violated her person, since he knew her sion of what your husband has so bounti will had no part in the action. She parted fully bestowed on you;' and ordered the from him with this oblique permission to immediate execution of Rhynsault. T save a life he had not resolution enough to resign for the safety of his honour. Quicquid est boni moris levitate extinguitur. S Levity of behaviour is the bane of all that is goed and virtuous. The next morning the unhappy Sapphira No. 492.] Wednesday, September 24, 1712 attended the governor, and being led into a remote apartment, submitted to his desires. Rhynsault commended her charms, claimed a familiarity after what had passed between them, and with an air of gayety, in the language of a gallant, bid her return, and take her husband out of prison: but,' continued he, my fair one must not be offended that I have taken care he should not be an interruption to our future assignations.' These last words foreboded what she found when she came to the gaol-her husband executed by the order of Rhynsault! It was remarkable that the woman, who was full of tears and lamentations during the whole course of her afflictions, uttered neither sigh nor complaint, but stood fixed with grief at this consummation of her misfortunes. She betook herself to her abode; and, after having in solitude paid her devotions to him who is the avenger of innocence, she repaired privately to court. Her person, and a certain grandeur of sorrow, negligent of forms, gained her passage into the presence of the duke her sovereign. As soon as she came into the presence, she broke forth into the following words: Behold, O mighty Charles, a wretch weary of life, though it has always been spent with innocence and virtue. It is not in your power to redress my injuries, but it is to avenge them. And if the protection of the distressed, and the punishment of oppressors, is a task worthy of a prince, I bring the duke of Burgundy ample matter for doing honour to his own great name, and wiping infamy off from mine.' When she had spoke this, she delivered the duke a paper reciting her story. He read it with all the emotions that indignation and pity could raise in a prince jealous of his honour in the behaviour of his officers, and prosperity of his subjects. Upon an appointed day, Rhynsault was sent for to court, and, in the presence of a few of the council, confronted by Sapphira. The prince asking, 'Do you know that lady" Rhynsault, as soon as he could recover his surprise, told the duke he would marry her, if his highness would please to think that a reparation. The duke seemed contented with this answer, and stood by during the immediate solemnization of the ceremony. At the conclusion of it he told Rhynsault, Thus far you have done as constrained by my authority: I shall not be satisfied of your kind usage to her, without you sign a gift of your whole estate to her after your decease. To the performance of this also the duke was a witness. When these two acts were executed, the duke turned to the lady, and told her, It now remains for me to put you in quiet posses "Tunbridge, Sept. 18 'DEAR MR. SPECTATOR,-I am a young woman of eighteen years of age, and I do assure you a maid of unspotted reputation, founded upon a very careful carriage in all my looks, words, and actions. At the same time I must own to you, that it is with much constraint to flesh and blood that my be haviour is so strictly irreproachable; for I am naturally addicted to mirth, to gayety, to a free air, to motion, and gadding. Now, what gives me a great deal of anxiety, and is some discouragement in the pursuit of virtue, is, that the young women who run into greater freedoms with the men are more taken notice of than I am. The men are such unthinking sots, that they do not prefer her who restrains all her passions and affections, and keeps much within the bounds of what is lawful, to her who goes to the utmost verge of innocence and parleys at the very brink of vice, whether she shall be a wife or a mistress. But I must appeal to your spectatorial wisdom, who, I find, have passed very much of your time in the study of woman, whether this is not a most unreasonable proceeding. I have read some where that Hobbes of Malmesbury asserts that continent persons have more of what they contain than those who give a loose to their desires. According to this rule, let there be equal age, equal wit, and equal good-humour, in the woman of prudence, and her of liberty; what stores has he to expect who takes the former? What refuse must he be contented with who chooses the latter? Well, but I sat down to write to you to vent my indignation against several pert creatures who are addressed to and courted in this place, while poor I, and two or three like me, are wholly unregarded. Every one of these affect gaining the hearts of your sex. This is generally tempted by a particular manner of can ing themselves with familiarity. Glycer has a dancing walk, and keeps time in ber ordinary gait. Chloe, her sister, who is u willing to interrupt her conquests, come into the room before her with a familiar Dulcissa takes advantage of the approach of the winter, and has introduced ar pretty shiver; closing up her shoulder and shrinking as she moves. All that in this mode carry their fans between bath hands before them. Dulcissa herself, is author of this air, adds the pretty run it: and has also, when she is in very g humour, a taking familiarity in throwing herself into the lowest seat in the room, tting her hooped petticoats fall with a cky decency about her. I know she pracses this way of sitting down in her chamer; and indeed she does it as well as you ay have seen an actress fall down dead in tragedy. Not the least indecency in her osture. If you have observed what pretty arcasses are carried off at the end of a verse the theatre, it will give you a notion how ulcissa plumps into a chair. Here is a tle country girl that is very cunning, that akes her use of being young and unbred, nd outdoes the ensnarers, who are almost vice her age. The air that she takes is to me into company after a walk, and is ery successfully out of breath upon occaon. Her mother is in the secret, and calls er romp, and then looks round to see what oung men stare at her. 