his Teeth, which were fome of them indeed very white: After this he retir'd behind the Curtain, and obliged us with feveral Views of his Perfon from every Opening, DURING the Time of acting, he appeared frequently in the Prince's Apartment, made one at the Hunting-Match, and was very forward in the Rebellion. If there were no Injunctions to the contrary, yet this • Practice must be confefs'd to diminish the Pleasure of the Audience, and for that Reafon prefumptuous and unwarrantable: But fince her Majefty's late Command ⚫ has made it criminal, you have Authority to take Notice ⚫ of it. Virg. HOUGH you have confidered virtuous Love in 'most of its Diftreffes, I do not remember that you have given us any Differtation upon the • Absence of Lovers, or laid down any Methods how they fhould fupport themselves under thofe long Separations which they are fometimes forced to undergo. I am at • prefent in this unhappy Circumftance, having parted with 'the best of Husbands, who is abroad in the Service of his ⚫ Country, and may not poffibly return for fome Years. His 'warm and generous Affection while we were together, with the Tendernefs which he expreffed to me at parting,' ⚫ make his Abfence almoft infupportable. I think of him every Moment of the Day, and meet him every Night in my Dreams. Every Thing I fee puts me in Mind of him, I apply my felf with more than ordinary Diligence to the Care of his Family and his Eftate; but this inftead of relieving me, gives me but fo many Occafions of wishing for his Return. I frequent the Rooms where I ufed to converfe with him, and not meeting him there, fit down 6 No 241. in his Chair, and fall a weeping. I love to read the Books he delighted in, and to converfe with the Perfons whom he esteemed. I vifit his Picture a hundred times a Day, and place my felf over-against it whole Hours together. I pafs a great part of my Time in the • Walks where I ufed to lean upon his Arm, and recollect in my Mind the Difcourfes which have there paffed between us: I look over the feveral Profpects and • Points of View which we used to furvey together, fix my Eye upon the Objects which he has made me take Notice of, and call to Mind a Thousand agreeable Re• marks which he has made on thofe Occafions. I write to him by every Conveyance, and contrary to other People, am always in good Humour when an Eaft • Wind blows, because it feldom fails of bringing me a • Letter from him. Let me intreat you, Sir, to give me "your Advice upon this Occafion, and to let me know how I may relieve my self in this my Widowhood. I am, S IR, Your most humble Servant, ASTERIA. ABSENCE is what the Poets call Death in Love, and has given Occafion to abundance of beautiful Complaints in thofe Authors who have treated of this Paffion in Verfe. Ovid's Epiftles are full of them. Orway's Mo nimia talks very tenderly upon this Subject. It was not kind To leave me like a Turtle, here alone, To droop and mourn the Abfence of my Mate. THE Confolations of Lovers on thefe Occafions are very extraordinary. Belides thofe mentioned by Afteria,' there are many other Motives of Comfort, which are made ufe of by absent Lovers. I remember in one of Scudery's Romances, a couple of honourable Lovers agreed at their parting to fer afide one half Hour in the Day to think of each other during a tedious Abfence. The Romance tells us, that they both of them punctually obferved the Time thus agreed upon; and that whatever Company or Bufinefs they were en gaged gaged in, they left it abruptly as foon as the Clock warned them to retire. The Romance farther adds, That the Lovers expected the Return of this ftated Hour with as much Impatience, as if it had been a real Affignation, and enjoyed an imaginary Happiness that was almost as pleafing to them as what they would have found from a real Meeting. It was an inexpreffible Satisfaction to thefe divided Lovers, to be affured that each was at the fame time employed in the fame kind of Contemplation, and making equal Returns of Tenderness and Affection. IF I may be allowed to mention a more ferious Expedient for the alleviating of Abfence, I fhall take notice of one which I have known two Perfons practife, who joined Religion to that Elegance of Sentiments with which the Paffion of Love generally infpires its Votaries. This was, at the Return of fuch an Hour, to offer up a certain Prayer for each other, which they had agreed upon before their Parting. The Husband, who is a Man that makes a Figure in the polite World, as well as in his own Family, has often told me, that he could not have supported an Abfence of three Years without this Expe dient. STRADA, in one of his Prolufions, gives an Account of a chimerical Correfpondence between two Friends by the Help of a certain Loadftone, which had fuch a Vertue in it, that if it touched two feveral Needles, when