to be in a confederacy against us, and our enemies ⚫ themselves must be our judges? THE Spanish proverb fays, El fabio muda confejo, el necio no; i. e. A wife man changes his mind, a fool never will. So that we think You, Sir, a very proper perfon to address to, fince we know you to be capable of being convinced, and changing your judgment. You are well able to fettle this affair, and to you we submit our caufe. We defire you to align the butts and bounds of each of us; and that for the future we may both enjoy our own. We would defire to be heard by 6. our counsel, but that we fear in their very pleadings they would betray our caufe: befides, we have been oppreffed fo many years, that we can appear no other way, but in forma pauperis. All which confidered, we hope you will be pleased to do that which to right and juftice fhall appertain. R And your petitioners, &c. Thursday, May 31. N° 79. Qderunt peccare boni virtutis amore. HOR. Ep. 16. 1. 1. v. 52. CREECH. The good, for virtue's fake, abhor to fin. HAVE received very many letters of late from my female correfpondents, moft of whom are very angry. with me for abridging their pleasures, and looking feverely upon things, in themfelves indifferent. But I think they are extremely unjuft to me in this imputation: all that I contend for is, that thofe excellencies, which are to be regarded but in the fecond place, fhould not precede more weighty confiderations. The heart of man deceives him in fpite of the lectures of half a life spent in difcourfes on the fubject of paffion; and I do not know why one may not think the heart of woman as unfaithful to itself. If we grant an equality in the faculties of both fexes, the minds of women are lefs cultivated with precepts, and confequently may, without diffefpect to them, be accounted more liable to illufion in cafes wherein natural inclina-. tion is out of the interests of virtue. I fhall take up my prefent time in commenting upon a billet or two which came from ladies, and from thence leave the reader to judge whether I am in the right or not, in thinking it is poffible fine women may be mistaken. THE following address seems to have no other defign in it, but to tell me the writer will do what he pleases for all me. I Mr SPECTATOR, Aм young, and very much inclined to follow the paths of innocence; but at the fame time, as I have a plentiful fortune, and am of quality, I am unwilling to refign the pleasures of diftinction, fome little fatif 'faction in being admired in general, and much greater in being beloved by a gentleman, whom I defign to 'make my husband. But I have a mind to put off entring into matrimony till another winter is over my head, < (which whatever, mufty Sir, you may think of the matter) I defign to pass away in hearing mufic, going to plays, visiting, and all other fatisfactions which fortune and youth, protected by innocence and virtue, can procure for, SIR, Your most humble fervant, M. T. < My lover does not know I like him, therefore having no engagements upon ine, think to ftay and know whether I may not like any one else better. I HAVE heard WILL. HONEYCOMB fay, A woman feldom writes her mind but in her poffcript. I think this gentlewoman has fufficiently difcovered hers in this. I'll lay what wager fhe pleases against her prefent favourite, and can tell her that fhe will like ten more before the is fixed, and then will take the worst man the ever liked in her life. There is no end of affection taken in at the eyes only; and you may as well fatisfy thofe eyes with feeing, as control any paffion received by them only. It is from loving by fight that coxcombs fo frequently fucceed with women, and very often a young lady is bestowed by her Cc 3 parents parents to a man who weds her (as innocence itself) tho" The has, in her own heart, given her approbation of a different man in every affembly fhe was in the whole year before. What is wanting among women, as well as a-mong men, is the love of laudable things, and not to reft only in the forbearance of fuch as are reproachful. How far removed from a woman of this light imagination is Eudofia! Eudofia has all the arts of life and goodbreeding with fo much ease, that the virtue of her conduct looks more like an inftinct than choice. It is as little diffi cult to her to think juftly of perfons and things, as it is to a woman of different accomplishments, to move ill or look. aukward. That which was, at first, the effect of instruction, is grown into an habit; and it would be as hard for Eudofia to indulge a wrong fuggeftion of thought, as it' would be for Flavia the fine dancer to come into a room with an unbecoming air. BUT the mifapprehenfions people themfelves have of their own ftate of mind, is laid down with much difcern-ing in the following letter, which is but an extract of a kind epiftle from my charming miftrefs Hecatiffa, who is above the vanity of external beauty and is the better judge of the perfections of the mind. Mr SPECTATOR, IWRITE