quence, therefore go where you will be welcome for being fo. SIR, Your most humble Servant. you :TH For Women born to be controul'd N 149. Tuesday, Auguft 21. Cui in manu fit quem effe dementem velit, Quem fapere, quem fanari, quem in morbum injici, T Cæcil, apud Tull, HE following Letter and my Answer shall take up the prefent Speculation. Mr. SPECTATOR, Am the young Widow of a Country Gentleman, who has left me entire Miftrefs of a large Fortune, which he agreed to as an Equivalent for the Difference in our Years. In thefe Circumftances it is not extraordinary to have a Crowd of Admirers, which I have abridged in my own Thoughts, and reduced to a couple of Candidates only, both young, and neither of them difagree able able in their Perfons; according to the common Way of computing, in one the Estate more than deferves my Fortune, in the other my Fortune more than deferves the Eftate. When I confider the firft, I own I am fo fara Woman I cannot avoid being delighted with the Thoughts of living great; but then he feems to receive fuch a Degree of Courage from the Knowledge of what he has, he looks as if he was going to confer an Obligation on me; and the Readiness he accofts me with, makes me jealous I am only hearing a Repetition of the fame things he has faid to a hundred Women before. When I confider the other, I fee my felf approached "with fo much Modefty and Refpect, and fuch a DoubtTM ⚫ of himself, as betrays methinks an Affection within, and a Belief at the fame Time that he himself would be the only Gainer by my Confent. What an unexcep tionable Husband could I make out of both! But fince that's impoffible, I beg to be concluded by your Opi ⚫nion; it is abfolutely in your Power to difpofe of Your moft Obedient Servant, Madam, Y Sylvia OU do me great Honour in your Application to me on this important Occafion; I fhall therefore talk to you with the Tenderness of a Father, in Gratitude for your giving me the Authority of one. You do not feem to make any great Diftinction between thefe Gentlemen as to their Perfons; the whole Question lies upon their Circum ftances and Behaviour; If the one is lefs refpectful becaufe he is rich, and the other more obfequious becaufe he is notTM fo, they are in that Point moved by the fame Principle, the Confideration of Fortune, and you must place them in each other's Circumftances, before you can judge of their Inclination. To avoid Confufion in difcuffing this Point, I will call the richer Man Strephon, and the other Florio.. If you believe Florio with Strephon's Eftate would behave himfelf as he does now, Florio is certainly your Man but if you think Strephon, were he in Florio's Condition, would be as obfequious as Florio is now, you ought for your own fake to chufe Strephon; for where the Men are equal, there is no doubt Riches ought to be a Reafon for Preference. After this manner, my dear Child, I would have have you abstrach them from their Circumstances; for you are to take it for granted, that he who is very humble, only because he is poor, is the very fame Man in Nature with him, who is haughty because he is rich. WHEN you have gone thus far, as to confider the Figure they make towards you; you will pleafe, my Dear, Rext to confider the Appearance you make towards them. If they are Men of Discerning, they can obferve the Motives of your Heart, and Florio can fee when he is difregarded only upon Account of Fortune, which makes you to him a mercenary Creature; and you are ftill the fame thing to Strephon, in taking him for his Wealth only: You are therefore to confider whether you had rather oblige, than receive an Obligation. THE Marriage-Life is always an infipid, a vexatious, or an happy Condition. The firft is, when two People of no Genius or Tate for themselves meet together, upon fuch a Settlement as has been thought reafonable by Parents and Conveyancers from an exact Valuation of the Land and Cafh of both Parties: In this Cafe the young Lady's Perfon is no more regarded, than the House and Improvements in Purchase of an Eftate; but fhe goes with her Fortune, rather than her Fortune with her. These make up the Crowd or Vulgar of the Rich, and fill up the Lumber of human Race, without Beneficence towards thofe below them, or Refpect towards thofe above them and lead a defpicable, independent