time, the perfon who has lent the money, has ⚫ thought a Lady under obligations to him, who 'fcarce knew his name; and wondered at her in gratitude when he has been with her, that the ⚫ has not owned the favour, though at the fame time he was too much a man of honour to put ⚫ her in mind of it. When this abandoned baggage meets with a ⚫ man who has vanity enough to give credit to re⚫lations of this nature, fhe turns him to very good account, by repeating praifes that were never uttered, and delivering meffages that were never ⚫fent. As the houfe of this (hameless creature is frequented by feveral foreigners, I have heard of • another artifice, out of which the often raises money. The foreigner fighs after fome British beauty, whom he only knows by fame: Upon ⚫ which the promifes, if he can be fecret, to pro• cure him a meeting. The ftranger, ravifhed at his good fortune, gives her a prefent, and in a little time is introduced to fome imaginary title; for you must know that this cunning purveyor has her reprefentatives upon this occafion, of • fome of the fineft Ladies in the kindom. By this means, as I am informed, it is ufual enough to meet with a German Count in foreign countries, that fhall make his boafts of favours he has received from women of the highest ranks, and the most unblemished characters. Now, Sir, what fafety is there for a woman's reputation, • when a Lady may be thus prostituted as it wère by proxy, and be reputed an unchafte woman ; as the hero in the ninth book of Dryden's Virgil is looked upon as a coward, because the phantom which appeared in his likenefs ran away from * Turnus? You may depend upon what I relate to you to be matter of fact, and the practice of more than one of thefe female pandars. If you ་ 6 ⚫ print this letter, I may give you fome farther accounts of this vicious race of women. I fhall add two other letters on different fubjects to fill up my paper. 6. Mr. SPECTATOR, Am a country clergyman, and hope you will lend me your affistance in ridiculing fome little indecencies which cannot fo properly be expofed from the pulpit. A widow Lady, who ftraggled this fummer from London into my parish for the benefit of the air, as the fays, appears every Sunday at church with many fashionable extravagancies, to the great aftonishment of my congregation. But what gives us the moft offence is her thea⚫trical manner of finging the Pfalms. She intro• ́duces about fifty Italian airs into the hundredth Pfalm, and whilft we begin All People in the old • folemn tune of our forefathers, the in a quite ⚫ different key runs divifions on the vowels, and • adorns them with the graces of Nicolini; if the meets with eke or aye, which are frequent in the metre of Hopkins and Sternhold, we are certain to hear her quavering them half a minute after as to fome fprightly airs of the opera. I am very far from being an enemy to church mufick; but fear this abufe of it may make my Parifb ridiculous, who already look on the fing· ing Pfalms as an entertainment, and not part of 6 their devotion: Befides, I am apprehenfive that the infection may fpread, for fquire Squeekum, 'who by his voice feems (if I may use the expreffion) to be cut out for an Italian finger, was last Sunday practifing the fame airs. I know the Lady's principles, and that fhe will plead the toleration, which (as fhe fancies) allows • her 6 ⚫her non-conformity in this particular; but I beg you to acquaint her, That finging the Pfalms in a different tune from the rest of the congregation, is a fort of fchifm not tolerated by that act. 'I am, SIR, Your very humble servant, • Mr. SPECTATOR; ' R. S.' IN your paper upon temperance, you prescribe to us a rule of drinking, out of Sir William Temple, in the following words; The first glass for myself, the fecond for my friends, the third for good-humour, and the fourth for mine enemies. Now, Sir, you must know, that I have read this 'your Spectator, in a club whereof I am a member; . when our prefident told us, there was certainly an error in the print, and that the word Glass 'fhould be Bottle; and therefore has ordered me " to inform you of this mistake, and to defire you. to publish the fellowing Errata: In the paper of Saturday, October 13, Col. 3, Line 11, for Glass: 'read Bottle. L ***** t No 206. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26. Quanto quifque fibi plura negaverit, A diis plura feret HOR. Od. xvi. lib. 3. ver. 2 P. They that do much themselves deny, Receive more bleffings from the sky. CREECH. THERE is a call upon mankind to value and efteem thofe who fet a moderate price upon their own merit; and felf-denial is frequently attended with unexpected bleffings, which in the end abundantly recompenfe fuch loffes as the modeft feem to fuffer fuffer in the ordinary occurrences of life. The curious tell us, a determination in our favour, or to our disadvantage, is made upon our first appearance, even before they know any thing of our characters, but from the intimations men gather from our aspect. A man, they fay, wears the picture of his mind in his countenance; and one man's eyes are fpectacles to his who looks at him to read his heart. But though that way of raifing an opinion of those we behold in publick is very fallacious, certain it is that thofe who by their words and actions take as much upon themfelves as they can but barely demand in the ftrict fcrutiny of their deferts, will find their account leffen every day. A modeft man preferves his character, as a frugal man does his fortune; if either of them live to the height of either, one will find loffes, the other errors, which he has not stock by him to make up. It were therefore a just rule, to keep your defires, your words and actions, within the regard you obferve your friends have for you; and never, if it were in a man's power, to take as much as he poffibly might either in preferment or reputation. My walks have lately been among the mercantile part of the world; and one gets phrafes naturally from thofe with whom one converfes: I fay then, he that in his air, his treatment of others, or an habitual arrogance to himfelf, gives himfelf credit. for the least article of more wit, wifdom, goodness, or valour than he can poßibly produce if he is called upon, wil find the world break in upon him, and confider him as one who has cheated them of all the esteem they had before allowed him. This brings a commiffion of bankruptcy upon him; and he that might have gone on to his life's end in a profperous way, by aiming at more than he should, is no longer proprietor of what he really had before, but his pretenfions fare as all things do which are torn instead of being divided. There There is no one living would deny Cinna the applause of an agreeable and facetious wit; or could poffibly pretend that there is not fomething inimitably unforced and diverting in his manner of delivering all his fentiments in his converfation, if he were able to conceal this strong defire of applaufe which he betrays in every fyllable he utters. But they who converfe with him, fee that all the civilities they could do to him, or the kind things they could fay to him, would fall fhort of what he expects; and therefore instead, of fhewing him the efteem they have for his merit, their reflections turn only upon that they obferve he has of it himself. If you go among the women, and behold Gloriana trip into a room with that theatrical oftentation of her charms, Mirtilla with that foft regularity in her motion, Chloe with fuch an indifferent familiarity, Corinna with fuch a fond approach, and Roxana with fuch a demand of refpect in the great gravity of her entrance; you find all the fex, who. understand themselves and act naturally, wait only for their abfence, to tell you that all these Ladies would impose themfelves upon you; and each of them carry in their behaviour a consciousness of fo much more than they fhould pretend to, that they lose what would otherwise be given them. I remember the last time I faw Macbeth, I was wonderfully taken with the fkill of the poet, in making the murderer form fears to himself from the moderation of the Prince whofe life he was going to take away. He fays of the King, He bore his faculties fo meekly; and justly inferred from thence, That all divine and human power would join to avenge his death, who had made fuch an abstinent afe of dominion. All that is in a man's power to do to advance his own pomp and glory, and forbears, is so much laid up against the day of diftrefs; and pity will always be his portion in adversity, who acted with gentleness in prosperity. The |