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Numb. 97. Tuesday, February 19, 1751.

 

Fœcunda culpæ sœcula nuptias Primum inquinavere, et genus, et domos. Hoc fonte derivala clades In patriam populumque fluxit.	Hor.
Fruitful of crimes, this age first stain'd  Their hapless offspring, and profan'd  The nuptial bed; from whence the woes,  Which various and unnumber'd rose  From this polluted fountain head,  O'er Rome and o'er the nations spread.	Francis.

 

TH E reader is indebted for this day's entertainment to an author from whom the age has received greater favours, who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature, and taught the passions to move at the command of virtue.

To the RAMBLER.

SIR,

WH E N the Spectator was first published in single papers, it gave me so much pleasure, that it is one of the favourite amusements of my age to recollect it; and when I reflect on the foibles of those times, as described in that useful work, and compare them with the vices now reigning among us, I cannot but wish that you would oftener take cognizance of the manners of the better half of the human species, that if your precepts and observations be carried down to posterity, the Spectators may shew to the rising generation what were the fashionable follies of their grandmothers, the Rambler of their mothers, and that from both they may draw instruction and warning.