IF I may, without breach of good Manners, imagine that any pretty Creature is void of Genius, and would perform her Part herein but very aukwardly, I must nevertheless infift upon her working, if it be only to keep her out of Harm's way.

ANOTHER Argument for bufying good Women in Works of Fancy, is, because it takes them off from Scandal, the usual Attendant of Tea-Tables, and all other unactive Scenes of Life. While they are forming their Birds and Beasts, their Neighbours will be allowed to be the Fathers of their own Children: And Whig and Tory will be but feldom mentioned, where the great Difpute is, whether Blue or Red is the more proper Colour. How much greater Glory would Sophronia do the General, if fhe would choose rather to work the Battle of Blenheim in Tapestry, than fignalize her felf with fo much Vehemence against those who are Frenchmen in their Hearts.

A Third Reason that I fhall mention, is the Profit that is brought to the Family where these pretty Arts are encouraged. It is manifeft that this way of Life not only keeps fair Ladies from running out into Expences, but is at the fame time an actual Improvement. How memorable would that Matron be, who fhould have it Infcribed her Monument, That fhe wrought out the whole Bible in Tapestry, and died in a good old Age, ⚫ after having covered three hundred Yards of Wall in the Manfion-Houfe.

upon

THE Premifes being confider'd, I humbly fubmit the following Propolals to all Mothers in Great Britain.

I. THAT no young Virgin whatsoever be allow'd to receive the Addreffes of her first Lover, but in a Suit of her own Embroidering.

II. THAT before every fresh Servant, fhe be oblig'd to appear with a new Stomacher at the least.

III. THAT no one be actually Married, till fhe hath the Child-bed Pillows, &c. ready Stitched, as likewise the Mantle for the Boy quite finished.

THESE Laws, if I mistake not, would effectually reftore the decay'd Art of Needle-work, and make the

Virgins

Virgins of Great Britain exceedingly Nimble-finger'd in their Bufinefs.

THERE is a memorable Cuftom of the Grecian Ladies in this particular, preferv'd in Homer, which I hope will have a very good Effect with my Country-women. A Widow, in ancient Times, could not, without Indecency, receive a fecond Husband, till she had woven a Shroud for her deceased Lord, or the next of Kin to him. Accordingly, the chafte Penelope, having, as fhe thought, loft Ulyffes at Sea, the employed her Time in preparing a Winding-fheet for Laertes, the Father of her Husband. The Story of her Web being very famous, and yet not fufficiently known in its feveral Circumftances, I fhall give it to my Reader, as Homer makes one of her Wooers relate it.

Sweet Hope he gave to every Youth apart,
With well-taught Looks, and a deceitful Heart:
A Web fhe wove of many a flender Twine,
Of curious Texture, and perplext Defign;
My Youths, fhe cry'd, my Lord but nearly dead,
Forbear a while to court my widow'd Bed,
'Till I have wov'n, as folemn Vows require,
This Web, a Shroud for pour Ulyffes' Sire.
His Limbs, when Fate the Hero's Soul demands,
Shall claim this Labour of his Daughter's Hands:
Left all the Dames of Greece my Name defpife,
While the great King without a Covering lies.

Thus fhe. Nor did my Friends mistrust the Guile,
All Day fhe fped the long laborious Toil:
But when the burning Lamps fupply'd the Sun,
Each Night unravell'd what the Day begun.
Three live-long Summers did the Fraud prevail;
The Fourth her Maidens told th' amazing Tale.
Thefe Eyes beheld, as clofe I took my Stand,
The backward Labours of her faithlefs Hand:
'Till watch'd at length, and prefs'd on every Side,
Her Task he ended, and commenc'd a Bride.

N° 607. Friday, October 15.

Dicite To Paan, & Iö bis dicite Paan:
Decidit in caffes præda petita meos.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

H

Ovid.

AVING in your Paper of Monday laft publifhed my Report on the Cafe of Mrs. Fanny Fickle, wherein I have taken notice, that Love comes after Marriage; I hope your Readers are fatisfied of this Truth, that as Love generally produces Matrimony, fo it often happens that Matrimony produces Love.

IT perhaps requires more Virtues to make a good Husband or Wife, than what go to the finishing any the most fhining Character whatsoever.

DISCRETION feems abfolutely neceffary, and accordingly we find that the beft Husbands have been moft famous for their Wifdom. Homer, who hath drawn a perfect Pattern of a prudent Man, to make it the more compleat, hath celebrated him for the just • Returns of Fidelity and Truth to his Penelope; infomuch that he refufed the Careffes of a Goddefs for her fake, and to use the Expreffion of the best of Pagan Authors, vetulam fuam prætulit Immortalitati, his old • Woman was dearer to him than Immortality.

