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No. 274. Monday, January 14.

I

Audire eft operæ pretium procedere recte
Qui machis non vultis-

Hor.

Have upon feveral Occafions (that have occurred fince I first took into my Thoughts the prefentState of Fornication) weighed with my felf, in Behalf of guilty Females, the Impulfes of Flesh and Blood, together with the Arts and Gallantries of crafty Men; and reflect with fome Scorn that moft Part of what we in our Youth think gay and polite, is nothing elfe but an Habit of indulging a Pruriency that Way. It will coft fome Labour to bring People to fo lively a Senfe of this, as to recover the manly Modefty in the Behaviour of my Men Readers, and the Bafhful Grace in the Faces of my Women: But in all Cafes which come into Debate, there are certain Things previously to be done before we can have a true Light into the Subject Matter; therefore it will, in the firft Place, be neceffary to confider the impotent Wenchers and induftrious Haggs, who are fupplied with, and are constantly supplying new Sacrifices to the Devil of Luft. You are to know then, if you are fo happy as not to know it already, that the great Havock which is made in the Habitations of Beauty and Innocence, is committed by fuch as can only lay waste and not enjoy the Soil. When you obferve the prefent State of Vice and Virtue, the Offenders are fuch as one would think should have no Impulse to what they are pursuing; as in Business, you fee fometimes Fools pretend to be. Knaves, fo in Pleasure, you will find old Men fet up for Wenchers. This latter fort of Men are the great Bafis and Fund of Iniquity in the Kind we are fpeaking of: You fhall have an old rich Man often receive Scrawls from the feveral Quarters of the Town, with Defcriptions of the new Wares in their Hands, if he will please to fend Word when he will be waited on. This Interview

is contrived, and the Innocent is brought to fuch Indecencies as from Time to Time banish Shame and raise Defire. With these Preparatives the Haggs break their Wards by little and little, 'till they are brought to lofe all Apprehenfions of what shall befal them in the Poffeffion of younger Men. It is a common Post-script of an Hagg to a young Fellow whom she invites to a new Woman, She has, I assure you, seen none but old Mr. Such-aone. It pleases the old Fellow that the Nymph is brought to him unadorned, and from his Bounty fhe is accommodated with enough to dress her for other Lovers. This is the most ordinary Method of bringing Beauty and Poverty into the Poffeffion of the Town: But the particular Cafes of kind Keepers, skilful Pimps, and all others who drive a separate Trade, and are not in the general Society or Commerce of Sin, will require diftin&t Confideration. At the fame Time that we are thus fevere on the Abandoned, we are to represent the Case of others with that Mitigation as the Circumftances demand. Calling Names does no good; to fpeak worfe of any Thing than it deferves, does only take off from the Credit of the Accufer, and has implicitly the Force of an Apology in the Behalf of the Perfon accufed. We fhall therefore, according as the Circumftances differ, vary our Appellations of thefe Criminals: Thofe who offend only against themselves, and are not Scandals to Society, but out of Deference to the fober Part of the World, have fo much good left in them as to be ashamed, muft not be huddled in the common Word due to the worst of Women; but Regard is to be had to their Circumstances when they fell, to the uneafy Perplexity under which they lived under fenfeless and severe Parents, to the 'Importunity of Poverty, to the Violence of a Paffion in its Beginning well grounded, and all other Alleviations which make unhappy Women refign the Characteristick of their Sex, Modeity. To do otherwife than thus, would be to act like a Pedantick Stoick, who thinks all Crimes alike, and not like an impartial SPECTATOR, who looks upon them with all the Circumftances that diminifh or enhance the Guilt. I am in Hopes, if this Sub. ject be well purfued, Women will hereafter from their Infancy be treated with an Eye to their future State in

the

the World; and not have their Tempers made too untractable from an improper Sournefs or Pride, or too complying from Familiarity orForwardness contracted at their ownHoufes. After thefe Hints on this Subject, I shall end this Paper with the following genuine Letter; and defire all who think they may be concerned in future Speculations on this Subject, to fend in what they have to fay for themselves for fome Incidents in their Lives, in order to have proper Allowances made for their Conduct.

6

Mr. SPECTATOR,

TH

January 5. 1711. HE Subject of your Yesterday's Paper is of fo great importance, and the thorough handling of it may be fo very useful to the Prefervation of many an innocent young Creature, that I think every one is obliged to furnish you with what Lights he can to expofe the pernicious Arts and Practices of those unna⚫tural Women called Bawds. In order to this the en⚫ closed is fent you, which is verbatim the Copy of a Letter written by a Bawd of Figure in this Town to a no⚫ble Lord. I have concealed the Names of both, my In⚫tention being not to expofe the Perfons but the Thing. I am, SIR,

My Lord,

Your bumble Servant.

