fure, which I thought a very mean one 'till of very late Years, I thou I should have no How one great great Satisfaction left; but if I live to the 10th of March, 1714, and all my Securities are good, I fhall be worth fifty thoufand Pound.

you

You

You OU will infinitely oblige a diftreffed Lover, if will infert in your very next Paper the following Letter to my Mistress. muft know I am not a Person apt to defpair, but he has got an odd Humour of ftopping fhort unaccountably, and, as the her felf told a Confident of hers, fhe has cold Fits. These Fits fhall laft her a Month or fix Weeks together; and as the falls into them without Provocation, fo it is to be hoped the will return from them without the Merit of new Services. But Life and Love will not admit of fuch Intervals, therefore pray let her be admonished as follows.

Madam,

Madam, 159 chi vige doda Love you, and I honour you; there fore pray do not tell me of waiting till Decencies,

doll Forms, till Hu

mours are confulted and gratified. If you have that happy Conftitution as to be indolent for ten Weeks together, you should confider that all that while I burn in Impatiences and Fevers; but ftill you fay it will be Time enough, tho' I and you too grow older while we are yet talking. Which do you think the more reasonable, that you fhould alter a State of Indifference for Happiness, and that to obligeme or I live in Torment, and that to lay no manner of Obligation upon you? While I indulge your Infenfibility I am doing nothing; if you favour my Paffion, you are beftowing bright Defires, gay Hopes, generous Cares, noble Refolutions, and tranfporting Raptures upon,

Madam,

Your most devoted humble Servant.

Mr.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

ERE's a Gentlewoman lodges in the fame House with me, that I never did any Injury to in my whole Life, and the is always railing at me to those that fhe knows will tell me of of 'it. Don't you think he is in love ❝ with me?

P

break my

Or would you have me

Mind

yet or not ?

Your Servant,

T. B.

Mr. SPECTATOR.

I Am a Footman in a great Family

and am in Love with Hourtmaid. We were all at Hot-cockles laft Night in the Hall thefe Holidays; " when I lay down and was blinded, the 'pulled off her Shoe, and hit me with the Heel fuch a Rap, as almost broke my Head to pieces. Pray, Sir, was this Love or Spite?

Satur

No 261. Saturday, December 29.

Ταμθ ν ἀνθρώποισιν ευκταῖον κακόν.

M

Frag, vet. Po.

Y Father, whom I mentioned in my firft Specula tion, and whom I must always name with Honour and Gratitude, has very frequently talked to me on the fubject of Marriage. I was in my younger Years engaged, partly by his Advice, and partly by my own Inclinations, in the Courtship of a Person who had a great deal of Beauty, and did not at my firft Approaches feem to have any Averfion to me; but as my natural Taciturnity hindered me from fhewing my felf to the best Advantage, fhe by degrees be gan to look upon me as a very filly Fellow, and being refolved to regard Me rit more than any thing else in the Per fons who made their Applications to her, fhe married a Captain of Dragoons who

hap

happened to be beating up for Recruits in thofe Parts. bala azad ed erodv

THIS unlucky Accident has given me an Averfion to pretty Fellows ever. fince, and difcouraged me from trying my Fortune with the fair Sex. The. Obfervations which I made in this Conjuncture, and the repeated Advices which I received at that time from the good old Man above-mentioned, Thave produced the following Effay upon Love and Marriage.

THE pleafanteft Part of a Man's Life is generally that which paffes in Courtship, provided his Paffion be fincere, and the Party beloved kind with Difcretion. Love, Defire, Hope, all the pleafing Motions of the Soul rife in the Purfuit,

IT is easier for an artful Man, who is not in Love, to perfuade his Miftrefs he has a Paffion for her, and to fucceed in his Purfuits, than for one who loves with the greateft Violence. True Love hath ten thousand Griefs, Impatiencies and Refentments, that render a Man unamiable in the Eyes of the Perfon whofe Affection he follicits, befides, that it finks his Figure, gives him Fears, Apprehenfions and poornefs of Spirit, and often