object, and therefore I turned them to the thoughtless creatures who make up the lump of that sex, and move a knowing eye no more than the portraiture of insignificant people by ordinary painters, which are but pictures of pictures. Thus the working of my own mind is the general entertainment of my life: I never enter into the commerce of discourse with any but my particular friends, and not in public even with them. Such a habit has perhaps raised in me uncommon reflections; but this effect I cannot communicate but by my writings. As my pleasures are almost wholly confined to those of the sight, I take it for a peculiar happiness that I have always had an easy and familiar admittance to the fair sex. If I never praised or flattered, I never belied or contradicted them. As these compose half the world, and are, by the just complaisance and gallantry of our nation, the more powerful part of our people, I shall dedicate a considerable share of these, my speculations, to their service, and shall lead the young through all the becoming duties of virginity, marriage, and widowhood. When it is a woman's day, in my works, I shall endeavor at a style and air suitable to their understanding. When I say this, I must be understood to mean, that I shall not lower but exalt the subjects I treat upon. Discourse for their entertainment is not to be debased, but refined. A man may appear learned without talking sentences, as in his ordinary gesture he discovers he can dance, though he does not cut capers. In a word, I shall take it for the greatest glory of my work, if among reasonable women this paper may furnish tea-table talk. In order to it, I shall treat on matters which relate to females, as they are concerned to approach or fly from the other sex, or as they are tied to them by blood, interest, or affection. Upon this occasion I think it but reasonable to declare, that whatever skill I may have in speculation, I shall never betray what the eyes of lovers say to each other in my presence. At the same time shall not think myself obliged by this promise to conceal any false protestations which I observe made by glances in public assemblies: but endeavor to make both sexes appear in their conduct what they are in their hearts. By this means, love, during the time of my speculations, shall be carried on with the same sincerity as any other affair of less consideration. As this is the greatest concern, men shall be from henceforth liable to the greatest reproach for misbehavior in it. Falsehood in love shall hereafter bear a blacker aspect than infidelity in friendship, or villany in business. For this great and good end, all breaches against that noble passion, the cement of society, shall be severely examined. But this, and all other matters loosely hinted at now, and in my former papers, shall have their proper place in my following disThe present writing is only to admonish the world, that they shall not find in me an idle but a busy Spectator.-R. courses. No. 5.] TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1710-11. Spectatum admissi risum teneatis?-HOR., Ars. Poet., v. 5. Admitted to the sight, would you not laugh? exposed to a tempest in robes of ermine, an As I was walking in the streets, about a At This strange dialogue awakened my curi so far, that I immediately bought the opera which means I perceived the sparrows wer act the part of singing birds in a delightful gr though upon a nearer inquiry I found the s rows put the same trick upon the audience Sir Martin Mar-all* practiced upon his mistr for though they flew in sight, the music ceeded from a concert of flageolets and bird-c which were planted behind the scenes. same time I made this discovery, I found by discourse of the actors, that there were great signs on foot for the improvement of the ope that it had been proposed to break down a of the wall, and to surprise the audience wit party of a hundred horse, and that there actually a project of bringing the New-river i the house, to be employed in jets-d'eau and wa works. This project, as I have since heard postponed till the summer season, when it thought the coolness that proceeds from founta and cascades will be more acceptable and refre ing to people of quality. In the meantime, find out a more agreeable entertainment for winter season, the opera of Rinaldo is filled w thunder and lightning, illuminations and fi works, which the audience may look upon wi out catching cold, and indeed without much da ger of being burnt; for there are several engin filled with water, and ready to play at a minut warning, in case any such accident should ha pen. However, as I have a very great friendsh for the owner of this theater, I hope that he h been wise enough to insure his house before would let this opera be acted in it. AN opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lavish in its decorations, as its only design is to gratify the senses, and keep up an indolent attention in the audience. Common sense however requires, that there should be nothing in the scenes and machines which may appear childish and absurd. How would the wits of King Charles's time have laughed to have seen Nicolini Indiscret, and the Etourdi of Moliere. It is no wonder that those scenes should be ve surprising, which were contrived by two poets different nations, and raised by two magicians different sexes, Armida (as we are told in th argument) was an Amazonian enchantress, an A comedy by J. Dryden, borrowed from Quinault's Ama of Rinaldo and Armida with an orange-grove: and that the next time it is acted, the singing-birds will be personated by tom-tits, the undertakers being resolved to spare neither pains nor money for the gratification of the audience.