Youth, protected by Innocence and Virtue, can procure No. 79. 1711 Sir, Your most Humble Servant, M. T. My Lover does not know I like him, therefore having no Engagements upon me, I think to stay, and know whether I may not like any one else better.' I have heard WILL. HONEYCOMB say, A Woman seldom writes her Mind but in her Postscript. I think this Gentlewoman has sufficiently discovered hers in this. I'll lay what Wager she pleases against her present Favourite, and can tell her that she will Like Ten more before she is fixed, and then will take the worst Man she ever liked in her Life. There is no end of Affection taken in at the Eyes only; and you may as well satisfie those Eyes with seeing, as control any Passion received by them. only. It is from Loving by Sight that Coxcombs so frequently succeed with Women, and very often a Young Lady is bestowed by her Parents to a Man who weds her (as Innocence it self), tho' she has, in her own Heart, given her Approbation of a different Man in every As sembly she was in the whole Year before. What is wanting among Women, as well as among Men, is the Love of laudable Things, and not to rest only in the Forbearance of such as are Reproachful. How far removed from a Woman of this light Imagina tion is Eudosía! Eudosia has all the Arts of Life and good Breeding with so much ease, that the Virtue of her Conduct looks more like an Instinct than Choice. It is as little difficult to her to think justly of Persons and Things, as it is to a Woman of different Accomplishments to move ill or look awkard. That which was, at first, the effect of Instruction is grown into an Habit; and it would be as hard for Eudosia to indulge a wrong Suggestion of Thought, as it would be for Flavia the Fine Dancer, to come into a Room with an unbecoming Air. But the Misapprehensions People themselves have of their own State of Mind, is laid down with much discern ing in the following Letter, which is but an Extract of a kind Epistle from my charming Mistress Hecatissa, who No. 79. is above the Vanity of external Beauty, and is the better Thursday, Judge of the Perfections of the Mind. 'Mr. SPECTATOR, I write this to acquaint you, that very many Ladies, as well as my self, spend many Hours more than we 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 many, must be your chief Care; for upon the Propriety of such Writ ings depends a great deal. I have known those among us who think, if they every Morning and Evening spend an Hour in their Closet, and read over so many Prayers in Six or Seven Books of Devotion, all equally nonsensical, with a sort of Warmth (that might as well be raised by a Glass of Wine, or a Drachm of Citron) they may all the rest of their time go on in whatever their particular Passion leads them to. The Beauteous Philauthia, who is (in your Language) an Idol, is one of these Votaries; she has a very pretty furnished Closet, to which she re tires at her appointed Hours: This is her Dressing-room, as well as Chappel; she has constantly 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 Sinner and the Saint. It must be a good Scene, if one could be present at it, to see this Idol by turns lift up her Eyes to Heav'n, and steal Glances at her own dear Person. It cannot but be a pleasing Conflict between Vanity and Humiliation. When you are upon this Subject, chuse Books which elevate the Mind above the World, and give a pleasing Indifference to little things in it. For want of such In structions, I am apt to believe so many People take it in their Heads to be sullen, cross and angry, under Pretence of being abstracted from the Affairs of this Life; when at the same time they betray their Fondness for them by doing their Duty as a Task, and Pouting and reading good May 31, 1711 All No. 79, good Books for a Week together. Much of this I take to Thursday, proceed from the Indiscretion of the Books themselves, May 31, whose very Titles of Weekly Preparations, and such 1711, limited Godliness, lead People of ordinary Capacities into great Errors, and raise in them a Mechanical Religion, intirely distinct from Morality. I know a Lady so given up to this sort of Devotion, that tho' she employs six or eight Hours of the twenty four at Cards, she never misses one constant Hour of Prayer, for which time another holds her Cards, to which she returns with no little Anxiousness 'till two or three in the Morning. these Acts are but empty Shows, and, as it were, Compli ments made to Virtue; the Mind is all the while un touched with any true Pleasure in the Pursuit of it. From hence I presume it arises that so many People call themselves Virtuous, from no other Pretence to it but an Absence of Ill. There is Dulcianara is the most insolent of all Creatures to her Friends and Domesticks, upon no other Pretence in Nature, but that (as her silly Phrase is) no one can say Black is her Eye. She has no Secrets, forsooth, which should make her afraid to speak her Mind, and therefore she is impertinently Blunt to all her Ac quaintance, and unseasonably Imperious to all her Family. Dear Sir, be pleased to put such Books in our Hands, as may make our Virtue more inward, and convince some of us that in a Mind truly Virtuous the Scorn of Vice is always accompanied with the Pity of it. This, and other things, are impatiently expected from you by our whole Sex, among the rest by, SIR, Your most humble Servant, B. D.' No. 80. Friday, June 1. Coelum, non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt.