Sense of our Poets, snatch and imprint his balmy Kisses,
and devour her melting Lips: In short, the
only Faces of the Pictish Kind that will endure
the Weather, must be of Dr. Carbuncle’s
Die; tho’ his, in truth, has cost him a World
the Painting; but then he boasts with Zeuxes,
In eternitatem pingo; and oft jocosely tells the
Fair Ones, would they acquire Colours that would
stand kissing, they must no longer Paint but Drink
for a Complexion: A Maxim that in this our Age
has been pursued with no ill Success; and has been
as admirable in its Effects, as the famous Cosmetick
mentioned in the Post-man, and invented by
the renowned British Hippocrates of the Pestle
and Mortar; making the Party, after a due Course,
rosy, hale and airy; and the best and most approved
Receipt now extant for the Fever of the Spirits.
But to return to our Female Candidate, who, I understand,
is returned to herself, and will no longer hang
out false Colours; as she is the first of her Sex
that has done us so great an Honour, she will certainly,
in a very short Time, both in Prose and Verse, be a
Lady of the most celebrated Deformity now living;
and meet with Admirers here as frightful as herself.
But being a long-headed Gentlewoman, I am apt to
imagine she has some further Design than you have yet
penetrated; and perhaps has more mind to the SPECTATOR
than any of his Fraternity, as the Person of all
the World she could like for a Paramour: And if
so, really I cannot but applaud her Choice; and should
be glad, if it might lie in my Power, to effect
an amicable Accommodation betwixt two Faces of such
different Extremes, as the only possible Expedient
to mend the Breed, and rectify the Physiognomy of
the Family on both Sides. And again, as she
is a Lady of very fluent Elocution, you need not
fear that your first Child will be born dumb, which
otherwise you might have some Reason to be apprehensive
of. To be plain with you, I can see nothing
shocking in it; for tho she has not a Face like a
John-Apple, yet as a late Friend of mine,
who at Sixty-five ventured on a Lass of Fifteen,
very frequently, in the remaining five Years of his
Life, gave me to understand, That, as old as he then
seemed, when they were first married he and his
Spouse [could [1]] make but Fourscore; so may Madam
Hecatissa very justly allege hereafter, That,
as long-visaged as she may then be thought, upon their
Wedding-day Mr. SPECTATOR and she had but Half an
Ell of Face betwixt them: And this my very
worthy Predecessor, Mr. Sergeant Chin, always
maintained to be no more than the true oval Proportion
between Man and Wife. But as this may be a
new thing to you, who have hitherto had no Expectations
from Women, I shall allow you what Time you think fit
to consider on’t; not without some Hope of
seeing at last your Thoughts hereupon subjoin’d
to mine, and which is an Honour much desired by,
Sir,
Your assured Friend,
and most humble Servant,