'B

EWARE of the Ides of March,' faid the Roman augur to Julius Cæfar. 'Beware of the month of May,' fays the British Spectator to his fair countrywomen. The caution of the firft was unhappily neglected, and Cæfar's confidence coft him his life. I am apt to flatter myself that my pretty read ers had much more regard to the advice I gave them, fince I have yet received very few accounts of any notorious trips made in the last month.

But though I hope for the best, I fhall not pronounce too pofitively on this point, till I have seen forty weeks well over, at which period of time, as my good friend Sir Roger has often told me, he has more business as a juftice of peace, among the diffolute young people in the country, than at any other feafon of the year.

Neither must I forget a letter which I received near a fortnight fince from a lady, who, it seems, could hold out no longer, telling me fhe looked upon the month as then out, for that she had all along reckoned by the new stile.

On the other hand, I have great reafon to believe, from several angry letters which have been fent to me by dif appointed lovers, that my advice has been of very fignal fervice to the fair

OVID.

fex, who, according to the old proverb, were Forewarned, forearmed.'

One of these gentlemen tells me, that he would have given me an hundred pounds, rather than I should have publifhed that paper; for that his mistress, who had promised to explain herself to him about the beginning of May, upon reading that difcourfe, told him that fhe would give him her anfwer in June.'

Thyrfis acquaints me, that when he defired Sylvia to take a walk in the fields, fhe told him, The Spectator had for

'bidden her.'

Another of my correspondents, who writes himself Mat Meager, complains, that whereas he conftantly used to breakfaft with his mistress upon chocolate, going to wait upon her the first of May, he found his ufual treat very much changed for the worfe, and has been forced to feed ever fince upon green tea.

As I begun this critical season with a caveat to the ladies, I fhall conclude it with a congratulation, and do most heartily with them joy of their happy deliverance.

They may now reflect with pleasure on the dangers they have efcaped, and look back with as much fatisfaction on the perils that threatened them, as their

great

great grandmothers did formerly on the Burning plough-fhares, after having paffed through the ordeal trial. The instigations of the fpring are now abatThe nightingale gives over her love-laboured fong,' as Milton phrafes it, the bloffoms are fallen, and the beds of flowers fwept away by the scythe of the mower.

ed.

1

I fhall allow my fair readers to return to their romances and chocolate, provided they make ufe of them with moderation, till about the middle of the month, when the fun fhall have made fome progrefs in the Crab. Nothing is more dangerous than too much confidence and fecurity. The Trojans, who ftood upon their guard all the while the Grecians lay before their city, when they fancied the fiege was raifed, and the danger paft, were the very next night burnt in their beds. I must alfo oblerve, that as in fome climates there is a perpetual spring, fo in fome female conftitutions there is a perpetual May: thefe are a kind of valetudinarians in chastity, whom I would continue in a conftant diet. I cannot think thefe wholly out of danger, until they have looked upon the other fex at least five years through a pair of fpectacles. Will Honeycomb has often affured me, that it is much easier to teal one of this fpecies, when he has paffed her grand cli-, macteric, than to carry off an icy girl on this fide five and twenty; and that a rake of his acqu-intance, who had in vain endeavoured to gain the affections of a young lady of fifteen, had at laft made his fortune by running away with her grandmother.

But as I do not defign this fpeculation for the Evergreens of the fex, I fhall again apply myself to thofe who would willingly liften to the dictates of realon and virtue, and can now hear me

in cold blood. If there are any who have forfeited their innocence, they must now confider themselves under that me

lancholy view, in which Chamont regards his fifter, in those beautiful lines :

-Long the flourish'd,

Grew sweet to fenfe, and lovely to the eye:
Till at the last a cruel spoiler came,
Cropt this fair rofe, and rifled all it's fweet-
nefs,

Then caft it like a loathfome weed away.

On the contrary, the who has obferv. ed the timely cautions I gave her, and lived up to the rules of modefty, will now flourish like a rofe in June,' with all her virgin blufhes and sweetness about her. I muft, however, defire these laft to confider, how fhameful it would be for a general, who has made a fucceffful campaign, to be furprifed in his winter quarters: it would be no less difhonourable for a lady to lofe, in any other month of the year, what he has been at the pains to preferve in May.

There is no charm in the female fex, that can fupply the place of virtue. Without innocence, beauty is unlovely, and quality contemptible; good-breeding degenerates into wantonnefs, and wit into impudence. It is obferved, that all the virtues are reprefented both by painters and ftatuaries under female fhapes, but if any one of them has a more particular title to that fex, it is modefty. I fhall leave it to the divines to guard them against the oppofite vice, as they may be overpowered by temptations; it is fufficient for me to have warned them againft it, as they may be led aftray by inftin&t.

I defire this paper may be read with more than ordinary attention, at all tea tables within the cities of London and Weftminster.

X

HAVING a great deal of business upon my hards at prefent, I fhall beg the reader's leave to prefent him with a letter that I received about half a a year ago from a gentleman of Came

bridge, who files himself Peter de Quir

I have kept it by me fome months, and though I did not know at first what to make of it, upon my reading it over very frequently, I have at laft discovered

feveral