Juftice I, as a Spectator, owe your Character, places me above the want of an Excufe. Candor and Opennefs of Heart, which fhine in all your Words and Actions, exact the highest Esteem from all who have the Honour to know You; and a winning Condefcenfion to all fubordinate to You, made Business a Pleasure to those who executed it under You, at the fame time that it heightened Her Majesty's Favour to all who had the Happiness of having it convey'd through Your Hands A Secretary of State, in the Interefts of Mankind, joined with that of his Fellow-Subjects, accomplished with a great Facility and Elegance in all the Modern as well as Ancient Languages, was a happy and proper Member of a Miniftry, by whofe Services Your Sovereign

vereign and Country are in fo high and flourishing a Condition, as makes all other Princes and Potentates powerful or inconfiderable in Europe, as they are Friends or Enemies to Great-Britain. The Importance of thofe great Events which happened during that Administration, in which Your Lordship bore fo important a Charge, will be acknowledg'd as long as Time fhall endure; I fhall not therefore attempt to rehearse those illuftrious Paffages, but give this Application a more private and particular Turn, in defiring Your Lordship would continue your Favour and Patronage to me, as You are a Gentleman of the most polite Literature, and perfectly accomplished in the Knowledge of Books and Men, which makes it neceffary

to befeech Your Indulgence to the following Leaves, and the Author of them: Who is, with the greatest Truth and Respect,

My LORD,

Your Lordship's

Obliged, Obedient, and

Humble Servant,

The SPECTATOR.

THE

SPECTATOR

N® 395•

VO L. VI.

Tuesday, June 3. 1712.

Quod nunc ratio eft, Impetus antè fuit. Ovid.

EWARE of the Ides of March, faid the Roman Augur to Julius Cæfar: Beware of the Month of May, fays the British Spectator to his fair Countrywomen. The Caution of the first was unhappily neglected, and Cafar's Confidence coll him his Life. I am apt to flatter my felf that my pretty Readers had much more regard to the Advice I gave them, fince I have yet received very few Accounts of any notorious Trips made in the laft Month.

BUT tho' I hope for the beft, I fhall not pronounce too pofitively on this point, 'till I have feen forty Wecks well over, at which Period of Time, as my good Friend Sir ROGER has often told me, he has more Bufinefs as a Juflice of Peace, among the diffolute young People in the Country, than at any other Scafon of the Year. NEITHER

A 4

NEITHER muft I forget a Letter which I receiv'd near a Fortnight fince from a Lady, who, it seems, could hold out no longer, telling me fhe looked upon the Month as then out, for that she had all along reckoned by the New Stile.

ON the other hand, I have great reason to believe, from feveral angry Letters which have been fent to me by difappointed Lovers, that my Advice has been of very signal Service to the fair Sex, who, according to the old Proverb, were Forewarn'd forearm'd.

ONE of these Gentlemen tells me, that he would have given me an hundred Pounds, rather than I should have publish'd that Paper, for that his Miftrefs, who had promifed to explain herself to him about the Beginning of May, upon reading that Discourse told him that he would give him her Anfwer in June.

THYRSIS acquaints me, that when he defir'd Sylvia to take a Walk in the Fields, he told him the Spectator bad forbidden her.

ANOTHER of my Correfpondents, who writes himfelf Mat Meager, complains, that whereas he conftantly used to breakfast with his Miftrefs upon Chocolate, going to wait upon her the first of May he found his usual Treat very much changed for the worse, and has been forced to feed ever fince upon Green Tea.

AS I begun this Critical Seafon with a Caveat to the Ladies, I fhall conclude it with a Congratulation, and do moft heartily wish them Joy of their happy Delive

rance.

THEY may now reflect with Pleasure on the Dangers they have escaped, and look back with as much Satisfaction on their Perils that threatened them, as their Great-Grandmothers did formerly on the Burning Plough. fhares, after having paffed through the Ordeal Trial. The Inftigations of the Spring are now abated. The Nightingale gives over her Love-labour'd Song, as Milton phrases it, the Bloffoms are fallen, and the Beds of Flowers fwept away by the Scythe of the Mower.

I fhall now allow my Fair Readers to return to their Romances and Chocolate, provided they make ufe of them with Moderation, 'till about the middle of the Month, when the Sun fhall have made fome Progress in

the