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I have already apologized for this author's want of delicacy, and must further premise, that the following satire affects only some of the lower part of the sex, and not those who have been refined by a polite education, which was not so common in the age of this poet.

In the beginning God made the souls of womankind out of different materials, and in a separate state from their bodies.

The souls of one kind of women were formed out of those ingredients which compose a swine. A woman of this make is a slut in her house, and a glutton at her table. She is uncleanly in her person, a slattern in her dress, and her family is no better than a dung-hill.

'A second sort of female soul was formed out of the same materials that enter into the composition of a fox. Such a one is what we call a notable discerning woman, who has an insight into every thing whether it be good or bad. In this species of females there are some virtuous and some vicious.

'A third kind of women were made up of canine particles. These are what we commonly call scolds, who imitate the animals out of which they were taken, that are always busy and barking, that snarl at every one that comes in their way, and live in perpetual cla

mour.

6 The fourth kind of women were made out of the earth. These are your sluggards, who pass away their time in indolence and ignorance, hover over the fire a whole winter, and apply themselves with alacrity to no kind of business but eating.

The fifth species of females were made out of the sea. These are women of various uneven tempers, sometimes all storm and tempest, sometimes all calm and sunshine. The stranger who sees one of these in her smiles and smoothness, would cry her up for a miracle of good-humour; but on a sudden her looks and words are changed, she is nothing but fury and outrage, noise and hurricane.

• The

The sixth species were made up of the ingredients which compose an ass, or a beast of burden. These are naturally exceeding slothful, 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 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 ape. These are such as are both ugly and ill-natured, who have nothing beautiful in themselves, and endeavour to detract from or ridicule every thing which appears so in others.

'The tenth and last species of women were made out of the bee; and happy is the man who gets such an one for his wife. She is altogether faultless and unblameable. Her family flourishes and improves by her good management. She loves her husband, and is beloved by him. She brings him a race of beautiful and virtuous children. She distinguishes herself among her sex. She

is

* Whether this description apply to ladies of fashion, in our time, we shall not determine.

is surrounded with graces. She never sits among the loose tribe of women, nor passes away her time with them in wanton discourses. She is full of virtue and prudence, and is the best wife that JUPITER can bestow on man.”

I shall conclude these iambics with the motto of this paper, which is a fragment of the same author: "A man cannot possess any thing that is better than a good woman, nor any thing that is worse than a bad one.”

As the poet has shewn a great penetration in this diversity of female characters, he has avoided the fault which JUVENAL and Monsier BOILEAU are guilty of; the former in his sixth, and the other in his last Satire, where they have endeavoured to expose the sex in general, without doing justice to the valuable part of it. * Such levelling satires are of no use to the world; and for this reason I have often wondered how the French author above-mentioned, who was a man of exquisite judgment, and a lover of virtue, could think human nature a proper subject for satire in another of his celebrated pieces, which is called The Satire upon Man. What vice or frailty can a discourse correct, which censures the whole species alike, and endeavours to shew, by some superficial strokes of wit, that brutes are the most excellent creatures of the two. A satire should expose nothing but what is corrigible, and make a due discrimination between those who are, and those who are not the proper objects of it.

L.

JUVENAL is guilty of the same fault in his tenth Satire; he states the evil of the objects of human wishes, but not the good.

NO.

INDEX

TO THE

SPECTATOR.

VOL. III.

A

ABSTINENCE, the benefit of it, No. 195-

Accompts, their great usefulness, No. 174.

Action, the felicity of the soul, No. 126. No right judgment
to be made of our actions, 174.

Advertisement from Mr. Sly, the haberdasher, No. 187. About
the lottery ticket, 191.

Age, the unnatural misunderstanding between age and youth,
No. 153. The authority of an aged virtuous person preferable
to the pleasures of youth, ib.

Albacinda, her character, No. 144.

Alexander, his artifice in his Indian expedition, No. 127. His
answer to those who asked him if he would not be a com→

petitor for the prize in the Olympic Games, 157.

Amaryllis, her character, No. 144.

Ambition, the occasion of factions, No. 125. By what to be
measured, 188. Many times as hurtful to the princes who
are led by it, as to the people, 200.

Apothecary, his employment, No. 195.

Appetites, sooner moved than the passions, No. 208.

Arable, (Mrs.) the great heiress, the Spectator's fellow-traveller

No. 132.

Argument, rules for the management of one, No. 179.
Aristotle, his account of the world, No. 166.

VOL. III.

Aristus

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Aristus and Aspatia, an unhappy couple, No. 128.

Artist, wherein he has the advantage of an author, No. 166.
Association of honest men proposed by the Spectator, No. 126.
Atheists, great zealots, No. 185. And Bigots, ib. Their opinions
downright nonsense, ib.

Author, in what manner one author is a mole to another, No. 124.
Wherein an author has the advantage of an artist, 166. The
care an author ought to take of what he writes, ib. A story
of an atheistical author, ib.

B

Bareface, his success with the ladies, and the reason for it, No. 156.
Bawdy-houses, frequented by wise men, not out of wantonness but
stratagem, No. 190.

Bear-garden, the Spectator's method for the improvement of it,

No. 141.

Bodily exercises, of ancient encouragement, No. 161.

Boileau censured, and for what, No. 209.

Books reduced to their quintessence, No. 124. The legacies of
great geniuses, 166.

Burnet, (Dr.) some passages in his theory of the earth considered,
No. 143 and 146.

Butts, the adventures of a butt on the water, 175.

C

Cæsar, (Julius) his reproof to an ill reader, No. 147.
Cant, from whence said to be derived, No. 147.
Caprice often acts in the place of reason, No. 191.
Care, what ought to be a man's chief care, No. 122.

Carneades, the philosopher, his definition of beauty, No. 144.
Cassius, the proof he gave of his temper in his childhood, No. 157.
Castilian, the story of a Castilian husband and his wife, No. 198.
Castle-builders, who, and their follies exposed, No. 167.

Charles the Great, his behaviour to his secretary, who had de-
bauched his daughter, No. 181.

Cheerfulness of Temper, how to be obtained and preserved, No.
143.

Children, wrong measures taken in the education of the British

children, No. 157.

Chinese, the punishment amongst them for parricide, No. 189.

Christian

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