at her table. She is uncleanly in her person, a flattern "in her dress, and her family is no better than a dung"hill.

"A fecond fort of female foul was formed out of the "fame materials that enter into the compofition of a "fox. Such an one is what we call a notable difcerning woman, who has an infight into every thing, "whether it be good or bad. In this fpecies of fe"males there are fome virtuous and fome vicious.

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"A third kind of women were made up of canine par"ticles. These are what we commonly call fcolds, who "imitate the animals out of which they were taken, that are always bufy and barking, that fnarl at every one "who comes in their way, and live in perpetual clamour. "The fourth kind of women were made out of the "earth. These are your fluggards, who pass away their "time in indolence and ignorance, hover over the fire a "whole winter, and apply themselves with alacrity to 66 no kind of business but eating.

"The fifth fpecies of females were made out of the "fea. These are women of variable uneven tempers, "fometimes all ftorm and tempeft, fometimes all calm "and funshine. The ftranger who fees one of these in "her fmiles and smoothness, would cry her up for a "miracle of good-humour; but on a fudden her looks and words are changed, she is nothing but fury and outrage, noife and hurricane.

"The fixth fpecies were made up of the ingredients "which compofe an ass, or a beast of burden. These "are naturally exceeding flothful, but upon the huf"band's exerting his authority, will live upon hard fare, "and do every thing to pleafe him. They are however far from being averfe to venereal pleasure, and "feldom refuse a male companion.

"The cat furnished materials for a feventh fpecies of women, who are of a melancholy, froward, unamiable nature, and fo repugnant to the offers of love, that they fly in the face of their husband when he approaches them with conjugal endearments. This "fpecies of women are likewife fubject to little thefts, "cheats, and pilferings.

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"The mare with a flowing mane, which was never "broke to any fervile toil and labour, compofed an

"eighth species of women. These are they who have "little regard for their husbands, who pass away their "time in drefling, bathing, and perfuming; who throw "their hair into the niceft curls, and trick it up with "the faireft flowers and garlands. A woman of this "fpecies is a very pretty thing for a ftranger to look upon, but very detrimental to the owner, unless it be a king or prince who takes a fancy to fuch a toy.

"The ninth fpecies of females were taken out of the 66 ape. Thefe are fuch as are both ugly and ill-natured, "who have nothing beautiful in themselves, and endeavour to detract from or ridicule every thing which appears fo in others.

"The tenth and laft fpecies of women were made "out of the bee; and happy is the man who gets fuch an one for his wife. She is altogether faultlefs and "unblamable; 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 diftinguishes herself among "her fex. She is furrounded with graces. She never "fits among the loose tribe of women, nor paffes away "her time with them in wanton difcourfes. She is full "of virtue and prudence, and is the beft wife that Jupiter can beftow on man."

I fhall conclude thefe iambics with the motto of this paper, which is a fragment of the fame author: “ A man cannot poffefs any thing that is better than a good woman, nor any thing that is worse than a bad one."

As the poet has fhewn a great penetration in this diverfity of female characters, he has avoided the fault which Juvenal and monfieur Boileau are guilty of, the former in his fixth, and the other in his last satire, where they have endeavoured to expofe the fex in general, without doing justice to the valuable part of it. Such levelling fatires are of no ufe to the world, and for this reafon I have often wondered how the French author above-mentioned, who was a man of exquifite judgment, and a lover of virtue, could think human nature a proper fubject for fatire in another of his celebrated pieces, which is called "The fatire upon man." What vice or frailty can a difcourfe correct, which cenfures the whole

fpecies alike, and endeavours to fhew by fome fuperficial strokes of wit, that brutes are the more excellent creatures of the two? A fatire fhould expofe nothing but what is corrigible, and make a due difcrimination between those who are, and those who are not the proper objects of it.

N° 210.

Wednesday, October 31.

L.

Nefcio quomodo inhæret in mentibus quafi feculorum quoddam augurium futurorum ; idque in maximis ingeniis altiffimifque animis & exiftit maximè & apparet facillimè. Cic. Tufc. Quæft.

There is, I know not how, in the minds of men a certain prefage, as it were, of a future existence; and this takes the deepest root, and is moft discoverable in the greatest geniuses and most exalted fouls.

" SIR,

To the SPECTAT o R.

