N. B. I have many other fecrets which concern the empire of love, but I confider that while I alarm my women, I instruct my men. T. N° 424. Monday, July 7. Eft Ulubris, animus fi te non deficit æquus. HOR. Ep. 11. 1. 1. v. 30. 'Tis not the place difguft or pleasure brings: From our own mind our fatisfaction springs. A 'Mr. SPECTATOR, London, June 24. ; MAN who has it in his power to choose his own company, would certainly be much to blame fhould he not, to the best of his judgment, take fuch as are of a temper most fuitable to his own and where that choice is wanting, or where a man is mistaken in his choice, and yet under a neceffity of continuing in the fame company, it will certainly be ⚫his intereft to carry himself as eafily as poffible. In this I am fenfible I do but repeat what has been 'faid a thousand times, at which however I think no body has any title to take exception, but they who never failed to put this in practice.-Not to ufe any longer preface, this being the feafon of the year in which great numbers of all forts of people retire from this place of bufinefs and pleasure to country folitude, I think it not improper to advise them to take with • them as great a ftock of good humour as they can ;. for though a country life is defcribed as the most pleafant of all others, and though it may in truth be fo, yet it is fo only to those who know how to enjoy leifure and retirement. As for those who cannot live without the conftant helps of bufinefs or company, let them confider, that in the country there is no Exchange, there are no p'ayhoufes, no variety of coffee-houses, nor many of thofe ⚫ other amusements, which ferve here as fo many reliefs from the repeated occurrences in their own families; but that there the greatest part of their time must be fpent within themfelves, and confequently it behoves them to confider how agreeable it will be to them before they leave this dear town. I remember, Mr. SPECTATOR, we were very well entertained, last year, with the advices you gave us 'from fir ROGER's country-feat; which I the rather mention, because it is almoft impoffible not to live pleafantly, where the mafter of a family is fuch a one as you there defcribe your friend, who cannot therefore, I mean as to his domeftic character, be too often recommended to the imitation of others. How amiable is that affability and benevolence with which he treats his neighbours, and every one, even the meanest of his own family! and yet how feldom imitated? inftead of which we commonly meet with ill-natured expoftulations, noife, and chidings And this I 'hinted, becaufe the humour and difpofition of the head, is what chiefly influences all the other parts of a family. An agreement and kind correfpondence between friends and acquaintance, is the greatest pleasure of life. This is an undoubted truth, and yet any man who judges from the practice of the world, will be almoft perfuaded to believe the contrary; for how can we fuppofe people fhould be fo induftrious to make themfelves uneafy? What can engage them to entertain and foment jealoufies of one another upon every the leaft occafion? Yet fo it is, there are people who, as it 'fhould feem, delight in being troublefome and vexatious, who, as Tully fpeaks, Mira funt alacritate ad litigandum, "Have a certain cheerfulness in wrangling." And thus it happens, that there are very few families in which there are not feuds and animofities, though it is every one's intereft, there more particularly, to avoid them, because there, as I would willingly hope, no one gives another uneafinefs, without feeling fome share of it. But I am gone beyond what I defigned, and had 6 almost forgot what I chiefly propofed; which was, barely to tell you how hardly we who pafs most of our time in town dispense with a long vacation in the country, how uneafy we grow to ourfelves and to < one another when our converfation is confined, infomuch that by Michaelmas, it is odds but we come to downright fquabbling, and make as free with one ano· ther to our faces, as we do with the reft of the world ⚫ behind their backs. After I have told you this, I am < to defire that you would now and then give us a leffon of good-humour, a family-piece, which, fince we are ' all very fond of you, I hope may have fome influence upon us. After thefe plain obfervations, give me leave to give you an hint of what a fet of company of my acquaintance, who are now gone into the country, and have the use of an abfent nobleman's feat, have set'tled among themselves, to avoid the inconveniencies above-mentioned. They are a collection of ten or twelve of the fame good inclination towards each other, but of very different talents and inclinations: ⚫ from hence they hope, that the variety of their tempers will only create variety of pleasure. But as there always will arife, among the fame people, either for want of diverfity of objects, or the like caufes, a certain fatiety, which may grow into ill-humour or difcontent, there is a large wing of the house which they defign to employ in the nature of an infirmary. Whoever fays a peevish thing, or acts any thing which betrays a fournefs or indifpofition to company, is immediately to be conveyed to his chamber in the infirmary; from whence he is not to be relieved, until by his manner of fubmission, and the fentiments expreffed in his petition for that purpofe, he appears to the majority of the company to be again fit for fociety. You are to underftand, that all ill-natured words or uneafy geftures are fufficient cause for banishment ; fpeaking impatiently to fervants, making a man repeat what he fays, or any thing that betrays inattention or 'difhumour, are alfo criminal without reprieve: but it is provided, that whoever obferves the ill-natured fit coming upon himfelf, and voluntarily retires, fhall be 6 received at his return from the infirmary with the higheft marks of esteem. By these and other wholesome methods it is expected that if they cannot cure one another, yet at least they have taken care that the illhumour of one fhall not be troublesome to the rest of the company. There are many other rules which the fociety have established for the preservation of their ease and tranquillity, the effects of which, with the incidents that arise among them, fhall be communicated to you from time to time for the public good, by, Frigora mitefcunt zephyris; ver proterit æflas Pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit; & mox Bruma recurrit iners. HOR. Od. 7. 1. 4. v. 9. The cold grows foft with western gales, The fummer over fpring prevails, But yields to autumn's fruitful rain, As this to winter storms and hails; Mr. SPECTATOR, THERE Sir W. TEMPLE. HERE is hardly any thing gives me a more fenfible delight, than the enjoyment of a cool filt evening after the uneafinefs of an hot fultry day. Such a one I paffed not long ago, which made me rejoice when the hour was cone for the fun to fet, that I might enjoy the freshness of the evening in my garden, which then affords me the pleasantest ⚫ hours I pass in the whole four and twenty. I imme diately rofe from my couch, and went down into it. You defcend at firft by twelve ftone fteps into a large fquare divided into four grafs-plots, in each of which is a ftatute of white marble. This is feparated from a large parterre by a low wall, and from thence through a pair of iron gates, you are led into a long broad walk of the finest turf, fet on each fide with tall yews, and on either hand bordered by a canal, which on the right divides the walk from a wilderness parted into variety of alleys and arbours, and on the left from a kind of amphitheatre, which is the receptacle of a great number of oranges and myrtles. The moon hone bright, and feemed then moft agreeably to fupply the place of the fun, obliging me with as much light as was neceffary to difcover a thoufand pleafing objects, and at the fame time divefted of all power of heat. The reflection of it in the water, the fanning of the wind ruffling on the leaves, the finging of the thrush and nightingale, and the coolness of the walks, all confpired to make me lay afide all difpleafing thoughts, and brought me into fuch a tranquillity of mind, as is I believe the next happiness to that of hereafter. In this sweet retirement I naturally fell into the repetition of fome lines out of a poem of Milton's, which he intitles I Penferofo, the ideas of which were exquifitely fuited to my prefent wanderings of thought. "Sweet bird! that fhun'ft the noife of folly, "Moft mufical! moft melancholy! Thee, chauntrefs, oft, the woods among, "I woo to hear thy evering fong: "And miffing thee, I walk unseen "On the dry fmooth-fhaven green, “To behold the wand'ring moon, Riding near her highest noon, "Like one that had been led aftray, Thro' the Heav'ns wide pathlefs way, "And oft, as if her head fhe bow'd, Stooping thro' a fleecy cloud. "Then let fome ftrange myfterious dream "Wave with his wings in airy ftream, |