End of the ensuing Winter, made me conceive new Hopes of Adventures; and instead of returning the next < Summer to Afrop or Bury, I thought my felf qualified to go to Epfom, and followed a young Woman, whose Relations were jealous of my Place in her Favour, to Scarborough. I carried my Point, and in my third Year afpired to go to Tunbridge, and in the Autumn of the fame Year made my Appearance at Bath. I was now got into the Way of Talk proper for Ladies, and was run into a vaft Acquaintance among them, which I always improved to the best Advantage. In all this Courfe of Time, and fome Years following, I found a fober mo'deft Man was always looked upon by both Sexes as a precife unfashioned Fellow of no Life or Spirit. It was ordinary for a Man who had been drunk in goodCompany, or paffed a Night with a Wench, to fpeak of it next Day before Women for whom he had the greatest Respect. He was reproved, perhaps, with a Blow of the Fan, or an Oh Fie, but the angry Lady ftill preferved an apparent Approbation in her Countenance: He was called a ftrange wicked Fellow, a fad Wretch; he fhrugs his Shoulders, fwears, receives another Blow, fwears again he did not know he swore, and all was well. You might often fee Men game in the Prefence of Women, and throw at once for more than they were worth, to recom <mend themselves as Men of Spirit. I found by long Experience that the loofeft Principles and most abandoned Behaviour, carried all before them in Pretenfions to • Women of Fortune. The Encouragement given to People of this Stamp, made me foon throw off the remaining Impreffions of a fober Education. In the above⚫ mentioned Places, as well as in Town, I always kept Company with thofe who lived moft at large; and in due Procefs of Time I was a pretty Rake among the • Men, and a very pretty Fellow among the Women. I must confefs, I had fome melancholy Hours upon the Account of the Narrowness of my Fortune, but my Confcience at the fame Time gave me the Comfort that I had qualified my felf for marrying a Fortune.

WHEN I had lived in this manner for fome time, and became thus accomplished, I was now in the twenty feventh Year of my Age, and about the forty feventh

⚫ of

of my Conftitution, my Health and Eftate wafting very faft, when I happened to fall into theCompany of a very pretty young Lady in her own Difpofal. I entertained the Company, as we Men of Gallantry generally do,with the many Haps and Difafters, Watchings under Windows, Efcapes from jealous Husbands, and feveral other Perils. The young Thing was wonderfully charmed with one that knew the World fo well, and talked fo fine; with Desdemona, all her Lover faid affected her; it was firange, 'twas wondrous firange. In a Word, I faw the Impreffion I had made upon her, and with a very little Application the pretty Thing has married me. There is fo much Charm in her Innocence and Beauty, that I do now as much deteft the Courfe I have been in for many Years, as I ever did before I entred into it.

WHATI intend, Mr. SPECTATOR, by writing all this to you, is, that you would, before you go any further with your Panegyricks on the fair Sex, give them • fome Lectures upon their filly Approbations. It is that I am weary of Vice, and that it was not my natural Way, that I am now so far recovered as not to bring this believing dear Creature to Contempt and Poverty for her Generofity to me. At the fame time tell the • Youth of good Education of our Sex, that they take too little Care of improving themselves in little Things: A good Air at entring into a Rocm, a proper Audacity in expreffing himself with Gayety and Gracefulness, would make a young Gentleman of Virtue and Senfe capable of discountenancing the fhallow impudent Rogues that fhine among the Women.

T

Mr. SPECTATOR, I don't doubt but you are a very fagacious Perfon, but you are fo great with Tully of late, that I fear you will contemn thefe Things as Matters of no Confequence: But believe me, Sir, they are of the higheft Importance to Human Life; and if you can do any thing towards opening fair Eyes, you will lay an Obligation upon all your Contemporaries who are Fathers, Husbands, or Brothers to Females.

Your most affectionate bumble Servant,
Simon Honeycomb.

N 155.

I

In mala

Have more than once taken Notice of an indecent Licence taken in Difcourfe, wherein the Conversation on one Part is involuntary, and the Effect of fome neceffary Circunftance. This happens in travelling toge ther in the fame hired Coach, fitting near each other in any publick Affembly, or the like. I have, upon making Obfervations of this fort, received innumerable Mesfages from that Part of the fair Sex whofe Lot in Life is to be of any Trade or publick Way of Life. They are all to a Woman urgent with me today before the World the unhappy Circumftances they are under, from the unreafonable Liberty which is taken in their Presence, to talk on what Subject it is thought fit by every Coxcomb who wants Understanding or Breeding. One or two of these Complaints I fhall fet down.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Keep a Coffee-houfe, and am one of those whom you have thought fit to mention as an Idol fome time ago. I fuffered a good deal of Raillery upon that Occa( fion; but fhall heartily forgive you, who were the Caufe of it, if you will do me Juftice in another Point. What I ask of you, is, to acquaint my Customers (who are otherwife very good ones) that I am unavoidably hafped in my Bar, and cannot help hearing the improper Difcourfes they are pleafed to entertain me with. They ftrive who fhall fay the most immodeft Things in my Hearing. At the fame time half a dozen of them loll at the Bar ftaring just in my Face, ready to interpret my • Looks and Gestures according to their own Imaginations. In this paffive Condition I know not where to caft my Eyes, place my Hands, or what to employ my felf is a But this Confufion is to be a Jeft, and I hear them fay in

