of a heart now no longer under the direction of the unhappy owner of it. Such, for some months, had been the language of Escalus both in his talk and his letters to Isabella, who returned all the profusion of kind things which had been the collection of fifty years, with " I must not hear you; you will make me forget that you are a gentleman; I would not willingly lose you as a friend;" and the like expressions, which the skilful interpret to their own advantage, as well knowing that a feeble denial is a modest assent. I should have told you, that Isabella, during the whole progress of this amour, communicated it to her husband; and that an account of Escalus's love was their usual entertainment after half a day's absence. Isabella therefore, upon her lover's late more open assaults, with a smile told her husband she could hold out no longer, but that his fate was now come to a crisis. After she had explained herself a little farther, with her husband's approbation, she proceeded in the following manner. The next time that Escalus was alone with her, and repeated his importunity, the crafty Isabella looked on her fan with an air of great attention, as considering of what importance such a secret was to her; and upon the repetition of a warm expression, she looked at him with an eye of fondness, and told him he was past that time of life which could make her fear he would boast of a lady's favour; then turned away her head, with a very well acted confusion, which favoured the escape of the aged Escalus. This adventure was matter of great pleasantry to Isabella and her spouse; and they had enjoyed it two days before Escalus could recollect himself enough to form the following letter: 66 MADAM, I "WHAT happened the other day gives me a lively image of the inconsistency of human passions and inclinations. We pursue what we are denied, and place our affections on what is absent, though we neglected it when present. As long as you refused my love, your refusal did so strongly excite my passion, that I had not once the leisure to think of recalling my reason to aid me against the design upon your virtue. But when that virtue be gan to comply in my favour, my reason made an effort over my love, and let me see the baseness of my behaviour in attempting a woman of honour. own to you, is was not without the most violent struggle that I gained this victory over myself; nay, I will confess my shame, and acknowledge, could not have prevailed but by flight. madam, I beg that you will believe a moment's weakness has not destroyed the esteem I had for you, which was confirmed by so many years of obstinate virtue. You have reason to rejoice that this did not happen within the observation of one of the young fellows, who would have exposed your weakness, and gloried in his own brutish inclination. I am, MADAM, However, Your most devoted humble servant.' Isabella, with the help of her husband, returned the following answer: « SIR, "I CANNOT but account myself a very happy woman, in having a man for a lover that can write so well, and give so good a turn to a disappointment. Another excellence you have above all other pretenders I ever heard of; on occasions you have yours most powerful. We have each of us to thank our genius, that the passion of one abated in proportion as that of the other grew violent. Does it not yet come into your head to imagine, that I knew my compliance was the greatest cruelty I could be guilty of towards you? In return for your long and faithful passion, I must let you know that you are old enough to become a little more gravity; but if you will leave me, and coquet it any where else, may your mistress yield. T. ISABELLA," N° 319. THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1711-12. Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo? HOR. 1 Ep. i. 90. Say while they change on thus, what chains can bind I HAVE endeavoured in the course of my papers to do justice to the age, and have taken care as much as possible to keep myself a neuter between both sexes. I have neither spared the ladies out of complaisance, nor the men out of partiality; but notwithstanding the great integrity with which I have acted in this particular, I find myself taxed with an inclination to favour my own half of the species. Whether it be that the women afford a more fruitful field for speculation, or whether they run more in my head than the men, I cannot tell; but I shall set down the charge as it is laid against me in the following letter. 'MR. SPECTATOR, I ALWAYS make one among a company of young females, who peruse your speculations every morning. I am at present commissioned by our whole assembly, to let you know, that we fear you are a little inclined to be partial towards your own sex. We must however acknowledge, with all due gratitude, that in some cases you have given us our revenge on the men, and done us justice. We could not easily have forgiven you several strokes in the dissection of the coquette's heart, if you had not, much about the same time, made a sacrifice to us of a beau's scull. You may further, sir, please to remember, that not long since you attacked our hoods and commodes in such a manner, as, to use your own expression, made very many of us ashamed to show our heads. We must therefore beg leave to represent to you, that we are in hopes, if you will please to make a due enquiry, the men in all ages would be found to have been little less whimsical in adorning that part than ourselves. The different forms of their wigs, together with the various cocks of their hats, all flatter us in this opinion. 'I had an humble servant last summer, who the first time he declared himself was in a full-bottomed wig; but the day after, to my no small surprise, he accosted me in a thin natural one. I received him, at this our second interview, as a perfect stranger, but was extremely confounded when his speech discovered who he was. I resolved, therefore, to fix his face in my memory for the future; but as I was walking in the park the same evening, he appeared to me in one of those wigs that I think you call a night-cap, which had altered him more a couple of black riding wigs upon me with the san. success, and, in short, assumed a new face almost every day in the first month of his courtship. 1 observed afterwards, that the variety of cocks into which he moulded his hat had not a little contributed to his impositions upon me. Yet, as if all these ways were not sufficient to distinguish their heads, you must doubtless, sir, have observed, that great numbers of young fellows have, for several months last past, taken upon them to wear feathers. We hope, therefore, that these may with as much justice be called Indian princes, as you have styled a woman in a coloured hood an Indian queen; and that you will in due time take these airy gentlemen into consideration. We the more earnestly beg that you would put a stop to this practice, since it has already lost us one of the most agreeable members of our society, who, after having refused several good estates, and two titles, was lured from us last week by a mixed feather. I am ordered to present you with the respects of our whole company, and am, SIR, Your very humble servant, DORINDA. NOTE. The person wearing the feather, though our friend took him for an officer in the guards, has proved to be an errant linen-draper*.' I am not now at leisure to give my opinion upon the hat and feather: however, to wipe off the present, imputation, and gratify my female corre *Only an ensign in the train-bands, Spect. in folio, |