on the proper person, and if I trouble you with my thoughts upon it I promise myself your pardon. Such of the sex as are raw and innocent, and most exposed to these attacks, have, or their parents are much to blame if they have not, one to advise and guard 'em, and are obliged themselves to take care of 'em; but if these, who ought to hinder men from all opportunities of this sort of conversation, instead of that encourage and promote it, the suspicion is very just that there are some private reasons for it; and I'll leave it to you to determine on which side a part is then acted. Some women there are who are arrived at years of discretion, I mean are got out of the hands of their parents and governors, and are set up for themselves, who yet are liable to these attempts; but if these are prevailed upon, you must excuse me if I lay the fault upon them that their wisdom is not grown with their years. My client, Mr. Strephon, whom you summoned to declare himself, gives you thanks however for your warning; and begs the favour only to enlarge his time for a week, or to the last day of the term, and then he'll appear gratis and pray no day over. Yours, PHILANTHROPOS.' 'Mr. SPECTATOR, 'I WAS last night to visit a lady who I much esteem, and always took for my friend; but met with so very different a reception from what I expected, that I cannot help applying myself to you on this occasion. In the room of that civility and familiarity I used to be treated with by her, an affected strangeness in her looks and coldness in her behaviour plainly told me I was not the welcome guest which the regard and tenderness she has often expressed for me gave me reason to flatter myself to think I was. Sir, this is certainly a great fault, and I assure you a very common one; therefore I hope you will think it a fit subject for some part of a Spectator. Be pleased to acquaint us how we must behave ourselves towards this valetudinary friendship, subject to so many heats and colds; and you will oblige, SIR, ‹ SIR, Your humble Servant, MIRANDA.' I CANNOT forbear acknowledging the delight your late Spectators on Saturdays1 have given me; for it is writ in the honest spirit of criticism, and called to my mind the following four lines I had read long since in a prologue to a play called "Julius Cæsar,' "2 which has deserved a better fate. The verses are addressed to the little critics : Show your small talent, and let that suffice ye; You'll ne'er arrive at knowing when to praise. Yours, T. 1 The papers on Paradise Lost.' D. G.' 2 One of the monarchic tragedies' by William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, published in 1629. No. 301. Thursday, Feb. 14, 1712 WE Possent ut juvenes visere fervidi Dilapsam in cineres facem. [BUDGELL. -HOR., 4 Od. xiii. 26. E are generally so much pleased with any little accomplishments, either of body or mind, which have once made us remarkable in the world, that we endeavour to persuade ourselves it is not in the power of time to rob us of them. We are eternally pursuing the same methods which first procured us the applauses of mankind. It is from this notion that an author writes on, though he is come to dotage; without ever considering that his memory is impaired, and that he has lost that life, and those spirits, which formerly raised his fancy, and fired his imagination. The same folly hinders a man from submitting his behaviour to his age, and makes Clodius, who was a celebrated dancer at five and twenty, still love to hobble in a minuet, though he is past threescore. It is this, in a word, which fills the town with elderly fops, and superannuated coquettes. Canidia, a lady of this latter species, passed by me yesterday in her coach. Canidia was an haughty beauty of the last age, and was followed by crowds of adorers, whose passions only pleased her as they gave her opportunities of playing the tyrant. She then contracted that awful cast of the eye and forbidding frown, which she has not yet laid aside, and has still all the insolence of beauty without its charms. If she now attracts the eyes of any beholders, it is only by being remarkably ridiculous; even her own sex laugh at her affectation; and the men, who always enjoy an ill-natured pleasure in seeing an imperious beauty humbled and neglected, regard her with the same satisfaction that a free nation sees a tyrant in disgrace. Will Honeycomb, who is a great admirer of the gallantries in King Charles the Second's reign, lately communicated to me a letter written by a wit of that age to his mistress, who, it seems, was a lady of Canidia's humour; and though I do not always approve of my friend Will's taste, I liked this letter so well, that I took a copy of it, with which I shall here present my reader : 'MADAM, 'To CLOE. 'SINCE my waking thoughts have never been able to influence you in my favour, I am resolved to try whether my dreams can make any impression on you. To this end I shall give you an account of a very odd one which my fancy presented to me last night, within a few hours after I left you. Methought I was unaccountably conveyed into the most delicious place my eyes ever beheld; it was a large valley divided by a river of the purest water I had ever seen. The ground on each side of it rose by an easy ascent, and was covered with flowers of an infinite variety, which, as they were reflected in the water, doubled the beauties of the place, or rather formed an imaginary scene more beautiful than the real. On each side of the river was a range of lofty trees, whose boughs were laden with almost as many birds as leaves. Every tree was full of harmony. 'I had not gone far in this pleasant valley, when I perceived that it was terminated by a most magnificent temple. The structure was ancient, and regular. On the top of it was figured the god Saturn, in the same shape and dress that the poets usually represent Time. 'As I was advancing to satisfy my curiosity by a nearer view, I was stopped by an object far more beautiful than any I had before discovered in the whole place. I fancy, madam, you will easily guess, that this could hardly be anything but yourself; in reality it was so; you lay extended on the flowers by the side of the river, so that your hands, which were thrown in a negligent posture, almost touched the water. Your eyes were closed; but if your sleep deprived me of the satisfaction of seeing them, it left me at leisure to contemplate several other charms, which disappear when your eyes are open. I could not but admire the tranquillity you slept in, especially when I considered the uneasiness you produce in so many others. 'While I was wholly taken up in these reflections, the doors of the temple flew open, with a very great noise; and lifting up my eyes I saw two figures, in human shape, coming into the valley. Upon a nearer survey, I found them to be Youth and Love. The first was encircled with a kind of purple light, that spread a glory over all the place; the other held a flaming torch in his hand. I could observe, that all the way as they came towards us the colours of the flowers appeared more lively, the trees shot out in blossoms, the birds threw themselves into pairs, and serenaded them as they passed. The whole face of nature glowed with new beauties. They were no sooner arrived at the place where you lay, |