her next the Garden. But to cut short my Story What can a Man do after all? I durst not stand for Member of Parliament last Election, for Fear of som ill Consequence from my being off of my Post. Wha I would therefore desire of you, is, to promote a Projec I have set on Foot, and upon which I have writ to some of my Friends; and that is, that Care may be taken to secure our Daughters by Law as well as our Deer; and that some honest Gentleman of a publick Spirit, would move for Leave to bring in a Bill for the better Preserving of the female Game. I am, Sir, Your humble Servant 'Mr. SPECTATOR, Mile-End-Green, March 6, 1711-12. Here is a young Man walks by our Door every Day about the Dusk of the Evening. He looks up at my Window as if to see me; and if I steal towards it to peep at him, he turns another Way, and looks frightned at finding what he was looking for. The Air is very cold; and pray let him know that, if he knocks at the Door, he will be carried to the Parlour Fire; and I will come down soon after, and give him an Opportunity to break his Mind. I am, Sir, Your humble Servant, If I observe he cannot speak, I'll give him time to recover himself, and ask him how he does," 'Dear Sir, I beg you to print this without Delay, and by the first Opportunity give us the natural Causes of Longing in Women; or put me out of Fear that my Wife will one Time or other be delivered of something as mon strous as any Thing that has yet appeared to the World for they say the Child is to bear a Resemblance of what was desired by the Mother, I have been married upwards of six Years, have had four Children, and my Wife is now big with the fifth. The Expences she has as put me to, in procuring what she has longed for No. 326. luring her Pregnancy with them, would not only have Friday, March 14, handsomely defrayed the Charges of the Month, but of 1712, heir Education too; her Fancy being so exorbitant for he first Year or two, as not to confine it self to the usual Objects of Eatables and Drinkables, but running but after Equipage and Furniture, and the like Extrava gancies. To trouble you only with a few of them: When she was with Child of Tom my eldest Son, she came home one Day just fainting, and told me she had been visiting a Relation, whose Husband had made her a Present of a Chariot and a stately Pair of Horses; and that she was positive she could not breathe a Week longer, unless she took the Air in the Fellow to it of her own within that time: This, rather than lose an Heir, I readily complied with. Then the Furniture of her best Room must be instantly changed, or she should mark the Child with some of the frightful Figures in the old-fashion'd Tapistry, Well, the Upholsterer was called, and her Longing saved that Bout. When she went with Molly, she had fixed her Mind upon a new Set of Plate, and as much China as would have furnished an India Shop: These also I chearfully granted, for Fear of being Father to an Indian Pagod. Hitherto I found her Demands rose upon every Concession; and had she gone on I had been ruined: But by good Fortune, with her third, which was Peggy, the Heighth of her Imagi nation came down to the Corner of a Venison-Pasty, and brought her once even upon her Knees to gnaw off the Ears of a Pig from the Spit. The Gratifications of her Palate were easily preferred to those of her Vanity; and sometimes a Partridge or a Quail, a Wheat-Ear or the Pestle of a Lark, were chearfully purchased; nay I could be contented though I were to feed her with green Pease in April, or Cherries in May. But with the Babe she now goes she is turned Girl again, and fallen to eating of Chalk, pretending 'twill make the Child's Skin white; and nothing will serve her but I must bear her Company, to prevent its having a Shade of my Brown, In this however I have ventured to deny her. No longer ago than Yesterday, as we were No. 326, 1712. coming to Town, she saw a Parcel of Crows so heartily at Breakfast upon a Piece of Horse-flesh, that she ha an invincible Desire to partake with them, and (to my infinite Surprise) begged the Coachman to cut her of a Slice as if 'twere for himself; which the Fellow did and as soon as she came home she fell to it with such an Appetite, that she seemed rather to devour than ea it. What her next Sally will be I cannot guess; bu in the mean Time my Request to you is, that if there be any way to come at these wild unaccountable Rovings of Imagination by Reason and Argument, you'd speedily afford us your Assistance. This exceeds the Grievance of Pin-Money; and I think in every Settlement there ought to be a Clause inserted, that the Father should be answerable for the Longings of his Daughter. But I shall impatiently expect your Thoughts in this Matter: and am, Sir, Your most obliged, And most faithful Humble Servant, T. B. Let me know whether you think the next Child will love Horses as much as Molly does China-Ware! No. 327. [ADDISON,] WE T Saturday, March 15. -Major rerum mihi nascitur ordo,—Virg, 7E were told in the foregoing Book how the Evil Spirit practised upon Eve as she lay asleep, in order to inspire her with Thoughts of Vanity, Pride and Ambition, The Author, who shews a wonderful Art throughout his whole Poem, in preparing the Reader for the several Occurrences that arise in it, founds, upon the above-mention'd Circumstance, the First Part of the Fifth Book. Adam upon his Awaking finds Eve still asleep, with an unusual Discomposure in her Looks, The Posture in which he regards her, is described with a Tenderness not to be express'd, as as the Whisper with which he awakens her is His wonder was to find unwaken'd Eve Thy face, and morn return'd the No. 327. Saturday, March 15, 1712. I cannot but take Notice that Milton, in the Con ferences between Adam and Eve, had his Eye very frequently upon the Book of Canticles, in which there is a noble Spirit of Eastern Poetry, and very often not unlike what we meet with in Homer, who is generally placed near the Age of Solomon. I think there is no Question but the Poet in the preceding Speech remember'd those two Passages Passages which are spoken on the like Occasion, and fill'd with the same pleasing Images of Nature, My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away; For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the Voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land. The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the Vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my Love, my fair one, and come away. Come, my beloved, let us go forth_into_the Field; let us get up early to the Vineyards, let us see if the Vine flourish, whether the tender Grape appear, and the Pomegranates bud forth. No, 327. 1712, His preferring the Garden of Eden to that Where the Sapient King Held Dalliance with his fair Egyptian Spouse, shews that the Poet had this delightful Scene in his Mind, Eve's Dream is full of those high Conceits engen dring Pride, which, we are told, the Devil endeavoured to instil into her. Of this Kind is that Part of it where she fancies herself awaken'd by Adam in the following beautiful Lines, Why sleep'st thou Eve? now is the pleasant time, In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment An injudicious Poet would have made Adam talk thro' the whole Work, in such Sentiments as these, But Flattery and Falshood are not the Courtship of Milton's Adam, and could not be heard by Eve in her State of Innocence, excepting only in a Dream produc'd on purpose to taint her Imagination. Other vain Sentiments of the same Kind in this Relation of her Dream, will be obvious to every Reader. Tho' the Catastrophe of the Poem is finely presaged on this Occasion, the Particulars of it are so artfully shadow'd, that they do not anticipate the Story which follows in the Ninth Book. I shall only add, that tho' the Vision it self is founded upon Truth, the Circum stances of it are full of that Wildness and Inconsistency which are natural to a Dream, Adam, conformable to his superior Character for Wisdom, instructs and Comforts Eve upon this Occasion, So chear'd he his fair Spouse, and she was chear'd, From either eye, and wip'd them with her hair; Two |