In the mean time we have fair Warning given us by this doughty Body of Statesmen:  and as Sylla saw many Marius’s in Caesar, so I think we may discover many Torcys in this College of Academicians.  Whatever we think of our selves, I am afraid neither our Smyrna or St. James’s will be a Match for it.  Our Coffee-houses are, indeed, very good Institutions, but whether or no these our British Schools of Politicks may furnish out as able Envoys and Secretaries as an Academy that is set apart for that Purpose, will deserve our serious Consideration, especially if we remember that our Country is more famous for producing Men of Integrity than Statesmen; and that on the contrary, French Truth and British Policy make a Conspicuous Figure in NOTHING, as the Earl of Rochester has very well observed in his admirable Poem upon that Barren Subject.

L.

* * * * *

No. 306.  Wednesday, February 20, 1712.  Steele.

  Quae forma, ut se tibi semper
  Imputet?

  Juv.

  Mr. SPECTATOR, [1]

I write this to communicate to you a Misfortune which frequently happens, and therefore deserves a consolatory Discourse on the Subject.  I was within this Half-Year in the Possession of as much Beauty and as many Lovers as any young Lady in England.  But my Admirers have left me, and I cannot complain of their Behaviour.  I have within that Time had the Small-Pox; and this Face, which (according to many amorous Epistles which I have by me) was the Seat of all that is beautiful in Woman, is now disfigured with Scars.  It goes to the very Soul of me to speak what I really think of my Face; and tho I think I did not over-rate my Beauty while I had it, it has extremely advanc’d in its value with me now it is lost.  There is one Circumstance which makes my Case very particular; the ugliest Fellow that ever pretended to me, was and is most in my Favour, and he treats me at present the most unreasonably.  If you could make him return an Obligation which he owes me, in liking a Person that is not amiable;—­But there is, I fear, no Possibility of making Passion move by the Rules of Reason and Gratitude.  But say what you can to one who has survived her self, and knows not how to act in a new Being.  My Lovers are at the Feet of my Rivals, my Rivals are every Day bewailing me, and I cannot enjoy what I am, by reason of the distracting Reflection upon what I was.  Consider the Woman I was did not die of old Age, but I was taken off in the Prime of my Youth, and according to the Course of Nature may have Forty Years After-Life to come.  I have nothing of my self left which I like, but that I am, SIR, Your most humble Servant, Parthenissa.

When Lewis of France had lost the Battle of Ramelies, the Addresses to him at that time were full of his Fortitude, and they turned his Misfortune to his Glory;