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THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

CHARLES LORD HALLIFAX.

MY LORD,

SIMILIT

IMILITUDE of manners and studies is usually mentioned as one of the ftrongest motives to affection and esteem; but the paffionate veneration I have for your Lordship, I think, flows from an admiration of qualities in you, of which in the whole course of these papers I have acknowledged myself incapable. While I bufy myself as a stranger upon earth, and can pretend to nother than being a looker-on, you are confpicuous in the bufy and polite world, both in the world of men, and that ofletters: while I am filent and unobferved in public meetings, you are admired by all that approach you as the life and genius of the converfation. What an happy conjunction of different talents meets in him whose whole difcourfe is at once animated by the strength and force of reason, and adorned with all the graces and embellishments of wit? When learning irradiates common life, it is then in its highest use and perfection; and it is to fuch as your Lordship, that the fciences owe the esteem which they have with the active part of mankind. Know

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ledge of books in reclufe men, is like that fort of lantern which hides him who carries it, and ferves only to pass through fecret and gloomy paths of his own; but in the possession of a man of business, it is as a torch in the hand of one who is willing and able to fhew thofe, who were bewildered, the way which leads to their profperity and welfare. A generous concern for your country, and a passion for every thing which is truly great and noble, are what actuate all your life and actions; and I hope you will forgive me that I have an ambition this book be placed in the library of fo good a judge of what is valuable, in that library where the choice is fuch, that it will not be a difparagement to be the meaneft author in it. Forgive me, my Lord, for taking this occafion of telling all the world how ardently I love and honour you, and that I am, with the utmoft gratitude for all your favours,

My LORD,

Your Lordship's

moft obliged

moft obedient, and

moft humble fervant,

may

THE SPECTATOR.

THE

SPECTATOR.

No. LXXXI. SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1711.

Qualis ubi audito venantu murmure tigris
Horruit in maculas

As when the tigrefs hears the hunter's din,
A thousand angry spots defile her skin.

A

STATIUS,

BOUT the middle of last winter I went to fee an Opera at the Theatre in the Hay-market, where I could not but take notice of two parties of very fine women, that had placed them felves in the oppofite fideboxes, and feemed drawn up in a kind of battle array one against another. After a fhort furvey of them, I found they were patched differently; the faces on one hand being fpotted on the right fide of the fore-head, and those upon the other on the left. I quickly perceived that they caft hoftile glances upon one another; and that their patches were placed in thofe different fituations, as partyfignals to diftinguith friends from foes. In the middleboxes, between thele two oppofite bodies, were feveral ladies who patched indifferently on both fides of their faces, and feemed to fit there with no other intention but to fee the opera. Upon inquiry I found, that the body of Amazons on my right hand, were Whigs, and thofe on my left, Tories; and that those who had placed themfelves in the middle boxes were a neutral party, whofe faces had not yet declared themselves. Thefe laft, however, as I afterwards found, diminished daily, and took their party with one fide or the other; infomuch that I obferved in feveral of them, the patches, which were before difperfed equally, are now all gone over to the Whig Tory fide of the face. The cenforious fay, that the

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men

men, whose hearts are aimed at, are very often the occafions that one part of the face is thus difhonoured, and lies under a kind of disgrace, while the other is so much fet off and adorned by the owner; and that the patches turn to the right or to the left, according to the principles of the man who is moft in favour. But whatever may be the motives of a few fantastical coquettes, who do not patch for the public good fo much as for their own private advantage, it is certain, that there are feveral women of honour who patch out of principle, and with an eye to the intereft of their country. Nay, I am informed that fome of them adhere fo ftedfaftly to their party, and are fo far from facrificing their zeal for the public to their paffion for any particular perfon, that in a late draught of marriage-articles, a lady has ftipulated with her hufband, that, whatever his opinions are, the fhall be at liberty to patch on which fide the pleases.

I must here take notice, that Rofalinda, a famous Whig partifan, has moft unfortunately a very beautiful mole on the Tory part of her forehead; which being very con picuous, has occafioned many mistakes, and given an handle to her enemies to mifrepresent her face, as though it had revolted from the Whig intereft. But, whatever this natural patch may feem to intimate, it is well known that her notions of government are ftill the fame. This unlucky mole, however, has mifled several coxcombs; and like the hanging out of falfe colours, made fome of them converfe with Rofalinda in what they thought the fpirit of her party, when on a fudden she has given them an unexpected fire, that has funk them all at once. If Rofalinda is unfortunate in her mole, Nigranilla is as unhappy in a pimple, which forces her, against her inclinations, to patch on the Whig fide.

I am told th many virtuous matrons, who formerly have been taug. t to believe that this artificial spotting of the face was unlawful, are now reconciled by a zeal for their caufe, to what they could not be prompted by a concern for their beauty. This way of declaring war upon one another, puts me in mind of what is reported of the tigrefs, that several spots rife in her skin when the is an

gry,

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