-C. No. 6.] WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1710-11. Credebant hoc grande nefas, et morte piandum, Si juvenis vetulo non assurrexerat- —Juv., Sat., xiii, 54. 'Twas impious then (so much was age rever'd) For youth to keep their seats when an old man appear❜d. I KNOW no evil under the sun so great as the abuse of the understanding, and yet there is no one vice more common. It has diffused itself through both sexes, and all qualities of mankind, and there is hardly that person to be found, who is not more concerned for the reputation of wit and sense, than of honesty and virtue. But this unhappy affectation of being wise rather than honest, witty than good-natured, is the source of most of the ill habits of life. Such false impressions are owing to the abandoned writings of men of wit, and the awkward imitation of the rest of mankind. poor Sgnior Cassini (as we learn from the persons | tween London and Wise* (who will be appointed represented) a Christian conjurer (Mago Chris- gardeners of the playhouse) to furnish the opera tiano). I must confess I am very much puzzled to find how an Amazon should be versed in the black art, or how a good Christian, for such is the part of the magician, should deal with the devil. To consider the poet after the conjurers, I shall give you a taste of the Italian, from the first lines of his preface: "Eccoti, benigno lettore, un parto di poche sere, che se ben nato di notte, non è però aborto di tenebre, mà si farà conoscere figlio d'Apollo con qualche raggio di Parnasse :" "Behold, gentle reader, the birth of a few evenings, which, though it be the offspring of the night, is not the abortive of darkness, but will make itself known to be the son of Apollo, with a certain ray of Parnassus." He afterward proceeds to call Mynheer Handel the Orpheus of our age, and to acquaint us, in the same sublimity of style, that he com posed this opera in a fortnight. Such are the wits to whose tastes we so ambitiously conform ourselves. The truth of it is, the finest writers among the modern Italians express themselves in such a florid form of words, and such tedious circumlocutions, as are used by none but pedants in our country; and at the same time fill their writings with such poor imaginations and conceits, as our youths are ashamed of before they For this reason Sir Roger was saying last night, have been two years at the university. Some may that he was of opinion none but men of fine parts be apt to think that it is the difference of genius deserved to be hanged. The reflections of such which produces this difference in the works of the men are so delicate upon all occurrences which two nations; but to show that there is nothing in they are concerned in, that they should be exthis, if we look into the writings of the old Ital-posed to more than ordinary infamy and punishians, such as Cicero and Virgil, we shall find that the English writers, in their way of thinking and expressing themselves, resemble those authors much more than the modern Italians pretend to do. And as for the poet himself, from whom the dreams of this opera* are taken, I must entirely agree with Monsieur Boileau, that one verse in Virgil is worth all the clinquant or tinsel of Tasso. But to return to the sparrows: there have been so many flights of them let loose in this opera, that it is feared the house will never get rid of them; and that in other plays they may make their entrance in very wrong and improper scenes, so as to be seen flying in a lady's bed-chamber, or perching upon a king's throne-beside the inconveniences which the heads of the audience may sometimes suffer from them. I am credibly informed, that there was once a design of casting into an opera the story of Whittington and his Cat, and that, in order to it, there had been got together a great quantity of mice; but Mr. Rich, the proprietor of the playhouse, very prudently considered that it would be impossible for the cat to kill them all, and that consequently the princes of the stage might be as much infested with mice, as the prince of the island was before the cat's arrival upon it; for which reason he would not permit it to be acted in his house. And indeed I cannot blame him; for, as he said very well upor that occasion, I do not hear that any of the performers in our opera pretend to equal the famous pied pipert, who made all the mice of a great town in Germany follow his music, and by that means cleared the place of those little noxious animals. Before I dismiss this paper, I must inform my reader, that I hear there is a treaty on foot be Rinaldo, an opera, 8vo., 1711. The plan of Aaron Hill; the Italian words by Sig. G. Rossi; and the music by Handel. +June 26, 1284, the rats and mice by which Hamelen was infested, were allured, it is said, by a piper, to a contiguous river, in which they were all drowned." ment, for offending