His fair large front, and eye sublime, declared
Absolute rule: and hyacinthian locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung
Clust'ring, but not beneath his shoulders broad.
She, as a vail, down to her slender waist
Her unadorned golden tresses wore.
Disheveld, but in wanton ringlets wav'd.—
So pass'd they naked on, nor shunn'd the sight

Of God or angel, for they thought no ill:

So hand in hand they pass'd, the loveliest pair
That ever since in love's embraces met.

observing the masterly transition which the poet makes to their evening worship in the following lines:

Thus at their shady lodge arriv'd, both stood, Both turned, and under open sky ador'd The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heav'n, Which they beheld, the moon's resplendent globe, And starry pole: "Thou also mad'st the night, Maker omnipotent, and thou the day," etc. There is a fine spirit of poetry in the lines the ancients, in beginning a speech without preMost of the modern heroic poets have imitated which follow, wherein they are described as sit-mising that the person said thus or thus; but as ting on a bed of flowers by the side of a fountain, it is easy to imitate the ancients in the omission amidst a mixed assembly of animals. The speeches of these two first lovers flow it in such a manner as they shall not be missed, of two or three words, it requires judgment to do equally from passion and sincerity. The profes- and that the speech may begin naturally without sions they make to one another are full of warmth; them. There is a fine instance of this kind out of but at the same time founded on truth. In a word, Homer, in the twenty-third chapter of Longinus. they are the gallantries of Paradise:

-When Adam, first of men

"Sole partner and sole part of all these joys, Dearer thyself than all;

But let us ever praise Him, and extol

His bounty, following our delightful task,

To prune these growing plants, and tend these flow'rs,
Which were it toilsome, yet with thee were sweet."
To whom thus Eve replied: "O thou for whom,
And from whom, I was form'd, flesh of thy flesh,
And without whom am to no end, my guide
And head, what thou hast said is just and right.
For we to Him indeed all praises owe,
And daily thanks: I chiefly, who enjoy
So far the happier lot, enjoying thee
Pre-eminent by so much odds, while thou

Like consort to thyself canst nowhere find," etc.

The remaining part of Eve's speech, in which she gives an account of herself upon her first creation, and the manner in which she was brought to Adam, is, I think, as beautiful a passage as any in Milton, or perhaps in any other poet whatsoever. These passages are all worked off with so much art, that they are capable of pleasing the most delicate reader without offending the most

severe.

"That day I oft remember, when from sleep," etc.
A poet of less judgment and invention than this
great author, would have found it very difficult to
have filled these tender parts of the poem with
sentiments proper for a state of innocence; to have
described the warmth of love, and the professions
of it, without artifice or hyperbole; to have made
the man speak the most endearing things without
descending from his natural dignity, and the
woman receiving them without departing from
the modesty of her character: in a word, to adjust
the prerogatives of wisdom and beauty, and make
each appear to the other in its proper force and
loveliness. This mutual subordination of the
two sexes is wonderfully kept up in the whole
poem, as particularly in the speech of Eve I have
before mentioned, and upon the conclusion of it
in the following lines:

So spake our general mother, and with eyes
Of conjugal attraction unreprov'd,
And meek surrender, half-embracing lean'd
On our first father; half her swelling breast
Naked met his under the flowing gold
Of her loose tresses hid; he in delight
Both of her beauty and submissive charms
Smil'd with superior love.-

The poet adds, that the devil turned away with envy at the sight of so much happiness.

We have another view of our first parents in their evening discourses, which is full of pleasing images and sentiments suitable to their condition and characters. The speech of Eve in particular, is dressed up in such a soft and natural turn of words and sentiments, as cannot be sufficiently

admired.

I shall close my reflections upon this book with

L.

No. 322.] MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1711-12.
Ad humum moerore gravi deducit et angit.
HOR. Ars. Poet., v, 110.

-Grief wrings her soul, and bends it down to earth.
FRANCIS.

