will be pleafed with it. I fhall leave it with the critics to determine whether the place, which this thepherd fo particularly points out, was not the above-mentioned Leucate, or at leaft fome other lover's leap, which was fuppofed to have had the fame effect. I cannot believe, as all the interpreters do, that the fhepherd means nothing farther here, than that he would drown himfelf, fince he reprefents the iffue of his leap as doubtful, by adding, That if he fhould efcape with life, he knows his miftrefs would be pleafed with it; which is according to our interpretation, that he would rejoice any way to get rid of a lover who was fo troublesome to her.

AFTER this short preface, I fhall prefent my reader with fome letters which I have received upon this fubject.. The firit is fent me by a phyfician..

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Mr SPECTATOR,

T

HE lover's leap, which you mentioned in your 223d paper, was generally, I believe, a very effectual cure for love, and not only for love, but for all other evils. In fhort, Sir, I am afraid it was fuch a leap as that which Hero took to get rid of her paffion for Leander. A man is in no danger of breaking his heart, who breaks his neck to prevent it. I know very well the wonders which ancient authors relate concerning this leap; and in particular, that very many perfons who tried it, escaped not only with their lives but their limbs.. If by this means they got rid of their love, though it may in part be afcribed to the reafons you give for it; why may not we fuppofe, that the cold bath, into which they plunged themselves, had alfo fome, fhare in their cure? A leap into the fea, or into any creek of falt wa1 ters, very often gives a new motion to the fpirits, and a new turn to the blood; for which reafon we prescribe. it in diftempers which no other medicine will reach. I could produce a quotation out of a very venerable author, in which the frenzy produced by love, is compared to that which is produced by the biting of a mad dog. But, as this comparifon is a little too coarfe for your paper, and might look as if it were cited to ridicule the author 6 who has made ufe of it; I fhall only hint at it, and de.. fire you to confider whether, if the frenzy produced by

3

theles

thefe two different caules be of the fame nature, it may not very properly be cured by the fame means.

I am, SIR,

Your most humble fervant,

and well-wisher,

ESCULAPIUS.

Mr SPECTATOR,

Aм a young woman croffed in love. My story is very long and melancholy. To give you the heads of it: A young gentleman, after having made his applications to me for three years together, and filled my head with a thousand dreams of happiness, fome few days fince married another. Pray tell me in what part of the world your promontory lies, which you call the lover's leap, and whether one may go to it by land? But, alas, I am afraid it has loft its virtue, and that a woman of our times would find no more relief in taking fuch a leap, than in finging an hymn to Venus. So that I must cry out with Dido in Dryden's Virgil. Ah! cruel heaven, that made no cure for love! ·Your difconfolate fervant.

ATHENAIS.

MISTER SPICTATUR,

MGwinifrid, and the is fo pettifh and over-run Μ

Y heart is fo full of lofes and paffions for Mrs

with cholers against me, that if I had the good happinefs to have my dwelling (which is placed by my creat'cranfather upon the pottom of an hill) no farther diftance but twenty mile from the lofer's leap, I would indeed indefour to preak my neck upon it on purpofe. Now, good mifter SPICTATUR of Crete Britain, you must know it, there ifs in Caernarvanfhire a very pig mountain, the clory of all Wales, which is named Penmainmaure, and you must also know, it is no crete journey on foot from me; but the road is ftony and bad for

'fhooes.

fhooes.

<tain

Now, there is upon the forehead of this mounvery high rock, like a parish fteeple, that cometh a huge deal over the fea; 'fo when I ain in my melancholies, and I do throw myself from it, I do defire my fery good friend to tell me in his Spictatur, if I fhall be cure of my griefous lofes; for there is the fea clear as glafs, and as creen as the leek: then likeways if I be drown, and preak my neck, if Mrs Gwinifrid will not lofe me afterwards. Pray be fpeedy in your answers, for I am in creat hefte, and it is my tefires to do my pufinefs without lofs of time. I remain with cordial affections, your ever lofing friend,

It

Davyth ap Shenkyn. P. S. My law fuits have brought me to London, but I have loft causes; my and fo have made my refolutions to go down and leap before the frofts begin; for I am apt to take colds.

