13th inftant in the evening met the Spectator within a mile and an half of this town, and flying in the face of juftice, pulled off her hat, in which there was a feather, with the mien and air of a young officer, faying at the fame time Your fervant, Mr. Spec.' or words to that purpofe: this is to give notice, that if any perfon can difcover the name, and place of abode of the faid offender, fo as the can be brought to juftice, the informant fhall have all fitting encouragement. T N° CCCCLXXXVI. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17. AUDIRE EST OPERA PRETIUM, PROCEDERE RECTE HOR. SAT. II. L. I. VER. 2.38. IMITATED. ALL YOU, WHO THINK THE CITY NE'ER CAN THRIVE, ATTEND. MR. SPECTATOR, TH HERE are many of my acquaintance followers of Socrates, with more particular regard to that part of his philofophy which we, among ourfelves, call his domestics; under which denomination, or title, we include all the conjugal joys and fufferings. We have indeed, with very great pleafure, obferved the honour you do the whole fraternity of the hen-pecked, in placing that illuftrious man at our head, and it does in a very great meature baffle the raillery of pert rogues who have no advantage above us, but in that they are fingle. But when you look about into the crowd of mankind, you will find the fair-fex reigns with greater tyranny over lovers than husbands. You fhall hardly meet one in a thousand who is wholly exempt from their dominion, and thofe that are fo are capable of no talte of life, and breathe and walk about the earth as infignificants. But I am going to defire your further favour in behalf of our harmlefs brotherhood, and hope you will fhew in a true light the unmarried hen-pecked, as well as you have done juftice to us, who fubmit to the conduct of our wives. I am very particularly acquainted with one who is under intire fubmiffion to a kind girl, as he calls her; and though he knows I have been witnefs both to the ill ufage he has received from her, and his inability to refilt her tyranny, he still pretends to make a jet of me for a little more than ordinary obliquioufnefs to my spouse. No longer than Tuesday last he took me with him to vifit his mistress; and he having, it seems, been a little in difgrace before, thought by bringing me with him the would conftrain herself, and infenfibly fall into general difcourfe with him; and fo he might break the ice, and fave himself all the ordinary compunctions and mortifications she used to make him fuffer before he would be reconciled, after any act of rebellion on his part. When we came into the room, we were received with the utmoft coldnefs; and when he prefented me as Mr. Such-a-one, his very good friend, she just had patience to fuffer my falutation; but when he himfeif, with a very gay air, offered to follow me, the gave him a thundering box on the ear, called him a pitiful poor-fpirited wretch, how durft he fee her face? His wig and hat fell on different parts of the floor. She feized the wig too foon for him to recover it, and kicking it down stairs, threw herfelf into an oppofite room, puiling the door after her with a force, that you would have thought the hinges would have given way. We went down, you must think, with no very good countenances; and as we sneaked off, and were driving home together, he confeffed to me, that her anger was thus highly raised, because he did not think fit to fight a gentleman who had faid, fhe was what he was; But," fays he, a kind let ter or two, or fifty pieces, will put ⚫ her in humour again." I asked him why he did not part with her; he anfwered, he loved her with all the tendernefs imaginable, and fhe had too many charms to be abandoned for a little quicknefs of fpirit. Thus does this illegitimate hen-pecked overlook the huffy's having no regard to his very life and fame, in putting him upon an infamous difpute about her reputation; yet has he the confidence to laugh at me, because I obey my poor dear in keeping out of harm's way, and not staying too late from my own family, to pafs through the hazards of a town full of ranters and debauchees. You that are a philofopher should urge in our behalf, that when we bear with a froward woman, cur patience is preferved, in confideration that a breach with her might be a difhonour to children who are defcended from us, and whofe concern makes us tolerate a thousand frailties, for fear they should redound dishonour upon the innocent. This and the like circumtances, which carry with them the most valuable regards of human life, may be mentioned for our long-fufferings; but in the cafe of gallants, they fwallow ill ufage from one to whom they have no obligation, but from a bafe paffion, which it is mean to indulge, and which it would be glorious to overcome. Thefe fort of fellows are very numerous, and fome have been confpicuously fuch, without