IT is often said, after a man has heard a story with extraordinary circumstances, "it is a very good one, if it be true:" but as for the following relation, I should be glad were I sure it were false. It is told with such simplicity, and there are so many artless touches of distress in it, that I fear it comes too much from the heart:

"Some years ago it happened that I lived in the same house with a young gentleman of merit, with whose good qualities I was so much taken, as to make it my endeavor to show as many as I was able in myself. Familiar converse improved general civilities into an unfeigned passion on both sides. He watched an opportunity to declare himself to me, and I, who could not expect a man of so great an estate as his, received his addresses in such terms, as gave him no reason to believe I was displeased with them, though I did nothing to make him think me more easy than was decent. His father was a very hard, worldly man, and proud; so that there was no reason to believe he would easily be brought to think there was anything in any woman's person, or character, that could balance the disadvantage of an unequal fortune. In the meantime the son continued his application to me, and omitted no occasion of demonstrating the most disinterested passion imaginable to me; and in plain. direct terms offered to marry me privately, and keep it so till he should be so happy as to gain his father's approbation, or become possessed of his estate. I passionately loved him, and you will believe I did not deny such a one what was my interest also to grant. However, I was not so young as not to take the precaution of carrying with me a faithful servant, who had been also my mother's maid, to be prosent at the ceremony. When that was over, I demanded a certificate to be signed by the minister, my husband, and the servant I just now spoke of. After our nuptials, we conversed together very familiarly in the same house: but the restraints we were generally under, and the interviews we had being stolen and interrupted, made our behavior to each other have rather the impatient fondness which is visible in lovers, than the regular and gratified affection which is to be observed in man and wife. This observation made the father very anxious for his son, and press him to a match he had in his eye for him. To relieve

T.

"OCTAVIA."

No. 323.] TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 1711–12.
-Modo vir, modo fœmina.-VIRG.

Sometimes a man sometimes a woman.*

THE journal with which I presented my reader on Tuesday last, has brought me in several letters with accounts of many private lives cast into that form. I have the "Rake's Journal," the "Sot's Journal," the "Whoremaster's Journal," and among several others, a very curious piece, entitled, The Journal of a Mohock." By these instances, I find that the intention of my last Tuesday's paper has been mistaken by many of my readers. I did not design so much to expose vice as idleness, and aimed at those persons who passed away their time rather in trifles and impertinence, than in crimes and immoralities. Offenses of this latter kind are not to be dallied with, or treated in so ridiculous a manner. In short, my journal only holds up folly to the light, and shows the disagreeableness of such actions as are indifferent in themselves, and blamable only as they proceed from creatures endowed with reason.

my husband from this importunity, and conceal think is my piercing affliction?—I leave you to the secret of our marriage, which I had reason to represent my distress your own way, in which I know would not be long in my power in town, it desire you to be speedy, if you have compassion was resolved that I should retire into a remote for innocence exposed to infamy. place in the country, and converse under feigned names by letter. We long continued this way of commerce; and I with my needle, a few books, and reading over and over my husband's letters, passed my time in a resigned expectation of better days. Be pleased to take notice, that within four months after I left my husband I was delivered of a daughter, who died within a few hours after her birth. This accident, and the retired manner of life I led, gave criminal hopes to a neighboring brute of a country gentleman, whose folly was the source of all my affliction. This rustic is one of those rich clowns who supply the want of all manner of breeding by the neglect of it, and with noisy mirth, half understanding, and ample fortune, force themselves upon persons and things, without any sense of time or place. The poor ignorant people where I lay concealed, and now passed for a widow, wondered I could be so shy and strange, as they called it, to the squire; and were bribed by him to admit him whenever he thought fit: I happened to be sitting in a little parlor which belonged to my own part of the house, and musing over one of the fondest of my husband's letters, in which I always kept the certificate of my marriage, when this rude fellow came in, and with the nauseous familiarity of such unbred brutes, snatched the papers out of my hand. I was immediately under so great a concern, that I threw myself at his feet, and begged of him to return them. He, with the same odious pretense to freedom and gayety, swore he would read them. I grew more importunate, he more curious, till at last, with an indignation arising from a passion I then first discovered in him, he threw the papers into the fire, swearing that since he was not to read them, the man who wrote them should never be so happy as to have me read them over again. It is insignificant to tell you my tears and reproaches made the boisterous calf leave the room ashamed and out of countenance, when I had leisure to ruminate on this accident with more than ordinary sorrow. However, such was then my confidence in my husband, that I wrote to him the misfortune, and desired another paper of the same kind. He deferred writing two or three posts, and at last answered me in general, that he could not then send me what I asked for; but when he could find a proper conveyance, I should be sure to have it. From this time his letters were more cold every day than the other, and, as he grew indifferent, I grew jealous. This has at last brought me to town, where I find both the witnesses of my marriage dead, and that my husband, after three months' cohabitation, has buried a young lady whom he married in obedience to his father. In a word, he shuns and disowns me. Should I come to the house and confront him, the father would join in supporting him against me, though he believed my story: should I talk it to the world, what reparation can I expect for an injury I cannot make out? I believe he means to bring me, through necessity, to resign my pretensions to him for some provision for my life; but I will die first. Pray bid him remember what he said, and how he was charmed when he laughed at the heedless discovery I often made of myself; let him remember how awkward I was in my indifference toward him before company: ask him, how I, who could never conceal my love for him, at his own request, can part with him for- quoted from memory, instead of the following lines:

