The women might poffibly have carried this gothic building much higher, had not a famous monk, Thomas Conecte by name, attacked it with great zeal and refolution. This holy man travelled from place to place to preach down this menitrous commode: and fuccecded fo well in it, that as the magicians facrificed their books to the flames upon the preaching of an apostle, many of the women threw down their head-dreffes in the middle of his fermon, and made a bonfire of them within fight of the pulpit. He was fo renowned as well for the fanctity of his life as his manner of preaching, that he had often a congregation of twenty thousand people; the men placing themfelves on the one fide of his pulpit, and the women on the other, that appeared, to ufe the fimilitude of an ingenious writer, like a forest of cedars with their heads reaching to the clouds. He fo warmed and animated the people againit this monftrous ornament, that it lay under a kind of perfecution; and whenever it appeared in public was pelted down by the rabble, who flung fones at the perfons that wore it. But notwith ftanding this prodigy vanished, while the preacher was among them, it began to appear again fome months after his departure, or to tell it in Monfieur Paradin's own words, "The women that, "like fnails in a fight, had drawn in their "horns, fhot them out again as foon as the "danger was over." This extravagance of the womens head-dreffes in that age is taken notice of by Monfieur d'Argentré in the hiftory of Bretagne, and by other hiftorians as well as the perfon I have here quoted.

It is ufually obferved, that a good reign is the only proper time for the making of laws against the exorbitance of power; in the fame manner an exceflive head drefs may be attacked the most effectually when the fashion is against it. I do therefore recommend this paper to my female readers by way of prevention.

I would defire the fair fex to confider how impoffible it is for them to add any thing that can be ornamental to what is already the mafter-piece of nature. The head has the most beautiful appearance, as well as the highest ftation, in a human figure. Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the face; fhe has touched it with vermilion, planted in it a double row of ivory, made it the feat of fmiles and blufhes, lighted it up and enlivened it with the brightnefs of the eyes, hung it on each fide with curious organs of fenfe, given it airs and graces that cannot be described, and furrounded it with fuch a flowing fhade of hair as fets all its beauties in the moft agreeable light: in fhort, fhe feems to have defigned the head as the cupola to the moft glorious of her works; and when we load it with fuch a pile of fupernumerary ornaments, we deftroy the fymmetry of the human figure, and foolishly contrive to call off the eye from great and real beauties, to childifh gewgaws, ribbands and bone-lace.

N° 99. SATURDAY, JUNE 23.

ftarted a great many hints upon the fubject, which I thought were entirely new: I fhall therefore methodize the feveral reflections that arcfc upon this occafion, and prefent my reader with them for the fpeculation of this day; after having premifed, that if there is any thing in this paper which feems to differ with any paffage of laft Thurfday's, the reader will confider this as the fentiments of the club, and the other as my own private thoughts, or rather thofe of Pharamond.

The great point of honour in men is courage, and in women chastity. If a man lofes his honour in one rencounter,it is not impofiible for him to regain it in another; a flip in a woman's honour is irrecoverable. I can give no reason for fixing the point of honour to thefe two qualities, unless it be that each fex fets the greatest value on the qualification which renders them the moft amiable in the eyes of the contrary fex. Had men chofen for themfelves, without regard to the opinions of the fair fex, I fhould believe the choice would have fallen on wisdom or virtue; or had women determined their own point of honour, it is probable that wit or good nature would have carried it against chastity.

Nothing recommends a man more to the female fex than courage; whether it be that they are pleafed to fee one who is a terror to others fall like a flave at their feet, or that this quality fup. plies their own principal defect, in guarding them from infults, and avenging their quarrels, or that courage is a natural indication of a strong and fprightly conftitution. On the other fide, nothing makes a woman more efteemed by the oppofite fex than chastity: whether it be that we always prize thofe most who are hardest to come at, or that nothing besides chastity with its collateral attendants, truth, fidelity and conftancy, gives the man a property in the perfon he loves, and confequently endears her to him above all things.

I am very much pleased with a paffage in the infcription on a monument erected in Weftiinf ter-Abbey to the late duke and duchefs of Newcaftle: "Her name was Margaret Lucas, young

eft fifter to the lord Lucas of Colchefter; a no"ble family, for all the brothers were valiant, and "all the fifters virtuous.

