WHERE are no authors I am more

with, than those who thew

human nature in a variety of views, and defcribe the feveral ages of the world in their different manners. A reader cannot be more rationally entertained, than by comparing the virtues and vices of his own times with thofe which prevailed in the times of his forefathers; and drawing a parallel in his mind between his own private character, and that of other perfons, whether of his own age, or of the ages that went before him. The contemplation of mankind under thefe changeable colours, is apt to fhame us out of any particular vice, or animate us to any particular virtue; to make us pleafed or difpleafed with ourfelves in the moft proper points, to clear our minds of prejudice and prepoffeffion, and rectify that narrowness of temper which inclines us to think amifs of thofe who differ from ourselves.

If we look into the manners of the moft remote ages of the world, we difcover human nature in her fimplicity; and the more we come downward towards our own times, may obferve her hiding herself in artifices and refine ments, polifhed infenfibly out of her original plainnefs, and at length entirely loft under form and ceremony, and, what we call, good-breeding. Read the accounts of men and women as they are given us by the most ancient writers, both facred and profane, and you would think you were reading the hiftory of another species.

Among the writers of antiquity, there are none who inftruct us more openly in the manners of their refpective times in which they lived, than those who have employed themfelves in fatire, under what drefs foever it may appear; as there are no other authors whole province it

is to enter fo directly into the ways of men, and fet their mifcarriages in fo ftrong a light.

The

Simonides, a poet famous in his generation, is, I think, author of the oldeft fatire that is now extant; and, as fome fay, of the first that was ever written. This poet flourished about four hundred years after the siege of Troy; and thews, by his way of writing, the fimplicity, or rather coarseness of the age in which he lived. I have taken notice, in my hundred and fixty-first fpeculation, that the rule of obferving 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 fimilitudes, did not much trouble themselves about the decency of the comparison. The fatire or iambics of Simonides, with which I fhall entertain my readers in the prefent paper, are a remarkable instance of what I formerly advanced. fubje&t of this fatire is woman. He defcribes the fex in their feveral characters, which he derives to them from a fanciful fuppofition raised upon the doctrine of pre exiftence. He tells us, that the gods formed the fouls of women out of thofe feeds and principles which compofe feveral kinds of animals and elements; and that their good or bad difpofitions arife in them according as fuch and fuch feeds and principles predominate in their conftitutions. I have translated the author very faithfully, and if not word for word, which our language would not bear, at leaft fo as to comprehend every one of his fentiments, 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 fatire affects only fome of the lower part of the fex, and not those

who

་

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 fouls of womankind out of different materials, and in a feparate ftate from their bodies.

The fouls of one kind of women 'were formed out of thofe ingredients which compofe a fwine. A woman of this make is a flut in her house and a glutton at her table. She is uncleanly in her perfon, a flattern in her drefs, and her family is no better than a dunghill.

A fecond fort of female foul 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 fpecies of females 'there are some virtuous and fome vi⚫cious.

A third kind of women were made up of canine particles. Thefe are what we commonly call fcolds, 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. These are your fluggards, who pafs 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 fpecies of females were 'made out of the fea. These are wo'men of variable uneven tempers, fome<times all ftorm and tempeft, fometimes ⚫ all calm and funshine. The ftranger who fees one of thefe in her fimiles and fmoothness, would cry her up for a miracle of good humour; but on a fudden her looks and words are changed, he is nothing but fury and outrage, nòife and hurricane.

The fixth fpecies were made up of the ingredients which compose an ass, 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 please him. They are however far from being averse to venereal

pleasure, and feldom refufe a male companion.

The cat furnished materials for a feventh fpecies of women, who are of a melancholy, froward, unamiable nature, and fo repugnant to the offers of love, that they fly in the face of their husband when he approaches them with conjugal endearments. This fpecies 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 fpecies of women. These are they who have little regard for their hufbands, who país away their time in dreffing, bathing, and perfuming; who throw their hair into the nicest curls, and trick it up with the faireft flowers and garlands. A woman of this fpecies is a very pretty thing for a ftrân'ger 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 fpecies of females were taken out of the ape. Thefe are fuch as are both ugly and ill-natured, who have nothing beautiful in themselves, and endeavour to detract from or ridicule every thing which appears fo in • others.

