то THE RIGHT HONOURALBĘ CHARLES EARL OF SUNDERLAND, MY LORD, VER VERY many favours and civilities (received from you in a private capacity) which I have no other way to acknowledge, will, I hope, excufe this prefumption; but the juftice I, as a Spectator, owe your character, places me above the want of an excufe. Candor and opennefs of heart, which shine in all your words and actions, exact the highest esteem from all who have the honour to know you; and a winning condefcenfion to all fubordinate to you, made business a pleasure to those who executed it under you, at the fame time that it heightened her Majefty's favour to all who had the happiness of having it conveyed through your hands. A Secretary of State, in the interefts of mankind, joined with that of his fellow-fubjects, accomplished with a great facility and elegance in all the modern as well as ancient languages, was a happy and proper member of a ministry, by whose services your fovereign and country are in fo high and flourishing a condition, as makes all other princes and a 2 poten potentates powerful or inconfiderable in Europe, as they are friends or enemies to Great-Britain. The importance of thofe great events which happened during that administration, in which your Lordship bore fo important a charge, will be acknowledged as long as time fhall endure; I fhall not therefore attempt to rehearse those illustrious paffages, but give this application a more private and particular turn, in defiring your Lordship would continue your favour and patronage to me, as you are a gentleman of the nioft polite literature, and perfectly accomplished in the knowledge of books and men, which makes it neceffary to befeech your indulgence to the following leaves, and the author of them: who is, with the greatest truth and refpect, MY LORD, Your Lordship's obliged, obedient, and humble Servant, THE SPECTATOR. THE SPECTATOR. VOL. VI. No. CCCXCV. TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1712. Quod nunc ratio eft, impetus ante fuit. OVID. 'Tis reafon now, 'twas appetite before. 'BEWARE of the Ides of March,' faid the Roman Augur to Julius Cæfar: Beware of the month of May, fays the British Spectator to his fair country women. The caution of the firft was unhappily neglected; and Cæfar's confidence coft him his life. I am apt to flatter myself that my pretty readers had much more regard to the advice I gave them, fince I have yet received very few accounts of any notorious trips made in the last month. But though I hope for the best, I fhall not pronounce too pofitively on this point, till I have feen forty weeks wel over; at which period of time, a my good friend Sir Roger has often told me, he has more business as a juftice of peace, among the diffolute young people in the country, han at any other feafon of the year. Neither muft I forget a letter which I received near a fortnight fince from a lady, who, it feems, could hold out no longer; telling me fhe looked upon the month as then out; for that she had all along reckoned by the new ftile. On the other hand, I have great reafon to believe, from feveral angry letters which have been fent to me by difappointed lovers, that my advice has been of very fignal fervice to the fair fex, who, according to the old proverb, were' Forewarned, forearmed.' VOL. VI. B One One of thefe gentlemen tells me, that he would have given me an hundred pounds rather than I fhould have publifhed that paper; for that his mistrefs, who had prorifed to explain herfelf to him about the beginning of May, upon reading that difcourfe, told him that the would give him her anfwer in June.' Thyrfis acquaints me, that when he defired Sylvia to take a walk in the fields, fhe told him, The Spectator had forbidden her.' Another of my correfpondents, who writes himself Mat Meager, comp ains, that whereas he conftantly used to breakfast with his miftrefs upon chocolate: going to wait upon her the first of May he found his ufual treat very much changed for the worfe, and has been forced to feed ever fince upon green tea. As I have begun this critical feafon with a caveat to the ladies, I fhall conclude it with a congratulation; and do moft heartily with them joy of their happy deliver ance. They may now reflect with pleasure on the dangers they have efcaped, and look back with as much fatisfaction on the perils that threatened them, as their greatgrandmothers did formerly on the burning ploughfhares, after having paffed through the ordeal trial. The inftigations of the fpring are now abated. The nightingale gives over her love-laboured fong,' as Milton phrafes it, the bloffoms are fallen, and the beds of flowers fwept away by the fcythe of the mower. I fhall now allow my fair readers to return to their romances and chocolate, provided they make ufe of them with moderation, till about the middle of the month, when the fun fhall have made fome progrefs in the Crab. Nothing is more dangerous than too much confidence and fecurity. The Trojans, who ftood upon their guard all the while the Grecians lay before their city, when they fancied the fiege was raifed, and the danger paft, were the very next night burnt in their beds. I muft alfo obferve, that as in fome climates there is a perpetual Spring, fo in fome female conftitutions there is a perpetual May; thefe are a kind of valetudinarians |