No. 217. 1711, 'Mr. SPECTATOR, I am happily arrived at a State of Tranquility which few People envy, I mean that of an old Maid; therefore being wholly unconcerned in all that Medley of Follies which our Sex is apt to contract from their silly Fond ness of yours, I read your Railleries on us without Pro vocation. I can say with Hamlet, -Man Delights not me, Nor Woman neither Therefore, dear Sir, as you never spare your own Sex, do not be afraid of reproving what is ridiculous in ours, and you will oblige at least one Woman, who is, 'Mr. SPECTATOR, Your humble Servant, Susanna Frost' I am Wife to a Clergyman, and cannot help thinking that in your Tenth or Tithe Character of Womankind you meant my self, therefore I have no Quarrel against you for the other Nine Characters, X No. 218. I Your humble Servant, A. B' Friday, November 9, Quid de quoque viro & cui dicas saepe videto.-Hor. HAPPENED the other Day, as my Way is, to strole into a little Coffee-house beyond Aldgate; and as I sat there, two or three very plain sensible Men were talking of the SPECTATOR One said, he had that Morning drawn the great Benefit Ticket; another wished he had; but a third shaked his Head and said, it was pity that the Writer of that Paper was such a sort of Man, that it was no great Matter whether he had it or no. He is, it seems, said the good Man, the most extravagant Creature in the World; has run through vast Sums, and yet been in continual Want; a Man, for all he talks so well of Oeconomy, unfit for any of the Offices of Life, by reason of his Pro fuseness. It would be an unhappy thing to be his Wife, his Child, or his Friend; and yet he talks as No. 218. well of those Duties of Life as any one. Much Reflec Friday, Nov. 9, tion has brought me to so easie a Contempt for every 17 thing which is false, that this heavy Accusation gave me no Manner of Uneasiness; but at the same time it threw me into deep Thought upon the Subject of Fame in general; and I could not but pity such as were so weak, as to value what the common People say, out of their own talkative Temper, to the Advantage and Diminution of those whom they men tion, without being moved either by Malice or Good will. It would be too long to expatiate upon the Sense all Mankind have of Fame, and the inexpressible Pleasure which there is in the Approbation of worthy Men, to all who are capable of worthy Actions; but methinks one may divide the general Word Fame into three different Species, as it regards the different Orders of Mankind who have any thing to do with Sit Fame therefore may be divided into Glory, which respects the Hero; Reputation, which is preserved by every Gentleman; and Credit, which must be supported by every Tradesman. These Possessions in Fame are O dearer than Life to these Characters of Men, or rather are the Life of those Characters, Glory, while the Hero pursues great and noble Enterprizes, is impreg nable; and all the Assailants of his Renown do but shew their Pain and Impatience of its Brightness, without throwing the least Shade upon it. If the Foundation of an high Name be Virtue and Service, all that is offered against it is but Rumour, which is too short-lived to stand up in Competition with Glory, which is everlasting. Reputation, which is the Portion of every Man who would live with the elegant and knowing Part of Mankind, is as stable as Glory if it be as well founded; and the common Cause of human Society is thought concerned when we hear a Man of good Behaviour calumniated: Besides which, according to a prevailing Custom amongst us, every Man has his Defence in his own Arm; and Reproach is soon checked, put out of Countenance, and overtaken by Disgrace. II 165 No. 218, The most unhappy of all Men, and the most exposed to the Malignity or Wantonness of the common Voice, is the Trader. Credit is undone in Whispers: The Trades man's Wound is received from one who is more private and more cruel than the Ruffian with the Lanthorn and Dagger. The Manner of repeating a Man's Name, As Mr. Cash, Oh! do you leave your Money at his Shop? Why do you know Mr. Searoom? He is indeed a general Merchant. I say, I have seen, from the Iteration of a Man's Name, hiding one Thought of him, and explaining what you hide by saying some thing to his Advantage when you speak, a Merchant hurt in his Credit; and him who every Day he lived litterally added to the Value of his native Country, undone by one who was only a Burthen and a Blemish to it. Since every Body who knows the World is sensible of this great Evil, how careful ought a Man to be in his Language of a Merchant. It may possibly be in the Power of a very shallow Creature to lay the Ruin of the best Family in the most opulent City; and the more so, the more highly he deserves of his Country; that is to say, the farther he places his Wealth out of his Hands, to draw home that of another