this to acquaint you, that as well as myself, fpend many hours more than we very many ladies used at the glass, for want of the female library of which you promised us a catalogue. I hope, Sir, in the choice of authors for us, you will have a particular regard to < books of devotion. What they are, and how inany, muft be your chief care;. for upon the propriety of fuch writings depends a great deal. I have known thofe among us who think, if they every morning and even-ing fpend an hour in their clofet, and read over fo many prayers in fix or feven books of devotion, all equally nonfenfical, with a fort of warmth, (that might as well he raised by a glass of wine, or a dram of citron) they < may all the rest of their time go on in whatever their particular paffion leads them to. The beauteous Fhi lautia, who is (in the language) an idol, is one of these votaries; she has a very pretty furnished closet, to which 6. The fhe retires at her appointed hours: this is her dreffing room, as well as chapel; fhe has conftantly before her a large looking-glass, and upon the table, according to a very witty author, Together lye her prayer-book and paint, At once t'improve the finner and the faint. IT inuft be a good scene, if one could be present at it to fee this idol by turns lift up her eyes to heaven, and fteal glances at her own dear perfon. It cannot but be a pleafant conflict between vanity and humiliation. When you are upon this fubject, chufe books which elevate the mind above the world, and give a pleafing indifference: "to little things in it. For want of fuch inftructions, I am apt to believe fo many people take it in their heads to be fullen, crofs, and angry, under pretence of being ab"stracted from the affairs of this life, when at the fame. time they betray their fondness for them by doing their duty as a talk, and pouting and reading good books for a week together. Much of this I take to proceed from the indifcretion of the books themselves, whofe very titles of weekly preparations, and fuch limited godlinefs, lead people of ordinary capacities into great errors, and raise in them a mechanical religion, entirely diftinct from mo-rality. I know a lady fo given up to this fort of devotion, that tho' fhe employs fix or eight hours of the twenty four at cards, fhe never miffes one conftant hour of prayer, for which time another holds her cards, to which the returns with no little anxioufhefs till two or three in the morning. All thefe acts are but empty shows, and, as it were, compliments made to virtue; the mind is all the while untouched with any true pleasure in the " pursuit of it From hence I prefine it arifes that fo many people call themselves virtuous, from no other pretence to it but an abfence of ill. There is Dulcianara, the moft in olent of all creatures to her friends and domefticks, upon no other pretence in nature but that (as her filly phrafe is) no one can fay black is her eye. She has no fecrets, forfodth, which should make her afraid to speak her mind, and therefore fhe is impertinently blunt. to all her acquaintance, and unfeafonably imperious to all her family.. Dear Sir, be pleafed to put fuch books in . our hands, as may make our virtue more inward, and convince fome of us that in a mind truly virtuous the fcorn of vice is always accompanied with the pity of it. This and other things are impatiently expected from you by our whole fex, among the reft by, R SIR, Your most humble fervant, N° 80. Friday, June 1. B. D. Calum non animum mutant qui trans mare çurrunt. HOR. ep. 11.1. 1. V. 2.7% Thofe that beyond fea go, will fadly find, IN CREECH. the year 1688, and on the fame day of that year, were born in Cheapfide, London, two females of exquifite feature and fhape; the one we fhall call Brunetta, the other Fhiilis. A clofe intimacy between their parents made each of them the firft acquaintance the other knew in the world: they played, dreffed babies, acted vifitings, learned to dance and make curtefies, together. They. were infeparable companions in all the little entertainments their tender years were capable of: which innocent happinefs continued till the beginning of their fifteenth year, when it happened that Mrs Phillis had an head-drefs on which became her fo very well, that instead of being beheld any more with pleasure for their amity to each other, the eyes of the neighbourhood were turned to remark them with comparison of their beauty. They now no longer enjoyed the cafe of mind and pleafing indolence in which they were formerly happy, but all their words and actions were misinterpreted by each other, and every excellence in their fpeech and behaviour was looked upon as an act of emulation to surpass the other. Thefe beginnings of disfinclination foon improved into a formality of behaviour, a. general coldness, and by natural fteps, into an irreconcileable hatred. THESE two rivals for the reputation of beauty, were in their ftature, countenance and mein fo very much alike, that |