In books of chivalry, where the point of honour is ftrained to madnefs, the whole ftory runs on chastity and courage. The damfel is mounted on a white palfrey, as 'an emblem of her innocence; and, to avoid fcandal, must have a dwarf for her page. She is not to think of a man, until fome misfortune has brought a Knight-errant to her relief. The Knight falls in love, and, did not gratitude reftrain her from murdering her deliver. er, would die at her feet by her disdain. However, he must wait fome years in the defert, before her virgin heart can think of a furrender. The Knight goes off, attacks every thing he meets that is bigger and ftronger than himfelf, feeks all op Lportunities of being knocked on the head, and after feven years rambling returns to his mistress, whofe chastity has been attacked in the mean time by giants and tyrants, and undergone as many trials as her lover's valour.

-Turpi fecernis boneftum. HOR. Sat. 6. 1. 1. v. 63. You know to fix the bounds of right and wrong. HE club, of which I have often declared my felf a member, were last night engaged in a difcourfe upon that which paffes for the chief point of honour among men and women; and

TH

In Spain, where there are ftill great remains of this romantic humour, it is a transporting falover from a window, though it be two or three vour for a lady to caft an accidental glance on her ftories high; as it is ufual for the lover to affert his paffion for his mistress, in single combat with a mad bull,

The

The great violation of the point of honour from man to man, is giving the lie. One may tell another he whores, drinks, blafphemes, and it may pafs unrefented; but to fay he lies, though but in jeft, is an affront that nothing but blood can expiate. The reafon perhaps may be, because no other vice implies a want of courage fo much as the making of a lie; and therefore telling a man he lies, is touching him in the moft fenfible part of honour, and indirectly calling him a coward. 1 cannot omit under this head what Herodotus tells us of the ancient Persians, that from the age of five years to twenty they inftru&t their fons only in three things, to manage the horfe, to make use of the bow, and to speak truth..

The placing the point of honour in this falfe kind of courage, has given occafion to the very refuse of mankind, who have neither virtue nor common sense, to set up for men of honour. An English Peer, who has not been long dead, ufed to tell a pleasant ftory of a French gentleman that vifited him early one morning at Paris, and after great profeffions of respect, let him know that he had it in his power to oblige him; which, in fhort, amounted to this, that he believed he could tell his Lordship the perfon's name who juftled him as he came out from the opera; but before he would proceed, he begged his Lordship that he would not deny him the honour of making him his fecond. The English Lord, to avoid being drawn into a very foolish affair, told him that he was under engagements for his two next duels to a couple of particular friends. Upon which the gentleman immediately withdrew, hoping his Lordship would not take it ill if he meddled no further in an affair from whence he himself was to receive no advantage.

The beating down this false notion of honour, in fo vain and lively a people as thofe of France, is defervedly looked upon as one of the most glorious parts of their prefent king's reign. It is pity but the punishment of thefe mifchievous notions fhould have in it fome particular circumstances of shame and infamy; that those who are flaves to them may fee, that instead of advancing their reputations, they lead them to ignominy and difhonour.

Death is not fufficient to deter men who make it their glory to defpife it; but if every one that fought a duel were to stand in the pillory, it would quickly leffen the number of thefe imaginary men of honour, and put an end to so absurd a practice.

When honour is a fupport to virtuous principles, and runs parallel with the laws of God and our country, it cannot be too much cherished and encouraged but when the dictates of honour are contrary to thofe of religion and equity, they are the greatest depravations of human nature, by giving wrong ambitions and falfe ideas of what is good and laudable; and should therefore be exploded by all governments, and driven cut as the bane and plague of human fociety. L

An

and enjoyment, excluding all parts which were not pleafant to him, will find himfelf very young, if not in his infancy. Sicknefs, ill-humour, and idlenefs, will have robbed him of a great share of that fpace we ordinarily call our life. It is therefore the duty of every man that would be true to himself, to obtain, if poffible, a difpofition to be pleafed, and place himfelf in a conftant aptitude for the fatisfactions of his being. Inftead of this, you hardly fee a man who is not uneafy in proportion to his advancement in the arts of life. affected delicacy is the common improvement we meet with in thofe who pretend to be refined above others they do not aim at true pleafures themselves, but turn their thoughts upon obferving the falfe pleasures of other men. Such people are valetudinarians in fociety, and they fhould no more come into company than a fick man fhould come into the air: if a man is too weak to bear what is a refreshment to men in health, he muft ftill keep his chamber. When any one in Sir Roger's company complains he is out of order, he immediately calls for fome poffet-drink for him; for which reafon that fort of people who are ever bewailing their conftitution in other places, are the chearfulleft imaginable when he is prefent.