ever? Oh, Mr. SPECTATOR, sensible spirits know no indifference in marriage: what then do you |

My following correspondent, who calls herself Clarinda, is such a journalist as I require. She seems by her letter to be placed in a modish state of indifference between více and virtue, and to be susceptible of either, were there proper pains taken with her. Had her journal been filled with gallantries, or such occurrences as had shown her wholly divested of her natural innocence, notwithstanding it might have been more pleasing to the generality of readers, I should not have published it: but as it is only the picture of a lazy life, filled with a fashionable kind of gayety and laziness, I shall set down five days of it, as I have received it from the hand of my fair correspondent.

"DEAR MR. SPECTATOR,

"You having set your readers an exercise in one of your last week's papers, I have performed mine according to your orders, and herewith send it you inclosed. You must know, Mr. SPECTATOR, that I am a maiden lady of a good fortune, who have had several good matches offered me for these ten years last past, and have at present warm applica tions made to me by A Very Pretty Fellow. As I am at my own disposal, I come up to town every winter, and pass my time in it after the manner you will find in the following journal, which I tegan to write the very day after your SPECTATOR upon that subject."

Tuesday night. Could not go to sleep till one in the morning for thinking of my journal.

Wednesday. From eight till ten. Drank two dishes of chocolate in bed, and fell asleep after them.

From ten to eleven. Ate a slice of bread and butter, drank a dish of bohea, and read the SreeTATOR.

From eleven to one. At my toilette, tried s new hood. Gave orders for Veny to be combed and washed. Mem. I look best in blue.

*This motto, not to be found in Virgil, was probably

-Et juvenis quondam, nunc fœmina.

VIBO. Æn., vi, 443.

A man before, now to a woman changʻd.

Monday. Eight o'clock. Waked by Miss Kitty. Aurengzebe lay upon the chair by me. Kitty From ten to eleven. Tea-table. Sent to borrow repeated without book the eight best lines in the Lady Faddle's Cupid for Veny. Read the play-play. Went in our mobs* to the dumb man, bills. Received a letter from Mr. Froth. Mem. according to appointment. Told me that my Locked it up in my strong box. lover's name began with a G. Mem. The conjurert was within a letter of Mr. Froth's name, etc.

"Your most humble Servant,
"PHILANTHROPOS."

"March 10, 1711-12.

The following letter is of a quite contrary nature; but I add it here that the reader may observe, at the same view, how amiable ignorance may be, when it is shown in its simplicities; and honest countryman to his mistress, and came to how detestable in barbarities. It is written by an the hands of a lady of good sense, wrapped about a thread paper, who has long kept it by her as an image of artless love.

“To her I very much respect, Mrs. Margaret Clark.

