abroad, when her careless husband, sus- that distemper, when my niece Kitty beg pecting she had saved some money, searches ged leave to assure me, that whatever I every corner, till at length he finds this might think, several great philosophers, same ticket; which he immediately carries both ancient and modern, were of opinion, abroad, sells, and squanders away the mo- that both pleasure and pain were imaginary ney without the wife's suspecting any thing distinctions, and that there was no such of the matter. A day or two after this, this thing as either in rerum natura. I have friend, who was a woman, comes and brings often heard them affirm that the fire was the wife word, that she had a benefit of not hot; and one day when I, with the aufive hundred pounds. The poor creature thority of an old fellow, desired one of them overjoyed, flies up stairs to her husband, to put my blue cloak on my knees, she an who was then at work, and desires him to swered, "Sir, I will reach the cloak; but leave his loom for that evening, and come take notice, I do not do it as allowing your and drink with a friend of his and her's be- description; for it might as well be called low. The man received this cheerful in- yellow as blue; for colour is nothing but the vitation as bad husbands sometimes do, and various infractions of the rays of the sun" after a cross word or two, told her he would Miss Molly told me one day, that to say not come. His wife with tenderness renew-snow was white, is allowing a vulgar error; ed her importunity, and at length said to for as it contains a great quantity of nitrous him, "My love! I have within these few particles, it might be more reasonably supmonths, unknown to you, scraped together posed to be black. In short, the young as much money as has bought us a ticket husseys would persuade me, that to believe in the lottery, and now here is Mrs. Quick one's eyes is a sure way to be deceived; and come to tell me, that it is come up this have often advised me, by no means to trust morning a five hundred pound prize." The any thing so fallible as my senses. What husband replies immediately, "You lie, I have to beg of you now is, to turn one you slut, you have no ticket, for I have sold speculation to the due regulation of female it. "The poor woman upon this faints away literature, so far at least as to make it com in a fit, recovers, and is now run distracted. sistent with the quiet of such whose fate it As she had no design to defraud her hus- is to be liable to its insults; and to tell us band, but was willing only to participate in the difference between a gentleman that his good fortune, every one pities her, but should make cheese-cakes and raise paste, thinks her husband's punishment but just. and a lady that reads Locke, and under This, sir, is a matter of fact, and would, stands the mathematics. In which you if the persons and circumstances were extremely oblige your hearty friend and greater, in a well-wrought play be called humble servant, Beautiful Distress. I have only sketched it out with chalk, and know a good hand can make a moving picture with worse materials. Sir, &c.

T.

I will

'ABRAHAM THRIFTY.'

No. 243.] Saturday, December 8, 1711.

honesti vides; quæ si oculis cerneretur, mirabilem Formam quidem ipsam, Marce fili, et tanquam facien amores (ut ait Plato) excitaret sapientiæ. Tull of

'MR. SPECTATOR,-I am what the world calls a warm fellow, and by good success in trade I have raised myself to a capacity of You see, my son Marcus, virtue as it were embodied making some figure in the world; but no which, if it could be made the object of sight, would (a matter for that. I have now under my Plato says) excite in us a wonderful love of wisdom. guardianship a couple of nieces, who will I Do not remember to have read any discertainly make me run mad; which you course written expressly upon the beauty will not wonder at, when I tell you they and loveliness of virtue, without consider are female virtuosos, and during the three ing it as a duty, and as the means of making years and a half that I have had them un- us happy both now and hereafter. I design der my care, they never in the least in- therefore this speculation as an essay upo clined their thoughts towards any one single that subject in which I shall consider virtue part of the character of a notable woman. no farther than as it is in itself of an amiabl Whilst they should have been considering nature, after having premised, that I u the proper ingredients for a sack-posset, derstand by the word virtue such a genera you should hear a dispute concerning the notion as is affixed to it by the writers of magnetic virtue of the loadstone, or per-morality, and which by devout men gene haps the pressure of the atmosphere. rally goes under the name of religion, an Their language is peculiar to themselves, by men of the world under the name o and they scorn to express themselves, on honour. the meanest trifles, with words that are not of a Latin derivation. But this were supportable still, would they suffer me to enjoy an uninterrupted ignorance; but unless I fall in with their abstracted ideas of things, (as they call them) I must not expect to smoke one pipe in quiet. In a late fit of the gout I complained of the pain of

Hypocrisy itself does great honour, a rather justice, to religion, and tacitly a knowledges it to be an ornament to huma nature. The hypocrite would not be at s much pains to put on the appearance virtue, if he did not know it was the mo proper and effectual means to gain the lo and esteem of mankind.

