No. 227. Nov, 20, 1711 'Mr. SPECTATOR, I am a young Woman crossed in Love. My Story is Tuesday, very long and melancholy. To give you the Heads of it, a young Gentleman, after having made his Ap plications to me for three Years together, and filled my Head with a thousand Dreams of Happiness, some few Days since married another. Pray tell me in what Part of the World your Promontory lies, which you call the Lover's Leap, and whether one may go to it by Land. But alas I am afraid it has lost its Virtue, and that a Woman of our Times would find no more Relief in taking such a Leap, than in singing an Hymn to Venus. So that I must cry out with Dido in Dryden's Virgil, Ah! cruel Heav'n, that made no Cure for Love! 'MISTER SPICTATUR, ATHENAIS,' My Heart is so full of Loves and Passions for Mrs. 1 Gwinifrid, and she is so pettish, and over-run with : Cholers against me, that if I had the good Happiness to have my Dwelling (which is placed by my great Cran-Father upon the Pottom of an Hill) no farther distance but twenty Mile from the Lofers Leap, I would › indeed indeafour to preak my Neck upon it on purpose, Now good Mister Spictatur of Crete Prittain, you must know it, there iss in Caernarvanshíre a fery pig Moun tain, the Clory of all Wales, which iss named Penmain maure, and you must also know, it iss no great Journey on Foot from me; but the Road is stony and bad for Shoes. Now there is upon the Forehead of this Moun tain a very high Rock, (like a Parish Steeple) that cometh a huge deal over the Sea; so when I am in my Melan cholies, and I do throw my self from it, I do desire my fery good Friend to tell me in his Spictatur, if I shall be cure of my griefous Lofes; for there is the Sea clear as the Glass, and ass creen as the Leek: Then likewise, if I be drown, and preak my Neck, if Mrs. Gwinifrid will not lofe me afterwards. Pray be speedy_in_your Answers, for I am in crete haste, and it is my Tesires to do No, 227, do my Pusiness without loss of Time, I remain, with 1711 Davyth ap Shenkyn P. S. My Law Suits have brought me to London, but I have lost my Causes; and so have made my Resolu tions to go down and Leap before the Frosts begin; for I am apt to take Colds,' Ridicule, perhaps, is a better Expedient against Love than sober Advice, and I am of opinion that Hudibras and Don Quixote may be as effectual to cure the Ex travagancies of this Passion, as any of the old Philo sophers. I shall therefore publish, very speedily, the Translation of a little Greek Manuscript, which is sent me by a Learned Friend, It appears to have been a Piece of those Records which were kept in the Temple of Apollo, that stood upon the Promontory of Leucate, The Reader will find it to be a Summary Account of several Persons who tried the Lover's Leap, and of the Success they found in it. As there seem to be in it some Anachronisms and Deviations from the Ancient Orthography, I am not wholly satisfied my self that it is authentick, and not rather the Production of one of those Gracian Sophisters, who have imposed upon the World several spurious Works of this Nature. speak this by way of Precaution, because I know there are several Writers of uncommon Erudition, who would not fail to expose my Ignorance, if they caught me tripping in a matter of so great Moment, No. 228, Wednesday, November 21. Percunctatorem fugito, nam garrulus ídem est.—Hor. I C HERE is a Creature who has all the Organs of Tspeech, a tolerable good Capacity for conceiving what is said to it, together with a pretty proper Be haviour in all the Occurrences of common Life; but naturally very vacant of Thought in its self, and there fore forced to apply it self to foreign Assistances, Of this Make is that Man who is very inquisitive: You may may often observe, that though he speaks as good Sense No. 228. as any Man upon any thing with which he is well Wednes acquainted, he cannot trust to the Range of his own day, Nov. 21, Fancy to entertain himself upon that Foundation, but 1711 goes on to still new Enquiries. Thus, though you know he is fit for the most polite Conversation, you shall see him very well contented to sit by a Jockey giving an Account of the many Revolutions in his Horse's Health, what Potion he made him take, how that agreed with him, how afterwards he came to his Stomach and his Exercise, or any the like Imperti nence; and be as well pleased as if you talked to him on the most important Truths, This Humour is far from making a Man unhappy, though it may subject him to Raillery; for he generally falls in with a Person who seems to be born for him, which is your talkative Fellow, It is so ordered that there is a secret Bent, as natural as the Meeting of different Sexes, in these two Characters, to supply each others Wants. I had the Honour the other Day to sit in a publick Room, and saw an inquisitive Man look with an Air of Satis faction upon the Approach of one of these Talkers. The Man of ready Utterance sat down by him; and rubbing