the excess
  Of Glory obscured:  as when the sun, new ris’n,
  Looks through the horizontal misty air,

but the y in misty stands as a full syllable because the word air is accented.  So again in

  Death as oft accused
  Of tardy execution, since denounc’d
  The day of his offence.

The y of tardy is a syllable because the vowel following it is accented; the y also of day remains, because, although an unaccented vowel follows, it is itself part of an accented syllable.]

* * * * *

No. 286.  Monday, January 28, 1712.  Steele.

  Nomina Honesta praetenduntur vitiis.

  Tacit.

  York, Jan. 18, 1712.

  Mr. Spectator,

I pretend not to inform a Gentleman of so just a Taste, whenever he pleases to use it; but it may not be amiss to inform your Readers, that there is a false Delicacy as well as a true one.  True Delicacy, as I take it, consists in Exactness of Judgment and Dignity of Sentiment, or if you will, Purity of Affection, as this is opposed to Corruption and Grossness.  There are Pedants in Breeding as well as in Learning.  The Eye that cannot bear the Light is not delicate but sore.  A good Constitution appears in the Soundness and Vigour of the Parts, not in the Squeamishness of the Stomach; And a false Delicacy is Affectation, not Politeness.  What then can be the Standard of Delicacy but Truth and Virtue?  Virtue, which, as the Satyrist long since observed, is real Honour; whereas the other Distinctions among Mankind are meerly titular.  Judging by that Rule, in my Opinion, and in that of many of your virtuous Female Readers, you are so far from deserving Mr. Courtly’s Accusation, that you seem too gentle, and to allow too many Excuses for an enormous Crime, which is the Reproach of the Age, and is in all its Branches and Degrees expresly forbidden by that Religion we pretend to profess; and whose Laws, in a Nation that calls it self Christian, one would think should take Place of those Rules which Men of corrupt Minds, and those of weak Understandings follow.  I know not any thing more pernicious to good Manners, than the giving fair Names to foul Actions; for this confounds Vice and Virtue, and takes off that natural Horrour we have to Evil.  An innocent Creature, who would start at the Name of Strumpet, may think it pretty to be called a Mistress, especially if her Seducer has taken care to inform her, that a Union of Hearts is the principal Matter in the Sight of Heaven, and that the Business at Church is a meer idle Ceremony.  Who knows not that the Difference between obscene and modest Words expressing the same Action, consists only in the accessary Idea, for there is nothing immodest in Letters and Syllables.  Fornication and Adultery are modest Words:  because they express an Evil Action as criminal, and so as to excite Horrour and Aversion:  Whereas