fhame; nay, they have carried on the jeft in the very article of death, and, to the diminution of the wealth and happiness of their families, in bar of thofe honourably near to them, have left immenfe wealth to their paramours. What is this but being a cully in the grave! Sure this is being henpecked with a vengeance! But without dwelling upon thefe lefs frequent inftances of eminent cullyifm, what is there fo common as to hear a fellow curfe his fate that he cannot get rid of a paffion to a jilt, and quote a half line out of a mifcellany poem to prove his weaknefs is natural? If they will go on thus, I have nothing to fay to it: but then let them not pretend to be free all this while, and laugh at us as poor married patients. I have known one wench in this town carry a haughty dominion over her lovers fo well, that he has at the fame time been kept by a fea-captain in the Straits, a merchant in the city, a country gentleman in Hampshire, and had all her correfpondences inanaged by one she kept for her own ufes. This happy man (as the phrafe is) ufed to write very punc tually, every post, letters for the mistress to tranfcribe. He would fit in his nightgown and flippers, and be as grave giving an account, only changing names, that there was nothing in thofe idle reports they had heard of fuch a scoundrel as one of the other lovers was; and how could he think the could condefeend fo low, after fuch a fine gentleman as each of them? For the fame epiftle faid the fame thing to and of every one of them. And fo Mr. Secretary and his lady went to bed with great order. To be fhort, Mr. Spectator, we hufbands fhall never make the figure we ought in the imaginations of young men growing up in the world, except you can bring it about that a man of the town fhall be as infamous a character as a woman of the town. But of all that I have met in my time, commend me to Betty Duall; fhe is the wife of a failor, and the kept mistress of a man of quality; the dweils with the latter during the fea-faring of the former. The hufband afks no queftions, fees his apartments furnished with riches not his, when he comes into port, and the lover is as joyful as a man arrived at his haven when the other puts to fea. Betty is the most eminently victorious of any of her fex, and ought to ftand recorded the only woman of the age in which the lives, who has poffeffed at the fame time two abufed, and two contented T N° CCCCLXXXVII. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18. TH -CUM PROSTRATA SOPORE URGET MEMBRA QUIES, ET MENS SINE PONDERE LUDIT. PETR. WHILE SLEEP OPPRESSES THE TIR'D LIMES, THE MIND HOUGH there are many authors, who have written on dreams, they have generally confidered them only as revelations of what has already happened in diftant parts of the world, or as prefages of what is to happen in future periods of time. I shall confider this fubject in another light, as dreams may give us fome idea of the great excellency of a human foul, and fome intimation of it's independency on matter. In the first place, our dreams are great inftances of that activity which is natural to the human foul, and which it is not in the power of fleep to deaden or abate. When the man appears tired and worn out with the labours of the day, this active part in his compofition is ftill bufied and unwearied. When the organs of fenfe want their due repofe and necefiary reparations, and the body is no longer able to keep pace with that fpiritual fubftante to which it is united, the foul exerts herfelf in feveral faculties, and continues in action until her partner is again qualified to bear her company. In this cafe dreams look like the relaxations and amufements of the foul, when the is difincumbered of her machine; her fports and recreations, when he has laid her charge atleep. In the fecond place, dreams are an inftance of that agility and perfection which is natural to the faculties of the mind, when they are difengaged from the body. The foul is clogged and retarded in her operations, when the acts in conjunction with a companion that is fo heavy and unwieldy in it's motions. But in dreams it is wonderful to ob than invention; yet in dreams it works with that eafe and activity that we are not fenfible when the faculty is employed. For instance, I believe every one, fome time or other, dreams that he is reading papers, books, or letters; in which cafe the invention prompts fo readily, that the mind is impofed upon, and miftakes it's own fuggeftions for the compofitions of another. I fhall, under this head, quote a pa fage out of the Religio Medici, in which the ingenious author gives an account of himself in his dreaming and his waking thoughts. We are somewhat more than ourselves in our fleeps, and the flumber of the body feems to be but the waking of the foul. It is the ligation of fenfe, but the liberty of reafon; and our