way to the forcible oppressions of slumber and paths, and they would now and then catch up those sleep; whilst fancy, unwilling yet to drop the sub-that were nearest to them; these they took up ject, presented me with the following vision Methought I was just awoke out of a sleep that I could never remember the beginning of; the place where I found myself to be was a wide and spacious plain, full of people that wandered up and down through several beaten paths, whereof some few were straight, and in direct lines, but most of them winding and turning like a labyrinth; but yet it appeared to me afterward that these last all met in one issue, so that many that seemed to steer quite contrary courses, did at length meet and face one another, to the no little amazement of many of them. straight, and whirled over the walls into the flaming tower, and they were no more seen nor heard of. They would sometimes cast their nets towards the right paths to catch the stragglers, whose eyes, for want of frequent drinking at the brook that ran by them, grew dim, whereby they lost their way: these would sometimes very narrowly miss being catched away, but I could not hear whether any of these had ever been so unfortunate, that had been before very hearty in the straight paths. "In the midst of the plain there was a great fountain; they called it the spring of Self-love: out of it issued two rivulets to the eastward and westward; the name of the first was Heavenly-Wisdom; its water was wonderfully clear, but of a yet more wonderful effect; the other's name was WorldlyWisdom; its water was thick, and yet far from being dormant or stagnating, for it was in a continual violent agitation; which kept the travellers, whom I shall mention by-and-bye, from being sen-sidered that if I could fancy to see what was not, I sible of the foulness and thickness of the water; which had this effect, that it intoxicated those who drank it, and made them mistake every object that lay before them. Both rivulets were parted near their springs into so many others, as there were straight and crooked paths, which they attended all along to their respective issues. "I observed from the several paths many now and then diverting, to refresh and otherwise qualify themselves for their journey, to the respective rivulets that ran near them: they contracted a very observable courage and steadiness in what they were about by drinking these waters, At the end of the perspective of every straight path, all which did end in one issue and point, appeared a high pillar, all of diamond, casting rays as bright as those of the sun into the paths; which rays had also certain sympathizing and alluring virtues in them, so that whosoever had made some considerable progress in his journey onwards towards the pillar, by the repeated impressions of these rays upon him, was wrought into an habitual inclination and conversion of his sight towards it, so that it grew at last m a manner natural to him to look and gaze upon it, whereby he was kept steady in the straight paths, which alone led to that radiant body, the beholding of which was now grown a gratification to his nature. "I considered all these strange sights with great attention, until at last I was interrupted by a cluster of the travellers in the crooked paths, who came up to me, bid me go along with them, and presently fell to singing and dancing: they took me by the hand, and so carried me away along with them. After I had followed them a considerable while, I perceived I had lost the black tower of light, at which I greatly wondered; but as I looked and gazed round about me, and saw nothing, I began to fancy my first vision had been but a dream, and there was no such thing in reality; but then I conmight as weil have an iilusion wrought on me at present, and not see what was really before me.' I was very much confirmed in this thought, by the effect I then just observed the water of WorldlyWisdom had upon me; for as I had drank a little of it again, I felt a very sensible effect in my head: methought it distracted and disordered all there; this made me stop of a sudden, suspecting some charm or enchantment. As I was casting about within myself what I should do, and whom to apply to in this case, I spied at some distance off ine a man beckoning, and making signs to me to come over to him. I cried to him, I did not know the way. He then called to me audibly, to step at least out of the path I was in; for if I stayed there any longer I was in danger to be catched in a great net that was just hanging over me, and ready to catch me up; that he wondered I was so blind, or so dis tracted, as not to see so imminent and visible a danger; assuring me, that as soon as I was out of that way, he would come to me to lead me into a more secure path. This I did, and he brought me his palm full of the water of Heavenly-Wisdom, which was of very great use to me, for my eyes were straight cleared, and I saw the great black tower just before me: but the great net which I spied so near me cast me in such a terror, that I ran back as far as I could in one breath, without looking