the contrary, falfe Happiness loves to be in a Crowd, and to draw the Eyes of the World upon her. She does not receive any Satisfaction from the Applaufes which the gives her felf, but from the Admiration which fhe raifes in others. She flourishes in Courts and Palaces, Theatres and Affemblies, and has no Existence but when she is looked upon.

AURELIA, though a Woman of Great Quality, delights in the Privacy of a Country Life, and paffes away a great part of her Time in her own Walks and Gardens. Her Husband, who is her Bofom Friend, and Companion in her Solitudes, has been in Love with her ever fince he knew her. They both abound with good Senfe, confummate Virtue, and a mutual Efteem; and are a perpetual Entertainment to one another. Their Family is under fo regular an Oeconomy, in its Hours of Devotion and Repast, Employment and Diverfion, that it looks like a little Common-wealth within it felf. They often go into Company, that they may return with the greater Delight to one another; and fometimes live in Town, not to enjoy it fo properly as to grow weary of it, that they may renew in themselves the Relifh of a Country Life. By this means they are happy in each other, beloved by their Children, adored by their Servants, and are become the Enyy, or rather the Delight, of all that know them.

HOW different to this is the Life of Fulvia! The confiders her Husband as her Steward, and looks upon ᎠᎥᏝ . cretion and good Housewifry as little domeftick Virtues, unbecoming a Woman of Quality. She thinks Life loft in her own Family, and fancies her felf out of the World when she is not in the Ring, the Play-house, or the Drawing-Room: She lives in a perpetual Motion of Body, and Restlessnefs of Thought, and is never eafie in any one Place, when fhe thinks there is more Company in another. The miffing of an Opera the firft Night, would be more afflicting to her than the Death of a Child. She pities all the valuable Part of her own Sex, and calls every Woman of a prudent modeft retired Life, a poorfpirited unpolifhed Creature. What a Mortification would it be to Fulvia, if the knew that her fetting her self to View is but expofing her felf, and that the grows Contemptible by being Confpicuous.

I

I cannot conclude my Paper, without obferving that Virgil has very finely touched upon this Female Paffion for Drefs and Show, in the Character of Camilla; who though she seems to have fhaken off all the other Weakneffes of her Sex, is ftill defcribed as a Woman in this Particular. The Poet tells us, that after having made a great Slaughter of the Enemy, fhe unfortunately caft her Eye on a Trojan, who wore an embroidered Tunick, a Beautiful Coat of Mail, with a Mantle of the finest Purple. A Golden Bow, fays he, hung upon his Shoulder; his Garment was buckled with a Golden Clafp, and his Head covered with an Helmet of the fame fhining Metal. The Amazon immediately fingled out this well-dreffed Warrior, being feized with a Woman's Longing for the pretty Trappings that he was adorned with.

-Totumque incauta per agmen

Famineo prada & fpoliorum ardebat amore.

This heedlefs Purfuit after these glittering Trifles, the Poet (by a nice concealed Moral) represents to have been the Destruction of his Female Hero.

C

N 16.

Monday, March 19.

Quod verum atque decens curo & rogo, & omnis in hoc

I

fum.

Hor.

Have received a Letter, defiring me to be very fatyrical upon the little Muff that is now in Fafhion; another informs me of a Pair of filver Garters buckled below the Knee, that have been lately feen at the Rainbow Coffee-house in Fleet-ftreet; a third fends me an heavy Complaint againft fringed Gloves. To be brief, there is fcarce an Ornament of either Sex which one or other of my Correfpondents has not inveighed against with some Bitterness, and recommended to my Obfervation. must therefore, once for all, inform my Readers, that it

I

is not my Intention to fink the Dignity of this my Paper with Reflections upon Red-heels or Top-Knots, but rather to enter into the Paffions of Mankind, and to correct those depraved Sentiments that give Birth to all those little Extravagances which appear in their outward Drefs and Behaviour. Foppifh and fantastick Ornaments are only Indications of Vice, not criminal in themselves. Extinguish Vanity in the Mind, and you naturally_retrench the little Superfluities of Garniture and Equipage. The Bloffoms will fall of themselves, when the Root that nourishes them is destroyed.