The tenth and laft fpecies of women were made out of the bee; and happy is the man who gets fuch an one for his wife. She is altogether • faultlefs 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 fex. She is furrounded with graces. She never fits among the loofe tribe of women, nor paffes away her time with them in wanton difcourfes. She is full of virtue and prudence, and is the bett wife that Jupiter can bestow on man.'

racters, he has avoided the fault which Juvenal and Monfieur Boileau are guilty of, the former in his fixth, and the other in his laft fatire, where they have endeavoured to expose the fex in general, with out 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 above-mentioned, who was a man of exquifite judgment, and a lover of virtue, could think human nature a proper

fubject for fatire in another of his celebrated pieces, which is called 'The Satire upon Man.' What vice or frailty can a difcourfe correct, which cenfures the whole fpecies alike, and endeavours to fhew by fome fuperficial strokes of wit, that brutes are the more excellent creatures of the two? A fatire fhould 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

SIR,

TO THE SPECTATOR.

I Am fully perfuaded that one of the beft fprings of generous and worthy actions, is the having generous and worthy thoughts of ourfelves. Whoever has a mean opinion of the dignity of his nature, will act in no higher a rank than he has allotted himself in his own eftimation. If he confiders his being as circumfcribed by the uncertain term of a few years, his deligns will be contracted into the fame narrow fpan he imagines is to hound his existence. How can he exalt his thoughts to any thing great and noble, who only believes that, after a fhort turn on the ftage of this world, he is to fink into oblivion, and to lose his consciousness for ever?

For this reafon I am of opinion, that fo ufeful and elevated a contemplation as that of the foul's immortality cannot be refumed too often. There is not a more improving exercife to the human mind, than to be frequently reviewing it's 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 surfelves as heirs of eternity.

It is a very great fatisfaction to confider the best and wifeft of mankind in all nations and ages, afferting, as with one voice, this their birthright, and to find it ratified by an exprefs revelation.

At the fame time, if we turn our thoughts inward upon ourselves, we may meet

with a kind of fecret fenfe 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 it's own faculties, which cannot be accomplished, as the more restrained perfection of lower creatures may, in the limits of a fhort life. I think another probable conjecture may be raised from our ap petite to duration itself, and from a reflection on our progress through the feveral stages of it: We are complain'ing,' as you obferve in a former fpeculation, of the shortness of life, and yet are perpetually hurrying over the parts of it to arrive at certain little fettlements, 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 gained? or are we not removing the boundary, and marking out new points of reft, to which we prefs forward with the like eagerness, and which ceafe to be fuch as faft as we attain them? Our cafe is like that of a traveller upon the Alps, who should fancy that the top of the next hill muft end his journey, because it terminates his

profpect;

profpect; 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 obferved any thing, but may obferve, that as fast as his time wears away, his appetite to fomething future remains. The ufe therefore I would make of it is this, that fince Nature, as fome love to exprefs 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 it's object, futurity is the proper object of the paffion fo conftantly exercifed about it; and this reftleffnefs in the prefent, this affigning ourselves over to farther ftages of duration, this fucceffive grafping at fomewhat ftill to come, appears to me, whatever it may to others, as a kind of instinct or natural fymptom which the mind of man has of it's own immortality.

I take it at the fame time for granted, that the immortality of the foul is fufficiently ettablished by other arguments: and if fo, this appetite, which otherwife would be very unaccountable and abfurd, feems very reasonable, and adds trength to the conclufion. But I am amazed when I confider there are creatures capable of thought, who, in fpite of every argument, can form to themfelves a fullen fatisfaction in thinking otherwife. There is fomething fo pitifully mean in the inverted ambition of that man who can hope for annihilation, and please himself to think that his whole fabric fhall one day crumble into duft, and mix with the mafs of inanimate beings, that it equally deferves our admiration and pity. The mystery of fuch men's unbelief is not hard to be penetrated; and indeed amounts to nothing more than a fordid hope that they fhall not be immortal, because they dare

not be fo.

This brings me back to my first ob

fervation, and gives me occafion to say further, that as worthy actions spring from worthy thoughts, fo worthy thoughts are likewife the confequence of worthy actions: but the wretch who has degraded himself below the character of immortality, is very willing to refign his pretenfions to it, and to fubftitute in it's room a dark negative happiness in the extinction of his being.

