lus, who was punished with the rage of an eternal thirst, and set up to the chin in water that fled from his lips whenever he attempted to drink it. Virgil, who has cast the whole system of Platonic philosophy, so far as it relates to the soul of man, into beautiful allegories, in the sixth book of his Æneid gives us the punishment of a voluptuary after death, not unlike that which we are here speaking of: Lucent genialibus altis Aurea fulcra toris, epulæque ante ora paratæ En. vi. 604. They lie below on golden beds display'd, Dryden. THERE is not, in my opinion, a considera tion more effectual to extinguish inordinate desires in the soul of man, than the notions of Plato and his followers upon that subject. They tell us, that every passion which has been contracted by the soul during her residence in the body, remains with her in a separate state; and that the soul in the body, or out of the body, differs no more than the man does from himself when he is in his house, or in open air. When therefore the obscene passions in particular have once taken root, and spread themselves in the soul, they cleave to her inseparably, and remain in her for ever, after the body is cast off and thrown aside. As an argument to confirm this, their doctrine, they observe, that a lewd youth who goes on in a That I may a little alleviate the severity of continued course of voluptuousness, advances this my speculation (which otherwise may by degrees into a libidinous old man; and that lose me several of my polite readers), I shall the passion survives in the mind when it is al- translate a story that has been quoted upon together dead in the body; nay, that the de- another occasion by one of the most learned sire grows more violent, and (like all other men of the present age, as I find it in the orihabits) gathers strength by age, at the same ginal. The reader will see it is not foreign to time that it has no power of executing its own my present subject, and I dare say will think purposes. If, say they, the soul is the most it a lively representation of a person lying unsubject to these passions at a time when it der the torments of such a kind of tantalism, has the least instigations from the body, we or Platonic hell, as that which we have now may well suppose she will still retain them under consideration. Monsieur Pontignan, when she is entirely divested of it. The very speaking of a love-adventure that happened to substance of the soul is festered with them, him in the country, gives the following account the gangrene is gone too far to be ever cured; the inflammation will rage to all eternity. of it.* I When I was in the country last summer, In this therefore (says the Platonists) con- was often in company with a couple of charmsists the punishment of a voluptuous man after ing women, who had all the wit and beauty death. He is tormented with desires which it one could desire in female companions, with is impossible for him to gratify; solicited by a a dash of coquetry, that from time to time passion that has neither objects nor organs gave me a great many agreeable torments. adapted to it. He lives in a state of invincible was, after my way, in love with both of them, desire and impotence, and always barns in the and had such frequent opportunities of pleadpursuit of what he always despairs to possess. ing my passions to them when they were asunIt is for this reason (says Plato) that the souls der, that I had reason to hope for particular of the dead appear frequently in cemeteries, favours from each of them. As I was walking and hover about the places where their bodies one evening in my chamber with nothing about are buried, as still hankering after their old me but my night-gown, they both came into brutal pleasures, and desiring again to enter my room, and told me they had a very pleasant the body that gave them an opportunity of trick to put upon a gentleman that was in the fulfilling them. same house, provided I would bear a part in Some of our most eminent divines have made it. Upon this they told me such a plausible use of this Platonic notion, so far as it regards story, that I laughed at their contrivance, and the subsistence of our passions after death, agreed to do whatever they should require of with great beauty and strength of reason. me. They immediately began to swaddle me Plato indeed carries the thought very far up in my night-gown, with long pieces of linen, when he grafts upon it his opinion of ghosts which they folded about me till they had wrapt appearing in places of burial. Though I must me in above an hundred yards of swathe. My confess, if one did believe that the departed arms were pressed to my sides, and my legs souls of men and women wandered up and closed together by so many wrappers one over down these lower regions, and entertained themselves with the sight of their species, one could not devise a more proper hell for an im pure spirit than that which Plato has touched upon. another, that I looked like an Egyptian mummy. As I stood bolt upright upon one end in this antique figure, one of the ladies burst out a laughing. And now, Pontignan, says 66 The ancients seem to have drawn such a This is a paraphrase of a story in the "Academie Gastate of torments in the description of Tanta-lante," a little book printed at Paris in 1682. she, we intend to perform the promise that for the better sound and elevation of the hiswe find you have extorted from each of us. tory, instead of Mr. and Mrs. Such-a-one, I