know, in fome of your papers, how much they are in the wrong. I have been married near five years, and do not know that in all that time I ever went abroad without my husband's leave and approbation. I am obliged, through the importunities of feveral of my relations, to go abroad oftener than fuits my temper. Then it is, I labour under infupportable agonies. That man, or rather monster, haunts every place I go to. Bafe villain! by reafon I will not admit his naufeous wicked vifits and appointments, he ftrives all the ways he can to ruin me. He left me deftitute of friend or money, nor ever thought me worth enquiring after, until he unfortunately happened to fee me in a front-box, fparkling with jewels. Then his paffion returned. Then the hypocrite pretended to be a penitent. Then he practifed all thofe arts that helped before to undo me. I am not to be deceived a fecond time by him. I hate and abhor his odious paffion; and as he plainly perceives it, either out of fpite or diverfion, he makes it his bufinefs to expofe me. I never fail fecing him in all public company, where he is always moft induftriously fpiteful. He hath, in short, told all his acquaintance of our unhappy affair; they tell theirs; fo that it is no fecret among his companions, which are numerous. They, to whom he tells it, think they have a title to be very familiar. If they bow to me, and I out of good manners return it, then I am pestered with freedoms that are no ways agreeable to myself or company. If I turn my eyes from them, or feem difpleafed, they four upon it, and whisper the next perfon; he his next; until I have at laft the eyes of the whole company upon me. Nay, they report abominable falfhoods, under that mistaken notion, She that will grant ⚫ favours to one man, will to a hun"dred. I beg you will let thofe who are guilty, know, how ungenerous this way of proceeding is. I am fure he will know himself the perfon aimed at, and perhaps put a stop to the infolence of others. Curfed is the fate of unhappy women! that men may boaft and glory in those things, that we must think of with fhame and horror! You have the art of making fuch odious customs appear deteftable. For my fake, and I am fure, for the fake of feveral others, who dare not own it, but, like me, lie

under the fame misfortunes, make it as infamous for a man to boat of favours, or expose our sex, as it is to take the lye or a box on the ear, and not refent it. Your conftant reader, and admirer,

LESBIA.

P. S. I am the more impatient under this misfortune, having received freth provocation, laft Wednesday, in the Abbey.

I entirely agree with the amiable and unfortunate Lefbia, that an infult upon a woman in her circumftances is as infamous in a man, as a tame behaviour when the lye or a buffet is given; which truth I shall beg leave of her to illuftrate by the following observation.

It is a mark of cowardice paffively to forbear refenting an affront, the refenting of which would lead a man into danger; it is no less a fign of cowardice to affront a creature that hath no power to avenge itself. Whatever name therefore this ungenerous man may beltow on the helpless lady he hath injured, I fhall not fcruple to give him in return for it, the appellation of coward.

A man, that can fo far defcend from his dignity, as to ftrike a lady, can never recover his reputation with either fex, because no provocation is thought strong enough to justify fuch treatment from the powerful towards the weak. In the circumstances in which poor Lesbia is fituated, she can appeal to no man whatfoever to avenge an infult, more grievous than a blow. If the could open her mouth, the base man knows, that a hufband, a brother, a generous friend, would die to fee her righted.

A generous mind, however enraged against an enemy, feels it's refentments fink and vanish away, when the object of it's wrath falls into it's power. An eftranged friend, filled with jealousy and difcontent towards a bofom acquaint ance, is apt to overflow with tenderness and remorfe, when a creature that was once dear to him undergoes any miffortune. What name then fhall we give to his ingratitude, who (forgetting the favours he folicited with eagerness, and received with rapture) can infult the miferies that he himself caufed, and make fport with the pain to which he owes his greateft pleafure? There is but one being in the creation whofe province it is to practise upon the imbecillities of 7 M z

frail

frail creatures, and triumph in the woes which his own artifices brought about; and we well know, thofe who follow his example, will receive his reward.

Leaving my fair correfpondent to the direction of her own wisdom and mo"defty; and her enemy, and his mean accomplices, to the compunction of their own hearts; I fhall conclude this paper with a memorable inftance of revenge, taken by a Spanish lady upon a guilty lover, which may ferve to fhew what violent effects are wrought by the most tender paffion, when foured into hatred; and may deter the young and unwary from unlawful love. The ftory, however romantic it may appear, I have heard affirmed for a truth.

