: 289 intereft and that without the concurrence of the former, the latter are but impofitions upon ourselves and others. The force thefe delufive words have is not feen in the transactions of the bufy world only, but also have their tyranny over the Fair Sex. Were you to ask the unhappy Lais, what pangs of reflection, preferring the confideration of her honour to her confcience has given her? She could tell you, that it has forced her to drink up half a gallon this winter of Tom Daffapas's potions: That the till pines away for fear of being a mother; and knows not, but the moment fhe is fuch, fhe fhall be a murderefs: But if Confcience had as ftrong a force upon the mind as Honour, the first step to her unhappy condition had never been made; fhe had ftill been innocent, as fhe is beautiful. Were men fo enlightened and studious of their own good, as to act by the dictates of their reafon and reflection, and not the opinion of others, Confcience would be the steady ruler of human life; and the words, Truth, Law, Reason, Equity, and Religion, would be but fynonymous terms for that only Guide which makes us pafs our days in our own favour and approbation. N° 49. Tuesday, August 2, 1709. Quicquid agunt homines-noftri farrago libelli. Juv. Sat. 1. v. 84, 85. Whatever good is done, whatever ill By human kind, fhall this collection fill. White's Chocolate-house, August 1. HE impofition of honeft names and words upon made to regular à fion among us, that we are apt to fit down with our errors, well enough fatisfied with the methods we are VOL. I. fallen fallen into, without attempting to deliver ourfelves from the tyranny under which we are reduced by fuch innovations. Of all the laudable motives of human life, none have suffered fo much in this kind, as Love; under which reverend name a brutal defire called Luft is frequently concealed and admitted; though they differ as much as a matron from a proftitute, or a companion from a buffoon. Philander the other day was bewailing this misfortune with much indignation, and upbraided me for having fome time fince quoted thofe excellent lines of the fatirift: To an exact perfection they have brought How cold you, faid he, leave fuch a hint fo coldly? How could Afpafia and Sempronia enter into your imaginations at the fame time, and you never declare to us, the different reception you gave them? The figures which the antient Mythologifts and poets put upon Love and Luft in their writings, are very inftructive. Love is a beauteous blind child, adorned with a quiver and a bow, which he plays with, and fhoots around him, without defign or direction; to intimate to us, that the perfon beloved has no intention to give us the anxieties we meet with, but that the beauties of a worthy object are like the charms of a lovely infant; they cannot but attract your concern and fondness, though the child fo regarded is as infenfible of the value you put upon it, as it is that it deferves your benevolence. On the other fide, the Sages figured, Luft in the form of a Satyr; of fhape, part human, part beftial; to fignify that the followers of it proftitute the reafon of a man to purfue the appetites of a beaft. This Satyr is made to haunt the paths and coverts of the Wood-Nymphs and Shepherdeffes, to lurk on the banks of rivulets, and watch the purling ftreams, as the resorts of retired Virgins; to thew, that lawless defire tends chiefly to prey upon innocence, and has fomething fo unnatural in it, that it hates its own make, and fhuns the object it loved, as foon as it has made it like itself. Love therefore is a hild that complains and bewails its inability to help 6 itself, itself, and weeps for affiftance, without an immediate reflection or knowledge of the food it wants: Luft, a watchful thief, which feizes its prey, and lays fnares for its own relief; and its principal object being innocence, it never robs, but it murders at the fame time. From this idea of a Cupid and a Satyr, we may settle our notions of thefe different defires, and accordingly rank their followers. Afpafia must therefore be allowed to be the first of the beauteous order of Love, whose unaffected freedom, and conscious innocence, give her the attendance of the Graces in her actions. That awful distance which we bear toward her in all our thoughts of her, and that chearful familiarity with which we approach her, are certain inftances of her being the trueft object of love of any of her sex. In this accomplished lady, love is the conftant effect, because it is never the defign. Yet, though her mien carries much more invitation than command, to behold her is an immediate check to loose behaviour; and to love her is a liberal education; for, it being the nature of all love to create an imitation of the beloved perfon in the lover, a regard for Afpafia