網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

ance,

⚫ of one another by this means, and break off acquaintand are rude: therefore pray put this in your paper as soon as you can possibly, to prevent any • future miscarriages of this nature. I am, as I ever • shall be, Dear Spec,

[ocr errors]

• Your most obedient humble servant,
'MARY MEANWELL.

Pray settle what is to be a proper notification of a
'person's being in town, and how that differs ac-
'cording to people's quality.'

Mr. Spectator,

'October the 20th.

'I HAVE been out of town, so did not meet with your paper dated September the 28th, wherein you, 'to my heart's desire, expose that cursed vice of ensnaring poor young girls, and drawing them from 'their friends. I assure you, without flattery, it has 'saved an apprentice of mine from ruin, and in token ' of gratitude, as well as for the benefit of my family, I have put it in a frame and glass, and hung it be'hind my counter. I shall take care to make my young ones read it every morning, to fortify them ' against such pernicious rascals. I know not whether 'what you writ was matter of fact, or your own inven'tion; but this I will take my oath on, the first part is so exactly like to what happened to my apprentice, that had I read your paper then, I should have 'taken your method to have secured a villain. Go on ' and prosper.

'Your most obliged humble servant.'

Mr. Spectator,

‹ WITHOUT raillery, I desire you to insert this word for word in your next, as you value a lover's prayers. You see it is an hue and cry after a stray heart, with the marks and blemishes under-written,

[blocks in formation]

' which whoever shall bring to you, shall receive sa'tisfaction. Let me beg of you not to fail, as you re'member the passion you had for her to whom you ( lately ended a paper.

"Noble, generous, great and good,
"But never to be understood;

[ocr errors]

Fickle as the wind, still changing, "After every female ranging,

[ocr errors]

Panting, trembling, sighing, dying,
But addicted much to lying:

"When the Siren songs repeats,
Equal measures still it beats;

"Whoe'er shall wear it, it will smart her,
"And whoe'er takes it, takes a Tartar."

T.

No. CCIX. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30.

Γυναικὸς ἐδὲ χῆμ' ἀνὴρ ληίζεται
Εσθλῆς ἄμεινον οὐδὲ ῥίγιον κακῆς•

Of earthly goods the best is a good wife;
A bad, the bitterest curse of human life.

SIMONIDES

THERE are no authors I am more pleased with, than those who shew human nature in a variety of views, and describe the several ages of the world in their different manners. A reader cannot be more rationally entertained, than by comparing the virtues and vices of his own times with those which prevailed in the times of his forefathers; and drawing a parallel in his mind between his own private character, and that of other persons, whether of his own age, or of the ages that went before him. The contemplation of mankind under these changeable colours, is apt to shame us out of any particular vice, or animate us to

any particular virtue: to make us pleased or displeased with ourselves in the most proper points, to clear our minds of prejudice and prepossession, and rectify that narrowness of temper which inclines us to think amiss of those who differ from ourselves.

If we look into the manners of the most remote ages of the world, we discover human nature in her simplicity; and the more we come downward towards our own times, may observe her hiding herself in artifices and refinements, polished insensibly out of her original plainness, and at length entirely lost under form and ceremony, and what we call good-breeding. Read the accounts of men and women as they are given us by the most ancient writers, both sacred and profane, and you would think you were reading the history of another species.

Among the writers of antiquity, there are none who instruct us more openly in the manners of the respective times in which they lived, than those who have employed themselves in satire, under what dress soever it may appear; as there are no other authors whose province it is to enter so directly into the ways of men, and set their miscarriages in so strong a light.

Simonides, a poet famous in his generation, is, I think, author of the oldest satire that is now extant; and, as some say, of the first that was ever written. This poet flourished about four hundred years after the siege of Troy; and shews, by his way of writing, the simplicity, or rather coarseness of the age in which he lived. I have taken notice, in my hundred and sixtyfirst speculation, that the rule of observing what the French call Bienseance, in an allusion, has been found out of latter years; and that the ancients, provided there was a likeness in their similitudes, did not much trouble themselves about the decency of the comparison. The satire or iambics of Simonides, with which I shall entertain my readers in the present paper, are a remarkable instance of what I formerly advanced.

The subject of this satire is woman.

He describes the sex in their several characters, which he derives to them from a fanciful supposition raised upon the doctrine of pre-existence. He tells us, that the gods formed the souls of women out of those seeds and principles which compose several kinds of animals and elements; and that their good or bad dispositions arise in them according as such and such seeds and principles predominate in their constitutions. I have translated the author very faithfully, and if not word for word, which our language would not bear, at least so as to comprehend every one of his sentiments, without adding any thing of my own. I have already apologized for this author's want of delicacy, and must further premise, that the following satire affects only some of the lower part of the sex, and not those who have been refined by a polite education, which was not so common in the age of this poet.

"In the beginning God made the souls of woman"kind out of different materials, and in a separate "state from their bodies.

"The souls of one kind of women were formed "out of those ingredients which compose a swine. "A woman of this make is a slut in her house, and à "glutton at her table. She is uncleanly in her person, a slattern in her dress, and her family is no better "than a dung-hill.

[ocr errors]

"A second sort of female soul was formed out of "the same materials that enter into the composition "of a fox. Such an one is what we call a notable dis❝cerning woman, who has an insight into every thing, "whether it be good or bad. In this species of fe"males there are some virtuous and some vicious.

"A third kind of women are made up of canine "particles. These are what we commonly call scolds, "who imitate the animals out of which they were "taken, that are always busy and barking, that snarl

"at every one who comes in their way, and live in 66 perpetual clamour.

"The fourth kind of women were made out of the

"earth. These are your sluggards, who pass away "their time in indolence and ignorance, hover over "the fire a whole winter, and apply themselves with "alacrity to no kind of business but eating.

"The fifth species of females were made out of "the sea. These are women of variable uneven tem66 pers, sometimes all storm and tempest, sometimes "all calm and sunshine. The stranger who sees one "of these in her smiles and smoothness, would cry "her up for a miracle of good humour; but on a sud"den her looks and words are changed, she is nothing "but fury and outrage, noise and hurricane.

66

"

"The sixth species were made up of the ingredi"ents which compose an ass, or a beast of burden. "These are naturally exceeding slothful, but upon "the husband's exerting his authority, will live upon "hard fare, and do every thing to please him. They are, however, far from being averse to venereal pleasure, and seldom refuse a male companion. "The cat furnished materials for a seventh species ❝ of women, who are of a melancholy, froward, una"miable nature, and so repugnant to the offers of "love, that they fly in the face of their husband when "he approaches them with conjugal endearments. "This species of women are likewise subject to lit"tle thefts, cheats, and pilferings.

"The mare with a flowing mane, which was never "broke to any servile toil and labour, composed an "eighth species of women. These are they who have "little regard for their husbands, who pass away their "time in dressing, bathing, and perfuming; who "throw their hair into the nicest curls, and trick it up with the fairest flowers and garlands. A woman "of this species is a very pretty thing for a stranger "to look upon, but very detrimental to the owner,

[ocr errors]
« 上一頁繼續 »