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us out of it than by the Lofs of thy Innocence. Heaven preferve my dear Child,

Thy Affectionate Mether

THE Meffenger, notwithstanding he promised to deliver this Letter to Amanda, carry' 'dit firft to his Mafter, who he imagined would be glad to have an opportunity of giving it into her hands himfelf. His Mafter was impatient to know the Succefs of his Propofal, and therefore broke open the Letter privately to fee the Contents. He was not a little moved at fo true a Picture of Virtue in diftrefs: But at the fame time was infinitely furprized to find his Offers rejected. However, he refolved not to fupprefs the Letter, but carefully fealed it up again, and earried it to Amanda. All his Endeavours to fee her wers in vain, till she was affured he brought a Letter from her Mother. He would not part with it but upon condition that the fhould read it without leaving the Room. While fhe was peruling it, he fixed his Eyes on her Face with the deepest Attention: Her Concern gave a new Softness to her Beauty, and when the burft into Tears, he could no longer refrain from bearing a Part in her Sorrow, and telling her, that he too had read the Letter and was refolv'd to make Reparation for having been the occafion of it. My Reader will not be difpleafed to fee the fecond Epiftle which he now wrote to Amanda's Mother.

MADAM,

I

Am full of Shame, and will never forgive my felf, if I have not your Pardon for what I lately wrote. It was far from my Intention to add Trouble to the Afflicted; nor could any thing, but my being a Stranger to you, have betray'd me into a Fault, for which, if I live, I fhall endeavour to make you amends, as a Son. You cannot be unhappy while Amanda is your Daughter: nor fhall be, if any thing can prevent it, which is in the power of,

MADAM,

Your most obedient

Humble Servant ·

THIS

THIS Letter he fent by his Steward, and foon after went up to Town himself, to compleat the generous Act he had now refolved on. By his Friendship and Affiftance Amanda's Father was quickly in a condition of retrieving his perplex'd Affairs. To conclude, he marry'd Amanda, and enjoy'd the double Satisfaction of having reftored a worthy Family to their former Profperity, and of making himself happy by an Alliance to their Virtues.

N° 376. Monday, May 12.

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Pavone ex Pythagoreo.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

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Perfius.

Have obferved that the Officer you fome time ago appointed as Infpector of Signs, has not done his Duty fo well as to give you an account of very many ftrange Occurrences in the publick Streets, which are worthy of, but have efcaped your notice. Among all the Oddnesses which I have ever met with, that which I am now telling you gave me moft delight. You muft have obferved that all the Criers in the Street attract the Attention of the Paffengers, and of the Inhabitants in the feveral Parts, by fomething very particular in their Tone it felf, in the dwelling upon a Note, or elfe making themfelves wholly unintelligible by a Scream. The Perfon I am fo delighted with has nothing to fell, but very gravely receives the Bounty of the People, for no other Merit but the Homage they pay to his Manner of fignifying to them that he wants a Subfidy. You must, fure, have heard fpeak of an old Man, who walks about the City, and that part of the Suburbs which lies beyond the Tower, performing the Office of a DayWatchman, followed by a Goofe, which bears the bob of his Ditty, and confirms what he fays with a Quack, Quack. I gave little heed to the mention of this known Circumftance, till, being the other day in thole Quarters, I paffed by a decrepid old Fellow with a Pole in

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his Hand, who just then was bawling out, half an hour after one a-clock, and immediately a dirty Goose behind him made her Refponfe, Quack, Quack.. I. could not forbear attending this grave Proceffion for the length of half a Street, with no fmall amazement to find the whole Place fo familiarly acquainted with a melancholy Mid-night Voice at Noon-day, giving them the Hour, and exhorting them of the Departure of Time, with a Bounce at their Doors. While I was full of this Novelty, I went into a Friend's Houfe, and told him how I was diverted with their whimfical Monitor and his Equipage. My Friend gave me the Hiftory; and in. terrupted my Commendation of the Man, by telling me the Livelihood of these two Animals is purchased rather by the good Parts of the Goofe, than of the Leader: For it feems the Peripatetick who walked before her was a Watchman in that neighbourhood; and the Goofe of her felf by frequent hearing his Tone, out of her natural Vigilance, not only obferved, but answer'd it very regularly from time to time. The Watchman was fo affected with it, that he bought her, and has taken her in Partner, only altering their Hours of Duty from Night to Day. The Town has come into it, and they live very comfortably. This is the Matter of Fact : Now I defire you, who are a profound Philofopher, to confider this Alliance of Inftinet and Reafon; your Speculation may turn very naturally upon the Force the fuperiour Part of Mankind may have upon the Spirits of fuch as, like this Watchman, may be very near the • Standard of Geefe. And you may add to this practical Obfervation, how in all Ages and Times the World has been carry'd away by odd unaccountable things, which one would think would pafs upon no Creature which had Reafon; and, under the Symbol of this Goofe, you may enter into the Manner and Method of leading Crea-· tures, with their Eyes open, thro' thick and thin, for they know not what, they know not why..

