as their sisters? Is it sufferable that the fop of whom I complain should say that he would rather have such-a-one without a groat, than me with the Indies? What right has any man to make suppositions of things not in his power, and then declare his will to the dislike of one that has never offended him? I assure you these are things worthy your consideration, and I hope we shall have your thoughts upon them. I am, though a woman justly offended, ready to forgive all this, because I have no remedy but leaving very agreeable company sooner than I desire. This also is a heinous aggravation of his offence, that he is inflicting banishment upon me. Your printing this letter may perhaps be an admonition to reform him; as soon as it appears I will write my name at the end of it, and lay it in his way; the making which just reprimand, I hope you will put in the power of, sir, your constant reader, and humble servant. T. which is the true source of wealth and prosperity. I just now said, the man of thrift shows regularity in every thing; but you may, perhaps, laugh that I take notice of such a particular as I am going to do, for an instance that this city is declining if their ancient economy is not restored. The thing which gives me this prospect, and so much offence, is the neglect of the Royal Exchange. I mean the edifice so called, and the walks appertaining thereunto. The Royal Exchange is a fabric that well deserves to be so called, as well to express that our monarch's highest glory and advantage consists in being the patron of trade, as that it is commodious for business, and an instance of the grandeur both of prince and people. But, alas! at present it hardly seems to be set apart for any such use or purpose. Instead of the assembly of honourable merchants, substantial tradesmen, and knowing masters of ships; the mumpers, the halt, the blind, the lame; and your venders of trash, apples, plums; your raggamuffins, rake-shames, and wenches, have justled the greater number of the former out of that place. Thus it is, especially on the evening change: so that what with the din of squallings, oaths, and cries Discharging the part of a good economist. of beggars, men of the greatest consequence THE useful knowledge in the following in our city absent themselves from the letter shall have a place in my paper, place. This particular, by the way, is of though there is nothing in it which imme- evil consequence; for, if the 'Change be diately regards the polite or the learned no place for men of the highest credit to world; I say immediately, for upon reflec- frequent, it will not be a disgrace for those tion every man will find there is a remote of less abilities to be absent. I remember influence upon his own affairs, in the pros- the time when rascally company were kept perity or decay of the trading part of man-out, and the unlucky boys with toys and kind. My present correspondent, I believe, was never in print before; but what he says well deserves a general attention, though delivered in his own homely maxims, and a kind of proverbial simplicity; which sort of learning has raised more estates, than ever were, or will be, from attention to Virgil, Horace, Tully, Seneca, Plutarch, or any of the rest, whom, I dare say, this worthy citizen would hold to be indeed ingenious, but unprofitable writers. But to the letter. No. 509.] Tuesday, October 14, 1712. 'Mr. William Spectator. balls were whipped away by a beadle. I have seen this done indeed of late, but then it has been only to chase the lads from chuck, that the beadle might seize their copper. I must repeat the abomination, that the walnut-trade is carried on by old women within the walks, which makes the place impassable by reason of shells and trash. The benches around are so filthy, that no one can sit down, yet the beadles and officers have the impudence at Christmas to ask for their box, though they deserve the strappado. I do not think it impertinent to have mentioned this, because it bespeaks a neglect in the domestic care of the city, and the domestic is the truest picture of a man every where else. 'Broad-street, Oct. 10, 1712. 'SIR,-I accuse you of many discourses on the subject of money, which you have heretofore promised the public, but have not discharged yourself thereof. But, for- 'But I designed to speak on the busiasmuch as you seemed to depend upon ad-ness of money and advancement of gain. vice from others what to do in that point, The man proper for this, speaking in the have sat down to write you the needful upon general, is of a sedate, plain good underthat subject. But, before I enter thereupon, standing, not apt to go out of his way, but I shall take this opportunity to observe to so behaving himself at home, that business you, that the thriving frugal man shows it may come to him. Sir William Turner, in every part of his expense, dress, ser- that valuable citizen, has left behind him a vants, and house; and I must, in the first most excellent rule, and couched it in very place complain to you, as Spectator, that few words, suited to the meanest capacity. in these particulars there is at this time, He would say, "Keep your shop, and your throughout the city of London, a lamenta-shop will keep you.' ." It must be confessed, ble change from that simplicity of manners, that if a man of a great genius could add steadiness to his vivacities, or substitute | going from college to college to borrow, as slower men of fidelity to transact the me- they have done since the death of this worthodical part of his affairs, such a one would outstrip the rest of the world; but business and trade are not to be managed by the same heads which write poetry, and make plans for the conduct of life in general. So though we are at this day beholden to the late witty and inventive duke of Buckingham for the whole trade and manufacture of glass, yet I suppose there is no one will aver, that, were his grace yet living, they would not rather deal with my diligent friend and neighbour, Mr. Gumley, for