THERE is a young woman in our neighbourhood that makes it her bufinefs to disturb every body that paffes by with her beauty. She runs to the window when he has a mind to do mif chief; and then, when a body looks up at her, he runs back, though the came there on purpofe. Her hands and arms, you must know, are very fine; for that reafon fhe never lets them be unemploy ed, but is feeding a squirrel, and catching people that pass by all day long. She has a way of heaving out of the window to fee fomething, fo that one who stands in the street juft over-against her is taken with her fide face; one that is coming down fixes his eyes at the pole of her neck till he ftuables; and one coming up the street is fixed stock-ftill by her eyes. She won't let any body go by in peace. I am confident, if you went that way yourself, fhe would pretend to get you from Mrs. Page. As for my own part, I fear her not; but there are feveral of our neighbours whofe fons are taken in her chains, and feveral good, women's husbands are always talking of her; and there is no quiet. I beg of you, Sir, to take fome courfe with her; for the takes a delight in doing all this mitchief. It would be right to lay down fome rules against her; or, if you please, to appoint a time to come and fspeak to her: it would be a great charity to our treet, especially to, Sir, your most humble fervant, N° XXXI. THURSDAY, MAY 6. MR. MYRTLE, RIDET HOC, INQUAM, VENUS IPSA; RIDENT COTE CRUENTA. LONDON, MAY 4. Remember, fome time ago, that I out of a book, fpeak of a king that was fo fond of his wife, that his mind overflowed with the happiness he had in the poffeffion of her beauties. I remember it was just fo that talking fellow expreffed himself; but all that I want of his story is, that he fhewed his queen naked from a chink in the bed-chamber; and that the queen, finding this out, refented it fo highly, that the, after mature deliberation, thought fit to plot againit her husband, and married the man to whom he had expofed her person. I have but a puzzled way of telling a ftory; but this circumftance, among fuch great people, may give you fome thoughts upon an accident of the like kind, which happened to me, a man of iniddle rank. There is a very gay, pleafant young lady, whom I was well acquainted with, and had long known, as being an intimate of my fifter's. We were, the other day, a riding out; the women and men on fingle horfes it happened that this young lady and I out-rid the company, and in the avenue of the wood between Hampftead and Highgate her horfe threw her full upon her head. She is a quickwitted girl; and finding chance had dif covered more of her beauty than ever fhe defigned to favour me with, fhe in an inftant lay on the turf in a decent manner, as in a trance, before I could alight and come to her affiftance. I fell in love with her when he was topfy-turvy j and from that inftant profeffed myfelf her fervant. She always laughed, and turned off the difcourfe, and faid the thought it must be so. The whole family were mightily amazed how this declaration came all of a fudden; and why, after two or three years intimacy, not a word, and yet now I to very eager. Well, the father had no exception to me, and the wedding day was named; when, HOR. all of a fudden, the father has fent my miftrefs to a diftant relation in the country, and I am difcarded. Now, Sir, what I defire of you is to infert this, that her father may understand what the meant, when the faid I shall be ashamed to be the wife of any other 'man; and what I meant, when I faid that I know more of her already than any other husband, perhaps, ever may. Thefe expreffions were let drop when the father fhewed fome figns of parting us; and I appeal to you, whether, according to nice rules, the is not to prefer me to all others. This is a ferious matter in it's confequences, and I won't be choufed; therefore pray infert it. The whole is humbly fubmitted by, Sir, your most unfortunate, humble fervant, TIM. PIP, TO MR. MARMADUKE MYRTLE. SIR, OBSERVING you play the cafuift, the doctor, nay, often defcend even to the letter carrier, for the fervice of Lovers, I am apt to think my prefent condition brings me within your cognizance, and countenances this application. Sir, I ever was a great admirer of a single state; and my chief study has been to collect encomiums in it's favour, and inftances of unhappy marriages to confirm me. I never could think myself the fad half of a man, or that my cares wanted doubling. The beft exercise I ever performed at fchool was a tranflation of Juvenal's fixth Satire. I remember my master faid, siniling-Sirrah, you will die a batchelor." Since I came to man's eftate, I have every day talked over, with little variation, the common-place fayings against matrimony: I believe they have been more conftant than my prayers. I must now, Sir, acquaint you how I became difarmed of thofe principles in an ine ftant, and how other thoughts took place; place; fo that I beg leave hereby to recant, and protest against those damnable doctrines. And further, I humbly befeech all ladies with whom I converse, to bestow on me the encouragement which new and true converts generally meet with. I was riding in the country laft fpring of all the days in the week, it was upon a Tuesday; when, on a fudden, I heard a voice which guided my fight to two young women unknown to me; they were negligently, I won't fay meanly, dreffed, had large itaffs in their hands, and were followed by fpaniels and greyhounds. One, whom I now fee with the lover's telescope, were a bonnet: on her I caft my eyes till the brightness