The Wife are content to guide the Springs in Silence, and rejoice in Secret at their regular Progrefs: To prate and triumph is the Part allotted to the Trifling and Su perficial: The Geefe were providentially ordained to fave the Capitol. Hence it is, that the Invention of Marks and Devices to diftinguish Parties, is owing to the Beaux and Belles of this Inland. Hats moulded into different Cocks and Pinches, have long bid mutual Defiance; Patches have been fet against Patches in Battel-aray; Stocks have rifen or fallen in Proportion to HeadDreffes; and Peace or War been expected, as the White or the Red Hood hath prevailed. These are the Standard'Bearers in our contending Armies, the Dwarfs and Squires who carry the Impreffes of the Giants or Knights, not born to fight themselves, but to prepare the Way for the enfuing Combat.

It is Matter of Wonder to reflect how far Men of 'weak Understanding and ftrong Fancy are hurried by their Prejudices, even to the believing that the whole Body of the adverfe Party are a Band of Villains and • Dæmons. Foreigners complain, that the English are the proudeft Nation under Heaven. Perhaps they too have their Share; but be that as it will, general Charges a 'gainst Bodies of Men is the Fault I am writing against. It must be own'd, to our Shame, that our common People, and most who have not travelled, have an irrational Contempt for the Language, Drefs, Cuftoms, ' and even the Shape and Minds of other Nations. Some Men otherwife of Senfe, have wondered that a great Genius fhould fpring out of Ireland; and think mad in affirming, that fine Odes have been written in Lapland.

your

THIS Spirit of Rivalfhip, which heretofore reigned in the two Universities, is extinct, and almost over betwixt College and College: In Parishes and Schools the Thrift of Glory still obtains. At the Seafons of Football and Cockfighting, these little Republicks reassume 'their national Hatred to each other. My Tenant in the Country is verily perfwaded, that the Parish of the Enemy hath not one honeft Man in it.

I always hated Satyrs against Woman, and Satyrs againft Man; I am apt to fufpect a Stranger who laughs

'at

at the Religion of The Faculty: My Spleen rifes at a dull Rogue, who is fevere upon Mayors and Aldermen ; and was never better pleased than with a Piece of Justice executed upon the Body of a Templer, who was very Sarch upon Parfons.

:

THE Neceffities of Mankind require various Em ployments; and whoever excels in his Province is worthy of Praife. All Men are not educated after the fame Manner, nor have all the fame Talents. Those who are ⚫ deficient deserve our Compaffion, and have a Title to ⚫ our Affiftance. All cannot be bred in the fame Place; • but in all Places there arise, at different Times, such • Perfons as do Honour to their Society, which may raise • Envy in little Souls, but are admired and cherished by generous Spirits.

IT is certainly a great Happiness to be educated in • Societies of great and eminent Men. Their Inftructions and Examples are of extraordinary Advantage. It is highly proper to inftill fuch a Reverence of the govern ing Perfons, and Concern for the Honour of the Place, as may fpur the growing Members to worthy Pursuits and honeft Emulation: But to fwell young Minds with vain Thoughts of the Dignity of their own Brotherhood, by debafing and villifying all others, doth them a real Injury. By this means I have found that their Efforts have become languid, and their Prattle irksome, as thinking it fufficient Praise that they are Children of fo illuftrious and ample a Family. I fhould think it a furer, as well as more generous Method, to fet before the Eyes of Youth fuch Persons as have made a noble Progress in Fraternities lefs talk'd of; which feems tacitly to reproach their Sloth, who loll fo heavily in the Seats of mighty Improvement: Active Spirits hereby would enlarge their Notions, whereas by a fervile Imitation of one, or perhaps two, admired Men in their own Body, they can only gain a fecondary and derivative kind of Fame. Thefe Copiers of Men, like those ⚫ of Authors or Painters, run into Affectations of some Oddnefs, which perhaps was not difagreeable in the Original, but fits ungracefully on the narrow-foul'd .. Tranfcriber.

BY

BY fuch early Corrections of Vanity, while Boys are growing into Men, they will gradually learn not to cenfure fuperficially; but imbibe thofe Principles of ge'neral Kindness and Humanity, which alone can make them eafie to themselves, and beloved by others.