one of the Needles fo touched began to move, the other, tho' at never fo great a Diflance, moved at the fame Time, and in the fame Manner. He tells us, that the two Friends, being each of them poffeffed of one of these Needles, made a kind of a Dial-Plate, infcribing it with the four and twenty Letters, in the fame Manner as the Hours of the Day are marked upon the ordinary Dial-Plate. They then fixed one of the Needles oneach of thefe Plates in fuch a manner, that it could move round without Impediment, fo as to touch any of the four and twenty Letters. Upon their Separating from one another into diftant Countries, they agreed to withdraw themfelves punctually into their Clofers at a certain Hour of the Day, and to converfe with one another by means of this their Invention. Accordingly when they were fome hundred Miles afunder, each of them them shut himself up in his Closet at the Time appointed, and immediately caft his Eye upon his Dyal-Plate. If he had a mind to write any thing to his Friend, he directed his Needle to every Letter that formed the Words which he had Occafion for, making a little Paufe at the End of every Word or Sentence, to avoid Confufion. The Friend, in the mean while, faw his own sympathetick Needle moving of it felf to every Letter which that of his Correfpondent pointed at. By this Means they talked together across a whole Continent, and conveyed their Thoughts to one another in an Inftant over Cities or Mountains, Seas or Defarts. IF Monfieur Scudcry, or any other Writer of Romance, had introduced a Necromancer, who is generally in the Train of a Knight-Errant, making a Prefent to two Lovers of a Couple of these above-mentioned Needles, the Reader would not have been a little pleafed to have feen them Correfponding with one another when they were guarded by Spies and Watches, or feparated by Caftles and Adventures. IN the mean while, if ever this Invention fhould be revived or put in Practice, I would propofe, that upon the Lover's Dial-Plate there fhould be written not only the four and twenty Letters, but feveral entire Words which have always a Place in paffionate Epiftles, as Flames, Darts, Die, Languish, Abfence, Cupid, Heart, Eyes, Hang, Drown, and the like. This would very much abridge the Lover's Pains in this Way of Writing a Letter, as it would enable him to exprefs the moft ufeful and fignificant Words with a fingle Touch of the Needle. N 242. Friday, December 7. Creditur ex medio quia res arceffit habere Mr. SPECTATOR, Y Hor. C OUR Speculations do not fo generally prevail ⚫ over Mens Manners as I could with. A former Paper of yours, concerning the Misbehaviour of People, who are neceffarily in each other's Company in tra travelling, ought to have been a lafting Admonition againft Tranfgreffions of that Kind: But I had the Fate of your Quaker, in meeting with a rude Fellow in a Stage-Coach, who entertained two or three Women of us (for there was no Man befides himself) with Language as indecent as ever was heard upon the Water. The Impertinent Obfervations which the Coxcomb ⚫ made upon our Shame and Confufion were fuch, that it ⚫ is an unspeakable Grief to reflect upon them. As much as you have declaimed against Duelling, I hope you will ' do us the Justice to declare, that if the Brute has Courage enough to fend to the Place where he faw us all alight together to get rid of him, there is not one of · us but has a Lover who fhall avenge the Infult. It 'would certainly be worth your Confideration, to look ⚫ into the frequent Misfortunes of this kind, to which the Modeft and Innocent are expofed, by the licentious • Behaviour of fuch as are as much Strangers to good Breeding as to Virtue. Could we avoid hearing what we do not approve, as eafily as we can feeing what is difagreeable, there were fome Confolation; but fince, at a Box in a Play, in an Affembly of Ladies, or even in a Pew at Church, it is in the Power of a grofs Coxcomb 'to utter what a Woman cannot avoid hearing, how m ferable is her Condition who comes within the Power of fuch Impertinents? And how neceffary is it to repeat Invectives against fuch a Behaviour? If the Licen'tious had not utterly forgot what it is to be modeft, they would know that offended Modefty labours under one of the greateft Sufferings to which humane Life can be expofed. If one of thefe Brutes could reflect • thus much, tho' they want Shame, they would be moved, by their Pity, to abhor an impudent Behaviour in the Prefence of the Chafte and Innocent. If you oblige us with a Spectator on this Subject, and procure it to be pafted against every Stage Coach in Great-Britain, as the Law of the Journey, you will highly oblige the whole Sex, for which you have profeffed fo great an Efteem; and in particular, the two Ladies, my late Fellow-Sufferers, and, ་ will SIR, Your most humble Servant, Mr. |