fame Time that it fhews the Wisdom of the Creator, it dif covers the Imperfection and Degeneracy of the Creature.

THE Obedience of Children to their Parents is the Bafis of all Government, and set forth as the Measure of that Obedience which we owe to thofe whom Providence hath placed over us.

IT is Father le Comte, if I am not mistaken, who tells as how Want of Duty in this Particular is punished among the Chinese, infomuch that if a Son fhould be known to kill, or fo much as to ftrike his Father, not only the Criminal but his whole Family would be rooted out, nay the Inhabitants of the Place where he lived would be put to the Sword, nay the Place it felf would be razed to the Ground, and its Foundations fown with Salt: For, fay they, there must have been an utter Depravation of Manners in that Clan or Society of People, who could have bred up among them fo horrid an Offender. To this I fhall add a Paffage out of the first Book of Herodotus. That Hiftorian in his Account of the Perfian Cuftoms and Religion tells us, it is their Opinion that no Man ever killed his Father, or that it is poffible fuch a Crime fhould be in Nature; but that if any thing like it fhould ever happen, they conclude that the reputed Son must have been Illegitimate, Suppofititious, or begotten in Adultery. The Opinion in this Particular fhews fufficiently what a Notion they must have bad of Undutifulness in general.

L

No 190. Monday, October 8.

Servitus crefcit nova·

Hor.

INCE I made fome Reflections upon the general Negligence ufed in the Cafe of Regard toward Women, or, in other Words, fince I talked of Wenching, I have had Epiftles upon that Subject, which I fhall,.

for

for the prefent Entertainment, infert as they lye before

me.

་

Mr. SPECTATOR,

S

As your Speculations are not confined to any Part of

Humane Life, but concern the Wicked as well as the Good, I must defire your favourable Acceptance of what I, a poor ftroling Girl about Town, have to fay to you. I was told by a Roman-Catholick Gentleman who picked me up laft Week, and who, I hope, is abfolved for what paffed between us; I fay, I was told by fuch a Perfon, who endeavoured to convert me to his own Religion, that in Countries where Popery prevails,' • befides the Advantage of licensed Stews, there are large • Endowments given for the Incurabili, I think he called them, fuch as are past all Remedy, and are allow'd fuch • Maintenance and Support as to keep them without further Care till they expire. This manner of treating poor Sinners, has, methinks, great Humanity in it; and as you are a Perfon who pretend to carry your Reflections upon all Subjects, whatever occur to you, with Candour, and act above the Senfe of what Mifinterpretation you may meet with, I beg the Favour of you to lay before all the World the unhappy Condition of us poor Vagrants, who are really in a Way of Labour instead of Idlenefs. There are Crouds of us whofe manner of Livelihood has long ceafed to be pleafing to us; and 'who would willingly lead a new Life, if the Rigour of the Virtuous did not for ever expel us from coming into the World again. As it now happens, to the eternal Infamy of the Male Sex, Falfhood among you is not reproachful, but Credulity in Women is infamous.

Give me Leave, Sir, to give you my Hiftory. You are to know that I am Daughter of a Man of good Re'putation, Tenant to a Man of Quality. The Heir of this great House took it in his Head to caft a favourable Eye upon me, and fucceeded. I do not pretend to fay he promised me Marriage: I was not a Creature filly enough to be taken by fo foolifh a Story: But he ran away with me up to this Town, and introduced me to a grave Matron, with whom I boarded for a Day or