I AM fully perfuaded that one of the best springs of

generous and worthy actions, is the having generous and worthy thoughts of ourselves. Whoever has a mean opinion of the dignity of his nature, will act in no higher a rank than he has allotted himself in his own efti⚫mation. If he confiders his being as circumfcribed by the uncertain term of a few years, his defigns will be ⚫ contracted into the fame narrow fpan he imagines is to • bound his existence. How can he exalt his thoughts to any thing great and noble, who only believes that, 6 after a fhort turn on the ftage of this world, he is to 'fink into oblivion, and to lofe his confciousness for • ever?

For this reason I am of opinion, that fo useful and ⚫ elevated a contemplation as that of the foul's immorta⚫lity cannot be refumed too often. There is not a more improving exercise to the human mind, than to be frequently reviewing its own great privileges and endowments; nor a more effectual means to awaken in us an ⚫ ambition raised above low objects and little pursuits, than to value ourselves as heirs of eternity.

It is a very great fatisfaction to confider the best and wifeft of mankind in all nations and ages, afferting, 'as with one voice, this their birthright, and to find it ' ratified by an express revelation. At the fame time if "we turn our thoughts inward upon ourselves, we may meet with a kind of fecret fenfe concurring with the proofs of our own immortality.

You have, in my opinion, raised a good prefumptive argument from the increafing appetite the mind has to knowledge, and to the extending its own faculties, 'which cannot be accomplished, as the more reftrained perfection of lower creatures may, in the limits of a fhort life. I think another probable conjecture may be 'raised from our appetite to duration itself, and from a ⚫ reflection on our progrefs through the feveral stages of it: "We are complaining," as you obferve in a former fpeculation, of the fhortness of life, and yet are perpetually hurrying over the parts of it to arrive at certain little fettlements, or imaginary points of reft, "which are difperfed up and down in it."

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Now let us confider what happens to us when we "arrive at thefe" imaginary points of reft:" Do we ftop our motion, and fit down satisfied in the fettlement we have gained? or are we not removing the boundary, ⚫ and marking out new points of reft, to which we press forward with the like eagerness, and which cease to be 'fuch as faft as we attain them? Our cafe is like that of a traveller upon the Alps, who should fancy that the top of the next hill muft end his journey, because it ⚫ terminates his profpect; but he no fooner arrives at it ⚫ than he fees new ground and other hills beyond it, and 'continues to travel on as before.

This is fo plainly every man's condition in life, that there is no one who has obferved any thing, but may observe, that as faft as his time wears away, his 'appetite to fomething future remains. The ufe there'fore I would make of it is this, that fince nature, as fome love to exprefs it, does nothing in vain, or, to speak properly, fince the Author of our being has planted no wandering paffion in it, no defire which has not its object, futurity is the proper object of the ⚫ paffion fo conftantly exercised about it; and this reft

leffnefs in the prefent, this affigning ourselves over to ⚫ farther stages of duration, this fucceffive grasping at fomewhat still to come, appears to me, whatever it may to others, as a kind of inftinct or natural fymptom ⚫ which the mind of man has of its own immortality.

I take it at the fame time for granted, that the immortality of the foul is fufficiently established by other arguments: and if fo, this appetite, which otherwife would be very unaccountable and abfurd, seems very ⚫ reasonable, and adds ftrength to the conclufion. But I am amazed when I confider there are creatures capable ⚫ of thought, who, in fpite of every argument, can form to themselves a fullen fatisfaction in thinking otherwife. There is fomething fo pitifully mean in the inverted ambition of that man who can hope for annihilation, and please himself to think that his whole fabric fhall one day crumble into duft, and mix with the mafs of inanimate beings, that it equally deferves our admiration and pity. The mystery of fuch mens unbelief is not hard to be penetrated; and indeed amounts to nothing more than a fordid hope that they 'fhall not be immortal, because they dare not be fo.

This brings me back to my first observation, and gives me occafion to fay further, that as worthy actions fpring from worthy thoughts, fo worthy thoughts are likewife the confequence of worthy actions: but the wretch who has degraded himself below the cha⚫racter of immortality, is very willing to refign his pretenfions to it, and to fubftitute in its room a dark negative happiness in the extinction of his being.

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The admirable Shakespeare has given us a strong image of the unfupported condition of fuch a perfon in his laft minutes in the fecond part of King Henry the fixth, where cardinal Beaufort, who had been concerned in the murder of the good duke Humphrey, is reprefented on his death-bed. After fome short confufed fpeeches which fhew an imagination disturbed with guilt, just as he was expiring, King Henry ftanding by him full of compaffion, fays,

"Lord Cardinal! if thou think'ft on heav'n's bliss, "Hold up thy hand, make signal of that hope! "He dies, and makes no fign!".