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In that celebrated paffage of Salluft, where Cæfar and Cato are placed in fuch beautiful, but oppofite lights; Cafar's character is chiefly made up of good-nature, as it fhewed itself in all it's formis towards his friends or his enemies, his fervants or dependents, the guilty or the diftreffed. As for Cato's character, it is rather awful than amiable. Juftice feems most agreeable to the nature of God, and mercy to that of man. A Being who has nothing to pardon in himself, may reward every man according to his works; but he whofe very best actions must be feen with grains of allowance, cannot be too mild, moderate, and forgiving. For this reafon, among all the monftrous characters in human nature, there is none fo odious, nor indeed fo exquifitely ridiculous, as that of a rigid fevere temper in a worthless man.

This part of good-nature, however, which confifts in the pardoning and overlooking of faults, is to be exercifed only in doing ourselves justice, and that too in the ordinary commerce and occurrences of life; for in the public administrations of justice, mercy to one may be cruelty to others.

It is grown almoft into a maxim, that good-natured men are not always men of the most wit. This obfervation, in my opinion, has no foundation in nature. The greatest wits I have converfed with are men eminent for their humanity. I take therefore this remark to have been occafioned by two reafons. Firft, becaufe ill-nature among ordi

nary obfervers paffes for wit. A fpite. ful faying gratifies fo many little paf fions in those who hear it, that it generally meets with a good reception. The laugh rifes upon it, and the man who utters it is looked upon as a fhrewd fatirift. This may be one reason why a great many pleafant companions appear fo furprisingly dull, when they have endeavoured to be merry in print; the public being more juft than private clubs or affemblies, in diftinguishing between what is wit and what is ill

nature.

Another reason why the good-natured man may fometimes bring his wit in question, is, perhaps, because he is apt to be moved with compaffion for those misfortunes or infirmities, which another would turn into ridicule, and by that means gain the reputation of a wit. The ill-natured man, though but of equal parts, gives himself a larger field to expatiate in; he exposes thofe failings in human nature which the other would caft a veil over, laughs at vices which the other either excufes or conceals, gives utterance to reflections which the other ftifles, falls indifferently upon friends or enemies, exposes the perfon who has obliged him, and, in fhort, fticks at nothing that may eftablish his character of a wit. It is no wonder therefore he fucceeds in it better than the man of humanity, as a perfon who makes use of indirect methods is more likely to grow rich than the fair trader.

L

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

HENRY

BOYLE, ESQ.

SIR,

A general, without giving offence to any particular perfon, it

S the profeffed defign of this work is to entertain it's readers in

would be difficult to find out fo proper a patron for it as yourself, there being none whofe merit is more univerfally acknowledged by all parties, and who has made him felf more friends, and fewer ene mies. Your great abilities, and unqueftioned integrity, in thofe high employments which you have paffed through, would not have been able to have raifed you this general approbation, had they not been accompanied with that moderation in an high fortune, and that affability of manners, which are fo confpicuous through all parts of your life. Your averfion to any oftentatious arts of fetting to show thofe great fervices which you have done the public, has not likewife a little contributed to that univerfal acknowledgment which is paid you by your country.

The confideration of this part of your character, is that which hinders me from enlarging on thofe extraordinary talents, which have given you fo great a figure in the British fenate, as well as in that elegance and politenefs which appear in your more retired converfation. I fhould be unpardonable, if, after what I have said, I should longer detain you with an address of this nature: I cannot, however, conclude it without owning thofe great obligations which you have laid upon,

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THE

SPECTATO R.

VOLUME THE THIRD.

N° CLXX. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1711.

IN AMORE HAC OMNIA INSUNT VITIA: INJURIE,
SUSPICIONES, INIMICITIA, INDUCIE,
BELLUM, PAX RURSUM-

TER.EUN. ACT. 1. Sc. Is

ALL THESE INCONVENIENCIES ARE INCIDENT TO LOVE: REPROACHES, JEA LOUSIES, QUARRELS, RECONCILEMENTS, WAR, AND THEN PEACE.

UPO

PON looking over the letters of my female correfpondents, I find feveral from women complaining of jea lous husbands, and at the fame time protefting their own innocence; and defiring my advice on this occafion. I Shall therefore take this fubject into my confideration; and the more willingly, because I find that the Marquis of Halifax, who, in his Advice to a Daughter, has inftructed a wife how to behave herfelf towards a falfe, an intemperate, a choleric, a fullen, a covetous, or a filly husband, has not fpoken one word of a jealous husband.

Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehenfion that he is not equally beloved by the perfon whom he intirely loves. Now because our inward paffions and inclinations can never make themselves vifible, it is impoffible for a jealous man to be thoroughly cured of his fufpicions. His thoughts hang at beft in a state of doubtfulness and uncertainty; and are never capable of receiving any fatisfaction on the advantageous fide; fo that his inquiries are moft fuccessful when they discover nothing. His pleasure arifes from his difappointments, and his life is fpent in purfuit of a fecret that deftroys his happinefs if he chance to find it."