'It would take up more than can come to one of your papers, to enumerate all e particular airs of the younger company this place. But I cannot omit Dulceorella, hose manner is the most indolent imaginple, but still as watchful of conquest as the and bring us sober girls into observation, asiest virgin among us. She has a peculiar No. 493.] Thursday, September 25, 1712. Qualem commendes etiam atque etiam adspice, ne mox Anon. It is no unpleasant matter of speculation t of staring at a young fellow, till she sees e has got him, and inflamed him by so uch observation. When she sees she has m, and he begins to toss his head upon it, e is immediately short-sighted, and laours to observe what he is at a distance, ith her eyes half shut. Thus the captive at thought her first struck, is to make to consider the recommendatory epistles ery near approaches, or be wholly disre- that pass round this town from hand to arded. This artifice has done more execu- hand, and the abuse people put upon one on than all the ogling of the rest of the another in that kind. It is indeed come to omen here, with the utmost variety of that pass, that, instead of being the testialf glances, attentive heedlessnesses, child-mony of merit in the person recommended, h inadvertencies, haughty contempts, or the true reading of a letter of this sort is, tificial oversights. After I have said thus uch of ladies among us who fight thus gularly, I am to complain to you of a set familiar romps, who have broken through 1 common rules, and have thought of a ery effectual way of showing more charms an all of us. These, Mr. Spectator, are Le swingers. You are to know these careSs pretty creatures are very innocents gain; and it is to be no matter what they for it is all harmless freedom. They get ropes, as you must have seen the chilen, and are swung by their men visitants. he jest is, that Mr. Such-a-one can name e colour of Mrs. Such-a-one's stockings; d she tells him he is a lying thief, so he and full of roguery; and she will lay a ager, and her sister shall tell the truth if says right, and he cannot tell what colour er garters are of. In this diversion there every many pretty shrieks, not so much r fear of falling, as that their petticoats ould untie; for there is a great care had avoid improprieties; and the lover who ings the lady is to tie her clothes very ose together with his hatband, before she mits him to throw up her heels. Now, Mr. Spectator, except you can te these wantonnesses in their beginnings, VOL. II. 32 The bearer hereof is so uneasy to me, that it will be an act of charity in you to take him off my hands; whether you prefer him or not, it is all one; for I have no manner of kindness for him, or obligation to him or his; and do what you please as to that.' As negligent as men are in this respect, a point of honour is concerned in it; and there is nothing a man should be more ashamed of, than passing a worthless creature into the service or interests of a man who has never injured you. The women indeed are a little too keen in their resentments to trespass often this way: but you shall sometimes know, that the mistress and the maid shall quarrel, and give each other very free lan guage, and at last the lady shall be pacified to turn her out of doors, and give her a very good word to any body else. Hence it is that you see, in a year and a half's time, the same face a domestic in all parts of the town. Good-breeding and good-nature lead people in a great measure to this injustice: when suitors of no consideration will have confidence enough to press upon their superiors those in power are tender of speaking the exceptions they have against them, and are mortgaged into promises out of their impatience of importunity. In this him the word to alarm the watch; he had the impudence to tell me it was against the law. You that are married, and live one day after another the same way, and so on the whole week, I dare say will like him, and he will be glad to have his meat in due season. The fellow is certainly very honest. My service to your lady. Yours, J. T.' Now this was very fair dealing. Jack knew very well, that though the love of order made a man very awkward in his equipage, it was a valuable quality among the queer people who live by rule; and had too much good-sense and good-nature to let the fellow starve, because he was not fit to attend his vivacities. latter case, it would be a very useful in- | We were coming down Essex-street one quiry to know the history of recommenda- night a little flustered, and I was giving tions. There are, you must know, certain abettors of this way of torment, who make it a profession to manage the affairs of candidates. These gentlemen let out their impudence to their clients, and supply any defective recommendation, by informing how such and such a man is to be attacked. They will tell you, get the least scrap from Mr. Such-a-one, and leave the rest to them. When one of these undertakers has your business in hand, you may be sick, absent in town or country, and the patron shall be worried, or you prevail. I remember to have been shown a gentleman some years ago, who punished a whole people for their facility in giving their credentials. This person had belonged to a regiment which I