any goods to be prepared and delivered on such a day, than he would with that lustrious mechanic above-mentioned. thy man. I say, Mr. Hobson kept a stable of forty good cattle, always ready and fit for travelling; but, when a man came for a horse, he was led into the stable, where there was great choice; but he obliged him to take the horse which stood next to the stable door; so that every customer was alike well served according to his chance, and every horse ridden with the same justice; from whence it became a proverb, when what ought to be your election was forced upon you, to say, "Hobson's choice." This memorable man stands drawn in il-fresco at an inn (which he used) in Bishopsgate-street, with a hundred pound bag under his arm, with this inscription upon the said bag: 'No, no, Mr. Spectator, you wits must not pretend to be rich; and it is possible the reason may be, in some measure, because "The fruitful mother of a hundred more."† you despise, or at least you do not value it enough to let it take up your chief atten- 'Whatever tradesman will try the extion; which a trader must do, or lose his periment, and begin the day after you pubcredit, which is to him what honour, relish this my discourse to treat his customers putation, fame, or glory, is to other sort of all alike, and all reasonably and honestly, I will ensure him the same success, I am sir, your loving friend, men. I shall not speak to the point of cash itself, until I see how you approve of these my maxims in general: but I think a speculation upon "many a little makes a mickle, a penny saved is a penny got, penny wise T. 'HEZEKIAH THRIFT.' and a pound foolish, it is need that makes No. 510.] Wednesday, October 15, 1712. the old wife trot," would be very useful to the world; and if you treated them with knowledge, would be useful to yourself, for it would make demands for your paper among those who have no notion of it at present. But of these matters more hereafter. If you did this, as you excel many writers of the present age for politeness, so you would outgo the author of the true razor strops for use. 'I shall conclude this discourse with an explanation of a proverb, which by vulgar error is taken and used when a man is reduced to an extremity, whereas the propriety of the maxim is to use it when you would say there is plenty, but you must make such a choice as not to hurt another who is to come after you. 'Mr. Tobias Hobson,* from whom we have the expression, was a very honourable man, for I shall ever call the man so who gets an estate honestly. Mr. Tobias Hobson was a carrier; and, being a man of great abilities and invention, and one that saw where there might good profit arise, though the duller men overlooked it, this ingenious man was the first in this island who let out hackney-horses. He lived in Cambridge; and, observing that the scholars, rid hard, his manner was to keep a large stable of horses, with boots, bridles, and whips, to furnish the gentlemen at once, without Mr. Hobson was the carrier between London and Cambridge. At the latter place he erected a handsome stone conduit, and left sufficient land for its maintenance for ever. He died in the time of the plague, 1630, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. -Si sapis, Neque præterquam quas ipse amor molestias If you are wise, add not to the troubles which attend the passion of love, and bear patiently those which are inseparable from it. 'I WAS the other day driving in a hack through Gerrard-street, when my eye was immediately catched with the prettiest object imaginable the face of a very fair girl, between thirteen and fourteen, fixed at the chin to a painted sash, and made part of the landscape. It seemed admirably done, and, upon throwing myself eagerly out of the coach to look at it, it laughed, and flung from the window. This amiable figure dwelt upon me; and I was considering the vanity of the girl, and her pleasant coquetry in acting a picture until she was taken no tice of, and raised the admiration of the beholders. This little circumstance made me run into reflections upon the force of beauty, and the wonderful influence the female sex has upon the other part of the species. Our hearts are seized with their enchantments, and there are few of us, but brutal men, who by that hardness lose the chief pleasure in them, can resist their in sinuations, though never so much against our own interests and opinion. It is common with women to destroy the good effects a man's following his own way and inclina †There is a scarce folio print, I believe, from this picture, engraved by Payne, with eight English verses beneath. want of spirit, he alludes to enterprises which he cannot reveal but with the hazard of his life. When he is worked thus far, with a little flattery of her opinion of his gallantry, and desire to know more of it out of her overflowing fondness to him, he brags to her until his life is in her disposal. tion might have upon his honour and for- | world, wishes to make a good figure with tune, by interposing their power over him his mistress, upon her upbraiding him with in matters wherein they cannot influence him, but to his loss and disparagement. I do not know therefore a task so difficult in human life, as to be proof against the importunities of a woman a man loves. There is certainly no armour against tears, sullen looks, or at best constrained familiarities, in her whom you usually meet with transport and alacrity. Sir Walter Raleigh was quoted in a letter (of a very ingenious correspondent of mine) upon this subject. That author, who had lived in courts, and camps, travelled through many countries, and seen many men under several climates, and of as various complex-senseless a thing it is to argue with one ions, speaks of our impotence to resist the wiles of women in very severe terms. His words are as follows: When a man is thus liable to be vanquished by the charms of her he loves, the safest way is to determine what is proper to be done; but to avoid all expostulation