You have often asked the favour of us, and I shall call them by feigned names. Without dare say you are a better bred cavelier than further preface, you are to know, that within to refuse to go to bed to two ladies that desire the liberties of the city of Westminster lives it of you." After having stood a fit of laugh- the Lady Honoria, a widow about the age of ter, I-begged thom to uncase me, and do with forty, of a healthy constitution, gay temper, me what they pleased. "No, no," said they, and elegant person. She dresses a little ton we like you very well as you are ;" and upon much like a girl, affects a childish fondness in that ordered me to be carried to one of their the tone of her voice, sometimes a pretty sulhouses, and put to bed in all my swaddles.lenness in the leaning of her head, and now The room was lighted up on all sides: and I and then a down-cast of her eyes on her fan. was laid very decently between a pair of sheets, Neither her imagination nor her health would with my head (which was indeed the only part ever give her to know that she is turned of I could move) upon a very high pillow: this twenty; but that in the midst of these pretty was no sooner done, but my two female friends softnesses, and airs of delicacy and attraction, came into bed to me in their finest night- she has a tall daughter within a fortnight of fifclothes. You may easily guess at the condi- teen, who impertinately comes into the room, tion of a man that saw a couple of the most and towers so much towards woman, that her beautiful women in the world undrest and a- mother is always checked by her presence, and. bed with him, without being able to stir hand every charm of Honoria droops at the enor foot. I begged them to release me, and trance of Flavia. The agreeable Flavia would struggled all I could to get loose, which I did be what she is not, as well as her mother with so much violence, that about midnight Honoria; but all their beholders are more they both leaped out of the bed, crying out partial to an affectation of what a person is they were undone. But seeing me safe, they growing up to, than of what has been already took their posts again, and renewed their rail- enjoyed, and is gone for ever. It is therefore lery. Finding all my prayers and endeavours allowed to Flavia to look forward, but not to were lost, I composed myself as well as Honoria to look back. Flavia is no way decould, and told them, that if they would not pendent on her mother with relation to her unbind me, I would fall asleep between them, fortune, for which reason they live almost upand by that means disgrace them for ever. on an equality in conversation; and as HonBut, alas! this was impossible; could I have oria has given Flavia to understand, that it is been disposed to it, they would have prevented ill-bred to be always calling mother, Flavia is me by several little ill-natured caresses and as well pleased never to be called child. It endearments which they bestowed upon me. happens by this means, that these ladies are As much devoted as I am to woman-kind, generally rivals in all places where they apwould not pass such another night to be mas-pear; and the words mother and daughter ter of the whole sex. My reader will doubt-never pass between them but out of spite. less be curious to know what became of me the Flavia one night at a play observing Honoria next morning. Why truly my bed-fellows left draw the eyes of several in the pit, called to a me an hour before day, and told me, if I would lady who sat by her, and bid her ask her be good and lie still, they would send somebody mother to lend her her snuff-box for a moto take me up as soon as it was time for me to ment. Another time, when a lover of Honrise. Accordingly about nine o'clock in the oria was on his knees beseeching the favour morning an old woman came to unswathe me. to kiss her hand, Flavia rushing into the I bore all this very patiently, being resolved to room, kneeled down by him and asked her take my revenge of my tormentors, and to blessing. Several of these contradictory acts keep no measures with them as soon as I was of duty have raised between them such a at liberty; but upon asking my old woman coldness, that they generally converse when what was become of the two ladies, she told they are in mixed company by way of talkme she believed they were by that time within sight of Paris, for that they went away in a coach and six before five o'clock in the morning.' L. No. 91.] Thursday, June 14, 1711. ing at one another, and not to one another. Honoria is ever complaining of a certain sufficiency in the young women of this age, who assume to themselves an authority of carrying all things before them, as if they were possessors of the esteem of mankind, and all who were but a year before them in the world, were neglected or deceased. Flavia, upon such a provocation, is sure to observe, that there are people who can resign nothing, and know not how to give up what they know they cannot hold; that there are those who will not allow youth their follies, not because they are themTHOUGH the subject I am now going upon selves past them, but because they love to conwould be much more properly the foundation tinue in them. These beauties rival each other of a comedy, I cannot forbear inserting the on all occasions; not that they have always circumstances which pleased me in the account had the same lovers, but each has kept up a a young lady gave me of the loves of a family vanity to show the other the charms of her in town, which shall be nameless; or rather, lover. Dick Crastin and Tom Tulip, among They rush into the flame; many others, have of late been pretenders in moved before the glass, led his mistress half this family: Dick to Honoria, Tom to Flavia. a minuet, hummed Dick is the only surviving beau of the last age, and Tom almost the only one that keeps up that order of men in this. 