-Hor. Ν IN the 1688, the same Day of that were born in Cheapside, London, two Females of exquisite Feature and Shape; the one we shall call Brunetta, the other Phillis. A close Intimacy between their Parents made each of them the first Acquaintance the 1711, the other knew in the World: They Played, dressed No. 80. Babies, acted Visitings, learned to Dance and make Friday, Curtsies, together. They were inseparable Companions June 1, in all the little Entertainments their tender Years were capable of: Which innocent Happiness continued till the Beginning of their fifteenth Year, when it happened that Mrs. Phillis had an Head-dress on which became her so 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 Ease of Mind and pleasing Indolence in which they were formerly happy, but all their Words and Actions were misinterpreted by each other, and every Excellence in their Speech and Behaviour was looked upon as an Act of Emulation to surpass the other. These Beginnings of Dis-inclination soon im proved into a Formality of Behaviour, a general Coldness, and by natural Steps into an irreconcileable Hatred. These two Rivals for the Reputation of Beauty, were in their Stature, Countenance and Mein so very much alike, that if you were speaking of them in their Ábsence, the Words in which you described the one must give you an Idea of the other. They were hardly distin guishable, you would think, when they were apart, tho' extreamly different when together. What made their Enmity the more entertaining to all the rest of their Sex was, that in Detraction from each other neither could fall upon Terms which did not hit her self as much as her Adversary. Their Nights grew restless with Meditation of new Dresses to out-vie each other, and inventing new Devices to recall Admirers, who observed the Charms of the one rather than those of the other on the last Meeting, Their Colours failed at each other's Appearance flushed with Pleasure at the Report of a Disadvantage, and their Countenances withered upon Instances of Ap plause, The Decencies to which Women are obliged, made these Virgins stifle their Resentment so far as not to break into open Violences, while they equally suffered the Torments of a regulated Anger. Their Mothers, as it is usual, engaged in the Quarrel, and supported the several No. 80, Friday, June 1, 1711. several Pretensions of the Daughters with all that ill During this constant Struggle it happened, that Phillis one Day at publick Prayers smote the Heart of a gay West-Indian, who appeared in all the Colours which can affect an Eye that could not distinguish between being fine and tawdry. This American in a Summer-Island Suit was too shining and too gay to be resisted by Phillis and too intent upon her Charms to be diverted by any of the laboured Attractions of Brunetta. Soon after, Brunetta had the Mortification to see her Rival disposed of in a Wealthy Marriage, while she was only ad dressed to in a Manner that shewed she was the Admira tion of all Men, but the Choice of none, Phillis was carried to the Habitation of her Spouse in Barbadoes: Brunetta had the ill Nature to enquire for her by every Opportunity, and had the Misfortune to hear of her being attended by numerous Slaves, fanned into Slumbers by successive Hands of them, and carried from Place to Place in all the Pomp of barbarous Magnificence Brunetta could not endure these repeated Advices, but employed all her Arts and Charms in laying Baits for any of Condition of the same Island, out of a meer Ambi tion to confront her once more before she died. She at last succeeded in her Design, and was taken to Wife by a Gentleman whose Estate was contiguous to that of her Enemy's Husband. It would be endless to ennumerate the many Occasions on which these irreconcileable Beauties laboured to excel each other; but in Process of Time it happened, that a Ship put into the Island consigned to a Friend of Phillis, who had Directions to give her the Refusal of all Goods for Apparel, before Brunetta could be alarmed of their Arrival. He did so, and Phillis was dressed in a few Days in a Brocade more gorgeous and costly than had ever before appeared in that Latitude. Brunetta languished at the Sight, and could by no Means come |