Work is done, the Almighty Creator will, as it were, fay, 'What have I any more to do with that World below? My chofen Jewels are all of them gather'd out of the Ruins of the great Apoftafy: The Councils and Purposes of my Grace and Wisdom are now finish'd; I'll lay afide the Sceptre of Mercy, and • put on the Severity of a Judge, and turn the Throne of Grace into a strict Tribunal : I'll arife to the • Vindication of mine Honour, the Confufion of my ⚫ implacable Adverfaries, and avenge the Quarrel of my • Covenant. The World grows old in Corruption, and calls for purifying Flames: All the Creatures groan to be delivered into the Liberty of my Children: The Spirits of my Saints long for Re-union • with the Bodies, and to reimbrace the dear Companions of their Blifs: The Cries of the Souls under the Altar, How long, Lord, Holy and True, are ever founding in mine Ears: Sun, ftop thy Progrefs, veil, • and be extinct for ever. Let the Moon withdraw her shining, darken and diffolve in Blood. Ye Stars, relinquish your Spheres, and fire univerfal Nature: Let the Foundations of the Earth be loosed, and the Heavens be folded together; let the Throne be fet, and the Books be opened: Attend, all ye Angels, the folemn Pomp of my dread Tribunal: Gabriel, ⚫ affume the Trump, and found the general Alarm : Arife, ye Dead; awake, O World, awake! and come to Judgment.

AND that piercing Trumpet that shall roufe the Duft of Kings and Princes, and fhatter all in pieces those regal Monuments and magnificent Tombs; when thou fhalt fee the Battlements of Heaven on a light Flame, and the Air crouded with dazzling Cherubims and bright Attendants, the glorious Train of a defcending Judge! When thou fhalt hear the great and univerfal Groan of diffolving Nature, and fee all the noble and beautiful Furniture of this fpacious and ftately Theatre perish in the mighty Conflagration! When Hell fhall yield up her Apoftate Legions to their Doom, and the Seas and the Graves pour in upon the boundlefs Plain! When the united Shrieks of despairing Worlds

fhall

fhall burft the Skies, and rend the Bowels of the Earth; 'twill be all to thee, my Soul, but the joyful Signal, that that fair immortal Morn is come, in which this Body fhall gloriously rise, and be reaffum'd to thy complete Beatitude.

N° 652. Monday, February 28.

Nimiùm ne crede Colori;

Alba Liguftra cadunt, Vaccinia nigra leguntur.

TH

Virg

HE Pearl-Chamber being open'd on Monday laft, for the Election of the Fair Candidates; The Elections were as follow:

THE beautiful Simplicia, who is my Valentine, ftood for the first Place, without any Oppofition, and receiv'd firft the unanimous Voices of all the Electors, and the Applause of the whole Affembly; fo great a Command has Modesty over all the rest of the Female Virtues She redden'd even at the good Opinion which the World entertain'd of her Virtue, and was in a great Confternation at her happy Fortune and juft Succefs; what would have created Ambition in another, threw her into an amiable Confufion, who, in the pure Humility of her Heart, put a less Value upon her own Merit, than every one of her admiring Beholders, that were proud of having fuch an inimitable Pattern of their Sex to grace the new Society.

I, with my own Hands, placed round her Neck the Necklace, and upon her Arm the Locket.

I was afhamed of myself, that during the Execution of this Office, I should be feized with so inordinate a Fit of Trembling; and just at that Time I arm'd my Countenance to undergo the Shock, with this Confideration, That tho' the Eyes of all present were fixed at

that

that Time upon us, her Beauty might entertain 'em so as to keep me unobserv'd, or, at the worst, that if they difcern'd those little Convulfions upon me, they would efteem it as a Palfy, and caused by the Infirmities of my old Age; tho' I dare own, without thinking it any leffening to my Years, my Wisdom, or my Gravity, to love fo perfect a young Lady, that thofe Tremblings proceeded from an Infirmity more incident to Youth. In fine, let the World of old Maids call it Dotage in me, as fome have already begun to do out of Spite, yet I declare I have a paffionate Feeling within me, which my Love Cafuift is pos'd to find an expreffive Term for, whenever Simplicia is the Object of my Eyes or Thoughts; and I write this, because I don't care who knows it, if Simplicia will but hear of it among the reft. If the can efteem a Perfon, whom all the old Maids, and, I may fay, without Vanity, fome difcreet Young ones, could not part from but with fome Regret, I fhall presently be bound to leave off writing SPECTATORS with Variety, and forc'd, like Ovid, to one soft Subject.

