Note, THAT particular Regard be had to this Petition; and the Papers marked Letter R may be carefully examined for the future. Τ 坐坐!!! No. 311. Tuesday, February 26. Nec Veneris pharetris macer eft; aut lampade fervet: Inde faces ardent, veniunt a dote fagitta. Mr. SPECTATOR, I Juv. Am amazed that among all the Variety of Characters, with which you have enriched your Speculations, you have never given us a Picture of those audacious young Fellows among us, who commonly go by the Name of Fortune-Stealers. You must know, Sir, I am one who live in a continual Apprehenfion of this fort of People, that lye in wait, Day and Night, ⚫ for our Children, and may be confidered as a kind of Kidnappers within the Law. I am the Father of a young Heirefs, whom I begin to look upon as marriageable, and who has looked upon herself as fuch for ⚫ above these fix Years. She is now in the eighteenth • Year of her Age. The Fortune-hunters have already caft their Eyes upon her, and take care to plant themfelves in her View whenever she in appears any publick Affembly. I have myfelf caught a young Jacka6 napes with a Pair of Silver fringed Gloves, in the very Fact. You must know, Sir, I have kept her as a Prifoner of State ever fince fhe was in her Teens. Her • Chamber Windows are croís barred, fhe is not per⚫mitted to go out of the House but with her Keeper, 'who is a stayed Relation of my own; I have likewise forbid her the Ufe of Pen and Ink for this TwelveMonth laft paft, and do not fuffer a Ban-box to be car⚫ried into her Rocm before it has been fearched. Notwithstanding these Precautions, I am at my Wits End for Fear of any fudden Surprize. There were, two or three Nights ago, fome Fiddles heard in the Street, VOL. IV. L which 6 6 6 6 which I am afraid portend me no Good; not to mention a tall Irish Man, that has been walking before 'my House more than once this Winter. My Kinswoman ⚫ likewise informs me, that the Girl has talked to her • twice or thrice of a Gentleman in a fair Wig, and that ⚫ she loves to go to Church more than ever she did in her Life. She gave me the flip about a Week ago, upon ⚫ which my whole House was in Alarm. I immediately dispatched a Hue and Cry after her to the Change, to her Mantua-maker, and to the young Ladies that vifit her; but after above an Hour's Search fhe returned of herself, having been taking a Walk, as he told me, by Rofemond's Pond. I have hereupon turned off her Woman, doubled her Guards, and given new Instructions to my Relation, who, to give her her Due, keeps a watchful Eye over all her Motions. This, Sir, keeps me in a perpetual Anxiety, and makes me very often watch when my Daughter fleeps, as I am afraid she is · even with me in her turn. Now, Sir, what I would defire of you is, to represent to this fluttering Tribe 6 of young Fellows, who are for making their Fortunes by thefe indirect Means, that stealing a Man's Daugh6 ter for the fake of her Portion, is but a kind of tolerated Robbery; and that they make but a poor Amends to the Father, whom they plunder after this Manner, by going to bed with his Child. Dear Sir, be fpeedy in ⚫ your Thoughts on this Subject, that, if poffible, they may appear before the Difbanding of the Army. I am, SIR, 6 Your most humble Servant, THEMISTOCLES, the great Athenian General, being afked whether he would chufe to marry his Daughter to an indigent Man of Merit, or to a worthless Man of an Eftate, replied, That he should prefer a Man without an Eftate, to an Estate without a Man. The worst of it is, our modern Fortune-Hunters are those who turn their Heads that way, because they are good for nothing else. If a young Fellow finds he can make nothing of Cook and Littleton, he provides himself with a Ladder of Ropes, and by that means very often enters upon the Premiffes. THE THE fame Art of Scaling has likewife been practifed with good Success by many military Ingineers. Stratagems of this Nature make Parts and Industry fuperfluous, and cut fhort the Way to Riches. NOR is Vanity a lefs Motive than Idleness to this kind of mercenary Pursuit. A Fop who admires his Person in a Glafs, foon enters into a Refolution of making his Fortune by it, not queftioning but every Woman that falls in his way will do him as much Juftice as he does himself. When an Heirefs fees a Man throwing particular Graces into his Ogle, or talking loud within her Hearing, the ought to look to herself; but if withal fhe obferves a Pair of Red-heels, a Patch, or any other Particularity in his Dress, she cannot take too much Care of her Perfon. These are Baits not to be trifled with, Charms that have done a world of Execution, and made their way into Hearts which have been thought impregnable. The Force of a Man with these Qualifications is fo well known, that I am credibly informed there are several Female Undertakers about the Change, who upon the Arrival of a likely Man out of a neighbouring Kingdom, will furnish him with proper Drefs from Head to Foot, to be paid for at a double Price on the Day