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Thursday, November 1.

Fictis meminerit nos jocari Fabulis.

Phæd.

AVING lately tranflated the Fragment of an old Poet which defcribes Women-kind under feveral Characters, and fuppofes them to have drawn their different Manners and Difpofitions from thofe Animals and Elements out of which he tells us they were compounded; I had fome Thoughts of giving the Sex their Revenge, by laying together in another Paper the many vicious Characters which prevail in the Male World, and fhewing the different Ingredients that go to the making up of fuch different Humours and Conftitutions. Horace has a Thought which is fomething akin to this, when, in order to excufe himself to his Mistress, for an Invective which he had written against her, and to account for that unreasonable Fury with which the Heart of Man is often tranfported, he tells us, that when Prometheus made his Man of Clay, in the kneading up of the Heart he feasoned it with fome furious Particles of the Lion. But upon turning this Plan to and fro in my Thoughts, I obferved fo many unaccountable Humours in Man, that I did not know out of what Animals to fetch them. Male Souls are diverfify'd with so many Characters, that the World has not Variety of Materials fufficient to furnish out their different Tempers and Inclinations. The Creation, with all its Animals and Elements, would not be large enough to fupply their feveral Extravagancies.

INSTEAD therefore of purfuing the Thought of Simonides, I fhall obferve that as he has expofed the vicious Part of Women from the Doctrine of Præ-existence, fome of the antient Philofophers have, in a Manner, fatyrized the vicious Part of the human Species in general, from a Notion of the Soul's Poftexiftence, if I may

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fo call it; and that as Simonides defcribes Brutes entering into the Compofition of Women, others have reprefented humane Souls as entring into Brutes. This is commonly termed the Doctrine of Tranfmigration, which fuppofes that humane Souls, upon their leaving the Body, become the Souls of fuch kinds of Brutes as they moft refemble in their Manners; or to give an Account of it, as Mr. Dryden has described it in his Translation of Pythagoras his fpeech in the fifteenth Book of Ovid, where that Philofopher diffwades his Hearers from eating Flesh:

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Thus all Things are but alter'd, nothing dies,
And here and there th' unbody'd Spirit flies:
By Time, or Force, or Sickness difpoffefs'd,
And lodges where it lights, in Bird or Beaft,
Or hunts without till ready Limbs it find,
And actuates thofe according to their Kind:
From Tenement to Tenement is tofs'd :
The Soul is ftill the fame, the Figure only loft.

Then let not Piety be put to Flight,

To pleafe the Tafte of Glutton-Appetites
But fuffer inmate Souls fecure to dwell,
Left from their Seats your Parents you expel;
With rabid Hunger feed upon your Kind,
Or from a Beaft diflodge a Brother's Mind.

PLATO in the Vifion of Erus the Armenian, which I may poffibly make the Subject of a future Speculation, records fome beautiful Tranfmigrations; as that the Soul of Orpheus, who was mufical, melancholy, and a Woman-hater, entered into a Swan; the Soul of Ajax, which was all Wrath and Fiercenefs, into a Lion; the Soul of Agamemnon, that was rapacious and imperial, into an Eagle; and the Soul of Therfites, who was a Mimick and a Buffoon, into a Monkey.

Mr. Congreve, in a Prologue to one of his Comedies, has touched upon this Doctrine with great Humour.

Thus

Thus Ariftotle's Soul, of old that was,
May now be damn'd to animate an Afs;
Or in this very House, for ought we know,
Is doing painful Penance in Jome Beau.

I fhall fill up this Paper with fome Letters which my laft Tuesday's 'Speculation has produced. My following Correfpondents will fhew, what I there obferved, that the Speculation of that Day affects only the lower Part of the Sex.

