N° 401. Tuesday, June 10. In amore hæc omnia infunt vitia: Injuriæ, Bellum, pax rurfum. TER. Eun. A&t. 1. Sc. 1. It is the capricious ftate of love, to be attended with reproaches, fufpicions, enmities, truces, quarrelling, reconcilement. I SHALL publifh, for the entertainment of this day, an odd fort of a packet, which I have juft received from one of my female correfpondents. ་ < Mr. SPECTATOR, SINCE you have often confeffed that you are not difpleafed your papers should fometimes convey the complaints of diftreffed lovers to each other, I am in hopes you will favour one who gives you an undoubted inftance of her reformation, and at the fame time a convincing proof of the happy influence your labours have had over the most incorrigible part of the most incorrigible fex. You must know, fir, I am one of that fpecies of women, whom you have often ⚫ characterized under the name of Jilts, and that I fend thefe lines as well to do public penance for having fo long continued in a known error, as to beg pardon of the party offended. I the rather chufe this because it in fome measure answers the terms on which he intimated the breach between us might poffibly be made up, as you will fee by the letter he fent me the next day after I had discarded him; which I thought fit to ferd you a copy of, that you might the 'better know the whole cafe. . you way, I muft further acquaint you, that before I jilted him, there had been the greatest intimacy between us for a year and a half together, during all which time I cherished his hopes, and indulged his flame. I leave you to guess after this what must be his furprife, when. upon his preffing for my full confent one day, I told him I wondered what could make him fancy he had ever any place in my affections. His own fex allow him fenfe, and all ours good-breeding. His perfon is 'fuch as might, without vanity, make him believe him⚫ felf not incapable to be beloved. Our fortunes indeed, weighed in the nice scale of intereft, are not exactly equal, which by the way was the true caufe of my jilting him, and I had the affurance to acquaint him with the following maxim, that I fhould always believe that man's paffion to be the moft violent, who 'could offer me the largest fettlement. I have fince changed my opinion, and have endeavoured to let him know fo much by feveral letters, but the barbarous man has refufed them all; fo that I have no way left of writing to him but by your affiftance. If you can bring ⚫ him about once more, I promise to fend you ail gloves and favours, and shall defire the favour of fir ROGER and yourself to ftand as godfathers to my firft boy. • I am, Sir, Your most obedient, most humble fervant, PHILANDER to AMORET. ? MADAM, I AM fo furprised at the question you were pleased to ask me yesterday, that I am still at a loss what to fay to it. At least my anfwer would be too long to trouble you with, as it would come from a perfon, who, it feems, is fo very indifferent to you. Inftead of it, I fhall only recommend to your confideration the opinion of one whofe fentiments on these matters I ⚫ have often heard you say are extremely just. 6. A ge nerous and constant paffion," fays your favourite au· thor, "in an agreeable lover, where there is not too "great a disparity in their circumftances, is the greatest "bleffing that can befall a perfon beloved; and if over"looked in one, may perhaps never be found in another." I do not, however, at all defpair of being very fhortly ⚫ much better beloved by you than Antenor is at prefent; 'fince whenever my fortune fhall exceed his, you were pleafed to intimate your paflion would increase accordingly. The world has feen me fhamefully lose that time to please a fickle woman, which might have been employed much more to my credit and advantage in other purfuits. I fhall therefore take the liberty to acquaint you, however harfh it may found in a lady's ears, that tho' your love-fit fhould happen to return, unless you cou'd contrive a way to make your recantation as well known to the public, as they are already apprifed of the manner with which you have treated me, you fhall never more fee SIR, AMORET to PHILANDER PHILANDER." UPON reflection, I find the injury I have done both to you and myself to be fo great, that tho' the part I now act may appear contrary to that decorum ufually obferved by our fex, yet I purpofely break through all rules, that my repentance may in fome meafure equal ny crime. I affure you that