never heard of afterwards. It is a worthy where their whole business is to draw off the attempt to undertake the cause of distressed attention of the spectators from the entertainyouth; and it is a noble piece of knight-erran-ment, and to fix it upon themselves; and it is try to enter the list against so many armed to be observed that the impertinence is ever pedagogues. It is pity but we had a set of loudest, when the set happens to be made up men, polite in their behaviour and method of of three or four females who have got what teaching, who should be put into a condition you call a woman's man among them. of being above flattering or fearing the parents I am at a loss to know from whom people of those they instruct. We might then possi- of fortune should learn this behaviour, unless bly see learning become a pleasure, and chil- it be from the footmen who keep their places dren delighting themselves in that which they at a new play, and are often seen passing away now abhor for coming upon such hard terms their time in sets at all-fours in the face of a to them. What would be still a greater hap- full house, and with a perfect disregard to piness arising from the care of such instruc- the people of quality sitting on each side of tors, would be, that we should have no more them. pedants, nor any bred to learning who had For preserving therefore the decency of not genius for it. I am, with the utmost sin-public assemblies, methinks it would be but cerity, 'Sir, • Your most affectionate humble servant.' MR. SPECTATOR, reasonable that those who disturb others should pay at least a double price for their places; or rather women of birth and distinction should be informed, that a levity of behaviour in the eyes of people of understanding degrades them. below their meanest attendants; and gentlemen should know that a fine coat is a livery, when the person who wears it discovers no higher sense than that of a footman. 'I am, Sir, 'Your most humble servant." MR. SPECTATOR, Bedfordshire, Sept. 1, 1711. Richmond, Sept. 5, 1711. 'I am a boy of fourteen years of age, and have for this last year been under the tuition of a doctor of divinity, who has taken the school of this place under his care;* From the gentleman's great tenderness to me and friendship to my father, I am very happy in learning my book with pleasure. We never leave off our diversions any farther than to salute him at hours of play when he pleases to 'I am one of those whom every body calls look on. It is impossible for any of us to love a poacher, and sometimes go out to course with our own parents better than we do him. He a brace of greyhounds, a mastiff, and a spaniel never gives any of us a harsh word, and we or two; and when I am weary with coursing, think it the greatest punishment in the world and have killed bears enough, go to an alewhen he will not speak to any of us. My house to refresh myself. I beg the favour of brother and I are both together inditing this you (as you set up for a reformer) to send us letter. He is a year older than I am, but is word how many dogs you will allow us to go now ready to break his heart that the doctor with, how many full pots of ale to drink, and has not taken any notice of him these three how many hares to kill in a day, and you will days. If you please to print this he will see do a great piece of service to all the sportsmen. it, and we hope, taking it for my brother's Be quick then, for the time of coarsing is earnest desire to be restored to his favour, he come on. will again smile upon him. Your most obedient servant, 'MR. SPECTATOR, 'T. S.' Yours, in haste, ISAAC HEDGEDITCH. No. 169.] Thursday, September 13, 1711. 'You have represented several sorts of impertinents singly, I wish you would now proceed and describe some of them in sets. It often happens in public assemblies, that a party who came thither together, or whose Ter. Andr. Act i. Sc-1. impertinencies are of an equal pitch, act in His manner of life was this; to bear with every body's concert, and are so full of themselves, as to humours; to comply with the inclinations and pursuits give disturbance to all that are about them. of those he conversed with: to contradict nobody; never Sometimes you have a set of whisperers who to assume a superiority over others. This is the ready lay their hands together in order to sacrifice way to gain applause, without exciting envy. every body within their observation; some- MAN is subject to innumerable pains and times a set of laughers that keep up an insipid mirth in their own corner, and by their noise and gestures show they have no respect for the rest of the company. You frequently meet with these sets at the opera, the play, the water-works,t and other public meetings, *This was Dr. Nicholas Brady, who assisted Tate in the new version of the Psalms; he died rector of Richmond and Clapham, in Surrey, in 1726. The Water-theatre, a favourite amusement of those times, was invented by one Mr. Winstanley, and exhibited sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough. in life, we are continually adding grief to grief, and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another. Every man's natural weight of afflictions is still made more heavy by the envy, malice, treachery, at the lower end of Piccadilly; it consisted of sea-gods, goddesses, &c. playing and spouting out water, and fire mingled with water; performed every evening between five and six. or