OVID. MET. L. 3. V. 432.

WILL

ILL Honeycomb diverted us laft night with an account of a young fellow's first discovering his paffion to his mistress. The young lady was one, it seems, who had long before conceived a favourable opinion of him, and was still in hopes that he would fome time or other make his advances. As he was one day talking with her in company of her two fifters, the converfation happening to turn upon love, each of the young ladies was, by way of raillery, recommending a wife to him; when, to the no fmall furprife of her who languished for him in fecret, he told them with a more than ordinary serioufnefs, that his heart had been long engaged to one whofe name he thought himfelf obliged in honour to conceal; but that he could fhew her picture in the lid of his fnuff-box. The young lady, who found herself moft fenfibly touched by this confeffion, took the first opportunity that offered of fnatching his box out of his hand. He feemed defirous of recovering it, but finding her refolved to look into the lid, begged her that if the should happen to know the perfon, the would not reveal her name. Upon carrying it to the window, she was very agreeably furprised to find there was nothing within the lid but a little lookingglafs, in which after he had viewed her face with more pleasure than he had ever done before, the returned the box with a fmile, telling him, fhe could not but admire at his choice.

Will fancying that this tory took, immediately fell into a differtation on the usefulness of looking-glasses; and

ADDISON.

applying himself to me, afked if there were any looking-glaffes in the times of the Greeks and Romans; for that he had often obferved in the translations of poems out of those languages, that people generally talked of feeing themfelves in wells, fountains, lakes, and rivers: Nay,' fays he, I remember. • Mr. Dryden in his Ovid tells us of a fwinging fellow called Polypheme, that made ufe of the sea for his looking-glafs, and could never dress himfelf to advantage but in a calm.'

6

My friend Will, to fhew us the whole compafs of his learning upon this fubject, further informed us that there were till feveral nations in the world fo very barbarous as not to have any lookingglaffes among them; and that he had lately read a voyage to the South-Sea, in which it is faid, that the ladies of Chili always dreffed their heads over a bafon of water.

I am the more particular in my ac count of Will's laft night's lecture on these natural mirrors, as it feems to bear fome relation to the following letter which I received the day before.

SIR,

I Have read your last Saturday's ob

fervations on the fourth book of Milton with great fatisfaction, and am particularly pleafed with the hidden moral which you have taken notice of in feveral parts of the poem. The defign of this letter is to defire your thoughts, whether there may not alfo be fome moral couched under that place in the fame book where the poet lets us know, that

the-first woman, immediately after her creation, ran to a looking-glafs, and became to enamoured of her own face, that he had never removed to view any of the other works of nature, had she not been led off to a man. If you think fit to fet down the whole paffage from Milton, your readers will be able to judge for themselves, and the quotation will not a little contribute to the filling up of your paper. Your humble fervant,

R. T.

The last confideration urged by my querift is fo ftrong, that I cannot forbear clofing with it. The paffage he alludes to, is part of Eve's fpeech to Adam, and one of the most beautiful paffages in the whole pocm.

That day I oft remember, when from fleep I first awak'd, and found myself repos'd

• Under a fhade on flow'rs, much wond'ring • where

And what I was, whence thither brought, and how.

• Not diftant far from thence a murmuring • found

Of waters iffu'd from a cave, and spread Into a liquid plain, then food unmov'd Pure as the expanfe of heav'n: I thither went With unexperienc'd thought, and laid me

down

On the green bank, to look into the clear • Smooth lake, that to me feem'd another sky. As I bent down to look, juft oppofite A fhape within the wat`ry gleam appear'd,

Bending to look on me; I started back,
It started back; but pleas'd I foon return'd,
Pleas'd it return'd as foon with answering
• looks

Of fympathy and love: there I had fix'd
Mine eyes till now, and pin'd with vain
defire,

Had not a voice thus warn'd me: "What "thou feest,

"What there thou feeft, fair creature, is "thyself;

"With thee it came and goes: but follow me, "And I will bring thee where no fhadow ftays. "Thy coming, and thy foft embraces, he "Whofe image thou art, him thou shalt enjoy "Infeparably thine, to him shalt bear "Multitudes like thyfelf, and thence be call'd "Mother of human race." What could I do, But follow ftraight, invifibly thus led? Till I efpy'd thee, fair indeed and tall, Under a plantan; yet methought lefs fair, Lefs winning foft, lefs amiably mild, Than that smooth wat'ry image: back I ' turn'd;

