than an old Maid of the fame Age. It is common enough among ordinary People, for a ftale Virgin to fet up a Shop in a Place where fhe is not known; where the large Thumb Ring, fuppofed to be given her by her Husband, quickly recommends her to fome wealthy Neighbour, who takes a Liking to the jolly Widow, that would have over-looked the venerable Spinfter.

THE Truth of it is, if we look into this Sett of Women, we find, according to the different Charaeters or Circumftances, wherein they are left, that Widows may be divided into those who raise Love, and those who raise Compaffion.

BUT not to ramble from this Subject, there are two Things in which confifts chiefly the Glory of a Widow, the Love of her deceased Husband, and the Care of her Children: To which may be added a third, arifing out of the former, Such a prudent Conduct as may do Honour to both.

A Widow, poffeffed of all these three Qualities, makes not only a virtuous but a fublime Character.

THERE is fomething fo great and fo generous in this State of Life, when it is accompanied with all its Virtues, that it is the Subject of one of the finest among our modern Tragedies in the Perfon of Andromache; and hath met with an univerfal and deserved Applaufe, when introduced upon our English Stage by Mr. Philips.

THE most memorable Widow in History is Queen Artemifia, who not only erected the famous Manfoleum, but drank up the Athes of her dead Lord; thereby enclosing them in a nobler Monument than that which the had built, though defervedly esteemed one of the Wonders of Architecture.

THIS laft Lady feems to have had a better Title to a fecond Husband than any I have read of, fince not one Duft of her Firft was remaining. Our modern Heroines might think a Husband a very bitter Draught, and would have good Reafon to complain, if they might not accept of a fecond Partner, till they

had

had taken fuch a troublesome Method of lofing the Memory of the first,

I fhall add to thefe illuftrious Examples out of ancient Story, a remarkable Inftance of the Delicacy of our Ancefors in Relation to the State of Widowhood, as I find it recorded in Cowell's Interpreter. At East and Weft-Enborne, in the County of Berks, if a Cuftomary Tenant die, the Widow shall have what the Law calls her Free-Bench in all his Copy-hold Lands, dum fola & cafta fuerit; that is, while fhe lives fingle and chafte; but if he commit Incontinency, fhe forfeits ber E State: Yet, if he will come into the Court riding backward upon a Black Ram, with his Tail in ber Hand, and Say the Words following, the Steward is bound by the Cu from to re-admit her to her Free-Bench.

Here I am,

Riding upon a Black Ram,

Like a Whore as I am;

And, for my

Crincum Crancum,

Have loft my Bincum Bancum;

And, for my Tail's Game,

Have done this worldly Shame;

Therefore, I pray you Mr. Steward, let me have my
Land again.

THE like Custom there is in the Manor of Torre in Devonshire, and other Parts of the Weft.

IT is not impoffible but I may in a little Time prefent you with a Regifter of Berkshire Ladies and other Western Dames, who rode publickly upon this Occa fion; and I hope the Town will be entertained with a Cavalcade of Widows.

Wednesday,

N° 615. Wednesday, November 3.

13

us

Qui Deorum

Muneribus fapienter uti,

Duramque callet pauperiem pati,
Pejufque letho flagitium timet:
Non ille pro caris amicis

Aut patriâ timidus perire.

T must be owned that Fear is a very powerful Paffion, fince it is efteemed one of the greatest of Virtues to fubdue it. It being implanted in for our Prefervation, it is no Wonder that it sticks close to us, as long as we have any thing we are willing to preferve. But as Life, and all its Enjoyments, would be fcarce worth the keeping, if we were under a perpetual Dread of lofing them; it is the Bufinefs of Religion and Philofophy to free us from all unneceffary Anxieties, and direct our Fear to its proper Object.

