tural? If they will go on thus, I have nothing to fay to it: But then let them not pretend to be free all this while, and laugh at us poor married Patients.

"I HAVE known one Wench in this • Town carry an haughty Dominion over her • Lovers fo well, that he has at the fame time 'been kept by a Sea-Captain in the Straits, ' a Merchant in the City, a Country Gentleman in Hampshire, and had all her Correfpondences managed by one fhe kept for her own Ufes. This happy Man (as the Phrase is) used to write very punctually, every Poft, Letters for the Miftrefs to tranfcribe. He would fit in his Night-gown and Slippers, ' and be as grave giving an Account, only changing Names, that there was nothing in 'those idle Reports they had heard of such a 'Scoundrel as one of the other Lovers was;

and how could he think fhe could condefcend fo low, after fuch a fine Gentleman as ' each of them? For the fame Epiftle faid the 'fame thing to and of every one of them. 'And fo Mr. Secretary and his Lady went to 'Bed with great Order.

TO be fhort, Mr. SPECTATOR, We 'Husbands fhall never make the Figure we ought in the Imaginations of young Men growing up in the World, except you can bring it about that a Man of the Town shall 'be as infamous a Character as a Woman of the Town. But of all that I have met in my

'time,

time, commend me to Betty Duall: She is 'the Wife of a Sailor, and the kept Mistress of a Man of Quality; fhe dwells with 'the latter during the Sea-faring of the former. The Husband afks no Questions, fees his Apartments furnished with Riches not his, when he comes into Port, and the Lover is as joyful as a Man arrived at his Haven when the other puts to Sea. Betty is the • most eminently victorious of any of her Sex, ⚫ and ought to ftand recorded the only Woman of the Age in which the lives, who has poffeffed at the fame time two abused, and two contented

T

N°487 Thursday, September 18.

Cum proftrata fopore

Urget membra quies, & mens fine pondere ludit.

While Sleep oppresses the tir'd Limbs, the Mind
Plays without Weight, and wantons unconfin'd.

TH

Petr.

HO' there are many Authors, who have written on Dreams, they have generally confidered them only as Revelations of what has already happened in distant Parts of the World, or as Prefages of what is to happen in future Periods of Time.

I

I SHALL confider this Subject in another Light, as Dreams may give us fome Idea of the great Excellency of an Human Soul, and fome Intimation of its Independency on Matter.

IN the first place, our Dreams are great Inftances of that Activity which is natural to the human Soul, and which it is not in the power of Sleep to deaden or abate. When the Man appears tired and worn out with the Labours of the Day, this active part in his Compofition is ftill bufied and unwearied. When the Organs of Senfe want their due Repofe and neceffary Reparations, and the Body is no longer able to keep pace with that fpiritual Substance to which it is united, the Soul exerts herself in her feveral Faculties, and continues in Action till her Partner is again qualified to bear her company. In this cafe Dreams look like the Relaxations and Amusements of the Soul, when he is difincumber'd of her Machine, her Sports and Recreations, when fhe has laid her Charge afleep.

IN the fecond place, Dreams are an Inftance of that Agility and Perfection which is natural to the Faculties of the Mind, when they are difengaged from the Body. The Soul is clogged and retarded in her Operations, when she acts in Conjunction with a Companion that is fo heavy and unwieldy in its Motions. But in Dreams it is wonderful to obferve with what a Sprightliness and Alacrity fhe exerts herself. The flow of Speech make unpremeditated VOL. VII.

G

Ha

Harangues, or converfe readily in Languages that they are but little acquainted with. The Grave abound in Pleafantries, the Dull in Repartees and Points of Wit. There is not a more painful Action of the Mind, than Invention; yet in Dreams it works with that Eafe and Activity that we are not fenfible when the Faculty is employed. For Inftance, I believe every one, fome time or other, dreams that he is reading Papers, Books, or Letters; in which cafe the Invention prompts fo readily, that the Mind is impofed upon, and mistakes its own Suggeftions for the Compofitions of another.

ISHALL, under this Head, quote a Paffage out of the Religio Medici, in which the ingenious Author gives an Account of himfelf in his dreaming and his waking Thoughts. We are fomewhat more than ourselves in our Sleeps, and the Slumber of the Body feems to be but the Waking of the Soul. It is the Ligation of Senfe, but the Liberty of Reafon; and our waking Conceptions do not match the Fancies of our Sleeps. At my Nativity my Afcendant was the watery Sign of Scorpius: I was born in the Planetary Hour of Saturn, and I think I have a piece of that leaden Planet in me. way facetious, nor difpofed for the Mirth and Galliardize of Company; yet in one Dream I can compofe a whole Comedy, behold the Action, apprehend the fefts, and laugh myself awake at the Conceits thereof. Were my Memory as faithful as my Reafon is then fruitful, I would never

I am no

Study

Study but in my Dreams; and this time alfo would I choofe for my Devotions; but our groffer Memories have then fo little hold of our abstracted Understandings, that they forget the Story, and can only relate to our awakened Souls a confufed and broken Tale of that that has paffed ----Thus it is obferved that Men fometimes, upon the Hour of their Departure, do fpeak and reafon above themselves; for then the Soul beginning to be freed from the Ligaments of the Body, begins to reafon like berfelf, and to difcourfe in a Strain above Mortality.

WE may likewife obferve in the third place, that the Paffions affect the Mind with greater Strength when we are afleep, than when we are awake. Joy and Sorrow give us more vigorous Senfations of Pain or Pleasure at this time, than at any other. Devotion likewise, as the excellent Author above-mentioned has hinted, is in a very particular manner heightned. and inflamed, when it rifes in the Soul at a time that the Body is thus laid at reft. Every Man's Experience will inform him in this matter, tho' it is very probable, that this may happen differently in different Constitutions. I fhall conclude this Head with the two following Problems, which I fhall leave to the Solution of my Reader. Suppofing a Man always happy in his Dreams, and miferable in his waking Thoughts, and that his Life was equally divided between them, whether would he be more happy or miferable? Were a Man G 2

a