his Head, leaning on his Arm, and making an uneasie Countenance, he began; 'There is no Manner of News to Day, I cannot tell what is the Matter with me, but I slept very ill last Night; whether I caught Cold or no I know not, but I fancy I do not wear Shoes thick enough for the Weather, and I have coughed all this Week: It must be so, for the Custom of washing my Head Winter and Summer with cold Water, prevents any Injury from the Season entering that Way; so it must come in at my Feet: But I take no Notice of it, as it comes so it goes, Most of our Evils proceed from too much Tenderness; and our Faces are naturally as little able to resist the Cold as other Parts, The Indian answered very well to an European, who asked him how he could go naked; I am all Face,' I observed this Discourse was as welcome to my general Inquirer as any other of more Consequence could 1711. No. 228. could have been; but some Body calling our Talker Wednes to another Part of the Room, the Inquirer told the next day, Man who sat by him, that Mr. such a one, who was Nov. 21, just gone from him, used to wash his Head in cold Water every Morning; and so repeated almost Verbatim all that had been said to him. The Truth is, the In quisitive are the Funnels of Conversation; they do not take in any thing for their own Use, but merely to pass it to another: They are the Channels thro' which all the Good and Evil that is spoken in Town are conveyed. Such as are offended at them, or think they suffer by their Behaviour, may themselves mend that Inconvenience; for they are not a malicious People, and if you will supply them, you may con tradict any thing they have said before by their own Mouths, A further Account of a thing is one of the gratefullest Goods that can arrive to them; and it is seldom that they are more particular than to say, The Town will have it, or, I have it from a good Hand: So that there is Room for the Town to know the Matter more particularly, and for a better Hand to con tradict what was said by a good one, I have not known this Humour more ridiculous than in a Father, who has been earnestly sollicitous to have an Account how his Son has passed his leisure Hours; if it be in a Way thoroughly insignificant, there cannot be a greater Joy than an Inquirer discovers in seeing him follow so hopefully his own Steps: But this Humour among Men is most pleasant when they are saying something which is not wholly proper for a third Person to hear, and yet is in it self indifferent. The other Day there came in a well-dressed young Fellow, and two Gentlemen of this Species immediately fell a whispering his Pedigree, I could over-hear, by Breaks, She was his Aunt; then an Answer, Ay, she was of the Mother's Side: Then again in a little lower Voice, His Father wore generally a darker Wig; Answer, Not much. But this Gentleman wears higher Heels to his Shooes, As the Inquisitive, in my Opinion, are such merely from a Vacancy in their own Imaginations, there is nothing nothing, methinks, so dangerous as to communicate No. 228. Secrets to them; for the same Temper of Inquiry Wednes makes them as impertinently communicative: But no day, Nov. 21, Man though he converses with them need put himself 1711. in their Power, for they will be contented with Matters of less Moment as well. When there is full Fewel enough, no Matter what it is- -Thus the Ends of Sentences in the News Papers, as This wants Confirmation, This occasions many Speculations, And Time will discover the Event, are read by them, and considered not as meer Expletives. One may see now and then this Humour accom panied with an insatiable Desire of knowing what passes, without turning it to any Use in the World but meerly their own Entertainment. A Mind which is gratified this Way is adapted to Humour and Pleasantry, and formed for an unconcerned Character in the World; and like my self to be a meer Spectator. This Curiosity, without Malice or Self-Interest, lays up in the Imagination a Magazine of Circumstances which cannot but entertain when they are produced in Conversation. If one were to know from the Man of the first Quality to the meanest Servant, the different Intrigues, Sentiments, Pleasures and Interests of Mankind, would it not be the most pleasing Entertainment imaginable to enjoy so constant a Farce, as the observ ing Mankind much more different from themselves in their secret Thoughts and publick Actions, than in their Night-Caps and long Periwiggs? 'Mr. SPECTATOR, Plutarch tells us, that Caius Gracchus, the Roman, was frequently hurried by his Passion into so loud and tumultuous a Way of speaking, and so strained his Voice as not to be able to proceed. To remedy this Excess, he had an ingenious Servant, by Name Licinius, always attending him with a Pitch Pipe, or Instrument, to regulate the Voice; who, whenever he heard his Master begin to be high, immediately touched a soft Note; at which, 'tis said, Caíus would presently abate and grow calm. Upon |