Thou following cry'dft aloud-" Return, "fair Eve,

"Whom fly'ft thou? Whom thou fly'st, of "him thou art,

"His Aesh, his bone; to give thee being I lent
"Out of my fide to thee, neareft my heart,
"Subftantial life, to have thee by my fide,
"Henceforth an individual folace dear:
"Part of my foul, I feek thee, and thee claim
"My other half!"-with that thy gentle
hand

Seiz'd mine; I yielded, and from that time fee
How beauty is excell'd by manly grace
And wisdom, which alone is truly fair.”
So fpake our general mother-

31 NON

HOR. OD. XVI. L. 3. V.X)

MR.SPECTATOR,

Y lating to Fortune-Hunters, and

YOUR correspondent's letter re

your fubfequent difcourfe upon it, have given me encouragement to fend you a ftate of my cafe, by which you will fee, that the matter complained of is a common grievance both to city and country.

I am a country gentleman of between five and fix thousand a year. It is my

COWLEY.

X

deed pretty well fecured my park, having for this purpose provided myfelf of four keepers who are left-handed, and handle a quarter-ftaff beyond any other fellows in the country. And for the guard of my house, befides a band of penfioner matrons and an old maiden relation whom I keep on conftant duty, I have blunderbuffes always charged, and fox gins planted in private places about my garden, of which I have given frequent notice in the neighbourhood; yet fo it is, that in fpite of all my care, I shall every now and then have a faucy rafcal ride by reconnoitring (as I think you call it) under my windows, as fprucely dreffed as if he were going to a ball. I am aware of this way of attacking a mistress on horfeback, having heard that it is a common practice in Spain; and have therefore taken care to remove my daughter from the road- fide of the house, and to lodge her next the garden. But to cut fhort my ftory; what can a man do after all? I durft not stand

for member of parliament laft election, for fear of fome ill confequence from my being off my poft. What I would therefore defire of you is, to promote a project I have fet on foot; and upon which I have writ to fome of my friends; and that is, that care may be taken to fecure cur daughters by law, as well as our deer; and that fome honeft gentleman of a public fpirit, would move for leave to bring in a bill for the better preferving of the female game. I am, Sir,

Your humble fervant.

MILE-END-GREEN, MARCH 6, 1711-12. MR. SPECTATOR,

HERE is a young man walks by our

door every day about the dusk of the evening. He looks up at my window, as if to fee me; and if I ffeal to-, wards it to peep at him, he turns another way, and looks frightened at finding what he was looking for. The air is very cold; and pray let him know that if he knocks at the door, he will be carried to the parlour fire, and I will come down foon after, and give him an opportunity to break his mind. I am, Sir, your humble fervant,

MARY COMFIT.

If I obferve he cannot fpeak, I'll give him time to recover himself, and ask him how he does.

DEAR SIR,

Beg you to print this without delay, and by the first opportunity give us the natural caufts of longing in women; or put me out of fear that my wife will one time or other be delivered of fome-. thing as monstrous as any thing that has yet appeared to the world; for they fay the child is to bear a refemblance of what was defired by the mother. I have been married upwards of fix years, have had four children, and my wife is now big with the fifth. The expences fhe has put me to in procuring what she has longed for during her pregnancy with them, would not only have handfomely defrayed the charges of the month, but of their education too; as not to confine itself to the usual objects of eatables and drinkables, but running out after equipages and furniture, and the like extravagancies. To trouble you only with a few of them; when she was with child of Tom, my eldest fon, fhe came home one day jutt fainting, and told me he had been vifiting a relation, whofe hufband had made her a prefent of a chariot, and a stately pair of horfes; and that he was pofitive fhe could not breath a week longer, unlefs fhe took the air in the fellow to it of her own within that time: this, rather than lofe an heir, I readily complied with. Then the furniture of her beft room must be initantly changed, or the fhould mark the child with fome of the frightful figures in the old-fashioned tapestry. Well, the upholsterer was called, and her longing faved that bout. When fhe went with Molly, fhe had fixed her mind upon a new fet of plate, and as much china as would have furnished an Indian fhop: thefe alfo I chearfully granted, for fear of being father to an Indian Pagod. Hitherto I found her demands rofe upon every conceffion; and had the gone on, I had been ruined: but by good fortune, with her third, which was Peggy, the height of her imagination came down to the corner of a venifon pafty, and brought her once even upon her knees to gnaw off the ears of a pig from the fpit. The gratifications of her palate were eafily pre ferred to thofe of her vanity; and fometimes a partridge or a quail, a wheatear, or the pestle of a lark, were chearfully purchased; nay, I could be contented though I were to feed her with green peafe in April, or cherries in May. O 2

But