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From my House in the Strand, October 30, 1711,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

PON reading your Tuesday's Paper, I find by fe

a Bec. My Shop, or if you please to call it fo, my Cell, 'is in that great Hive of Females which goes by the Name of the New-Exchange; where I am daily employed in gathering together a little Stock of Gain from the finest Flowers about the Town, I mean the Ladies and the Beaus. I have a numerous Swarm of Children, 'to whom I give the best Education I am able: But, Sir, it is my Misfortune to be married to a Drone, who lives upon what I get, without bringing any Thing into 'the common Stock. Now, Sir, as on the one Hand I 'take Care not to behave my felf towards him like a Wafp, fo likewife I would not have him look upon me as 'an Humble-Bee; for which Reason I do all I can to put ' him upon laying up Provifions for a bad Day, and frequently reprefent to him the fatal effects his Sloth and Negligence may bring upon us in our old Age. I must 'beg that you will join with me in your good Advice upon this Occation, and you will for ever oblige Your humble Servant,

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MELISSA

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SIR,

Piccadilly, October 31, 1711. I Am joined in Wedlock for my Sins to one of thofe Fillies who are defcribed in the old Poet with that hard Name you gave us the other Day. She has a flowing

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'flowing Mane, and a Skin as soft as Silk: But, Sir, she paffes half her Life at her Glass, and almoft ruins me in Ribbons. For my own Part, I am a plain handicraft Man, and in Danger of breaking by her Laziness and Expenfiveness. Pray, Mafter, tell me in your next Paper, whether I may not expect of her fo much Drudgery as to take Care of her Family, and curry her Hide in cafe of Refufal.

Your loving Friend,

Barnaby Brittle.

Cheapfide, October 30.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

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Am mightily pleafed with the Humour of the Cat,
be fo kind as to enlarge upon that Subject.
Yours till Death,

Jofiah Henpeck

P. S. You must know I am married to a Grimalkin.

SIR,

Wapping, October 31, 1 EVER fince your Spectator of The day laft came our Family, my Husband is pleased to call me his 'Oceana, because the foolish old Poet that you have trafla⚫ted fays, That the Souls of fome Women are made of Sea• Water. This, it feems, has encouraged my Sauce-Box to be witty upon me. When I am angry, he cries Pr'ythee my Dear be calm; when I chide one of my Servants, Pr'ythee Child do not blufter. He had the Impudence about an Hour ago to tell me, That he was a Seafaring Man, and ⚫ muft expect to divide his Life between Storm and Sunshine. • When I beftir my felf with any Spirit in my Family, it is high Sea in his Houfe,; and when I fit ftill without doing any Thing, his Affairs forfooth are Wind-bound. When I ask him whether it rains, he makes Answer, It is no Matter, fo that it be fair Weather within Doors. In 'fhort, Sir, I cannot fpeak my Mind freely to him, but I either well or rage, or do fomething that is not fit for a ⚫ civil Woman to hear. Pray Mr. SPECTATOR, fince you are fo fharp upon other Women, let us know what Materials your Wife is made of, if you have one. I fup

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pofe you would make us a Parcel of poor-fpirited tame infipid Creatures; but, Sir, I would have you to know, we have as good Paffions in us as your felf, ⚫ and that a Woman was never defigned to be a Milk• Sop:

L

MARTHA TEMPEST.

N 2I2.

Friday, November 2.

Eripe turpi

Colla jugo, liber, liber dic, fum age

Mr. SPECTATOR;

I

would afford were a

Hor.

Never look upon my dear Wife, but I think of the Happiness Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY enjoys, in having fuch a Friend as you to expofe in proper Colours the Cruelty and Perverseness of his Miftrefs. I have very often wifhed you vifited in our with my Spoufe; fhe for fome Months at leaft Matter enough for oe Spectator a Week. Since we are not fo happy be of your Acquaintance, give me Leave to • repre you our own prefent Circumftances as well < as In Writing. You are to know then that I am not of a very different Conftitution from Nathaniel Henrooft, whom you have lately recorded in your Speculations; and have a Wife who makes a more tyrannical • Ufe of the Knowledge of my cafy Temper than that Lady • ever pretended to. We had not been a Month married, • when the found in me a certain Pain to give Offence, ⚫ and an Indolence that made me bear little Inconveniences rather than difpute about them. From this Obfervation it foon came to pafs, that if I offered to go abroad, fhe would get between me and the Door, kifs me, and fay fhe could not part with me; and then down again I far. In a Day or two after this first pleasant Step towards confining me, fhe declared to me, that I VOL. III. I

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