against such quick admonitions as their own souls give them, and blunting the fine edge of their minds in such a manner, that they are no more shocked at vice and folly than men of slower capacities. There is no greater monster in being, than a very ill man of great parts. He lives like a man in a palsy, with one side of him dead. While perhaps he enjoys the satisfaction of luxury, of wealth, of ambition, he has lost the taste of good-will, of friendship, of innocence. Scarecrow, the beggar in Lincoln'sinn-fields, who disabled himself in his right leg, and asks alms all day to get himself a warm supper and a trull at night, is not half so despicable a wretch as such a man of sense. The beggar has no relish above sensations; he finds rest more agreeable than motion; and while he has a warm fire and his doxy, never reflects that he deserves to be whipped. Every man who terminates his satisfactions and enjoyments within the supply of his own necessities and passions is, says Sir Roger, in my eye, as poor a rogue as Scarecrow. "But," continued he, for the loss of public and private virtue, we are beholden to your men of fine parts forsooth; it is with them no matter what is done, so it be done with an air. But to me, who am so whimsical in a corrupt age as to act according to nature and reason, a selfish man, in the most shining circumstance and equipage, appears in the same condition with the fellow above mentioned, but more contemptible in proportion to what more he robs the public of, and enjoys above him. I lay it down therefore for a rule, that the whole man is to move together; that every action of any importance is to have a prospect for the public good: and that the general tendency of our indifferent actions ought to be agreeable to the dictates of reason, of religion, of good-breeding; without this, a man, as I have before hinted, is hopping instead of walking; he is not in his en tire and proper motion." * London and Wise were the Queen's gardeners at this time. While the honest knight was thus bewildering himself in good starts, I looked attentively upon him, which made him, I thought, collect his mind a little. What I aim at," says he, "is to represent, that I am of opinion, to polish our understandings, and neglect our manners, is of all things the most inexcusable. Reason should govern passion, but instead of that, you see, it is often subservient to it; and as unaccountable as one would think it, a wise man is not always a good man." This degeneracy is not only the guilt of particular persons, but also at some times of a whole people; and perhaps it may appear upon examination, that the most polite ages are the least virtuous. This may be attributed to the folly of admitting wit and learning as merit in themselves, without considering the application of them. By this means it becomes a rule, not so much to regard what we do, as how we do it. But this false beauty will not pass upon men of honest minds, and true taste. Sir Richard Black more says, with as much good sense as virtue, "It is a mighty shame and dishonor to employ excellent faculties and abundance of wit, to humor and please men in their vices and follies. The great enemy of mankind, notwithstanding his wit and angelic faculties, is the most odious being in the whole creation." He goes on soon after to say, very generously, that he undertook the writing of his poem to rescue the muses out of the hands of ravishers, to restore them to their sweet and chaste mansions, and to engage them in an employment suitable to their dignity." This certainly ought to be the purpose of every man who appears in public, and whoever does not proceed upon that foundation, injures his country as far as he succeeds in his studies. When modesty ceases to be the chief ornament of one sex, and integrity of the other, society is upon a wrong basis, and we shall be ever after without rules to guide our judgment in what is really becoming and ornamental. Nature and reason direct one thing, passion and humor another. To follow the dictates of these two latter, is going into a road that is both endless and intricate; when we pursue the other, our passage is delightful, and what we aim at easily attainable. I do not doubt but England is at present as polite a nation as any in the world; but any man who thinks, can easily see, that the affectation of being gay and in fashion, has very near eaten up our good sense, and our religion. Is there any thing so just as that mode and gallantry should be built upon our exerting ourselves in what is proper and agreeable to the institutions of justice and piety among us? And yet is there anything more common, than that we run in perfect contradiction to them? All which is supported by no other pretension, than that it is done with what we call a good grace. Nothing ought to be held laudable or becoming, but what nature itself should prompt us to think so. Respect to all kind of superiors is founded, I think, upon instinct; and yet what is so ridiculous as age? I make this abrupt transition to the mention of this vice more than any other, in order to introduce a little story, which I think a pretty instance, that the most polite age is in danger of being the most vicious. "It happened at Athens, during a public representation of some play exhibited