'Celia the fair, in the bloom of fifteen!' 'SIR, 'Sir, Your most humble servant, ' RICHARD CRASTIN.' when there came a servant with a letter to I wish I could repeat the little circumstances him, which was as follows: of a conversation of the four lovers with the spirit in which the young lady I had my account from, represented it at a visit where I 'I understand very well what you meant by had the honour to be present; but it seems your mention of Platonic love. I shall be glad Dick Crastin, the admirer of Honoria, and to meet you immediately in Hyde-park, or beTom Tulip, the pretender to Flavia, were pur-hind Montague-house, or attend you to Barnposely admitted together by the ladies, that elms, or any other fashionable place that's fit each might show the other that her lover had for a gentleman to die in, that you shall apthe superiority in the accomplishments of that point for, sort of creature whom the sillier part of women call a fine gentleman. As this age has a much more gross taste in courtship, as well as in every thing else, than the last had, these gen- Tulip's colour changed at the reading of this tlemen are instances of it in their different man- epistle; for which reason his mistress snatched ner of application. Tulip is ever making al- it to read the contents. While she was doing lusions to the vigour of his person, the sinewy so, Tulip went away; and the ladies now force of his make: while Crastin professes a agreeing in a common calamity, bewailed towary observation of the turns of his mistress's gether the danger of their lovers. They immind.-Tulip gives himself the air of a resist-mediately undressed to go out, and took hackless ravisher, Crastin practises that of a skilful neys to prevent mischief; but, after alarming lover. Poetry is the inseparable property of all parts of the town, Crastin was found by every man in love; and as men of wit write his widow in his pumps at Hyde-park, which verses on those occasions, the rest of the world appointment Tulip never kept, but made his repeat the verses of others. These servants escape into the country. Flavia tears her hair of the ladies were used to imitate their man- for his inglorious safety, curses and despises ner of conversation, and allude to one another, her charmer, and is fallen into love with Crasrather than interchange discourse in what they tin: which is the first part of the history of said when they met. Tulip the other day seiz- the rival mother. ed his mistress's hand, and repeated out of Ovid's Art of Love. No. 92.] Friday, June 15, 1711. -Convivæ propè dissentire videntur, R. Hor. Lib. 2. Ep. ii. 61. LOOKING over the late packets of letters which have been sent to me, I found the following: MR. SPECTATOR, When Crastin had uttered these verses with a tenderness which at once spoke passion and respect, Honoria cast a triumphant glance at 'Your paper is a part of my tea-equipage, Flavia, as exulting in the elegance of Cras- and my servant knows my humour so well, tin's courtship, and upbraiding her with the that calling for my breakfast this morning (it homeliness of Tulip's. Tulip understood the being past my usual hour), she answered, The reproach, and in return began to applaud the Spectator was not yet come in; but that the wisdom of old amorous gentlemen, who turn-tea-kettle boiled, and she expected it every ed their mistress's imagination as far as possi- moment. Having thus in part signified to you ble from what they had long themselves forgot, the esteem and veneration which I have for and ended his discourse with a sly commen-you, I must put you in mind of the catalogue dation of the doctrine of Platonic love; at the of books which you have promised to recomsame time he ran over, with a laughing eye, mend to our sex; for I have deferred furCrastin's thin legs, meager looks, and spare nishing my closet with authors, till I receive body. The old gentleman immediately left your advise in this particular, being your daily the room with some disorder, and the conver. [disciple and humble servant, sation fell upon untimely passion, after-love, and unreasonable youth. Tulip sung, danced' 'LEONORA.' In answer to my fair disciple, whom I am *Lord Rochester's Imitation of the first Satire of Horace very proud of, I must acquaint her and the VOL. I. 16 rest of my readers, that since I have called | fifteen letters; Sophonísba, or Hannibal's out for help in my catalogue of a lady's libra-Overthrow, in a dozen; The 'Innocent Adulry, I have received many letters upon that tery is likewise highly approved of: Mithrihead, some of which I shall give an account date, King of Pontus, has many friends; of. Alexander the Great and Aurengzebe have the In the first class, I shall take notice of those same number of voices; but Theodosius, or which come to me from eminent booksellers, the Force of Love, carries it from all the rest. who every one of them mention with respect I should in the last place, mention such books the authors they have printed, and consequent-as have been proposed by men of learning, and ly have an eye to