L 1711. Language as indecent as ever was heard upon the No. 242. Water. The impertinent Observations which the Friday, Coxcomb made upon our Shame and Confusion, were such, that it is an unspeakable Grief to reflect upon them. As much as you have declaimed against Duelling, I hope you will do us the Justice to declare, that if the Brute has Courage enough to send to the Place where he saw us all alight together to get rid of him, there is not one of us but has a Lover who shall avenge the Insult. It would certainly be worth your Consideration, to look into the frequent Mis fortunes of this kind, to which the Modest and Innocent are expos'd, by the licentious Behaviour of such, as are as much Strangers to good Breeding as to Virtue. Could we avoid hearing what we do not approve, as easily as we can seeing what is disagreeable, there were some Consolation; but since, in a Box at a Play, in an Assembly of Ladies, or even in a Pew at Church, it is in the Power of a gross Coxcomb to utter what a Woman cannot avoid hearing, how miserable is her Condition who comes within the Power of such Impertinents? and how necessary is it to repeat Invectives against such a Behaviour? If the Licentious had not utterly forgot what it is to be modest, they would know, that offended Modesty labours under one of the greatest Sufferings to which human Life can be exposed. If one of these Brutes could reflect thus much, though they want Shame, they would be moved, by their Pity, to abhor an impudent Behaviour in the Presence of the Chaste and Innocent. If you will oblige us with a Spectator on this Subject, and procure it to be pasted against every Stage-Coach in Great Britain as the Law of the Journey, you will highly oblige the whole Sex, for which you have professed so great an Esteem; and, in particular, the two Ladies, my late Fellow-Sufferers, and, Sir, Your most Humble Servant, Rebecca Ridinghood.' III. S 'Mr. 1 No. 242, Friday, Dec. 7, 1711. 'Mr. SPECTATOR, The Matter which I am now going to send you is an unhappy Story in low Life, and will recommend it self, so that you must excuse the Manner of expressing it. A poor idle drunken Weaver in Spittle Fields has a faithful laborious Wife, who by her Frugality and Industry had laid by her as much Money as purchased her a Ticket in the present Lottery, She had hid this very privately in the Bottom of a Trunk, and had given her Number to a Friend and Confident, who had promis'd to keep the Secret, and bring her News of the Success. The poor Adventurer was one Day gone abroad, when her careless Husband, sus pecting she had saved some Money, searches every Corner, till at length he finds this same Ticket; which he immediately carries abroad, sells, and squanders away the Money, without the Wife's suspecting any thing of the Matter. A Day or two after this, this Friend, who was a Woman, comes, and brings the Wife Word that she had a Benefit of five hundred Pounds. The poor Creature overjoy'd, flies up Stairs to her Husband, who was then at work, and desires him to leave his Loom for that Evening, and come and drink with a Friend of his and hers below. The' Man received this chearful Invitation, as bad Husbands. sometimes do; and after a cross Word or two told her he wou'dn't come. His Wife with Tenderness renewed her Importunity, and at length said to him, My Love! I have within these few Months, unknown to you, scrap'd together as much Money as has bought us a Ticket in the Lottery, and now here is Mrs. Quick come to tell me, that 'tis come up this Morning a five hundred Pound Prize. The Husband replies imme diately, You lie you Slut, you have no Ticket, for I have sold it. The poor Woman upon this faints away in a Fit, recovers, and is now run distracted. As she had no Design to defraud her Husband, but was willing only to participate in his good Fortune, every one pities her, but thinks her Husband's Punishment but just, This, Sir, is Matter of Fact, and would, if the Persons Persons and Circumstances were greater, in a well No. 242 'Mr. SPECTATOR, ing Sir, &c. I am what the World calls a warm Fellow, and by good Success in Trade I have raised my self to a Capacity of making some Figure in the World; but no Matter for thats I have now under my Guardianship a Couple of Neices, who will certainly make me run mad; which you will not wonder at when I tell you they are female Virtuosos, and during the three Years and a half that I have had them under my Care, they never in the least inclined their Thoughts towards any one single Part of the Character of a notable Woman, Whilst they should have been considering the proper Ingredients for a Sack-Posset, you should hear a Dispute concerning the Magnetical Virtue of the Loadstone, or perhaps the Pressure of the Atmos phere: Their Language is peculiar to themselves, and they scorn to express themselves on the meanest Trifle, 