behind me. Then my benefactor thus bespoke me: "At the issue of the crooked paths there was a great black tower, out of the centre of which streamed You have made the wonderfulest escape in the a long succession of flames, which did rise even world; the water you used to drink is of a bewitchabove the clouds; it gave a very great light to the ing nature, you would else have been mightily whole plain, which did sometimes outshine the light, shocked at the deformities and meanness of the and oppressed the beams, of the adamantine pillar; place; for beside the set of blind fools in whose comthough by the observation I made afterward, it ap-pany you was, you may now behold many others who peared that it was not from any diminution of light, are only bewitched after another no less dangerous but that this lay in the travellers, who would some- manner. Look a little that way, there goes a crowd times step out of the straight paths, where they lost the full prospect of the radiant pillar, and saw it but sideways: but the great light from the black tower, which was somewhat particularly scorching to them, would generally light and hasten them to their proper climate again. "Round about the black tower there were, methought, many thousands of huge misshapen ugly monsters; these had great nets, which they were perpetually plying and casting towards the crooked of passengers; they have indeed so good a head as not to suffer themselves to be blinded by this bewitching water; the black tower is not vanished out of their sight, they see it whenever they look up to it: but see how they go sideways, and with their eyes downwards, as if they were mad, that they may thus rush into the net, without being beforehand troubled at the thought of so miserable a destruc tion. Their wills are so perverse, and their hearts so fond of the pleasures of the place, that rather than forego them they will run all hazards, and ven- 66 Glasgow, Sept. 29.” And I am apt to think it was about the same time that good-nature, a word so peculiarly elegant ir our language, that some have affirmed it cannot we' be expressed in any other, came first to be rendered suspicious, and in danger of being transferred from its original sense to so distant an idea as that of folly. I must confess it has been my ambition, in the course of my writings, to restore, as well as I was able, the proper ideas of things. And as I have attempted this already on the subject of marriage in several papers, I shall here add some further observations which occur to me on the same head. Nothing seems to be thought. by our fine gentlemen, so indispensable an ornament in fashionable life, as love. "A knight-errant," says Don Quixote, "without a mistress, is like a tree without leaves;" and a man of mode among us, who has not some fair one to sigh for, might as well pretend to appear dressed without his periwig. We have lovers in prose innumerable. All our pretenders to rhyme are professed inamoratos; and there is scarce a poet, good or bad, to be heard of, who has not some real or supposed Saccharissa to improve his vein. If love be any refinement, conjugal love must be certainly so in a much higher degree. There is ne comparison between the frivolous affectations of attracting the eyes of women with whom you are only captivated by way of amusement, and of whom perhaps you know nothing more than their features, No. 525.] SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1712. and a regular and uniform endeavour to make your That love alone, which virtue's laws control, Ir is my custom to take frequent opportunities of inquiring from time to time what success my speculations meet with in the town. I am glad to find, in particular, that my discourses on marriage have been well received. A friend of mine gives me to understand, from Doctors' Commons, that more licences have been taken out there of late than usual. I am likewise informed of several pretty fellows, who have resolved to commence heads of families by the first favourable opportunity. One of them writes me word that he is ready to enter into the bond of matrimony, provided I will give it him under my hand (as I now do), that a man may show his face in good company after he is married, and that he need not be ashamed to treat a woman with kindness who puts herself into his power for life. I have other letters on this subject, which say that I am attempting to make a revolution in the world of gallantry, and that the consequence of it will be that a great deal of the sprightliest wit and satire of the last age will be lost; that a bashful fellow upon changing his condition, will be no longer puzzied how to stand the raillery of his facetious companions; that he need not own he married only to plunder an heiress of her fortune, nor pretend that he uses her ill, to avoid the ridiculous name of a fond husband. self valuable, both as a friend and lover, to one whom you have chosen to be the companion of your life. The first is the spring of a thousand fopperies, silly artifices, falsehoods, and perhaps barbarities, or at best rises no higher than to a kind of