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N° 95.

H

Tuesday, June 19.

Cura Leves loquuntur, Ingentes ftupent.

AVING read the two following Letters with much Pleasure, I cannot but think the good Senfe of them will be as agreeable to the Town as any thing I could fay either on the Topicks they treat of, or any other. They both allude to former Papers of mine, and I do not question but the first, which is upon inward Mourning, will be thought the Production of a Man who is well acquainted with the generous Earnings of Diftress in a manly Temper, which is above the Relief of Tears. A Speculation of my own on that Subject I fhall defer till another Occafion.

THE fecond Letter is from a Lady of a Mind as great as her Understanding. There is perhaps fomething in the Beginning of it which I ought in Modefty to conceal; but I have fo much Efteem for this Correfpondent, that I will not alter a Tittle of what he writes, tho' I am thus fcrupulous at the Price of being ridiculous.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

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Was very well pleafed with your Difcourfe upon general Mourning, and fhould be obliged to you if you would enter into the Matter more deeply, and < give us your Thoughts upon the common Senfe the ordinary People have of the Demonftrations of Grief, who prefcribe Rules and Fashions to the most folemn Affition; fuch as the Lofs of the nearest Relations and dearest Friends. You cannot go to vifit a fick Friend, but fome impertinent Waiter about him obferves the Mufcles of your Face, as ftrictly as if they were Prognofticks of his Death or Recovery. If he happens to be ⚫ taken from you, you are immediately furrounded with Numbers of thefe Spectators, who expect a melancholy Shrug of your Shoulders, a pathetical Shake of your Head, and an expreflive Distortion of your Face, to ⚫ measure

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⚫ measure your Affection and Value for the Deceased: But there is nothing, on these Occafions, fo much in their Favour as immoderate Weeping. As all their Paffions are fuperficial, they imagine the Seat of Love and Friendfhip to be placed vifibly in the Eyes: They judge what Stock of Kindness you had for the Living, by the Quantity of Tears you pour out for the Dead; fo that it one Body wants that Quantity of Salt-water another abounds with, he is in great Danger of being thought infenfible or ill-natured: They are Strangers to Friendship, whose Grief happens not to be moift enough to wet fuch a Parcel of Handkerchiefs. But Experience has told us nothing is fo fallacious as this outward Sign of Sorrow; and the natural History of our Bodies will teach us, that this Flux of the Eyes, this Faculty of Weeping, is peculiar only to fome Conftitutions. We obferve in the ten⚫ der Bodies of Children, when croffed in their little Wills and Expectations, how diffolvable they are into Tears: If this were what Grief is in Men, Nature would not ⚫ be able to fupport them in the Excefs of it for one Moment. Add to this Obfervation, how quick is their • Transition from this Paffion to that of their Joy. I won't fay we fee often, in the next tender Things to Children, Tears shed without much Grieving. Thus it is common to fhed Tears without much Sorrow, and as common to fuffer muchSorrow without fhedding Tears. Grief and Weeping are indeed frequent Companions But, I believe,never in their higheft Exceffes. As Laughter does not proceed from profound Joy,fo neither does Weeping from profound Sorrow. The Sorrow whichappears fo eafily at the Eyes, cannot have pierced deeply into the Heart. The Heart, diftended with Grief, ftops all the Paffages for Tears or Lamentations.

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NOW, Sir, what I would incline you to in all this, is, that you would inform the fhallow-Criticks and Obfervers upon Sorrow, that true Affliction labours to be invifible, that it is a Stranger to Ceremony, and that it bears in its own Nature a Dignity much above the little Circumftances which are affected • under the Notion of Decency. You must know, Sir, I have lately loft a dear Friend, for whom I have

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not yet fhed a Tear, and for that Reafon your Animad- < verfions on that Subject would be the more acceptable

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SIR,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Your most humble Servant,

B. D.

June the 15th.

