of Fame: but I cannot help venturing to disoblige
them for their Service, by telling them, that the utmost
of a Woman’s Character is contained in Domestick
Life; she is blameable or praiseworthy according as
her Carriage affects the House of her Father or her
Husband. All she has to do in this World, is contain’d
within the Duties of a Daughter, a Sister, a Wife,
and a Mother: All these may be well performed,
tho a Lady should not be the very finest Woman at an
Opera or an Assembly. They are likewise consistent
with a moderate share of Wit, a plain Dress, and a
modest Air. But when the very Brains of the Sex
are turned, and they place their Ambition on Circumstances,
wherein to excel is no addition to what is truly commendable,
where can this end, but, as it frequently does, in
their placing all their Industry, Pleasure and Ambition
on things, which will naturally make the Gratifications
of Life last, at best, no longer than Youth and good
Fortune? And when we consider the least ill Consequence,
it can be no less than looking on their own Condition
as Years advance, with a disrelish of Life, and falling
into Contempt of their own Persons, or being the Derision
of others. But when they consider themselves as
they ought, no other than an additional Part of the
Species, (for their own Happiness and Comfort, as
well as that of those for whom they were born) their
Ambition to excel will be directed accordingly; and
they will in no part of their Lives want Opportunities
of being shining Ornaments to their Fathers, Husbands,
Brothers, or Children.
T
* * * * *
No. 343. Thursday, April 3, 1712.
Addison.
—Errat et illinc
Huc venit, hinc illuc, et quoslibet occupat
artus
Spiritus: eque feris humana in corpora
transit,
Inque feras noster—
Pythag. ap. Ov.
Will. Honeycomb, who loves to shew upon occasion
all the little Learning he has picked up, told us
yesterday at the Club, that he thought there might
be a great deal said for the Transmigration of Souls,
and that the Eastern Parts of the World believed in
that Doctrine to this day. Sir Paul Rycaut, [1]
says he, gives us an Account of several well-disposed
Mahometans that purchase the Freedom of any little
Bird they see confined to a Cage, and think they merit
as much by it, as we should do here by ransoming any
of our Countrymen from their Captivity at Algiers.
You must know, says WILL., the Reason is, because they
consider every Animal as a Brother or Sister in disguise,
and therefore think themselves obliged to extend their
Charity to them, tho under such mean Circumstances.
They’ll tell you, says WILL., that the Soul of
a Man, when he dies, immediately passes into the Body
of another Man, or of some Brute, which he resembled
in his Humour, or his Fortune, when he was one of
us.