ever feen in the fame place with her husband, and if they happen to meet, you would think them perfect strangers; the never was heard to name him in his abfence, and takes care he fhall never be the fubject of any discourse she has a fhare in. I hope you will propose this lady as a pattern, though I am very much afraid you will be fo filly to think Portia, &c. Sabine and Roman wives much brighter examples. I wish it may never come into your head to imitate thofe antiquated creatures fo far, as to come into public in the habit as well as air of a Roman matron, You make already the entertainment at Mrs. Modifh's tea-table; the fays the always thought you a difcreet perfon, and qualified to manage a family with admirable prudence: fhe dies to fee what demure and ferious airs wedlock has given you, but the fays the fhall never forgive your choice of fo gallant a man as Beilamour to transform him to a mere sober hufband; it was unpardonable: you fee, my dear, we all envy your happiness, and no perfon more than your humble fervant, LYDIA,