est themselves in competitions and contentions, that for this reason, among others, they forbade them, under pain of death, to be present at the Olympic games, notwithstanding these were the public diversions of all Greece.

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As our English women excel those of all nations in beauty, they should endeavour to out-shine them in all other accomplishments * proper to the sex, and to distinguish themselves as tender mothers and faithful wives, rather than as furious partizans. 10 Female virtues are of a domestic turn. The family is the proper province for private women to shine in. If they must be showing their zeal for the public, let it not be against those who are perhaps of the same family, or at least of the same 15 religion or nation, but against those who are the open, professed, undoubted enemies of their faith, liberty and country. When the Romans were pressed with a foreign enemy, the ladies voluntarily contributed all their rings and jewels to assist the 20 government under the public exigence, which appeared so laudable an action in the eyes of their countrymen, that from thenceforth it was permitted by a law to pronounce public orations at the funeral of a woman in praise of the deceased person, which 25 till that time was peculiar to men. Would our English ladies, instead of sticking on a patch against those of their own country, show themselves so truly public-spirited as to sacrifice every one her necklace against the common enemy, what decrees 30 ought not to be made in favour of them?

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Since I am recollecting upon this subject such.

1711, accomplishments that are proper,

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1711, Under a public.

passages as occur to my memory out of ancient authors, I cannot omit a sentence in the celebrated funeral oration of Pericles which he made in honour of those brave Athenians that were slain in a fight 5 with the Lacedemonians. After having addressed himself to the several ranks and orders of his countrymen, and shown them how they should behave themselves in the public cause, he turns to the female part of his audience; "And as for you," 10 (says he) "I shall advise you in very few words: Aspire only to those virtues that are peculiar to your sex; follow your natural modesty, and think it your greatest commendation not to be talked of one way or other."

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No. 106.

MONDAY, JULY 2. [1711.]

Hinc tibi copia

Manabit ad plenum benigno

Ruris honorum opulenta cornu.—HOR.

HAVING often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de Coverly to pass away a month. with him in the country, I last week accompanied him thither, and am settled with him for some time at his country-house, where I intend to form several 20 of my ensuing speculations. Sir Roger, who is very well acquainted with my humour, lets me rise and go to bed when I please, dine at his own table or in my chamber as I think fit, sit still and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the 25 gentlemen of the country come to see him, he only

shows me at a distance. As I have been walking

in his fields I have observed them stealing a sight of me over an hedge, and have heard the knight desiring them not to let me see them, for that I hated to be stared at.

I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family, be- 5 cause it consists of sober and staid persons; for as the knight is the best master in the world, he seldom changes his servants, and as he is beloved by all about him, his servants never care for leaving him: by this means his domestics are all in years, and 10 grown old with their master. You would take his valet de chambre for his brother, his butler is grayheaded, his groom is one of the gravest men that I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks of a privy-councillor. You see the goodness of the 15 master even in the old house-dog, and in a gray pad that is kept in the stable with great care and tenderness out of regard to his past services, though he has been useless for several years.

I could not but observe with a great deal of pleas- 20 ure the joy that appeared in the countenances of these ancient domestics upon my friend's arrival at his country-seat. Some of them could not refrain from tears at the sight of their old master; every one of them pressed forward to do something 25 for him, and seemed discouraged if they were not employed. At the same time the good old knight, with a mixture of the father and the master of the family, tempered the inquiries after his own affairs. with several kind questions relating to themselves. 30 This humanity and good nature engages everybody to him, so that when he is pleasant upon any of them, all his family are in good humour, and none

so much as the person whom he diverts himself with on the contrary, if he coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it is easy for a stander-by to observe a secret concern in the looks of all his 5 servants.

My worthy friend has put me under the particular care of his butler, who is a very prudent man, and, as well as the rest of his fellow-servants, wonderfully desirous of pleasing me, because they have Io often heard their master talk of me as of his particular friend.

My chief companion, when Sir Roger is diverting himself in the woods or the fields, is a very venerable man who is ever with Sir Roger, and 15 has lived at his house in the nature of a chaplain above thirty years. This gentleman is a person of good sense and some learning, of a very regular life and obliging conversation: he heartily loves Sir Roger, and knows that he is very much in the old 20 knight's esteem; so that he lives in the family rather as a relation than a dependent.

I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend Sir Roger, amidst all his good qualities, is something of an humorist; and that his virtues, as 25 well as imperfections, are as it were tinged by a certain extravagance, which makes them particularly his, and distinguishes them from those of other men. This cast of mind, as it is generally very innocent in itself, so it renders his conversation 30 highly agreeable, and more delightful than the same degree of sense and virtue would appear in their common and ordinary colours. As I was

walking with him last night, he asked me how I liked the good man whom I have just now mentioned? and, without staying for my answer told me, that he was afraid of being insulted with Latin and Greek at his own table; for which reason, he 5 desired a particular friend of his at the university to find him out a clergyman rather of plain sense than much learning, of a good aspect, a clear voice, a sociable temper, and, if possible, a man that understood a little of back-gammon. "My 10 friend," says Sir Roger, " found me out this gentleman, who, besides the endowments required1 of him, is, they tell me, a good scholar though he does not show it. I have given him the parsonage of the parish; and because I know his value, have settled 15 upon him a good annuity for life. If he outlives me, he shall find that he was higher in my esteem than perhaps he thinks he is. He has now been with me thirty years; and though he does not know I have taken notice of it, has never in all that time 20 asked anything of me for himself, though he is every day soliciting me for something in behalf of one or other of my tenants, his parishioners. There has not been a law-suit in the parish since he has lived among them: if any dispute arises, they apply 25 themselves to him for the decision; if they do not acquiesce in his judgment, which I think never happened above once, or twice at most, they appeal to me. At his first settling with me, I made him a present of all the good sermons which have been 30 printed in English, and only begged of him that

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1711, annuity during his life. 3 1711, sermons that have been.