Not many years ago an English gen. tleman, who in a rencounter by night in the streets of Madrid had the mistortune to kill his man, fled into a churchporch for fanctuary. Leaning againft the door, he was furprifed to find it

open, and a glimmering light in the church. He had the courage to advance towards the light; but was terribly ftartled at the fight of a woman in white, who afcended from a grave with a bloody knife in her hand. The phantom marched up to him, and afked him what he did there. He told her the truth, without referve, believing that he had met a ghoft: upon which the spoke to him in the following manner: Stranger, thou art in my power: I am a murderer as thou art. Know then, that I am a nun of a noble family. A bafe perjured man undid me, and boafted of it. I foon had him difpatched; bet " not content with the murder, I have bribed the fexton to let me enter his grave, and have now plucked out his falfe heart from his body; and thus I ufe a traitor's heart. At these words the tore it in pieces, and trampled it under her feet.

VIRG. N. XII. VER. 529↓

IT is highly laudable to pay respect T is highly laudable to pay respect

thy ancestors, not only out of gratitude to those who have done good to mankind, but as it is an encouragement to others to follow their example. But this is an honour to be received, not demanded, by the defcendants of great men; and they who are apt to remind us of their ancestors, only put us upon making comparisons to their own difadVantage, There is fome pretence for boalting of wit, beauty, ftrength, or wealth, because the communication of them may give pleasure or profit to others; but we can have no merit, nor ought we to claim any refpect, because our Fathers acted well, whether we would

DRYDEN.

I have mentioned, in a new, and, I think, not difagreeable light..

MR. SPECTATOR,

WERE the genealogy of every fa,

mily preferved, there would probably be no man valued or defpifed on account of his birth. There is fcarce a beggar in the streets, who would not find himself lineally defcended from fome great man; nor any one of the highest title, who would not discover several bafe and indigent perfons among his anceftors. It would be a pleafant entertainment to see one pedigree of men ap pear together, under the fame characters they bore when they acted their respective parts among the living. Suppofe, therefore, a gentleman, full of his illuftrious Family, fhould, in the fame manner Vir

gil makes Æneas look over his defcendants, fee the whole line of his proge nitors pafs in a review before his eyes, with how many varying paffions would he behold fhepherds and foldiers, statesmen and artificers, princes and beggars, walk in the proceffion of five thousand years! How would his heart fink or flutter at the feveral fports of fortune in a scene fo diverfified with rags and purple, handicraft tools and fceptres, enigns of dignity and emblems of difgrace; and how would his fears and apprehenfions, his tranfports and mortifications, fucceed one another, as the line of his genealogy appeared bright or obfcure?

In most of the pedigrees hung up in old manfion-houses, you are fure to find the firft in the catalogue a great ftatefman, or a foldier with an honourable commiffion. The honeft artificer that begot him, and all his frugal ancestors before him, are torn off from the top of the register; and you are not left to imagine, that the noble founder of the family ever had a father. Were we to trace many boated lines farther backwards, we should lose them in a mob of tradefinen, or a crowd of ruftics, without hope of feeing them emerge again : not unlike the old Appian way, which, after having run many miles in length, lofes itself in a bog.

I lately made a vifit to an old country gentleman, who is very far gone in this fort of family madness. I found him in his ftudy perufing an old regifter of his family, which he had juft then difcovered, as it was branched out in the form of a tree, upon a skin of parchment. Having the honour to have some of his blood in my veins, he permitted me to caft my eye over the boughs of this venerable plant; and afked my advice in the reforming of fome of the fuperfluous branches.

We paffed flightly over three or four of our immediate forefathers, whom we knew by tradition, but were foon ftopped by an alderman of London, who, I perceived, made my kinfman's heart go pit-a-pat. His confufion increafed, when he found the alderman's father to be a grazier; but he recovered his fright upon feeing justice of the quorum at the end of his titles. Things went on pretty well as we threw our eyes occafionally over the tree, when unfortunately he perceived a merchant-taylor perched on

a bough, who was faid greatly to have increased the eftate; he was just a going to cut him off if he had not feen Gent. after the name of his fon; who was recorded to have mortgaged one of the manors his honeft father had purchased. A weaver, who was burnt for his religion in the reign of Queen Mary, was pruned away without mercy; as was likewife a yeoman, who died of a fall from his own cart. But great was our triumph in one of the blood who was beheaded for high treafon: which neverthelefs was not a little allayed by another of our ancestors who was hanged for tealing fheep. The expectations of my good coufin were wonderfully raised by a match into the family of a knight, but unfortunately for us, this branch proved barren: on the other hand, Margery the milk-maid, being twined round a bough, it flourished out into fo many fhoots, and bent with fo much fruit, that the old gentleman was quite out of countenance. To comfort me, under this difgrace, he fingled out a branch. ten times more fruitful than the other, which, he told me, he valued more than any in the tree, and bade me be of good comfort. This enormous bough was a graft out of a Welsh heirefs, with fo many Ap's upon it, that it might have made a little grove by itself. From the trunk of the pedigree, which was chiefly compofed of labourers and fhepherds, arofe a huge sprout of farmers: this was branched out into yeomen, and ended in a fheriff of the county, who was knighted for his good service to the crown, in bringing up an addrefs. Several of the names that seemed to difparage the family, being looked upon as mistakes, were lopped off as rotten or withered; as, on the contrary, no small number appearing without any titles,. my coufin, to fupply the defects of the manufcript, added Efq. at the end of each of them.