Climate, In this Case an ill Word may change Plenty into Want, and by a rash Sentence a free and generous Fortune may in a few Days be reduced to Beggary, How little does a giddy Prater imagine, that an idle Phrase to the Disfavour of a Merchant may be as pernicious in the Consequence, as the Forgery of a Deed to bar an Inheritance would be to a Gentleman? Land stands where it did before a Gentleman was culumniated, and the State of a great Action is just as it was before Calumny was offered to diminish it, and there is Time, Place, and Occasion expected to unravel all that is contrived against those Characters; but the Trader who is ready only for probable Demands upon him, can have no Armour against the Inquisitive, the Malicious, and the Envious, who are prepared to fill the Cry to his Dishonour. Fire and Sword are slow Engines of Destruction, in Comparison of the Babbler in the case of the Merchant, For 1711, For this Reason I thought it an imitable Piece of No. 218. Humanity of a Gentleman of my Acquaintance, who Friday, had great Variety of Affairs, and used to talk with Nov. 9, = Warmth enough against Gentlemen by whom he - thought himself ill dealt with; but he would never let any thing be urged against a Merchant (with whom he had any Difference) except in a Court of Justice, He I used to say, that to speak ill of a Merchant was to begin I his Suit with Judgment and Execution. One cannot, I think, say more on this Occasion, than to repeat, That the Merit of the Merchant is above that of all other Subjects; for while he is untouched in his Credit, his Hand-writing is a more portable Coin for the Service of his Fellow-Citizens, and his Word the Gold 5 of Ophir to the Country wherein he resides, No. 219, V Saturday, November 10, Vix ea nostra voco,-Ov, T HERE are but few Men who are not Ambitious The distinguishing themselves in the Nation or Country where they live, and of growing Considerable among those with whom they converse. There is a kind of Grandeur and Respect, which the meanest and most insignificant part of Mankind endeavour to procure in the little Circle of their Friends and Ac quaintance. The poorest Mechanick, nay, the Man who lives upon common Alms, gets him his Sett of Admirers, and delights in that Superiority which he enjoys over those who are in some Respects beneath him. This Ambition, which is natural to the Soul of Man, might methinks receive a very happy turn; and, if it were rightly directed, contribute as much to a Person's Advantage, as it generally does to his Uneasi ness and Disquiet. I shall therefore put together some Thoughts on this Subject, which I have not met with in other Writers; and shall set them down as they have occurred to me, without being at the Pains to Connect or Methodise them. All No. 219, 1711 All Superiority and Præeminence that one Man can Saturday, have over another, may be reduced to the Notion of Nov. 10, Quality, which considered at large, is either that of Fortune, Body, or Mind. The first is that which con sists in Birth, Title or Riches; and is the most foreign to our Natures, and what we can the least call our own of any of the three kinds of Quality, In relation to the Body, Quality arises from Health, Strength or Beauty, which are nearer to us, and more a Part of our selves than the former, Quality as it regards the Mind, has its rise from Knowledge or Virtue; and is that which is more essential to us, and more intimately united with us than either of the other two, The Quality of Fortune, tho' a Man has less reason to value himself upon it than on that of the Body or Mind, is however the kind of Quality which makes the most shining Figure in the Eye of the World, As Virtue is the most reasonable and genuine Source of Honour, we generally find in Titles an Intimation of some particular Merit that should recommend Men to the high Stations which they possess. Holiness is ascribed to the Pope; Majesty to Kings; Serenity or Mildness of Temper to Princes; Excellence or Perfection to Ambassadors; Grace to Arch-Bishops; Honour to Peers: Worship or Venerable Behaviour to Magistrates; and Reverence, which is of the same Import as the former, to the inferior Clergy. In the Founders of great Families such Attributes of Honour are generally correspondent with the Virtues of the Person to whom they are applied; but in the Descendants they are too often the Marks rather of Grandeur than of Merit. The Stamp and Denomination still continues, but the Intrinsick Value is frequently lost, The Death-Bed shews the Emptiness of Titles in a true Light A poor dispirited Sinner lies trembling under the Apprehensions of the State he is entering on; and is asked by a grave Attendant how his Holiness does? Another hears himself addressed to under the Title of Highness or Excellency, who lies under such mean Circumstances of Mortality as are the Disgrace of Human |