comprehended, but very much improved in the Petition, i wherein we pray to the Supreme Being that his Will may be done: which is of the fame Force with that Form which our Saviour ufed, when he prayed against the most painful and moft ignominious of Deaths, Nevertheless not my Will, but thine be done. This comprehenfive Petition is the most humble, as well as the most prudent, that can be offered up from the Creature to his Creator, as it fupposes the Supreme Being wills nothing but what is for tour Good, and that he knows better than our felves what is fo. L No. 208. Monday, October 29. I Veniunt pectentur ut ipfa. Ovid. Ars. Am. 1. 1. v. 99. To be Themselves a Spectacle, they come. Have feveral Letters of People of good Senfe, who lament the Depravity or Poverty of Tafte the Town is fallen into with relation to Plays and publick Spectacles. A Lady in particular obferves, that there is fuch a Levity in the Minds of her own Sex, that they seldom attend any thing but Impertinences.. It is indeed prodigious to obferve how little Notice is taken of the most exalted Parts of the beft Tragedies in Shakespear; nay, it is not only vifible that Senfuality has devoured all Greatnefs of Soul, but the Under-Paffion (as I may fo call it). of a noble Spirit, Pity, feems to be a Stranger to the Generality of an Audience. The Minds of Men are indeed very differently difpofed; and the Reliefs from Care and Attention are of one Sort in a great Spirit, and of another in an ordinary one. The Man of a great Heart and a ferious Complexion, is more pleased with Inftances of Generofity and Pity, than the light and ludicrous Spirit can poffibly be with the highest Strains of Mirth and Laughter: It is therefore a melancholy Profpect when we see a numerous Affembly loft to all ferious Entertainments, In tainments, and fuch Incidents, as fhould move one Sort of Concern, excite in them a quite contrary one. the Tragedy of Macbeth, the other Night, when the Lady who is confcious of the Crime of murdering the King, feems utterly astonished at the News, and makes an Exclamation at it; instead of the Indignation which is natural to the Occafion, that Expreffion is received with a loud Laugh: They were as merry when a Criminal was ftabbed. It is certainly an Occafion of rejoicing when the wicked are feized in their Defigns; but I think it is not fuch a Triumph as is exerted by Laughter. YOU may generally observe, that the Appetites are fooner moved than the Paffions: A fly Expreffion which alludes to Baudry, puts a whole Row into a pleasing Smirk; when a good Sentence that describes an inward Sentiment of the Soul, is received with the greatest Coldnefs and Indifference. A Correfpondent of mine, upon this Subject, has divided the Female Part of the Audience, and accounts for their Prepoffeffions against this reasonable Delight in the following manner. The Prude, fays he, as the acts always in Contradiction, fo fhe is gravely fullen at a Comedy, and extravagantly gay at a Tragedy. The Coquet is fo much taken up with throwing her Eyes around the Audience, and confidering the Effect of them, that the cannot be expected to observe the Actors but as they are her Rivals, and take off the Obfervation of the Men from herself. Befides these Species of Women, there are the Examples, or the first of the Mode: These are to be fuppofed too well acquainted with what the Actor was going to fay to be moved at it. After these one might mention a certain flippant Set of Females' who are Mimicks, and are wonderfully diverted with the Conduct of all the People around them, and are Spectators only of the Audience. But what is of all the most to be lamented, is the Lofs of a Party whom it would be worth preferving in their right Senfes upon all Occafions, and these are thofe whom we may indifferently call the Innocent or the Unaffected. You may fometimes fee one of these fenfibly touched with a well-wrought Incident; but then she is immediately fo impertinently ob ferved by the Men, and frowned at by fome infenfible Superior of her own Sex, that she is ashamed, and lofes the Enjoyment of the most laudable Concern, Pity. Thus the whole Audience is afraid of letting fall a Tear, and fhun as a Weakness the best and worthieft Part of our Sense. SIR, A S you are one that doth not only pretend to reform, but effects it amongst People of any Sense; makes