This tree fo pruned, dreffed, and cultivated, was, within a few days, tranfplanted into a large fheet of vellum, and placed in the great hall, where it attracts the veneration of his tenants every Sunday morning, while they wait until his worship is ready to go to church; wondering that a man, who had fo many fathers before him, fhould not be made a knight, or at least a juftice of the peace,

N

among the moderns. The perfons I am fpeaking of are our common beggars about this town; and that what I fay is true, I appeal to any man who has a heart one degree softer than a stone. As for my part, who do not pretend to more humanity than my neighbours, I have oftentimes gone from my chambers with money in my pocket, and returned to them not only pennylefs, but deftitute of a farthing, without beftowing of it any other way than on thefe feeming objects of pity. In short, I have feen more eloquence in a look from one of thefe despicable creatures, than in the eye of the fairest the I ever faw, yet no one a greater admirer of that fex than myfelf. What I have to defire of you is, to lay down fome directions in order to guard against these powerful orators, or elfe I know nothing to the contrary but I muft myfelf be forced to leave the profeffion of the law, and endeavour to get the qualifications neceffary to that more profitable one of begging. But in which foever of these two capacities I fhine, I fhall always defire to be your conftant reader, and ever will be your most humble fer

UPON reading a Spectator laft week, where Mrs. Fanny Fickle fubmitted the choice of a lover for life to your decifive determination, and imagining I might claim the favour of your advice in an affair of the like, but much more difficult nature, I called for pen and ink, in order to draw the characters of feven humble fervants, whom I have equally encouraged for fome time. But, alas! while I was reflecting on the agreeable fubject, and contriving an advantageous defcription of the dear perfon I was moft inclined to favour, I happened to look into my glass. The fight of the fmallpox, out of which I am just recovered, tormented me at once with the lofs of my captivating arts and my captives. The confufion I was in, on this unhappy, unfeasonable discovery, is inexpreffible. Believe me, Sir, I was fo taken up with the thoughts of your fair correfpondent's cafe, and fo intent on my own defign, that I fancied myself as triumphant in my conquefts as ever.

Now, Sir, finding I was incapacitated to amuse myself on that pleafing Labject, I refolved to apply myfelf to

you, or your cafuiftical agent, for advice in my prefent circumftances. I am fenfible the tincture of my skin, and the regularity of my features, which the malice of my late illness has altered, are irrecoverable: yet do not defpair, but that that lofs, by your affiftance, may in fome measure be repairable, if you will please to propofe a way for the recovery of one only of my fugitives.

One of them is in a more particular manner beholden to me than the reft; he for fome private reafons being defirous to be a lover incognito, always addreffed me with billet-doux, which I was fo careful of in my ficknefs, that I fecured the key of my love magazine under my head, and hearing a noife of opening a lock in my chamber, endangered my life by getting out of bed, to prevent, if it had been attempted, the discovery of that amour.

I have formerly made use of all thosẹ artifices which our fex daily practifes over yours, to draw, as it were undefignedly, the eyes of a whole congregation to my pew; I have taken a pride in the number of admirers at my afternoon levee; but am now quite another creature. I think, could I regain the attractive influence I once had, if I had a legion of fuitors, I fhould never be ambitious of entertaining more than one. I have almoft contracted an antipathy to the trifling difcourfes of impertinent lovers, though I must needs own, I have thought it very odd of late, to hear gentlemen, inftead of their ufual complaifances, fall into difputes before me of politics, or elfe weary me with the tedious repetition of how thankful I ought to be, and fatisfied with my recovery out of fo dangerous a distemper: this, though I am very fenfible of the blefiing, yet I cannot but diflike, because fuch advice from them rather fseems to infult than comfort me, and reminds me too much of what I was; which melancholy confideration I cannot yet perfectly furmount, but hope your fentiments on this head will make it fupportable.

To fhew you what a value I have for your dictates, thefe are to certify the perfons concerned, that unlefs one of them returns to his colours, if I may fo call them now, before the winter is over, I will voluntarily confine my felf to a retirement, where I will punish them all with my needle. I will be revenged on them by decyphering them on a carpet,

humbly