SIR, S you are one that doth not only pretend to reform,' me (who are one of the greateft of your Admirers) give you this Trouble to defire you will fettle the Method of us Females knowing when one another is in Town: For they have now got a Trick of never fending to their Acquaintance when they firft come; and if one does not vifit them within the Week which they ftay at home, it is a mortal Quarrel. Now, dear Mr. SPEC, either command them to put it in the Advertifement of your Paper, which is generally read by our • Sex, or else order them to breathe their faucy Footmen, (who are good for nothing elfe) by fending them to tell all their Acquaintance. If you think to print this, pray put it in a better Style as to the fpelling Part. The Town is now filling every Day, and it cannot be deferred, because People take Advantage of one another by • this Means, and break off Acquaintance, and are rude: Therefore pray put this in your Paper as foon as you can poffibly, to prevent any future Mifcarriages of this Nature. I am, as I ever fhall be, Dear SPEC, Your most obedient humble Servant, Mary Meanwell. PRAY fettle what is to be a proper Notification of a • Perfon's being in Town, and how that differs according to People's Quality. Mr. SPECTATOR, October the 20th, Have been out of Town, fo did not meet with your I Paper dated September the 28th, wherein you, to my • Heart's Defire, expofe that curfed Vice of infnaring poor young Girls, and drawing them from their Friends. I • affure you without Flattery it has faved a Prentice of • mine from Ruin; and in Token of Gratitude, as well as for the Benefit of my Family, I have put it in a Frame and Glafs, and hung it behind my Counter. I fhal take Care to make my young ones read it every Morn N° 208: ing, to fortifie them against fuch pernicious Rafcals. I know not whether what you writ was Matter of Fact, 'or your own Invention; but this I will take my Oath on, the firft Part is fo exactly like what happened to my Prentice, that had I read your Paper then, I should have taken your Method to have fecured a Villain. Go on and profper. ་ Mr. SPECTATOR, Your moft Obedient, Humble Servant. WITHOUT Rallery I defire you to infert this Word for Word in your next, as you value a • Lover's Prayers. You fee it is an Hue and Cry after® a ftray Heart (with the Marks and Blemishes underwritten) which whoever shall bring to you, fhall receive Satisfaction. Let me beg of you not to fail, as you re• member the Paffion you had for her to whom you lately 5 ended a Paper. Noble, Generous, Great and Good, Who e'er fhall wear it, it will smart her, T Tuesday, N° 209. Tuesday, October 30. Γωαικὸς ἐδὲ χρῆμ' ἀνὴρ ληίζεται Simonides. HERE are no Authors I am more pleased with, than those who fhew humane Nature in a Variety TH of Views, and defcribe the feveral Ages of the World in their different Manners. A Reader cannot be more rationally entertained, than by comparing the Virtues and Vices of his own Times, with thofe which prevailed in the Times of his Fore-fathers; and drawing a Parallel in his Mind between his own private Character, and that of other Perfons, whether of his own Age, or of the Ages that went before him. The Contemplation of Mankind under these changeable Colours, is apt to fhame us out of any particular Vice, or animate us to any particular Virtue; to make us pleafed or difpleafed with our felves in the most proper Points, to clear our Minds of Prejudice and Prepoffeffion, and rectify that Narrowness of Temper which inclines us to think amifs of those who differ from our felves. IF we look into the Manners of the moft remote Ages of the World, we discover humane Nature in her Simplicity; and the more we come downward towards our own Times, may obferve her hiding her felf in Artifices and Refinements, polifhed infenfibly out of her Original Plainnefs, and at length entirely loft under Form and Ceremony, and (what we call) good Breeding. Read the Accounts of Men and Women as they are given us by the most ancient Writers, both Sacred and Prophane, and you would think you were reading the History of another Species. AMONG the Writers of Antiquity, there are none who inftruct us more openly in the Manners of their respective Times in which they lived, than those who have em employed themselves in Satyr, under what Drefs foever it may appear; as there are no other Authors whose Province it is to enter fo directly into the Ways of Men, and fet their Miscarriages in fo ftrong a Light. SIMONIDES, a Poet famous in his Generation, is I think Author of the oldeft Satyr that is now extant; and, as fome fay, of the first that was ever written. This Poet flourished about four hundred Years after the Siege of Troy; and fhews, by his Way of Writing, the Simplicity, or rather Coarfenefs, of the Age in which he lived. I have taken Notice, in my hundred and fixty firft Speculation, that the Rule of obferving what the French call the Bienfeance, in an Allufion, has been found out of latter Years; and that the Ancients, provided there was a Likeness in their Similitudes, did not much trouble themselves about the Decency of the Comparifon. The Satyr or lambycks of Simonides, with which I fhall entertain my Readers in the prefent Paper, are a remarkable Inftance of what I formerly advanced. The Subject of this Satyr is Woman. He defcribes the Sex in their feveral Characters, which he derives to them from a fanciful Suppofition raifed upon the Doctrine of Præ-existence. He tells us, That the Gods formed the Souls of Women out of thofe Seeds and Principles which compose several Kinds of Animals and Elements; and that their good or bad Difpofitions arife in them according as fuch and fuch Seeds and Principles predominate in their Conftitutions. I have tranflated the Author very faithfully, and if not Word for Word (which our Language would not bear) at least so as to comprehend every one of his Sentiments, without adding any Thing of my own. I have already apologized for this Author's Want of Delicacy, and must further premife, That the following Satyr affects only fome of the lower Part of the Sex, and not those who have been refined by a polite Education, which was not fo common in the Age of this Poet. IN the Beginning God made the Souls of Womankind out of different Materials, and in a feparate State from their Bodies. THE THE Souls of one Kind of Women were formed out of thofe Ingredients which compofe a Swine. A Woman of this Make is a Slut in her House, and a Glutton at her Table. She is uncleanly in her Perfon, a Slattern in her Drefs, and her Family is no better than a Dunghill. A Second Sort of Female Soul was formed out of the fame Materials that enter into the Compofition of a Fox. Such an one is what we call a notable difcerning Woman, who has an Infight into every Thing, whether it be good or bad. this Species of Females there are fome virtuous and some vi cious. In A Third Kind of Women were made up of Canine Particles. Thefe are what we commonly call Scolds, who imitate the Animals out of which they were taken, that are always busy and barking, that fnarl at every one who comes in their Way, and live in perpetual Clamour. THE Fourth Kind of Women were made out of the Earth. Thefe are your Sluggards, who pass away their Time in Indolence and Ignorance, hover over the Fire a whole Winter, and apply themfelves with Alacrity to no kind of Business but Eating. THE Fifth Species of Females were made out of the Sea. These are Women of variable uneven Tempers, fometimes all Storm and Tempeft, fometimes all Calm and Sunshine. The Stranger who fees one of thefe in her Smiles and Smoothness, would cry her up for a Miracle of good Humour ; but on a fudden her Looks and Words are changed, fhe is nothing but Fury and Outrage, Noife and Hurri Bane. THE Sixth Species were made up of the Ingredients which compofe an Afs, or a Beast of Burden, These are naturally exceeding flothful, but upon the Husband's exerting his Authority, will live upon hard Fare, and do every Thing to please him. They are however far from being averfe to Venereal Pleasure, and feldom refuse a Male Com panion. THE Cat furnished Materials for a Seventh Eperses of Women, who are of a melancholy, froward, unamiable Nature, and fo repugnant to the Offers of Love, that they fly in the Face of their Husband when he approaches them with conjugal En |