Fear, and all those parts of Life, which distinguish her No. 144. from the other Sex; with some Subordination to it, but Wednes such an Inferiority that makes her still more lovely, day, Eucratia is that Creature, she is all over Woman, 1711. August 15, Kindness is all her Art, and Beauty all her Arms, Her Look, her Voice, her Gesture, and whole Behaviour is truly Feminine. A Goodness mixed with Fear, gives a Tincture to all her Behaviour. It would be Savage to offend her, and Cruelty to use Art to gain her. Others are Beautiful, but Eucratía thou art Beauty! Omnamante is made for Deceit, she has an Aspect as Innocent as the famed Lucrece, but a Mind as Wild as the more famed Cleopatra. Her Face speaks a Vestal, but her Heart a Messalina. Who that beheld Om namante's negligent unobserving Air, would believe that she hid under that regardless Manner the witty Prostitute, the rapacious Wench, the prodigal Curtizan? She can, when she pleases, adorn those Eyes with Tears like an Infant that is chid: She can cast down that pretty Face in Confusion, while you rage with Jealousie, and storm at her Perfidiousness; she can wipe her Eyes, tremble and look frighted, till you think your self a Brute for your Rage, own your self an Offender, beg Pardon, and make her new Presents, But I go too far in reporting only the Dangers in beholding the Beauteous, which I design for the In struction of the Fair as well as their Beholders; and shall end this Rhapsody with mentioning what I thought was well enough said of an Antient Sage to a Beautiful Youth, whom he saw admiring his own Figure in Brass. What, said the Philosopher, could that Image of yours say for it self if it could speak? It might say, (answer'd the Youth) That it is very Beautiful. And are not you asham'd, replyed the Cynick, to value your self upon that only of which a Piece of Brass is capable? T Thursday No. 145. No 145. Stultitiam patiuntur opes Thursday, August 16, -Hor, Ithe first Mention, I desire farther Notice from pay Correspondents, 'Mr. SPECTATOR, I am obliged to you for your Discourse the other Day upon frivolous Disputants, who with great Warmth, and Enumeration of many Circumstances and Authorities, undertake to prove Matters which no Body living denies. You cannot employ your self more usefully than in adjusting the Laws of Disputation in Coffee-houses and accidental Companies, as well as in more formal Debates, Among many other things which your own Experi ence must suggest to you, it will be very obliging if you please to take Notice of Wagerers. I will not here repeat what Hudibras says of such Disputants, which is so true, that it is almost Proverbial; but shall only acquaint you with a Set of young Fellows of the Inns of Court, whose Fathers have provided for them so plentifully, that they need not be very anxious to get Law into their Heads for the Service of their Country at the Bar; but are of those who are sent (as the Phrase of Parents is) to the Temple to know how to keep their own. One of these Gentlemen is very loud and captious at a Coffee-house which I fre quent, and being in his Nature troubled with an Humour of Contradiction, though withal excessive Igno rant, he has found a way to indulge this Temper, go on in Idleness and Ignorance, and yet still give himself the Air of a very learned and knowing Man by the Strength of his Pocket. The Misfortune of the thing is, I have, as it happens sometimes, a greater Stock of Learning than of Money. The Gentleman I am speak ing of, takes Advantage of the Narrowness of my Circumstances in such a manner, that he has read all that I can pretend to, and runs me down with such a positive Air, and with such powerful Arguments, that from from a very Learned Person I am thought a mere No. 145. Pretender. Not long ago I was relating that I had Thursday, read such a Passage in Tacitus, up starts my young 1711 August 16, Gentleman in a full Company, and pulling out his Purse offered to lay me ten Guineas, to be staked immediately in that Gentleman's Hands, (pointing to one smoaking at another Table) that I was utterly mistaken. I was Dumb for want of ten Guineas; he went on unmercifully to triumph over my Ignorance how to take him up, and told the whole Room he had read Tacitus twenty times over, and such a remark able Incident as that could not escape him. He has at this time three considerable Wagers depending between him and some of his Companions, who are rich enough to hold an Argument with him. He has five Guineas upon Questions in Geography, two that the Isle of Wight is a Peninsula, and three Guineas to one that the World is round. We have a Gentleman comes our Coffee-house who deals mightily in