their own advantage more those who appear competent judges of this than to that of the ladies. One tells me, that matter, and must here take occasion to thank he thinks it absolutely necessary for women to A. B. whoever it is that conceals himself unhave true notions of right and equity, and that der these two letters, for his advice upon this therefore they canot peruse a better book than subject. But as I find the work I have underDalton's Country Justice. Another thinks taken to be very difficult, I shall defer the exethey cannot be without The Complete Jockey.cuting of it till I am further acquainted with the A third observing the curiosity and desire of thoughts of my judicious contemporaries, and prying into secrets, which he tells me is natu-have time to examine the several books they ral to the fair-sex, is of opinion this female in-offer to me: being resolved, in an affair of clination, if well directed, might turn very this moment, to proceed with the greatest much to their advantage, and therefore re-caution." commends to me Mr. Mede upon the Revela- In the meanwhile, as I have taken the ladies tions. A fourth lays down as an unques-under my particular care, I shall make it my tioned truth, that a lady cannot be thoroughly business to find out in the best authors, anciaccomplished who has not read The Secret ent and modern, such passages as may be for Treaties and Negotiations of Marshal d'Es- their use, and endeavour to accommodate them trades. Mr. Jacob Townson, junior, is of as well as I can to their taste; not questioning opinion, that Bayle's Dictionary might be of but the valuable part of the sex will easily parvery great use to the ladies, in order to make don me, if from time to time I laugh at those them general scholars. Another, whose name little vanities and follies which appear in the I have forgotten, thinks it highly proper that behaviour of some of them, and which are every woman with child should read Mr. Wall's more proper for ridicule than a serious cenHistory of Infant Baptism; as another is very sure. Most books being calculated for male importunate with me to recommend to all my readers, and generally written with an eye to female readers The finishing Stroke; being men of learning, makes a work of this nature a Vindication of the Patriarchal Scheme, &c. the more necessary; besides, I am the more In the second class, I shall mention books encouraged, because I flatter myself that I see which are recommended by husbands, if I may the sex daily improving by these my speculations. believe the writers of them. Whether or no My fair readers are already deeper scholars they are real husbands or personated ones, I than the beaux. I could name some of them cannot tell; but the books they recommend are who talk much better than several gentlemen as follow. A Paraphrase on the History of that make a figure at Will's; and as I freSusannah. Rules to keep Leut. The Chris- quently receive letters from the fine ladies and tian's Overthrow prevented. A Dissuasive pretty fellows, I cannot but observe that the from the Play-house. The Virtues of Cam- former are superior to the others, not only in phire, with Directions to make Camphire Tea. the sense but in the spelling. This cannot but The Pleasures of a Country Life. The Gov- have a good effect upon the female world, and ernment of the Tongue. A letter dated from keep them from being charmed by those empCheapside, desires me that I would advise all ty coxcombs that have hitherto been admired young wives to make themselves mistresses of among the women, though laughed at among Wingate's Arithmetic, and concludes with a the men. postscript, that he hopes I will not forget The I am credibly informed that Tom Tattle Countess of Kent's Receipts. passes for an impertinent fellow, that Will I may reckon the ladies themselves as a third Trippet begins to be smoked, and that Frank class among these my correspondents and pri- Smoothly himself is within a month of a coxvy-counsellors. In a letter from one of them, comb, in case I think fit to continue this paI am advised to place Pharamond at the head per. For my part, as it is my business in of my catalogue, and, if I think proper, to some measure to detect such as would lead give the second place to Cassandra.* Coquet-astray weak minds by their false pretences to illa begs me not to think of nailing women up-wit and judgment, humour and gallantry, I on their knees with manuals of devotion, nor shall not fail to lend the best light I am able of scorching their faces with books of house-to the fair sex for the continuation of these wifery. Florella desires to know if there are their discoveries. any books written against prudes, and entreats me, if there are, to give them a place in my library. Plays of all sorts have their several No. 93.] Saturday, June 16, 1711. advocates: All for Love is mentioned in above * Two celebrated French Romances, written by M. La Calprenéde. Spatio brevi L. Spem longam reseces; dum loquimur, fugerit invida They lengthen'd hopes with prudence bound The envious moments wing their flight; Nor trust to-morrow's doubtful light. Francis. the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost every day of our lives. A man has frequent opportunities of mitigating the fierceness of a party; of doing justice to the 'character of a deserving man; of softening the envious, quieting the angry, and rectifying the prejudiced; which are all of them employments suited to a reasonable nature, and