Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

N° 209 Tuesday, October 30, 1711.

Γυναικὸς ἐδὲ χρῆμ' ἀνὴρ ληίζεται
Ἐσθλῆς ἄμεινον, ἐδὲ ῥίγιον κακῆς.

SIMONIDES.

Of earthly goods the beft, is a good wife; "A bad, the bittereft curse of human life."

T

Here are no authors I am more pleafed with, than those who fhew human nature in a variety

of views, and defcribe the feveral ages of the world in their different manners. A reader cannot be more rationally entertained, than by comparing the virtues and vices of his own times with those which prevailed in the times of his forefathers; and drawing a parallel in his mind between his own private charafter, and that of other perfons, whether of his own age, or of the ages that went before him. templation of mankind under these changeable colours, is apt to shame us out of any particular vice, or animate us to any particular virtue; to make us pleafed or difpleafed with ourselves in the most proper points, to clear our minds of prejudice and prepoffeffion, and rectify that narrowness of temper which inclines us to think amifs of those who differ from ourselves.

The con

If we look into the manners of the most remote ages of the world, we discover human nature in her fimplicity; and the more we come downward towards our own times, may obferve her hiding herself in artifices and refinements, polished infenfibly out of her original plainnefs, and at length intirely loft under form and ceremony, and (what we call) good-breeding. Read the accounts of men and women as they are given us by the most ancient writers, both facred and profane, and you would think you were reading the history of another fpecies.

Among the writers of antiquity, there are none who inftru& us more openly in the manners of their respec

tive

tive times in which they lived, than those who have employed themselves in SATIRE, under what dress foever it may appear; as there are no other authors whose. province it is to enter fo directly into the ways of men, and fet their mifcarriages in fo ftrong a light.

SIMONIDES, a poet famous in his generation, is, I think, author of the oldeft fatire that is now extant; and, as fome fay, of the firft that was ever written. This poet flourished about four hundred years after the fiege of Troy; and fhews, by his way of writing, the fimplicity, or rather coarseness, of the age in which he lived. I have taken notice, in my hundred and fixtyfirst Speculation, that the rule of obferving what the French call the Bienfeance in an allufion, has been found out of latter years; and that the ancients, provided there was a likeness in their similitudes, did not much trouble themselves about the decency of the comparison. The Satire or Iambics of Simonides, with which I fhall entertain my readers in the present Paper, are a remarkable inftance of what I formerly advanced. The fubject of this Satire is Woman. He defcribes the fex in their feveral characters, which he derives to them from a fanciful fuppofition raised upon the doctrine of Præ-existence. He tells us, That the gods formed the fouls of women out of thofe feeds and principles which compofe feveral kinds of animals and elements; and that their good or bad difpofitions arife in them according as fuch and fuch feeds and principles predominate in their conftitutions. I have tranflated the author very faithfully, and if not word for word (which our language would not bear) at least fo as to comprehend every one of his fentiments, without adding any thing of my own. I have already apologized for this author's want of delicacy, and muft further premife, That the following Satire affects only fome of the lower part of the fex, and not those who have been refined by a polite education, which was not fo common in the age of this poet.

"In the beginning God made the fouls of Woman"kind out of different materials, and in a feparate "ftate from their bodies.

"The

" The fouls of one kind of women were formed out "of thofe ingredients which compofe a Swine. A woman of this make is a flut in her house and a "glutton at her table. She is uncleanly in her person, a flattern in her drefs, and her family is no better "than a dung-hill.

"A fecond fort of female foul was formed out of "the fame materials that enter into the compofition of "" a Fox. Such a one is what we call a notable dif"cerning woman, who has an infight into every thing "whether it be good or bad. In this species of females "there are fome virtuous and fome vicious.

A third kind of women were made up of Canine "particles. Thefe are what we commonly call "SCOLDS, who imitate the animals out of which they were taken, that are always bufy and barking, that "fnarl at every one who comes in her way, and live "in perpetual clamour.

[ocr errors]

"The fourth kind of women were made out of the "Earth. These are your fluggards, who pafs away "their time in indolence and ignorance, hover over "the fire a whole winter, and apply themselves with alacrity to no kind of business but eating.