of Marriage. WE must however diftinguish between Fortune-Hunters and Fortune-Stealers. The first are those affiduous Gentlemen who employ their whole Lives in the Chace, without ever coming at the Quarry. Suffenus has combed and powdered at the Ladies for thirty Years together, and taken his Stand in a Side-Box, till he is grown wrinkled under their Eyes. He is now laying the fame Snares for the prefent Generation of Beauties, which he practifed on their Mothers. Cottilus, after having made his Applications to more than you meet with in Mr. Cowley's Ballad of Miftreffes, was at laft fmitten with a City Lady of 20000/. Sterling; but died of old Age before he could bring Matters to bear. Nor muft I here omit my worthy Friend Mr. HONEYCOMB, who has often told us in the Club, that for twenty Years fucceffively, upon the Death of a childless rich Man, he immediately drew on his Boots, called for his Horfe, and made up to the Widow. When he is rallied upon his ill Success, WILL. with his usual Gaiety tells us, that he always found her pre engaged. WIDOWS L 2 No.312 WIDOWS are indeed the great Game of your Fortune Hunters. There is fcarce a young Fellow in the Town of fix Foot high, that has not paffed in Review before one or other of these wealthy Relicts. Hudibrass Cupid, who took his Stand Upon a Widow's Jointure Land, is daily employed in throwing Darts, and kindling Flames. But as for Widows, they are fuch a fubtle Generation of People, that they may be left to their own Conduct; or if they make a falfe Step in it, they are an→ fwerable for it to no body but themfelves. The young innocent Creatures who have no Knowledge and Experience of the World, are thofe whofe Safety I would principally confult in this Speculation. The ftealing of fuch an one should, in my Opinion, be as punishable as a Rape. Where there is no Judgment there is no Choice; and why the inveigling a Woman before the comes to Years of Difcretion, fhould not be as criminal as the feducing of her before she is ten Years old, I am at a Lofs to comprehend. L No. 312. Wednesday, February 27. Quod huic Officium, quæ laus, quod Decus erit tanti, quod · adipifci cum dolore Corporis velit, qui dolorem fummum malum fibi perfuaferit? Quam porro quis ignominiam quam turpitudinem non pertulerit, ut effugiat dolorem; fi id fummum malum effe decreverit ? I ༦ Tull. de Dolore tolerando. T is a very melancholy Reflection, that Men are ufually fo weak, that it is abfolutely neceffary for them to know Sorrow and Pain to be in their right Senfes. Profperous People (for Happy there are none) are hurried away with a fond Senfe of their present Condition, and thoughtiefs of the Mutability of Fortune: Fortune is a Term which we must use in fuch Discourses as thefe, for what is wrought by the unfeen Hand of the Difpofer of all Things. But methinks the Difpofition of a Mind which is truly great, is that which makes Misfortunes and Sorrows little when they befal ourselves, great and lamentable when they befal other Men. The most unpardonable Malefactor in the World going to his Death and bearing it with Compofure, would win the Pity of those who should behold him; and this not because his Calamity is deplorable, but because he seems himself not to deplore it: We fuffer for him who is lefs fenfible of his own Mifery,and are inclined to defpife him who finks uader the Weight of his Diftreffes. On the other hand,without any Touch of Envy, a temperate and well-govern'd Mind looks down on fuch as are exalted with Succefs, with a certain Shame for the Imbecility of human Nature, that can fo far forget how liable it is to Calamity, as to grow giddy with only the Sulpence of Sorrow, which is the Portion of all Men. He therefore who turns his Face from the unhappy Man, who will not look again when his Eye is caft upon modeft Sorrow, who fhuns Affliction like a Contagion, does but pamper himself up for a Sacrifice, and contract in himself a greater Aptitude to Mifery by attempting to escape it. A Gentleman where I happened to be laft Night, fell into a Difcourfe which I thought fhewed a good Difcerning in him: He took Notice that whenever Men have looked into their Heart for the Idea of true Excellency in human Nature, they have found it to confift in Suffering after a right Manner and with a good Grace. Heroes are always drawn bearing Sorrows, ftruggling with Adverfities,undergoing all kinds of Hardfhips, and having in the Service of Mankind a kind of Appetite to Difficulties and Dangers. The Gentleman went on to obferve, that it is from this fecret Senfe of the high Merit which there is in Patience under Calamities, that the Writers of Romances, when they attempt to furnish out Characters of the highest Excellence, ranfack Nature for things terrible; they raife a new Creation of Monsters, Dragons, andGiants: Where the Danger ends, the Hero ceafes; when he has won an Empire, or gained his Miftrefs, the reft of his Story is not worth relating. My Friend carried his Difcourfe fo far as to fay, that it |