dancingschool breeding, to give the person a more sparkling air. The latter is the parent of substantial virtues and agreeable qualities, and cultivates the mind while it improves the behaviour. The passion of love to a mistress, even where it is most sincere, resembles too much the flame of a fever: that to a wife is like the vital heat. I have often thought, if the letters written by men of good-nature to their wives were to be compared with those written by men of gallantry to their mistresses, the former, notwithstanding any inequality of style, would appear to have the advantage. Friendship, tenderness, and constancy, dressed in a simplicity of expression, recommend themselves by a more native elegance, than passionate raptures, extravagant encomiums, and slavish adoration. If we were admitted to search the cabinet of the beautitul Narcissa, among heaps of epistles from several admirers, which are there preserved with equal care, how few should we find but would make any one sick in the reading, except her who is flattered by them? But in how different a style must the wise Benevo lus, who converses with that good sense and good humour among all his friends, write to a wife who is the worthy object of his utmost affection? BeneIndeed, if I may speak my opinion of great part volus, both in public and private, and all occasions of the writings which once prevailed among us under of life, appears to have every good quality and de the notion of humour, they are such as would tempt sirable ornament. Abroad, he is reverenced and one to think there had been an association among esteemed; at home, beloved and happy. The satishe wits of those times to rally legitimacy out of our faction he enjoys there settles into an habitual comisland. A state of wedlock was the common mark placency, which shines in his countenance, enlivens of all the adventures in a farce or comedy, as well his wit, and seasons his conversation. Even those as the essayers in lampoon and satire, to shoot at; of his acquaintance, who have never seen him in and nothing was a more standing jest, in all clubs of his retirement, are sharers in the happiness of it; fashionable mirth and gay conversation. It was de- and it is very much owing to his being the best and termined among those airy critics, that the appella-best beloved of husbands, that he is the most steadtion of a sober man should signify a spiritiess fellow. | fast of friends, and the most agrceable of companions. There is a sensible pleasure in contemplating such | between London and Westminster. As I nave great Leautiful instances of domestic life. The happiness confidence in the capacity, resolution, and integrity, of the conjugal state appears heightened to the of the person deputed by me to give an account of highest degree it is capable of when we see two per- enormities, I doubt not but I shall soon have before sons of accomplished minds not only united in the me all proper notices which are requisite for the same interests and affections, but in their taste of amendment of manners in public, and the instructhe same improvements, pleasures and diversions. tion of each individual of the human species in what Pliny, one of the finest gentlemen and politest wri- is due from him in respect to the whole body of ters of the age in which he lived, has left us, in his mankind. The present paper shall consist only of letter to Hispulla, his wife's aunt, one of the most the above-mentioned letter, and the copy of a depuagreeable family pieces of this kind I have ever met tation which I have given to my trusty friend Mr. with. I shall end this discourse with a translation John Sly; wherein he is charged to notify to me all of it; and I believe the reader will be of my opi- that is necessary for my animadversion upon the nion, that conjugal love is drawn in it with a deli- delinquents mentioned by my correspondent, as well cacy which makes it appear to be, as I have repre- as all others described in the said deputation. sented it, an ornament as well as a virtue. 06 TO THE SPECTATOR-GENERAL OF GREAT-BRITAIN. "I grant it does look a little familiar, but I must call you "PLINY TO HISPULLA, "DEAR DUMB, "As I remember that great affection which was between you and your excellent brother, and know you love his daughter as your own, so as not only to express the tenderness of the best of aunts, but even "Being got again to the further end of the Wito supply that of the best of fathers; I am sure it dow's coffee-house, I shall from hence give you some will be a pleasure to you to hear that she proves account of the behaviour of our hackney-coachmen worthy of her father, worthy of you, and of your and since my last. Those indefatigable gentlemen, withher ancestors. Her ingenuity is admirable; her out the least design, I dare say, of self-interest or frugality extraordinary. She loves me, the surest advantage to themselves, do still ply as volunteers pledge of her virtue; and adds to this a wonderful day and night for the good of their country. I will disposition to learning, which she has acquired from not trouble you with enumerating many