shall end this discourse with a letter of did duty in the West Indies, and, by the recommendation from Horace to Claudius mortality of the place, happened to be Nero. You will see in that letter a slowcommanding officer in the colony. He op-ness to ask a favour, a strong reason for pressed his subjects with great frankness, till he became sensible that he was heartily hated by every man under his command. When he had carried his point to be thus detestable, in a pretended fit of dishumour, and feigned uneasiness of living where he found he was so universally unacceptable, he communicated to the chief inhabitants a design he had to return for England, provided they would give him ample testimonials of their approbation. The planters came into it to a man, and in proportion to his deserving the quite contrary, the words justice, generosity, and courage, were inserted in his commission, not omitting the general good liking of people of all conditions in the colony. The gentleman returns for England, and within a few months after came back to them their governor, on the strength of their own testimonials. Such a rebuke as this cannot indeed happen to easy recommenders, in the ordinary course of things from one hand to another; but how would a man bear to have it said to him, 'The person I took into confidence false, unjust, and has not answered any way on the credit you gave him, has proved the character you gave me of him?' I cannot but conceive very good hopes of that rake Jack Toper of the Temple, for an honest scrupulousness in this point. A friend of his meeting with a servant that had formerly lived with Jack, and having a mind to take him, sent to him to know what faults the fellow had, since he could not please such a careless fellow as he was. His answer was as follows: being unable to deny his good word any longer, and that it is a service to the person to whom he recommends, to comply with what is asked: all which are necessary cir cumstances, both in justice and good-breeding, if a man would ask so as to have reason to complain of a denial; and indeed a man should not in strictness' ask otherwise. In hopes the authority of Horace, who per fectly understood how to live with great men, may have a good effect towards amending this facility in people of condition, and the confidence of those who apply to them without merit, I have translated the epistle. 'To Claudius Nero. 'SIR, Septimus, who waits upon you with this, is very well acquainted with the place you are pleased to allow me in your friendship. For when he beseeches me to recommend him to your notice in such a manner as to be received by you, who are delicate in the choice of your friends and domestics, he knows our intimacy, and unagainst his ambition to be yours, as long as derstands my ability to serve him better than I do myself. I have defended myself possibly could; but fearing the imputation of hiding my power in you out of mean and selfish considerations, I am at last prevailed upon to give you this trouble. Thus, to avoid the appearance of a greater fault, have put on this confidence. If you can forgive this transgression of modesty in be half of a friend, receive this gentleman into your interests and friendship, and take it from me that he is an honest and a brave I man. T. and when completed. The whole examination was summed up with one short question, namely, whether he was prepared for death? The boy, who had been bred up by honest parents, was frighted out of his wits at the solemnity of the proceeding, and by the last dreadful interrogatory; so that, upon making his escape out of this house of mourning, he could never be brought a second time, to the examination, as not being able to go through the terrors of it. Notwithstanding this general form and outside of religion is pretty well worn out among us, there are many persons who, by a natural uncheerfulness of heart, mistaken notions of piety, or weakness of understanding, love to indulge this uncomfortable way of life, and give up themselves a prey to grief and melancholy. Superstitious fears and groundless scruples cut them off from the pleasures of conversation, and all those social entertainments, which are not only innocent, but laudable: as if mirth was made for reprobates, and cheerfulness of heart denied those who are the only persons that have a proper title to it. hought religious to throw as much sanctity as possible into his face, and in particular to abstain from all appearances of mirth and pleasantry, which were looked upon as the marks of a carnal mind. The saint was of sorrowful countenance, and generally aten up with spleen and melancholy. A entleman, who was lately a great ornanent to the learned world, has diverted ne more than once with an account of the eception which he met with from a very amous independent minister, who was head f a colleget in those times. This gentlehan was then a young adventurer in the epublic of letters, and just fitted out for he university with a good cargo of Latin nd Greek. His friends were resolved that e should try his fortune at an election hich was drawing near in the college, of hich the independent minister whom I ave before mentioned was governor. The outh, according to custom, waited on him order to be examined. He was received the door by a servant who was one of at gloomy generation that were then in shion. He conducted him with great sice and seriousness, to a long gallery, ich was darkened at noon-day, and had Sombrius is one of these sons of sorrow. ly a single candle burning in it. After a He thinks himself obliged in duty to be sad ort stay in this melancholy apartment, and disconsolate. He looks on a sudden fit was led into a chamber hung with black, of laughter as a breach of his baptismal ere