N°. 170. Friday, September 14, 1711. In amore hæc omnia infunt vitia; injuriæ, U Ter. Eun.. PON looking over the Letters of my Female Correfpondents, I find feverat from Women complaining of jealous Husbands, and at the faine Time protesting their own Innocence; and defiring my Advice on this Occafion. I fhall therefore take this Subject into my Confideration; and the more willingly, because I find that the Marquifs of Hallifax, who, in his Advice to a Daughter, has inftructed a Wife how to behave herselftowards a false, an intemperate, a cholerick, a fullen, a covetous or a filly Husband, has not spoken one Word of a jea. lous Husband.. JEALOUST is that Pain which a Man feels from the Apprehenfion that he is not equally beloved by the Perfon whom be entirely loves. Now, becaufe our inward Paffions and Inclinations can ne ver make themselves vifible, it is impoffible for a jealous Man to be throughly cured of his Sufpicions. His Thoughts hang at beft in a State of Doubtfulness and Uncertainty; and are never capable of receiving any Satisfaction on the advantagious Side; fo that his Enquiries are moft fuccefsful when they discover nothing: His Pleafure arifes from his Difappointments, and his Life is fpent in Purfuit of a Secret that deftroys his Happiness if he chance to find it. AN ardent Love is always a ftrong Ingredient in this Paffion; for the fame Affection which stirs up the jealous Man's Defires, and gives the Party beloved fo beautiful a Figure in his Imagination, makes him believe the kindles the fame Paffion in others, and appears as amiable to all Beholders. And as Jealoufy thus arifes from an extraordinary Love, it is of fo delicate a Nature, that it fcorns to take up with any thing less than an equal Return of Love. Not the warmest Expreffions of Affection, the fofteft and moft tender Hypocrify, are able to give any Satisfaction, where we are not perfuaded that the Affection is real and the Satisfaction mutual. For the Jealous Man wifhes himfelfa kind of Deity to the Perfon he loves: He would be the only Pleasure of her Senfes, the Employment of her Thoughts; and is angry at every thing the admires, or takes Delight in, befides himself. PHEDRIA's Requeft to his Mistress, upon his leaving her for three Days, is inimitably beautiful and natural. Cum milite ifto præfens, abfens ut fies: THE THE jealous Man's Difeafe is of fo malignant a Nature, that it converts all he takes into its own Nourishment. A cool Behaviour fets him on the Rack, and is interpreted as an Inftance of Averfion or Indifference; a fond one raifes his Sufpicions, and looks too much like Diffimulation and Artifice. If the Perfon he loves be cheerful, her Thoughts must be employed on another; and if fad, the is certainly thinking on himself. In short, there is no Word or Gesture fo infignificant, but it gives him new Hints, feeds his Sufpicions, and furnishes him with fresh Matters of Difcovery: So that if we confider the Effects of this Paffion, one would rather think it proceeded from an inveterate Hatred than an exceffive Love; for certainly none can meet with more Difquietude and Uneafinefs than a fufpected Wife, if we except the jealous Husband. BUT the great Unhappiness of this Paffion is, that it naturally tends to alienate the Affection which it is fo follicitous to engross; and that for these two Reasons; because it lays too great a Constraint on the Words and Actions of the fufpected Perfon, and at the fame Time fhews you have no honourable Opinion of her; both of which are strong Motives to Aversion. NOR is this the worst Effect of Jealoufy; for it often draws after it a more fatal Train of Consequences, and makes the Perfon you fufpe&t guilty of the very Crimes you are fo much afraid of. It is very natural for fuch who are treated ill and upbraided fallely, to find out an intimate Friend that will hear their Complaints, condole their Sufferings, and endeavour to footh and affwage their fecret Refentments. Befides, Jealousy puts a Woman often in Mind of an ill thing that the would not otherwise perhaps have thought of, and fills her Imagination with fuch an unlucky Idea, as in time grows familiar, excites Defire, and lofes all the Shame No 170. Shame and Horrour which might at first attend it. Nor is it a Wonder, if the who fuffers wrongfully in a Man's Opinion of her, and has therefore nothing to forfeit in his Efteem, refolves to give him Reason for his Sufpicions, and to enjoy the Pleasure of the Crime, fince the muft undergo the Ignominy. Such probably were the Confiderations that directed the Wife Man in his Advice to Hufbands; Be not jealous over the Wife of thy Bofom, and teach her not an evil Leffon against thy felf. Eccluf. AND here, among the other Torments which this Paffion produces, we may ufually obferve that none are greater Mourners than jealous Men, when the Perfon who provoked their Jealoufy is taken from them. Then it is that their Love breaks out furiously, and throws off all the Mixtures of Sufpicion which choaked and fmothered it before. The beautiful Parts of the Character rise uppermost in the jealous, Husband's Memory, and upbraid him. with the ill-Ufage of fo divine a Creature as was once in his Poffeffion; whilst all the little Imperfections that were before fo uneafy to him, wear off from his Remembrance, and fhew themselves no more. WE may fee by what has been faid, that Jealoufy takes the deepest Root in Men of amorous Difpofitions; and of thefe we find three Kinds who. are most over-run with it. THE Firft are those who are conscious to themfelves of any Infirmity, whether it be Weaknels, old Age, Deformity, Ignorance, or the like. Thefe Men are fo well acquainted with the unamiable Part of themselves, that they have not the Confidence to think they are really beloved; and are fo diftrustful of their own Merits, that all Fondness towards them puts them out of Countenance, and looks like a Jeft upon their Perfons. They grow |