For this reason I could not forbear communica- | pressions from your admonitions. But I beg you ting to you some imperfect informations of a set would recommend to their perusal your ninth of men (if you will allow them a place in that Speculation. They may there be taught to take species of being) who have lately erected them- warning from the club of Duelists; and be put in selves into a nocturnal fraternity, under the title mind, that the common fate of those men of honof the Mohock Club, a name borrowed, it seems, or was to be hanged. from a sort of cannibals in India, who subsist "I am, Sir, upon plundering and devouring all the nations about them. The president is styled Emperor of the Mohocks; and his arms are a Turkish crescent, which his imperial majesty bears at present in a very extraordinary manner engraved upon his forehead. Agrecable to their name, the avowed design of their institution is mischief; and upon this foundation all their rules and orders are framed. An outrageous ambition of doing all possible hurt to their fellow-creatures, is the great cement of their assembly, and the only qualification required in the members. In order to exert this principle in its full strength and perfection, they take care to drink themselves to a pitch, that is, beyond the possibility of attending to any motions of reason or humanity; then make a general sally, and attack all that are so unfortunate as to walk the streets through which they patrol. Some are knocked down, others cut and carbonadoed. To put the watch to a total rout, and mortify some of those inoffensive militia, is reckoned a coup d'éclat. The particular talents by which these misanthropes are distinguished from one another, consist in the various kinds of barbarities which they execute upon their prisoners. Some are celebrated for a happy dexterity in tipping the lion upon them; which is performed by squeezing the nose flat to the face, and boring out the eyes with their fingers. Others are called the dancing-masters, and teach their scholars to cut capers, by running swords through their legs; a new invention whether originally French I cannot tell. A third are the tumblers, whose office it is to set women on their heads, and commit certain indecencies, or rather barbarities, on the limbs which they expose. But these I forbear to mention, because they cannot but be very shocking to the reader as well as the Spectator. In this manner they carry on a war against mankind and by the standing maxims of their policy, are to enter into no alliances but one, and that is offensive and defensive with all bawdyhouses in general, of which they have declared themselves protectors and guarantees.

on,

"I must own, Sir, these are only broken, incoherent memoirs of this wonderful society; but they are the best I have been yet able to procure: for, being but of late established, it is not ripe for a just history; and, to be serious, the chief design of this trouble is to hinder it from ever being so. You have been pleased, out of a concern for the good of your countrymen, to act, under the character of Spectator, not only the part of a lookerbut an overseer of their actions; and whenever such enormities as this infest the town, we immediately fly to you for redress. I have reason to believe, that some thoughtless youngsters, out of a false notion of bravery, and an immoderate fondness to be distinguished for fellows of fire, are insensibly hurried into this senseless, scanda lous project. Such will probably stand corrected by your reproofs, especially if you inform them, that it is not courage for half a score fellows, mad with wine and lust, to set upon two or three soberer than themselves; and that the manners of Indian savages are not becoming accomplishments to an English fine gentleman. Such of them as have been bullies and scowerers of a long standing, and are grown veterans in this kind of service, are, I fear, too hardened to receive any im

"Lovely, and O that I could write loving Mrs. Margaret Clark, I pray you let affection excuse presumption. Having been so happy as to enjoy the sight of your sweet countenance and comely body, sometimes when I had occasion to buy treacle or liquorish powder at the apothecary's shop, I am so enamored with you, that I can no more keep close my flaming desires to become your servant.* And I am the more bold now to write to your sweet self, because I am now my own man, and may match where I please; for my father is taken away, and now I am come to my living, which is ten yard land, and a house; and there is never a yard landt in our field, but it is as well worth ten pounds a year as a thief is worth a halter, and all my brothers and sisters are provided for: beside, I have good household stuff, though I say it, both brass and pewter, linens and woolens; and though my house be thatched, yet, if you and I match, it shall go hard but I will have one-half of it slated. If you think well of this motion, I will wait upon you as soon as my new clothes are made, and hayharvest is in. I could, though I say it, have good * The rest is torn off; and posterity must be contented to know, that Mrs. Margaret Clark was very pretty; but are left in the dark as to the name of her lover.-T.

tioned, to a Mrs. Cole, the wife of a churlish attorney, in er near Northampton, who would not suffer her to correspond with any body. It was written by a substantial freeholder in given to Steele by his friend, the ingenious antiquary, Mr. Northamptonshire, whose name was Gabriel Bullock, and Browne Willis. Mrs. Cantrell, niece to Mrs. Cole, fortunately remembered what was torn off from the letter by a child st play, so that it is given here entire on good authority-P

*This letter was really conveyed, in the manner here me

66

good matches among my neighbors. My mother, peace be with her soul! the good old gentlewoman, has left me good store of household linen of her own spanning. chest full. If you and I lay our means together, it tal go hard but I will pave the way to do well. Your lowing servant till death, Mister Gabriel Bullock, now my father is

dead."

acres, in some 24, and in others 30 acres of land.—Les Formus A yard land (vergata terræ) in some counties contains N de la Ley. Ed. 1667.