of her's made them fail me; that is, I have feen nothing in it's true light fince. I am a piece of a scholar, yet am not able, Mr. Myrtle, to affirm what I faw, and how this object ftruck the organs of my body, affected my foul and mind, and produced this lafting idea. The old philofophers, you know, attributed a foul to the loadftone, when they could not find out the reason of it's union to iron. Whence fhall I deduce the caufe of my condition? Shall I fpeak of an impulfe, preffure of infenfible particles, fecret power, deitiny, the itars, magic? or fhall I fay, in the lawyers term, that every feature had it's copies? or must ĺ mention occult quality, or, as the genteel world tranflate it, je ne fçai quoy? 1 fhould have told you I was a hunting when I faw this object; that, when it fled, my good-fpirited gelding refused the gate that parted us, and run away with me. This was as good as a fecond game; for I, who before was the greatest portfman in the country, have ever fince haunted the woods to figh, not hailoo. In lonely fhades by day, and moonshine walks by n ght, (the ever by my fide) I have found my only plea fure. This condition I have fuffered for a long feries of time; but, wandering in the fame wood, I faw a country girl in the fame bonnet in which I formerly beheld my great calamity. I followed her, and found the abode of her for whom I languish. Ma Charmante is your conftant reader, who hereby will have fome notion of me and my name. I crave, Sir, your affiftance herein; and (to eate yourself of another troublesome letter) your advice, in case of a denial to wait upon her. I have abundance more to fay; but defire you to lay it to your felf in behalf of, Sir, your enamoured humble fervant. No XXXII. SATURDAY, MAY 8. - Εν δικαιοσύνη συλλήβδην πᾶσ' α'ξελή ἐςιν. a HE tak which I have enjoined THE myfelf in thefe papers, is to defcribe Love in all it's hapes: to warn the unwary of thofe rocks, upon which fo many in all ages have split formerly, do split ftill, and will fplit hereafter, as long as men and women fhall be what they now are; and to delineate the true and unfeigned delight which virtuous minds feel in the enjoyment of their lawful and warranted paffions. This tafk, the farther I go, I find grows the more upon my hands. The dreadful effects which have attended irregular purfuits in this way, have led fome shallow philofophers to arraign that as fimply unlawful, or at least as unbecoming a wife man, which is certainly one of the firft and fundamental laws of nature; and they have feemed to look upon that as a curfe which, rightly managed, is the greateft bleffing which our Yet, on the other hand, when (comparatively speaking) so very many mif carry in this particular, more than in any other fingle circumftance belonging to human life, one is tempted to cry out, with my Lord Brooke, in his Alaham O wearifome condition of mortality, If Nature, fure, did not delight in blond, But fince complaints under most preffures avail but little; fince in every fpeI 2 cies cies of actions there is a right and a wrong, which circumstances only can determine; fince our Maker (for greater reafons than thofe which our laws afcribe to our princes) cannot poffibly do any wrong, or, as the divines speak, cannot be the author of fin; fiuce what was ellential to human nature before the Fall, is in ittelf moft certainly good, when rightly pufued; and fince one may obferve that iniftakes and falfe fteps in this matter meet with haisher' cenfures, and are often more feverely punished in this world, than many other crimes which feem to be of a higher nature; I have thought it worth while to enquire into this matter as exactly as I could, and to prefent the public with my thoughts concerning the real differences between the feveral forts of evil actions, as I fhall #nd opportunity, and as my importunate correfpondents, who are often in hatte, and who must not be difobliged, will give me leave. One method, as I take it, to induce men to avoid any evil, is to know not only wherein it confifts, but how great it is. The Stoics of old pretended that all fins were equal; that it was as great a crime to teal a pin, as to rob upon the road. When their wife man was once out of his way, he loft his pretenfions to wisdom; and when those were gone, whatfoever he did or faid afterwards, in that state of aberration, it was all one: fins were fins; and where the ellence was the fame, the degrees mattered little. This contradicts human nature, and common fente; and the laws of all nations diftinguish, in the punishments which they inflict, between crimes, as they are more or lefs pernicious to the fociety in and againft which they are committed. That God does to too, we need not question. The Judge of the whole earth must certainly do right. When we know wherein the time greatnets of every fin confits, we fhall be able to judge of our own faults, and fometimes of the faults of others; we thall fee why we ought to avoid them where there is room for compallion; and where punithment is neceliary, we may be fore then to be fevere in the right place; and, by knowing how and when to forgive, may fometimes raife thofe that are link ing, and often fave thofe from utter deAruction, who, if abandoned, would be inecoverably loit. This is a large, and, I think, an ufeful theme; and it is what The aggravation of all crimes is to be eftimated either from the perfons injured or offended, or from the intrinfic malice from whence thofe injuries and offences proceed. All offences are against either Our Maker, our neighbour, or cur. felves. Offences against our Maker have