"I shall leave it among Physicians to determine what may be the Cause of such an Anniversary Inclination; whether or no it is that the Spirits after having been as it were frozen and congealed by Winter, are now turned loose, and set a rambling; or that the gay Prospects of Fields and Meadows, with the Courtship of the Birds in every Bush, naturally unbend the Mind, and soften it to Pleasure; or that, as some have imagined, a Woman is prompted by a kind of Instinct to throw herself on a Bed of Flowers, and not to let those beautiful Couches which Nature has provided lie useless."
Spectator, No. 365
At least 80 entries in ESTC (1711, 1712, 1713, 1714, 1715, 1716, 1717, 1718, 1720, 1721, 1723, 1724, 1726, 1729, 1733, 1734, 1735, 1737, 1738, 1744, 1745, 1747, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1753, 1754, 1755, 1756, 1756, 1757, 1761, 1763, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1769, 1771, 1776, 1778, 1785, 1788, 1789, 1781, 1793, 1797, 1799, 1800).<br>
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By Steele, Addison, Budgell and others, <u>The Spectator</u> (London: Printed for Sam. Buckley, at the Dolphin in Little Britain; and sold by A[nn]. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane, 1711-1714). &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/P1724">Link to ESTC</a>&gt; -- No. 1 (Thursday, March 1. 1711) through No. 555 (Saturday, December 6. 1712); 2nd series, No. 556 (Friday, June 18. 1714), ceased with No. 635 (20 Dec. 1714).<br>
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Some text from <u>The Spectator</u>, 3 vols. Ed. Henry Morley (London: George Routledge, 1891). &lt;<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12030/12030-h/12030-h/12030-h.htm">Link to PGDP edition</a>&gt;<br><br>
Reading in Donald Bond's edition: <u>The Spectator</u>, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965).