ASI hope there are but few that have fo little Gra

titude as not to acknowledge the Usefulness of your Pen, and to esteem it a publick Benefit; fo I am 'fenfible, be that as it will, you must nevertheless find the fecret and incomparable Pleasure of doing Good,and be a great Sharer in the Entertainment you give. I acknowledge our Sex to be much obliged, and I hope improved by your Labours, and even your Intentions more particularly for our Service. If it be true, as 'tis fometimes faid, that our Sex have an Influence on the other, your Paper may be a yet more general Good. Your directing us to Reading is certainly the beft Means to our Inftruction; but I think, with you, Caution in that Particular very ufeful, fince the Improvement of our Understandings may, or may not, be of Service to us, according as it is managed. It has been thought we are not generally fo Ignorant as Ill-taught, or that our Sex does fo often want Wit, Judgment, or Knowledge, as the right Application of them: You are fo well bred, as to fay your fair Readers are already deeper Scholars than the Beaus, and that you could name. fome of them that talk much better than feveral Gentlemen that make a Figure at Will's: This may poffibly be, and no great Compliment, in my Opinion, even fuppofing your Comparifon to reach Tom's and the Grecian: Sure you are too wife to think That a real Com..mendation of a Woman. Were it not rather to be wifhed we improved in our own Sphere, and approved our felves better. Daughters, Wives, Mothers, and Friends?

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I can't but agree with the Judicious Trader in Cheapfide, (though I am not at all prejudiced in his Favour) in recommending the Study of Arithmetick; and muft diffent even from the Authority which you mention, when itadvises the making our Sex Scholars. Indeed a little

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more Philofophy, in order to the fubduing our Paffions to our Reason, might be fometimes ferviceable, and a "Treatife of that Nature I fhould approve of, even in exchange for Theodofius, or the Force of Love; but as I well 'know you want not Hints, I will proceed no further than to recommend the Bishop of Cambray's Education ' of a Daughter, as 'tis tranflated into the only Language I have any Knowledge of, tho' perhaps very much to its Disadvantage. I have heard it objected against that Piece, that its Inftructions are not of general Ufe, but only fitted for a great Lady; but I confefs I am not of that Opinion; for I don't remember that there are any Rules laid down for the Expences of a Woman,in which Particular only I think a Gentlewoman ought to differ from a Lady of the beft Fortune, or higheft Quality, and not in their Principles of Juftice, Gratitude, Sincerity, Prudence, or Modefty. I ought perhaps to make an Apology for this long Epiftle; but as I rather believe you a Friend to Sincerity, than Ceremony, fhall only affure you I am,

T:

SIR,

Your most Humble Servant..
ANABELLA.

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much

you

ded, that in that Variety of Forms wherein 'confidered the Bad, you found no Place to mention the Good. There is however one Observation of yours I approve, which is, That there are Men of Wit and good Senfe among all Orders of Men, and that Servants -report moft of the Good or Ill which is spoken of their · Masters,

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Mafters. That there are Men of Senfe who live in Servitude, I have the Vanity to fay I have felt to my woful Experience. You attribute very juftly the Source of our general Iniquity to Board-Wages, and the Manner of living out of a domeftick Way: But I cannot give you my Thoughts on this Subject any Way fo well, as by a fhort account of my own Life to this the Forty fifth year of my Age; that is to fay, from my being first a Foot-boy at fourteen, to my prefent Station of a Nobleman's Porter in the Year of my Age above-mentioned.

KNOW then, that my Father was a poor Tenant to the Family of Sir Stephen Rackrent: Sir Stephen put me to School, or rather made me follow his Son Harry to School, from my Ninth Year; and there, tho' Sir Stephen paid fomething for my Learning, 1 was ufed like a Servant, and was forced to get what Scraps of Learning I could by my own Induftry, for the School-mafter took very little Notice of me. My young Mafter was a Lad of very fprightly Parts; and my being conftantly about him, and loving him, was no fmall Advantage to me. My Mafter loved me extreamly, and has often been whipped for not keeping me at a Distance. He ufed always to fay, That when he came to his Estate I fhould have a Leafe of my Father's Tenement for nothing. I came up to Town with him to Westminster School; at which time he taught me at Night all he learnt, and put me to find out Words in the Dictionary when he was about his Exercife. It was the Will of Providence that Mafter Harry was taken very ill of a Fever, of which he died within Ten Days after his first falling fick. Here was the first Sorrow I ever knew; and I affure you, Mr. SPECTATOR, I remember the beautiful Action of the fweet Youth in his Fever, as fresh as if it were Yefterday. If he wanted any thing, it ⚫ must be given him by Tom: When I let any thing fall through the Grief I was under, he would cry, Do not beat the poor Boy: Give him fome more Julep for me, no Body elfe fhall give it ine. He would ftrive

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to hide his being fo bad, when he faw I could not bear his being in fo much Danger, and comforted me, laying, Tom, Tom, have a good Heart. When I

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