only to amufe myself with the repetition of old stories and intrigues which no one will believe I ever was concerned in. I do not know whether you have ever treated of it or not; but you cannot fall on a better fubject, than that of the art of growing old. In fuch a lecture you must propofe, that no one fet his heart upon what is tranfient; the beauty grows wrinkled while we are yet gazing at her. The witty man finks into an humorit imperceptibly, for want of reflecting that all things around him are in a flux, and continually changing: thus he is in the space of ten or fifteen years furrounded by a new fet of people, whofe man-› ners are as natural to them as his delights, method of thinking, and mode of living, were formerly to him and his friends. But the mifchief is, he looks upon the fame kind of errors which he himself was guilty of with an eye of fcorn, and with that fort of ill-will. which men entertain against each other for different opinions thus a crazy conftitution, and an uneafy mind is fretted with vexatious paffions for young mens doing foolishly what it is folly to do at all. Dear fir, this is my prefent state of mind; I hate those I should laugh at, and envy thofe I contemn. The time of youth and vigorous manhood, paffed the way in which I have difpofed of it, is attended with thefe confequences; but to thofe who live and pafs away life as they ought, all parts of it are equally pleafant; only the memory of good and worthy actions is a feaft which must give a quicker relish to the foul than ever it could poffibly tafte in the highest enjoyments or jollities of youth. As for me, if I fit down in my great chair and begin to ponder, the vagaries of a child are not more ridiculous than the circumftances which are heaped up in my memory; fine gowns, country-dances, ends of tunes, interrupted converfations, and midnight quarrels, are what mult neceffa rily compofe my foliloquy. I beg of you to print this, 'that fome ladies of my acquaintance, and my years, may be perfuaded to wear warm night-caps this cold feafon and that my old friend Jack Tawdry may buy him a cane, and not creep with the air of a strut. I muft add to all this, that if it were not for one plea fure, which I thought a very mean one until of very late years, I should have no one great fatisfaction left; '. but if I live to the 10th of March, 1714, and all my fecurities are good, I fhall be worth fifty thousand pound. I am, Sir, Your most humble fervant, Mr. SPECTATÓR, YOU will infinitely oblige a diftreffed lover, if you will infert in your very next paper, the following letter to my miftrefs. You must know, I am not a perfon apt to defpair, but fhe has got an odd humour of ftopping fhort unaccountably, and, as the herself told a confidant of hers, fhe has cold fits. These fits fhall laft her a month or fix weeks together; and as "The falls into them without provocation, fo it is to be hoped fhe will return from them without the merit of 6 new fervices. But life and love will not admit of fnch intervals, therefore pray let her be admonished as fol⚫ lows. 'MADAM, 'I LOVE you, and I honour you; therefore pray do not tell me of waiting till decencies, till forms, till humours are confulted and gratified. If y you have that happy conftitution as to be indolent for ten weeks together, you should confider that all that while I burn with impatiences and fevers; but ftill you fay it will be time enough, though I and you too grow older while we are yet talking. Which do you think the more reasonable, that you fhould alter a state of indifference for happiness, and that to oblige me, or I live in torment, and that to lay no manner of obligation upon you? While I indulge your infenfibility I am doing nothing; if you favour my paffion, you are beftowing bright defires, gay hopes, generous cares, noble refolutions, and tranfporting raptures upon, Madam, • Your most devoted humble fervant. Mr. SPECTATOR, "HERE is a gentlewoman lodges in the fame houfe with me, that I never did any injury to in my "whole life; and the is always railing at me to thofe fhe knows will tell me of it. Do not you think that fhe is in love with me? or would you have me break my mind yet or not? Mr. SPECTATOR, • Your fervant, 'T. B.' I AM a footman in a great famliy, and am in, love with the houfe-maid. We were all at hot-cockles laft night in the hai thefe holidays; when I lay down and was blinded, fhe pulled off her fhoe, and hit me with the heel fuch a rap, as almoft broke my head to "pieces. Pray, fir, was this love or spite?" N° 261. Saturday, December 29. T. ΓάμΘ- γὰρ ἀνθρώποισιν εὐκλαῖον κακον· - α Frag. vet. Poet. Wedlock's 's an ill men eagerly embrace. My father, whom I mentioned in my firft fpecu lation, and whom I must always name with honour and gratitude, has very frequently talked to me upon the fubject of