ALL which is humbly fubmitted to your Spectatorial Wifdom, by,,

SIR

Your most bumble Servant,"
Michael Gander..
Mr.

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

Haye for feveral Years had under my Care the Go vernment and Education of young Ladies, which. Truft I have endeavour'd to discharge with due regard to their feveral Capacities and Fortunes: I have left nothing undone to imprint in every one of them an humble courteous Mind, accompanied with a graceful becoming Mein, and have made them pretty much acquainted with the Houfhold Part of Family-Affairs; but ftill L. find there is fomething very much wanting in the Air of my Ladies, different from what I obferve in thofe that are efteemed your fine-bred Women. Now, Sir, I' muft own to you, I never fuffered my Girls to learn to. dance; but fince I have read your Difcourfe of Dancing, • where you have defcribed the Beauty and Spirit there is in regular Motion, I own my felf your Convert, and refolve for the future to give my young Ladies that Accomplishment. But upon imparting my Defign to their Parents, I have been made very uneafy, for fome time, becaufe feveral of them have declared, that if I did not make ufe of the Mafter they recommended, they would take away their Children. There was Colonel Jumper's Lady, a Colonel of the Train-Bands, that has a great Intereft in her Parish; fhe recommends Mr. Trott for the prettieft Mafter in Town, that no Man teaches a Jigg like him, that fhe has feen him rife fix or feven Capers together with the greatest eafe imaginable, and that his Scholars twift themselves more ways than the Scholars of any Mafter in Town: befides there is Madam Prim, an Alderman's Lady, recommends a Mafter of her own Name, but the declares he is not of their Family, yet a very extraordinary Man in his way; for befides a very foft Air he has in dancing, he gives them a particular Behaviour at a Tea-Table, and in prefenting their Snuff Box, to twirl, flip, or flirt a Fan, and how to place Patches to the best advantage, either for fat or lean, long or oval Faces: for my Lady fays there is more in these things than the World imagines. But I muft confefs the major Part of thofe I am concern'd with leave it to me. I defire therefore, according: to the inclofed Direction, you would fend your Corre!fpondent t

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fpondent who has writ to you on that Subject to my House. If proper Application this way can give Innocence new Charms, and make Virtue legible in the ⚫ Countenance, I fhall spare no Charge to make my Scholars in their very Features and Limbs bear witness how careful I have been in the other Parts of their Education. I am, SIR,

Your most humble Servant,

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Quid quifque vitet, nunquam homini fatis
Cautum eft in horas

L

Hor.

OVE was the Mother of Poetry, and still produces, among the moft ignorant and barbarous, a thoufand imaginary Diftreffes and Poetical Complaints. It makes a Footman talk like Oroondates, and converts a brutal Ruftick into a gentle Swain. The moft ordinary Plebeian or Mechanick in Love, bleeds and pines away with a certain Elegance and Tenderness of Sentiments which this Paffion naturally infpires.

THESE inward Languifhings of a Mind infected with this Softnefs, have given birth to a Phrafe which is made ufe of by all the melting Tribe, from the highest to the loweft, I mean that of dying for Love.

ROMANCES, which owe their very Being to this Paffion, are full of thefe metaphorical Deaths. Heroes and Heroines, Knights, Squires, and Damfels, are all of them in a dying Condition. There is the fame kind of Mortality in our Modern Tragedies, where every one gafps, faints, bleeds and dies. Many of the Poets, to defcribe the Execution which is done by this Paffion, reprefent the Fair Sex as Bafilisks that deftroy with their Eyes; but I think Mr. Cowley has with great Juftnefs of Thought compared a beautiful Woman to a Porcupine, that fends an Arrow from every Part.

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