IF we confider the Painfulness of this Paffion, and the violent Effects it produces, we fhall fee how dangerous it is to give way to it upon flight Occafions. Some have frightened themselves into Madness, others have given up their Lives to these Apprehenfions. The Story of a Man who grew grey in the Space of ope Night's Anxiety is very famous;

O! Nox, quam longa es, qua facis una Senem.

THESE Apprehenfions, if they proceed from a Consciousness of Guilt, are the fad Warnings of Reafon; and may excite our Pity, but admit of no Remedy. When the Hand of the Almighty is vifibly lifted against the Impious, the Heart of mortal Man

can

cannot withstand him. We have this Paffion fublimely reprefented in the Punishment of the Egyptians, tormented with the Plague of Darkness, in the Apocry phal Book of Wifdem, afcribed to Solomon:

FOR when unrighteous Men thought to opprefs the holy Nation; they being fhut up in their Houses, the Prifoners of Darkness, and fettered with the Bonds of a long Night, lay there exiled from the eternal Providence. For while they fuppofed to lye hid in their fecret Sins, they were fcattered under a dark • Veil of Forgetfulness, being horribly aftonished and ⚫ troubled with Strange Apparitions For Wicked• nefs, condemned by her own Witnefs, is very timorous, and being oppreffed with Confcience, always • forecafteth grievous things. For Fear is nothing • elfe but a betraying of the Succours which Reafon • offereth-For the whole World fhined with clear Light, and none were hindered in their Labour. Over them only was fpread a heavy Night, an Iof that Darkness which fhould afterwards remage ceive them; but yet were they unto themselves more grievous than the Darkness.

TO Fear, fo juftly grounded, no Remedy can be propofed, but a Man (who hath no great Guilt hanging upon his Mind, who walks in the plain Path of Justice and Integrity, and yet either by natural Complection, or confirmed Prejudices, or Neglect of ferious Reflection, fuffers himself to be moved by this abject and unmanly Paffion) would do well to confider, That there is nothing which deferves his Fear, but that beneficent Being who is his Friend, his Protector, his Father. Were this one Thought strongly fixed in the Mind, what Calamity would be dreadful? What Load can Infamy lay upon us, when we are fure of the Approbation of him, who will repay the Difgrace of a Moment with the Glory of Eternity? What Sharpness is there in Pain and Diseases, when they only haften us on to the Pleasures that will never fade? What Sting is in Death, when we are affured that it is only the Beginning of Life? A Man who

lives

lives fo, as not to fear to die, is inconfiftent with himself, if he delivers himself up to any incidental Anxiety.

THE Intrepidity of a juft good Man is fo nobly fet forth by Horace, that it cannot be too often repeated.

The Man refolu'd and steady to his Truft,
Inflexible to Ill, and obfinately just,
May the rude Rabble's Infolence defpife,
Their fenfelefs Clamours, and tumultuous Cries;
The Tyrant's Fierceness he beguiles,

And the ftern Brow, and the harsh Voice defies,
And with fuperior Greatnefs fmiles.

Not the rough Whirlwind, that deforms
Adria's black Gulf, and vexes it with Storms,
The ftubborn Virtue of his Soul can move;
Not the Red Arm of Angry Jove,
That flings the Thunder from the Sky',

And gives it Rage to roar, and Strength to fly.

Should the whole Frame of Nature round him break,
In Ruin and Confufion hurl'd

He, unconcern'd, would hear the mighty Crack,
And ftand fecure amidst a falling World.

THE Vanity of Fear may be yet farther illuftrated, if we reflect,

Firft, WHAT we fear may not come to pafs. No human Scheme can be fo accurately projected, but fome little Circumftance intervening may spoil it. He, who directs the Heart of Man at his Pleasure, and underftands the Thoughts long before, may by ten thousand Accidents, or an immediate Change in the Inclinations of Men, difconcert the most subtle Project, and turn it to the Benefit of his own Ser

vants.

IN the next Place we fhould confider, though the Evil we imagine fhould come to pass, it be much

may

more