ourselves, who resemble the character of the suffering "perfon." I fhall take another opportunity to obferve, that a perfon of an abfolute and confummate virtue fhould never be introduced in tragedy, and fhall only remark in this place, that the foregoing obfervation of Aristotle, though it may be true in other occafions, does not hold in this; because in the prefent cafe, though the persons who fall into misfortune are of the most perfect and confummate virtue, it is not to be considered as what may poffibly be, but what actually is our own cafe; fince we are embarked with them on the fame bottom, and muft be partakers of their happiness or mifery. In this, and fome other very few inftances, Aristotle's rules for epic poetry, which he had drawn from his reflections upon Homer, cannot be fuppofed to quadrate exactly with the heroic poems which have been made fince his time; fince it is plain his rules would ftill have been more perfect, could he have perused the Æneid which was made fome hundred years after his death. In my next, I fhall go through other parts of Milton's poem; and hope that what I fhall there advance, as well as what I have already written, will not only ferve as a comment upon Milton, but upon Aristotle. C. N° 274. Monday, January 14. Audire eft operæ pretium, procedere rectè HOR. Sat. 2. lib. 1. ver. 37. All you, who think the city ne'er can thrive, POPE. I HAVE upon feveral occafions, that have occured fince I first took into my thoughts the prefent ftate of fornication, weighed with myself in behalf of guilty females, the impulfes of flesh and blood, together with the arts and gallantries of crafty men; and reflect with some scorn that most part of what we in our youth think gay and polite, is nothing else but an habit of indulging a pruriency that way. It will coft fome labour to bring people to fo lively a sense of this, as to recover the manly modesty in the behaviour of my men readers, and the bafhful grace in the faces of my women; but in all cafes which come into debate, there are certain things previously to be done before we can have a true light into the fubject matter; therefore it will, in the first place, be neceffary to confider the impotent wenchers and induftrious hags, who are fupplied with, and are conftantly fupplying, new facrifices to the devil of luft. You are to know then, if you are fo happy as not to know it already, that the great havock which is made in the habitations of beauty and innocence, is committed by fuch as can only lay wafte and not enjoy the foil. When you obferve the prefent ftate of vice and virtue, the offenders are fuch as one would think should have no impulfe to what they are pursuing; as in business, you fee fometimes fools pretend to be knaves, fo in pleasure, you will find old men fet up for wenchers. This latter fort of men are the great bafis and fund of iniquity in the kind we are speaking of: you fhall have an old rich man often receive fcrawls from the feveral quarters of the town, with defcriptions of the new wares in their hands, if he will please to fend word when he will be waited on. This interview is contrived, and the innocent is brought to fuch indecencies as from time to time banifh fhame and raise defire, with thefe preparatives the hags break their wards by little and little, until they are brought to lofe all apprehenfions of what fhall befall them in the poffeffion of younger men. It is a common poftfcript of an hag to a young fellow whom the invites to a new woman, She has, I affure you, feen none but old "Mr. Such-a-one." It pleases the old fellow that the nymph is brought to him unadorned, and from his bounty fhe is accommodated with enough to dress her for other lovers. This is the moft ordinary method of bringing beauty and poverty into the poffeffion of the town: but the particular cafes of kind keepers, fkilful pimps, and all others who drive a feparate trade, and are not in the No 274. general fociety or commerce of fin, will require distinct confideration. At the fame time that we are thus fevere on the abandoned, we are to reprefent the cafe of others with that mitigation as the circunftances demand. Calling names does no good; to fpeak worfe of any thing than it deferves, does only take off from the credit of the accufer, and has implicitly the force of an apology in the behalf of the perfon accufed. We shall therefore, according as the circumftances differ, vary our appellations of thefe criminals: thofe who offend only against themselves, and are not scandals to fociety, but out of deference to the fober part of the world, have so much good left in them as to be afhamed, muft not be huddled in the common word due to the worst of women; but regard is to be had to their circumftances when they fell, to the uneafy perplexity under which they lived under fenfelefs and fevere parents, to the importunity of poverty, to the violence of a paffion in its beginning well