6 SIRRAH, You OU are a faucy audacious rascal, and both fool and mad, and I care not a farthing whether you comply or no; that does not raze out my impreffions ' of your infolence, going about railing at me, and the next day to follicit my favour: these are inconfiftencies, fuch as difcover thy reafon depraved. To be • brief, I never defire to fee your face; and, Sirrah, if you go to the work-houfe, it is no difgrace to me for you to be fupported there; and if you ftarve in the ftreets, I will never give any thing underhand in your behalf. If I have any more of your fcribbling nonfense I will break your head the first time I fet fight on " you. You are a ftubborn beaft; is this your gratitude for my giving you money? You rogue, I'll better your judgment, and give you a greater fenfe of your duty to (I regret to fay) your father, &c. 6. P. S. It is prudence in you to keep out of my fight; for to reproach me, that Might overcomes Right, on the outfide of your letter, I fhall give you a great knock on the fcull for it.' Was there ever fuch an image of paternal tenderness! It was ufual among fome of the Greeks to make their flaves drink to excefs, and then expofe them to their children, who by that means conceived an early averfion to a vice which makes men appear fo monftrous and ir rational. I have expofed this picture of an unnatural father with the fame intention, that its deformity may deter others from its resemblance. If the reader has a mind to fee a father of the fame ftamp represented in the moft exquifite ftrokes of humour, he may meet with it in one of the finest comedies that ever appeared upon the English stage: I mean the part of Sir Sampfon in Love for Love. I muft not however engage myself blindly on the fide of the fon, to whom the fond letter above-written was directed. His father calls him a " faucy and audacious rafcal" in the first line, and I am afraid upon examination he will prove but an ungracious youth. "To go about railing" at his father, and to find no other place place but the outfide of his letter" to tell him "that might overcomes right," if it does not discover" his "reafon to be depraved," and "that he is either fool or "mad," as the choleric old gentleman tells him, we may at least allow that the father will do very well in endeavouring to better his judgment, and give him a greater fenfe of his duty." But whether this may be brought about by breaking his head," or "giving, him a great knock on the fcull," ought, I think, to be well confidered. Upon the whole, I wish the father has not met with his match, and that he may not be as equally paired with a fon, as the mother in Virgil." Crudelis tu quoque mater: Crudelis mater magis, an puer improbus ille? -Iniprobus ille puer, crudelis tu quoque mater. Ecl.8. ver.48% Or like the crow and her egg, in the Greek proverb Bad the crow, bad the egg. I must here take notice of a letter which I have res ceived from an unknown correfpondent, upon the sub. ject of my paper, upon which the foregoing letter is likewife founded. The writer of it feems very much concerned left that paper fhould feem to give encourage ment to the difobedience of children towards their parents; but if the writer of it will take the pains to read it over again attentively, I dare fay his apprehen fions will vanish. Pardon and reconciliation are all the penitent daughter requests, and all that I contend for in her behalf; and in this cafe I may use the saying of an eminent wit, who, upon fome great mens preffing him to forgive his daughter who had married against his confent, told them he could refuse nothing to their inftances, but that he would have them remember there was difference between giving and forgiving, I must confefs, in all controverfies between parents and their children, I am naturally prejudiced in favour of the former. The obligations on that fide can never be ac D6% quitted, quitted, and I think it is one of the greatest reflexions upon human nature that paternal instinct should be a ftronger motive to love than filial gratitude; that the receiving of favours fhould be a lefs inducement to good-will, tenderness and commiferation, than the conferring of them; and that the taking care of any perfon fhould endear the child or dependent more to the parent or benefactor, than the parent or benefactor to the child or dependent; yet fo it happens, that for one cruel parent we meet with a thousand undutiful children. This is indeed wonderfully contrived (as I have formerly obferved) for the fupport of every living, fpecies; but at the fame time that it fhews the wifdom of the Creator, it difcovers the imperfection and degeneracy of the creature. The obedience of children to their parents is the bafis of all government, and fet forth as the measure of that obedience which we owe to those whom Providence hath placed over us. It is father Le Compte, if I am not mistaken, who tells us how want of duty in this particular