We learn from Hierocles, it was a com- | views, and make her altogether lovely, are
mon saying among the heathens, that the cheerfulness and good-nature. These gene-
vise man hates nobody, but only loves the rally go together, as a man cannot be
irtuous.
agreeable to others who is not easy within
himself. They are both very requisite in a
virtuous mind, to keep out melancholy from
the many serious thoughts it is engaged in,
and to hinder its natural hatred of vice from
souring into severity, and censoriousness.

Tully has a very beautiful gradation of
houghts to show how amiable virtue is.
We love a virtuous man,' says he, who
ves in the remotest parts of the earth,
hough we are altogether out of the reach
f his virtue, and can receive from it no If virtue is of this amiable nature, what
manner of benefit. Nay, one who died se- can we think of those who can look upon
eral ages ago, raises a secret fondness and it with an eye of hatred and ill-will, or can
enevolence for him in our minds, when we suffer their aversion for a party to blot out
ead his story. Nay, what is still more, one all the merit of the person who is engaged
ho has been the enemy of our country, in it? A man must be excessively stupid,
rovided his wars were regulated by justice as well as uncharitable, who believes there
nd humanity, as in the instance of Pyrrhus, is no virtue but on his own side, and that
hom Tully mentions on this occasion in there are not men as honest as himself who
pposition to Hannibal. Such is the natural may differ from him in political principles.
eauty and loveliness of virtue.
Men may oppose one another in some par-
Stoicism, which was the pedantry of vir- ticulars, but ought not to carry their hatred
e, ascribes all good qualifications of what to those qualities which are of so amiable a
Find soever to the virtuous man. Accord- nature in themselves, and have nothing to
gly Cato, in the character Tully has left do with the points in dispute. Men of vir-
f him, carries matters so far, that he would tue, though of different interests ought to
ot allow any one but a virtuous man to be consider themselves as more nearly united
andsome. This indeed looks more like a with one another, than with the vicious
philosophical rant than the real opinion of part of mankind, who embark with them
wise man; yet this was what Cato very in the same civil concerns. We should
eriously maintained. In short, the Stoics bear the same love towards a man of honour
hought they could not sufficiently repre- who is a living antagonist, which Tully
ent the excellence of virtue, if they did not tells us in the forementioned passage, every
comprehend in the notion of it all possible one naturally does to an enemy that is dead.
perfections; and therefore did not only sup-In short, we should esteem virtue though
pose, that it was transcendently beautiful in a foe, and abhor vice though in a friend.
n itself, but that it made the very body I speak this with an eye to those cruel
miable, and banished every kind of de- treatments which men of all sides are apt
ormity from the person in whom it resided. to give the characters of those who do not
It is a common observation that the most agree with them. How many persons
bandoned to all sense of goodness, are apt of undoubted probity and exemplary vir-
wish those who are related to them of a tue, on either side, are blackened and de-
ifferent character; and it is very observ-famed? How many men of honour exposed
ble, that none are more struck with the to public obloquy and reproach? Those
harms of virtue in the fair sex than those therefore who are either the instruments
ho by their very admiration of it are car- or abettors in such infernal dealings, ought
ied to a desire of ruining it.
to be looked upon as persons who make use
A virtuous mind in a fair body is indeed of religion to promote their cause, not of
fine picture in a good light, and therefore their cause to promote religion.
is no wonder that it makes the beautiful

ex all over charms.

C.

As virtue in general is of an amiable and No. 244.] Monday, December 10, 1711.

Judex et callidus audis.

'Hor. Lib. 2. Sat. vii. 101, A judge of painting you, a connoisseur.

ovely nature, there are some particular
inds of it which are more so than others,
nd these are such as dispose us to do good
mankind. Temperance and abstinence,
aith and devotion, are in themselves per-
'Covent Garden, Dec. 7.
aps as laudable as any other virtues: but 'MR. SPECTATOR,-I cannot, without
ose which make a man popular and be- a double injustice, forbear expressing to
oved, are
justice, charity, munificence, you the satisfaction which a whole clan of
nd, in short, all the good qualities that virtuosos have received from those hints
ender us beneficial to each other. For this which you have lately given the town on
ason even an extravagant man, who has the cartoons of the inimitable Raphael. It
othing else to recommend him but a false should methinks be the business of a Spec-
enerosity, is often more beloved and es- tator to improve the pleasures of sight, and
emed than a person of a much more there cannot be a more immediate way to
nished character, who is defective in this it than recommending the study and ob-
servation of excellent drawings and pic-
When I first went to view those of

articular.