me (who am one of the greateft of your Admirers) give you this Trouble to defire you will fettle the Method of us Females knowing when one another is in Town: For they have now got a Trick of never fending to their Acquaintance when they firft come; and if one does not vifit them within the Week which they stay at home, it is a mortal Quarrel. Now, Dear Mr. SPEC, either command them to put it in the Advertisement of your Paper, which is generally read by our Sex, or else order them to breathe their faucy Footmen (who are good for nothing elfe) by fending them to tell all their Acquaintance. If you think to print this, pray put it into a better Stile as to the spelling Part. The Town is now filling every Day, and it can⚫ not be deferred, because People take Advantage of one another by this Means and break off Acquaintance, and are rude: Therefore pray put this in your Paper as foon you can poffibly, to prevent any future Mifcarriages of this Nature. I am, as I ever shall be, Dear SPEC, Your moft obedient humble Servant, Mary Meanwell. PRAY fettle what is to be a proper Notification of a Person's being in Town, and how that differs according to People's Quality. Mr. SPECTATOR, October the 20th. Have been out of Town, fo did not meet with your Paper dated September the 28th, wherein you, to my Heart's Defire, expofe that curfed Vice of infnaring poor VOL. III. H young No. 208. young Girls, and drawing them from their Friends. I affure you without Flattery it has faved a Prentice of • mine from Ruin; and in Token of Gratitude as well as for the Benefit of my Family, I have put it in a Frame and Glass, and hung it behind my Counter. 1 • fhall take care to make my young ones read it every ⚫ Morning, to fortify them against fuch pernicious Raf⚫cals. I know not whether what you writ was Matter of Fact, or your own Invention; but this I will take my Oath on, the first Part is fo exactly like what happened to my Prentice, that had I read your Paper then, Ifhould have taken your Method to have fecured a Villain. Go on and profper. Mr. SPECTATOR, WIT Your moft obliged humble Servant.. ITHOUT Rallery, I defire you to infert this Word for Word in your next, as you value a Lover's Prayers. You fee it is an Hue and Cry after a ftray Heart (with the Marks and Blemishes underwritten) which whoever fhall bring to you, fhall receive Satisfaction. Let me beg of you not to fail, as you remember the Paffion you had for her to whom you lately ended a Paper. Noble, Generous, Great and Good, Fickle as the Wind, ftill changing, But addicted much to Lying: 1 4. When the Siren Songs repeats, Equal Meafures fill it beats; Who e'er hall wear it, it will smart her, T No. 209. Tuesday, October 30. Γυναικὸς ἐδὲ χρῆμ' ἀνὴρ ληίζεται Ἐσθλῆς ἄμεινον, ἐδὲ ῥίγιον κακῆς, Of earthly Goods the beft, is a Good Wife; T Simonides. HERE are no Authors I am more pleased with, than those who fhew human Nature in a Variety of Views, and describe the several Ages of the World in their different Manners. A Reader cannot be more rationally entertained, than by comparing the Virtues and Vices of his own Times with those which prevailed in the Times of his Forefathers; and drawing a Parallel in his Mind between his own private Character, and that of other Perfons, whether of his own Age, or of the Ages that went before him. The Contemplation of Mankind under these changeable Colours, is apt to fhame us out of any particular Vice, or animate us to any particular Virtue; to make us pleafed or displeased with our felves in the most proper Points, to clear our Minds of Prejudice and Prepoffeffion, and rectify that Narrowness of Temper which inclines us to think amifs of those who differ from our felves. IF we look into the Manners of the most remote Ages of the World, we discover human Nature in her Simplicity; and the more we come downward towards our own Times, may observe her hiding herself in Artifices and Refinements, polifhed infenfibly out of her Original Plainness, and at length intirely loft under Form and Ceremony, and (what we call) Good-breeding. Read the Accounts of Men and Women as they are given us by the most ancient Writers, both Sacred and Profane, and you would think you were reading the Hiftory of another Species. AMONG the Writers of Antiquity, there are none who instruct us more openly in the Manners of their respective H 2 |