waking conceptions do not match the fancies of our fleeps. At my nativity my afcendant was the watery fign of Scorpio: I was born in the planetary hour of Saturn, and I think I have a piece of that leaden planet in me. I am no way facetious, nor difpofed for the mirth and galliardize of company; yet in one dream! can compofe a whole comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jefts, and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof. Were my memory as faithful as my reafon is then fruitful, I would never study but in my dreams; and this time also would I chufe for my devotions; but our groffer memo⚫ries have then fo little hold of our abftracted understandings, that they forget the story, and can only relate to our awakened fouls a confufed and broken tale of that that has paffed.➡ ferve with what fprightlinefs and alacrityThus itis obferved that men sometimes, the exerts herself. The flow of fpeech make unpremeditated harangues, or converfe readily in languages that they are but little acquainted with. The grave abound in pleafantries, the dull in repartees and points of wit. There is not a more painful action of the mind, upon the hour of their departure, do fpeak and reason above themfelves; for then the foul beginning to be freed from the ligaments of the body, begins to reafon like herself, and to dif courfe in a strain above mortality.' We may likewise observe in the third place, of his own.' The waking man is converfant in the world of nature; when he Aeeps he retires to a private world that is particular to himfelf. There feems fomething in this confideration that intimates to us a natural grandeur and perfection in the foul, which is rather to be admired than explained. place, that the paffions affect the mind This puts me in mind of a faying which with greater ftrength when we are asleep I am infinitely pleased with, and which than when we are awake. Joy and for- Plutarch afcribes to Heraclitus, That row give us more vigorous fenfations of all men whilft they are awake are in pain or pleasure at this time, than any one common world; but that each of other. Devotion likewife, as the excel-them, when he is asleep, is in a world lent author above-mentioned has hinted, is in a very particular manner heightened and inflamed, when it rifes in the foul at a time that the body is thus laid at reft. Every man's experience will inform him in this matter, though it is very probable, that this may happen differently in different conftitutions. I fhall conclude this head with the two following problems, which I fhall leave to the folution of my reader. Suppofing a man always happy in his dreams, and miferable in his waking thoughts, and that his life was equally divided between them, whether would he be more happy or miserable? Were a man a king in his dreams, and a beggar awake, and dreamed as confequentially, and in as continued unbroken fchemes as he thinks when awake, whether he would be in reality a king or a beggar, or rather whether he would not be both? There is another circumftance, which methinks gives us a very high idea of the nature of the foul, in regard to what paffes in dreams: I mean that innumerable multitude and variety of ideas which then arife in her. Were that active and watchful being only confcious of her own existence at fuch a time, what a painful folitude would her hours of fleep be! Were the foul fenfible of her being alone in her fleeping moments, after the fame manner that the is fenfible of it while awake, the time would hang very heavy on her, as it often actually does when the dreams that she is in fuch folitude. -Semperque relinqui Ire viam VIRG. ÆN. IV. VER. 466. But this obfervation I only make by the way. What I would here remark, is that wonderful power in the foul, of producing her own company on these occafions. She converfes with numberlefs beings of her own creation, and is tranfported into ten thousand fcenes of her own raifing. She is herself the theatre, the actor, and the beholder. I must not omit that argument for the excellency of the foul, which I have feen quoted out of Tertullian, namely, it's power of divining in dreams. That feveral fuch divinations have been made, none can queftion, who believes the holy writings, or who has but the leaft degree of a common hiftorical faith; there being innumerable inftances of this nature in feveral authors, both ancient and modern, facred and profane. Whether fuch dark prefages, fuch visions of the night, proceed from any latent power in the foul, during this her ftate of abftraction, or from any communication with the Supreme Being, or from any operation of fubordinate fpirits, has been a great difpute among the learned; the matter of fact is, I think, incontestable, and has been looked upon as fuch by the greatest writers, who have been never fufpected either of fuperftition or enthu