grounded, and all other alleviations which make unhappy women refign the characteristic of their fex, modefty. To do otherwife than this, would be to act like a pedantic ftoic, who thinks all crimes alike, and not like an impartial, SPECTATOR, who looks upon them with all the circumftances that diminish or enhance the guilt. I am in hopes, if this fubject be well purfued, women will hereafter from their infancy be treated with an eye to their future ftate in the world, and not have their tempers made too untractable from an improper fournefs or pride, or too complying from familiarity or forwardnefs contracted at their own houfes. After thefe hints on this fubject, I fhall end this paper with the following genuine letter; and defire all who think they may be concerned in future fpeculations on this fubject, to fend in what they have to fay for themselves for fome incidents in their lives, in order to have proper allowances made for their condu&t. < Mr. SPECTATOR, Jan. 5, 1711. THE fubject of your yesterday's paper is of fo great importance, and the thorough handling of it may be fo very useful to the prefervation of many an innocent young creature, that I think every one is ་ obliged to furnish us with what lights he can, to expofe the pernicious arts and practices of those unnatural women c lled bawds. In order to this the inclosed is fent you, which is verbatim the copy of a letter written by a bawd of figure in this town to a no'ble lord. I have concealed the names of both, my in'tention being not to expofe the perfons but the thing. I am, Sir, ་ 'My Lord, Your humble fervant.' 'I HAVING a great efteem for your honour, and a 'better opinion of you than of any of the quality, makes me acquaint you of an affair that I hope will oblige you to know. I have a niece that came to town about a fortnight ago. Her parents being lately dead fhe came to me, expecting to have found me in fo good a condi'tion as to fet her up in a milliner's fhop. Her father gave four core pound with her for five years: her time is out, and the is not fixteen: as pretty a b'ack gentlewoman as ever you faw, a little woman, which I know your lordship likes: well shaped, and as fine a complexion for red and white as ever I faw; I doubt not but your lordship will be of the fame opinion. She defins to go down about a month hence, except I can provide for her, which I cannot at prefent: her father was one with whom all he had, died with him, fo there is four children left deftitute; fo if your lordship thinks fit to make an appointment where I fhall wait on you with my niece, by a line or two, I ftay for your anfwer; for I have no place fitted up fince I left my house, fit to entertain your honour. I told her fhe fhould go with ne to fee a gentleman, a very good 'friend of mine; fo I defire you to take no notice of my letter, by reafon fhe is ignorant of the ways of the town. My lord, I defire if you meet us to come alone; for upon my word and honour you are the first that ever I mentioned her to. Sɔ I remain, ་ 6 • Your lordship's mot humble fervant to command. I beg of you to burn it when you have read it.' T. VOL. IV. E N° 275. Tuesday, January 15. I --tribus Anticyris caput infanabile▬▬▬ HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 300. A head, no helebore can cure. Was yesterday engaged in an affembly of virtuofos, where one of them produced many curious obfervations which he had lately made in the anatomy of an human body. Another of the company communicated to us feveral wonderful difcoveries, which he had alfo made on the fame fubject, by the help of very fine glaffes. This gave birth to a great variety of uncommon remarks, and furnished difcourfe for the remaining part of the day. The different opinions which were started on this occafion, prefented to my imagination fo many new ideas, that by mixing with thofe which were already there, they employed my fancy all the last night, and compofed a very wild extravagant dream. I was invited, methought, to the diffection of a beau's head, and of a coquette's heart, which were both of them laid on a table before us. An imaginary operator opened the firft with a great deal of nicety, which, upon a curfory and fuperficial view, appeared like the head of another man; but upon applying our glaffes to it, we made a very odd difcovery, namely, that what we looked upon as brains, were not fuch in reality, but an heap of firange materials wound up in that fhape and texture, and packed together with wonderful art in the feveral cavities of the skull. For, as Homer tells us, that the blood of the gods is not real blood, but only fomething like it: fo we found that the brain of a beau is not real brain, but only fomething like it. The pineal gland, which many of our modern philofophers fuppofe to be the feat of the foul, fmelt very ftrong of efferce and orange-flower water, and was encompaffed with a kind of horny fubftance, cut into a |