' dread being accused of that for which he was ar 'refted?

IN a word, Sir, it is in the Power of you, and fuch as I hope you are, to make it as infamous to rob " a poor Creature of her Honour as her Clothes. I leave this to your Confideration, only take Leave (which I cannot do without fighing) to remark to you, that if 'this had been the Senfe of Mankind thirty Years ago,, I fhould have avoided a Life spent in Poverty and Shame.

Iam, SIR,

Your most humble Servant,

Alice Threadneedle.

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

Round-boufe, Sept. 9.

I Am a Man of Pleafure about Town, but by the Stupidity of a dull Rogue of a Juftice of Peace and an infolent Conftable, upon the Oath of an old Harridan, am imprisoned here for Theft, when I defigned only Fornication. The Midnight Magiftrate, as he conveyed me along, had you in his Mouth, and faid, this would make a pure Story for the SPECTATOR. I hope, Sir, you won't pretend to Wit, and take the Part of dull Rogues of Bufinefs. The World is fo altered of 'late Years, that there was not a Man who would knock "down a Watchman in my Behalf, but I was carried off with as much Triumph as if I had been a Pick-pocket. ⚫ At this rate there is an End of all the Wit and Humour in the World. The Time was when all the honest ⚫ Whore-mafters in the Neighbourhood would have rofe against the Cuckolds to my Refcue. If Fornication is to be fcandalous, half the fine things that have been writ by most of the Wits of the laft Age may be burnt: by the common Hangman. Harkee, Mr. SPEC, do not "be queer; after having done fome Things pretty well, don't begin to write at that rate that no Gentleman can read thee. Be true to Love, and burn your Seneca. You do not expect me to write my Name from hence, but I am

Your unknown bumble, &ci

Saturday

No 183. Saturday, September 29.

ωω ψαξει πολλὰ λέγειν ἐτύμοισιν ὁμοῖα, Ιδιον δ' εἶτ ̓ ἐθέλωμον, ἀληθέα μυθήσας. Hef.

F

ABLES were the firft Pieces of Wit that made their Appearance in the World, and have been still highly valued not only in Times of the greatest Simplicity but among the most polite Ages of Mankind. Fotham's Fable of the Trees is the oldeft that is extant, and as beautiful as any which have been made fince that Time. Nathan's Fable of the poor Man and his Lamb is likewife more ancient than any that is extant, befides the above-mentioned, and had fo good an Effect, as to convey Inftruction to the Ear of a King without offending it, and to bring the Man after God's own Heart to a right Sense of his Guilt and his Duty. We find Æsop in the moft diftant Ages of Greece; and if we look into the very Beginnings of the Commonwealth of Rome, we fee a Mutiny among the Common People appeased by a Fable of the Belly and the Limbs, which was indeed very proper to gain the Attention of an incensed Rabble, at a Time when perhaps they would have torn to Pieces any Man who had preached the fame Doctrine to them in an open and direct Manner. As Fables took their Birth in the very Infancy of Learning, they never flourished more than when Learning was at its greateft Height. To juftify this Affertion, I fhall put my Reader in mind of Horace, the greatest Wit and Critick in the Auguftan Age; and of Boileau, the most correct Poet among the Moderns: Not to mention la Fontaine, who by this Way of Writing is come more into Vogue than any other Author of our Times.

THE Fables I have here mentioned are raised altogether upon Brutes and Vegetables, with fome of our own Species mixt among them, when the Moral hath

fo

fo required. But befides this Kind of Fable, there is another in which the Actors are Paffions, Virtues, Vices, and other imaginary Perfons of the like Nature. Some of the ancient Criticks will have it, that the Iliad and Odyffey of Homer are Fables of this Nature; and that the feveral Names of Gods and Heroes are nothing else but the Affections of the Mind in a visible Shape and Character. Thus they tell us, that Achilles, in the firft Iliad, reprefents Anger, or the Irafcible Part of Human Nature. That upon drawing his Sword against his Superior in a full Affembly, Pallas is only another Name for Reafon, which checks and advises him upon that Occafion; and at her firft Appearance touches him upon the Head, that Part of the Man being looked upon as the Seat of Reafon. And thus of the reft of the Poem. As for the Odyffey, I think it is plain that Horace confidered it as one of thefe Allegorical Fables, by the Moral which he has given us of feveral Parts of it. The greateft Italian Wits have applied themfelves to the Writing of this latter kind of Fables: As Spencer's FairyQueen is one continued Series of them from the Beginning to the End of that admirable Work. If we look into the finest Profe-Authors of Antiquity, fuch as Cicero, Plato, Xenophon, and many others, we fhall find that this was likewife their Favourite Kind of Fable. I fhall only farther obferve upon it, that the first of this Sort that made any confiderable Figure in the World, was that of Hercules meeting with Pleasure and Virtue; which was invented by Prodicus, who lived before Socrates, and in the firft Dawnings of Philofophy. He used to travel through Greece by virtue of this Fable, which procured him a kind Reception in all the Market-towns, where he never failed telling it as foon as he had gathered an Audience about him.

