out. Did I not weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my foul grieved for the poor? Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. If I did defpife the caufe of my man-fervant or of my maid-fervant when they contended with me: What then fhall I do when God rifeth up? and when he vifiteth, what shall I answer him? Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? If I have with-held the foor from their defire, or have caufed the eyes of the widow to fail: Or have eaten my morfel myself alone, and the fatherless have not eaten thereof: If I have feen any perifb for want of clothing, or any poor without covering: If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my heep: If I have lift up my hand against the fatherlefs, when I faw my help in the gate; then let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. If I have rejoiced at the deftruction of him that hated me, or lift up myself when evil found him: (Neither have I fuffered my mouth to fi, by wifbing a curfe to his foul.) The Stranger did not lodge in the street; but I opened my doors to the traveller. If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewife thereof complain: If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caufed the owners thereof to lose their life; let the thistle grow inftead of wheat, and cockle inftead of barley. L MONDAY, letter. • Mr. SPECTATOR, I Aм but too good a judge of your paper of the 15th inftant, which is a mafter-piece; I mean that of jealoufy: But I think it unworthy of you to speak of that torture in the breaft of a man, and not to mention alfo the pangs of it in the • heart of a woman. You have very judiciously, and with the greatest penetration imaginable, con*fidered it as woman is the creature of whom the .. diffidence is raifed: But not a word of a man who is fo unmerciful as to move jealoufy in his wife, and not care whether fhe is fo or not. It is poffible you may not believe there are fuch ty✦rants in the world; but alas, I can tell you of a man who is ever out of humour in his wife's company, and the pleasanteft man in the world every where elfe; the greatest floven at home, • when he appears to none but his family, and moft exactly well-dreffed in all other places. Alas, Sir, it is of courfe, that to deliver one's felf wholly into a man's power without poffibility of appeal to any other jurifdiction but his own reflections, is fo little an obligation to a Gentleman, that he can be offended and fall into a rage, becaufe my heart fwells tears into my eyes when I fee him in a cloudy mood? I pretend to no fuccour, and hope for no relief but from himself; and yet, he that has fenfe and justice in every thing else, never reflects, that to come home only to fleep off an intemperance, and spend all the • time ་ time he is there as if it were a punishment, cannot but give the anguifh of a jealous mind. He always leaves his home as if he were going to 'court, and returns as if he were entering a gaol. I could add to this, that from his company and his ufual difcourfe, he does not fcruple being thought an abandoned man, as to his morals. Your own imagination will fay enough to you concerning the condition of me his wife; and I wish you would be fo good as to reprefent to him, for he is not ill-natured, and reads you much, that the moment I hear the door fhut after him, I throw myself upon my bed, and drown the child he is fo fond of with my tears, and often frighten it with my cries; that I curfe my being; that I run to my glafs all over bathed in forrows, and help the utterance of my inward anguifh by beholding the gush of my own calamities as my tears fall from my eyes. This looks like an imagined picture to tell you, but indeed this is one of my paftimes. Hitherto I have only told you the general temper of my mind, but how fhall I give you an account of the diftraction of it? Could but conceive how cruel I am one moment in e my refentment, and at the enfuing minute, when : I place him in the condition my anger would bring him to, how compaffionate; it would give: you fome notion how miferable I am, and how little I deferve it. When I remonftrate with the greatest gentleness that is poffible against unhandfome appearances, and that married perfons are under particular rules; when he is in the best 'humour to receive this, I am anfwered only, that I expofe my own reputation and fenfe if I appear jealous. I wifh, good Sir, you would take this into your ferious confideration, and admonish husbands and wives what terms they ought to keep towards each other. Your thoughts on this • important fubject will have the greatest reward, that you that which defcends on fuch as feel the forrows ⚫ of the afflicted. Give me leave to fubfcribe my• felf, Your unfortunate, humble fervant, CELINDA.' I had it in my thoughts, before I received the letter of this Lady, to confider this dreadful paffion in the mind of a woman; and the smart fhe seems to feel does not abate the inclination I had to recommend to husbands a more regular behaviour, than to give the most exquifite of torments to those who love them, nay, whofe torment would be abated if they did not love them. It is wonderful to obferve how little is made of this inexpreffible injury, and how eafily men get into a habit of being leaft agreeable where they are moft obliged to be fo. But this fubject deferves a diftinct fpeculation, and I fhall obferve, for a day or two the behaviour of two or three happy pair I am acquainted with, before I pretend to make a fyftem of conjugal morality. I defign in the first place to go a few miles out of town, and there I know where to meet one who practifes all the parts of a fine gentleman in the duty of an husband. When he was a bachelor, much business made him particularly negligent in his habit; but now there is no young lover living fo exact in the care of his perfon. One who afked why he was fo long wafhing his mouth, and fo delicate in the choice and wearing of his linen, was anfwered, because there is a woman of merit obliged to receive me kindly, and I think it incumbent upon me to make her inclination go along with her duty. If a man would give himfelf leave to think, he would not be fo unreafonable as to expect debauchery and innocence could live in commerce toge ther; or hope that fleth and blood is capable of fo ftrict ftrict an alliance, as that a fine woman muft go on to improve herself until fhe is as good and impaf-five as an angel, only to preferve a fidelity to a brute and a fatyr. The Lady who defires me for her fake to end one of my papers with the following letter, I am perfuaded, thinks fuch a perseverance very impracticable. HUSBAND, STAY more at home. I know where you vifited at feven of the clock on Thursday evening. The colonel, whom you charged me to fee no more, is in town. MARTHA HOUSEWIFE.' No 179. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. Centuria feniorum agitant expertia frugis: HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 341. Old age explodes all but morality: ROSCOMMON.. I MAY caft my readers under two general divi fions, the Mercurial and the Saturnine. The firft are the gay part of my difciples, who require fpeculations of wit and humour; the others are those of a more folemn and fober turn, who find no pleafure but in papers of morality and found fenfe. The former call every thing that is ferious,. ftupid; the latter look upon every thing as impertinent that is ludicrous. Were I always grave, one half of my readers would fall off from me: Were . I always |