will please. Madam, to be upon your guard, and take all the neceflary precautions against one who is amiable before you know he is enamoured. • to you I am, Madam, Your most obedient fervant. Strephon makes great progrefs in this lady's good graces, for molt women being actuated by fome little fpirit of pride and contradiction, he has the good effects of both those motives by this covert-way of courtship. He received a meffage yefterday from Damon in the following words, fuperfcribed With Spe.d. A LL well; he is very angry at me, and I goes dare fay hates me in earneft. It is a good time. to vifit. Yours. The comparison of Strephon's gaiety to Damon's languishment, trikes her imagination with a profpect of very agreeable hours with fuch a man as the former, and abhorrence of the infipid profpect with one like the latter To know when a lady is difpleafed with another, is to know the best time of advancing yourself. This method of two perfons playing in each other's hand is fo dangerous, that I cannot tell how a woman could be able to withstand fuch a fiege. The condition of Gloriana, I am afraid, is irretrievable, for Strephon has had to many opportunities of pleafing without suspicion, that all which is left for her to do is to bring him, now he is advifed, to an explanation of his paffion, and beginning again, if the can conquer the kind fentiments the has already conceived for him. When one fhews himself a creature to be avoided, the other proper to be fled to for fuccour, they have the whole woman between them, and can occafionally rebound her love and hatred from one to the other, in fuch a manner as to keep her at a distance from all the rest of the world, and caft lots for the conqueft. N. B. N. B. I have many other fecrets which concern the empire of love, but I confider that while I alarm my women I inftruct my men. T N° 424 Monday, July 7. Eft Ulubris, animus fi te non deficit equus. Hor. Ep. 11. 1. 1. v. 30. 'Tis not the place difguft or pleafure brings: From our own mind our fatisfaction springs. Mr. SPECTATOR, A London, June 24. Man who has it in his power to choose his own company, would certainly be much to blame fhould he not, to the best of his judgment, take fuch as are of a temper moft fuitable to his own; and where that choice is wanting, or where a man is mistaken in his choice, and yet under a neceffity of continuing in the fame company, it will certainly be his intereft to carry himself as easily as • poffible. In this I am fenfible I do but repeat what has been faid a thousand times, at which however I think no body has any title to take exception, but they who never failed to put this in practice. Not to use any longer preface, this being the feafon of the year in which great numbers of all forts of people retire from this place of business and pleasure to country folitude, I think it not improper to advise them to take with them as great a flock of good humour as they can ; for tho' a country-life is described as the most pleafant of all others, and though it may in truth be fo, yet it is fo only to thofe who know how to enjoy leifure and retirement. As for those who can't live without the conftant ⚫ helps of business or company, let them confider, that in the country there is no Exchange, there are no playhoufes, no variety of coffee-houses, nor many of thofe ⚫ other amusements, which ferve here as fo many reliefs 'from the repeated occurrences in their own families; • but that there the greateft part of their time mut be fpent within themfelves, and confequently it behoves them to confider how agreeable it will be to them be⚫fore they leave this dear town, I remember, Mr. SPECTATOR, we were very 'well entertained, laft year, with the advices you gave us from Sir ROGER's country feat; which I the rather • mention, becaufe 'tis almoft impoffible not to live pleafantly, where the mafter of a family is fuch a one as you there describe your friend, who cannot therefore (I mean as to his domeftic character) be too often • recommended to the imitation of others. How amiable is that affability and benevolence with which he ⚫ treats his neighbours, and every one, even the meanest of his own family! And yet how feldom imitated? inftead of which we commonly meet with ill natur'd expoftulations, noife, and chidings- And this I hinted, because the humour and difpofition of the head, is what chiefly influences all the other parts of ⚫ a family. An agreement and kind correfpondence between friends and acquaintance, is the greatest pleasure of life. This is an undoubted truth, and yet any man who judges from the practice of the world, will be almoft perfuaded to believe the contrary; for how can we fuppofe people fhould be fo induftrious to make themfelves uneafy? What can engage them to entertain and • foment jealoufies of one another upon every the least • occafion? Yet fo it is, there are people who (as it fhould feem) delight in being trouble fome and vexatious, who (as Tully speaks) Mirà funt alacritate ad litigandum, Have a certain chearfulness in wrangling. And thus it happens, that there are very few families in which there are not feuds and animofities, tho' tis every one's intereft, there more particularly, to avoid 'em, because there (as I would willingly hope) no one gives another uneafinefs, without feeling fome fhare of it. But I am gone beyond what I defigned, and had • almost almost forgot what I chiefly propofed; which was, barely to tell you how hardly we who pass most of our time in town dispense with a long vacation in the country, how uneafy we grow to ourselves and to one another when our converfation is confined, info. much that by Michaelmas, 'tis odds but we come to downright fquabbling, and make as free with one another to our faces, as we do with the reft of the world ⚫ behind their backs. After I have told you this, I am to defire that you would now and then give us a leffon of good-humour, a family-piece, which, fince we are • all very fond of you, I hope may have fome influence upon us. After these plain obfervations, give me leave to give you an hint of what a fet of company of my acquaintance, who are now gone into the country, and have the ufe of an abfent nobleman's feat, have fettled among themselves, to avoid the inconveniencies ⚫ above mentioned. They are a collection of ten or twelve, of the fame good inclination towards each other, but of very different talents and inclinations : from hence they hope, that the variety of their tem· pers will only create variety of pleasures. But as there always will arife, among the fame people, either for want of diverfity' of objects, or the like caufes, a cer⚫tain fatiety, which may grow into ill-humour or difcontent, there is a large wing of the house which they defign to employ in the nature of an infirmary. Whoever fays a peevish thing, or acts any thing which betrays a fournefs or indifpofition to company, is immediately to be conveyed to his chambers in the infirmary; from whence he is not to be relieved, till by his manner of fubmiffion, and the fentiments expreffed in his petition for that purpofe, he appears to the majority of the company to be again fit for fociety. You are to understand, that all ill-natured words or uneafy gestures are fufficient caufe for banishment; fpeaking impatiently to fervants, making a man repeat what he says, or any thing that betrays inattention or difhumour, are alfo criminal without reprieve: But it is provided, that whoever obferves the ill-natured fit coming upon himself, and voluntarily retires, fhall be • received received at his return from the infirmary with the highest marks of efteem. By thefe and other whol. fom methods it is expected that if they cannot care one another, yet at least they have taken care that the ⚫ ill-humour of one fha l not be troublesome to the reft of the company. There are many other rules which the fociety have established for the prefervation of their eafe and tranquillity, the effects of which, with the ⚫ incidents that arife among them, fhall be communicated to you from time to time for the public good, by, Frigora mitefcunt zephyris; ver proterit æftas Pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit; & mox Bruma recurrit iners. Hor. Od. 7. 1. 4. v. ge The cold grows foft with western gales, But yields to autumn's fruitful rain, Mr. SPECTATOR./ T Sir W. TEMPLE. HERE is hardly any thing gives me a more fenfible delight, than the enjoyment of a cool ftill evening after the uneafinefs of a hot fultry day. Such a one I paffed not long ago, which 'made me rejoice, when the hour was come for the fun to fet, that I might enjoy the freshness of the evening in my garden, which then affords me the pleafanteft hours I pafs in the whole four and twenty. I |