which is fomething a-kin to this, when, in order to excuse himself to his mistress, for an invective which he had written against her, and to account for that unreasonable fury with which the heart of man is often tranfported, he tells us, that, when Prometheus made his man of clay, in the kneading up of the heart, he feasoned it with fome furious particles of the lion. But upon turning this plan to and fro in my thoughts, I obferved fo many unaccountable humours in man, that I did not know out of what animals to fetch them. Male fouls are diverfified with so many characters, that the world has not variety of materials fufficient to furnish out their different tempers and inclinations. The creation, with all its animals and elements, would not be large enough to fupply their feveral extravagan cies. Inftead therefore of pursuing the thought of Simonides, I fhall obferve, that as he has expofed the vicious part of women from the doctrine of præexistence, fome of the ancient philofophers have, in a manner, fatirized the vicious part of the human fpecies in general, from a notion of the foul's poft-existence, if I may fo call it; and that as Simonides describes brutes entering into the compofition of women, others have reprefented human fouls as entering into brutes. This is commonly termed the doctrine of tranfmigration, which supposes that human fouls, upon their leaving the body, become the fouls of fuch kinds of brutes they moft refemble in their manners; or to give an account of it as Mr. Dryden has defcribed it in his tranflation of Pythagoras his fpeech in the fifteenth book of Ovid, where that philofopher diffuades his hearers from eating flesh : Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies, Or 1 Or hunts without till ready limbs it find, The foul is ftill the fame, the figure only loft. To please the taste of glutton-appetite; ; Plato in the vifion of Erus the Armenian, which I may poffibly make the fubject of a future fpeculation, records fome beautiful tranfmigrations; as that the foul of Orpheus, who was mufical, melancholy, and a woman-hater, entered into a fwan the foul of Ajax, which was all wrath and fiercenefs, into a lion; the foul of Agamemnon, that was rapacious and imperial, into an eagle; and the foul of Therfites, who was a mimick and a buffoon, into a monkey. Mr. Cangreve, in a prologue to one of his comedies, has touched upon this doctrine with great hu mour.. Thus Ariftotle's foul of old that was; May now be damn'd to animate an ass; I fhall fill up this paper with fome letters, which my last Tuesday's fpeculation has produced.. My following correfpondents will fhew, what I there obferved, that the fpeculation of that day affects only the lower part of the fex. From my houfe in the Strand, October, 30, 1711.. Mr. SPECTATOR, UPON reading your Tuesday's paper, I find by feveral fymptoms in my conftitution that I am a bee. My fhop, or, if you pleafe to call it fo, fo, my cell, is in that great hive of famales which goes by the name of The New-Exchange; where I am daily employed in gathering together a lit ⚫tle stock of gain from the finest flowers about the town, I mean the Ladies and the Beaus. I have • a numerons fwarm of children, to whom I give ⚫ the best education I am able: But, Sir, it is my • misfortune to be married to a drone, who lives ⚫ upon what I get, without bringing any thing into the common ftock. Now, Sir, as on the one hand I take care not to behave myfelf towards him like a wafp, fo likewife I would not have him look upon me as an humble-bee; for which • reafon I do all I can to put him upon laying up provifions for a bad day, and frequently reprefent to him the fatal effects, his floth and negligence may bring upon us in our old age. I muft beg, that you will join with me in your good advice upon this occafion, and you will for ever oblige, Your humble fervant, SIR, MELISSA Picadilly, October 31, 1711. I AM joined in wedlock for my fins to one of thofe fillies who are defcribed in the old poet with that hard name you gave us the other day. 'She has a flowing mane, and a skin as foft as filk: But, Sir, the paffes half her life at her glafs, and almost ruins me in ribbons. For my own part, I am a plain handicraft man, and in danger of breaking by her laziness and expensive'nefs. Pray, mafter, tell me in your next paper, ' whether I may not expect of her fo much drudgery as to take care of her family, and to curry her hide in cafe of refufal. Your loving friend, 'BARNABY Brittle.* + Mr. " Mr. SPECTATOR, Cheapfide, October 30. I AM mightily pleafed with the humour of the cat, be fo kind as to enlarge upon that fub 'ject. • P. S. You must know I am married to a Gri • malkin.' SIR, Wapping, October 31, 1711. EVER fince your Spectator of Tuesday laft came into our family, my hufband is pleased to call me his Oceana, because the foolish old poet that you have tranflated fays, That the fouls of fome women are made of fea-water. This, it feems, has encouraged my fauce-box to be witty upon me. When I am angry, he cries pr'ythee my dear be calm; when I chide one of my fervants, pr'ythee child do not blufter. He had the impu⚫dence about an hour ago, to tell me, That he was a fea-faring man, and muft expect to divide his life between form and fun-fhine. When I beftir myfelf with any spirit in my family, it is high fea in his houfe; and when I fit ftill without doing any thing, his affairs forfooth are wind-bound. 'When I ask him whether it rains, he makes anfwer it is no matter, fo that it be fair weather ' within doors. In fhort, Sir, I cannot fpeak my mind freely to him, but I either fwell or rage, or 'do fomething that is not fit for a civil woman to hear. Pray, Mr. SPECTATOR, fince you are fo fharp upon other women, let us know what materials your wife is made of, if you have one. I fuppofe you would make us a parcel of poorfpirited tame infipid creatures; but, Sir, I would have you to know, we have as good paffions in us as yourself, and that a woman was never defigned to be a milk-fop. T · MARTHA TEMPEST.' FRIDAY, No 212. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2. Eripe turpi Colla jugo, liber, liber fum, dic age HOR. Sat. vii. 1. 2. ver. 92. -Loose thy neck from this ignoble chain, And boldly fay thou'rt free. :I Mr. SPECTATOR, CREECH. dear wife, but I think NEVER look upon my of the happinefs Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY enjoys, in having fuch a friend as you to expose in proper colours the cruelty and perverfenefs of his miftrefs. I have very often wifhed you vifited in our family, and were acquainted with my spouse; the would afford you for fome months at 'least matter enough for one Spectator a week. • Since we are not fo happy as to be of your acquaintance, give me leave to reprefent to you our prefent circumstances as well as I can in writing. You are to know then that I am not of a very dif ⚫ferent conftitution from Nathaniel Henrooft, whom 'you have lately recorded in your fpeculations; and have a wife who makes a more tyrannical ufe of the knowledge of my easy temper than that Lady ever pretended to. We had not been a month married, when the found in me a certain pain to give offence, and an indolence that made me bear little, inconveniencies rather than difpute about them. From this obfervation it foon came to that pafs, that if I offered to go abroad, fhe would get between me and the door, • kifs me, and fay the would not part with me; and then down again I fat. In a day or two after this first pleasant step towards confining me, the declared to me, that I was all the world to her, and he thought fhe ought to be all the world to 'me. |