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 smoak one Pipe in quiet. In a late Fit of the Gout I complained of the Pain of that Distemper, when my Neice Kitty begged leave to assure me, that whatever I might think, several great Philosophers, both Ancient and Modern, were of Opinion, that both Pleasure and Pain were imaginary Distinctions; and that there was no such thing as either in rerum Naturâ. I have often heard them affirm that the Fire was not hot; and one Day when I, with the Authority of an old Fellow, desired one of them to put my Blue Cloak on my Knees, she answered, Sir, I will reach the Cloak; but, take notice, I do not do it as allowing your Description, for it might as well be called Yellow as Blue; for Colour is nothing but Dec. 7, the No. 242. the various Infractions of the Rays of the Sun, Miss Molly told me one Day, That to say Snow is white, is allowing a vulgar Error; for as it contains a great Quantity of Nitrous Particles, it may more seasonably be supposed to be Black. In short, the young Husseys would perswade me, that to believe one's Eyes, is a sure way to be deceived; and have often advised me, by no means, to trust any Thing so fallible as my Senses. What I have to beg of you now, is, to turn one Specula tion to the due Regulation of Female Literature, so far at least, as to make it consistent with the Quiet of such, whose Fate it is to be liable to its Insults; and to tell us the difference between a Gentleman that should make Cheescakes, and raise Paste, and a Lady that reads Lock, and understands the Mathematicks. which you will extremely oblige T No. 243, Your hearty Friend and Humble Servant, [ADDISON.] In Abraham Thrifty.' Saturday, December 8, Formam quidem ipsam, Marce fili, & tanquam faciem honestí vides: quae si oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores (ut ait Plato) excitaret sapientiae.-Tull. Offic. I Do not remember to have read any Discourse written expresly upon the Beauty and Loveliness of Virtue, without considering it as a Duty, and as the Means of making us happy both now and hereafter. I design therefore this Speculation as an Essay upon that Subject, in which I shall consider Virtue no further than as it is in it self of an amiable Nature, after having premised that I understand by the word Virtue such a general Notion as is affixed to it by the Writers of Morality, and which by Devout Men generally goes under the Name of Religion, and by Men of the World under the Name of Honour, Hypocrisie it self does great Honour, or rather Justice, to Religion, and tacitly acknowledges it to be an Ornament to Human Nature. The Hypocrite would not be at so much Pains to put on the Appearance of Virtue, if he did Saturday, did not know it was the most proper and effectual Means No. 243, to gain the Love and Esteem of Mankind. We learn from Hierocles it was a common Saying among the Heathens, that the Wise Man hates no Body, but only loves the Virtuous. Tully has a very beautiful Gradation of Thoughts, to shew how amiable Virtue is. We love a Virtuous Man, says he, who lives in the remotest Parts of the Earth, tho' we are altogether out of the reach of his Virtue, and can receive from it no manner of Benefit; nay, one who died several Ages ago, raises a secret Fondness and Benevolence for him in our Minds, when we read his Story: Nay, what is still more, one who has been the Enemy of our Country, provided his Wars were regulated by Justice and Humanity, as in the Instance of Pyrrhus, whom Tully mentions on this Occasion in opposition to Hannibal. Such is the natural Beauty and Loveliness of Virtue, Stoicism, which was the Pedantry of Virtue, ascribes all good Qualifications of what kind soever to the Virtuous Man. Accordingly Cato, in the Character Tully has left of him, carried Matters so far, that he would not allow any one but a Virtuous Man to be handsom. This indeed looks more like a Philosophical Rant, than the real Opinion of a Wise Man: Yet this was what Cato very seriously maintained. In short, the Stoicks thought they cou'd not sufficiently represent the Excellence of Virtue, if they did not comprehend in the Notion of it all possible Perfection; and therefore did not only suppose, that it was transcendently Beautiful in it self, but that it made the very Body amiable, and banished every kind of Deformity from the Person in whom it resided. It is a common Observation, that the most abandoned to all Sense of Goodness are apt to wish those who are related to them of a different Character; and it is very observable, that none are more struck with the Charms of Virtue in the fair Sex, than those who by their very Admiration of it are carried to a Desire of ruining it. A virtuous Mind in a fair Body is indeed a fine Picture in a good Light, and therefore it is no wonder that it makes the beautiful Sex all over Charms. As 1711, |