REFLECTIONS of this nature have expunged all Prejudices out of my Heart, infomuch that, tho' I am a firm Proteftant, I hope to see the Pope and Cardinals without violent Emotions; and tho' I am naturally grave, I expect to meet good Company at Paris I am, SIR,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

Find

Your obedient Servant.

you are a general Undertaker, and have by your Correfpondents or self an Infight into most things; which makes me apply my felf to you at prefent in the foreft Calamity that ever befel Man. My Wife has taken fomething ill of me, and has not fpoke one Word, good or bad, to me, or any Body in the Family, fince Friday was Seven-night. What muft a Man do in that Cafe? Your Advice would be a great • Obligation to,

SIR,

Your most humble Servant,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Ralph Thimbleton.

WHEN you want a Trifle to fill up a Paper,

in inferting this you will lay an Obligation on

July 15th,

1712.

Dear Olivia,

Your humble Servant,

OLIVIO.

I T is but this Moment I have had the Happiness of knowing to whom I am obliged for the Prefent I "received the fecond of April. I am heartily forry it did not come to Hand the Day before; for I can't but think "it very hard upon People to lofe their Jeft, that offer at

66

one but once a year. I congratulate my self however, 66 upon the Earnest given me of fomething further intended in my Favour, for I am told, that the Man who "is thought worthy by a Lady to make a Fool of, ftands "fair enough in her Opinion to become one Day her "Husband. Till fuch time as I have the Honour of bes, ❝ing fworn, I take Leave to subscribe my self,

T

Dear Olivia,

Your Fool Elect,

Nicodemuncio,

N° 433. Thursday, July 17.

Perlege Maonio cantatas carmine Ranas,
Et frontem nugis folvere difce meis.

T

Mart,

Had our

HE Moral World, as confifting of Males and Females, is of a mixt Nature, and filled with feveral Customs, Fashions and Ceremonies, which would have no place in it, were there but One Sex. Species no Females in it, Men would be quite different Creatures from what they are at prefent; their Endeavours to please the oppofite Sex, polifhes and refines them out. of thofe Manners which are moft Natural to them, and often fets them upon modelling themfelves, not according to the Plans which they approve in their own Opinions, but according to thofe Plans which they think are most agreeable to the Female World. In a Word, Man would not only be an unhappy, but a rude unfinished Creature, were he converfant with none but thofe of his own Make.

WOMEN, on the other fide, are apt to form them. felves in every thing with regard to that other half of reafonable Creatures, with whom they are here blended and confused; their Thoughts are ever turned upon appearing amiable to the other Sex; they talk, and move, and smile,

with a Defign upon us; every Feature of their Faces, every part of their Drefs is filled with Snares and Allurements, There would be no fuch Animals as Prudes or Coquets in the World, were there not fuch an Animal as Man. In fhort, it is the Male that gives Charms to Womankind, that produces an Air in their Faces, a Grace in their Motions, a Softness in their Voices, and a Delicacy in their Complections.

AS this mutual Regard between the two Sexes tends to the Improvement of each of them, we may obferve that Men are apt to degenerate into rough and brutal Natures, who live as if there were no fuch things as Women in the World; as on the contrary, Women, who have an Indifference or Averfion for their Counter-parts in human Nature, are generally Sower and Unamiable, Sluttish and Cenforious.

I am led into this Train of Thoughts by a little Manufcript which is lately fallen into my Hands, and which I fhall communicate to the Reader, as I have done fome other curious Pieces of the fame Nature, without troubling him with any Enquiries about the Author of it. It contains a fummary Account of two different States which bordered upon one another. The one was a Commonwealth of Amazons, or Women without Men; the other was a Republick of Males that had not a Woman in their whole Community. As thefe two States bordered upon one another, it was their way, it feems, to meet upon their Frontiers at a certain Seafon of the Year, where those among the Men who had not made their Choice in any former Meeting, affociated themselves with particular Women, whom they were afterwards obliged to look upon as their Wives in every one of thefe yearly Rencounters. The Children that fprung from this Alliance, if Males, were fent to their refpective Fathers, if Females, continued with their Mothers. By means of this Anniverfary Carnival, which lafted about a Week, the Commonwealths were recruited from time to time, and fupplied with their respective Subjects.

THESE two States were engaged together in a perpetual League, Offenfive and Defenfive, fo that if any Foreign Potentate offered to attack either of them, both the Sexes fell upon him at once, and quickly brought him VOL. VI.

G

to