marriage. I was in my younger years engaged, partly by his advice, and partly by my own inclinations, in the courtship of a perfon who had a great deal of beauty, and did not at my first approaches feem to have any averfion to me; but as my natural taciturnity hindered me from fhewing myself to the best advantage, fhe by degrees began to look upon me as a very filly fellow, and being refolved to regard merit more than any thing elfe in the perfons who made their applications to her, fhe married a captain of dragoons who happened to be beating up for recruits in thofe parts. This unlucky accident has given me an averfion to pretty fellows ever fince, and difcouraged me from try-, ing my fortune with the fair fex. The obfervations. which I made in this conjuncture, and the repeated advices which I received at that time from the good old man above-mentioned, have produced the following effay upon love and marriage. The pleafanteft part of a man's I fe is generally that which paffes in court fhip, provided his paffion be fincere, and the party beloved kind with difcretion. Love, defire, hope, all the pleafing motions of the foul rife in the purfuit. It is easier for an artful man w' is not in love, to perfuade his mistress he has a paflion for her, and to fucceed in his purfuits, than for one who loves with the greatest violence. True love has ten thousand griefs, impatiences and refentments, that render a man unamiable in the eyes of the perfon whofe affection he folicits; befides, that it finks his figure, gives him fears, apprehenfions and poornefs of fpirit, and often makes him appear ridiculous where he has a mind to recommend himself. Those marriages generally abound moft with love and conftancy, that are preceded by a long courtship. The paffion fhould ftrike root, and gather ftrength before inarriage be grafted on it. A long courfe of hopes and expectations fixes the idea in our minds, and habituates us to a fondness of the perfon beloved. There is nothing of fo great importance to us, as the good qualities of one to whom we join curfelves for life; they do not only make our prefent ftate agree. able, but often determine our happiness to all eternity. Where the choice is left to friends, the chief point under confideration is an eftate: where the parties choose for themfelves, their thoughts turn moft upon the perfon. They have both their reafons. The first would procure many conveniencies and pleafures of life to the party whofe interefts they efpoufe; and at the fame time may hope that the wealth of their friend will turn to their own credit and advantage. The others are preparing for themselves a perpetual feaft. A good perfon does not only raife, but continue love, and breeds a fecret pleasure and complacency in the beholder, when the first heats of defire are extinguished. It puts the wife or husband in countenance both among friends and ftrangers, and generally fills the family with a healthy and beautiful race of children. I fhould prefer a woman that is agreeable in my own eye, and not deformed in that of the world, to a celebrated beauty. If you marry one remarkably beautiful, you must have a violent paffion for her, or you have not the proper taste of her charms and if ; you have fuch a paffion for her, it is odds but it would be in bittered with fears and jealoufies. ; Good-nature and evennefs of temper will give you an eafy companion for life; virtue and good fenfe, an agreeable friend; love and conftancy, a good wife or husband. Where we meet one perfon with all these accomplishments, we find an hundred without any one of them. The world, notwithstarding, is more intent on trains and equipages, and all the fhowy parts of life we love rather to dazzle the multitude, than confult our proper interefts; and, as I have elsewhere obferved, it is one of the most unaccountable paffions of human nature, that we are at greater pains to appear eafy and happy to others, than really to make ourselves fo. Of all difparities, that in humour makes the most unhappy marriages, yet fcarce enters into our thoughts at the contracting of them. Several that are in this refpe&t unequally yoked, and uneafy for life, with a perfon of a particular character, might have been pleased and happy with a perfon of a contrary one, notwithstanding they are both perhaps equally virtuous and laudable in their kind. Before marriage we cannot be too inquifitive and difcerning in the faults of the perfon beloved, nor after it too dim-fighted and fuperficial. However perfect and accomplished the perfon appears to you at a diftarce, you will find many blemishes and imperfections in her humour, upon a more intimate acquaintarce, which you never difcovered, or perhaps fufpected. Here therefore difcretion and good-nature are to fhew their ftrength; the first will hinder your thoughts from |