are designed for the Diversion of the Publick, and to No. 36, act in enchanted Woods on the Theatres, by the Great, WednesAs she has often observed with much Concern how day, April 11, indecent an Education is usually given these innocent 171 Creatures, which in some Measure is owing to their being placed in Rooms next the Street, where, to the great Offence of chaste and tender Ears, they learn Ribaldry, obscene Songs, and immodest Expressions from Passengers and idle People, as also to cry Fish and Card-matches, with other useless Parts of Learning to Birds who have rich Friends, she has fitted up proper and neat Apartments for them in the back Part of her said House; where she suffers none to approach them but her self, and a Servant Maid who is deaf and dumb, and whom she provided on purpose to prepare their Food and cleanse their Cages; having found by long Experience how hard a thing it is for those to keep Silence who have the Use of Speech, and the Dangers her Scholars are exposed to by the strong Impressions that are made by harsh Sounds and vulgar Dialects. In short, if they are Birds of any Parts or Capacity, she will undertake to render them so accomplished in the Compass of a Twelve month, that they shall be fit Conversation for such Ladies as love to chuse their Friends and Companions out of this Species. No. 37, Thursday, April 12. SOME Non illa colo calathisve Minervae OME Months ago, my Friend Sir ROGER, being in Country, enclosed a Letter to me, directed to a certain Lady whom I shall here call by the Name of Leonora, and as it contained Matters of Consequence, desired me to deliver it to her with my own Hand, Accordingly I waited upon her Ladyship pretty early in the Morning, and was desired by her Woman to walk into her Lady's Library, till such time as she was in a Readiness to receive me. The very sound of a Lady's Library No, 37, 1711, Library gave me a great Curiosity to see it; and, as it Thursday, was some time before the Lady came to me, I had an April 12, Opportunity of turning over a great many of her Books, which were ranged together in a very beautiful Order At the End of the Folios (which were finely bound and gilt) were great Jars of China placed one above another in a very noble piece of Architecture. The Quartos were separated from the Octavos by a pile of smaller Vessels, which rose in a delightful Pyramid The Octavos were bounded by Tea Dishes of all Shapes Colours and Sizes, which were so disposed on a wooden Frame, that they looked like one continued Pillar indented with the finest Strokes of Sculpture, and stained with the greatest Variety of Dyes. That Part of the Library which was designed for the Reception of Plays and Pamphlets, and other loose Papers, was inclosed in a kind of Square, consisting of one of the prettiest Grotesque Works that ever I saw, and made up of Scaramouches, Lions, Monkies, Mandarines, Trees, Shells, and a thousand other odd Figures in China Ware. In the midst of the Room was a little Japan Table, with a Quire of gilt Paper upon it, and on the Paper a Silver Snuff-box made in the Shape of a little Book. I found there were several other Counterfeit Books upon the upper Shelves, which were carved in Wood, and served only to fill up the Number, like Faggots in the Muster of a Regiment. I was wonderfully pleased with such a mixt kind of Furni ture, as seemed very suitable both to the Lady and the Scholar, and did not know at first whether I should fancy my self in a Grotto, or in a Library, Upon my looking into the Books, I found there were some few which the Lady had bought for her own use, but that most of them had been got together, either because she had heard them praised, or because she had seen the Authors of them. Among several that 1 examined, I very well remember these that follow. Ogleby's Virgil. Dryden's Juvenal. Cleopatra. Astraea, Sir Isaac Newton's Works, The Grand Cyrus: with a Pin stuck in one of the Thursday, middle Leaves, Pembroke's Arcadia. Lock of Human Understanding: with a Paper of Patches in it. A Spelling Book. A Dictionary for the Explanation of hard Words, The fifteen Comforts of Matrimony. Sir William Temple's Essays, Father Malbranche's Search after Truth, translated into English. A Book of Novels, The Academy of Compliments, Culpepper's Midwifery, The Ladies' Calling. Tales in Verse by Mr. Durfey: Bound in Red Leather, gilt on the Back, and doubled down in several Places, All the Classick Authors in Wood, A Set of Elzivers by the same Hand. Clelia: Which opened of it self in the Place that describes two Lovers in a Bower, Baker's Chronicle. Advice to a Daughter. The New Atalantis, with a Key to it. Mr. Steele's Christian Heroe. A Prayer Book: With a Bottle of Hungary Water