injustice of his neighbour. At the same of a writer, who had not a soul filled with time that the storm beats upon the whole great ideas, and a general benevolence to species, we are falling foul upon one ano- mankind. In that celebrated passage of Sallust, where ther. * Half the misery of human life might be ex- Cæsar and Cato are placed in such beautiful, tinguished, would men alleviate the general but opposite lights; Cæsar's character is curse they lie under, by mutual offices of com- chiefly made up of good-nature, as it showed passion, benevolence, and humanity. There itself in all its forms towards his friends or his is nothing therefore which we ought more to enemies, his servants or dependants, the guilty encourage in ourselves and others, than that or the distressed As for Cato's character, it disposition of mind which in our language goes is rather awful than amiable. Justice seems under the title of good-nature, and which I most agreeable to the nature of God, and shall choose for the subject of this day's spe- mercy to that of man. A being who has noculation. thing to pardon in himself, may reward every Good-nature is more agreeable in conversa-man according to his works; but he whose tion than wit, and gives a certain air to the very best actions must be seen with grains of countenance which is more amiable than atlowance, cannot be too mild, moderate, and beauty. It shows virtue in the fairest light, forgiving. For this reason, among all the takes off in some measure from the deformity monstrous characters in human nature, there of vice, and makes even folly an impertinence is none so odious, nor indeed so exquisitely risupportable. diculous, as that of a rigid severe temper in a worthless man. There is no society or conversation to be kept up in the world without good-nature, or This part of good-nature however, which something which must bear its appearance, consists in the pardoning and overlooking of or supply its place. For this reason mankind faults, is to be exercised only in doing ourhave been forced to invent a kind of artificial selves justice, and that too in the ordinary comhumanity, which is what we express by the merce and occurrences of life; for in the pubword good-breeding. For if we examine tho-lic administration of justice, mercy to one may roughly the idea of what we call so, we shall be cruelty to others. find it to be nothing else but an imitation and It is grown almost into a maxim, that goodmimickry of good-nature, or in other terms, af-natured men are not always men of the inost fability, complaisance, and easiness of temper wit. This observation in my opinion, has no reduced into an art. foundation in nature. The greatest wits I These exterior shows and appearances of have conversed with are men eminent for their humanity render a man wonderfully popular humanity. I take therefore this remark to and beloved, when they are founded upon a real good-nature; but without it are like hypocrisy in religion, or a bare form of holiness, which, when it is discovered, makes a man more detestable than professed impiety. have been occasioned by two reasons. First, because ill-nature among ordinary observers passes for wit. A spiteful saying gratifies so many little passions in those who hear it, that it generally meets with a good reception. The Good-nature is generally born with us; laugh rises upon it, and the man who utters it health, prosperity, and kind treatment from is looked upon as a shrewd satirist. This may the world are great cherishers of it where be one reason, why a great many pleasant they find it; but nothing is capable of forcing companions appear so surprisingly dull, when it up, where it does not grow of itself. It is one of the blessings of a happy constitution, which education may improve but not produce. they have endeavoured to be merry in print ; the public being more just than private clubs or assemblies, in distinguishing between what is wit, and what is ill-nature. Xenophon in the life of his imaginary prince, Another reason why the good-natured man whom he describes as a pattern for real ones, may sometimes bring his wit in question, is, is always celebrating the philanthropy or perhaps, because he is apt to be moved with good-nature of his hero, which he tells us he compassion for those misfortunes or infirmities, brought into the world with him, and gives which another would turn into ridicule, and many remarkable instances of it in his child by that means gain the reputation of a wit. hood, as well as in all the several parts of his The ill-natured man, though but of equal life.* Nay, on his death-bed, he describes parts, gives himself a larger field to expatiate him as being pleased, that while his soul re-in; he exposes those failings in human nature turned to him who made it, his body should which the other would cast a veil over, laughs incorporate with the great mother of all things, at vices which the other either excuses or conand by that means become beneficial to mankind. For which reason, he gives his sons a positive order not to inshrine it in gold or silver, but to lay it in the earth as soon as the life was gone out of it. An instance of such an overflowing of humanity, such an exuberant love to mankind, could not have entered into the imagination Xenoph. De Cyri Instit. lib. viii. cap. vii. sect. 3. edit. J. A. Ern. 8vo. tom. i. p. 550. ceals, gives utterance to reflections which the other