It is a wonderful thing that fo many, and they not reckoned abfurd, fhall entertain those with whom they converse by giving them the history of their pains and aches; and imagine fuch nar rations their quota of the converfation. This is of all others the meaneft help to difcourfe, and a man must not think at all, or think himself very infignificant, when he finds an account of his head-ach anfwered by another asking what news in the last mail? Mutual good-humour is a dress we ought to appear in wherever we meet, and we fhould make no mention of what concerns ourfelves, without it be of matters wherein our friends ought to rejoice; but indeed there are crowds of people who put themselves in no method of pleafing themselves or others; fuch are thofe whom we ufually call indolent perfons. Indolence is, methinks, an intermediate ftate between pleafure and pain, and very much unbecoming any part of our life after we are out of the nurfe's arms. Such an averfion to labour creates a conftant weariness, and one would think should make existence itfelf a burden. The indolent man defcends from the dignity of his nature, and makes that being which was rational, merely vegetative; his life confifts only in the mere increase and decay of a body, which, with relation to the reft of the world, might as well have been uninformed, as the habitation of a reasonable mind.

Of this kind is the life of that extraordinary couple, Harry Terfett and his lady. Harry was in the days of his celibacy one of thofe pert crea. tures who have much vivacity and little underftanding; Mrs. Rebecca Quickly, whom he married, had all that the fire of youth and a lively manner could do towards making an agreeable woman. Thefe two people of feeming merit fell into each others arms; and paffion being fated, and no reafon or good fenfe in either to fucceed it, their life is now at a stand; their meals are infipid, and their time tedious; their fortune has Hor. Sat. 5. 1. 1. V. 44. duced them below diversion, When we talk of placed them above care, and their lofs of tafte re

N° 100. MONDAY, JUNE 25.
Nil ego contulerim jucundo fanus amico.
The greatest bleffing is a pleasant friend.

thefe as inftances of inexiftence, we do not mean, that in order to live it is neceffary we should always be in jovial crews, or crowned with chaplets of rofes, as the merry fellows among the an

cients are defcribed; but it is intended by confidering thefe contraries to pleafure, indolence, and too much delicacy, to fhew that it is prue dence to preferve a difpofition in ourselves to receive a certain delight in all we hear and fee. This portable quality of good-humour fcafons all the parts and occurrences we meet with, in fuch a manner, that there are no moments loft; but they all pafs with fo much fatisfaction, that the heaviest of loads, when it is a load, that of time, is never felt by us. Varilas has this quality to the highest perfection, and communicates it wherever he appears: the fad, the merry, the fevere, the melancholy, fhew a new chearfulnefs when he comes amongst them. At the fame time no one can repeat any thing that Varilas has ever faid that deferves repetition; but the man has that innate goodnefs of temper, that he is welcome to every body, because every man thinks he is fo to him. He does not feem to contribute any thing to the mirth of the company; and yet upon reflection you find it all happened by his being there. I thought it was whimfically faid of a gentleman, that if Varilas had wit, it would be the best wit in the world. It is certain, when a well-corrected lively imagination and goodbreeding are added to a fweet difpofition, they qualify it to be one of the greatest bleffings, as well as pleafures of life.

Men would come into company with ten times the pleafure they do, if they were fure of hearing nothing which fhould fhock them, as well as expected what would please them. When we know every perfon that is fpoken of is reprefented by one who has no ill-will, and every thing that is mentioned defcribed by one that is apt to fee it in the best light, the entertainment must be delicate, because the cook has nothing brought to his hand but what is the most excellent in its kind. Beautiful pictures are the entertainments of pure minds and deformities of the corrupted. It is a degree towards the life of angels, when we enjoy converfation wherein there is nothing prefented but in its excellence; and a degree towards that of dæmons, wherein nothing is fhewn but in its degeneracy.

tiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have paffed through this fiery perfecution. There is kind of concomitant to greatnefs, as fatires and no defence against reproach but obfcurity; it is a invectives were an effential part of a Roman triumph.

