то

WILLIAM HONEYCOMB, Esq.

THE

HE feven former volumes of the Specta.

been dedicated to fome of

the most celebrated perfons of the age, I take leave to infcribe this eighth and laft to you, as to a gentleman who has ever been ambiti ous of appearing in the best company.

You are now wholly retired from the busy part of mankind, and at leifure to reflect upon your past achievements; for which reafon I look upon you as a person very well quali. fied for a Dedication.

I MAY poffbly disappoint my readers, and yourself too, if I do not endeavour on this occafion to make the world acquainted with your virtues. And here, Sir, I fhall not come, pliment you upon your birth, perfon, or for-tune; nor any other the like perfections, which you poffefs whether you will or no: but fhall only touch upon those which are of your own. acquiring, and in which every one muft allow you have a real merit. VOL. VIII.

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YOURK

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YOUR janty air, and eafy motion, the volubility of your difcourfe, the fuddennefs of your laugh, the management of your fnuffbox, with the whitenefs of your hands and teeth, (which have juftly gained you the envy of the most polite part of the male world, and the love of the greatest beauties in the female), are entirely to be afcribed to your own personal genius and application.

You are formed for thefe accomplishments by a happy turn of nature, and have finished yourself in them by the utmost improvements of art. A man that is defective in either of thefe qualifications (whatever may be the secret ambition of his heart) muft never hope to make the figure you have done, among the fashionable part of his fpecies. It is therefore no wonder we see such multitudes of aspiring young men fall fhort of you in all these beauties of your character, notwithstanding the ftudy and practice of them is the whole bufinefs of their lives. But I need not tell you that the free and difengaged behaviour of a fine gentleman makes as many awkward beaux, as the eafinefs of your favourite Waller hath made infipid poets.

AT present you are content to aim all your charms at your own fpoufe, without farther

thought

>

thought of mischief to any others of the fex. I know you had formerly a very great con-tempt for that pedantic race of mortals who call themselves philofophers; and yet, to your honour be it fpoken, there is not a fage of them all could have better acted up to their precepts in one of the most important points of life; I mean, in that generous difregard of popular opinion which you fhewed fome years ago, when you chofe for your wife an obfcure young woman, who doth not indeed pretend to an ancient family, but has certainly as many forefathers as any lady in the land, if the could but reckon up their names..

I MUST Own I conceived very extraordinary hopes of you from the moment that you con-feffed your age, and from eight and forty, (where you had ftuck fo many years) very ingeniously stepped into your grand climacteric. Your deportment has fince been very venerable and becoming. If I am rightly inform-ed, you make a regular appearance every ́. quarter-feffions among your brothers of the quorum; and if things go on as they do, ftand fair for being a colonel of the militia. I am } told that your time paffes away as agreeably in the amusements of a country life, as it ever did in the galantries of the town; and that you now take as much pleasure in the plant.. A 3

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