reedoms some ill-bred married People
take in Company: The unseasonable Fondness of some Husbands, and the
ill-timed Tenderness of some Wives. They talk and act, as if Modesty
was only fit for Maids and Batchelors, and that too before both. I was
once, Mr. SPECTATOR, where the Fault I speak of was so very flagrant,
that (being, you must know, a very bashful Fellow, and several young
Ladies in the Room) I protest I was quite out of Countenance.
_Lucina_, it seems, was breeding, and she did nothing but entertain
the Company with a Discourse upon the Difficulty of Reckoning to a
Day, and said she knew those who were certain to an Hour; then fell a
laughing at a silly unexperienced Creature, who was a Month above her
Time. Upon her Husband's coming in, she put several Questions to him;
which he not caring to resolve, Well, cries _Lucina_, I shall have 'em
all at Night--But lest I should seem guilty of the very Fault I write
against, I shall only intreat _Mr_. SPECTATOR to correct such
Misdemeanors;

'For higher of the Genial Bed by far,
And with mysterious Reverence, I deem.' [1]

_I am, SIR,

Your humble Servant_,

T. Meanwell.

T.

[Footnote 1: Paradise Lost, Bk VIII. 11. 598-9.]

* * * * *

No. 431. Tuesday, July 15, 1712. Steele.

'Quid Dulcius hominum generi a Natura datum est quam sui cuique
liberi?'

Tull.

I have lately been casting in my Thoughts the several Unhappinesses of
Life, and comparing the Infelicities of old Age to those of Infancy. The
Calamities of Children are due to the Negligence and Misconduct of
Parents, those of Age to the past Life which led to it. I have here the
History of a Boy and Girl to their Wedding-Day, and I think I cannot
give the Reader a livelier Image of the insipid way which Time
uncultivated passes, than by entertaining him with their authentick
Epistles, expressing all that was remarkable in their Lives, 'till the
Period of their Life above mentioned. The Sentence at the Head of this
Paper, which is only a warm Interrogation, _What is there in Nature so
dear as a Man's own Children to him_? is all the Reflection I shall at
present make on those who are negligent or cruel in the Education of
them.

_Mr_. SPECTATOR,

I am now entring into my One and Twentieth Year, and do not know that
I had one Day's thorough Satisfacti