' critics about the original of that club, which both • Universities will contend so warmly for? And per haps some hardy Cantabrigian author may then 'boldly affirm, that the word Oxford' was an inter'polation of some Oxonian instead of Cambridge. This affair will be best adjusted in your life-time; but I hope your affection to your Mother will not 'make you partial to your Aunt. To tell you, Sir, my own opinion: though I can'not find any ancient records of any acts of the Socie'ty of the Ugly Faces, considered in a public capacity; ' yet in a private one they have certainly antiquity on their side. I am persuaded they will hardly give 'place to the Loungers; and the Loungers are of the same standing with the University itself. Though we well know, Sir, you want no motives to do justice, yet I am commissioned to tell you, that you are invited to be admitted ad eundem at Cambridge; and I believe I may venture safely to ⚫ deliver this as the wish of our whole University.' TO MR. SPECTATOR. 'The humble petition of Who and Which. • Sheweth, THAT your petitioners, being in a forlorn and destitute condition, known not to whom we should apply ourselves for relief, because there is hardly ⚫ any man alive who hath not injured us. Nay, we speak it with sorrow, even you yourself, whom we 'should suspect of such a practice the last of ali mankind, can hardly acquit yourself of having given us 'some cause of complaint. We are descended of 'ancient families, and kept up our dignity and honour many years, till the Jack-sprat That supplanted us. How often have we found ourselves slighted by the clergy in their pulpits, and the lawyers at the bar? 'Nay, how often have we heard in one of the most 'polite and august assemblies in the universe, to our " great mortification these words, "that That that ' noble lord urged." Senates themselves, the guar'dians of British liberty, have degraded us, and preferred That to us; and yet no decree was ever given ' against us. In the very acts of parliament, in which the utmost right should be be done to every Body, Ward, and Thing, we find ourselves either not used, < or used one instead of another. In the first and best < prayer childen are taught, they learn to misuse us. "Our Father Which art in Heaven," should 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 Confession we say,→ "Spare thou them, O God, Which confess their faults." which ought to be "Who confess their faults." 'What hopes then have we of having justice done us, 'when the makers of our very prayers and laws, and the most learned in all faculties, seem to be in a con'federacy against us, and our enemies themselves 'must be our judges. The Spanish proverb says: El sabio muda consejo, el necio no; i. e." A wise man changes his mind, a 'fool never will." So that we think you, Sir, a very proper person to address to, since we know you to be capable of being convinced, and changing your 'judgment. You are well able to settle this affair, and to you we submit our cause. We desire you 'to assign the butts and bounds of each of us; and that for the future we may both enjoy our own. We 'would desire to be heard by our counsel, but that we fear in their very pleadings they would betray our cause: besides, we have been oppressed so many years, that we can appear no other way, but in 'forma pauperis. All which considered, we hope you 'will be pleased to do that which to right and justice shall appertain. R. And your petitioners, &c. No. LXXIX. THURSDAY, MAY 31. Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore The good, for virtue's sake, abhor to sin. HOR. CRFECH. I HAVE received very many letters of late, from my female correspondents, most of whom are very angry with me for abridging their pleasures, and looking severely upon things in themselves indifferent. But I think they are extremely unjust to me in this imputation, all that I contend for is, that those excellencies, which are to be regarded but in the second place, should not precede more weighty considerations. The heart of man deceives him in spite of the lectures of half a life spent in discourses on the subjection of the passion; 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 sexes, the minds of women are less cultivated with precepts, and consequently may, without disrespect to them, be accounted more liable to illusion in cases wherein natural inclination is out of the interests 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 possible fine women may be mistaken. The following address seems to have no other design in it, but to tell me the writer will do what she pleases for all me. Mr. Spectator, I AM young, and very much inclined to follow 'the paths of innocence; but at the same time, as I have a plentiful fortune, and am of quality, I am un'willing to resign the pleasures of distinction, some little satisfaction in being admired in general, and 'much greater in being beloved by a gentleman, 'whom I design to make my husband. But I have a mind to put off entering into matrimony till another winter is over my head, which, whatever, musty Sir, you may think of the matter, I design to pass away in hearing music, going to plays, visiting, and all other satisfactions which fortune and youth, pro⚫tected by innocence and virtue, can procure for, • Sir, • Your most humble servant, 'My lover does not know I like him; therefore, having no engagements upon me, I think to stay and 'know whether I may not like any one else better.' I have heard Will Honeycomb say, A woman. 'seldom writes her mind but in her postscript. I think this gentlewoman has sufficiently discovered hers in this. I will lay what wager she pleases against her present favourite, and can tell her that she will like ten more before she is fixed, and then will take the worst man she ever liked in her life. There is no end of affection taken in at the eyes only; and you may as well satisfy those eyes with seeing, as control any passion received by them only. It is from loving by sight that coxcombs so frequently succeed with women, and very often a young lady is bestowed by her parents to a man who weds her as innocence itself, though she has, in her own heart, given her approbation of a different man in every assembly she was in the whole year before. What is wanting a mong 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 Eudosia! Eudosia 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 justly of persons and things, as it is to a woman of different accomplishments to move ill or look awkward. That which was at first the effect of instruction, is grown into a habit; and it would be as hard for Eudosia to indulge a wrong suggestion of thought, as it would be for Flavia, the fine dancer, to come into a room with an unbecoming air. But the misapprehensions people themselves have of their own state of mind, is laid down with much discerning in the following letter, which is but an extract of a kind epistle from my charming mistress Hecatissa, who is above the vanity of external beauty, and is the better judge of the perfections of the mind. • 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 many, must be your chief care; for upon the propriety of such writings depends ( great deal. I have known those among us who think, if they every morning and evening spend an hour in their closet, and read over so many prayers in six or seven books of devotion, all equally nonsensical, with a sort of warmth, that might as well be raised by a glass of wine, or a dram of citron, |