I Having a great Efteem for your Honour, and a better Opinion of you than of any of the Quality, • makes me acquaint you of an Affair that I hope will oblige you to know. I have a Niece that came to Town ⚫ about a Fortnight ago. Her Parents being lately dead 'fhe came to me, expecting to a found me in fo good a • Condition as to a fet her up in a Milliner's Shop. Her • Father gave Fourfcore Pound with her for five Years:

Her Time is out, and she is not fixteen; as pretty a • black Gentlewoman as ever you faw, a little Woman, ⚫ which I know your Lordship likes; well shaped,and as fine a Complexion for Red and White as ever I faw • I doubt not but your Lordship will be of the fame Opinion. She defigns to go down about a Month hence except I can provide for her, which I cannot at prefent. • Her Father was one with whom all he had died with him, fo there is four Children left deftitute; fo if your

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Lordship thinks fit to make an Appointment where I • fhall wait on you with my Niece, by a Line or two, I ftay for your Anfwer; for I have no Place fitted fince I left my House fit to entertain your Honour. I told her the fhould go with me to fee a Gentleman a very good Friend of mine; fo I defire you to take no Notice of my Letter by reason fhe is ignorant of the Ways of the Town. My Lord, I defire if you meet us to come alone; for upon my Word and Honour you are f the first that ever I mentioned her to. So I remain, Your Lordship's

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Moft humble Servant to command.

I beg of you to burn it when you've read it.

T

No. 275. Tuesday, January 15.

tribus Anticyris caput infanabile

Juv.

I

Was Yesterday engaged in an Affembly of Virtuofo's where one of them produced many curious Obfervations which he had lately made in the Anatomy of an Human Body. Another of the Company communicated to us feveral wonderful Difcoveries, which he had also made on the fame Subject, by the Help of very fine Glaffes. This gave Birth to a great Variety of uncommon Remarks, and furnished Difcourfe for the remaining Part of the Day.

THE different Opinions which were ftarted on this Occafion prefented to my Imagination fo many new Ideas, that by mixing with thofe which were already, there, they employed my Fancy all the laft Night, and compofed a very wild extravagant Dream.

I was invited, methought, to the Diffection of a Beau's Head and of a Coquet's Heart, which were both of them laid on a Table before us. An imaginary Operator opened the first with a great deal of Nicety, which upon a curfory and fuperficial View, appeared like the Head

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of another Man; but upon applying our Glaffes to it, we made a very odd Discovery, namely, that what we looked upon as Brains, were not fuch in Reality, but an Heap of ftrange Materials wound up in that Shape and Texture, and packed together with wonderful Art in the feveral Cavities of the Skull. For as Homer tells us, that the Blood of the Gods is not real Blood, but only fomething like it; fo we found that the Brain of a Beau is not a real Brain, but only fomething like it.

THE Pineal Gland, which many of our modern Philofophers fuppofe to be the Seat of the Soul, fmelt very ftronge of Effence and Orange Flower Water, and was encompaffed with a Kind of horney Subftance, cut into a thousand little Faces or Mirrours, which were imperceptible to the naked Eye; infomuch that the Soul, if there had been any here, must have been always taken up in contemplating her own Beauties.

WE obferved a large Antrum or Cavity in the Sinciput, that was filled with Ribbons, Lace and Embroidery, wrought together in a moft curious Piece of Net-work, the Parts of which were likewife imperceptible to the naked Eye. Another of these Antrums or Cavities was ftuffed with invifible Billet-doux, Love-Letters, pricked Dances, and other Trumpery of the fame nature. another we found a kind of Powder, which fet the whole Company a Sneezing, and by the Scent discovered itself to be right Spanish. The feveral other Cells were stored with Commodities of the fame kind, of which it would be tedious to give the Reader an exact Inventory.

In

THERE was a large Cavity on each Side of the Head, which I muft not omit. That on the right fide was filled with Fictions, Flatteries and Falfhoods, Vows, Promifes and Proteftations; that on the left with Oaths and Imprecations. There iffued out a Ducfrom each of thefe Cells, which ran into the Root of the Tongue, where both joined together, and paffed forward in one common Duct to the Tip of it. We discovered feveral little Roads or Canals running from the Ear into the Brain,and took par ticular Care to trace them out through their feveral Paffages. One of them extended it felf to a Bundle of Sonnets and little mufical Inftruments. Others ended in feveral Bladders which were filled either with Wind or Froth.

But

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