do with them find in the main, a man with a better perfon than ordinary, and a beautiful woman, might be very happily changed for fuch to whom nature has been lefs liberal. The handfome fellow is ufually fo much a gentleman, and the fine woman has fomething fo becoming, that there is no enduring either of thein. It has therefore been generally my choice to mix with chearful ugly creatures, rather than gentlemen who are graceful enough to omit or do what they pleafe; or beauties who have charms enough to do and fay what would be disobliging in any but themselves.

Diffidence and prefumption, upon account of our per ́fons, are equally faults; and both arise from the want of knowing, or rather endeavouring to know, ourselves, and for what we ought to be valued or neglected. But indeed, I did not imagine these little confiderations and coquetries could have the ill confequence as I find they have by the following letters of my correspondents, where it feems beauty is thrown into the accompt, in matters of fale, to those who receive no favour from the charmers.

• Mr. Spectator,

A

June 4. FTER I have affured you I am in every respect one of the handsomeft young girls about town, I need be particular in nothing but the make of my face, which has the misfortune to be exactly oval. This I take to proceed from a temper that naturally inclines me both to speak and to hear.

• With this account you may wonder how I can have the vanity to offer myself as a candidate, which I now do, to a fociety, where the Spectator and Hecatiffa have been admitted with fo much applaufe. I do not want to be put in mind how very defective I am in every thing that is ugly: I am too fenfible of my own unworthinefs in this particular, and therefore I only pro'pofe myself as a foil to the club.

You fee how honeft I have been to confefs all my imperfections, which is a great deal to come from a woman, and what I hope you will encourage with the favour of your interest.

C 2

• There

There can be no objection made on the fide of the ' matchlefs Hecatiffa, finçe it is certain I fhall be in no danger of giving her the leaft occafion of jealoufy: and then a joint ftool in the very lowest place at the table, is is all the honour that is coveted by

Your most humble, and obedient fervant,

ROSALINDA.

P. S. I have facrificed my necklace to put into the public lottery against the common enemy. And last Saturday, about three of the clock in the afternoon, I began to patch indifferently on both sides of my face.'

• Mr. Spectator,

London, June 7, 1711.

U Idols, I cannot but complain to you that there

PON reading your late differtation concerning

are, in fix or feven places of this city, coffee-houses kept by perfons of that fifterhood. Thefe idols fit and receive all day long the adoration of the youth within fuch and fuch diftricts: I know in particular, goods are not entered as they ought to be at the custom-house, nor law-reports perufed at the temple; by reason of one beauty who detains the young merchants too long near 'Change, and another fair one who keeps the ftu'dents at her houfe when they fhould be at study. It ' would be worth your while to see how the idolaters alternately offer incenfe to their idols, and what heartburnings arife in thofe who wait for their turn to receive kind afpects from thofe little thrones which all the company, but thefe lovers, call the bars. I faw a gen⚫tleman turn as pale as afhes, because an idol turned the 'fugar in a tea-dish for his rival, and carelesly called the I boy to ferve him, with a "Sirrah! why do you not give the gentleman the box to please himself?" Certain it is, that a very hopeful young man was taken with leads in his pockets below bridge, where he intended to drown himself, becaufe his idol would wash the dish in which she had but just drank tea, before fhe would let him ufe it.

I am, Sir, a perfon paft being amorous, and do not give this information out of envy or jealousy, but I am a real fufferer by it. Thefe lovers take any thing for 'tea and coffee; I saw one yesterday furfeit to make his court; and all his rivals, at the fame time, loud in the the commendation of liquors that went against every body in the room that was not in love. While thefe · young fellows refign their stomachs with their hearts, ⚫ and drink at the idol in this manner, we who come to ‹ do business, or talk politics, are utterly poifoned. They have alfo drams for those who are more enamoured than ordinary; and it is very common for fuch as are too low in conftitution to ogle the idol upon the strength of 'tea, to flufter themselves with warmer liquors: thus all • pretenders advance as faft as they can, to a fever or a diabetes. I must repeat to you, that I do not look with 'an evil eye upon the profit of the idols, or the diver fions of the lovers; what I hope from this remonftrance, is only that we plain people may not be ferved as if we were idolaters; but that from the time of publishing this in your paper, the idols would mix ratibane only for their admirers, and take more care of us who do not < love them. I am,

• Sir, yours,

'T. T.'

