66 દ 66 cr 66 try, by making it barren and waste; nay, and demolished their City, in depriving it of Inhabitants. And he was fenfible that all this proceeded not "from any kind of Virtue or Abfti66 nence, but from a Loofenefs and Wantonness, which ought never to be encouraged in any Čivil Government." There are no Particulars dwelt upon ' that let us into the Conduct of these young Worthies, whom this great Emperor treated with fo much Justice and Indignation; but any one who ' obferves what paffes in this Town, may very well frame to himself a Notion of their Riots and Debaucheries all Night, and their apparent Prepa'rations for them all Day. It is not to be doubted but thefe Romans never paffed any of their Time innocently 'but when they were asleep, and never flept but when they were weary and heavy with Exceffes, and flept only to prepare themselves for the Repetition of them. If you did your Duty as a SPECTATOR, you would carefully examine into the Number of Births, Marriages, and Burials; and when you had deducted out of your Deaths all fuch as went out of the • World World without marrying, then caft up the number of both Sexes born within fuch a Term of Years laft paft, you might from the fingle People de parted make fome ufeful Inferences or Gueffes how many there are left unmarried, and raise fome ufeful Scheme for the Amendment of the Age in that Particular. I have not Patience to proceed gravely on this abominable Libertinifm; for I cannot but reflect, as I am writing to you, upon a certain lafcivious manner which all our young Gentlemen use in publick, and examine our Eyes with a Petulency in their own, which is a downright Affront to Modefty. A disdainful Look on fuch an Occafion is return'd with a Countenance rebuked, but by averting their Eyes from the Woman of Honour and Decency to fome flippant Creature, who will, as the Phrafe is, be kinder. I must set down things as they come into my Head, without ftanding upon Order. Ten thoufand to one but the gay Gentleman who ftared, at the fame time is an HoufeC keeper; for you must know they have got into a Humour of late of being very regular in their Sins, and a young Fel Fellow fhall keep his four Maids and three Footmen with the greateft Gra6 vity imaginable. There are no less than fix of thefe venerable Housekeepers of my Acquaintance. This Humour among young Men of Condition is imitated by all the World below them, and a general Diffolution of Manners arifes from the one Source of Libertinifm, without Shame or Reprehenfion in the Male Youth. It is from this one Fountain that fo • many beautiful helpless young Women are facrific'd and given up to Lewdness, Shame, Poverty, and Disease: It is to this alfo that fo many excellent young Women, who might be Patterns of conjugal Affection and Parents of a wor thy Race pine under unhappy Paffions for fuch as have not Attention enough to obferve, or Virtue enough to prefer them to their common Wenches. Now Mr. SPECTATOR, I must be 'free to own to you, that I my self suffer a tastelefs infipid Being, from a Confideration I have for a Man who 'would not, as he has faid in my hearing, refign his Liberty, as he calls it, for all the Beauty and Wealth_the whole Sex is poffeffed of. Such Calá • mities " mities as these would not happen, if it could poffibly be brought about, that by fining Batchelors as Papists 'Convict, or the like, they were diftinguished to their Difadvantage from the reft of the World, who fall in 'with the Measures of Civil Society. • Left you should think I speak this as being, according to the fenfelefs rude Phrafe, a malicious old Maid, I fhall acquaint you I am a Woman of Condition not now three and twenty, and have had Proposals from at least ten different Men, and the greater Number of them have upon the Upfhot refused me. Something or other is always amifs. when the Lover takes to fome new Wench: A Settlement is easily excepted againft; and there is very little Recourfe to avoid the vicious Part of our Youth, but throwing one's felf away upon fome lifeless Blockhead, who tho' he is without Vice, is alfo without Virtue. Now-a-days we ⚫ must be contented if we can get Crea❝tures which are not bad, good are not. to be expected. Mr. SPECTATOR, I fat near you the other Day, and think I did not difplease your Spectatorial Eye-fight; which I fhall be a bet ་ better Judge of when I fee whether you take notice of thefe Evils your own way, or print this Memorial di&tated from the difdainful heavy Heart ' of, PON the hearing of seve- could not forbear amusing vations, which I have made upon the whe |