stifles, falls indifferently upon friends or enemies, exposes the person who has obliged him, and, in short, sticks at nothing that may establish his character of a wit. It is no wonder therefore he succeeds in it better than the man of humanity, as a person who makes use of indirect methods is more likely to grow rich than the fair trader. L. * Sallust. Bell. Catil. c. liv. No. 170.] Friday, September 14, 1711. In amore hæc omnia insunt vitia: injuriæ, In love are all these ills: suspicions, quarrels, The jealous man's disease is of so malignant a nature, that it converts all it takes into its own nourishment. A cool behaviour sets him on the rack, and is interpreted as an instance of aversion or indifference; a fond one raises his suspicions, and looks too much like dissimulation and artifice. If the person he loves be cheerful, her thoughts must be employed on another; and if sad, she is certainly thinking on himself. In short, there is no word or gesture so insignificant, but it gives him new hints, feeds his suspicions, and furnishes him with fresh matters of discovery: so that if we UPON looking over the letters of my female correspondents, I find several from women complaining of jealous husbands, and at the same time protesting their own innocence; and desiring my advice on this occasion. I shall therefore take this subject into my con- consider the effects of his passion, one would sideration; and the more willingly, because I rather think it proceeded from an inveterate find that the Marquis of Halifax, who, in his hatred, than an excessive love; for certainly Advice to a Daughter, has instructed a wife none can meet with more disquietude and how to behave herself towards a false, an intem- uneasiness than a suspected wife, if we except perate, a choleric, a sullen, a covetous, or a the jealous husband. silly husband, has not spoken one word of a jealous husband, But the great unhappiness of this passion is, that it naturally tends to alienate the affec'Jealousy is that pain which a man feels tion which it is so solicitous to ingross; and from the apprehension that he is not equally that for these two reasons, because it lays beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.' too great a constraint on the words and acNow because our inward passions and inclina- tions of the suspected person, and at the same tions can never make themselves visible, it is time shows you have no honourable opinion impossible for a jealous man to be thoroughly of her; both of which are strong motives to cured of his suspicions. His thoughts hang at aversion. best in a state of doubtfulness and uncertainty : Nor is this the worst effect of jealousy; for and are never capable of receiving any satis-it often draws after it a more fatal train of faction on the advantageous side; so that his consequences, and makes the person you susinquiries are most successful when they discover pect guilty of the very crimes you are so much nothing. His pleasure arises from his disap-afraid of. It is very natural for such who are pointments, and his life is spent in pursuit of treated ill and upbraided falsely, to find out a secret that destroys his happiness if he chance an intimate friend that will hear their comto find it. plaints, condole their sufferings, and endeavour An ardeut love is always a strong ingredient to sooth and assuage their secret resentments. in this passion; for the same affection which Besides, jealousy puts a woman often in mind stirs up the jealous man's desires, and gives of an ill thing that she would not otherwise the party beloved so beautiful a figure in his perhaps have thought of, and fills her imagiimagination, makes him believe she kindles nation with such an unlucky idea, as in time the same passion in others, and appears as grows familiar, excites desire, and loses all the amiable to all beholders. And as jealousy thus shame and horror which might at first attend it. arises from an extraordinary love, it is of so Nor is it a wonder if she who suffers wrongfuldelicate a nature, that it scorns to take up ly in a man's opinion of her, and has therefore with any thing less than an equal return of nothing to forfeit in his esteem, resolves to give love. Not the warmest expressions of affection, him reason for his suspicions, and to enjoy the the softest and most tender hypocrisy, are able pleasure of the crime, since she must undergo to give any satisfaction, where we are not per- the ignominy. Such probably were the consuaded that the affection is real, and the satis-siderations that directed the wise man in his faction mutual. For the jealous man wishes advice to husbands: Be not jealous over the himself a kind of deity to the person he loves. wife of thy bosom, and teach her not an evil He would be the only pleasure of her senses, lesson against thyself.' the employment of her thoughts; and is angry at every thing she admires, or takes delight in, besides himself. Phædra's request to his mistress, upon his leaving her for three days, is inimitably beautiful and natural: Cum milite isto præsens, absens ut sies: Be with yon soldier present, as if absent: Give your whole heart, for mine's all your's, to me. ** And here, among the other torments which this passion produces, we may usually observe that none are greater mourners than jealous men, when the person who provoked their jealousy is taken from them. Then it is that their love breaks out furiously, and throws off