married into the country, neither looks, nor talks, nor dresses like any of her neighbours, and is grown the admiration of every one but her husband. The latter end of last month some important business called me up to town, and the first thing I did, the next morning about ten, was to pay a visit to my son at his chambers; but as I began to knock at the door, I was interrupted by the bed-maker in the stair-case, who told me her master seldom rose till about twelve, and about one I might be sure to find him drinking tea. I bid her somewhat hastily hold her prating, and open the door, which accordingly she did. The first thing I observed upon the table was the secret amours of and by it stood a box of pills; on a chair lay a snuff-box with a fan half broke, and on the floor a pair of foils. Having seen this furniture I entered his bed-chamber, not without some noise; whereupon he began to swear at his bed-maker, as he thought, for disturbing him so soon, and was turning about for the other nap, when he discovered such a thin, pale, sickly visage, that if I had not heard his voice, I should never have guessed him to have been my son. How different was this countenance from that ruddy, hale complexion, which he had at parting with me from home! After I had waked him, he gave me to understand, that he was but lately recovered out of a violent fever, and the reason why he did not acquaint me with it, was, lest the melancholy news might occasion too many tears among his relations, and be an unsupportable grief to his mother. To be short with you, old Nestor, I hurried my young spark down into the country along with me, and there am endeavouring to plump him up, so as to be no disgrace to his pedigree; for I assure you it was never known in the memory of man, that any one of the family of the Ringwoods ever fell into a con sumption, except Mrs. Dorothy Ringwood, who died. a maid at 45. In order to bring him to himself, and to be one of us again, I make him go to bed at ten, and rise at half an hour past five; and when he is a puling for bohea tea and cream, I place upon the table a jolly piece of cold roast beef, or well powdered ham, and bid him eat and live; then take him into the fields to observe the reapers, how the harvest goes forwards. There is nobody pleased with his present constitution but his gay cousin, who spirits him up, and tells him he looks fair, and is grown well shaped but the honest tenants shake their heads and cry, "Lack-a-day, how thin is poor young master fallen!" The other day, when I told him of it, he had the impudence to reply, "I hope, Sir, you would not have me as fat as Mr. Alas! what would then become of me? how would the ladies pish at such a great monstrous thing!"-If you are truly, what your title imports, a Guardian, pray, Sir, be pleased to consider what a noble generation must in all probability ensue from the lives which the townbred gentlemen too often lead. A friend of mine not long ago, as we were complaining of the times, repeated two stanzas out of my lord Roscommon, which I think may here be applicable. "'Twas not the spawn of such as these, How weak his gold was against Europe's steel; And won the long-disputed world at Zama's fatal field. "But soldiers of a rustic mould, Rough, hardy, season'd, manly, bold, Either they dug the stubborn ground, Or thro' hewn woods their weighty strokes did sound: And after the declining sun Had changed the shadows, and their task was done; Home with their weary team, they took their way, And drown'd in friendly bowls the labour of the day.” I am, Sir, 'P.S. I forgot to tell you, that while I waited in my son's anti-chamber, I found upon the table the following bill. "Sold to Mr. Jonathan Ringwood, a plain muslin head and ruffles, with colbertine lace "Six pair of white kid gloves for madam Salley £. s. d. 1 18 6 0 14 0 "Three handkerchiefs for madam Salley 0 15 0 In his chamber window I saw his shoe-maker's bill, with this remarkable article, "For Mr. Ringwood three pair of laced shoes 300 And in the drawer of the table was the following billet. "MR. RINGWOOD, “I DESIRE, that because you are such a country booby, that you forget the use and care of your snuff-box, you would not call me thief. Pray see my face no more. "Your abused friend, "SARAH GALLOP." Under these words my hopeful heir had writ, "Memorandum, to send her word I have found my box, though I know she has it.” This day is published, The Masquerade, a Poem. Humbly inscribed to his grace the duke d'Aumont. English and French. Price 4d. Guardian in folio, No. 151. ad finem. About About the time the masquerade was first introduced into this kingdom, the duke d'Aumont, then ambassador from France, gave masquerades at Somerset-house. See No. 14. two letters by Mr. John Hughes, in his Correspondence, vol. i. p. 75, &c. cr. 8vo. 5 vols. 1772; and Guardian, No. 154. No. 152. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1713.* Quin potiùs pacem æternam pactosque hymenæos Rather in leagues of endless peace unite, VIRG. En. iv. 99. THERE is no rule in Longinus which I more admire than that wherein he advises an author who would attain to the sublime, and writes for eternity, to consider, when he is engaged in his composition, what Homer or Plato, or any other of those heroes, in the learned world, would have said or thought upon the same occasion. I have often practised this rule, with regard to the best authors among the ancients, as well as among the moderns. With what success, I must leave to the judgment of others. I may at least venture to say with Mr. Dryden, where he professes to have imitated Shakspeare's style, that in imitating such great authors I have always excelled myself. I have also by this means revived several antiquated ways of writing, which though very instructive and entertaining, had been laid aside and forgotten for some ages. I shall in this place only mention those allegories wherein virtues, vices, and human passions are introduced as real actors. Though this kind of composition was practised by the finest authors among the ancients, our countryman Spenser is the last * ADDISON'S. writer of note who has applied himself to it with success. That an allegory may be both delightful and instructive; in the first place, the fable of it ought to be perfect, and if possible to be filled with surprising turns and incidents. In the next, there ought to be useful morals and reflections couched under it, which still receive a greater value from their being new and uncommon; as also from their appearing difficult to have been thrown into emblematical types and shadows. I was once thinking to have written a whole canto in the spirit of Spenser, and in order to it contrived a fable of imaginary persons and characters. I raised it on that common dispute between the comparative perfections and pre-eminence of the two sexes, each of which have very frequently had their advocates among the men of letters. Since I have not time to accomplish this work, I shall present my reader with the naked fable, reserving the embellishments of verse and poetry to another opportunity. The Two Sexes contending for superiority, were once at war with each other, which was chiefly carried on by their auxiliaries. The Males were drawn up on the one side of a very spacious plain, the Females on the other; between them was left a very large interval for their Auxiliaries to engage in. At each extremity of this middle space lay encamped several bodies of neutral forces, who waited for the event of the battle before they would declare themselves, that they might then act as they saw occasion. The main body of the Male Auxiliaries was commanded by Fortitude; that of the Female by Beauty. Fortitude began the onset on Beauty, but found to his cost, that she had such a particular witchcraft in her And he continues unexcelled to this day. A. ▲ See Wesley's noble allegoric poem, intituled, The Battle of the Sexes. |