The two great ornaments of virtue,tures.

which you have celebrated, I must

life

confess I was but barely pleased; the next | As the shadows in a picture represent the time I liked them better, but at last, as serious or melancholy, so the lights do the I grew better acquainted with them, I bright and lively thoughts. As there should fell deeply in love with them; like wise be but one forcible light in a picture which speeches, they sank deep into my heart: should catch the eye and fall on the hero, for you know, Mr. Spectator, that a man so there should be but one object of our of wit may extremely affect one for the love, even the Author of nature. These present, but if he has not discretion, his and the like reflections, well improved, merit soon vanishes away: while a wise might very much contribute to open the man that has not so great a stock of wit, beauty of that art, and prevent young peo shall nevertheless give you a far greater ple from being poisoned by the ill gusto of and more lasting satisfaction. Just so it any extravagant workman that should be is in a picture that is smartly touched, but imposed upon us. I am, sir, your most not well studied; one may call it a witty humble servant.' picture, though the painter in the mean time may be in danger of being called a fool. 'Mr. SpectatoR,-Though I am a woOn the other hand, a picture that is tho- man, yet I am one of those who confess roughly understood in the whole, and well themselves highly pleased with a specula performed in the particulars, that is begun tion you obliged the world with some time on the foundation of geometry, carried on by ago, from an old Greek poet you call Simothe rules of perspective, architecture, and nides, in relation to the several natures and anatomy, and perfected by a good harmony, distinctions of our own sex. I could not but a just and natural colouring, and such pas- admire how justly the characters of women sions and expressions of the mind as are in this age fall in with the times of Simo almost peculiar to Raphael; this is what nides, there being no one of those sorts I you may justly style a wise picture, and have not at some time or other of my which seldom fails to strike us dumb, until met with a sample of. But, sir, the subwe can assemble all our faculties to make ject of this present address are a set but a tolerable judgment upon it. Other women, comprehended, I think, in the pictures are made for the eyes only, as rat-ninth species of that speculation, called the tles are made for children's ears; and cer- Apes; the description of whom I find to be tainly that picture that only pleases the "That they are such as are both ugly and eye, without representing some well-chosen ill-natured, who have nothing beautiful part of nature or other, does but show what themselves, and endeavour to detract from fine colours are to be sold at the colour- or ridicule every thing that appears shop, and mocks the works of the Creator. others." Now, sir, this sect, as I have If the best imitator of nature is not to be been told, is very frequent in the great esteemed the best painter, but he that makes town where you live; but as my circumthe greatest show and glare of colours; it stance of life obliges me to reside altogether will necessarily follow, that he who can in the country, though not many miles from array himself in the most gaudy draperies London, I cannot have met with a great is best drest, and he that can speak loudest number of them, nor indeed is it a desira the best orator. Every man when he looks ble acquaintance, as I have lately found by on a picture should examine it according to experience. You must know, sir, that at that share of reason he is master of, or he the beginning of this summer a family of will be in danger of making a wrong judg- these apes came and settled for the season ment. If men when they walk abroad not far from the place where I live. As would make more frequent observations on they were strangers in the country, they those beauties of nature which every mo- were visited by the ladies about them, of ment present themselves to their view, they whom I was one, with a humanity usual in would be better judges when they saw her those who pass most of their time in soli well imitated at home. This would help tude. The apes lived with us very agree to correct those errors which most preten-ably our own way until towards the end of ders fall into, who are over hasty in their the summer, when they began to bethink judgments, and will not stay to let reason themselves of returning to town; then it come in for a share in the decision. It is was, Mr. Spectator, that they began to set for want of this that men mistake in this themselves about the proper and distin case, and in common life, a wild extrava-guishing business of their character; and as gant pencil for one that is truly bold and it is said of evil spirits, that they are apt to great, an impudent fellow for a man of true carry away a piece of the house they are courage and bravery, hasty and unreason- about to leave, the apes, without regard able actions for enterprises of spirit and to common mercy, civility, or gratitude, resolution, gaudy colouring for that which thought fit to mimic and fall foul on the is truly beautiful, a false and insinuating faces, dress, and behaviour of their in discourse for simple truth elegantly recom-nocent neighbours, bestowing abominable mended. The parallel will hold through censures and disgraceful appellations all the parts of life and painting too; and monly called nick-names, on all of them; the virtuosos above mentioned will be glad and in short, like true fine ladies, made *o see you draw it with your terms of art. their honest plainness and sincerity matter

com

so in

of ridicule. I could not but acquaint you with these grievances, as well at the desire of all the parties injured, as from my own inclination. I hope, sir, if you cannot propose entirely to reform this evil, you will take such notice of it in some of your future speculations, as may put the deserving part of our sex on their guard against these creatures; and at the same time the apes may be sensible that this sort of mirth is so far from an innocent diversion, that it is in the highest degree that vice which is said to comprehend all others. I am, sir, your humble servant,