with her before he executes what he has resolved. Women are ever too hard for us upon a treaty; and one must consider how whose looks and gestures are more prevalent with you, than your reasons and arguments can be with her. It is a most miserable slavery to submit to what you disap reason, but that you had not fortitude to support you in asserting it. A man has able wishes and desires; but he does that in enough to do to conquer his own unreasonvain, if he has those of another to gratify. Let his pride be in his wife and family, let him give them all the conveniences of life in such a manner as if he were proud of them; but let it be his own innocent pride, But in all concessions of this 'What means did the devil find out, or what instruments did his own subtility pre-Prove and give up a truth for no other sent him as fittest and aptest to work his mischief by? Even the unquiet vanity of the woman; so as by Adam's hearkening to the voice of his wife, contrary to the express commandment of the living God, mankind by that her incantation became the subject of labour, sorrow, and death; the woman being given to man for a comforter and companion, but not for a counsellor. It and not their exorbitant desires which are is also to be noted by whom the woman was tempted: even by the most ugly and unindulged by him. In this case all the little worthy of all beasts, into whom the devil arts imaginable are used to soften a man's entered and persuaded. Secondly, What heart, and raise his passion above his unwas the motive of her disobedience? Even kind, a man should consider whether the derstanding. a desire to know what was most unfitting her knowledge; an affection which has present he makes flows from his own love; ever since remained in all the posterity of the latter, he is her slave? if from the foror the importunity of his beloved. If from her sex. Thirdly, what was it that moved the man to yield to her persuasions? Even mer, her friend. We laugh it off, and do to the same cause which hath moved all not weigh this subjection to women with men since to the like consent, namely, an cumstance deserves. Why was courage that seriousness which so important a cirunwillingness to grieve her, or make her sad, given to a man, if his wife's fears are to lest she should pine, and be overcome with sorrow. But if Adam, in the state of per- you are no longer her guardian and profrustrate it? When this is once indulged, fection, and Solomon the Son of David, tector, as you were designed by nature; but, God's chosen servant, and himself a man in compliance to her weaknesses, you have endued with the greatest wisdom, did both of them disobey their Creator by the per- tunes into which they will lead you both, disabled yourself from avoiding the misforsuasion, and for the love they bear to a wo- and you are to see the hour in which you man, it is not so wonderful as lamentable, that other men in succeeding ages have are to be reproached by herself for that been allured to so many inconvenient and very compliance to her. It is indeed the wicked practices by the persuasion of their most difficult mastery over ourselves we wives, or other beloved darlings, who cover who charms us; but let the heart ake, be can possibly attain, to resist the grief of her over and shadow many malicious purposes the anguish never so quick and painful, it with a counterfeit passion of dissimulating is what must be suffered and passed sorrow and unquietness.' through, if you think to live like a gentleman, or be conscious to yourself that you are a man of honesty. The old argument, that you do not love me if you deny me this,' which first was used to obtain a trifle; by habitual success will oblige the unhappy man who gives way to it to resign the cause even of his country and his honour. The motions of the minds of lovers are no where so well described as in the words of skilful writers for the stage. The scene between Fulvia and Curius, in the second act of Johnson's Catiline, is an excellent picture of the power of a lady over her gallant. The wench plays with his affections; and as a man, of all places of the VOL. II. 35 T No. 511.] Thursday, October 16, 1712. Quis non invenit turba quod amaret in illa? In such a crowd a mistress to his mind? | did in Persia, we should find that some of our greatest men would choose out the portions, and rival one another for the richest piece of deformity; and that, on the contrary, the toasts and belles would be bought up by extravagant heirs, gamesters, and spendthrifts. Thou couldst make very pretty reflections upon this occasion in ho nour of the Persian politicians, who took care, by such marriages, to beautify the upper part of the species, and to make the greatest persons in the government the most graceful. But this I shall leave to thy judicious pen. DEAR SPEC,-Finding that my last letter took, I do intend to continue my epistolary correspondence with thee, on those dear confounded creatures, women. Thou knowest, all the little learning I am master of is upon that subject: I never looked in a book but for their sakes. I have lately met with two pure stories for a Spectator, which I am sure will please mightily, if they pass 'I have another story to tell thee, which through thy hands. The first of them II likewise met with in a book. It seems the found by chance in an English book, called general of the Tartars, after having laid Herodotus, that lay in my friend Dapper- siege to a strong town in China, and taken wit's window, as I visited him one morning. it by storm, would set to sale all the women It luckily opened in the place where I met that were found in it. Accordingly he put with the following account. He tells us that each of them into a sack, and, after having it was the manner among the Persians to thoroughly considered the value of the wo have several fairs in the kingdom, at which man who was enclosed, marked the price all the young unmarried women were an- that was demanded for her upon the sack. nually exposed to sale. The men who