in my prefent hopes of recovering you, I lock upon Antenor's eftate with contempt. The fop was here yesterday in a gilt chariot and new liveries, but I refufed to fee him. Though I dread to meet your eyes, after what has paffed, I flatter myself, that amidst all their confufion you will difcover fuch a tenderness in mine, as none can imitate but thofe who love. I fhall be all this month at lady D's in the country, but the woods, the fields, and gardens, without Philander, afford no pleasure to the unhappy 'AMORET.' I muft defire you, dear Mr. SPECTATOR, to publish this my letter to Philander as foon as poffible, and to affure him that I know nothing at all of the death of his rich uncle in Gloucefterfhire." X. N° 402. Wednesday, June 11. T -quæ Ipfe fibi tradit Spectator- HOR. Ars Poet, v. 181. WERE I to publish all the advertif; ments I receive from different hands, and períons of different circum ftances and quality, the very mention of them, without reflections on the feveral fubjects, would raile all the paffions which can be felt by human minds. As inftances of this, I shall give you two or three letters; the writers of which can have no recourfe to any legal power for redrefs, and feem to have written rather to vent their forrow than to receive confolation. · Mr. SPECTATOR, I AM a young woman of beauty and quality, and fuitably married to a gentleman who dotes on me. But this perfon of mine is the object of an unjuft paffion ' in a nobleman who is very intimate with my husband. This friendship gives him very eafy accefs, and frequent opportunities of entertaining me apart. My heart is in the utmoft anguish, and my face is covered over with confufion, when I impart to you another 'circumftance, which is, that my mother, the most mercenary of all women, is gained by this false friend of my husband's to folicit me for him. I am frequently chid by the poor believing man my husband, for fhewing an impatience of his friend's company; and I am never alone with my mother, but she tells me ftories of 'the difcretionary part of the world, and fuch a one, and 'fuch a one who are guilty of as much as fhe advifes me to. She laughs at my aftonishment; and feems to hint to me, that as virtuous as fhe has always appeared, I am not the daughter of her husband. It is poilible that printing this letter inay relieve me from the unnatural importunity of my mother, and the perfidious courtship ' of my hufband's friend. I have an unfeigned love of ་ 4 ་ virtue, and am refolved to preferve my innocence. The only way I can think of to avoid the fatal confequences of the discovery of this matter, is to fly away for ever, which I must do to avoid my husband's fatal refentment against the man who attempts to abuse him, and the shame of expofing a parent to infamy. The perfons concerned will know thefe circumftances relate to them; and tho' the regard to virtue is dead in them, I have fome hopes from their fear of fhame upon reading this in your paper; which I conjure you to infert, if you have any compaffion for injured virtue. Mr. SPECTATOR, SYLVIA.' I AM the husband of a woman of merit, but an fallen in love, as they call it, with a lady of her acquaintance who is going to be married to a gentleman who deferves her. I am in a truft relating to this lady's fortune, which makes my concurrence in this matter neceffary; but I have fo itrefiftible a rage and envy rife in me when I confider his future happiness, that against all reafon, equity, and common juftice, I an ever playing mean tricks to fufpend the nuptials. I have no manner of hopes for myfelf; Emilia, for fo I will call her, is a woman of the moft ftrict virtue ' her lover is a gentleman who of all others I could wish my friend, but envy and jealoufy, though placed fo unjustly, wafte my very being, and with the torment ⚫ and fenfe of a demon, I am ever curfing what I cannot but approve. I wish it were the beginning of repentance, that I fit down and defcribe ny prefent difpofition with fo hellifh an afpect; but at prefent the deftruction of thefe two excellent perfons would be more ⚫ welcome to nie than their happiness. Mr. SPECTA TOR, pray let me have a paper on these terrible groundlefs fufferings, and do all you can to exorcife crouds who are in fome degree poffeffed as I am. ་ 4 'Mr. SPECTATOR, CANIBAL.' I HAVE no other means but this to exprefs my thanks to one man, and my refentment againit another. My circumftances are as follow. I have been for five |