and ufelefs Life, without Senfe of the Laws of Kindness, Good-nature, mutual Offices, and the elegant Satisfactions which flow from Reafon and Virtue. THE vexatious Life arifes from a Conjunction of two People of quick Tafte and Refentment, put together for Reafons well known to their Friends, in which efpecial Care is taken to avoid (what they think the chief of Evil's). Poverty, and enfure to them Riches, with every Evil befides. Thefe good People live in a conftant Constraint, before Company, and too great Eamiliarity alone; when, they are within Obfervation they fret at each other's Carriage and Behaviour; when alone, they revile each other's Perfon and Conduct: In Company they are in a Purgatory, when only together in an Hell, THE THE happy Marriage is, where two Perfons meet and voluntarily make Choice of each other, without principally regarding or neglecting the Circumftances of Fortune or Beauty. Thefe may ftill love in spite of Adversity or Sicknefs: The former we may in fome meafure defend our felves from, the other is the Portion of our very Make. When you have a true Notion of this fort of Paffion, your Humour of living great will vanish out of your Imagination, and you will find Love has nothing to do with State. Solitude, with the Perfon beloved, has a Pleasure, eyen in a Woman's Mind, beyond Show of Pomp. You are therefore to confider which of your Lovers will like you beft undrefs'd, which will bear with you moft when out of Humour, and your Way to this is to ask of your felf, which of them you value moft for his own Sake? and by that judge which gives the greater Inftances of his valuing you for your felf only. AFTER you have expreffed fome Senfe of the humble Approach of Florio, and a little Difdain at Strephon's Affurance in his Addrefs, you cry our, What an unexcepti onable Husband could I make out of both! It would therefore methinks be a good Way to determine your felf: Take him in whom what you like is not transferable to another; for if you chufe otherwife, there is no Hopes your Husband will ever have what you liked in his Rival, but intrinfick Qualities in one Man may very probably purchase every thing that is adventitious in another. In plainer Terms; he whom you take for his perfonal Perfections will fooner arrive at the Gifts of Fortune, than he whom you take for the fake of his Fortune attain to Perfonal Perfections. If Strephon is not as accomplifh'd and agreeable as Florio, Marriage to you will never make him fo; but Marriage to you may make Floria as rich as Strephon: Therefore to make a fure Purchafe, employ Fortune upon Certainties,, but do not facrifice Certainties to Fortune. I am, Your mot Obedient, T Humble Servant. Wednesday, No 150. Wednesday, August 22. Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in fe, Juv. SI was walking in my Chamber the Morning be fore. I went laft into the Country, I heard the Hawkers with great Vehemence crying about a Paper, entitled, The ninety nine Plagues of an empty Purfe. had indeed fome Time before obferved, that the Orators of Grub-freet had dealt very much in Plagues. They had already published in the fame Month, The Plagues of Matrimony, The Plagues of a fingle Life, The nineteen Plagues of a Chambermaid, The Plagues of a Coachman, The Plagues of a Footman, and The Plague of Plagues. The Succefs thefe feveral Plagues met with, probably gave Occafion to the above-mentioned Poem on an empty Purse. However that be, the Noife fo frequently repeated under my Window, drew me infenfibly to think on fome of thofe Inconveniencies and Mortifications which ufually attend on Poverty,, and in fhort gave Birth to the prefent Speculation: for after my Fancy had run over the moft obvious and common Calamities which Men of mean Fortunes are liable to, it defcended to thofe little Infults and Contempts, which, tho' they may feem to dwindle into nothing when a Man offers to defcribe them, are perhaps in themselves more cutting and infupportable than the former. Juvenal with a great deal of Humour and Reafon tells us, that nothing bore harder upon a poor Man in his Time, than the continual Ridicule which his Habit and Drefs afforded to the Beaus of Rome. Quid quod materiam prabet caufafque jocorum Arque recens linam oftendit non una Cicatrix. Juv. Sat. 3. Add, |