particulars, her affection to me. She reads my writings, studies but I must by no means omit to inform you of an them, and even gets them by heart. You would infant about six foot high, and between twer ty and smile to see the concern she is in when I have a thirty years of age, who was seen in the arms of a cause to plead, and the joy she shows when it is hackney-coachman, driving by Will's coffee-house over. She finds means to have the first news brought in Covent-Garden, between the hours of four and her of the success I meet with in court, how I am five in the afternoon of that very day wherein yo heard, and what decree is made. If I recite any published a memorial against them. This impudent thing in public, she cannot refrain from placing her-young cur, though he could not sit int a coach-box self privately in some corner to hear, where with without holding, yet would he venture his neck to the utmost delight, she feasts on my applauses. bid defiance to your spectatorial authority, or to any Sometimes she sings my verses, and accompanies thing that you countenanced. Who he was I know them with the lute, without any master except love, not, but I heard this relation this morning from a the best of instructors. From these instances, gentleman who was an eye-witness of this his imtake the most certain omens of our perpetual and pudence; and I was willing to take the first oppor increasing happiness; since her affection is not tunity to inform you of him, as holding it extremely founded on my youth and person, which must gra-requisite that you should nip him in the bud. But I dually decay, but she is in love with the immortal part of me, my glory and reputation. Nor indeed could less be expected from one who had the happiness to receive her education from you, who in your house was accustomed to every thing that was virtuous and decent, and even began to love me by your recommendation. For, as you had always the greatest respect for my mother, you were pleased from my infancy to form me, to commend me, and kindly to presage I should be one day what my wife fancies I am. Accept, therefore, our united thanks: mine, that you have bestowed her on me; and hers, that you have given me to her, as a mutual grant of joy and felicity." am myself most concerned for my fellow-templars, fellow-students, and fellow-labourers in the law, 1 mean such of them as are dignified and distinguished under the denomination of hackney-coachmen. Such aspiring minds have these ambitious young men, that they cannot enjoy themselves out of a coachbox. It is, however, an unspeakable comfort to me that I can now tell you that some of them are grown so bashful as to study only in the night-time or in the country. The other night I spied one of our young gentlemen very diligent at his lucubrations in Fleet-street; and, by the way, I should be under some concern lest this hard student should one time or other crack his brain with studying, but that I am in hopes nature has taken care to fortify him in proportion to the great undertakings he was designed for. Another of my fellow-templars on Thursday last was getting up into his study at the bottom of Gray's-inn-lane, in order, I suppose, to contemplate I AM very loath to come to extremities with the in the fresh air. Now, Sir, my request is, that the young gentlemen mentioned in the following letter, great modesty of these two gentlemen may be reand do not care to chastise them with my own hand, corded as a pattern to the rest, and if you would until I am forced by provocations too great to be but give them two or three touches with your own. suffered without the absolute destruction of my spec-pen, though you might not perhaps prevail with them tatorial dignity. The crimes of these offenders are to desist entirely from their meditations, yet I doubt placed under the observation of one of my chief No. 526.] MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1712. officers, who is posted just at the entrance of the pass Feet. ↑ Intended it seems for on. See preceding note. shall have addition of honour or ricnes, and report whether they preserve the countenance they had before such addition. As to persons on foot, you are to be attentive whether they are pleased with their condition, and are dressed suitable to it; but especially to distinguish such as appear discreet, by a low-heel shoe, with the decent ornament of a leather garter;* to write down the names of such country gentlemen as, upon the approach of peace, have left the hunting for the military cock of the hat; of all who strut, make a noise, and swear at the drivers of coaches to make haste, when they see it is impossible they should pass; of all young gentlemen in coach boxes, who labour at a perfection in what they are sure to be excelled by the meanest of the people. You are to do all that in you lies that coaches and passengers give way according to the course of business, all the morning in term-time to not but you would at least preserve them from being public spectacles of folly in our streets. I say, two or three touches with your own pen; for I have really