naturally produces a decency of manners, and good conduct of life, in her admirers. If therefore the giggling Leucippe could but fee her train of fops affembled, and Afpafia move by them,, fhe would be mortified at the veneration with which The is beheld, even by Leucippe's own unthinking equipage, whofe paffions have long taken leave of their understandings. As charity is efteemed a conjunction of the good qua lities neceffary to a virtuous man, fo Love is the happy compofition of all the accomplishments that make a fine Gentleman. The motive of a man's life is feen in all his actions; and fuch as have the beauteous Boy for their infpirer have a fimplicity of behaviour, and a certain evenness of defire, which burns like the lamp of life in their bofoms; while they, who are inftigated by. the Satyr, are ever tortured by jealoufies of the object of their wishes; often defire what they fcorn, and as often consciously and knowingly embrace where they are mutually indifferent. Florio, 1 Florio, the generous husband, and Limberham, the kind keeper, are noted examples of the different effects which thefe defires produce in the mind. Amanda, who is the wife of Florio, lives in the continual enjoyment of new inftances of her husband's friendship, and fees it the end of all his ambition to make her life one feries of pleafure and fatisfaction; and Amanda's relish of the goods of life is all that makes them pleafing to Florio: they behave themselves to each other, when prefent, with a certain apparent benevolence, which transports above rapture; and they think of each other in abfence with a confidence unknown to the higheft friendfhip: Their fatisfactions are doubled, their forrows leffened by participation. On the other hand, Corinna, who is the mistress of Limberham, lives in conftant torment: Her equipage is an old woman, who was what Corinna is now; and an antiquated footman, who was pimp to Limberham's father; and a chambermaid, who is Limberham's wench by fits, out of a principle of politics to make her jealous and watchful of Corinna. Under this guard, and in this converfation, Corinna lives in state: The furniture of her habitation, and her own gorgeous dress, make her the envy of all the ftrolling ladies in the town; but Corinna knows, fhe herfelf is but part of Limberbam's houfhold-ftuff, and is as capable of being difpofed of elsewhere, as any other moveable. But while her keeper is perfuaded by his fpies, that no enemy has been within his doors fince his laft vifit, no Perfian Prince was ever fo magnificently bountiful: A kind look or falling tear is worth a piece of brocade, a figh is a jewel, and a fmile is a cupboard of plate. All this is fhared between Corinna and her guard in his abfence. this great œconomy and industry does the unhappy Limberbam purchase the conftant tortures of jealoufy, the favour of spending his eftate, and the opportunity of enriching one by whom he knows he is hated and despised. Thefe are the ordinary and common evils which attend keepers; and Corinna is a wench but of common fize of wickedness, were you to know what paffes under the roof where the fair Meffalina reigns with her humble adorer With Megalina Meffalina is the profeffed mistress of mankind; fhe has left the bed of her husband and her beauteous off fpring to give a loofe to want of fhame and fulness of defire. Wretched Nocturnus, her feeble keeper! How the poor creature fribbles in his gait, and fkuttles from place to place to difpatch his neceffary affairs in painful daylight, that he may return to the conftant twilight preferved it that fcene of wantonnefs, Meffalina's bedchamber! How does he, while he is abfent from thence, confider in his imagination the breadth of his porter's fhoulders, the fpruce night-cap of his valet, the ready attendance of his butler! any of all whom he knows she admits, and profeffes to approve of. This, alas! is the gallantry, this the freedom of our fine gentlemen; for this they preferve their liberty, and keep clear of that bugbear, marriage. But he does not understand either vice or virtue, who will not allow, that life without the rules of morality is a wayward uneafy Being. with fnatches only of pleafure; but under the regulation of virtue, a reafonable and uniform habit of enjoyment. I have feen, in a play of old Haywood's, a fpeech at the end of an Act, which touched this point with much fpirit. He makes a married man in the play, upon fome endearing occafion, look at his fpoufe with an air of fondness, and fall in the following reflection on his condition. Oh marriage! happiest, eafieft, fafeft ftate; Thus to converfe with, thus to gaze at A faithful, beauteous friend? Blush not, my Fair One, that thy Love applauds thee, Nor be it painful to my wedded wife, That my full heart o'erflows in praise of thee. |