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art in heaven, fhould be, Our Father WHO art in heaven; and even a CONVOCATION, after long debates, refused to consent to an alteration of it. In our general confeffion we fay, Spare thou them, O God, WHICH confefs their faults, which ought to be WHO confess their faults. What hopes then have we of having juftice done us, when the makers of our very prayers and laws, and the moft learned in all 'faculties, feem to be in a confederacy against us, and our enemies themselves must be our 'judges.

The Spanish proverb says, Il sabio muda confcio, il necio no; i. e. A wife man changes his mind, a fool never will. So that we think you Sir, a very proper perfon to addrefs to, fince 'we know you to be capable of being convinced, and changing your judgment. You are well able to fettle this affair, and to you we fubmit 'our caufe. We defire you to affign the butts and bounds of each of us; and that for the ⚫ future we may both enjoy our own. We would 'defire to be heard by our counsel, but that we fear in their very pleadings they would betray our caufe: befides, we have been oppreffed fo many years, that we can appear no other way but in forma pauperis. All which confidered, we hope you will be pleafed to do that which to right and juftice fhall appertain.

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And your petitioners, &c.'

By STEELE. See final Note to N° 5; his other Signa ture T. was probably used at times by Mr. T. Tickell. See N° 324, and N° 410, Notes ad finess

N° 79.

I

N° 79. Thursday, May 31, 1711.

Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore.

HOR. I Ep. xvi. 52.

The good, for virtue's fake, abhor to fin.

CREECH.

HAVE received very many letters of late from my female correfpondents, most of whom are very angry with me for abridging their pleasures, and looking feverely upon things, in themselves indifferent. But I think they are extremely unjust to me in this imputation. All I contend for is, that those excellencies, which are to be regarded but in the second place, should not precede more weighty confiderations. The heart of man deceives him in fpite of the lectures of half a life spent in discourses on the subjection of paffion; and I do not know why one may not think the heart of woman as unfaithful to itself. If we grant an equality in the faculties of both fexes, the minds of women are less cultivated with precepts, and confequently may, without disrespect to them, be accounted more liable to illufion, in cafes wherein natural inclination is out of the interest of virtue.' I shall take up my present time in commenting upon a billet or two which came from ladies, and from thence leave the reader to judge whether I am in the right or not, in thinking it is poffible fine VOL. I. Hh

women

women may be mistaken. The following addrefs feems to have no other defign in it, but to tell me the writer will do what the pleafes for all me.

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'Mr. SPECTATOR,

I A

AM young, and very much inclined to follow the paths of innocence; but at the 'fame time, as I have a plentiful fortune, and am of quality, I am unwilling to refign the pleasures of diftinction, fome little fatisfaction in being admired in general, and much greater ' in being beloved by a gentleman, whom I defign to make my husband. But I have a mind to put off entering into matrimony till another winter is over my head, which (whatever, mufty Sir, you may think of the matter) I de'fign to pafs away in hearing mufic, going to plays, vifiting, and all other fatisfactions which 'fortune and youth, protected by innocence and 'virtue, can procure for, Sir,

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Your most humble fervant,
'M. T.

• My lover does not know I like him, there'fore having no engagements upon me, I think to ftay and know whether I may like any one ' elfe better.'

I have heard WILL HONEYCOMB fay, A woman feldom writes her mind but in her poftfcript. I think this gentlewoman has fufficiently difcovered hers in this. I will lay what wager the

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pleases

pleases against her prefent favourite, and can tell her that she will like ten more before fhe is fixed, and then will take the worst man fhe ever liked in her life. There is no end of affection taken in at the eyes only; and you may as well fatisfy those eyes with feeing, as controul any paffion received by them only. It is from loving by fight, that coxcombs fo frequently fucceed with women, and very often a young lady is beftowed by her parents to a man who weds her as innocence itself, though fhe has, in her own heart, given her approbation of a different man in every affembly the was in the whole year before. What is wanting among women as well as among men, is the love of laudable things, and not to rest only in the forbearance of such as are reproachful.

How far removed from a woman of this light imagination is Eudofia! Eudofia has all the arts of life and good-breeding with so much ease, that the virtue of her conduct looks more like an instinct than choice. It is as little difficult to her to think juftly of perfons and things, as it is to a woman of different accomplishments to move ill, or look aukward. That which was, at first, the effect of inftruction, is grown into an habit; and it would be as hard for Eudofia to indulge a wrong fuggeftion of thought, as it would be to Flavia, the fine dancer, to come into a room with an unbecoming air.

But the misapprehenfions people themselves have of their own ftate of mind, is laid down with much difcerning in the following letter, Hh 2 which

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which is but an extract of a kind epiftle from my charming mistress Hecatiffa, who is above the vanity of external beauty, and is the better judge of the perfections of the mind.

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

WRITE this to acquaint you, that very many ladies, as well as myself, spend many ⚫ hours more than we used at the glass, for want of the female library, of which you promised us a catalogue. I hope, Sir, in the choice of authors for us, you will have a particular regard 'to books of devotion. What they are, and how chief care; many, must be your for upon the propriety of fuch writings depends a great deal. I have known thofe among us who think, if they every morning and evening spend an hour ' in their closet, and read over fo many prayers in 'fix or seven books of devotion, all equally nonfenfical, with a fort of warmth, (that might as 'well be raised by a glafs of wine, or a dram of citron) they may all the reft of their time go on in whatever their particular paffion leads 'them to. The beauteous Philautia, who is (in your language) an Idol, is one of these votaries; she has a very pretty furnished closet, to which the retires at her appointed hours.This is her dreffing-room, as well as chapel; 'fhe has conftantly before her a large lookingglafs; and upon the table, according to a very witty author,

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Together lie her prayer-book and paint,
At once t'improve the finner and the faint.

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