is punished among the Chinese, infomuch that if a fon fhould be known to kill, or fo much as to ftrike his father, not only the criminal but his whole family would be rooted out, nay the inhabitants of the place where he lived would be put to the fword, nay the place itfelf would berifed to the ground, and its foundations fown with falt for, fay they, there must have been an utter depravation of manners in that clan or fociety of people who could have bred up among them fo horrid an offender. To this I fhall add a paffage out of the firft book of Herodotus. That hiftorian in his account of the Perfian cuftoms and religion tells us, It is their opinion that no man ever killed his father, or that it is poffible fuch a crime fhould be in nature; but that if any thing like it fhould ever happen, they conclude that the reputed fon must have been illegitimate, fuppofititious, or begotten in adultery. Their opinion in this particular Thews fafficiently what a notion they must have had of Madufulness in general. Monday, N° 190 Monday, October 8. Servitus crefcit nova Hor. Od. 8. 1. 2. ver. 18.. A fervitude to former times unknown. INCE I made fome reflexions upon the general negligence ufed in the cafe of regard towards women, or, in other words, fince I talked of wenching, I have had epiftles upon that fubject, which I fhall, for the prefent entertainment, infert as they lie before me. • Mr. Spectator, AS your fpeculations are not confined to any part of human life, but concern the wicked as well as the good, I must defire your favourable acceptance of what I, a poor strolling girl about town, have to fay to you. I was told by a Roman Catholic gentleman who picked me up last week, and who, I hope, is abfolved for what paffed between us; I fay I was told by fuch a perfon, who endeavoured to convert me to his. own religion, that in countries where popery prevails, ⚫ befides the advantage of licenfed. ftews, there are large• endowments given for the Incurabili, I think he called them, fuch as are paft all remedy, and are allowed fuch maintenance and fupport as to keep them without farther care till they expire. This manner of treating poor finners has, methinks, great humanity in it; and as you are a perfon who pretend to carry your reflexions upon all fubjects whatever that occur to you, with candour, and act above the fenfe of what mifinterpretation you may meet with, I beg the favour of you to lay before all the world the unhappy condition of us poor vagrants, who are really in a way of labour instead of idlenefs. There are crowds of us whofe manner of ⚫ livelihood has long ceafed to be pleafing to us; and who would willingly lead a new life, if the rigour of • the virtuous did not for ever expel us from coming into the world again. As it now happens, to the eternal infamy of the male fex, falfhood among you is not reproachful, but credulity in women is infamous. 6 ་ Give me leave, Sir, to give you my history. You are to know that I am a daughter of a man of a good reputation, tenant to a man of quality. The heir of this great house took it in his head to caft a favourable eye upon me, and fucceeded. I do not pretend to fay he promised me marriage: I was not a creature filly enough to be taken by fo foolish a story: but he ran away with me up to this town, and introduced me to a grave matron, with whom I boarded for a day or two with great gravity, and was not a little pleased with the change of my condition, from that of a coun• try life to the fineft company, as I believed, in the ⚫ whole world. My humble fervant made me understand ⚫ that I should be always kept in the plentiful condition I then enjoyed: when after a very great fondness towards me, he one day took his leave of me for four or five days. In the evening of the fame day my good landlady came to me, and obferving me very penfive, began to comfort me, and with a fmile told me I must fee the world. When I was deaf to all fhe could fay. to divert me, fhe began to tell me with a very frank air that I must be treated as I ought, and not take thefe fqueamish humours upon me, for my friend had left me to the town; and, as their phrafe is, fhe expected I would fee company, or I must be treated like "what I had brought myself to. This put me into a fit of crying: And I immediately, in a true fenfe of my ⚫ condition, threw myfelf on the floor, deploring my fate, calling upon all that was good and facred to fuccour me. While I was in all this agony, I obferved a decript old ⚫fellow come into the room, and looking with a fenfe of pleasure in his face at all my vehemence and transport. In a paufe of my distress I heard him fay to the fhamelefs old woman who stood by me, fhe is certainly a new ⚫ face, or else she acts it rarely. With that the Gentlewoman, who was making her market of me, in all the turns of my perfon, the heaves of my paffion, and the fuitable changes of my poiture, took occafion to commend my neck, |