Page images
PDF
EPUB

for Hypocrify in hers; fo that I believe no Men fee less of the Truth and Reality of Things, than these great Refiners upon Incidents, who are fo wonderfully fubtle and over-wife in their Conceptions.

NOW what these Men fancy they know of Women by Reflection, your lewd and vicious Men believe they. have learned by Experience. They have feen the poor Husband fo mif-led by Tricks and Artifices, and in the midft of bis Enquiries fo loft and bewildered in a crooked Intrigue, that they ftill fufpect an Under-Piot in every female Action; and efpecially where they fee any Refemblance in the Behaviour of two Perfons, are apt to fancy it proceeds from the fame Design in both. These Men therefore bear hard upon the fufpected Party, purfue her clofe through all her Turnings and Windings, and are too well acquainted with the Chace, to be flung off by any falfe Steps or Doubles: Befides, their Acquaintance and Converfation has lain wholly among the vicious Part of Womenkind, and therefore it is no Wonder they cenfure all alike, and look upon the whole Sex as a Species of Impoftors. But if, notwithstanding their private Experience, they can get over thefe Prejudices, and entertain a favourable Opinion of fome Women; yet their own loose Defires will ftir up new Sufpicions from another Side, and make them believe all Men fubject to the fame Inclinations with themselves.

WHETHER thefe or other Motives are most predominant, we learn from the modern Hiftories of America, as well as from our own Experience in this Part of the World, that Jealoufy is no Northern Paffion, but rages most in those Nations that lie nearest the Influence of the Sun. It is a Misfortune for a Woman to be born between the Tropicks; for there lie the hottest Regions of Jealoufy, which as you come Northward cools all along with the Climate, till you fcarce meet any thing like it in the Polar Circle. Our own Nation is very temperately fituated in this respect; and if we meet with fome few difordered with the Violence of this Paffion, they are not the proper Growth of our Country, but are many Degrees nearer the Sun in their Constitution than in their Climate.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

AFTER this frightful Account of Jealoufy, and the Perfons who are most subject to it, it will be but fair to fhew by what means the Pion may be beft allav', and those who are poffed with it fet at Eafe. ther Faults indeed are ot under the Wife's ciction, and should, if p ble, efcape her Obervation; but Jealousy calls upon her particularly for its Cure, and deferves all her Art and Application in the Attempt: Befides, fhe has this for her Encouragement, that her Endeavours will be always pleating, and that she will still find the Affection of her usband rifing towards her in Proportion as his Doubts and Sufpicions vanith; for, as we have feen all along, there is fo great a Mixture of Love in Jealoufy as is well worth the feparating. But this fhall be the Subject of another Paper.

[ocr errors]

L

N° 171. Saturday, September 15.

H

Credula res amor eft

Ovid. Met.

AVING in my Yefterday's Paper discovered the Nature of Jealoufy, and pointed out the Perfons who are most fubject to it, I muft here apply my felf to my Fair Correfpondents, who defire to live with a jealous Husban

Sufpicions.
THE fir

you neve

Man is he h

Mi

i

for others, befides himself; but the Commendation of that which he himself wants, inflames him more, as it fhews that in fome Refpects you prefer others before him. Jealoufy is admirably described in this View by Horace in his Ode to Lydia.

Quum tu, Lydia, Telephi,

Cervicem rofeam, & cerea Telephi
Zaudas brachia, va meum

Fervens difficili bile tumet jecur:
Tunc nec mens mihi, nec color

Certa fede manet; humor & in genas
Furtim labitur arguens ·

Quàm lentis penitus macerer ignibus.