by the side of it. Dr. Sacheverell's Speech Fielding's Tryal. Seneca's Morals, Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, La Ferte's Instructions for Country Dances, I was taking a Catalogue in my Pocket-Book of these, and several other Authors, when Leonora entred, and upon my presenting her with the Letter from the Knight, told me, with an unspeakable Grace, that she hoped Sir ROGER was in good Health: I answered Yes, for I hate long Speeches, and after a Bow or two retired. Leonora No. 37, April 12, 1711, No, 37, Leonora was formerly a celebrated Beauty, and is Thursday, still a very lovely Woman, She has been a Widow for April 12, two or three Years, and being unfortunate in her first 1711. Marriage, has taken a Resolution never to venture upon a second. She has no Children to take care of, and leaves the Management of her Estate to my good Friend Sir ROGER But as the Mind naturally sinks into a kind of Lethargy, and falls asleep, that is not agitated by some Favourite Pleasures and Pursuits, Leonora has turned all the Passions of her Sex into a love of Books and Retirement. She converses chiefly with Men (as she has often said herself) but it is only in their Writings; and admits of very few Male Visitants, except my Friend Sir ROGER, whom she hears with great Pleasure, and without Scandal, As her Reading has lain very much among Romances, it has given her a very particular Turn of Thinking, and discovers it self even in her House, her Gardens, and her Furniture, Sir ROGER has enter tained me an Hour together with a Description of her Country-Seat, which is situated in a kind of Wilderness, about an hundred Miles_distant from London, and looks like a little enchanted Palace. The Rocks about her are shaped into Artificial Grottoes, covered with Wood bines and Jessamines. The woods are cut into shady Walks, twisted into Bowers, and filled with Cages of Turtles. The Springs are made to run among Pebbles, and by that means taught to murmur very agreeably. They are likewise collected into a beautiful Lake, that is inhabited by a Couple of Swans, and empties it self by a little Rivulet which runs through a green Meadow, and is known in the Family by the Name of The Purling Stream, The Knight likewise tells me, that this Lady preserves her Game better than any of the Gentlemen in the Country; not (says Sir ROGER) that she sets so great a Value upon her Partridges and Pheasants, as upon her Larks and Nightingales, For she says that every Bird which is killed in her Ground, will spoil a Consort, and that she shall certainly miss him the next Year, When I think how odly this Lady is improved by Learning, I look upon her with a mixture of Admiration and Pity, Amidst these innocent Entertainments which she 1711 she has formed to her self, how much more Valuable No, 37, does she appear than those of her Sex, who employ Thursday, themselves in Diversions that are less Reasonable, though April 12, more in Fashion? What Improvements would a Woman have made, who is so susceptible of Impressions from what she reads, had she been guided to such Books as have a tendency to enlighten the Understanding and rectifie the Passions, as well as to those which are of little more use than to divert the Imagination? But the manner of a Lady's employing her self usefully in Reading shall be the Subject of another Paper, in which I design to recommend such particular Books as may be proper for the Improvement of the Sex. And as this is a Subject of a very nice Nature, I shall desire my Corre spondents to give me their Thoughts upon it. No. 38. [STEELE.] Friday, April 13. Cupias non placuisse nimis.-Mart, Conversation I fell Opportunity of observing a great deal of Beauty in a very handsome Woman, and as much Wit in an ingenious Man, turned into Deformity in the one, and Absurdity in the other, by the meer Force of Affectation. The Fair One had something in her Person upon which her Thoughts were fixed, that she attempted to shew to Advantage in every Look, Word, and Gesture, The Gentleman was as diligent to do Justice to his fine Parts, as the Lady to her beauteous Form: You might see his Imagiration on the Stretch to find out something uncommon, and what they call bright, to entertain her while she writhed her self into as many different Postures to engage him, When she laughed, her Lips were to sever at a greater Distance than ordinary to shew her Teeth: Her Fan was to point to somewhat at a Distance, that in the Reach she may discover the Roundness of her Arm; then she is utterly mistaken in what she saw, falls back, smiles at her own Folly, and is so wholly discomposed, that her Tucker is to be adjusted, her Bosom exposed, and the whole Woman put into new Airs and r; Graces |