but in all Concessions of this Kind, a Man should consider whether the Present he makes flows from his own Love, or the Importunity of his Beloved:  If from the latter, he is her Slave; if from the former, her Friend.  We laugh it off, and do not weigh this Subjection to Women with that Seriousness which so important a Circumstance deserves.  Why was Courage given to Man, if his Wife’s Fears are to frustrate it?  When this is once indulged, you are no longer her Guardian and Protector, as you were designed by Nature; but, in Compliance to her Weaknesses, you have disabled your self from avoiding the Misfortunes into which they will lead you both, and you are to see the Hour in which you are to be reproached by her self for that very Complaisance to her.  It is indeed the most difficult Mastery over our selves we can possibly attain, to resist the Grief of her who charms us; but let the Heart ake, be the Anguish never so quick and painful, it is what must be suffered and passed through, if you think to live like a Gentleman, or be conscious to your self that you are a Man of Honesty.  The old Argument, that You do not love me if you deny me this, which first was used to obtain a Trifle, by habitual Success will oblige the unhappy Man who gives Way to it, to resign the Cause even of his Country and his Honour.

T.

[Footnote 1:  [an] and in first reprint.]

[Footnote 2:  History of the World, Bk. i. ch. 4, sect. 4.]

* * * * *

No. 511.  Thursday, October 16, 1712.  Addison.

  ‘Quis non invenit turba quod amaret in illa?’

  Ovid,

  Dear SPEC.

’Finding that my last Letter took, I do intend to continue my epistolary Correspondence with thee, on those dear confounded Creatures, Women.  Thou knowest, all the little Learning I am Master of is upon that Subject; I never looked in a Book, but for their sakes.  I have lately met with two pure Stories for a Spectator, which I am sure will please mightily, if they pass through thy Hands.  The first of them I found by chance in a English Book called Herodotus, that lay in my Friend Dapperwit’s Window, as I visited him one Morning.  It luckily opened in the Place where I met with the following Account.  He tells us that it was the Manner among the Persians to have several Fairs in the Kingdom, at which all the young unmarried Women were annually exposed to Sale.  The Men who wanted Wives came hither to provide themselves:  Every Woman was given to the highest Bidder, and the Mony which she fetched laid aside for the publick Use, to be employed as thou shalt hear by and by.  By this means the richest People had the Choice of the Market, and culled out all the most extraordinary Beauties.  As soon as the Fair was thus picked, the Refuse was to be distributed among the Poor, and among those who could not go to the Price of a Beauty Several