C was fary, has at prefent more ShoeingHorns of all Sizes, Countries, and Colours, in her Service, than ever the had new Shoes in her Life. I have known a Woman make use of a Shoeing-horn for feveral Years, and finding him unsuccessful in that Function, convert him at length into a Shoe. I am mistaken if your Friend, Mr. WILLIAM HONEYCOMB, not a caft Shoeing-horn before his late Marriage. As for my felf, I must frankly declare to you, that I have been an arrant Shoeing-horn for above thefe twenty Years. I ferved my first Mistress in that Capacity above five of the Number, before the was fhod. I confefs, though fhe had many who made their Applications to her, I always thought my self the best Shoe in her Shop, and it was not till a Month before her Marriage that I 'difcovered what I was. This had like to have broke my Heart, and raised fuch Sufpicions in me, that I told "the next I made Love to, upon receiving fome unkind Ufage from her, 'that I began to look upon my felf as no more than her Shoeing-horn. UpC on which, my Dear, who was a CoC quet quet in her Nature, told me I was Hypocondriacal, and that I might as well look upon my self to be an Egg or a Pipkin. But in a very short time after she gave me to know that I was not mistaken in my felf. It would be tedious to recount to you the Life of an unfortunate Shoeing-horn, or I might entertain you with a very long and melancholy Relation of my Suffe rings. Upon the whole, I think, Sir, ' it would very well become a Man in your Poft, to determine in what • Cafes a Woman may be allowed, with Honour, to make use of a ShoeingHorn, as alfo to declare whether a Maid on this fide five and twenty, or a Widow who has not been 'three Years in that State, may be 'granted fuch a Privilege, with other Difficulties which will naturally occur to you upon that Subject. N° 537. Saturday, November 15. Τι μπὺ δὲ γένεθ ἐσμέν SIR, To the SPECTATOR. Arat. T has been usual to remind I " occafions in Life, of their Race and Quality, and to what Expectations they were born; that by confidering what is worthy of them, they may be withdrawn from mean Purfuits, and encouraged to laudable Undertakings. This is turning Nobility into a Principle of Virtue, and making it produ&tive of Merit, as it is understood to have been originally a Reward of Cit. IT is for the like reason, I imagine, that you have in fome of your Speculations afferted to your Readers the Dignity of Human Nature. But you cannot be infenfible that this is a • contro controverted Doctrine; there are Authors who confider Human Nature in a very different View, and Books of Maxims have been written to fhew the Falfity of all Human Virtues, The Reflections which are made on this Subject ufually take fome Tincture from the Tempers and Characters of those that make them. Politicians can refolve the most shining Actions among • Men into Artifice and Defign; others, who are foured by Difcontent, Repulfes, or ill Ufage, are apt to mistake ❝ their Spleen for Philofophy; Men of profligate Lives, and fuch as find themfelves incapable of rifing to any • Distinction among their Fellow-Crea< tures, are for pulling down all appear4 ances of Merit, which feem to upbraid them: and Satirifts defcribe nothing but Deformity. From all these Hands we have fuch Draughts of Mankind as are reprefented in those burlesque Pictures, which the Italians 'call Caracatura's; where the Art confifts in preferving, amidst distorted Proportions and aggravated Features, fome diftinguishing Likeness of the Perfon, but in fuch a manner as to transform the most agreeable Beauty into the most odious Monster. IT is very difingenuous to level the 'beft of Mankind with the worst, and 'for the Faults of Particulars to degrade the whole Species. Such Methods tend not only to remove a Man's good Opinion of others, but to deftroy that Reverence for himfelf, which is a great Guard of Innocence, and a Spring of Virtue. IT is true indeed that there are furprizing Mixtures of Beauty and Deformity, of Wisdom and Folly, Virtue and Vice, in the human Make; 'fuch a Disparity is found among Num'bers of the fame Kind; and every Individual, in fome Inftances, or at 'fome Times, is fo unequal to himself, that Man feems to be the most wavering and inconfiftent Being in the whole Creation. So that the Que'ftion in Morality, concerning the Dignity of our Nature, may at firft fight appear like fome difficult Questions in Natural Philofophy, in which the Arguments on both fides feem to be of equal ftrength. But as I began with confidering this Point as it relates to Action, I fhall here borrow an admirable Reflection from Monfieur PafVOL. XIV. I • cal, 1 |