T. 'CONSTANTIA FIELD.'

I

among us, and which are very proper to
pass away a winter night for those who do
not care to throw away their time at an
opera, or the play-house. I would gladly
know in particular, what notion you have
of hot-cockles; as also, whether you think
that questions and commands, mottoes,
similies, and cross-purposes, have not more
mirth and wit in them than those public
diversions which are grown so very fashion-
able among us. If you would recommend
to our wives and daughters, who read your
papers with a great deal of pleasure, some
of those sports and pastimes that may be
practised within doors, and by the fire-
side, we who are masters of families should
be hugely obliged to you. I need not tell
No. 245.] Tuesday, December 11, 1711.
you that I would have these sports and
pastimes not only merry but innocent; for
Ficta voluptatis causa sint proxima veris.
which reason I have not mentioned either
Hor. Ars Poet. v, 338.
Fictions to please, should wear the face of truth.
whisk or lanterloo, nor indeed so much as
one-and-thirty.
THERE is nothing which one regards so cated to you my request upon this subject,
After having communi
much with an eye of mirth and pity as in- will be so free as to tell you how my wife
mocence, when it has in it a dash of folly. and I pass away these tedious winter even
At the same time that one esteems the vir-ings with a great deal of pleasure. Though
tue, one is tempted to laugh at the simpli- she be young and handsome, and good
city which accompanies it. When a man is humoured to a miracle, she does not care
made up wholly of the dove, without the
least grain of the serpent in his composition,
he becomes ridiculous in many circum-
stances of life, and very often discredits his
best actions. The Cordeliers tell a story
of their founder St. Francis, that as he
passed the streets in the dusk of the even-
ng, he discovered a young fellow with a
maid in a corner; upon which the good
man, say they, lifted up his hands to hea-
ven with a secret thanksgiving, that there
was still so much Christian charity in the
world. The innocence of the saint made
him mistake the kiss of the lover for a sa-
lute of charity. I am heartily concerned
when I see a virtuous man without a com-
petent knowledge of the world; and if there
be any use in these my papers, it is this,
that without representing vice under any
false alluring notions, they give my reader an
insight into the ways of men, and represent
human nature in all its changeable colours.
The man who has not been engaged in any
of the follies of the world, or, as Shak-
speare expresses it, hackneyed in the
ways of men,' may here find a picture of
ts follies and extravagances. The virtuous
and the innocent may know in speculation
what they could never arrive at by prac-

for gadding abroad like others of her sex.
There is a very friendly man, a colonel in the
army, whom I am mightily obliged to for his
civilities, that comes to see me almost every
night; for he is not one of those giddy young
fellows that cannot live out of a play-house.
When we are together, we very often
make a party at Blind-man's Buff, which
is a sport that I like the better, because
there is a good deal of exercise in it. The
colonel and I are blinded by turns, and you
would laugh your heart out to see what
pains my dear takes to hoodwink us, so
that it is impossible for us to see the least
glimpse of light. The poor colonel some
times hits his nose against a post, and
makes us die with laughing. I have gene
rally the good luck not to hurt myself, but
am very often above half an hour before I
can catch either of them; for you must
know we hide ourselves up and down in
corners, that we may have the more sport.
I only give you this hint as a sample of such
innocent diversions as I would have you
recommend; and am, most esteemed sir,
your ever-loving friend,

TIMOTHY DOODLE.' The following letter was occasioned by ice, my last Thursday's paper upon the abhe crafty, the corruptions of the vicious, sence of lovers, and the methods therein and the reasonings of the prejudiced. Their mentioned of making such absence sup

minds may be opened without being vitiated. portable. It is with an eye to my following corre

pondent, Mr. Timothy Doodle, who seems lation which absent lovers make use of while 'SIR,-Among the several ways of consovery well-meaning man, that I have writ- their souls are in that state of departure, en this short preface, to which I shall sub-which you say is death in love, there are in a letter from the said Mr. Doodle. some very material ones that have escaped SIR,-I could heartily wish that you your notice. Among these, the first and ould let us know your opinion upon seve- most received is a crooked shilling, which al innocent diversions which are in use has administered great comfort to our fore

- Ουχ προς σοι γε πατηρ ην ιπποτα Πηλεύς,
Ουδε Θέτις μητηρ, γλαυκη δε σ' έτικτε θάλασσα,
Πετραι τ' ηλίβατοι, ότι του ναος εστιν απηνής.
Hom. Iliad, vi. 3.