There was a great confluence of chapmen, wanted wives came hither to provide them- that resorted from every part, with a deselves. Every woman was given to the sign to purchase, which they were to do highest bidder, and the money which she unsight unseen. The book mentions a fetched laid aside for the public use, to be merchant in particular, who observing one employed as thou shalt hear by and by. of the sacks to be marked pretty high, barBy this means the richest people had the gained for it, and carried it off with him to choice of the market, and culled out all the his house. As he was resting with it upon most extraordinary beauties. As soon as a halfway bridge, he was resolved to take 1 the fair was thus picked, the refuse was to a survey of his purchase: upon opening the be distributed among the poor, and among sack, a little old woman popped her head those who could not go to the price of a out of it; at which the adventurer was in so beauty. Several of these married the agree-great a rage, that he was going to shoot her ables, without paying a farthing for them, unless somebody chanced to think it worth his while to bid for them, in which case the best bidder was always the purchaser. But now you must know, Spec, it happened in Persia, as it does in our own country, that there was' as many ugly women as beauties or agreeables; so that by consequence, after the magistrates had put off a great many, there were still a great many that stuck upon their hands. In order therefore to clear the market, the money which the beauties had sold for was disposed of among the ugly; so that a poor man, who could not afford to have a beauty for his wife, was forced to take up with a fortune; the greatest portion being always given to the most deformed. To this the author adds, that every poor man was forced to live kindly with his wife, or, in case he repented of his bargain, to return her portion with her to the next public sale. out into the river. The old lady, however, begged him first of all to hear her story, by which he learned that she was sister to a great mandarin, who would infallibly make the fortune of his brother-in-law as soon as he should know to whose lot she fell. Upon which the merchant again tied her up in his sack, and carried her to his house, where she proved an excellent wife; and procured him all the riches from her brother that she had promised him. 'I fancy, if I was disposed to dream a second time, I could make a tolerable vision upon this plan. I would suppose all the unmarried women in London and Westminster brought to market in sacks, with their respective prices on each sack. The first sack that is sold is marked with five thousand pound. Upon the opening of it, I find it filled with an admirable housewife, of an agreeable countenance. The purchaser, upon hearing her good qualities, 'What I would recommend to thee on pays down her price very cheerfully. The this occasion is, to establish such an ima-second I would open should be a five hunginary fair in Great Britain: thou couldst make it very pleasant, by matching women of quality with cobblers and carmen, or describing titles and garters leading off in great ceremony shopkeepers' and farmers' daughters. Though, to tell thee the truth, I am confoundedly afraid, that as the love of money prevails in our island more than it dred pound sack. The lady in it, to our surprise, has the face and person of a toast. As we are wondering how she came to be set at so low a price, we hear that she would have been valued at ten thousand pound, but that the public had made those abatements for her being a scold. I would afterwards find some beautiful, modest, and discreet woman, that should be the top of No. 512.] Friday, October 17, 1712. wiser and better unawares. In short, by In the next place, if we look into human Mixing together profit and delight. THERE is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice. We look upon the man who gives it us as offering an affront to our understanding, and treating us like children or idiots. We consider the instruction as an implicit censure, and the zeal which any shows for our good on such an occasion, as a piece of presumption or This oblique manner of giving advice is so impertinence. The truth of it is, the person inoffensive, that, if we look into ancient his who pretends to advise, does, in that par- tories, we find the wise men of old very ticular, exercise a superiority over us, and often chose to give counsel to their kings in can have no other reason for it, but that, in fables. To omit many which will occur to comparing us with himself, he thinks us every one's memory, there is a pretty indefective either in our conduct or our un-stance of this nature in a Turkish tale, derstanding. For these reasons, there is nothing so difficult as the art of making advice agreeable; and indeed all the writers, both ancient and modern, have distinguished themselves among one another, according to the perfection at which they have arrived in this art. How many devices have been made use of, to render this bitter portion palatable! Some convey their instructions to us in the best chosen words, others in the most harmonious numbers; some in points of wit, and others in short proverbs. But, among all the different ways of giving counsel, I think the finest, and that which pleases the most universally, is fable, in whatsoever shape it appears. If we consider this way of instructing or giving advice, it excels all others, because it is the least shocking, and the least subject to those exceptions which I have before mentioned. This will appear to us if we reflect in the first place, that upon the reading of a fable we are made to believe we advise ourselves. We peruse the author for the sake of the story, and consider the precepts rather as our own conclusions than his instructions. The moral insinuates itself imperceptibly; we are taught by surprise, and become which I do not like the worse for that lit- We are told that the Sultan Mahmoud, by |