N° 189. two with great Gravity, and was not a little pleased • with the Change of my Condition, from that of a Country Life to the finest Company, as I believed, in the ⋅ whole World. My humble Servant made me to understand that I should be always kept in the plentiful_C_ndition I then enjoyed; when after a very great Fond• nefs towards me, he one Day took his Leave of me for • four or five Days. In the Evening of the fame Day my good Landlady came to me, and obferving me very penfive, began to comfort me, and with a Smile told me I • must see the World. When I was deaf to all she could say to divert me, fre began to tell me with a very frank * Air that I must be treated as I ought, and not take these • squeamish Humours upon me, for my Friend had left ⚫ me to the Town; and, as their Phrafe is, the expected • I would fee Company, or I must be treated like what • I had brought my self to. This put me into a Fit of Crying : And I immediately, in a true Sense of my Condition, threw my felf on the Floor, deploring my Fate, • cailing upon all that was good and facred to fuccour me. While I was in all this Agony, I observed a decrepid ◄ old Fellow come into the Room, and looking with a • Sense of Pleasure in his Face at all my Vehemence and • Transport. In a Pause of my Distress I heard him fay to the shameless old Woman who flood by me, She is ⚫ certainly a new Face, or else she acts it rarely. With that, the Gentlewoman, who was making her Market of me, ⚫ in all the Turn of my Person, the Heaves of my Passion, and the suitable Changes of my Pofture, took Occafion to commend my Neck, my Shape, my Eyes, my Limbs. All this was accompanied with fuch Speeches as you may ◄ have heard Horse-Courfers make in the Sale of Nags, • when they are warranted for their Soundness. You • understand by this Time that I was left in a Brothel, and exposed to the next Bidder that could purchase me of my Patronefs. This is fo much the Work of Hell; the • Pleasure in the Poffeffion of us Wenches, abates in • Proportion to the Degrees we go beyond the Bounds of • Innocence; and no Man is gratified, if there is nothing • left for him to debauch. Weil, Sir, my firft Man, : when I came upon the Town, was Sir Feoffry Foible,

who was extremely lavish to me of his Money, and took fuch a Fancy to me that he would have carried me off, if my Patronefs would have taken any reasonable Terms for me: But as he was old, his Covetousness was his strongest Paffion, and poor I was foon left ex· pofed to be the common Refufe of all the Rakes and ‹ Debauchees in Town. I cannot tell whether you will do me Justice or no, till I fee whether you print this or not; otherwise, as I now live with Sal, I could give you a very juft Account of who and who is together in this Town. You perhaps won't believe it; but I know ⚫ of one who pretends to be a very good Proteftant who

lies with a Roman-Catholick: But more of this here• after, as you please me. There do come to our House the greatest Politicians of the Age, and Sal is more fhrewd than any Body thinks: No Body can believe that fuch wife Men could go to Bawdy-houses out of idle Purpofes; I have heard them often talk of Auguftus Cafar, who had Intrigues with the Wives of Senators, not out of Wantonnefs but Stratagem,

IT is a Thousand Pities you fhould be fo feverely 'virtuous as I fear you are; otherwise, after one Vifit or two, you would foon understand that we Women of the Town are not fuch useless Correfpondents as you may imagine: You have undoubtedly heard that it was a Courtefan who difcover'd Cataline's Confpiracy. If you print this I'll tell you more; and am in the mean time, SIR,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

Your most humble Servant,
REBECCA NETTLETOP

Am an idle young Woman that would work for my Livelihood, but that I am kept in fuch a Manner as I cannot stir Aut. My Tyrant is an old jealous Fellow, who allows me nothing to appear in. I have but one 'Shooe and one Slipper; no Head-drefs, and no upper • Petticoat. As you fet for a Reformer, I defire you ⚫ would take me out of this wicked Way, and keep me your felf. EVE AFTERDAY,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

1Am to complain to you of a Set of impertinent Coxcombs, who vifit the Apartments of us Women of the Town, only, as they call it, to fee the World. I must confefs to you, this to Men of Delicacy might have an Effect to cure them; but as they are ftupid, noify, and drunken Fellows, it tends only to make Vice in themselves, as they think, pleafant and humourous, and at the fame time naufeous in us. I fhall, Sir, hereafter from Time to Time give you the Names of thefe Wretches who pretend to enter our Houses meerly as Spectators. Thefe Men think it Wit to use us ill: Pray tell them, however worthy we are of fuch • Treatment, it is unworthy in them to be guilty of it towards us. Pray, Sir, take Notice of this, and pity. ⚫ the Oppreffed: I wish we could add to it, the Inno

cent.

T

N° 191. Tuesday, October 9.

Si

· ὅλον ὄνειρον.

Hom.

OME ludicrous Schoolmen have put the Cafe, that if an Afs were placed between two Bundles of Hay, which affected his Senfes equally on each Side, and tempted him in the very fame Degree, whether it would be poffible for him to eat of either. They generally determine this Queftion to the Disadvantage of the Afs, who they fay would ftarve in the midft of Plenty, as not having a fingle Grain of Free-Will to determine him more to the one than to the other. The Bundle of Hay on either Side ftriking his Sight and Smell in the fame Proportion, would keep him in a perpetual Sufpence, like the two Magnets which Travellers have told us, are placed one of them in the Roof, and the other in the Floor of Mahomet's Burying-Place at Mecca, and by that Means, fay they, pull the Impoftor's Iron Coffin with fuch an equal

As