When Telephus his youthful Charms,
His rofie Neck and winding Arms,
With endless Rapture you recite,
And in that pleafing Name delight;
My Heart, inflam'd by Jealous Heats,
With numberless Refentments beats;
From my pale Cheek, the Colour flies,
And all the Man within me dies:
By Turns my hidden Grief appears

In rifing Sighs an

That shew too

The filent,

"hich on

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

If therefore his Temper be grave or fullen, you must not be too much pleased with a Jeft, or transported with any thing that is gay and diverting. If his Beauty be none of the best, you must be a profeffed Admirer of Prudence, or any other Quality he is Mafter of, or at least vain enough to think he is.

IN the next Place, you must be fure to be free and open in your Converfation with him, and to let in Light upon your Actions, to unravel all your Defigns, and Gifcover every Secret however trifling or indifferent. A jealous Husband has a particular Averfion to Winks and Whispers, and if he does not fee to the Bottom of every thing, will be fure to go beyond it in his Fears and Sufpicions. He will always expect to be your chief Confident, and where he finds himself kept out of a Secret, will believe there is more in it than there fhould be. And here it is of great Concern, that you preferve the Character of your Sincerity uniform and of a Piece; for if he once finds a falfe Glofs put upon any fingle Action, he quickly fufpects all the reft; his working Imagination immediately takes a falfe Hint, and runs off with it into feveral remote Confequences, till he has proved very ingenious in working out his own Mifery.

IF both these Methods fail, the best Way will be to let him fee you are much cast down and afflicted for the ill Opinion he entertains of you, and the Difquietudes he himself fuffers for your Sake. There are many who take a kind of barbarous Pleasure in the Jealousy of those who love them, that infult over an aking Heart, and triumph in their Charms which are able to excite fo much Uneafinefs.

Ardeat ipfa licet, tormentis gaudet`amantis.

Juv.

But thefe often carry the Humour fo far, till their affected Coldnefs and Indifference quite kills all the Fondness of a Lover, and are then fure to meet in their Turn with all the Contempt and Scorn that is due to fo infolent a Behaviour. On the contrary, it is very probable a melancholy, dejected Carriage, the ufual Effects of injured Innocence, may foften the jealous Husband into Pity, make

him

3

him fenfible of the Wrong he does you, and work out of his Mind all thofe Fears and Sufpicions that make you both unhappy. At leaft it will have this good Effect, that he will keep his Jealousy to himself, and repine in private, either because he is fenfible it is a Weakness, and will therefore hide it from your Knowledge, or because he will be apt to fear fome ill Effect it may produce, in cooling your Love towards him, or diverting it to ano ther.

THERE is ftill another Secret that can never fail, if you can once get it believ'd, and which is often practis'd by Women of greater Cunning than Virtue: This is to change Sides for a while with the jealous Man, and to turn his own Paffion upon himself; to take fome Occa fion of growing jealous of him, and to follow the Example he himself hath fet you. This counterfeited Jealoufy will bring him a great deal of Pleasure, if he thinks it real; for he knows experimentally how much Love goes along with this Paffion, and will befides feel fomething like the Satisfaction of a Revenge, in feeing you undergo all his own Tortures. But this, indeed, is an Artifice fo difficult, and at the fame Time fo dif-ingenuous, that it ought never to be put in Practice, but by fuch as have Skill enough to cover the Deceit, and Innocence ⚫to render it excufable.

I fhall conclude this Effay with the Story of Herod and Mariamne, as I have collected it out of Jofephus; which may ferve almoft as an Example to whatever can be faid on this Subject.

MARIAMNE had all the Charms that Beauty, Birtby Wit and Youth could give a Woman, and Herod all the Love that fuch Charms are able to raife in a warm and amorous Difpofition. In the midft of this his Fondness for Mariamne, he put her Brother to Death, as he did her Father not many Years after. The Barbarity of the Action was represented to Mark Antony, who immediately fummoned Herod into Egypt, to anfwer for the Crime that was there laid to his Charge. Herod attributed the Summons to Antony's Defire of Mariamne, whom therefore, before his Departure, he gave into the Custody of his Uncle Jofeph, with private Orders to put her to Death,

« PreviousContinue »