If men of eminence are expofed to cenfure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewife receive praifes which they do not deferve. In a word, the man in a high poft is never regarded with an indifferent eye, but always confidered as a friend or an enemy. For this reafon perfons in great ftations have feldom their true characters drawn Their until feveral years after their deaths. perfonal friendships and enmities muft ceafe, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have juftice done them. When writers have the leaft opportunities of knowing the truth, they are in the beft difpofition to tell it.

It is therefore the privilege of pofterity to adjust the characters of illuftrious perfons, and to fet matters right between those antagonists, who by their rivalry for greatnefs divided a We can now allow whole age into factions. Cæfar to be a great man, without derogating from Pompey; and celebrate the virtues of Cato, without detracting from thofe of Cæfar. Every one that has been long dead has a due proportion of praife allotted him, in which whilft he lived, his friends were too profufe and his enemies too fparing.

According to Sir Ifaac Newton's calculations, the laft comet that made its appearance in 1680, imbibed fo much heat by its approaches to the fun, that it would have been two thousand times hotter than red hot iron, had it been a globe of that metal; and that fuppofing it as big as the earth, and at the fame diftance from the fun, it would be fifty thousand years in cooling, before it recovered its natural temper. In the like manner, if an Englishman confiders the great ferment into which our political world is thrown at prefent, and how intenfely it is heated in all its parts, he cannot fuppofe it will cool again in lefs than three hundred years. In fuch a trac of time it is poffible that the heats of the prefent age may be extinguished, and our feveral claffes of great men reprefented under their proper characters. Some eminent hiftorian may then probably arife that will not write "recentibus "odiis," as Tacitus expreffes it, with the pasfions and prejudices of a cotemporary author, but make an impartial diftribution of fame HOR, Ep. 1. 1. 2. V. 5, among the great men of the prefent age.

N° 101. TUESDAY, JUNE 26.

Romulus, & Liber pater, & cum Caftore Pollux,
Poft ingentia facta, deorum in templa recepti ;
Dum terras bominumque colunt genus, afpera bella
Componunt, agros affignant oppida condunt;
Ploravere fuis non refpondere favorem
Speratum meritis:

IMITATE D.

Edward and Henry, now the boast of fame,
And virtuous Alfred, a more facred name,
After a life of gen'rous toils endur'd,
The Gaul fubdu'd, or property fecur'd,
Ambition humbled, mighty cities florm'd,
Or laws cftablish'd, and the world reform'd;
Clos'd their long glories with a figh, to find
Th' unwilling gratitude of bafe mankind,

CE

T

POFE.

Enfure, fays a late ingenious author, "is "the tax a man pavs to the public for be"ing eminent." It is a folly for an eminent man to think of efcaping it, and a weakness to be af feated with it, All the illuftrious perfons of an

cannot forbear entertaining myfelf very of ten with the idea of fuch an imaginary hiftorian defcribing the reign of Anne the First, and introducing it with a preface to his reader, that he is now entering upon the moft fhining part of the English ftory. The great rivals in fame will be then diftinguished according to their respective merits, and fhine in their proper points of light. Such an one, fays the hiftorian, though variouly reprefented by the writers of his own age, appears to have been a man of more than ordinary abilities, great application, and uncommon integrity: nor was fuch an one, though of an oppofite party and intereft, inferior to him in any of thefe refpects. The feveral antagonists who now endeavour to depre

ciate one another, and are celebrated or traduced by different parties, will then have the fame body No 102. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27. of admirers, and appear illuftrious in the opinion Lufus animo debent aliquando dari, of the whole British nation. The deferving man, Ad cogitandum melior ut redeat fibi.

who can now recommend himself to the esteem of

but half his countrymen, will then receive the approbations and applaufes of a whole age.

Among the feveral perfons that flourish in this glorious reign, there is no question but such a future hiftorian, as the perfon of whom I am speaking, will make mention of the men of genius and learning, who have now any figure in the British nation. For my own part, I often flatter mayfelf with the honourable mention which will then be made of me; and have drawn up a paragraph in my own imagination, that I fancy will not be altogether unlike what will be found in fome page or other of this imaginary hiftorian.