observed, Mr. Spec., that those Spectators which are so prettily laced down the sides with little c's, how instructive soever they may be, do not carry with them that authority as the others. I do again therefore desire, that, for the sake of their dear necks, you would bestow one penful of your own ink upon them. I know you are loath to expose them; and it is, I must confess, a thousand pities that any young gentleman, who is come of honest persons, should be brought to public shame. And indeed I should be glad to have them handled a little tenderly at the first; but if fair means will not prevail, there is then no other way to reclaim them but by making use of some wholesome severities; and I think it is better that a dozen or two of such good-for-nothing tellows should be made ex-wards Westminster, the rest of the year towards the amples of, than that the reputation of some hundreds of as hopeful young gentlemen as myself should suffer through their folly. It is not, however, for me to direct you what to do; but, in short, if our coachmen will drive on this trade, the very first of them that I do find meditating in the street, I shall make bold to take the number of his chambers,'* together with a note of his name, and dispatch them to you, that you may chastise him at your own discretion. "I am, dear Spec., for ever yours, "MOSES GREENBAG, Esq. if you please. "P. S. Tom Hammercloth, one of our coachmen, is now pleading at the bar at the other end of the but has a little too much vehemence, and throws out his arms too much to take his audience with a good grace.' room, Exchange. Upon these directions, together with No. 527.] TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1712. I AM SO tender of my women-readers, that I cannot defer the publication of any thing which concerns their happiness or quiet. The repose of a married woman is consulted in the first of the fellowing letters, and the felicity of a maiden lady in the second. I call it a felicity to have the addresses of an agrecable man; and I think I have not any where seen a prettier application of a poetical story than that of his, in making the tale of Cephalus and Procris the history picture of a fan in so gallant manner as he addresses it. But see the letters:MR. SPECTATOR, "It is now almost three months since I was in Whereas frequent disorders, affronts, indignities, omissions, and trespasses, for which there are no remedies by any form of law, but which apparently disturb and disquiet the minds of men, happen near the place of your residence; and that you are, as well by your commodious situation, as the good parts with which you are endowed, properly quali- town about some business; and the hurry of it being fied for the observation of the said offences; I do over, I took coach one afternoon, and drove to see a hereby authorize and depute you, from the hours of relation, who married about six years ago a wealthy nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, to citizen. I found her at home, but her husband goue keep a strict eye upon all persons and things that to the Exchange, and expected back within an hour are conveyed in coaches, carried in carts, or walk at the furthest. After the usual salatations of kindon foot from the city of London to the city of West-ness, and a hundred questions about friends in the minster, or from the city of Westminster to the city of London, within the said hours. You are therefore not to depart from your observatory at the end of Devereux-court during the said space of each day, but to observe the behaviour of all persons who are suddenly transported from stamping on pebbles to sit at ease in chariots, what notice they take of their foot acquaintance, and send me the speediest advice, when they are guilty of overlooking, turning from, or appearing grave and distant to, their old friends. When man and wife are in the same coach, you are to see whether they appear pleased or tired with each other, and whether they carry the due mean in the eye of the world, between fondness and coldness. You are carefully to behold all such as country, we sat down to piquet, played two or three this was my second time of seeing her since ber games, and drank tea. I should have told you that marriage; but before, she lived at the same town where I went to school; so that the plea of a relation, added to the innocence of my youth, prevailed upon her good humour to indulge me in a freedom of conversation, as often, and oftener, than the strict discipline of the school would allow of. You may easily imagine, after such an acquaintance, we might be exceeding merry without any offence; as • It has been said that there is an allusion here to a very worthy gentleman of fortune, bred to the law, who had chambers in Lincoln's-inn. His name was Richard Warner, the younger son of a banker, who, though he always wore leather garters, in no other instance affected singularity. For a mere An allusion to the usual and prudent precaution of taking particular account of him, see Anecdotes of W. Bowyer, 400. the number of a hackney coach before entrance p. 409. • Parent of Gods, began