No. LXXXVIII. MONDAY, JUNE 11.

Quid domini facient, audent cum talia fures?

VIRG. Ecl. 3. v. 16. What will not masters do, when fervants thus presumer

• Mr. Spectator,

May 30, 1711.

HAVE no finall value for your endeavours to lay

I before the world what may escape their obfervation,

and yet highly conduces to their fervices. You have, * I think, fucceeded very well on many fubjects; and feem 'to have been converfant in very different fcenes of life. But in the confiderations of mankind, as a Spectator,

'you

you should not omit circumstances which relate to the inferior part of the world, any more than those which concern the greater. There is one thing in particular which I wonder you have not touched upon, and that is the general corruption of manners in the fervants of "Great Britain. I am a man that have travelled and feen many nations, but have for seven years last past refided conftantly in London, or within twenty miles of it: in this time I have contracted a numerous acquaintance among the best fort of people, and have hardly found one of them happy in their fervants. This is matter of great aftonishment to foreigners, and all fuch as have vifited foreign countries: efpecially fince we cannot but • obferve, that there is no part of the world where fervants have those privileges and advantages as in England: they have no where elfe fuch plentiful diet, large wages, or indulgent liberty: there is no place wherein they labour lefs, and yet where they are fo little refpect ⚫ful, more wasteful, more negligent, or where they fo fre quently change their mafters. To this I attribute, in a great measure, the frequent robberies and loffes which we fuffer on the high road and in cur own houses. That indeed which gives me the prefent thought of this kind, is, that a careless groom of mine has fpoiled me the prettiest pad in the world with only riding him ten miles; and I affure you, if I were to make a register of all the horfes I have known thus abufed by negligence of fervants, the number would mount a regiment. I with you would give us your obfervations, that we may know how to treat thefe rogues, or that we masters " may enter into measures to reform them. Pray give us a fpeculation in general about fervants, and you make me, • Yours,

PHILO BRITANNICUS. P. S. Pray do not omit the mention of grooms in par"ticular."

This honeft gentleman who is so defirous that I should write a fatire upon grooms, has a great deal of reafon for his ref ntment; and I know no evil which touches

all

all mankind fo much as this of the misbehaviour of fervants.

The complaint of this letter runs wholly upon menfervants; and I can attribute the licentiousness which has at prefent prevailed among them, to nothing but what an hundred before me have afcribed it to, the custom of giving board-wages. This one inftance of falfe œconomy is fufficient to debauch the whole nation of fervants, and makes them as it were but for some part of their time in that quality. They are either attending in places where they meet and run into clubs, or else, if they wait at taverns, they eat after their mafters, and referve their wages for other occafions. From hence it arises, that they are but in a lower degree what their masters themselves are; and ufually affect an imitation of their manners: and you have in liveries, beaux, fops, and coxcombs, in as high perfection as among people that keep equipages. It is a common humour among the retinue of people of quality, when they are in their revels, that is, when they are out of their masters fight, to affume in a humourous way the names and titles of thofe whofe liveries they wear. By which means characters and distinctions become fo familiar to them, that it is to this, among other causes, one may impute a certain infolence among our fervants, that they take no notice of any gentleman though they know him ever fo well, except he is an acquaintance of their masters.

My obfcurity and taciturnity leave me at liberty, without fcandal, to dine, if I think fit, at a common ordinary, in the meaneft as well as the moft fumptuous house of entertainment. Falling in the other day at a victualling house near the Houfe of Peers, I heard the maid come down and tell the landlady at the bar, that my lord bishop swore he would throw her out at window, if the did not bring up more mild beer, and that my lord duke would have a double mug of purl. My furprize was increased, in hearing loud and ruftic voices fpeak and answer to each other upon the public affairs; by the names of the moft illuftrious of our nobility; until of a fudden one came running in, and cried the house

was