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heart's desire, expose that cursed vice of insnaring poor young girls, and drawing them from their friends. I assure you, without flattery, it has saved 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 glass, and hung it behind my counter. I shall take care to make my young ones read it every morning, to fortify them against such pernicious rascals. I know not whether what you writ was matter of fact, or your own invention; but this I will take my oath on, the first part is so exactly like what happened to my 'prentice, that had I read your paper then, I should have taken your method to have secured a villain. Go on and prosper.

Your most obliged humble servant.'

MR. SPECTATOR,

WITHOUT raillery, I desire you to insert this, word for word, in your next, as you value a lover's prayers. You see it is an hue and cry after a stray heart (with the marks and blemishes underwritten); which whoever shall bring to you, shall receive satisfaction. Let me beg of you not to fail, as you remember the passion you had for her to whom you lately ended a paper.

"Noble, generous, great, and good,

But never to be understood;
Fickle as the wind, still changing,
After every female ranging,

Panting, trembling, sighing, dying,
But addicted much to lying:
When the Siren songs repeats,
Equal measures still it beats;
Whoe'er shall wear it, it will smart her,

And whoe'er takes it, takes a tartar."

T.

NO.

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THERE are no authors I am more pleased with, than those who shew human nature in a variety of views, and describe the several 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 those which prevailed in the times of his forefathers; and drawing a parallel in his mind between his own private character, and that of other persons, whether of his own age, or of the ages that went before him. The contemplation of mankind, under these changeable colours, is apt to shame us cut of any particular vice, or animate us to any particular virtue; to make us pleased or displeased with ourselves in the most proper points, to clear our minds of prejudice and prepossession, and rectify that narrowness of temper which inclines us to think amiss of those who differ from ourselves.

If we look into the manners of the most remote ages of the world, we discover human nature in her simplicity; and the more we come downward towards our own times, may observe her hiding herself in artifices and refinements, polished insensibly out of her original plainness, and at length intirely lost under form and ceremony, and (what we call) good-breeding. Read

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the accounts of men and women as they are given us by the most ancient writers, both sacred and profane, and you would think you were reading the history of another species.

Among the writers of antiquity, there are none who instruct us more openly in the manners of their respective times in whic!. they lived, than those who have employed themselves in Satire, under what dress soever it may appear; as there are no other authors whose province it is to enter so directly into the ways of men, and set their miscarriages in so strong a light.

SIMONIDES, a poet famous in his generation, is, I think, author of the oldest satire that is now extant; and, as some say, of the first that was ever written. This poet flourished about four hundred years after the siege of Troy; and shews, by his way of writing, the simplicity, or rather coarseness, of the age in which he lived. I have taken notice, in my hundred and sixtyfifth speculation, that the rule of observing what the French call bienseance in an allusion, 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 their comparisons. The satire or iambics of SIMONIDES, with which I shall entertain my readers in the present paper, are a remarkable instance of what I formerly advanced. The subject of this satire is woman. He describes the sex in their several characters, which he derives to them from a fanciful supposition raised upon the doctrine of pre-existence. He tells us, "That the Gods formed the souls of women out of those seeds and principles which compose several kinds of animals and elements; and that their good or bad dispositions arise in them according as such and such seeds and principles predominate in their constitutions." I have translated 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.

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The sixth species were made up of the ingredients which compose an ass, or a beast of burden. These are aturally exceeding slothful, but upon the husband's exrting his authority, will live upon hard fare, and do every thing to please him. They are however far from being averse to venereal pleasure, and seldom refuse a male companion.

The cat furnished materials for a seventh species of women, who are of a melancholy, froward, unamiable nature, and so repugnant to the offers of love, that they fly in the face of their husband when he approaches them with conjugal endearments. This species of women are likewise subject to little thefts, cheats, and pilferings.

The mare with a flowing mane, which was never broke to any servile toil and labour, composed an eighth species of women. These are they who have little regard for their husbands, who pass away their time in dressing, bathing, and perfuming; who throw their hair into the nicest curls, and trick it up with the fairest flowers and garlands. A woman of this species is a very pretty thing for a stranger to look upon, but very detrimental to the owner, unless it be a King or a Prince who take a fancy to such a toy. *

'The ninth species of females were taken out of the pe. These are such as are both ugly and ill-natured, ho have nothing beautiful in themselves, and endeair to detract from or ridicule every thing which aps so in others.

The tenth and last species of women were made out bee; and happy is the man who gets such an one ife. She is altogether faultless and unblameable. 'y flourishes and improves by her good maShe loves her husband, and is beloved by ings him a race of beautiful and virtuous stinguishes herself among her sex. She

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apply to ladies of fashion, in our

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