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when did you come to Town? And perhaps juft before he nods to another; and enters with him, but, Sir, I am glad › to fee you, now I think of it. Each of thofe are happy for the next four and twenty Hours; and those who bow in Ranks undiftinguifhed, and by Dozens at a Time, think they have very good Profpects if they may hope to arrive at fuch Notices half a Year hence.

THE Satyrift fays there is feldom common Sense in high Fortune; and one would think, to behold a Levée, that the Great were not only infatuated with their Station, but also that they believed all below were feized too; elfe how is it poffible they could think of impofing upon themselves and others in fuch a degree, as to fet up a Levée for any thing but a direct Farce? But fuch is the Weaknefs of our Nature, that when Men are a little exalted in their Condition, they immediately conceive they have additional Senfes, and their Capacities enlarged not only above other Men, but above human Comprehenfion it felf. Thus it is ordinary to fee a great Man attend one liftning, bow to one at a Diftance, and call to a third at the fame inftant. A Girl in new Ribbonds is not more taken with her felf, nor does the betray more apparent Coquetries, than even a wife Manin such a Circumftance of Courtship. I do not know any thing that I ever thought fo very diftasteful as the Affectation which is recorded of Cafar, to wit, that he would dictate to three feveral Writers at the fame time. This was an Ambition below the Greatnefs and Candour of his Mind. He indeed (if any Man had Pretenfions to greater Faculties than any other Mortal) was the Perfon; but fuch a Way of acting is childish, and inconfiftent with the Manner of our Being. And it appears from the very Nature of Things, that there cannot be any thing effectually difparched in the Diftraction of a publick Levée; but the whole feems to be a Confpiracy of a Set of Servile Slaves, to give up their own Liberty to take away their Patron's Understanding.

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Friday!

N® 194.

T

Friday, October 12.

·Difficili bile tumet jecur.

Hor.

SHE prefent Paper fhall confift of two Letters, which obferve upon Faults that are easily cured both in Love and Friendship. In the latter, as far as it meerly regards Converfation, the Perfon who neglects vifiting an agreeable Friend is punished in the very Tranfgreffion; for a good Companion is not found in every Room we go into. But the Cafe of Love is of a more delicate Nature, and the Anxiety is inexpreffible if every little Inftance of Kindness is not reciprocal. There are Things in this Sort of Commerce which there are not Words to expreís, and a Man may not poffibly know how to reprefent, what yet may tear his Heart into ten thousand Tortures. To be grave to a Man's Mirth, unattentive to his Difcourfe, or to interrupt either with fomething that argues a Difinclination to be entertained by him, has in it fomething fo difagreeable, that the utmoft Steps which may be made in further Enmity cannot give greater Torment. The gay Corinna, who fets up for an Indifference and becoming Heedlefnefs, gives her Husband all the Torment imaginable out of meer Infolence, with this peculiar Vanity, that he is to look as gay as a Maid in the Character of a Wife. It is no Matter what is the Reafon of a Man's Grief, if it be heavy as it is. Her unhappy Man is convinced that the means him no Dishonour, but pines to Death becaufe fhe will not have fo much Deference to him as to avoid the Appearances of it. The Author of the following Letter is perplexed with an Injury that is in a Degree yet lefs criminal, and yet the Source of the utmoft Unhappinefs.

Mr.