all the mixtures of suspicion which choked and smothered it before. The beautiful parts of the character rise uppermost in the jealous husband's memory, and upbraid him with the ill usage of so divine a creature as was once in his possession; whilst all the little imperfections, that were before so uneasy to him, wear off from his remembrance, and show them, selves no more. * Ecclesiasticus, ix. 1. We may see what has been said, that jealousy | predominant, we learn from the modern his takes the deepest root in men of amorous dis-tories of America, as well as from our own expositions; and of these we find three kinds who perience in this part of the world, that jealousy are most over-run with it. is no northen passion, but rages most in those The first are those who are conscious to nations that lie nearest the influence of the themselves of any infirmity, whether it be weak-sun. It is a misfortune for a woman to be born ness, old age, deformity, ignorance, or the like. between the tropics; for there lie the hottest These men are so well acquainted with the regions of jealousy, which as you come northunamiable part of themselves, that they have ward cools all along with the climate, till you not the confidence to think they are really be- scarce meet with any thing like it in the polar loved; and are so distrustful of their own mer-circle. Our own nation is very temperately its, that all fondness towards them puts them situated in this respect; and if we meet with out of countenance, and looks like a jest upon some few disordered with the violence of their persons. They grow suspicious on their this passion, they are not the proper growth first looking in a glass, and are stung with jea-of our country, but are many degrees nearer lousy at the sight of a wrinkle. A handsome the sun in their constitutions than in their clifellow immediately alarms them, and every thing that looks young, or gay, turns their thoughts upon their wives. mate. After this frightful account of jealousy, and the persons who are most subject to it, it will A second sort of men, who are most liable to be but fair to show by what means the passion this passion, are those of cunning, wary, and may be best allayed, and those who are posdistrustful tempers. It is a fault very justly sessed with it set at ease. Other faults, indeed found in histories composed by politicians, that are not under the wife's jurisdiction, and should they leave nothing to chance or humour, but if possible, escape her observation; but jeaare still for deriving every action from some lousy calls upon her particularly for its cure, plot or contrivance, for drawing up a perpe- and deserves all her art and application in tual scheme of causes and events, and preserv- the attempt. Besides, she has this for her ing a constant correspondence between the encouragement, that her endeavours will be camp and the council-table. And thus it hap-always pleasing, and that she will still find pens in the affairs of love with men of too re- the affection of her husband rising towards fined a thought. They put a construction on her in proportion as his doubts and suspicions a look, and find out a design in a smile; they vanish; for, as we have seen all along, there is give new senses and significations to words and so great a mixture of love and jealousy as is actions; and are ever tormenting themselves well worth the separating. But this shall be with fancies of their own raising. They gene- the subject of another paper. rally act in a disguise themselves, and therefore L. mistake all outward shows and appearances for hypocrisy in others; so that I believe no men see less of the truth and reality of things, No. 171.] Saturday, September 15, 1711. than these great refiners upon incidents, who are so wonderfully subtile and over-wise in their conceptions. Credula res amor est Love is a credulous passion. Ovid, Met. vii. 826 HAVING in my yesterday's paper discovered the nature of jealousy, and pointed out the persons who are most subject to it, I must here apply myself to my fair correspondents, who desire to live well with a jealous husband, and to ease his mind of its unjust suspicions. Now what these men fancy they know of women by reflection, your lewd and vicious men believe they have learned by experience. They have seen the poor husband so misled by tricks and artifices, and in the midst of his inquiries so lost and bewildered in a crooked intrigue, that they siill suspect an under-plot in every female action; and especially where they see any resemblance in the behaviour of two per- The first rule I shall propose to be observed sons, are apt to fancy it proceeds from the is, that you never seem to dislike in another same design in both. These men therefore what the jealous man is himself guilty of, or bear hard upon the suspected party, pursue to admire any thing in which he himself does her close through all her turnings and wind- not excel. A jealous man is very quick in his ings, and are too well acquainted with the chase applications; he knows how to find a double to be flung off by any false steps, or doubles. edge in an invective, and to draw a satire on Besides, their acquaintance and conversation himself out of a panegyric on another. He has lain wholly among the vicious part of wo-does not trouble himself to consider the perman-kind, and therefore it is no wonder they son, but to direct the character; and is secensure all alike, and