THE SPECTATOR. VOL. IV. N° 252. Wednesday, December 19. 1711. Erranti, paffimque oculos per cuncta ferenti. Virg. Mr. SPECTATOR, Am very forry to find by your Difcourfe upon the Eye, that you have not thoroughly ftudied the Nature and Force of that Part of a beauteous Face. Had you ever been in Love, you would have faid ten thoufand things, which it feems did not occur to you: Do but reflect upon the 'Nonsense it makes Men talk, the Flames which it is 'faid to kindle, the Tranfport it raifes, the Dejection it 'causes in the bravest Men; and if you do believe those things are expreffed to an Extravagance, yet you will own, that the Influence of it is very great which moves • Men to that Extravagance. Certain it is, that the whole Strength of Mind is fometimes feated there; that a kind 'Look imparts all, that a Year's Difcourfe could give you, in one Moment. What matters it what the fays A 5 to ༩ to you, fee how fhe looks, is the Language of all who know what Love is. When the Mind is thus fummed up and expreffed in a Glance, did you never observe a sudden Joy arife in the Countenance of a Lover? Did you never fee the Attendance of Years paid, over-paid, in an Inftant? You a SPECTATOR, and not know that the Intelligence of Affection is carried on by the Eye only; that Good-breeding has made the Tongue falfify the Heart, and act a Part of continual Conftraint, while Nature has preferved the Eyes to her felf, that she may not be difguifed or misreprefented. The poor Bride can give her Hand, and fay, I do, with a languishing Air to the Man fhe is obliged by cruel Parents to take for mercenary Reasons, but at the fame Time fhe cannot look as if the loved; her Eye is full of Sorrow, and Relu⚫&tance fits in a Tear, while the offering of the Sacrifice is performed in what we call the Marriage Ceremony. • Do you never go to Plays? Cannot you diftinguish between the Eyes of thofe who go to fee, from those who come to be feen? I am a Woman turned of Thirty, and am on the Observation a little; therefore if you or your Correfpondent had confulted me in your Difcourfe on the Eye, I could have told you, that the Eye of Leonora is flily watchful while it looks negligent; fhe looks round her without the help of the Glaffes you fpeak of, and yet seems to be employed on Objects directly be⚫fore her. This Eye is what affects Chance-medley, and on a sudden, as if it attended to another thing, turns all its Charms against an Ogler. The Eye of Lufitania is an Inftrument of premeditated Murder, but the Defign be⚫ing vifible, deftroys the Execution of it; and with much more Beauty than that of Leonora, it is not half so mis⚫chievous. There is a brave Soldier's Daughter in Town, that by her Eye has been the Death of more than ever her Father made fly before him. A beautiful Eye makes Silence eloquent, a kind Eye makes Contradiction an Affent, an enraged Eye makes Beauty deformed. This little Member gives Life to every other Part about us, and I believe the Story of Argus implies no more than that the Eye is in every Part, that is to fay, every other Part would be mutilated, were not its Force reprefented more by the Eye than even by it felf. But this is Hea ་ • then then Greek to thofe who have not converfed by Glances. This, Sir, is a Language in which there can be no De'ceit, nor can a skillful Obferver be impofed upon by Looks even among Politicians and Courtiers. If you do me the Honour to print this among your Speculations, • 1 fhall in my next make you a Prefent of Secret Hiftory, by Tranflating all the Looks of the next Affembly of • Ladies and Gentlemen into Words, to adorn fome future Paper. I am, SIR, Your Faithful Friend, Mary Heartfree, Dear Mr. SPECTATOR, :I Have a Sot of a Husband that lives a very scandalous Life, and waftes away his Body and Fortune in Debaucheries; and is immoveable to all the Arguments I can urge to him. I would gladly know whether in fome Cafes a Cudgel may not be allowed as a good Fi gure of Speech, and whether it may not be lawfully ufed by a Female Orator. Your humble Servant, Barbara Crabtree, ་ Mr. SPECTATOR, THOUGH I am a Practitioner in the Law of fome ftanding, and have heard many eminent Pleaders ' in my Time, as well as other eloquent Speakers of both 'Universities, yet I agree with you, that Women are better qualified to fucceed in Oratory than the Men, and 'believe this is to be refolved into natural Causes. You 'have mentioned only the Volubility of their Tongue; 'but what do you think of the filent Flattery of their pretty Faces, and the Perfwafion which even an infipid 'Difcourfe carries with it when flowing from beautiful Lips, to which it would be cruel to deny any Thing? 