pective Times in which they lived, than those who have employed themselves in Satire, under what Dress foever it may appear; as there are no other Authors whofe Province it is to enter fo directly into the Ways of Men, and fet their Miscarriages in fo ftrong a Light.

SIMONIDES, a Poet famous in his Generation, is, I think, Author of the oldest Satire that is now extant; and, as some say, of the first that was ever written. This Poet flourished about four hundred Years after the Siege of Troy; and fhews, by his way of Writing, the Simplicity, or rather Coarfenefs, of the Age in which he lived. I have taken notice, in my hundred and fixty first Speculation, that the Rule of observing what the French call the Bienfeance, in an Allufion, has been found out of latter Years; and that the Ancients, provided there was a Likeness in their Similitudes, did not much trouble themselves about the Decency of the Comparifon. The Satire or Iambicks of Simonides, with which I shall entertain my Readers in the prefent Paper, are a remarkable Inftance of what I formerly advanced. The Subject of this Satire is Woman. He defcribes the Sex in their feveral Characters, which he derives to them from a fanciful Suppofition raised upon the Doctrine of Præexiftence. He tells us, That the Gods formed the Souls of Women out of thofe Seeds and Principles which compose several kinds of Animals and Elements; and that their good or bad Difpofitions arife in them according as fuch and fuch Seeds and Principles predominate in their Conftitutions. I have tranflated the Author very faithfully, and if not Word for Word (which our Language would not bear) at least so as to comprehend every one of his Sentiments, without adding any thing of my own. I have already apologized for this Author's Want of Delicacy, and muft further premife, That the following Satire affects only fome of the lower Part of the Sex, and not those who have been refined by a polite Education, which was not fo common in the Age of this Poet.

IN the Beginning God made the Souls of Womankind out of different Materials, and in a feparate State from their Bodies.

THE

THE Souls of one Kind of Women were formed out of thofe Ingredients which compofe a Swine. A Woman of this Make is a Slut in her House and a Glutton at her Table. She is uncleanly in her Perfon, a Slattern in her Drefs, and her Family is no better than a Dungbil.

A Second Sort of Female Soul was formed out of the fame Materials that enter into the Compofition of a Fox. Such an one is what we call a notable difcerning Woman, who has an Infight into every Thing, whether it be good or bad. In this Species of Females there are fome virtuous and some vicious.

A Third Kind of Women were made up of Canine Particles. Thefe are what we commonly call Scolds, who imitate the Animals out of which they were taken, that are always bufy and barking, that fnarl at every one who comes in their Way, and live in perpetual Clamour.

THE Fourth Kind of Women were made out of the Earth. Thefe are your Sluggards, who pass away their Time in Indolence and Ignorance, hover over the Fire a whole Winter, and apply themselves with Alacrity to no kind of Bufinefs but Eating.

THE Fifth Species of Females were made out of the Sea. Thefe are Women of variable uneven Tempers, fometimes all Storm and Tempeft, fometimes all Calm and Sunshine. The Stranger who fees one of thefe in her Smiles and Smoothness, would cry her up for a Miracle of Good-humour; but on a fudden ber Looks and her Words are changed, he is nothing but Fury and Outrage, Noife and Hurricane.

THE Sixth Species were made up of the Ingredients which compofe an Afs, or a Beast of Burden. These are naturally exceeding flothful, but, upon the Husband's exerting his Authority, will live upon hard Fare, and do every Thing to pleafe him. They are however far from being averse to Venereal Pleasure, and feldom refufe a Male Companion.

THE Cat furnished Materials for a Seventh Species of Women, who are of a melancholy, froward, unamiable Nature, and fo repugnant to the Offers of Love, that they fy in the Face of their Husband when he approaches them with conjugal Endearments. This Species of Women are likewife fubject to little Thefts, Cheats and Pilferings.

THE Mare with a flowing Mane, which was never broke to any fervile Toil and Labour, compofed an Eighth

H 3

Species

Species of Women, Thefe are they who have little Regard for their Husbands, who pass away their Time in Dressing, Bathing, and Perfuming; who throw their Hair into the niceft Curls, and trick it up with the fairest Flowers and Garlands. AWoman of this Species is a very pretty Thing for a Stranger to look upon, but very detrimental to the Owner, unless it be a King or Prince who takes a Fancy to fuch a Toy..

THE Ninth Species of Females were taken out of the Ape. Thefe are fuch as are both ugly and ill-natured, who bave nothing beautiful in themselves, and endeavour to detract from or ridicule every Thing which appears fo in others.

THE Tenth and Laft Species of Women were made out: of the Bee and happy is the Man who gets fuch an one for his Wife. She is altogether faultless and unblameable; her Family flourishes and improves by her good Management. She loves her Husband, and is beloved by him. She brings. him a Race of beautiful and virtuous Children. She diftinguishes herself among her Sex. She is furrounded with Graces. She never fits among the loofe Tribe of Women, nor paffes away ber Time with them in wanton Difcourfes. She is full of Virtue and Prudence, and is the beft Wife that Jupiter can bestow on Man.