in honor of the commonwealth, that an old gentleman came too late for a place suitable to his age and quality. Many of the young gentlemen, who observed the difficulty and confusion he was in, made signs to him that they would accommodate him if he came where they sat. The good man bustled through the crowd accordingly; but when he came t seats to which he was invited, the jest was close and expose him, as he stood, out of c nance, to the whole audience. The frolic round the Athenian benches. But on those sions there were also particular places ass for foreigners. When the good man skulk ward the boxes appointed for the Lacedemo that honest people, more virtuous than polit up all to a man, and with the greatest resp ceived him among them. The Athenians suddenly touched with a sense of the Sparta tue and their own degeneracy, gave a thun applause; and the old man cried out, 'The nians understand what is good, but the Lace nians practice it.""-R. No. 7.] THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1710. Visions and magic spells can you despise, And laugh at witches, ghosts, and prodigies? GOING yesterday to dine with an old acc ance, I had the misfortune to find his whole ly very much dejected. Upon asking hi occasion of it, he told me that his wif dreampt a strange dream the night before, they were afraid portended some misfort themselves or to their children. At her c into the room, I observed a settled melanch her countenance, which I should have beer bled for, had I not heard from whence i ceeded. We were no sooner sat down, bu having looked upon me a little while, "My says she, turning to her husband, "you ma see the stranger that was in the candle last Soon after this, as they began to talk of affairs, a little boy at the lower end of the told her, that he was to go into join-ha Thursday. "Thursday!" says she, "No, if it please God, you shall not begin upon C mas-day; tell your writing-master that Frid be soon enough." I was reflecting with on the oddness of her fancy, and wonderin anybody would establish it as a rule, to day in every week. In the midst of the musings, she desired me to reach her a lit upon the point of my knife, which I did i a trepidation and hurry of obedience, that drop by the way; at which she imme startled, and said it fell toward her. Upon looked very blank; and observing the cond the whole table, began to consider mysel some confusion, as a person that had bro disaster upon the family. The lady, howe covering herself after a little space, said husband with a sigh, "My dear, misfortune come single." My friend, I found, acted under part at his table, and being a man good-nature than understanding, thinks obliged to fall in with all the passions and of his yoke-fellow. "Do not you ren child," says she, "that the pigeon-house very afternoon that our careless wench s salt upon the table?" "Yes," says he, "n and the next post brought us an accoun battle of Almanza." The reader may gues figure I made, after having done all this m I dispatched my dinner as rapidly as I cou my usual taciturnity; when, to my utter sion, the lady seeing me quitting my kn fork, and laying them across one another plate, desired me that I would humor he as to take them out of that figure, and pla side by side. What the absurdity was v had committed I did not know, but I suppose there was some traditionary superstition in it; and therefore, in obedience to the lady of the house, I disposed of my knife and fork in two parallel lines, which is the figure I shall always lay them in for the future, though I do not know any reason for it. It is not difficult for a man to see that a person has conceived an aversion to him. For my own part, I quickly found, by the lady's looks, that she regarded me as a very odd kind of fellow, with an unfortunate aspect. For which reason I took my leave immediately after dinner, and withdrew to my own lodgings. Upon my return home, I fell into a profound contemplation on the evils that attend these superstitious follies of mankind; how they subject us to imaginary afflictions, and additional sorrows, that do not properly come within our lot. As if the natural calamities of life were not sufficient for it, we turn the most indifferent circumstances into misfortunes, and suffer as much from trifling accidents as from real evils. I have known the shooting of a star spoil a night's rest; and have seen a man in love grow pale, and lose his appetite, upon the plucking of a merry-thought. A screech-owl at midnight has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers; nay, the voice of a cricket hath struck more terror than the roaring of a lion. There is nothing so inconsiderable, which may not appear dreadful to an imagination that is filled with omens and prognostics. A rusty nail, or a crooked pin, shoot up into prodigies. I remember I was once in a mixed assembly, that was full of noise and mirth, when on a sudden an old woman unluckily observed, there were thirteen of us in company. This remark struck a panic into several who were present, insomuch that one or two of the ladies were going to leave the room; but a friend of mine taking notice that one of our female companions was big with child, affirmed there were fourteen in the room, and that, instead of portending one of the company