bring great satisfaction to the person who can busy himself in them with discretion. WE all of us complain of the shortness of time, saith Seneca, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, says he, are spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing There is another kind of virtue that may nothing that we ought to do. We are always find employment for those retired hours in complaining our days are few, and acting as which we are altogether left to ourselves, and though there would be no end of them. That destitute of company and conversation; 1 noble philosopher has described our inconsist-mean that intercourse and communication ency with ourselves in this particular, by all which every reasonable creature ought to those various turns of expression and thought maintain with the great Author of his being. which are peculiar to his writings. The man who lives under an habitual sense possible for him to be alone. His thoughts and passions are the most busied at such hours when those of other men are the most unactive. He no sooner steps out of the world but his heart burns with devotion, swells with hope, and triumphs in the consciousness of that presence which every where surrounds him; or on the contrary, pours out its fears, its sorrows, its apprehensions, to the great supporter of its existence. I often consider mankind as wholly incon- of the divine presence keeps up a perpetual sistent with itself in a point that bears some cheerfulness of temper, and enjoys every moaffinity to the former. Though we seem griev-ment the satisfaction of thinking himself in ed at the shortness of life in general, we are company with his dearest and best of friends. wishing every period of it at an end The The time never lies heavy upon him: it is imminor longs to be at age, then to be a man of business, then to make up an estate, then to arrive at honours, then to retire. Thus although the whole life is allowed by every one to be short, the several divisions of it appear long and tedious. We are for lengthening our span in general, but would 'fain contract the parts of which it is composed. The usurer would be very well satisfied to have all the time annihilated that lies between the present moment and the next quarter-day. The politician would be contented to lose three years in his life, could he place things in the posture which he fancies they will stand in after such a revolution of time. The lover would be glad to strike out of his existence all the moments that are to pass away before the happy meeting. Thus, as fast as our time runs, we should be very glad in most parts of our lives that ran much faster than it does. Several hours of the day hang upon our hands, nay, we wish away whole years; and travel through time as through a country filled with many wild and When a man has but a little stock to imempty wastes, which we would fain hurry prove, and has opportunities of turning it all over, that we may arrive at those several lit-to good account, what shall we think of him if tle settlements or imaginary points of rest which are dispersed up and down in it. If we divide the life of most men into twenty parts, we shall find that at least nineteen of them are mere gaps and chasms, which are neither filled with pleasure nor business. I do not however include in this calculation the life of those men who are in a perpetual hurry of affairs, but of those only who are not always engaged in scenes of action; and I hope I shall not do an unacceptable piece of service to these persons, if 1 point out to them certain methods for the filling up their empty spaces of life. The methods I shall propose to them are as follow. I have here only considered the necessity of a man's being virtuous, that he may have something to do; but if we consider further, that the exercise of virtue is not only an amusement for the time it lasts, but that its influence extends to those parts of our existence which lie beyond the grave, and that our whole eternity is to take its colour from those hours which we here employ in virtue or in vice, the argument redoubles upon us, for putting in practice this method of passing away our time. he suffers nineteen parts of it to lie dead, and perhaps employs even the twentieth to his ruin or disadvantage? But because the mind cannot be always in its fervours, nor strained up to a pitch of virtue, it is necessary to find out proper employments for it in its relaxations. The next method therefore that I would propose to fill up our time, should be useful and innocent diversions. I must confess I think it is below reasonable creatures to be altogether conversant in such diversions as are merely innocent, and have nothing else to recommend them, but that there is no hurt in them. Whether any kind of gaining has even thus much The first is the exercise of virtue, in the to say for itself, I shall not determine; but I most general acceptation of the word. That thin'. it is very wonderful to see persons of the particular scheme which comprehends the so- best sense passing away a dozen hours toge. cial virtues, may give employment to the most ther in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards, industrious temper, and find a man in business with no other conversation but what is made more than the most active station of life. To up of a few game phrases, and no other ideas advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort but those of black or red spots ranged together |