5

Mr. SPECTATOR,

'I Have read your Papers which relate to Jealoufie,

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⚫ and defire your Advice in my Cafe, which you will • fay is not common. I have a Wife of whofe Virtue I am not in the leaft doubtful; yet I cannot be fatisfied fhe loves me, which gives me as great Uneafinefs as being faulty the other Way would do. I know not whether I am not yet more miserable than in that Cafe, ⚫ for fhe keeps Poffeffion of my Heart without the Return of hers. I would defire your Obfervations upon that Temper in fome Women, who will not condefcend to convince their Husbands of their Innocence or their Love, but are wholly negligent of what Reflections • the poor Men make upon their Conduct (so they cannot • call it criminal,) when at the fame time a little Ten⚫dernefs of Behaviour, or Regard to fhew an Inclination to please them, would make them entirely at Eafe. Do not fuch Women deferve all the Mifinterpretation which they neglect to avoid? Or are they not in the • actual Practice of Guilt, who care not whether they are thought guilty or not? If my Wife does the most ordinary Thing, as vifiting her Sifter, or taking the Air with her Mother, it is always carried with the Air of a Secret: Then fhe will fometimes tell a Thing of no Confequence, as if it was only Want of Memory made her conceal it before; and this only to dally with my Anxiety. I have complained to her of this Behaviour in the gentleft Terms imaginable, and be• feeched her not to use him, who defired only to live ' with her like an indulgent Friend, as the moft morose • and unfociable Husband in the World. It is no eafy Matter to defcribe our Circumftance, but it is miferable with this Aggravation, That it might be easily 'mended, and yet no Remedy endeavoured. She reads you, and there is a Phrafe or two in this Letter which fhe will know comes from me. If we enter into an Explanation which may tend to our future Quiet by your Means, you fhall have our joint Thanks; in the mean VOL. III.

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Time

Time I am, (as much as I can in this ambiguous Condi

tion be any Thing)

SIR,

Your humble Servant.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Grater not yet defcribed in your Papers, which

IVE me Leave to make you a Present of a Cha

is that of a Man who tears his Friend with the fame • odd Variety which a fantaftical Female Tyrant practifes towards her Lover. I have for fome Time bad a Friendship with one of thofe mercurial Perfons: The Rogue I know loves me, yet takes Advantage of my "Fondness for him to ufe me as he pleafes. We are by • Turns the best Friends, and the greatest Strangers imaginable: Sometimes you would think us infeparable; at other Times he avoids me for a long time, yet neither he nor I know why. When we meet next by Chance, he is amazed he has not feen me, is impatient for an Appointment the fame Evening; and when I expect he should have kept it, I have known him flip away to another Place; where he has fate reading the News, when there is no Poft; fmoaking his Pipe, which he feldom cares for; and ftaring about him in Company with whom he has had nothing to do, as if he wondered how he came there.

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THAT I may state my Cafe to you the more fully,

I fhall tranfcribe fome fhort Minutes I have taken of him in my Almanack fince laft Spring; for you must know there are certain Seafons of the Year, according to which, I will not fay our Friendship, but the Enjoyment of it rifes or falls; In March and April he was as various as the Weather: In May and part of June I ⚫ found him the fprightlieft beft-humoured Fellow in the World in the Dog-days he was much upon the Indolent; in September very agreeable, but very bufy; and fince the Glafs fell laft to changeable, he has made three Appointments with me, and broke them A every one. However I have good Hopes of him this Winter, efpecially if you will lend me your Affiftance

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to reform him, which will be a great Eafe and Plea

fure to,

October 9, 1711.

T

No
N 195.

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Νήπιοι, ἐδ ̓ ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντός,
Οὐδ ̓ ὅσον ἐν μαλάχητε ἢ ἀσφοδέλῳ μέγ ̓ ὄνειας.

Hef.

"HERE is a Story in the Arabian Nights Tales,

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Habit of Body, and had taken abundance of Reme dies to no purpose. At length, fays the Fable, a Phy fician cured him by the following Method: He took an hollow Ball of Wood, and filled it with feveral Drugs; after which he clos'd it up fo artificially that nothing appeared. He likewise took a Mall, and after having hollowed the Handle, and that Part which strikes the Ball, he enclofed in them feveral Drugs after the fame Manner as in the Ball it felf. He then ordered the Sultan, who was his Patient, to exercise himself early in the Morning with thefe rightly prepared Inftruments, till fuch time as he fhould fweat. When, as the Story goes, the Vertue of the Medicaments perfpiring through the Wood, had fo good an Influence on the Sultan's Conftitution, that they cured him of an Indifpofition which all the Compofitions ke had taken inwardly had not been able to remove. This eaftern Allegory is finely contrived to fhew us how beneficial bodily Labour is to Health, and that Exercise is the most effectual Phyfick. I have defcribed, in my Hundred and Fifteenth Paper, from the general Struc ture and Mechanism of an human Body, how abfolutely neceffary Exercise is for its Prefervation: I fhall in this Place recommend another great Prefervative of Health, which in many Cafes produces the fame Effects as Exer

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