should die, it plainly foretold one of them should be born. Had not my friend found this expedient to break the omen, I question not but half the women in the company would have fallen sick that very night. the relish of any happiness, nor feel the weight of any misery, before it actually arrives. I know but one way of fortifying my soul against these gloomy presages and terrors of mind, and that is, by securing to myself the friendship and protection of that Being, who disposes of events, and governs futurity. He sees, at one view, the whole thread of my existence, not only that part of it which I have already passed through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of eternity. When I lay me down to sleep, I recommend myself to his care; when I awake, I give myself up to his direction. Amidst all the evils that threaten me, I will look up to him for help, and question not but he will either avert them, or turn them to my advantage. Though I know neither the time nor the manner of the death I am to die, I am not at all solicitous about it; because I am sure that he knows them both, and that he will not fail to comfort and support me under them. "SIR,-I am one of the directors of the society for the reformation of manners, and therefore think myself a proper person for your correspondence. I have thoroughly examined the present state of religion in Great Britain, and am able to acquaint you with the predominant vice of every markettown in the whole island. I can tell you the progress that virtue has made in all our cities, boroughs, and corporations; and know as well the evil practices that are committed in Berwick or Exeter, as what is done in my own family. In a word, Sir, I have my correspondents in the remotests parts of the nation, who send me up punctual accounts from time to time of all the little irregu larities that fall under their notice in their several districts and divisions. An old maid that is troubled with the vapors produces infinite disturbances of this kind among her friends and neighbors. I know a maiden aunt of a great family, who is one of these antiquated sybils, that forebodes and prophesies from one end "I am no less acquainted with the particular of the year to the other. She is always seeing ap-quarters and regions of this great town, than with paritions, and hearing death-watches; and was the the different parts and distributions of the whole other day almost frightened out of her wits by the nation. I can describe every parish by its impiegreat house-dog that howled in the stable, at a time ties, and can tell you in which of our streets lewdwhen she lay ill with the tooth-ache. Such an ex- ness prevails; which gaming has taken the possestravagant cast of mind engages multitudes of peo- sion of; and where drunkenness has got the better ple, not only in impertinent terrors, but in su- of them both. When I am disposed to raise a fine pernumerary duties of life; and arises from that for the poor, I know the lanes and alleys that are fear and ignorance which are natural to the soul inhabited by common swearers. When I would of man. The horror with which we entertain the encourage the hospital of Bridewell, and improve thoughts of death (or indeed of any future evil), the hempen manufacture, I am very well acquaintand the uncertainty of its approach, fill a melan-ed with all the haunts and resorts of female nightcholy mind with innumerable apprehensions and walkers. suspicions, and consequently dispose it to the observation of such groundless prodigies and predictions. For as it is the chief concern of wise men to retrench the evils of life by the reasonings of philosophy; it is the employment of fools to multiply them by the sentiments of supersti tion. For my own part. I should be very much troubled were I endowed with this divining quality, though it should inform me truly of everything that can befall me. I would not anticipate "After this short account of myself, I must let you know, that the design of this paper is to give you information of a certain irregular assembly, which I think falls very properly under your observation, especially since the persons it is composed of are criminals too considerable for the animadversions of our society. I mean, Sir, the Midnight Mask, which has of late been frequently held in one of the most conspicuous parts of the town, and which, I hear, will be continued with additions and improvements: as all the persons Thus, Sir, you see how I have mista cloud for a Juno; and if you can make any this adventure for the benefit of those wh possibly be as vain young coxcombs as my do most heartily give you leave. "I am, Sir, who compose this lawless assembly are masked, and that I am not the first cully whom sl we dare not attack any of them in our way, lest passed herself upon for a countess. we should send a woman of quality to Bridewell, or a peer of Great Britain to the Compter: beside, their numbers are so very great, that I am afraid they would be able to rout our whole fraternity, though we were accompanied with our guard of constables. Both these reasons, which secure them from our authority, make them obnoxious to yours; as both their disguise and their numbers will give no particular person reason to think himself affronted by you. "Your most humble admirer, F I design to visit the next masquerade my the same habit I wore at Grand Cairo; a "If we are rightly informed, the rules that are then shall suspend my judgment of this mi observed by this new society are wonderfully con- entertainment.