The admirable Shakespeare has given us a ftrong image of the unfupported condition of fuch a perfon in his last minutes in the fecond part of King Henry the Sixth, where Cardinal Beaufort, who had been concerned in the murder of the good Duke Humphrey, is reprefented on his death-bed. After fome short confufed fpeeches, which fhew an imagination difturbed with guilt, just as he was expiring, King Henry ftanding by him full of compaffion, fays➡

Lord Cardinal! if thou think'ft on Heaven's blifs,

He dies, and makes no fign!-
Hold up thy hand, make fignal of that hope!

The defpair which is here fhewn, without a word or action on the part of the dying perfon, is beyond what could be painted by the moft forcible expreffions whatever.

I fhall not purfue this thought farther, but only add, that as annihilation is not to be had with a wish, fo it is the moft abject thing in the world to wish it. What are honour, fame, wealth, or power, when compared with the gene-" rous expectation of a being without end, and a happiness adequate to that being?

I fhall trouble you no farther; but with a certain gravity which thefe thoughts have given me, I reflect upon fome things people fay of you, as they will of men who diftinguish themselves, which I hope are not true; and with you as good a man as you are an author. I am, Sir, your most obedient humble fervant,

PHÆDR. LIB. I. PROL.

ment of an old poet which defcribes womankind under feveral characters, and supposes them to have drawn their different manners and difpofitions from those animals and elements out of which he tells us they were compounded; I had fome thoughts of giving the fex their revenge, by laying together in another paper the many vicious characters which prevail in the male world, and fhewing the different ingredients that go to the making up of fuch different humours and conftitutions. Horace has a thought which is fomething akin to this, when, in order to excufe himself to his mistress, for an invective which he had written against her, and to account for that unreasonable fury with which the heart of man is often tranfported, he tells us, that when Prometheus made his man of clay, in the kneading up of the heart, he feafoned it with fome furious particles of the lion. But upon turning this plan to and fro in my thoughts, I observed so many unaccountable humours in man, that I did not know out of what animals to fetch them. Male fouls are diverfified with fo many characters, that the world has not variety of materials fufficient to furnish out their different tempers and inclinations. The creation, with all it's animals and elements, would not be large enough to fupply their feveral extravagancies.

Instead therefore of pursuing the thought of Simonides, I fhall obferve, that as he has expofed the vicious part of women from the doctrine of preexiftence, fome of the ancient philofophers have, in a manner, fatirized the vicious part of the human fpecies in general, from a notion of the foul's poftexistence, if I may fo call it; and that as Simonides defcribes brutes entering into the compofition of women, others have reprefented human fouls as entering into brutes. This is commonly terined the doctrine of tranfmigration, which fuppofes that human fouls, upon their leaving the body, become the fouls of fuch kinds of brutes as they most re

account of it as Mr. Dryden has defcribed it in his tranflation of Pythagoras his fpeech in the fifteenth book of Ovid, where that philofopher diffuades his hearers from eating fleth

Thus all things are but alter`d, nothing dies, And here and there th' unbody'd spirit flies: By time, or force, or fickness difpoffefs'd, And lodges where it lights, in bird or beaft, Or hunts without till eady limbs it find, And actuates those according to their kind: From tenement to tenement is tofs'd: The foul is ftill the fame, the figure only loft.

Then let not piety be put to flight, To please the taste of glutton-appetite; But fuffer inmate fouls fecure to dwell, Left from their feats your parents you expel; Or from a beaft diflodge a brother's mind. With rabid hunger feed upon your kind,

Plato in the vifion of Erus the Armenian, which I may poffibly make the fubject of a future fpeculation, records fome beautiful tranfimmigrations; as that the foul of Orpheus, who was mufical, melancholy, and a woman-hater, entered into a fwan; the foul of Ajax, which was all wrath and fierceness, into a lion; the foul of Agamemnon, that was ra pacious and imperial, into an eagle; and the foul of Therfites, who was a mimic and a buffoon, into a monkey.

Mr. Congreve, in a prologue to one of his comedies, has touched upon this doctrine with great humour. Thus Ariftotle's foul of old that was, May now be damn'd to animate an afs; Or in this very house, for ought we know, Is doing painful penance in fome beau.

I fhall fill up this paper with fome letters which my laft Tuesday's fpeculation has produced. My following correfpondents will fhew, what I there obferved, that the fpeculation of that day affects only the lower part of the fex.

FROM MY HOUSE IN THE STRAND, OCTOBER 30, 1711.