N° 402.

Wednesday, June 11.

que

Spectator tradit fibi

Hor.

W

ERE I to publifh all the Advertisements I receive from different Hands, and Perfons of dif ferent Circumstances and Quality, the very Mention of them, without Reflections on the feveral Subjects, would raife all the Paffions which can be felt by human Minds. As Inftances of this, I fhall give you two or three Letters; the Writers of which can have no Recourfe to any legal Power for Redrefs, and feem to have written rather to vent their Sorrow than to receive Confolation,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

:I

Am a young Woman of Beauty and Quality, and fuitably married to a Gentleman who doats on me. But this Perfon of mine is the Object of an unjust Paffion in a Nobleman who is very intimate with my Husband. This Friendship gives him very eafie Accefs, and frequent Opportunities of entertaining me apart. My Heart is in the utmoft Anguish, and my Face is covered over with Confufion, when I impart to you another Circumftance, which is, that my Mother, the most mercenary of all Women, is gained by this falfe Friend of · my Husband to follicit me for him. I am frequently chid by the poor believing Man my Husband, for fhewing an Impatience of his Friend's Company; and I am never alone with my Mother, but fhe tells me Stories of the difcretionary Part of the World, and fuch a one, and 'fuch a one who are guilty of as much as the advifes me to. She laughs at my Aftonifhment; and feems to hint to me, that as virtuous as fhe has always appeared, I am not the Daughter of her Husband. It is poffible that printing this Letter may relieve me from the unnatural Im⚫portunity

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ever;

portunity of my Mother, and the perfidious Courtship · of my Husband's Friend. I have an unfeigned Love of Virtue, and am refolved to preferve my Innocence. The only Way I can think of to avoid the fatal Confequences of the Discovery of this Matter, is to fly away for which I must do to avoid my Husband's fatal Re⚫ fentment against the Man who attempts to abufe him, and the Shame of expofing a Parent to Infamy. The • Perfons concerned will know thefe Circumstances relate to 'em ; and though the regard to Virtue is dead in them, I have fome Hopes from their Fear of Shame upon reading this in your Paper; which I conjure you to do, if you have any Compaffion for Injured Virtue.

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

SYLVIA.

I Am the Husband of a Woman of Merit, but am fallen in Love, as they call it, with a Lady of her Acquaintance, who is going to be married to a Gentle6 man who deferves her. I am in a Truft relating to this Lady's Fortune, which makes my Concurrence in this • Matter neceffary; but I have fo irrefiftable a Rage and Envy rife in me when I confider his future Happiness, that against all-Reafon, Equity, and common Juftice, I am ever playing mean Tricks to fufpend the Nuptials. I have no manner of Hopes for my felf; Emilia, for fo I'll call her, is a Woman of the most strict Virtue; her Lover is a Gentleman who of all others I could wifh my Friend; but Envy and Jealoufie, though placed fo unjustly, wafte my very Being, and with the Torment and Senfe of a Dæmon, I am ever curfing what I cannot but approve. I wish it were the Beginning of Repentance, that I fit down and defcribe my prefent Difpofition with fo hellish an Afpect; but at prefent the Deftruction of these two excellent Perfons would be ⚫ more welcome to me than their Happiness. Mr. SPECTATOR, pray let me have a Paper on these terrible groundlefs Sufferings, and do all you can to exorcife Crowds who are in fome Degree poffeffed as I am.

Canniball.

Mr.