this particular aggravation, that they are committed again the Perfon to whom we have the greateft obligations, and confequently do more immediately contradict the light of our own confcience. The obligations of our original being, and of our conftant prearvation during the whole course of our lives, which takes in all the bleffings that we daily receive from him, are fo peculiarly due to God, that they are not communicable to any earthly being. For though we nay, and do hourly, receive advantages from our fellowcreatures, yet thofe advantages are ultimately to be referred to God, by whofe good providence thofe fellow.creatures are enabled to do us good. And befides, the good they do us is as much for their fakes as for ours; fince the advantages they receive from us, and thole we receive from them, are reciprocal. But though our Creater is always doing good to us, we can do none to him; and, upon that feore, he has a title to cur obedience, and that implicit, when once we are fatisfied it is He that commands. This makes Idolatry to be fo crying a fin, becaufe it is a communication of that honour to the creature, (whether inanimate cr animate it matters not) to which it can have no poffible title, and is due to the Creator enly. Upon this account allo Irreligion and Atheism are still worse, hecaule they tear up all religion by the roots; and all fervice and worship is denied to Him, to whom the utmoft fervice and worthipis juftiy due. This is fo plain, that it needs neither enlargement nor proof. The fecond degree of offences, is of thofe thofe which are committed against our neighbours. They are equally God's creatures as ourselves, and have an equal title to his protection, and we ought to think that they are equally dear to him. Offences against them may be comprehended under one common title of Injuftice: and what divines ufually call Sins against the Second Table, are, if ftrictly examined, but fo many forts of injuries against our neighbours. The pains, the care, the trouble, and, above all, the love, of parents, demand honour from their children; and therefore, when they do not meet with it, they are injured. This fhews the juftice of the fifth Commandment. To take away our neighbour's life, is the greatest injury which can be done him, because it is abfolutely irreparable. Next to that, are injuries done to his bed, and for the fame reafon too. The goods we enjoy are the means of our fubfiftence here; and he that against our wil's takes them from us, does, more or lefs, according to the greatnefs of our lefs, deprive us of our fubfiftence. This fhews the iuftaefs of the fixth, feventh, and eighth Commandments. And fince none of those things to which, by the original grant from our common Maker, we have a juft title, are fecure, if calumny and falfe accufations are once allowed; therefore falfe witnefsing is alfo forbidden in the ninth Commandment. And fince a defire of pol feffing what is not our own, and what we ice others enjoy, will, if encouraged, naturally lead men to as many forts of injustice as there are forts of defires; therefore coveting what is not our own, is fenced against by the tenth Command ment. By this detail it plainly appears why I fet offences against our neighbours in the fecond place. When God gave the Ten Commandments, he mentioned no offences but thofe against himself and our neighbours; and left the fins which are immediately againft ourselves (which are properly fins of intemperance) to be forbidden by other laws. But then, though fins against ourfelves ought, with respect to their guilt, (which is what I here propofe to confider) to be reckoned laft, yet it does not follow from thence that they are not fins, and confequently do not deferve punishment. Whatfoever difables us in any meafure from doing our duty to God or our neighbour, is fo far an injuffice towards them, and robs them of their due, and is fo far a crime. I fay, an injuftice, becaufe, as I fad before, all faults, in my opinion, are ultimate to be referied to that. Ever uncharitableness is injuflice; because our comm.on Creator, who has made us all liable to want, and confe quently under a neceffity of defining af fiftance, expects we fhould be helpful to one another, because he is good to us. And when Ariftotle fays, in those words that are the motto of this paper, that all vi tues are contained in juflice, he states the true notion of good and evil; and it is as applicable to virtues confidered in a Christian light, as in a natural one. This, then, is the firft rule by which we are to weigh the different degrees of good and evil. N° XXXIII. TUESDAY, MAY II. ANIMUM PICTURA PASCIT VIRG. Went the other day down the River, great an idea of the work. As well as I and dined with fame virtuofi friends could comprehend it from feeing it at Greenwich. The purpose of the gentleman who invited us was, to entertain us with a fight of that famous Cieling in the Great Hall at Greenwich Hofpital, painted by cur ingenious countryman Mr. Thornhill, who has executed a great and noble defign with a maft.rly hand, and uncommon genius. The regularity, fymmetry, boldnefs, and prominence of the figures, are not to be defcribed; nor is it in the power of words to raise too but twice, I fhall give a plain account of it. IN the middle of the cieling (which is about 106 feet long, and 56 felt wide, and near 50 feet high) is a very large oval frame, painted and carved in imitation of gold, with a great thickness rifing in the infide, to throw up the figures to the greater heighth: the oval is fattened to a great fuffeat, adorned with rofes, in imitation |