• hard but I will have one half of it flated. If you think ' well of this motion, I will wait upon you as foon as my new clothes is made and hay-harvest is in. I • could, though I say it, have good' The reft is torn off; and posterity must be contented to know, that Mrs. Margaret Clark was very pretty, but are left in the dark as to the name of her lover.

T

No 325 Thursday, March 13.

-Quid frustra fimulacra fugacia captas?
Quod petis, est nusquam: quod amas avertere, perdes.
Ista repercuffa quam cernis imaginis umbra eft,
Nil habet ifta fui; tecum venitque, manetque,

Tecum difcedet fi tu difcedere poffis.

Ovid. Metam. 1. 3. v. 432.

[From the fable of NARCISSUS.]

What could, fond youth, this helpless passion move?
What kindled in thee this unpitied love?

Thy own warm blush within the water glows;
With thee the colour'd shadow comes and goes;

Its empty being on thyself relies;

Step thou afide, and the frail charmer dies.

W

ADDISON.

ILL HONEYCOMB diverted us last night with an account of a young fellow's first difcovering his paffion to his mistress. The young lady was one, it seems, who had long before conceived a favourable opinion of him, and was still in hopes that he would fome time or other make his advances. As he was one day talking with her in company of her two fisters, the conversation happening to turn upon love, each of the young ladies was, by way of rallery, recommending a wife to him; when to the no small surprise of her who languished for him in secret, he told them with a more than ordinary seriousness, that his heart had been long engaged to one whose name he thought himself obliged in honour to conceal; but that he could shew her picture

১

picture in the lid of his snuff box. The young lady, who found herself most sensibly touched by this confeffion, took the first opportunity that offered of snatching his box out of his hand. He seemed defirous of re covering it, but finding her refolved to look into the lid, begged her that if she should happen to know the person, fhe would not reveal her name. Upon carrying it to the window, she was very agreeably surprised to find there was nothing within the lid but a little looking-glass, in which after the had viewed her own face with more pleasure than the had ever done before, the returned the box with a fmile, telling him, she could not but admire at his choice.

WILL fancying that his story took, immediately fell into a differtation on the usefulness of looking-glaffes; and applying himself to me, afked if there were any looking-glaffes in the times of the Greeks and Romans; for that he had often observed in the tranflations of poems out of those languages, that people generally talked of feeing themselves in wells, fountains, lakes, and rivers: Nay, fays he, I remember Mr. Dryden in his Ovid tells us of a swinging fellow called Polypheme, that made use of the fea for his looking glass, and could never dress himself to advantage but in a calm.

My friend WILL, to shew us the whole compass of his learning upon this subject, further informed us that there were still several nations in the world so very barbarous as not to have any looking-glasses among them; and that he had lately read a voyage to the South-Sea, in which it is faid, that the ladies of Chili always dressed their heads over a bason of water.

I am the more particular in my account of WILL'S last nights lecture on these natural mirrours, as it feems to bear some relation to the following letter, which I received the day before.

SIR,

I

Have read your last Saturday's observations on the fourth book of Milton with great fatisfaction, and am particularly pleased with the hidden moral • which you have taken notice of in several parts of the poem. The defign of this letter is to defire your • thoughts,

thoughts, whether there may not also be some mo⚫ral couched under that place in the fame book where ⚫ the poet lets us know, that the first woman immediately after her creation ran to a looking-glass, and became fo enamoured of her own face, that she had never removed to view any of the other works of nature, had the not been led off to a man. If you think fit to fet down the whole passage from Milton, your • readers will be able to judge for themselves, and the quotation will not a little contribute to the filling up of your paper.

Your humble fervant,

R. T.

The last confideration urged by my querist is fo strong, that I cannot forbear closing with it. The paffage he alludes to, is part of Eve's Speech to Adam, and one of the most beautiful passages in the whole

poem.

