If we look into the secret Springs and Motives that set People at work in these Occasions, and put them upon asking Advice, which they never intend to take; I look upon it to be none of the least, that they are incapable of keeping a Secret which is so very pleasing to them.  A Girl longs to tell her Confident, that she hopes to be married in a little time, and, in order to talk of the pretty Fellow that dwells so much in her Thoughts, asks her very gravely, what she would advise her to do in a case of so much Difficulty.  Why else should Melissa, who had not a Thousand Pound in the World, go into every Quarter of the Town to ask her Acquaintance whether they would advise her to take Tom Townly, that made his Addresses to her with an Estate of Five Thousand a Year?  ’Tis very pleasant on this occasion, to hear the Lady propose her Doubts, and to see the Pains she is at to get over them.

I must not here omit a Practice that is in use among the vainer Part of our own Sex, who will often ask a Friend’s Advice, in relation to a Fortune whom they are never likely to come at.  WILL.  HONEYCOMB, who is now on the Verge of Threescore, took me aside not long since, and asked me in his most serious Look, whether I would advise him to marry my Lady Betty Single, who, by the way, is one of the greatest Fortunes about Town.  I star’d him full in the Face upon so strange a Question; upon which he immediately gave me an Inventory of her Jewels and Estate, adding, that he was resolved to do nothing in a matter of such Consequence without my Approbation.  Finding he would have an Answer, I told him, if he could get the Lady’s Consent, he had mine.  This is about the Tenth Match which, to my knowledge, WILL, has consulted his Friends upon, without ever opening his Mind to the Party herself.

I have been engaged in this Subject by the following Letter, which comes to me from some notable young Female Scribe, who, by the Contents of it, seems to have carried Matters so far, that she is ripe for asking Advice; but as I would not lose her Good-Will, nor forfeit the Reputation which I have with her for Wisdom, I shall only communicate the Letter to the Publick, without returning any Answer to it.

  Mr.  SPECTATOR,

Now, Sir, the thing is this:  Mr. Shapely is the prettiest Gentleman about Town.  He is very tall, but not too tall neither.  He dances like a Angel.  His Mouth is made I don’t know how, but ’tis the prettiest that I ever saw in my Life.  He is always laughing, for he has an infinite deal of Wit.  If you did but see how he rolls his Stockins!  He has a thousand pretty Fancies, and I am sure, if you saw him, you would like him.  He is a very good Scholar, and can talk Latin as fast as English.  I wish you could but see him dance.  Now you must understand poor Mr. Shapely has no Estate; but how can he help that, you know?  And yet my Friends are so unreasonable as to be always teazing