-C. trived for the advancement of cuckoldom. The ** Letters for the Spectator, to be left with Mr. 1 No. 9.] SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1710 Juv., Sat. X women either come by themselves, or are intro- at the Dolphin, in Little Britain.-Spect. in folio. duced by friends who are obliged to quit them, upon their first entrance, to the conversation of anybody that addresses himself to them. There are several rooms where the parties may retire, and, if they please, show their faces by consent. Whispers, squeezes, nods, and embraces, are the innocent freedoms of the place. In short, the whole design of this libidinous assembly seems to terminate in assignations and intrigues; and I hope you will take effectual methods, by your public advice and admonitions, to prevent such a promiscuous multitude of both sexes from meeting together in so clandestine a manner. "I am your humble servant, and fellow-laborer, "T. B." Tiger with tiger, bear with bear, you'll find In leagues offensive and defensive join'd.-TAT MAN is said to be a sociable animal, and instance of it, we may observe that we t occasions and pretenses of forming ourselv those little nocturnal assemblies, which ar monly known by the name of clubs. Whe of men find themselves agree in any part though never so trivial, they establish then Not long after the perusal of this letter, I re-into a kind of fraternity, and meet once or t received another upon the same subject; which, by the date and style of it, I take to be written by some young Templar: "SIR, Middle Temple, 1710-11. "When a man has been guilty of any vice or folly, I think the best atonement he can make for it, is to warn others not to fall into the like. In order to this, I must acquaint you, that some time in February last, I went to the Tuesday's masquerade. Upon my first going in I was attacked by half-a-dozen female Quakers, who seemed willing to adopt me for a brother; but upon a nearer examination I found they were a sisterhood of coquettes, disguised in that precise habit. I was soon after taken out to dance, and, as I fancied, by a woman of the first quality, for she was very tall, and moved gracefully. As soon as the minuet was over, we ogled one another through our masks; and as I am very well read in Waller, I repeated to her the four following verses out of his poem to Vandyke: The hoodless lover does not know Whose eyes they are that wound him so; Inquires her name that has his heart. week, upon the account of such a fantas semblance. I know a considerable market in which there was a club of fat men, that come together (as you may well suppose) tertain one another with sprightliness and to keep one another in countenance. The where the club met was something of the and had two entrances, the one by a door o erate size, and the other by a pair of f doors. If a candidate for this corpulent clu make his entrance through the first, he was upon as unqualified; but if he stuck in t sage, and could not force his way through folding doors were immediately thrown of his reception, and he was saluted as a brot have heard that this club, though it consis of fifteen persons, weighed above three ton In opposition to this society, there sp another composed of scarecrows and sk who, being very meager and envious, did could to thwart the designs of their bulk ren, whom they represented as men of da principles; till at length they worked then the favor of the people, and consequently the magistracy. These factions tore the tion in pieces for several years, till at leng I came to this accommodation; that the two of the town should be annually chosen ou two clubs; by which means the principal trates are at this day coupled like rabbits and one lean. Every one has heard of the club, or ra confederacy, of the kings. This grand was formed a little after the return of King the Second, and admitted into it men of a ties and professions, provided they agree surname of King, which, as they imagine ciently declared the owners of it to be al untainted with republican and anti-mor principles. I pronounced these words with such a languishing air, that I had some reason to conclude I had made a conquest. She told me that she hoped my face was not akin to my tongue, and looking upon her watch, I accidentally discovered the figure of a coronet on the back part of it. I was so transported with the thought of such an amour, that I plied her from one room to another with all the gallantries I could invent: and at length brought things to so happy an issue, that she gave me a private meeting the next day, without page or footman, coach or equipage. My heart danced in raptures, but I had not lived in this golden dream above three days, before I found a good reason to A Christian name has likewise been oft wish that I had continued true to my laundress. I as a badge of distinction, and made the have since heard, by a very great accident, that of a club. That of the George's, which this fine lady does not live far from Covent-garden, meet at the sign of the George, on St. Georg |