happened to my 'prentice, that had I read your paper then, I fhould have taken your method to have fecured a villain. Go on and profper. Your moft obliged humble fervant.' • Mr. SPECTATOR, Without 7Ithout rallery, I defire you to infert this word for word in your next, as you va lue a Lover's prayers. You fee it is an hue and cry after a ftray heart (with the marks and blemishes under-written) which whoever fhall bring to you, fhall receive fatisfaction. Let me beg · of you not to fail, as you remember the paffion you had for her to whom you lately ended a paper. Noble, generous, great and good, Whoe'er Shall wear it, it will fmart her, 6666666000666666660360666666603 No 299. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30. Γυναικὸς ἐδὲ χρῆμ ̓ ἀνὴρ ληίζεται Ἐσθλῆς ἄμεινον ἐδὲ ῥίγιον κακῆς. * T SIMONIDES. Of earthly goods the best, is a good wife; THERE are no authors I am more pleased with, than thofe who fhew human nature in a va riety of views, and defcribe the feveral ages of the world world in their different manners. A reader can❤ not be more rationally entertained, than by comparing the virtues and vices of his own times with thofe which prevailed in the times of his forefathers; and drawing a parallel in his mind between his own private character, and that of other perfons, whether of his own age, or of the ages that went before him. The contemplation of mankind under thefe changeable colours, is apt to fhame us out of any particular vice, or animate us to any particular virtue; to make us pleafed or displeased with ourfelves in the most proper points, to clear our minds of prejudice and prepoffeffion, and rectify that narrownefs of temper which inclines us to think amifs of those who differ from ourselves. - If we look into the manners of the most remote ages of the world, we difcover human nature in her fimplicity; and the more we come downward towards our own times, may obferve her hiding herself in artifices and refinements, polifhed infenfibly out of her original plainnefs, and at length intirely loft 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 facred and profane, and you would think you were reading the hiftory of another fpecies. Among the writers of antiquity, there are none who inftruct us more openly in the manners of their respective times in which they lived, than those who have employed themfelves in fatire, under what drefs foever it may appear; as there are no other authors whofe province it is to enter fo directly into the ways of men, and fet their mifcarriages in fo ftrong a light. Simonides, a poet famous in his generation, is, I think, author of the oldeft fatire that is now extant; and, as fome fay, of the firft that was ever written. This poet flourished about four hundred years in my years after the fiege of Troy; and fhews, by his way of writing, the fimplicity, or rather coarseness, of the age in which he lived. I have taken notice, hundred and fixty-firft fpeculation, that the rule of obferving what the French call the Bienfeance in an allufion, has been found out of later years; and that the ancients, provided there was a likeness in their fimilitudes, did not much trouble themfelves about the decency of the comparison. The fatire or iambicks of Simonides, with which I fhall entertain my readers in the prefent paper, are a remarkable inftance of what I formerly advanced. The fubject of this fatire is woman. He defcribes the sex in their several characters, which he derives to them from a fanciful fuppofition raifed upon the doctrine of pre-existence. He tells us, That the gods formed the fouls of women out of thofe feeds. and principles which compofe feveral kinds of animals and elements; and that their good or bad difpofitions arife in them according as fuch and fuch feeds and principles predominate in their conftititutions. I have tranflated the author very faithfully, and if not word for word (which our language would not bear) at leaft fo as to comprehend every one of his fentiments, without adding any thing of my own. I have already apologized for this author's want of delicacy, and muft further premife, That the following fatire affects only fome of the lower part of the fex, and not those who have been refined by a polite education, which was not fo common in the age of this poet. In the beginning God made the fouls of womankind out of different materials, and in a feparate ftate from their bodies. The fouls of one kind of women were formed out of thofe ingredients which compofe a wine. A woman of this make is a flut in her house, and a glutton at her table. She is uncleanly in her perfon, a flattern in her dress, and her family is no better than a dung hill A fecond fort of female foul was formed out of the fame materials that enter into the compofition of a fox. Such an one is what we call a notable difcerning woman, who has an infight into every thing, whether it be good or bad. In this fpecies of females there are fome virtuous and fome vicious. A third kind of women were made up of canine particles. Thefe 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 perpetual clamour. The fourth kind of women were made out of the earth. These are your fluggards, 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 fpecies of females were made out of the fea. Thefe are women of variable uneven tempers, fometimes all form and tempeft, fometimes all calm and funfbine. The ftranger who fees one of thefe in her fmiles and fmoothness, would cry her up for a miracle of good humour; but on a fudden her looks and her words are changed, she is nothing but fury and outrage, noife and hurricane. The fixth fpecies were made up of the ingredients which compofe an ass, or a beast of burden. These are naturally exceeding flothful, but, upon the hufband'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 feldom refufe a male companion." The cat furnished materials for a feventh Species of women, who are of a melancholy, froward, unamiable nature, and fo repugnant to the offers of love, that they fly in the face of their husband when he approaches them with conjugal endearments. This fpecies of women women are likewise subject to little thefts, cheats and pilferings. The mare with flowing mane, which was never broke to any fervile toil and labour, composed an eighth fpecies of women. Thefe are they who have little regard for their hufbands, who pass away their time in dreffing, bathing, 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, unless it be a King or Prince who takes a fancy to fuch a toy. The ninth fpecies of females were taken out of the ape. These are fuch as are both ugly and ill-natured, who have nothing beautiful in themselves, and endeavour to detract from, or ridicule every thing which appears fo in others. The tenth and laft fpecies of women were made out of the bee; and happy is the man who gets fuch an one for his wife. She is altogether faultless and unblameable; her family flourishes and improves by her good management. She loves her husband, and is beloved by him. She brings him a race of beautiful and virtuous children. She diftinguishes herself among her fex. She is furrounded with graces. She never fits among the loofe tribe of women, nor paffes away her time with them in wanton difcourfes. She is full of virtue and prudence, and is the best wife that Jupiter can bestow on man. I fhall conclude thefe iambicks with the motto of this paper, which is a fragment of the fame author: A man cannot possess any thing that is better than a good woman, nor any thing that is worse than a bad one. As the poet has fhewn a great penetration in this diverfity of female characters, he has avoided the fault which Juvenal and Monfieur Boileau are guilty of, the former in his fixth, and the other in VOL. III. e his |