[Footnote 3: 

  I will not meddle with the Spectator.  Let him fair-sex it to the
  worlds end.

Swifts Journal to Stella.]

[Footnote 4:  [T.] corrected by an erratum in No. 268.]

* * * * *

No. 266.  Friday, January 4, 1712.  Steele.

  Id vero est, quod ego mihi puto palmarium,
  Me reperisse, quomodo adolescentulus
  Meretricum ingenia et mores possit noscere: 
  Mature ut cum cognorit perpetuo oderit.

  Ter.  Eun.  Act. 5, Sc. 4.

No Vice or Wickedness which People fall into from Indulgence to Desire[s] which are natural to all, ought to place them below the Compassion of the virtuous Part of the World; which indeed often makes me a little apt to suspect the Sincerity of their Virtue, who are too warmly provoked at other Peoples personal Sins.  The unlawful Commerce of the Sexes is of all other the hardest to avoid; and yet there is no one which you shall hear the rigider Part of Womankind speak of with so little Mercy.  It is very certain that a modest Woman cannot abhor the Breach of Chastity too much; but pray let her hate it for her self, and only pity it in others.  WILL.  HONEYCOMB calls these over-offended Ladies, the Outragiously Virtuous.

I do not design to fall upon Failures in general, with relation to the Gift of Chastity, but at present only enter upon that large Field, and begin with the Consideration of poor and publick Whores.  The other Evening passing along near Covent-Garden, I was jogged on the Elbow as I turned into the Piazza, on the right Hand coming out of James-street, by a slim young Girl of about Seventeen, who with a pert Air asked me if I was for a Pint of Wine.  I do not know but I should have indulged my Curiosity in having some Chat with her, but that I am informed the Man of the Bumper knows me; and it would have made a Story for him not very agreeable to some Part of my Writings, though I have in others so frequently said that I am wholly unconcerned in any Scene I am in, but meerly as a Spectator.  This Impediment being in my Way, we stood [under [1]] one of the Arches by Twilight; and there I could observe as exact Features as I had ever seen, the most agreeable Shape, the finest Neck and Bosom, in a Word, the whole Person of a Woman exquisitely Beautiful.  She affected to allure me with a forced Wantonness in her Look and Air; but I saw it checked with Hunger and Cold:  Her Eyes were wan and eager, her Dress thin and tawdry, her Mein genteel and childish.  This strange Figure gave me much Anguish of Heart, and to avoid being seen with her I went away, but could not forbear giving her a Crown.  The poor thing sighed, curtisied, and with a Blessing, expressed with the utmost Vehemence, turned from me.  This Creature is what they call newly come upon the Town, but who, I suppose, falling into cruel Hands was left in the first Month