PHEDR. Fab, 14. 1. 3. The mind ought fometimes to be diverted, that it may return the better to thinking.

I

Do not know whether to call the following letter a fatire upon coquettes, or a reprefentation of their feveral fantastical accomplishments, or what other title to give it; but as it is I fhall communicate it to the Public. It will fufficiently explain its own intentions, fo that I fhall give it my reader at length without either preface or poftfcript.

• Mr. Spectator,

It was under this reign, fays he, that the Spec W

tator published thofe little diurnal effays which are ftill extant. We know very little of the name or person of this author, except only that he was a man of a very short face, extremely addicted to filence, and fo great a lover of knowledge that he made a voyage to Grand Cairo for no other reafon, but to take the measure of a Pyramid. His chief friend was one Sir Roger de Coverley, a whimfical country Knight, and a Templar whofe name he has not tranfmitted to us. He lived as a lodger at the house of a widow-woman, and was a great humourift in all parts of his life. This is all we can affirm with any certainty of his perfon and character. As for his fpeculations, notwithstanding the feveral obfolete words and obfcure phrafes of the age in which he lived, we still understand enough of them to fee the diverfions and characters of the English nation in his time: not but that we are to make allowance for the mirth and humour of the author, who has doubtlefs ftrained many representations of things beyond the truth. For if we interpret his words in their literal meaning, we must fuppofe that women of the first quality used to pafs away whole mornings at a puppet-fhow that they attefted their principles by their patches: that an audience would fit out an evening to hear a dramatical performance written in a language which they did not underftand: that chairs and flower-pots were introduced as actors upon the British ftage; that a promifcuous affembly of men and women were allowed to meet at midnight in mafques within the verge of the court: with many improbabilities of the like nature. We must therefore, in thefe and the like cafes, fuppofe that these remote hints and allufions aimed at fome certain follies which were then in vogue, and which at prefent we have not any notion of. We may guefs by feveral paffages in the Speculations, that there were writers who endeavoured to detract from the works of this author; but as nothing of this nature is come down to us, we cannot guefs at any objections that could be made to his paper. If we confider his ftile with that indulgence which we must fhew to old English writers, or if we look into the variety of his fubjects, with those feveral critical differtations, moral reflections.

OMEN are armed with fans as men with fwords, and fometimes do more execution with them. To the end therefore 'that ladies may be entire mistresses of the weapons which they bear, I have ere&ed an acade" my for the training up of young women in the "exercife of the fan," according to the most 'fashionable airs and motions that are now 'practifed at court. The ladies who "carry" fans under me are drawn up twice a day in my great hall, where they are inftructed in the ufe of their arms, and exercised by the following words of command,

Handle your fans,
Unfurl your fans,
Discharge your fans,

Ground your fans,
Recover your fans,

Flutter your fans.

By the right obfervation of these few plain ' words of command, a woman of a tolerable 'genius, who will apply herself diligently to her ' exercise for the fpace of but one half-year, fhal be able to give her fan all the graces that can 'poffibly enter into that little modifh machine.

But to the end that my readers may form to themselves a right notion of this exercife, I beg leave to explain it to them in all its parts. When my female regiment is drawn up in array, with every one her weapon in her hand, upon my giv ing the word "to handle their fans," each of them shakes her fan at me with a fmile, then 'gives her right-hand woman a tap upon the 'fhoulder, then preffes her lips with the extremity of her fan, then lets her arms fall in an 'eafy motion and ftands in a readiness to receive "the next word of command. All this is done with a clofe fan, and is generally learned in the first week.

The next motion is that of "unfurling the 'fan," in which are comprehended feveral little flirts and vibrations, as alfo gradual and deliberate openings, with many voluntary fallings afunder in the fan itfelf, that are feldom learned ' under a month's practice. This part of the exercife pleases the fpectators more than any other as it difcovers on a fudden an infinite number of cupids, garlands, altars, birds, beafts, rainbows, and the like agreeable figures, that dif play themfelves to view, whilft every one in the regiment holds a picture in her hand.

Upon my giving the word to “ difcharge their fans," they give one general crack that may be heard