That day I oft remember, when from Sleep
I first awak'd, and found myself repos'd
Under a shade, on flow'rs, much wond'ring where
And what I was, whence hither brought, and horn.
Not distant far from thence a murmuring found
Of waters iffu'd from a cave, and spread
Into a liquid plain, then stood unmov'd
Pure as th' expanse of beav'n: I thither went
With unexperienc'd thought, and laid me down
On the green bank, to look into the clear
Smooth lake, that to me feem'd another sky.
As I bent down to look, just oppofite
A shape within the watry gleam appear'd,
Bending to look on me; I started back,
It started back; but pleas'd I Soon return'd,
Pleas'd it return'd as foon with answered looks
Of sympathy and love : there I had fix'd
Mine eyes till now, and pin'd with vain defire,
Had not a voice thus warn'd me, What thou seest,
What there thou feest, fair creature, is the self;
With thee it came and goes: but follow me,
And I will bring thee where no shadow stays
Thy coming, and thy soft embraces, he

Whose Whose image thou art, him thou shalt enjoy

Inseparably thine, to him shalt bear
Multitudes like thyself, and thence be call'd
Mother of human race. What could I do,
But follow straight, invisibly thus led?
Till I efpy'd thee, fair indeed and tall,
Under a plantan; yet methought less fair,
Less winning soft, less amiably mild,
Than that Smooth watry image : back I turn'd;
Thou following cryd'st aloud, Return, fair Eve,
Whom fly'st thou? Whom thou fly'st, of him thou art,
His flesh, his bone; to give thee being I lent
Out of my fide to thee, nearest my heart,
Substantial life, to have thee by my side,
Henceforth an individual folace dear :
Part of my foul, I seek thee, and thee claim
My other half! - with that thy gentle hand
Seiz'd mine; I yielded, and from that time fee
How beauty is excell'd by manly grace
And wisdom, which alone is truly fair.
So Spoke our general mother -

No 326 Friday, March 14.

،

Inclufam Danaën turris ahenea,
Robustæque fores, & vigilum canum
Tristes excubia, munierant fatis

Nocturnis ab adulteris ;

Si non

X

Hor. Od. 16. 1. 3. v. 1.

A tow'r of brass, one would have faid,
And locks, and bolts, and iron bars,

Might have preserv'd one innocent maiden-head;

But Venus laugh'd, &c.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Y

COWLEY..

OUR correspordent's letter relating to Fortune-Hunters, and your subsequent discourse upon it, have given me encouragement to fend you a state of my cafe, by which you will fee, that ' the

)

• the matter complained of is a common grievance both to city and country.

،

،

،

،

I am a country-gentleman of between five and fix thousand a year. It is my misfortune to have a very • fine park and an only daughter; upon which account I have been so plagued with deer-stealers and fops, that for these four years past I have scarce enjoyed a moment's reft. I look upon myself to be in a ftate of war, and am forc'd to keep as constant watch ⚫ in my feat, as a governor would do that commanded a town on the frontier of an enemy's country. I have indeed pretty well fecur'd iny park, having for this purpose provided myself of four keepers who are lefthanded, and handle a quater-ftaff beyond any other • fellows in the country. And for the guard of my house, • besides a band of penfioner matrons and an old maiden * relation whom I keep on constant duty, I have blunderbusses always charged, and fox-gins planted in private places about my garden, of which I have given frequent notice in the neighbourhood; yet so it is, that in spite of all my care, I shall every now and then have a faucy rafcal ride by reconnoitring (as I think you call • it) under my windows, as sprucely dressed as if he were going to a ball. I am aware of this way of attacking a • mistress on horseback, having heard that it is a common practice in Spain; and have therefore taken care to remove my daughter from the road-fide of the house, and to lodge her next the garden. But to cut • short ny story; what can a man do after all? I durft not stand for member of parliament last election, for • fear of fome ill confequence from my being off my poft. • What I would therefore defire of you, is, to promote

،

a project I have fet on foot; and upon which I have • writ to fome of my friends; and that is, that care may • be taken to fecure our daughters by law, as well as our deer; and that fome honeft gentleman of a public spirit, would move for leave to bring in a bill for the • better preserving of the female game.

I am,

SIR,

Your humble fervant.