of the question, which will render us most easy, is highly proper to be inferted in this place. To the FEMALE SPECTATOR. “ MADAM, "AS you have hitherto feemed to exert your "speculative capacity wholly for the improvement "of the morals, and a due regulating the con"duct; and in order to give fuccefs to your endea"vours, there is an abfolute neceffity to begin with the paffions; I flatter myself you will not "think it impertinent in me to offer to your con"fideration fome reflections which cafually came "into my head this morning. ' "HOPE and fear are the firft paffions that agitate the human mind :-in our very infancy they "find entrance, and operate before we are capable "of receiving any other :---they guide our acti"ons in maturity,---retain their vigour even to “extreme old age,---and never utterly forfake us "till death and eternity close the scene, and leave "nothing more to wish for. "THEY are paffions, which, if taken in a reli"gious fenfe, feem inspired by the Creator him"felf; for what can more inftigate us to acts of "piety and devotion than the everlafting rewards. "which hope prefents in profpect to the virtuous "mind !---Or what reftraint from crimes equal "to that which arifes from the fear of those tre"mendous punishments threatened to the guilty! ×× --But as this is a truth none but free-thinkers "and deifts will deny, I fhall only mention a "few of those advantages or difadvantages, the "being poffeffed of them is to our temporal fatif"faction and happiness. " HOPE "HOPE is, in my opinion, the moft precious "good we can enjoy, our fure defence in all the affaults of adverfe fortune, and a main ftep to "the attainment of more profperous events : "whoever chides it from him and encourages its oppofite, finks beneath the burthen of his fate, "and is in danger of rifing no more; but he who "preferves it will be climbing ftill, and though 66 he may be often repulfed, is untoiled with dif"appointment, and never lofes the prospect of “his wish.---Our inimitable Cowley has given us a beautiful definition of this palion in one of his pindaric odes; which, though I doubt "not but you have read, I cannot help tranfcrib"ing for the benefit of those who may not: Hope, of all ills that men endure, The only cheap and univerfal cure! Thou captive's freedom, and thou fick man's health! Thou lofer's victory, and thou beggar's wealth! Thou manna which from heaven we eat; To every taste a several meat! Thou ftrong retreat! thou fure entail'd estate ! Hope, thou first fruit of happiness, In thee or in poffeffion. Beft apprehender of our joys, which haft Some other way again to thee. "It was chiefly by being strongly poffeffed of "this paffion that Julius Cæfar gained the battle "of Pharfalia; and had Cato not been intirely "abandoned by it, he had perfifted in his endea"yours for the liberty of his country, and poffibly "retrieved it too. "ALEXANDER the Great thought fo high"ly of it, that when chofen general of the Unit"ed States against Perfia, he divided his whole kingdom of Macedon among his officers, giving " towns to fome, cities to others, and whole pro"vinces to those whofe capacities in his judgment merited them. Parmenio, who was one that pro fited by this extraordinary bounty, beheld it ❝with furprize, and asked his majesty what he re"ferved for himself?-Hope! replied that prince; implying, that he esteemed it above every thing; "and indeed his future glories proved it was with "juftice he did fo, fince it was by that encourag❝ed and emboldened he acquired them. "ON what purfuit foever the foul of man is bent, whether to the attainment of love, ho"nour, or riches, how languid, how enervate will "be the efforts he makes, if not animated by the "hope of fucceeding! Yet, notwithstanding this "obvious truth, thofe people who judge of things ૬. only as they appear to themfelves, are apt to "turn this glorious paffion into ridicule :---they "look on a person who aims at any thing which they imagine is out of his reach, as an extrava"gant, and treat all the fchemes he propofes as "fo many vifionary delufions :---he is laughed at by his enemies, and pitied by his friends, who, "perhaps, by their miftaken councils, avert the in"fpiration of his good genius, and turn him from "the "the only means by which he might arrive at "happiness. tr "BUT I would fain know of thefe obftinate "oppofers of hope, what reafons they can give "for our endeavouring to repel the dictates of fo pleafing, and at the fame time fo beneficial a "paffion ---for my part, I must confefs it comes "not within the reach of my apprehenfion to con"ceive any thing their furly wisdom can offer, "that would be fufficient to compenfate for what we fhould lofe in being deprived of hope, even .. ' though it happens to be vain, because the very "deception it puts upon us is a bleffing for the "time it lafts. "THE ancient philofophers have proved by "arguments, I think, unanfwerable, that the real "attainment of our wishes brings with it no pro"portion of happinefs which can come in compe"tition with the idea of it, while we remain in a "ftate of expectation ;---if this be granted, it "muft alfo be confeffed, that thofe delightful, thofe rapturous ideas are made fo only by hope, fince it would be far from a felicity to contemplate on a good we wish, but are fearful will never "be in our poffeffion. "In fine, while we have hope, we are all we "would be; and when robbed of that, all we "would not be. "How many living spectres do we fee, who, "loft to hope, wander about the world, fo wan "and pined with care and difcontent, their very "fouls would feem dead were it not that ever and "anon their starts and groans difcover they ap"prehend fome worfe calamity than what they VOL. II. " fee! H "feel already! These are the flaves of fear, the antagonist of hope, and the meaneft, poorest of all "paffions :---it makes the wretch who harbours it anticipate the ills he is doomed to suffer, and "tremble for, others that fate never intended to 6.6 bring on him. "THERE is indeed but one ftep between this "paffion and despair, and that is made only by "fome remains of hope, which, however, is a very unquiet fituation, because the mind is perpetually toffed, and knows not where to fix :---all joy one moment, and all grief the next :---fome"times lifted up to the highest pitch of rapturous "expectation; at others funk, abafhed, and "trembling to purfue what moft it wishes. ' "BUT notwithstanding all I have faid in the "behalf of hope, I must allow that there is danger in indulging it too much :-prefumption, arrogance, and felf-conceit, are as frequent atten"dants on this paffion, as a mean bashfulness, or a 66 freaking behaviour, and an inability of exerting ourfelves in a proper manner, are of its oppofite: hope is apt to inspire us with too great a " warmth, fear with too much coldness. 46 65 " IT is therefore the first employment we ought ❝s to give our reason to keep a due medium; -“to moderate both these paffions, and not to suffer "the one to hurry us to any actions unbecoming of our characters and ftations in life, nor the "other to with-hold us from the pursuit of any thing that in itself is laudable, because it may seem attended with fome difficulties. "Ir is alfo the bufinefs of wifdom to conceal, as much as poffible, the natural propenfity we ❝ have |