fialin. I do not fuppofe, that the foul in these inftances is intirely loofe and unfettered from the body; it is fufficient, if the is not fo far funk and immersed in matter, not intangled and perplexed in her operations, with fuch motions of blood and fpirits, as when the actuates the machine in it's waking hours. The corporeal union is flackened enough to give the mind more play. The foul feems gathered within herself, and recovers that fpring which is broke and weakened, when the operates more in concert with the body. The fpeculations I have here made, if they are not arguments, they are at leaft ftrong intimations, not only of the excellency of a human foul, but of it's independence on the body; and if they do not prove, do at least confirm thefe two great points, which are established by many other reafons that are altogether unanswerable. O N° CCCCLXXXVIII. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. QUANTI EMPTÆ? PARVO. QUANTI ERGO? OCTO ASSIBUS. EXEU! WHAT DOTH IT COST? NOT MUCH, UPON MY WORD, I Find, by feveral letters which I res ceive daily, that many of my readers would be better pleated to pay threehalfpence for my paper, than two pence. The ingenious T. W. tells me, that I have deprived him of the best part of his breakfast, for that fince the rife of my paper, he is forced every morning to drink his difh of coffee by itself, without the addition of the Spectator, that used to be better than lace to it. Eugenius informs me very obligingly, that he never thought he should have difliked any paffage in my paper, but that of late there have been two words in every one of them, which he could heartily with left out, viz. Price TwoI have a letter from a foappence. boiler, who condoles with me very affectionately, upon the neceffity we both lie under of fetting an high price on our commodities, fince the late tax has been laid upon them, and defiring nie when I write next on that fubject, to fpeak a word or two upon the prefent duties on Caftile foap. But there is none of thefe my correfpondents, who writes with a greater turn of good fenfe and elegance of expreffion, than the generous Philomedes, who advifes me to value every Spectator at Six pence, and promifes that he himself will engage for above a hundred of his acquaintance, who fhall take it in at that price. Letters from the female world are likewife come to me, in great quantities, upon the fame occafion; and as I naturally bear a great deference to this part of our fpecies, I am very glad to find that thofe who approve my conduct in this particular, are much more numerous than those who condemn it. A large family of daughters have drawn me up a very handfome remonftrance, in which they fet forth, that their father having refufed to take in the Spectator, fince the additional price was fet upon it, they offered him uran mously to bate him the article of bread and butter in the tea-table account, provided the TWO-PENCE! O LORD! CREECH. Spectator might be served up to them every morning as ufual. Upon this the old gentleman being pleased, it seems, with their defire of improving themfelves, has granted them the continuance both of the Spectator and bread and butter, having given particular orders that the tea-table fhall be fet forth every morning with it's customary bill of fare, and without any manner of defalcation: I thought myfelf obliged to mention this particular, as it does honour to this worthy gentleman; and if the young lady Lætitia, who fent me this account, will acquaint me with his name, I will infert it at length in one of my papers, if he defires it. I fhould be very glad to find out any expedient that might alleviate the expence which this my paper brings to any of my readers; and, in order to it, muft propose two points to their confideration. First, that if they retrench any the smallest particular in their ordinary expence, it will eafily make up the halfpenny a day which we have now under confideration. Let a lady facrifice but a fingle ribbon to her morning ftudies, and it will be fufficient: let a family burn but a candle a night lefs than their ufual number, and they may take in the Spectator without detriment to their private affairs. In the next place, if the readers will not go to the price of buying my papers by retail, let them have patience, and they may buy them in the lump, without the burthen of a tax upon them. My fpeculations, when they are fold fingle, like cherries upon the stick, are delights for the rich and wealthy; after fome time they come to market in great quantities, and are every ordinary man's money. The truth of it is, they have a certain flavour at their first appearance, from feveral accidental circumstances of time, place, and perfon, which they may lofe if they are not taken early; but in this cafe every reader is to confider, whether it is not better for him to be |