No amorous hero ever gave thee birth,
Nor ever tender goddess brought thee forth,
Some rugged rock's hard entrails gave thee form,
And raging seas produc'd thee in a storm:
A soul well suiting thy tempestuous kind,
So rough thy manners, so untam'd thy mind.

Pope.

is

fathers, and is still made use of on this oc- | No. 246.] Wednesday, December 12, 1711, casion with very good effect in most parts of her majesty's dominions. There are some, I know, who think a crown piece cut into two equal parts, and preserved by the distant lovers, is of more sovereign virtue than the former. But since opinions are divided in this particular, why may not the same persons make use of both? The figure of a heart, whether cut in stone or cast in metal, whether bleeding upon an altar, stuck with darts, or held in the hand of a Cupid, has always been looked upon as talismanic in distresses of this nature. I am acquainted with many a brave fellow who carries his mistress in the lid of his snuff-box, and by that expedient has supported himself under the absence of a whole campaign. For my own part, I have tried all these remedies, but never found so much benefit from any as from a ring, in which my mistress's hair is plaited together very artificially in a kind of true-lover's knot. As I have received great benefit from this secret, I think myself obliged to communicate it to the public for the good of my fellow-subjects. I desire you will add this letter as an appendix to your consolations upon absence, and am, your very humble servant, T. B.'

'MR. SPECTATOR,-As your paper part of the equipage of the tea-table, conjure you to print what I now write to you; for I have no other way to communicate what I have to say to the fair sex on the most important circumstance of life, even "the care of children." I do not understand that you profess your paper is al ways to consist of matters which are only to entertain the learned and polite, but that it may agree with your design to publish some which may tend to the information of mankind in general; and when it does so, you do more than writing wit and hu mour. Give me leave then to tell you, that of all the abuses that ever you have as yet endeavoured to reform, certainly not one wanted so much your assistance as the abuse in nursing of children. It is unmer ciful to see, that a woman endowed with I shall conclude this paper with a letter all the perfections and blessings of nature, from a university gentleman, occasioned by can, as soon as she is delivered, turn off her my last Tuesday's paper, wherein I gave innocent, tender, and helpless infant, and some account of the great feuds which hap-give it up to a woman that is (ten thousand pened formerly in those learned bodies, between the modern Greeks and Trojans.

'SIR,-This will give you to understand, that there is at present in the society, whereof I am a member, a very consider able body of Trojans, who, upon a proper occasion, would not fail to declare ourselves. In the meanwhile we do all we can to annoy our enemies by stratagem, and are resolved by the first opportunity to attack Mr. Joshua Barnes, whom we look upon as the Achilles of the opposite party. As for myself, I have had the reputation ever since I came from school, of being a trusty Trojan, and am resolved never to give quarter to the smallest particle of Greek, wherever I chance to meet it. It is for this reason I take it very ill of you, that you sometimes hang out Greek colours at the head of your paper, and sometimes give a word of the enemy even in the body of it. When I meet with any thing of this nature, I throw down your speculations upon the table, with that form of words which we make use of when we declare war upon an author,

Græcum est, non potest legi.

'I give you this hint, that you may for the future abstain from any such hostilities at your peril.

"TROILUS.'

to one,) neither in health nor good condi
tion, neither sound in mind nor body, that
has neither honour nor reputation, neither
love nor pity for the poor babe, but more
regard for the money than for the whole
child, and never will take farther care
it than what by all the encouragement
money and presents she is forced to; like

of

of

never so

sop's earth, which would not nurse the plant of another ground, although much improved, by reason that plant was not of its own production. And since another's child is no more natural to a nurse than a plant to a strange and different ground, how can it be supposed that the child should thrive; and if it thrives, must it not imbibe the gross humours and quali ties of the nurse, like a plant in a different ground, or like a graft upon a different stock? Do not we observe, that a lamb sucking a goat changes very much its na ture, nay, even its skin and wool into the goat kind? The power of a nurse over a child, by infusing into it with her milk her qualities and disposition, is sufficiently and daily observed. Hence came that old say ing concerning an ill-natured and malicious fellow, that he had imbibed his malice with his nurse's milk, or that some brute or other had been his nurse. Hence Romulus and Remus were said to have been nursed by a wolf; Telephus, the son Hercules, by a hind; Pelias, the son of Nep

of