I fhall therefore, as I have faid, apply my Remedies. to the first Seeds and Principles of an affected Drefs, without defcending to the Drefs it felf; though at the fame time I must own, that I have Thoughts of creating an Officer under me, to be entituled, The Cenfor of Small Wares, and of allotting him one Day in a Week for the Execution of fuch his Office. An Operator of this Nature might act under me, with the fame Regard as a Surgeon to a Physician; the one might be employed in healing thofe Blotches and Tumours which break out in the Body, while the other is fweetning the Blood and rectifying the Conftitution. To speak truly, the young People of both Sexes are fo wonderfully apt to fhoot out. into long Swords or fweeping Trains, bufhy Head-dreffes or full-bottom'd Perriwigs, with feveral other Incumbrances of Drefs, that they ftand in need of being pruned very frequently, left they fhould be oppreffed with Ornaments, and over-run with the Luxuriency of their Habits. I am much in doubt, whether I fhould give the Preference to a Quaker that is trimmed clofe and almost cut to the Quick, or to a Beau that is loaden with such a Redundance of Excrefcences. I must therefore defire my Correfpondents to let me know how they approve my Project, and whether they think the erecting of fuch a petty Cenforfhip may not turn to the Emolument of the Publick; for I would not do any thing of this Nature rafhly and without Advice.

THERE is another Set of Correfpondents to whom I must address my felf in the fecond Place; I mean, fuch as fill their Letters with private Scandal, and black Accounts of particular Perfons and Families. The World is

fo.

fo full of Ill-nature, that I have Lampoons fent me by People who cannot fpell, and Satyrs compofed by thofe who fcarce know how to write. By the laft Post in particular I received a Packet of Scandal which is not legible; and have a whole Bundle of Letters in Womens Hands that are full of Blots and Calumnies, infomuch, that when I fee the Name Calia, Phillis, Paftora, or the like, at the Bottom of a Scrawl, I conclude on course that it brings me fome Account of a fallen Virgin, a faithlefs Wife, or an amorous Widow. I must therefore inform thefe my Correfpondents, that it is not my Defign to be a Publisher of Intrigues and Cuckoldoms, or to bring little infamous Stories out of their prefent lurking Holes into broad Day-light. If I attack the Vicious, I fhall only fet upon them in a Body; and will not be provoked by the worft Ufage I can receive from others, to make an Example of any particular Criminal. In fhort, I have fo much of a Drawcanfir in me, that I fhall pass over a fingle Foe to charge whole Armies. It is not Lais nor Silenus, but the Harlot and the Drunkard, whom I shall endeavour to expofe; and fhall confider the Crime as it appears in a Species, not as it circumftanced in an Individual. I think it was Caligula, who wifhed the whole City of Rome had but one Neck, that he might behead them at a Blow. I fhall do out of Humanity, what that Emperour would have done in the Cruelty of his Temper, and aim every Stroak at a collective Body of Offenders. At the fame time I am very fenfible, that nothing spreads a Paper like private Calumny and Defamation; but as my Speculations are not under this Neceffity, they are not expofed to this Temptation.

IN the next Place I must apply my felf to my Party Correfpondents, who are continually teizing me to take Notice of one another's Proceedings. How often am I asked by both Sides, if it is poffible for me to be an unconcerned Spectator of the Rogueries that are committed by the Party which is oppofite to him that writes the Letter. About two Days fince I was reproached with an old Grecian Law, that forbids any Man to ftand as a Neuter or a Looker-on in the Divifions of his Country. However, as I am very sensible my Paper would lofe its whole Effect, fhould it run into the Outrages of a Party, I fhall

take

take care to keep clear of every thing which looks that Way. If I can any way affwage private Inflamations, or allay publick Ferments, I fhall apply my felf to it with my utmost Endeavours; but will never let my Heart reproach me, with having done any thing towards encreafing those Feuds and Animofities that extinguish Religion, deface Government, and make a Nation miserable.

WHAT I have faid under the three foregoing Heads, will, I am afraid, very much retrench the Number of my Correfpondents: I fhall therefore acquaint my Reader, that if he has ftarted any Hint which he is not able to purfue, if he has met with any furprizing Story which he does not know how to tell, if he has difcovered any Epidemical Vice which has escaped my Obfervation, or has heard of any uncommon Virtue which he would defire to publifh; in fhort, if he has any Materials that can furnish out an innocent Diverfion, I fhall promise him my best Affiftance in the working of them up for a publick Entertainment.

THIS Paper my Reader will find was intended for an Answer to a Multitude of Correfpondents; but I hope he will pardon me if I fingle out one of them in particular, who has made me fo very humble a Requeft, that I cannot forbear complying with it.

SIR,

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To the SPECTATOR.

March 15, 1710-1T.

Am at prefent fo unfortunate, as to have nothing to do but to mind my own Business; and therefore beg of you that you will be pleased to put me into fome fmall Poft under you. I obferve that you have appointed your Printer and Publisher to receive Letters and Advertisements for the City of London; and fhall < think my felf very much honoured by you, if you will appoint me to take in Letters and Advertisements for the City of Westminster and the Dutchy of Lancaster. Though I cannot promife to fill fuch an Employment with fufficient Abilities, I will endeavour to make up