the weeping fair, She spoke, and touch'd the chord with glad surprise, "MR. SPECTAtor, his lady suspected he was pursuing some nymph, the name of a woman, began to move among the The unfortunate wife, taking the word air to be bushes; and the husband, believing it a deer, threw his javelin and killed her. This history painted ou a fan, which I presented to a lady, gave occasion to my growing poetical. in calling to mind how many inventions I bave been put to in deluding the master, how many hands forged for excuses, how many times been sick in perfect health; for I was then never sick but at school, and only then because out of her company. We had wiled away three hours after this manner, when I found it past five; and, not expecting her husband would return until late, rose up, and told her I should go early next morning for the country. She kindly answered she was afraid it would be long before she saw me again; so, I took my leave, and parted. Now, Sir, I had not been got home a fortnight, when I received a letter from a neighbour of theirs, that ever since that fatal afternoon the lady had been most inhumanly treated, and the husband publicly stormed that he was made a member of too numerous a society. He had, it seems, listened most of the time my cousin and I "You will oblige a languishing lover if you will were together. As jealous ears always hear double, please to print the enclosed verses in your next so he heard enough to make him mad; and as jea know Procris, the fond wife of Cephalus is said to paper. If you remember the Metamorphoses, you lous eyes always see through magnifying glasses, so have made her husband, who delighted in the sports he was certain it could not be I whom he had seen, of the wood, a present of an unerring javelin. In a beardless stripling, but fancied he saw a gay gen-process of time he was so much in the forest, that tleman of the Temple, ten years older than myself; and for that reason, I presume, durst not come in, nor take any notice when I went out. He is per. petually asking his wife if she does not think the time long (as she said she should) until she see her cousin agaiu. Pray, Sir, what can be done in this case? I have writ to him to assure him I was at his house all that afternoon expecting to see him. His answer is, it is only a trick of hers, and that he neither can nor will believe me. The parting kiss I find mightily nettles him; and confirms him in all his errors. Ben Jonson, as I remember, makes a foreigner, in one of his comedies, admire the desperate valour of the bold English, who let out their wives to all encounters.' The general custom of salutation should excuse the favour done me, or you should lay down rules when such distinctions are to be given or omitted. You cannot imagine, Sir, how troubled I am for this unhappy lady's misfortune, and beg you would insert this letter, that the husband may reflect upon this accident coolly. It is no small matter, the ease of a virtuous woman for her whole life. I know she will conform to any regularities (though more strict than the common rules of our country require) to which his particular temper shall incline him to oblige her. This accident puts me in mind how generously Pisistratus, the Athenian tyrant, behaved himself on a like occasion, when he was instigated by his wife to put to death a young gentleman, because, being passionately fond of his daughter, he had kissed her in public, as he met her in the street. What,' said he, "shall we do to those who are our enemies, if we do thus to those who are our friends ?' I will not trouble you much longer, but am exceedingly concerned lest this accident may cause a virtuous lady "I WHO now write to you am a woman loaded to lead a miserable life with a husband who has no with injuries; and the aggravation of my misforgrounds for his jealousy but what I have faithfully tune is, that they are such which are overlooked by related, and ought to be reckoned none. It is to be the generality of mankind; and, though the most feared, too, if at last he sees his mistake, yet people afflicting imaginable, not regarded as such in the will be as slow and unwilling in disbelieving scan-general sense of the world. I have hid my vexation dal, as they are quick and forward in believing it. I shall endeavour to enliven this plain honest letter with Ovid's relation about Cybele's image. The ship wherein it was aboard was stranded at the mouth of the Tiber, and the men were unable to move it, until Claudia, a virgin, but suspected of unchastity, by a slight pull hauled it in. The story is told in the fourth book of the Fasti. 6 Come, gentle air! the Æolian shepherd said, No. 528.1 WEDNESDAY, NOV. 5, 1712. "MR. SPECTATOR, from all mankind; but having now taken pen, ink, and paper, am resolved to unbosom myself to you, and lay before you what grieves me and all the sex. You have very often mentioned particular hardships done to this or that lady; but methinks you have not, in any one speculation, directly pointed at the partial freedo n men take, the unreasonable confinement women are obliged to, in the only circumstance |