"The fifth fpecies of females were made out of the "Sea. These are women of variable uneven tempers, "fometimes all ftorm and tempeft, fometimes all calm "and funfhine. The ftranger who fees one of these in "her fmiles and fmoothnefs, would cry her up for a "miracle of good humour; but on a fudden her looks "and her words are changed, the is nothing but fury "and outrage, noife and hurricane.

"The fixth fpecies were made up of the ingredients "which compofe an Afs, or a beaft of burden. These "are naturally exceeding flothful, but, upon the huf"band's exerting his authority, will live upon hard "fare, and do every thing to pleafe him. They are "however far from being averfe to venereal pleasure, " and seldom refufe a male companion.

"The Cat furnished materials for a feventh fpecies "of women, who are of a melancholy, froward, un"amiable nature, and fo repugnant to the offers of "love, that they fly in the face of their husband when VOL. III.

I

"he

"he approaches them with conjugal endearments. "This fpecies of women are likewife fubject to little thefts, cheats and pilferings.

[ocr errors]

"The Mare with a flowing mane, which was never broke to any fervile toil and labour, compofed an Weighth fpecies of women. These are they who have "little regard for their husbands, who pass away their

[ocr errors]

time in dreffing, bathing, and perfuming; who throw their hair into the niceft curls, and trick it up "with the fairest flowers and garlands. A woman of this fpecies is a very pretty thing for a ftranger to "look upon, but very detrimental to the owner, unless "it be a king or prince who takes a fancy to such a

toy "The ninth fpecies of females were taken out of "the Ape. These are fuch as are both ugly and illnatured, who have nothing beautiful in themselves, " and endeavour to detract from or ridicule every thing which appears fo in others.

"The tenth and laft fpecies of women were made "out of the Bee; and happy is the man who gets fuch an one for his wife. She is altogether faultlefs and "unblameable. Her family flourishes and improves by her good management. She loves her husband, "and is beloved by him. She brings him a race of beautiful and virtuous children. She diftinguishes herfelf among her fex. She is furrounded with graces. "She never fits among the loofe tribe of women, nor pailes away her time with them in wanton discourses. She is full of virtue and prudence, and is the best "wife that Jupiter can beftow on man."

I fhall conclude these lambics with the Motto of this Paper, which is a fragment of the fame author: "A man cannot poffefs any thing that is better than a good woman, nor any thing that is worse than a "" bad one."

As the poet has fhewn a great penetration is this diverfity of female characters, he has avoided the fault which Juvenal and Monfieur Boileau are guilty of, the former in his fixth, and the other in his laft Satire, where they have endeavoured to expose the fex in ge

neral,

171 neral, without doing juftice to the valuable part of it. Such levelling Satires are of no ufe to the world, and for this reafon I have often wondered how the French author above-mentioned, who was a man of exquifite judgment, and a lover of virtue, could think human nature a proper fubject for Satire in another of his ce-> lebrated pieces, which is called THE SATIRE UPON MAN. What vice or frailty can a discourse correct, which cenfures the whole fpecies alike, and endeavours to fhew by some fuperficial strokes of wit, that brutes are the most excellent creatures of the two? A Satire fhould expofe nothing but what is corrigible, and make a due difcrimination between those who are, and those who are not the proper objects of it.

*By ADDISON, dated it seems, London.

L*.

N° 210 Wednesday, October 31, 1711.

Nefcio quomodo inhæret in mentibus quafi feculorum quod-" dam augurium futurorum; idque in maximis ingeniis altiffimifque animis I exiftit maximè & apparit facillime. Cic. Tufc. Quæft.

[ocr errors]

"There is, I know not how, in minds, a certain prefage, as it were, of a future exiftence; and "this has the deepest root, and is moft difco"verable in the greatest geniuses and moft exalted "fouls."

[ocr errors]

• SIR,

I

To the SPECTATOR.

Am fully perfuaded that one of the beft fprings of generous and worthy actions, is the having generous and worthy thoughts of ourselves. Whoever has a mean opinion of the dignity of his nature, will act in no higher a rank than he has allotted himfelf in his own eftimation. If he confiders his being as circumfcribed by the uncertain term of a few years, I 2

• his

« PředchozíPokračovat »