IN the next Election that came on, two old Maids oppos'd and rival'd one another for the Priority of Admittance, because all the Ladies of the Pearl take their Places according to their Seniority in this Order, as is - usual in others.

Mrs. Afterwit was heard; and the spoke as many good Things as could be expected from a Woman that did not begin to make use of her Senfes 'till after Forty; nor think in what Station fhe would lead the fhort Day of her Life, 'till late in the Afternoon, when Darkness was within an Hour or two of overtaking her.

PENITENTIA oppos'd her, but was excepted againft by Mrs. Afterwit, as having been an infufferable Coquette, and laid about her unmercifully, when in full Power of blooming Beauty, and more tender Years.

PENITENTIA had a Tear ftanding in each Eye, and with a fhrill and changeable Voice, fhe not mind-ing her own Defence fo much as Revenge, accufed Mrs. Afterwit of having refufed two or three fuitable

Matches,

Matches, and brought one Evidence for what fhe faid.

Mrs. Afterwit, to invalidate her Evidence, called in feveral Witneffes to her Reputation in that Point. Above all the reft, a Woman appeared, who owned her felf a Match-maker, and said she would be upon her Oath, that she had received three confiderable Sums of Money to procure her a young handfom Irish Fellow without a Groat; but all would not do, Penitentia cast a fharp fidelong Eye upon the Match-maker, and not being able to contain her felf from breaking out into one of her disdainful Airs: And pray, Mrs. Matchmaker (faid fhe) was not he brought to her on purpose to be refufed? Did he not fet off her prudential Conduct by it in all Companies, for ten Years together? If I ben't mistaken, I employ'd you to get me many of the fame kind. At the fame Time the Match-maker could not well deny it, but said, she believed the Reafon was the Man didnt like her. However, being loth, in fuch an important Affair, to rely altogether upon the Veracity of a Woman, whofe Business hath been to make falfe Oaths and Vows for other People all her Life-time, I approach'd Mrs. After wit, and putting on my Spectacles, I faw the Decays and the Ruins of a very fine Face, that I knew, and upon a little Recollection, I called to mind that he was Two and twenty Years ago deep in the modish Affectation of an arrant Prude.

THEY were both of them thrown out, and adjudged unqualified, and went away with very doleful Countenances; and an honest ugly Maid, that really could not get off, was chofen. Their Pleadings on both Sides were fo long and tiresom, that when they ended, our Affembly rofe for that Day.

WE have, fince that, at a new Meeting, thought it proper to dispatch the Young Virgins first, then the Widows, and the Old Maids last, because they are like to be so very tedious and vexatious, that I am afraid I fhall fcarce be able to find out feven right ones by LadyDay. 'Tis juft, that fince they have ftay'd fo long without any Reason at all, that they should have a little more Patience, when there's fo good a Reason for it.

Mr.

I

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Remember you formerly found fault with my HandyWork, for reprefenting, in too effeminate a manner, fome of thofe military Perfons, whofe Effigies I made, and whofe Monuments I erected in the Abby. In that I commonly follow'd what I thought the Genius and Fancy of the Perfon when alive. There is a famous Knight of the Fraternity of the Sword, who has really behav'd himself fo well abroad, that he deferves a Place in the Abby, and he is fo very ancient, that I am perfuaded he will be very shortly where he deferves. I know I am to make his Monument; and that Pofterity may not blame the Artift's Fancy, if the hardy Knight be placed in a Wooden Coach, japan'd and flower'd all over with golden Figures of the New, the Half, and Full Moon, the Sun, and all the Stars of the Firmament, ftrangely mingled with Birds and Butterflies, inftead of an old Roman Chariot, that carry'd upon it nothing but two Scythes of Deftruction, fcrew'd on each fide, to mow down Armies. I do affure the Publick, and you, Mr. SPECTATOR, that he is to be feen in it, every Day he lives.

Your Servant,

W. B

Friday,