the

the End, with an infipid Air of Mirth and Subtlety, Let her alone, she knows as well as we, for all fhe looks fo. Good Mr. SPECTATOR, perfuade Gentlemen that it is out of all Decency: Say it is poffible a Woman may be modeft, and yet keep a Publick Houfe. Be pleafed to argue, that in Truth the Affront is the more unpardonable because I am oblig'd to fuffer it, and cannot fly from it. I do affure you, Sir, the Chearfulness of Life which would arife from the honeft Gain I have, is utterly loft to me, from the endiefs, flat, impertinent Pleasantries which I hear from Morning to Night. In a Word, it is too much for me to bear; and I defire you to acquaint them, that I will keep Pen and Ink at the Bar, and write down all they fay to me, and fend it to you for the Prefs. It is poflible when they fee how empty what they fpeak, without the Advantage of an impudent Countenance and Gefture, will appear, they may come to fome Sense of themselves, and the Infults they are guilty of towards me. I am,

SIR,

Your most humble Servant,

The Idol,

It

THIS Reprefentation is fo juft, that it is hard to speak of it without an Indignation which perhaps would appear too elevated to fuch as can be guilty of this inhuman Treatment, where they fee they affront a modeft, plain, and ingenuous Behaviour. This Correfpondent is not the only Sufferer in this kind, for I have long Letters both from the Royal and New Exchange on the fame Subject. They tell me that a young Fop cannot buy a Pair of Gloves, but he is at the fame time ftraining for fome ingenious Ribaldry to fay to the young Woman who helps them on. is no fmall Addition to the Calamity, that the Rogues buy as hard as the plainest and modefteft Customers they have; befides which they loll upon their Counters half an Hour longer than they need, to drive away other Cuftomers, who are to fhare their Impertinencies with the Milliner, or go to another Shop. Letters from 'Change Alley are full of the fame Evil, and the Girls tell me except I can chace fome eminent Merchants from their Shops they shall in a fhort Time fail. It is very unaccountable, that Men can

M 4

have

have fo little Deference to all Mankind who pafs by them, as to bear being feen toying by two's and three's at a time, with no other Purpofe but to appear gay enough to keep up a light Converfation of common-place Jefts, to the Injury of her whofe Credit is certainly hurt by it, tho' their own may be ftrong enough to bear it. When we come 10 have exact Accounts of thefe Converfations, it is not to be doubted but that their Difcourfes will raise the usual Style of buying and felling: Inftead of the plain downright lying, and asking and bidding fo unequally to what they will really give and take, we may hope to have from thefe fine Folks an Exchange of Compliments. There must certainly be a great deal of pleafant Difference between the Commerce of Lovers, and that of all other Dealers, who are, in a kind, Adversaries. A fealed Bond, or a Bank Note, would be a pretty Gallantry to convey unfeen into the Hands of one whom a Director is charmed with; otherwife the City Loiterers are ftill more unreasonable than those at the other End of the Town: At the New Exchange they are eloquent for want of Cafh, but in the City they ought with Cafh to fupply their want of Eloquence.

IF one might be ferious on this prevailing Folly, one might obferve, that it is a melancholy thing, when the World is mercenary even to the buying and felling our-very Perfons, that young Women, tho' they have never fo great Attractions from Nature, are never the nearer being happily difpofed of in Marriage; I fay, it is very hard under this Neceffity, it fhall not be poffible for them to go into a Way of Trade for their Maintenance, but their very Excellencies and perfonal Perfections fhall be a Difadvan tage to them, and fubject them to be treated as if they ftood there to fell their Perfons to Profitution. There cannot be a more melancholy Circumftance to one who has made any Obfervation in the World, than one of these erring Creatures exposed to Bankruptcy. When that happens, none of these toying Fools will do any more than any other Man they meet to preferve her from Infamy, Infult, and Distemper. A Woman is naturally more helpless than the other Sex; and a Man of Honour and Sense should have this in his View in all manner of Commerce with her. Were this well weighed, Inconfideration, Ribaldry, and Nonsense, would not be more natural to entertain Women