Antique Scandal; my Disputant has laid him twenty Pieces upon a Point of History, to wit, that Caesar never lay with Cato's Sister, as is scandalously reported by some People, There are several of this sort of Fellows in Town, who Wager themselves into Statesmen, Historians, Geographers, Mathematicians, and every other Art, when the Persons with whom they talk have not Wealth equal to their Learning. I beg of you to prevent, in these Youngsters, this Compendious Way to Wisdom, which costs other People so much Time and Pains, and you will oblige 'Mr. SPECTATOR, Your Humble Servant' Coffee House near the Here's a Young Gentleman that sings Opera-Tunes, or Whistles in a full House. Pray let him know that he has no Right to act here as if he were in an empty Room. Be pleased to divide the Spaces of a Publick Room, and certifie Whistlers, Singers and Common Orators, that are heard further than their Portion of the 1711. No. 145. the Room comes to, that the Law is open, and that Thursday, there is an Equity which will relieve us from such as August 16, interrupt us in our Lawful Discourse, as much as against such as stop us on the Road. I take these Persons, Mr. SPECTATOR, to be such Trespassers as the Officer in your Stage Coach, and am of the same Sentiment with Councellor Ephraim. It is true the Young Man is rich, and, as the Vulgar say, needs not care for any Body; but sure that is no Authority for him to go whistle where he pleases. I am, Sir, Your Most Humble Servant. P.S. I have Chambers in the Temple, and here are Students that learn upon the Hautboy; pray desire the Benchers, that all Lawyers who are Proficients in Wind-Musick may lodge to the Thames, 'Mr. SPECTATOR, We are a Company of Young Women who pass our Time very much together, and obliged by the Mercenary Humour of the Men to be as Mercenarily inclined as they are. There visits among us an old Batchelor whom each of us has a Mind to. The Fellow is rich, and knows he may have any of us, therefore is particular to none, but excessively ill-bred. His Pleasantry consists in Romping, he snatches Kisses by surprise, puts his Hand in our Necks, tears our Fans, robs us of Ribbons, forces Letters out of our Hands, looks into any of our Papers, and a thousand other Rudenesses. Now what I'll desire of you is to acquaint him, by Printing this, that if he does not marry one of us very suddenly, we have all agreed, the next time he pretends to be merry, to affront him, and use him like a Clown as he is. In the Name of the Sisterhood I take my leave of you, and am, as they all are, 'Mr. SPECTATOR, Your Constant Reader, and Well-wisher. I and several others of your Female Readers, have conformed our selves to your Rules, even to our very Dress 1711. Dress. There is not one of us but has reduced our No. 145. outward Petticoat to its ancient Sizable Circumference, Thursday, tho' indeed we retain still a Quilted one underneath, August 16, which makes us not altogether unconformable to the Fashion; but 'tis on Condition Mr. SPECTATOR extends not his Censure so far. But we find you Men secretly approve our Practice, by imitating our Piramidical Form. The Skirt of your fashionable Coats forms as large a Circumference as our Petticoats; as these are set out with Whalebone, so are those with Wire, to encrease and sustain the Bunch of Fold that hangs down on each side; and the Hat, I perceive, is decreased in just Proportion to our Head-dresses. We make a regular Figure, but I defy your Mathematicks to give Name to the Form you appear in. Your Architecture is mere Gothick, and betrays a worse Genius than ours; there fore if you are partial to your own Sex, I shall be less than I am now T No. 146. Your Humble Servant. Friday, August 17. Nemo vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit.-Tull, WE know the highest Pleasure our Minds are capable of enjoying with Composure, when we read sublime Thoughts communicated to us by Men of great Genius and Eloquence. Such is the Entertainment we meet with in the philosophick Parts of Cicero's Writings. Truth and good Sense have there so charming a Dress, that they could hardly be more agreeably represented with the Addition of poetical Fiction and the Power of Numbers. This ancient Author, and a modern one, have fallen into my Hands within these few Days; and the Impressions they have left upon me, have at the present quite spoiled me for a merry Fellow. The Modern is that admirable Writer, the Author of the Theory of the Earth. The Subjects with which I have lately been entertained in them both bear a near Affinity; they are upon Enquiries into Hereafter, and the Thoughts of the latter seem to me to be raised above those |