to befeech Your Indulgence to the following Leaves, and the Author of them: Who is, with the greatest Truth and Respect, My LORD, Your Lordship's Obliged, Obedient, and Humble Servant, The SPECTATOR. THE SPECTATOR. N° 395. VOL. VI. Tuesday, June 3. 1712. Quod nuns ratio eft, Impetus ante fuit. Ovid. B EWARE of the Ides of March, faid the Roman Augur to Julius Cafar: Beware of the Month of May, fays the British Spectator to his fair Country-women. The Caution of the first was unhappily neglected, and Cafar's Confidence coft him his Life. I am apt to flatter my felf that my pretty Readers had much more regard to the Advice I gave them, fince I have e yet received very few Accounts of any notorious Trips made in the laft Month. BUT tho' I hope for the beft, I fhall not pronounce too pofitively on this point, 'till I have feen forty Weeks well over, at which Period of Time, as my good Friend Sir ROGER has often told me, he has more Business as a Juftice of Peace, among the diffolute young People in the Country, than at any other Season of the Year. A 4 NEITHER NEITHER muft I forget a Letter which I received near a Fortnight fince from a Lady, who, it seems, could hold out no longer, telling me fhe looked upon the Month as then out, for that she had all along reckoned by the New Style. On the other hand, I have great reason to believe, from feveral angry Letters which have been fent to me by dif appointed Lovers, that my Advice has been of very fignal Service to the fair Sex, who, according to the old Pro verb, were Forewarn'd forearm'd. ONE of these Gentlemen tells me, that he would have given me an hundred Pounds, rather than I fhould have publifh'd that Paper, for that his Miftrefs, who had promifed to explain herself to him about the Beginning of May, upon reading that Difcourfe told him that he would give him her Anfwer in June. THYRSIS acquaints me, that when he defired Sylvia to take a Walk in the Fields, fhe told him the Spectator had forbidden her. ANOTHER of my Correfpondents, who writes himself Mat Meager, complains, that whereas he conftant ly used to Breakfast with his Miftrefs upon Chocolate, going to wait upon her the first of May he found his ufual Treat very much changed for the worfe, and has been forced to feed ever fince upon Green Tea. AS I begun this Critical Seafon with a Caveat to the Ladies, I fhall conclude it with a Congratulation, and do moft heartily with them Joy of their happy Delive rance. THEY may now reflect with Pleasure on the Dan gers they have efcaped, and look back with as much Satisfaction on their Perils that threatned them, as their Great-Grandmothers did formerly on the Burning Plough Thares, after having paffed through the Ordeal Tryal. The Inftigations of the Spring are now abated. The Night, ingale gives over her Love-labour'd Song, as Milton phrafes it, the Bloffoms are fallen, and the Beds of Flowers fwept away by the Scythe of the Mower. I shall now allow my Fair Readers to return to their Romances and Chocolate, provided they make use of them with Moderation, 'till about the middle of the Month, when the Sun fhall have made fome Progress in the the Crab. Nothing is more dangerous, than too much Confidence and Security. The Trojans, who stood upon their Guard all the while the Grecians lay before their City, when they fancied the Siege was raifed, and the Danger paft, were the very next Night burnt in their Beds: I muft alfo obferve, that as in fome Climates there is a perpetual Spring, fo in fome Female Conftitutions there is a perpetual May: Thefe are a kind of Valetudinarians in Chastity, whom I would continue in a conftant Diet. I cannot think thefe wholly out of Danger, 'till they have looked upon the other Sex at leaft Five Years through a Pair of Spectacles. WILL. HONEYCOMB has often affured me, that 'tis much eafier to steal one of this Species, when he has paffed her grand Climacterick, than to carry off an icy Girl on this fide Five and Twenty; and that a Rake of his Acquaintance, who had in vain endeavoured to gain the Affections of a young Lady of Fifteen, had at laft made his Fortune by running away with her Grand mother. BUT as I do not defign this Speculation for the Ever greens of the Sex, I fhall again apply my felf to thofe who would willingly liften to the Dictates of Reafon and Virtue, and can now hear me in cold Blood. If there are any who have forfeited their Innocence, they muft now confider themselves under that melancholy View, in which Chamont regards his Sifter, in thofe beautifu Lines. Long fhe flourish'd, Grew Sweet to Senfe, and lovely to the Eye: Cropt this fair Rofe, and rifled all its Sweetness, ON the contrary, fhe who has obferved the timely Cautions I gave her, and lived up to the Rules of Mo defty, will now Flourish like a Rofe in June, with all her Virgin Blushes and Sweetnefs about her: I muft, however, defire thefe laft to confider, how fhameful it would be for a General, who has made a Successful Campaign, to be furprized in his Winter Quarters: It would be no lefs difhonourable for a Lady to lofe in any other Month of the Year, what he has been at the pains to preferve in May A s THERE THERE is no Charm in the Female Sex, that can fupply the place of Virtue. Without Innocence, Beauty is unlovely, and Quality contemptible, Good-breeding degenerates into Wantonnefs, and Wit into Impudence. It is obferved, that all the Virtues are reprefented by both Painters and Statuaries under Female Shapes, but if any one of them has a more particular Title to that Sex, it is Modefty. I fhall leave it to the Divines to guard them against the oppofite Vice, as they may be overpower'd by Temptations; It is fufficient for me to have warned them a gainst it, as they may be led aftray by Instinct. I defire this Paper may be read with more than ordinary Attention, at all Tea-Tables within the Cities of London and Weftminster. Χ N° 396. H Wednesday, June 4. Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Ferio, Baralipton. AVING a great deal of Business upon my Hands at prefent, I fhall beg the Reader's Leave to prefent him with a Letter that I received about half a Year ago from a Gentleman of Cambridge, who styles himfelf Peter de Quir. I have kept it by me fome Months, and though I did not know at firft what, to make of it, upon my reading it over very frequently I have at laft difcovered feveral Conceits in it: I would not therefore have my Reader difcouraged if he does not take them at the firft Perufal, To Mr. SPECTATOR SIR, From St. John's. College Cambridge, Feb. 3. 1712. THE Monopoly of Punns in this Univerfity has been an immemorial Privilege of the Johnians; and we can't help refenting the late Invafion of our ancient 2 |