he entertained himself for some time vow. An innocent jest startles him like the glimmering of a taper, until at blasphemy. Tell him of one who is adgth the head of the college came out to vanced to a title of honour, he lifts up his n from an inner room, with half a dozen hands and eyes: describe a public ceremoht-caps upon his head, and religious ny, he shakes his head; show him a gay Tor in his countenance. The young man equipage, he blesses himself. All the little mbled: but his fears increased, when in- ornaments of life are pomps and vanities. ad of being asked what progress he had Mirth is wanton, and wit profane. He is de in learning, he was examined how he scandalized at youth for being lively, and unded in grace. His Latin and Greek at childhood for being playful. He sits at od him in little stead; he was to give an a christening, or marriage-feast, as at a fuount only of the state of his soul; whe-neral; sighs at the convulsion of a merry r he was of the number of the elect; what s the occasion of the conversion, upon at day of the month, and hour of the it happened; how it was carried on, The gentleman alluded to was Anthony Henley, e contributor to the Tatler. Dr. Garth entertained story, and grows devout when the rest of the company grow pleasant. After all, Sombrius is a religious man, and would have behaved himself very properly, had he lived when christianity was under a gcneral persecution. I would by no means presume to tax such characters with hypocrisy, as is done too frequently; that being a vice which I think none but He who knows the secrets of men's hearts should pretend to discover in another, where the proofs of it do not amount to a demonstration. On the contrary, as there are many excellent persons who are weighed down by this habitual sorrow of heart, they rather deserve our compassion than our reproaches. I think, however, they would do well to consider whether such a behaviour does not deter men from a religious life, by representing it as an unsociable state, that extinguishes all joy and gladness, darkens the face of nature, and destroys the relish of being itself. I have, in former papers, shown how great a tendency there is to cheerfulness in religion, and how such a frame of mind is not only the most lovely, but the most com- | race of people called Jews, many of whom An eminent pagan writer has made a If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it. It is not the business of virtue to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regufate them. It may moderate and restrain, but was not designed to banish gladness from the heart of man. Religion contracts the circle of our pleasures, but leaves it wide enough for her votaries to expatiate in. The contemplation of the divine Being, and the exercise of virtue, are in their own nature, so far from excluding all gladness of heart, that they are perpetually sources of it. In a word, the true spirit of religion cheers, as well as composes, the soul; it banishes indeed all levity of behaviour, all vicious and dissolute mirth; but in exchange fills the mind with a perpetual serenity, uninterrupted cheerfulness, and an habitual inclination to please others, as well as to be pleased in itself. O. That I may not fall into any commo beaten tracks of observation, I shall consi der this people in three views: First, with regard to their number; secondly, thei dispersion; and thirdly their adherence t their religion: and afterwards endeavou to show first, what natural reasons, and secondly, what providential reasons, ma be assigned for these three remarkabl particulars. The Jews are looked upon by many to b as numerous at present, as they were for merly in the land of Canaan. This is wonderful, considering the dread ful slaughter made of them under some o the Roman emperors, which historian describe by the death of many hundre thousands in a war; and the innumerabl massacres and persecutions they have un dergone in Turkey, as well as in all Chris tian nations of the world. The rabbins, t express the great havoc which has bee sometimes made of them, tell us, after thei usual manner of hyperbole, that there wer such torrents of holy blood shed, as carrie rocks of a hundred yards in circumferenc above three miles into the sea. Their dispersion is the second remark able particular in this people. They swart over all the East, and are settled in the re motest parts of China. They are sprea through most of the nations in Europe an Africa, and many families of them a established in the West Indies: not to me tion whole nations bordering on Prester John's country, and some discovered in th No. 495.] Saturday, September 27, 1712, inner parts of America, if we may give an Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus Hor. Od. iv. Lib. 4. 57. And by their ruins they revive.-Anon, As I am one who, by my profession, am pleasure, as those who have any thing new Plut. Ilap Angidamovies. Plut. Opera, tom. i. p. 286, H. Steph. 1572, 12mo. credit to their own writers, Their firm adherence to their religion no less remarkable than their numbers an dispersion, especially considering it as pe secuted or contemned over the face of th whole earth. This is likewise the mor remarkable, if we consider the frequen apostacies of this people, when they live under their kings in the land of promis and within sight of the temple. If in the next place we examine wh may be the natural reasons of these thre particulars which we find in the Jews, an which are not to be found in any other r ligion or people, I can, in the first place attribute their numbers to nothing but the constant employment, their abstinence their exemption from wars, and, above al BOULDER UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO LINDARIES |