RIDICULE, perhaps, is a better expedient against love than fober advice, and I am of opinion, that Hudibras and Don Quixote may be as effectual to cure the extravagancies of this paffion, as any of the old philofophers. I fhall therefore publifh very fpeedily the tranflation of a little Greek manufcript, which is fent me by a learned friend. appears to have been a piece of those records which were kept in the temple of Apollo, that stood upon the promontory of Leucate. The reader will find it to be a fummary account of feveral perfons who tried the lover's leap, and of the fuccefs they found in it. As there feem to be in it fome anachronifins and deviations from the ancient orthography, I am not wholly fatisfied myself that it is authentic, and not rather the production of one of thofe Grecian fophifters, who have impofed upon the world feveral fpurious works of this nature. I fpeak this by way of precaution, becaufe I know there are feveral writers of uncommon erudition, who would not fail to expofe my ignorance, if they caught me tripping in a matter of fo great moment.

C

No. 228.

No 228.

Wednesday, November 21.

Percunctatorem fugito, nam garrulus idem eft.

HOR. Ep. 18. h. 1. v. 69.

Shun the inquifitive and curious man:

For what he hears he will relate again.

T

POOLY.

HERE is a creature who has all the organs of speech, a tolerable good capacity for conceiving what is faid. to it, together with a pretty proper behaviour in all the occurrences of common life; but naturally very vacant of thought in itself, and therefore forced to apply itself to foreign affiftances. Of this make is that man who is very inquifitive. You may often obferve, that though he speaks. as good fenfe as any man upon any thing with which he is well acquainted, he cannot truft to the range of his own fancy to entertain himself upon that foundation, but goes on ftill to new inquiries. Thus, tho' you know he is fit for the most polite converfation, you fhall fee him very well contented to fit by a jockey, giving an account of the many revolutions in his horfe's health, what potion he made him take, how that agreed with him, how afterwards he came to his ftomach and his exercife, or any the like impertinence; and be as well pleased as if you talked to him on the most important truths. This humour is far from mak ing a man unhappy, tho' it may fubject him to rallery, for he generally falls in with a perfon who feems to be born for him, which is your talkative fellow. It is fo ordered, that there is a fecret bent, as natural as the meeting of different fexes, in these two characters, to fupply each other's wants. I had the honour the other day to fit in a public-room, and faw an inquifitive man look with an air of fatisfaction upon the approach of one of thefe talkers. The man of ready utterance fat down by him, and rubbing his head, leaning on his arm, and making an uneafy countenance, he began; There is no manner of news to day. I cannot tell what is the matter with me, but I flept very ill last night; whe ther I caught cold or no, I know not, but I fancy I do not wear shoes thick enough for the weather, and I have VOL. III. coughed

T

• coughed all this week: it must be fo, for the custom of washing my head winter and fummer with cold water, prevents any injury from the season entering that way; fo it must come in at my feet: but I take no notice of it; as it comes fo it goes. Most of our evils proceed ◄ from too much tenderness; and our faces are naturally as little able to refift the cold as other parts. The In'dian answered very well to an European, who asked liim how he could go naked; I am all face.

I OBSERVED this difcourfe was as welcome to my general inquirer as any other of more confequence could have been; but fomebody calling our talker to another part of the room, the inquirer told the next man who fat by him, that Mr fuch-a-one, who was juft gone from him, used to wafh his head in cold water every morning; and fo repeated almoft verbatim all that had been faid to him. The truth is, the inquifitive are the funnels of converfation; they do not take in any thing for their own ufe, but merely to pass it to another: they are the channels through which all the good and evil that is fpoken in town are conveyed. Such as are offended at them, or think they fuffer by their behaviour, may themselves mend that inconvenience; for they are not a malicious people, and if you will fupply them, you may contradict any thing they have faid before by their own mouths. A farther account of a thing is one of the gratefulleft goods that can arrive to them; and it is feldom that they are more particular than to fay, The town will have it, or I have it from a good hand: fo that there is room for the town to know the matter more particularly, and for a better hand to contradict what was faid by a good one.

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I HAVE not known this humour more ridiculous than in a father, who has been earnestly follicitous to have an ac· count how his fon has paffed away his leisure hours; if it be in a way thoroughly infignificant, there cannot be a greater joy than an inquirer difcovers in feeing him follow fo hopefully his own fteps: but this humour among men is most, pleasant when they are faying fomething which is not wholly proper for a third perfon to hear, and yet is in itfelf indifferent. The other day there came in a well-dreffed young fellow, and two gentlemen of this fpecies immediately fell a whispering his pedigree. I could over-hear, by breaks,

She