I fhall conclude these Iambicks with the Motto of this. Paper, which is a Fragment of the fame Author: A Man cannot poffefs any Thing that is better than a good Woman, nor any thing that is worse than a bad one.

AS the Poet has fhewn a great Penetration in this Diversity of Female Characters, he has avoided the Fault which Juvenal and Monfieur Boileau are guilty of, the former in his fixth, and the other in his last Satire, where they have endeavoured to expose the Sex in general, without doing Justice to the valuable Part of it. Such levelling Satires are of no Use to the World, and for this Reason I have often wondered how the French Author abovementioned, who was a Man of exquifite Judgment, and a Lover of Virtue, could think human Nature a proper Subject for Satire in another of his celebrated Pieces, which is called The Satire upon Man. What Vice or Frailty can a Discourse correct, which cenfures the whole Species alike, and endeavours to fhew by fome fuperficial Strokes

of

of Wit, that Brutes are the most excellent Creatures of the two? A Satire should expofe nothing but what is corrigible, and make a due Discrimination between those who are, and those who are not the proper Objects of it. L

No. 210.

Wednesday, October 31.

Nefcio quomodo inhæret in mentibus quafi feculorum quoddam augurium futurorum; idque in maximis ingeniis altiffimifque animis & exiftit maximè & apparet facillimè. Cic. Tufc. Quæft. There is, I know not how, in the Minds of Men a certain Prefage, as it were, of a future Exiflence; and this takes the deepeft Root, and is most discoverable in the greatest Geniufes and moft exalted Souls.

SIR,

I

To the SPECTATOR.

Am fully perfuaded that one of the best Springs of generous and worthy Actions, is the having generous and worthy Thoughts of our felves. Whoever has a mean Opinion of the Dignity of his Nature, 'will act in no higher a Rank than he has allotted him⚫ felf in his own Estimation. If he confiders his Being as circumfcribed by the uncertain Term of a few Years, his Defigns will be contracted into the fame narrow Span he imagines is to bound his Existence. How can he exalt his Thoughts to any thing great and noble, 'who only believes that, after a fhort Turn on the Stage of this World, he is to fink into Oblivion, and to lose his Consciousness for ever?

FOR this Reason I am of Opinion, that fo useful ' and elevated a Contemplation as that of the Soul's Immortality cannot be refumed too often. There is not a more improving Exercise to the human Mind, than to be frequently reviewing its own great Privileges and Endowments; nor a more effectual Means to awaken in us an Ambition raised above low Objects and little Purfuits, than to value our felves as Heirs of Eternity.

• IT is a very great Satisfaction to confider the beft and ⚫ wifeft of Mankind in all Nations and Ages, afferting, as ⚫ with one Voice, this their Birth-right, and to find it

ratify'd by an exprefs Revelation. At the fame time if ⚫ we turn our Thoughts inward upon our felves, we may • meet with a kind of fecret Senfe concurring with the • Proofs of our own Immortality.

YOU have, in my Opinion, raised a good prefumptive Argument from the increafing Appetite the Mind has to Knowledge, and to the extending its own Faculties, which cannot be accomplished, as the more re• ftrained Perfection of lower Creatures may, in the Limits <of a short Life. I think another probable Conjecture ⚫ may be raised from our Appetite to Duration it self, and from a Reflexion on our Progress through the feveral Stages of it: We are complaining, as you obferve in a former Speculation, of the Shortness of Life, and yet are perpetually hurrying over the Parts of it, to arrive at certain little Settlements, or imaginary Points of Reft, which are difperfed up and down in it.

་

"

• NOW let us confider what happens to us when we "arrive at these imaginary Points of Reft: Do we ftop our Motion, and fit down fatisfied in the Settlement we have gain'd? or are we not removing the Boundary, and marking out new Points of Reft, to which we press for'ward with the like Eagernefs, and which cease to be fuch as fast as we attain them? Our Cafe is like that of a • Traveller upon the Alps, who fhould fancy that the Top ⚫ of the next Hill muft end his Journey, because it termi"nates his Prospect; but he no fooner arrives at it, than he fees new Ground and other Hills beyond it, and • continues to travel on as before.

THIS is fo plainly every Man's Condition in Life, "that there is no one who has observed any thing, but may observe, that as fast as his Time wears away, his Appetite to fomething future remains. The Ufe there'fore I would make of it is this, That fince Nature (as fome love to express it) does nothing in vain, or, to fpeak properly, fince the Author of our Being has planted no wandering Paffion in it, no Defire which has not its Object, Futurity is the proper Object of the Paffion