look upon the whole sex cretly pleased or confounded, as he finds more as a species of impostors. But if, notwith- or less of himself in it. The commendation standing their private experience, they can get of any thing in another stirs up his jealousy, over these prejudices, and entertain a favour- as it shows you have a value for others beable opinion of some women; yet their own sides himself; but the commendation of that, loose desires will stir up new suspicions from which he himself wants, inflames him more, another side, and make them believe all men as it shows that in some respects you prefer subject to the same inclinations with them- others before him. Jealousy is admirably selves. described in this view by Horace in his ode to Whether these or other motives are most Lydia: Ardeat ipsa licet, tormentis gaudet amantis. Cervicem roseam, et cerea Telephi Quum tu, Lydia, Telephi Laudas brachia, væ meum Forvens difficili bile tumet jecur; Tunc nec mens mihi, nec color Certâ sede manet; humor et in genas Furtim labitur, arguens Quàm lentis penitùs macerer ignibus. Lib. 1. Od. xiii. 1. When Telephus his youthful charms, Juv. Sat. vi. 208. Though equal pains her, peace of mind destroy, But these often carry the humour so far, till This The jealous man is not indeed angry if you dislike another; but if you find those faults, which are to be found in his own character, you discover not only your dislike of another, but of himself. In short, he is so desirous of There is still another secret that can never ingrossing all your love, that he is grieved at fail, if you can once get it believed, and which the want of any charm, which he believes has is often practised by women of greater cunpower to raise it: and if he finds by your ning than virtue. This is to change sides for censures on others, that he is not so agreeable a while with the jealous man, and to turn his in your opinion as he might be, he naturally own passion upon himself; to take some occaconcludes you could love him better if he had sion of growing jealous of him, and to follow other qualifications, and that by consequence the example he himself hath set you. your affection does not rise so high as he thinks counterfeit jealousy will bring him a great it ought. If therefore his temper be grave or deal of pleasure, if he thinks it real; for he sullen, you must not be two much pleased with knows experimentally how much love goes a jest, or transported with any thing that is along with this passion, and will besides feel gay or diverting. If his beauty be none of something like the satisfaction of revenge, in the best, you must be a professed admirer of seeing you undergo all his own tortures. But prudence, or any other quality he is master this, indeed, is an artifice so difficult, and at of, or at least vain enough to think he is. the same time so disengenuous, that it ought In the next place, you must be sure to be never to be put in practice but by such as free and open in your conversation with him, have skill enough to cover the deceit, and inand to let in light upon your actions, t, unra-nocence to render it excusable. vel all your designs, and discover every secret, however trifling or indifferent. A jealous husband has a particular aversion to winks and whispers, and if he does not see to the bottom of every thing, will be sure to go beyond it in his fears and suspicions. He will Mariamne had all the charms that beauty, always expect to be your chief confident, and birth, wit, and youth could give a woman, and where he finds himself kept out of a secret, Herod all the love that such charms are able to will believe there is more in it than there raise in a warm and amorous disposition. In should be. And here it is of great concern, the midst of this his fondness for Mariamne, that you preserve the character of your since- he put her brother to death, as he did her farity uniform and of a piece; for if he once finds ther not many years after. The barbarity of a false gloss put upon any single action, he the action was represented to Mark Antony, quickly suspects all the rest: his working ima- who immediately summoned Herod into Egypt, gination immediately takes a false hint, and to answer for the crime that was there laid to runs off with it into several remote consequen-his charge. Herod attributed the summons to ces, till he has proved very ingenious in work- Antony's desire of Mariamne, whom therefore ing out his own misery. before his departure, he gave into the custody If both these methods fail, the best way will of his uncle Joseph, with private orders to put be to let him see you are much cast down and her to death, if any such violence was offered afflicted for the ill opinion he entertains of to himself. This Joseph was much delighted you, and the disquietudes he himself suffers with Mariamne's conversation, and endeavourfor your sake. There are many who take a led with all his art and rhetoric, to set out the kind of barbarous pleasure in the jealousy of excess of Herod's passion for her; but when those who love them, that insult over an aching heart, and triumph in their charms which are able to excite so much uneasiness: I shall conclude this essay with the story of Herod and Mariamne, as I have collected it out of Josephus;* which may serve almost as an example to whatever can be said on this subject. Antiquities of the Jews, book xv. chap. 3. sect. 5, 6, 9; chap. 7. sect. 1. 2, &c, |