6

VIRTUE is the next neceffary Qualification for this domeftick Character, as it naturally produces Conflancy and mutual Efteem. Thus Brutus and Porcia 6 were more remarkable for Virtue and Affection than any others of the Age in which they lived.

GOOD-NATURE is a third neceffary Ingredient in the Marriage-State, without which it would inevitably four upon a thousand Occafions. When Greatnefs of Mind is joined with this amiable Quality,

197 it attracts the Admiration and Efteem of all who be hold it. Thus Cafar, not more remarkable for his Fortune and Valour than for his Humanity, ftole into the Hearts of the Roman People, when, breaking through the Cuftom, he pronounced an Oration at the Funeral of his first and beft beloved Wife.

'GOOD-NATURE is infufficient, unless it be fteady and uniform, and accompanied with an Even nefs of Temper, which is, above all things, to be preferved in this Friendship contracted for Life. A Man must be easy within himself, before he can be fo to his other felf. Socrates, and Marcus Aurelius, are Inftances of Men, who, by the Strength of Philofophy, having entirely compofed their Minds, and fubdued their Paffions, are celebrated for good Husbands, notwithstanding the firft was yoked with Xantippe, and the other with Fauftina. If the wedded Pair would ⚫ but habituate themfelves for the first Year to bear with one another's Faults, the Difficulty would be pretty 'well conquer'd. This mutual Sweetness of Temper and Complacency was finely recommended in the Nuptial Ceremonies among the Heathens, who, when they facrificed to Juno at that Solemnity, always tore out the Gall from the Entrails of the Victim, and cast it behind the Altar.

6

6

I fhall conclude this Letter with a Paffage out of Dr. Plot's Natural Hiflory of Staffordshire, not only as it will ferve to fill up your prefent Paper, but, if I ⚫ find my felf in the Humour, may give Rife to ancther; I having by me an old Regilter, belonging to the Place here undermentioned.

SIR Philip de Somervile held the Manors of Whichenovre, Scirefcot, Ridware, Netherton, and Cowlee, all in Com. Stafford, of the Earls of Lancaster, by this memorable Service. The faid Sir Philip fhall find, maintain, and sustain, one Bacon-Flitch, hanging in his Hall at Whichenovre, ready arrayed all times of the Year, but in Lent, to be given to every Man or Woman, married, after the Day and the Year of their Marriage be past, in Form following.

WHENSOEVER that any one fuch before-named will come to enquire for the Bacon, in their own Perfon, they fhall come to the Bailiff, or to the Porter of the Lordship of Whichenovre, and fhall fay to them in the manner as enfueth;

BAYLIFF, or Porter, I doo you to know, that I am come for my felf, to demand one Bacon Flyke hanging in the Hall of the Lord of Whichenovre, after the Form thereunto belonging.

AFTER which Relation, the Bailiff or Porter fhall affign a Day to him, upon Promife by his Faith to return, and with him to bring Twain of his Neighbours. And in the mean time the faid Bailiff fhall take with him Twain of the Freeholders of the Lordfhip of Whichenovre, and they three shall go to the Manor of Rudlow, belonging to Robert Knightleye, and there fhall fummon the aforefaid Knightleye, or his Bailiff, com-. manding him to be ready at Whichenovre the Day appointed, at Prime of Day, with his Carriage, that is to fay, a Horfe and a Saddle, a Sack and a Prike, for to convey the faid Bacon and Corn a Journey out of the County of Stafford, at his Coftages. And then the faid Bailiff fhall, with the faid Freeholders, fummon all the Tenants of the faid Manor, to be ready at the Day appointed, at Whichenovre, for to do and perform the Services which they owe to the Bacon. And at the Day affigned, all fuch as owe Services to the Bacon, fhall be ready at the Gate of the Manor of Whichenovre, from the Sun-rifing to Noon, attending and awaiting for the coming of him who fetcheth the Bacon. And when he is come, there fhall be delivered to him and his Fellows, Chapelets; and to all thofe which fhall be there, to do their Services due to the Bacon. And they fhall lead the faid Demandant with Trumps and Tabours, and other manner of Minstrels, to the Hall-Door, where he fhall find the Lord of Whichenovre, or his Steward, ready to deliver the Bacon in this manner.

HE fhall enquire of him, which demandeth the Bacon, if he have brought twain of his Neighbours with him Which muft anfwer, They be here ready. And

then