that my behavior is so strictly irreproachable; for I am naturally addicted to mirth, to gaiety, to a free air, to motion, and gadding. Now, what gives me a great deal of anxiety, and is some discouragement in the pursuit of virtue, is, that the young women who run into greater freedoms with the men are more taken notice of than I am. The men are such unthink.. ing sots, that they do not prefer her who restrains all her passions and affections, and keeps much within the bounds of what is lawful, to her who goes to the utmost verge of innocence, and parleys at the very brink of vice, whether she shall be a wife or a mistress. But I must appeal to your Spectatorial wis-dom, who, I find, have passed overmuch of your time in the study of women, whether this is not a most unreasonable proceeding. I have read somewhere, that Hobbes of Malmsbury asserts, that continent persons have more of what they contain, than those who give a loose to their desires. According to this. rule, let there be equal age, equal wit, and equal good-humor, in the woman of prudence, and her of liberty; what stores has he to expect who takes the former? What refuse must he be contented with who chooses the latter? Well, but I sat down to write to you, to vent my indignation against seveval pert creatures who are addressed to and courted in this place, while poor I, and two or three like me, are wholly unregarded. "Every one of these affect gaining the hearts of your sex. This is generally attempted by a particular manner of carrying themselves with familiarity. Glycera has a dancing walk, and keeps time in her ordinary gait. Chloe, her sister, who is unwilling to interrupt her conquests, comes into the room before her with a familiar run. Dulcissa takes ad vantage of the approach of the winter, and has introduced a very pretty shiver; closing up her shoulders, and shrinking as she moves. All that are in this. mode carry their fans between both hands before them. Dulcissa herself, who is author of this air, adds the pretty run to it; and has also, when she is in very good humor, a taking familiarity in throwing herself into the lowest seat in the room, and letting her hoop'd petticoats fall with a lucky decency about her. I know she practises this way of sitting down in her chamber; and indeed she does it as well. as you may have seen an actress fall down dead in a. tragedy. Not the least indecency in her posture. If you have observed what pretty carcases are carried off at the end of a verse at the theatre, it will give you a notion how Ducissa plumps into a chair. Here's a little country girl that's very cunning, that makes her use of being young and unbred, and outdoes the insnarers, who are almost twice her age. The air that she takes is to come into company after a walk, and is very successfully out of breath upon occasion. Her mother is in the secret, and calls her romp, and then. looks round to see what young men stare at her. "It would take up more than can come into one of your papers, to enumerate all the particular airs of the younger company in this place. But I cannot omit Dulceorella, whose manner is the most indolent imaginable, but still as watchful of conquest as the busiest virgin among us. She has a peculiar art of staring at a young fellow, till she sees she has got him, and inflamed him by so much observation. When she sees she has him, and he begins to toss his head upon it, she is immediately short-sighted, and labors to observe what he is at a distance with her eyes half shut Thus the captive, that thought her first struck, is to make very near approaches, or be wholly disregarded. This artifice has done more execution than all the ogling of the rest of the women here, with the utmost variety of half glances, attentive heedlessness, childish inadvertencies, haughty contempts, or artificial oversights. After I have said thus much of ladies among us, who fight thus regularly, I am to complain to you of a set of familiar romps, who have broken through all common rules, and have thought of a very effectual way of showing more charms than all of us. These, Mr. Spectator, are the swingers. You are to know these careless pretty creatures are very innocents again; and it is to be no matter what they do, for it is all harmless freedom. They get on ropes, as you must have seen the children, and are swung by their men visitants. The jest is, that Mr. Such-a-one can name the colors of Mrs. Such-a-one's stockings; and she tells him he is a lying thief, so he is, and full of roguery; and she'll lay a wager, and her sister shall tell the truth if he says right, that he can't tell what color her garters are of. In this diversion there are very many pretty shrieks, not so much for fear of falling, as that their petticoats should untie: for there is a great care had to avoid improprieties ; and the lover who swings the lady, is to tie her clothes very close with his hat-band, before she admits him to throw up her heels. "Now, Mr. Spectator, except you can note these wantonnesses in their beginnings, and bring us sober. girls into observation, there is no help for it, we must swim with the tide; the coquettes are too powerful a party for us. To look into the merit of a regular and well-behaved woman is a slow thing. A loose trivial song gains the affections, when a wise homely is not attended to. There is no other way but to make war upon them, or we must go over to them. As for my part, I will show all the world it is not for want of charms that I stand so long unasked; and if you do not take measures for the immediate redress of us rigids, as the fellows call us, I can move with a speaking mien, can look significantly, can lisp, can trip, can loll, can start, can blush, can rage, can weep, if I must do it, and can be frighted as agreeable as any she in England. All which is humbly submitted to your Spectatorial consideration, with all humility, by "Your most humble servant, T MATILDA MOHAIR D No. 493. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1712 BY STEELE Qualem commendes etiam atque etiam adspice, ne mox HOR. Ep. 18. 1. 1. v. 76 Commend not, till a man is throughly known: A rascal prais'd, you make his faults your own. ANON. IT is no unpleasant matter of speculation to consider the recommendatory epistles that pass round this town from hand to hand, and the abuse people put upon one another in that kind. It is indeed come to that pass, that instead of being the testimony of merit in the person recommended, the true reading of a let ter of this sort is, "The bearer hereof is so uneasy to me, that it will be an act of charity in you to take him off my hands; whether you prefer him or not, it is all one, for I have no manner of kindness for him, or obligation to him or his; and do what you please as to that." As negligent as men are in this respect, a point of honor is concerned in it; and there is nothing a man should be more ashamed of, than passing a worthless creature into the service or interests of a man who has never injured you. The women indeed are a little too keen in their resentments to trespass often this way: but you shall sometimes know that the mistress and the maid shall quarrel, and give each other very free language, and at last the lady shall be pacified to turn her out of doors, and give her a very good word to any body else. Hence it is that you see, in a year and a half's time, the same face a domestic in all parts of the town. Good-breeding and goodnature lead people in a great measure to this injustice: when suitors of no consideration will have confidence enough to press upon their superiors, those in power are tender of speaking the exceptions they have against them, and are mortgaged into promises out of their impatience of importunity. In this latter case, it would be a very useful inquiry to know the history of recommendations: there are, you must know, certain abettors of this way of torment, who make it a profession to manage the affairs of candidates: these gentlemen let out their impudence to their clients, and supply any defective recommendation, by informing how such and such a man is to be attacked. They will tell you, get the least scrap from Mr. Such-a-one, and leave the rest to them. When one of these undertakers have your business |