AFTER this fhort Preface, which I have made up of fuch Materials as my Memory does at prefent fuggeft to me, before I prefent my Reader with a Fable of this Kind, which I defign as the Entertainment of the prefent Paper, I mult in a few Words open the Occafion of it.

IN the Account which Plato gives us of the Converfation and Behaviour of Socrates, the Morning he was to die, he tells the following Circumstance.

WHEN

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WHEN Sacrates his Fetters were knocked off (as was ufual to be done on the Day that the condemned Perfon: was to be executed) being feated in the midst of his Difciples, and laying one of his Legs over the other, in a very unconcerned Pofture, he began to rub it where it had been galled by the Iron; and whether it was to fhew the Indifference with which he entertained the Thoughts of his approaching Death, or (after his ufual manner) to take every Occafion of Philofophizing upon fome ufeful Subject, he obferved the Pleasure of that Senfation which now arofe in those very Parts of his Leg, that just be fore had been fo much pained by the Fetter. Upon this he reflected on the Nature of Pleasure and Pain in general, and how conftantly they fucceed one another. To this he added, That if a Man of a good Genius for a Fable were to represent the Nature of Pleasure and Pain in that Way of Writing, he would probably join them toge ther after fuch à manner, that it would be impoffible for the one to come into any Place without being followed by the other.

IT is poffible, that if Plato had thought it proper at fuch a Time to defcribe Socrates lanching out into a Dif course which was not of a Piece with the Bufinefs of the Day, he would have enlarged upon this Hint, and have drawn it out into fome beautiful Allegory or Fable.. But fince he has not done it, I fhall attempt to write one my felf in the Spirit of that Divine Author..

THERE were two Families which from the Beginn ning of the World were as oppofite to each other as Light and Darkness. The one of them lived in Heaven, and the other in Hell. The youngest Defcendant of the firft Family, vas Pleasure, who was the Daughter of Happiness, who was the Child of Virtue, who was the Offspring of the Gods. Thefe, as I faid before, had their Habitation in Heaven. The youngest of the oppofite Family was Pain, who was the Son of Mifery, who was the Child of Vice, who was the Offspring of the Furies. The Habitation of this Race of Beings was in Hell.

THE middle Station of Nature between these two oppofite Extremes was the Earth, which was inhabited by Creatures of a middle Kind, neither fo Virtuous as the one,

nor foVicious as the other, but partaking of the good and bad Qualities of the fe two oppofite Families. Jupiter confidering that this Species commonly called Man, was too virtuous to be miferable,and too vicious to be happy; that he might make Diftinction between the Good and the Bad, ordered the two youngest of the above-mentioned Families, Pleafure who was the Daughter of Happiness, and Pain who was the Son of Mifery, to meet one another upon this Part of Nature which lay in the half Way between them, having promifed to fettle it upon them both,provided they could agree upon the Divifion of it, fo as to share Mankind between them.

PLEASURE and Pain were no fooner met in their new Habitation, but they immediately agreed upon this Point, that Pleafure fhould take Poffeffion of the Virtuous, and Pain of the Vicious Part of that Species which was given up to them. But upon examining to which of them any Individual they met with belonged, they found each of them had a right to him; for that, contrary to what they had feen, in their old Places of Refidence, there was no Perfon fo Vicious who bad not fome Good in him, nor any Perfon fo Virtuous who bad not in him fome Evil. The Truth of it is,they generally found upon Search, that in the most vicious Man Pleasure might lay a Claim to an hundredth Part, and that in the moft virtuous Man Pain might come in for at least two Thirds. This they faw would occafion endless Difputes between them, unless they could come to fome Accommodation. To this End there was a Marriage propofed between them, and at length concluded: By this means it is that we find Pleafure and Pain are fuch conftant Yoke-fellows, and that they either make their Vifits together, or are never far afunder. If Pain comes into an Heart, he is quickly followed by Pleasure; and if Pleafure enters, you may be fure Pain is not far off.

BUT notwithstanding this Marriage was very conveni-" ent for the two Parties, it did not feem to answer the Intention of Jupiter in fending them among Mankind. To remedy therefore this Inconvenience, it was fipulated between them by Article, and confirmed by the Confent of each Family, that notwithstanding they bere poffeffed the Species indifferently; upon the Death of every fingle Perfon, if he was found to have in him a certain Proportion of Evil, he should be dispatched into the infernal Regions by a Passport