An ardent love is always a ftrong in gredient in this paffion; for the fame af. fection which Airs up the jealous man's

defires, and gives the party beloved fo beautiful a figure in his imagination, makes him believe the kindles the fame paflion in others, and appears as amiable to all beholders. And as jealoufy thus arifes from an extraordinary love, it is of fo delicate a nature, that it scorns to take up with any thing less than an equal return of love. Not the warmest expreffions of affection, the fofteft and moft tender hypocrify, are able to give any fatisfaction, where we are not perfuaded that the affection is real, and the fatisfaction mutual. For the jealous man withes himself a kind of deity to the perfon he loves: he would be the only pleafure of her fenfes, the employment of her thoughts; and is angry at every thing the admires, or takes delight in, befides himself.

Phædria's request to his mistress upon his leaving her for three days, is inimitably beautiful and natural.

Cum milite ifto præfens, abfens ut fies:
Dies noctefque me ames: me defideres:
Me fomnies: me expectes: de me cogites:
Me fperes: me te oblectes: mecum tota fist
Meus fac fis poftremò animus, quando ego fum

tuus.

TER.EUN. ACT. 1. Sc. 2.

When you are in company with that foldier, behave as if you were abfent: but continue to love me by day and by night: want me; dream of me; expect me; think of me; wish for me; delight in me; be wholly 2T 2

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with me: in short, be my very foul, as I that directed the wife man in his advies

am your's...

The jealous man's difeafe is of fo malignant a nature, that it converts all he takes into it's own nourishment. A cool behaviour fets him on the rack, and is interpreted as an inftance of averfion or indifference; a fond one raifes his fufpicions, and looks too much like diffimulation and artifice. If the perfon he loves be chearful, her thoughts must be employed on another; and if fad, fhe is certainly thinking on himself. In fhort, there is no word or gesture fo infignificant, but it gives him new hints, feeds his fufpicions, and furnishes him with fresh matters of difcovery: fo that if we confider the effects of this paffion, one would rather think it proceeded from an inveterate hatred, than an execifive love; for certainly none can meet with more difquietude and uneafinefs han a fufpected wife, if we except the jealous husband.

But the great unhappiness of this paffion is, that it naturally tends to alienate the affection which it is fo folicitous to ingrofs; and that for these two reafons, because it lays too great a constraint on the words and actions of the fufpected perfon, and at the fame time fhews you have no honourable opinion of her; both of which are strong motives to averfion.

Nor is this the worst effect of jealoufy; for it often draws after it a more fatal train of confequences, and makes the perion you fufpect guilty of the very crimes you are fo much afraid of. It is very natural for fuch who are treated ill and upbraided falfely, to find out an intimate friend that will hear their complaints, condole their fufferings, and endeavour to foothe and affuage their secret refentments. Befides, jealoufy puts a woman often in mind of an ill thing that he would not otherwife perhaps have thought of, and fills her imagination with fuch an unlucky idea, as in time grows familiar, excites defire, and lofes all the fhame and horror which might at firft attend it. Nor is it a wonder if the who fuffers wrongfully in a man's opinion of her, and has therefore nothing to forfeit in his esteem, refolves to give him reafon for his fufpicions, and to enjoy the pleasure of the crime, Since he must undergo the ignominy. Such probably were the confiderations

to husbands Be not jealous over the wife of thy bofom, and teach her not an evil leffon against thyfelf.' Ecclus. And here, among the other torments which this paffion produces, we may ufually obferve that none are greater mourners than jealous men, when the perfon who provoked their jealoufy is taken from them. Then it is that their love breaks out furiously, and throws off all the mixtures of suspicion which choaked and smothered it before. The beautiful parts of the character rife uppermoft in the jealous husband's memory, and upbraid him with the ill ufage of fo divine a creature as was once in his poffeffion; whilst all the little imperfections, that were before so uneasy to him, wear off from his remembrance, and fhew themselves no more.

We may fee by what has been faid, that jealousy takes the deepest root in men of amorous difpofitions; and of thefe we may find three kinds who are most over-run with it.

The first are those who are conscious to themfelves of any infirmity, whether it be weakness, old-age, deformity, ignorance, or the like. These men are fo well acquainted with the unamiable part of themselves, that they have not the confidence to think they are really beloved; and are fo diftruftful of their own merits, that all fondness towards them puts them out of countenance, and looks like a jeft upon their perfons. They grow fufpicious on their first look. ing in a glafs, and are ftung with jealoufy at the fight of a wrinkle. A handfome fellow immediately alarms them, and every thing that looks young or gay turns their thoughts upon their wives.

A fecond fort of men, who are most liable to this paffion, are thofe of cunning, wary, and diftrustful tempers. It is a fault very juftly found in hiftories compofed by politicians, that they leave nothing to chance or humour, but are ftill for deriving every action from fome plot or contrivance, for drawing up a perpetual fcheme of caufes and events, and preferving a conftant correspondence between the camp and the council table. And thus it happens in the affairs of love with men of too refined a thought. They put a conftruction on a look, and find out a defign in a fmile; they give new fenses and significations

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