'It is certain too, that they are poffeffed of fome Springs of Rhetorick which Men want, fuch as Tears, fainting Fits, and the like, which I have feen employed upon Occafion with good Succefs. You must know I am . 1 a plain Man and love my Money; yet I have a Spouse 'who is fo great an Orator in this Way, that fhe draws ⚫ from me what Sums fhe pleafes. Every Room in my Houfe is furnifhed with Trophies of her Eloquence, rich Cabinets, Piles of China, Japan Screens, and coftly Jars; and if you were to come into my great Parlour, you would fancy your felf in an India Ware-houfe: Befides this, fhe keeps a Squirrel, and I am doubly taxed to pay for the China he breaks. She is feized with periodical Fits about the Time of the Subfcriptions to a new Opera, and is drowned in Tears after having feen any Woman there in finer Cloaths than her felf: Thefe are Arts of Perfwafion purely Feminine, and which a tender Heart cannot refift. What I would therefore defire of you, is, to prevail with your Friend who has promifed to diffect a Female Tongue, that he would at the fame Time give us the Anatomy of a Female Eye, and explain the Springs and Sluices which feed it with fuch ready Supplies of Moisture; and likewife fhew by what Means, if poffible, they may be ftopped at a rea⚫fonable Expence: Or indeed, fince there is fomething fo moving in the very Image of weeping Beauty, it 'would be worth his Art to provide, that these eloquent Drops may no more be lavished on Trifles, or employed as Servants to their wayward Wills; but referved for ⚫ferious Occafions in Life, to adorn generous Pity, true Penitence, or real Sorrow. T Iam, &c. N° 253. Thursday, December 20. Indignor quicquam reprehendi, non quia craffe T Hor.. HERE is nothing which more denotes a great, Mind, than the Abhorrence of Envy and Detracti on. This Paffion reigns more among bad Poets,, than among any other Set of Men. A S there are none more ambitious of Fame, than those who are converfant in Poetry, it is very natural for fuch as have not fucceeded in it to depreciate the Works of those who have. For fince they cannot raise themselves to the Reputation of their Fellow-Writers, they muft endeavour to fink it to their own Pitch, if they would still keep themselves upon a Level with them. THE greatest Wits that ever were produced in one Age lived together in fo good an Understanding, and celebrated one another with fo much Generofity, that each of them receives an additional Luftre from his Contemporaries, and is more famous for having lived with Men of fo extraordinarya Genius, than if he had himself been the fole Wonder of the Age. I need not tell my Reader, that I here point at the Reign of Auguftus, and I believe he will be of my Opinion, that neither Virgil nor Horace would have gained fo great a Reputation in the World, had they not been the Friends and Admirers of each other. Indeed all the great Writers of that Age, for whom fingly we have fo great an Esteem, ftand up together as Vouchers for one another's Reputation. But at the fame time that Virgil was celebrated by Gallus, Propertius, Horace, Varius, Tucca and Ovid, we know that Bavius and Mavius were his declared Foes and Calumniators. IN our own Country a Man feldom fets up for a Poet, without attacking the Reputation of all his Brothers in the Art. The Ignorance of the Moderns, the Scriblers of the Age, the Decay of Poetry, are the Topicks of Detraction, with which he makes his Entrance into the World: But how much more noble is the Fame that is built on Candour and Ingenuity, according to thofe beautiful Lines of Sir John Denham, in his Poem on Fletcher's Works! But whither am I ftray'd? I need not raise of Eaftern Kings, who to fecure their Reign Must have their Brothers, Sons, and Kindred flain. I am forry to find that an Author, who is very juftly efteemed among the beft Judges, has admitted fome Stroaks |