Ι Mr. SPECTATOR, I FLATTER myself you will not only pity, but, if poffible, redrefs a misfortune myself and feveral others of my fex lie under. I hope you will not be offended, nor think I mean by this to justify my own, imprudent conduct, or expect you fhould. No! I am fenfible how feverely, in fome of your former papers, you have reproved perfons guilty of the like mifmanagements. I was ⚫ fcarce fixteen, and, I may fay without vanity, ‹ handsome, when courted by a falfe perjured man; who, upon promife of marriage, rendered * me the most unhappy of women. After he had deluded me from my parents, who were people of very good fashion, in lefs than three months he left me. My parents would not fee nor hear from me; and, had it not been for a fervant, who had lived in our family, I muft certainly ‹ have perished for want of bread. However it pleafed Providence, in a very short time, to alter my miferable condition. A gentleman faw me, liked me, and married me. My parents were re⚫ conciled; and I might be as happy in the change of my condition as I was before miserable, but for fome things, that you fhall know, which are infupportable to me; and I am fure you have fo much honour and compaffion as to let those • perfons know, in fome of your papers, how 'much they are in the wrong. I have been married near five years, and do not know that in all that time I ever went abroad without my hufband's leave and approbation. I am obliged, through the importunities of feveral of my relations, to go abroad oftner than fuits my temper. Then it is I labour under infupportable agonies. That man, or rather monster, haunts every place I go to. Bafe villian! By reafon I will not admit his naufeous wicked vifits and appointments, he ftrives all the ways he can to ruin se, VOL. VII. U • He He left me deftitute of friend or money, nor ever thought me worth enquiring after, until he unfortunately happened to see me in a front-box, fparkling with jewels. Then his paffion returned. Then the hypocrite pretended to be a peritent. Then he practifed all thofe arts that helped before to undo me. I am not to be deceived a fecond time by him. I hate and abhor his odious paffion; and as he plainly perceives it, either out of spite or diverfion, he makes it his bufinefs to expofe me. I never fail feeing him in all public company, where he is always moft induftriously fpiteful. He hath, in short, told all his acquaint'ance of our unhappy affair; they tell theirs; fo that it is no fecret among his companions, which are numerous. They to whom he tells it, think they have a title to be very familiar. If they bow to me, and I out of good manners return it, then I am pestered with freedoms that are no ways agreeable to myself or company. If I turn my eyes from them, or feem difpleased, they four upon it, and whifper the next perfon; he his next; until I have at last the eyes of the whole company upon me. Nay, they report abominable falfehoods, under that mistaken notion, She that will grant favours to one man, will to an hundred. I beg you will let thofe who are guilty know, how ungenerous this way of proceeding is. I am fure he will know himself the perfon aimed at, and perhaps put a stop to the infolence of others. Curfed is the fate of unhappy women! That men may boaft and glory in those things that we muft think of with thame and horror! You have the art of making such odious customs appear deteftable. For my fake, and I am fure, for the fake of feveral others who dare " not own it, but like me, lie under the fame miffortunes, make it as infamous for a man to boast of favours, or expose our sex, as it is to take the lie, or a box on the ear, and not refent it. Your conftant reader and admirer, LESBIA.' PS. I am the more impatient under this mif fortune, having received fresh provocation laft Wednesday, in the abbey." I intirely agree with the amiable and unfortunate Lefbia, that an unfult upon a woman in her circumstances, is as infamous in a man, as a tame be- ́ haviour when the lie or a buffet is given; which truth I fhall beg leave of her to illuftrate by the following obfervation. It is a mark of cowardife paffive to forbear refenting an affront, the refenting of which would lead a man into danger; it is no lefs a fign of cowardise, to affront a creature that hath not power to avenge itself. Whatever name therefore this ungenerous man may bestow on the helpless lady he hath injured, I fhall not fcruple to give him in return for it, the apellation of Caward. A man that can so far descend from his dignity, as to ftrike a lady, can never recover his reputation with either fex, becaufe no provocation is thought ftrong enough to juftify fuch treatment. from the powerful towards the weak. In the circumstances in which poor Lefia is fituated, fhe can appeal to no man whatsoever to avenge an infult more grievous than a blow. If the could open her mouth, the base man knows, that a husband, a brother, a generous friend, would die to fee her righted. A generous mind, however enraged against an enemy, feels its refentments fink and vanish away, when the object of its wrath falls into its power. An estranged friend, filled with jealoufy and difcontent towards a bofom acquaintance, is apt to overflow U 2 with a with tenderness and remorfe, when a creature that was once dear to him undergoes any misfortune. What name then fhall we give to his ingratitude, who (forgetting the favours he folicited with eagernefs, and received with rapture) can infult the miferies that he himself caufed, and make fport with the pain to which he owes his greatest pleasure ? There is but one being in the creation whofe province it is to practise upon the imbecilities of frail creatures, and triumph in the woes which his own artifices brought about; and we well know, thofe who follow his example will receive his reward. Leaving my fair correfpondent to the direction of her own wifdom and modefty; and her enemy, and his mean accomplices, to the compunction of their own hearts; I fhall conclude this paper with a memorable inftance of revenge, taken by a Spanifh lady upon a guilty lover, which may serve to fhew what violent effects are wrought by the most tender paffion, when foured into hatred; and may deter the young and unwary from unlawful love. 'The story, however romantic it may appear, I have heard affirmed for a truth. Not many years ago, an English gentleman who in a rencounter by night, in the streets of Madrid, had the misfortune to kill his man, fled into a church porch for fanctuary. Leaning against the door he was furprised to find it open, and a glimmering light in the church. He had the courage to advance towards the light; but was terribly ftartled at the fight of a woman in white, who afcended from a grave with a bloody knife in her hand. The phantom marched up to him, and afked him what he did there. He told her the truth, without referve, believing that he had met a ghoft: Upon which the fpoke to him in the following manner; Stranger, thou art in my power: I am a murderer as thou art. Know then, that I am a nun of a noble family. A bafe perjured man man undid me, and boafted of it. I foon had him difpatched; but not content with • the murder, I have bribed the fexton to let me enter his grave, and have now plucked out his false heart from his body; and thus I ufe a trai'tor's heart.' At thefe words fhe tore it in pieces, and trampled it under her feet. N° 612. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27. Murranum hic, atavos et avorum antiqua fonantem Nomina, per regesque actum genus omne Latinos, Præcipitem fcopulo, atque ingentis turbine faxi Excutit, effunditque folo. VIRG. Æn. xii. ver. 529. Murranus, boafting of his blood, that fprings IT T is highly laudable to pay refpect to men who are defcended from worthy ancestors, not only out of gratitude to those who have done good to mankind, but as it is an encouragement to others to follow their example. But this is an honour to be received, not demanded, by the defcendents of great men; and they who are apt to remind us of their ancestors, only put us upon making comparisons to their own difadvantage. There is fome pretence for boafting of wit, beauty, ftrength, or wealth, because the communication of them may give pleafure or profit to others; but we can have no merit, nor ought we to claim any refpect, because our fathers acted well, whether we would or no. The following letter ridicules the folly I have bed. mentioned, U 3 3.40 SW |