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

Have no other Means but this to exprefs my Thanks to one Man, and my Refentment against another. My Circumstances are as follows. I have been for five Years laft paft courted by a Gentleman of greater Fortune than I ought to expect, as the Market for Women goes. You must to be fure have obferved People who live in that fort of Way, as all their Friends reckon it will be a Match, and are marked out by all the World ⚫ for each other. In this view we have been regarded 'for fome Time, and I have above these three Years loved him tenderly. As he is very careful of his Fortune, I always thought he lived in a near manner to lay up what he thought was wanting in my Fortune to make up what he might expect in another. Within few Months I have obferved his Carriage very much altered, and he has affected a certain Air of getting me a-" lone, and talking with a mighty Profufion of paffionate Words, How I am not to be refifted longer, how irresist⚫able his Wishes are, and the like. As long as I have been. acquainted with him, I could not on fuch Occafions fay downright to him, You know you may make me yours when you pleafe. But the other Night he with great. Franknefs and Impudence explained to me, that he thought of me only as a Mistress. I answered this Declaration as it deferv'd; upon which he only doubled the Terms on which he propofed my Yielding. When my Anger heightned upon him, he told me he was. forry he had made fo little Ufe of the unguarded Hourswe ⚫ had been together fo remote from Company, as indeed, continued he, fo we are at prefent. I flew from him to a neighbouring Gentlewoman's House, and tho' her Husband was in the Room, threw my felf on a Couch, and burst into a Paffion of Tears. My Friend defired her Husband to leave the Room. But, faid he, there is fomething fo extraordinary in this, that I will partake in the Affliction; and be it what it will, fhe is fo much your Friend, that fhe knows the may command what 'Services I can do her. The Man fate down by me, and fpoke fo like a Brother, that I told him my whole AfAliction. He spoke of the Injury done me with fo much Indignation

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No 402 Indignation, and animated me against the Love he faid he faw I had for the Wretch who would have betrayed me, with fo much Reason and Humanity to my Weaknefs, that I doubt not of my Perfeverance. His Wife and he are my Comforters, and I am under no more • Reftraint in their Company than if I were alone; and I doubt not but in a small time Contempt and Hatred will take Place of the Remains of Affection to a Rafcal.

I am SIR,

Your Affectionate Reader,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

DORINDA

Had the Misfortune to be an Uncle before I knew my Nephews from my Neices, and now we are grown up to better Acquaintance they deny me the Refpect they owe. One upbraids me with being their Familiar, another will hardly be perfwaded that I am an Uncle, a third calls me Little Uncle, and a fourth tells me there is no Duty at all due to an Uncle. I have a Brother-in-law whofe Son will win all Affection, unless you fhall think this worthy of your Cognizance, and will be pleafed to prefcribe fome Rules for our future reciprocal Behaviour. It will be worthy the Particularity of your Genius to lay down Rules for his Conduct who was as it were born an old Man, in which you will much oblige,

SIR,

my

Your most obedient Servant,

Cornelius Nepos,

Thursday,

No 403.

Thursday, June 12.

Qui mores hominum multorum vidit

W

Hor.

HEN I confider this great City in its feveral Quarters and Divifions, I look upon it as an Aggregate of various Nations diftinguifhed from each other by their refpective Customs, Manners and Interefts. The Courts of two Countries do not fo much differ from one another, as the Court and City in their peculiar ways of Life and Conversation. In fhort, the Inhabitants of St. James's, notwithstanding they live under the fame Laws, and fpeak the fame Language, are a diftinct People from thofe of Cheapfide, who are likewife removed from thofe of the Temple on the one fide, and those of Smithfield on the other, by feveral Climates and Degrees in their way of Thinking and Converfing together.

FOR this Reafon, when any publick Affair is upon the Anvil, I love to hear the Reflections that arife upon it in the feveral Diftricts and Parishes of London and Westminster, and to ramble up and down a whole Day together, in order to make my felf acquainted with the Opinions of my ingenious Countrymen. By this means I know the Faces of all the principal Politicians within the Bills of Mortality; and as every Coffee-houfe has fome particular Statefman belonging to it, who is the Mouth of the Street where he lives, I always take care to place my felf near him, in order to know his Judgment on the prefent Posture of Affairs. The laft Progrefs that I made with this Intention, was about three Months ago, when we had a current Report of the King of France's Death. As I forefaw this would produce a new Face of things in Europe, and many curious Speculations in our British Coffee-houfes, I was very de