She well knows fhe is too Beautiful and too Witty to be indifferent to any who converfe with her, and therefore knows fhe does not leffen her felf by Familiarity, but gains Occafions of Admiration, by feeming Ignorance of her Perfections.

EUDOSIA adds to the Height of her Stature a Nobility of Spirit which still diftinguishes her above the reft of her Sex. Beauty in others is lovely, in others agreeable, in others attractive; but in Eudofia it is commanding: Love towards Eudofia is a Sentiment like the Love of Glory. The Lovers of other Women are foftened into Fondness, the Admirers of Eudofia exalted into Ambition.

EUCRATIA prefents her felf to the Imagination with a more kindly Pleasure, and as fhe is Woman, her Praise is wholly Feminine. If we were to form an Image of Dignity in a Man, we fhould give him Wisdom and Valour, as being effential to the Character of Manhood. In like manner, if you defcribe a right Woman in a laudable Senfe, fhe fhould have gentle Softnefs, tender Fear, and all those Parts of Life, which diftinguish her from the other Sex; with fome Subordination to it, but fuch an Inferiority that makes her ftill more lovely. Eucratia is that Creature, fhe is all over Woman, Kindness is all her Art, and Beauty all her Arms. Her Look, her Voice, her Gefture, and whole Behaviour is truly Feminine. A Goddess 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 Eucratia thou art Beauty!

OM NAMANTE is made for Deceit, she has an Afpect as Innocent as the famed Lucrece, but a Mind as Wild as the more famed Cleopatra. Her Face fpeaks a Veftal, but her Heart a Meffalina. Who that beheld Omnamante's negligent unobferving Air, would believe that fhe hid under that regardless Manner the witty Prostitute, the rapacious Wench, the prodigal Curtizan? She can, when the pleafes, adorn thofe Eyes with Tears like an Infant that is chid! She can caft down that pretty Face in Confufion, while you rage with Jealousie, and storm at her Perfidioufnefs; fhe can wipe her Eyes, tremble and look frighted, till you think your felf a Brute for your

Rage,

Rage, own your felf an Offender, beg Pardon, and make her new Prefents.

BUT I go too far in reporting only the Dangers in beholding the Beauteous, which I defign for the Instructi on of the Fair as well as their Beholders; and shall end this Rhapsody with mentioning what I thought was well enough faid of an Ancient Stage to a Beautiful Youth, whom he faw admiring his own Figure in Brafs. What, faid the Philofopher, could that Image of yours fay for it felf if it could fpeak? It might fay, (answered the Youth) That it is very Beautiful. And are not you ashamed, reply'd the Cynick, to value your felf upon that only of which a Piece of Brass is capable?

N° 145.

Thursday, August 16,

Stultitiam patiuntur opes

Hor,

the following Enormities are not amended upon the firft Mention, I defire further Notice from my Correspondents.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Am obliged to you for your Difcourfe the other Day upon frivolous Difputants, who with great Warmth, and Enumeration of many Circumftances and Authorities, undertake to prove Matters which no Body living denies. You cannot employ your felf more ufefully than in adjufting the Laws of Difputation in • Coffee-houses and accidental Companies, as well as in more formal Debates. Among many other Things which your own Experience muft fuggeft to you, it ⚫ will be very obliging if you pleafe to take Notice of Wagerers. I will not here repeat what Hudibras fays of fuch Difputants, which is fo true, that it is almost Proverbial; but fhall only acquaint you with a Set of young Fellows of the Inns of Court, whofe Fathers have provided for them fo plentifully, that they need

⚫ not

.

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 fent (as the Phrafe 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 frequent, and being in his Nature troubled with an Humour of Contradiction, though withal ex⚫ ceffive Ignorant, he has found a Way to indulge this Temper, go on in Idlenefs and Ignorance, and yet ftill give himself the Air of a very learned and knowing Man, by the Strength of his Pocket. The Misfor tune of the Thing is, I have, as it happens fometimes, a greater Stock of Learning than of Money. The Gentleman I am fpeaking of, takes Advantage of the Narrowness of my Circumftances in fuch a manner, that he has read all that I can pretend to, and runs me • down with fuch a pofitive Air, and with fuch pow⚫erful Arguments, that from a very Learned Perfon I am thought a meer Pretender. Not long ago I was relating that I had read fuch a Paffage in Tacitus, up ftarts my young Gentleman in a full Company, and pulling out his Purfe offered to lay me ten Guineas, to be ftaked immediately in that Gentleman's Hands, (pointing to one fmoaking 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 fuch a remarkable Incident as that could not efcape him. He has at this Time three confiderable Wagers depending between him and fome of his Companions, who are rich enough to hold an Argument with him. He has five Guineas upon Questions in Geography, two that the Ifle of Wight is a Peninsula, and three Guineas to one that the World is round. We have a Gentleman comes to our Coffee-Houfe, who deals mightily in Antique • Scandal; my Difputant has laid him Twenty Pieces • upon a Point of Hiftory, to wit, that Cafar never lay with Cato's Sifter, as is fcandaloufly reported by fome • People.

THERE are feveral of this fort of Fellows in Town, who Wager thefelves into Statesmen, Hiftori

⚫ ans,

ans, Geographers, Mathematicians, and every other Art, when the Perfons with whom they talk have not Wealth equal to their Learning. I beg of you to prevent, in thefe Youngfters, this compendious Way to Wifdom, which cofts other People so much Time and Pains, and you will oblige

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Your humble Servant.

Coffee-Houfe near the Temple, Aug. 12, 1711. HER ERE's a young Gentleman that fings OperaTunes 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 Whiftlers, Singers, and Common Orators, that are heard further than their Portion of the Room comes to, that the Law is open, and that there is an Equity which will relieve us from fuch as interrupt us in our Lawful Difcourfe, as much as against fuch as ftop us on the Road. I take thele •Perfons, Mr. SPECTATOR, to be fuch Trefpaffers as the Officer in your Stage-Coach, and am of the fame • Sentiment with Counfellor Ephraim. It is true the young Man is rich, and, as the Vulgar fay, needs not care for any Body; but fure that is no Authority for him to go whistle where he pleafes.

I am, SIR, Your moft Humble Servant,

P. S. I have Chambers in the Temple, and here are Students that learn upon the Hautboy; pray defire the Benchers, that all Lawyers who are Proficients in Wind-Mufick may lodge to the Thames.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

•WE

E 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 vifits 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 exceffively ill-bred. His Pleafantry confifts in Romping, he fnatches Kiffes by Sur prize,

P

prize, 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 Rudneffes, Now what I'll defire of you is to acquaint him, by Printing this, that if he does not marry one of us very fuddenly, 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 Sifterhood I take my Leave of you, and am, as they all are,

Your Conftant Reader and Well-Wifher.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

IA

And several others of your Female Readers, have 'conformed our felves to your Rules, even to our very Drefs. There is not one of us but has reduced our outward Petticoat to its ancient Sizable Circumference, ⚫ tho' indeed we retain ftill a Quilted one underneath, 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 • fecretly approve our Practice, by imitating our Pyra<midical Form. The Skirt of your fashionable Coats form as large a Circumference as our Petticoats; as these ⚫ are fet out with Whalebone, fo are those with Wire, to ⚫ encrease and fuftain the Bunch of Fold that hangs down on each fide; and the Hat, I perceive, is decreased in just proportion to our Head-dreffes. 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 worfe Genius than ours; therefore if you are partial to your own Sex, I fhall be lefs than I am now.

T

Your Humble Servant,

Friday,