was rifing. Down came all the company together, and away! The alehoufe was immediately filled with clamour, and fcoring one mug to the marquis of fuch a place, oil and vinegar to fuch an earl, three quarts to to my new lord for wetting his title, and fo forth. It is a thing too notorious to mention the crouds of servants, and their infolence near the courts of juftice, and the ftairs towards the fupreme affembly, where there is an univerfal mockery of all order, fuch riotous clamour and licentious confufion, that one would think the whole nation lived in jeft, and there were no fuch thing as rule and diftinction among us.

The next place of refort, wherein the fervile world are let loose, is at the entrance of Hyde-Park, while the gentry are at the ring. Hither people bring their lackies out of state, and here it is that all they say at their tables, and act in their houses, is communicated to the whole town. There are men of wit in all conditions of life and mixing with these people at their diverfions, I have heard coquettes and prudes as well rallied, and infolence and pride expofed, allowing for their want of edu cation, with as much humour and good fenfe, as in the politeft companies. It is a general obfervation, that all dependents run in fome meafure into the manners and behaviour of thofe whom they serve; you fhall frequently meet with lovers and men of intrigue among the lackies, as well as at White's or in the fide-boxes. I remember fome years ago an inftance of this kind. A footman to a captain of the guard ufed frequently, when his mafter was out of the way, to carry on amours and make aflignations in his mafter's clothes. The fellow had a very good perfon, and there are very many women that think no further than the outfide of a gentleman; befides which he was almost as learned a man as the colonel himself; I fay, thus qualified, the fellow could fcrawl billet-doux fo well, and furnish a converfation on the common topics, that he had, as they call it, a great deal of good bufinefs on his hands. It happened one day, that coming down a tavern ftairs in his mafter's fine guard-coat, with a well-drefed woman masked, he met the colonel

con

66

coming up with other company; but with a ready affurance he quitted his lady, came up to him, and faid, "Sir, I know you have too much refpect for yourself to "cane me in this honourable habit: but you see there " is a lady in the cafe, and I hope on that fcore allo you will put off your anger until I have told you all "another time." After a little paufe the colonel cleared up his countenance, and with an air of familiarity whifpered his man apart," Sirrah, bring the lady with 66 you to afk pardon for you;" then aloud, "Look to "it, Will, I will never forgive you elfe." The fellow went back to his mistress, and telling her with a loud voice and an oath, that was the honefteft fellow in the world, conveyed her to an hackney coach.

But the many irregularities committed by fervants in the places above-mentioned, as well as in the theatres, of which masters are generally the occafions, are too various not to need being refumed on another occafion. R

No.

No. LXXXIX. TUESDAY, JUNE 12.

Petite hinc, juvenefque fenefque,

Finem animo certum, miferifque viatica canis.
Cras hoc fiet. Idem cras fiet. Quid? quafi magnum
Nempe diem donas? fed cùm lux altera venit,
Jam cras hefternum confumpfimus; ecce aliud cras
Egerit hos annos, & femper paulum erit ultrà.
Nam quamvis prope te, quamvis temone fub uno,
Vertentem fefe fruftra fectabere canthum.

PERS. Sat. 5. v. 64.

Perf. From thee both old and young, with profit, learn The bounds of good and evil to difcern.

Corn. Unhappy he, who does this work adjourn, And to to-morrow would the fearch delay:

His lazy morrow will be like to-day.

Perf. But is one day of ease too much to borrow?
Corn. Yes, fure; for yesterday was once to-morrow. ;
That yesterday is gone, and nothing gain'd;

And all thy fruitless days will thus be drain'd:
For thou haft more to-morrows yet to ask.
And wilt be ever to begin thy task;

Who, like the hindmoft chariot-wheels, art curft,
Still to be near, but ne'er to reach the first.

A

DRYDEN.

S my correfpondents upon the fubject of love are range them under feveral heads, and addrefs myself to them at different times. The first branch of them, to whofe fervice I fhall dedicate this paper, are those that have to do with women of dilatory tempers, who are for fpinning out the time of courtship to an immoderate length, without being able either to clofe with their lovers, or to difmifs them. I have many letters by me filled with complaints against this fort of women. one of them no less a man than a brother of the coif tells me, that he began his fuit vicefimo nono Caroli fecundi, before he had been a twelvemonth at the Temple; that he profecuted it for many years after he was called to the bar; that at prefent he is a ferjeant at law; and

In

not

notwithstanding he hoped that matters would have been long fince brought to an iffue, the fair one still demurs. I am fo well pleased with this gentleman's phrafe, that I fhall diftinguish this fect of women by the title of Demurrers. I find by another letter from one that calls himself Thyrfis, that his mistress has been demurring above these seven years. But among all my plaintiffs of this nature, I moft pity the unfortunate Philander, a man of a conftant paffion and plentiful fortune, who fets forth that the timorous and irrefolute Sylvia has demurred until she is paft child-bearing. Strephron appears by his letter to be a very choleric lover, and irrevocably fmitten with one that demurs out of felf-intereft. He tells me with great paffion that she has bubbled him out of his youth; that the drilled him on to five and fifty, and that he verily believes fhe will drop him in his old age, if the can find her account in another. I shall conclude this narrative with a letter from honeft Sam Hopewell, a very pleasant fellow, who it seems has at laft married a Demurrer; I must only premife, that Sam, who is a very good bottle companion, has been the diverfion of his friends, upon account of his paffion, ever fince the year one thousand fix hundred and eighty-one. • Dear Sir,

You

OU know very well my paffion for Mrs. Martha, and what a dance fhe has led me: fhe took me • out at the age of two and twenty, and dodged with me above thirty years. I have loved her until the is · grown as grey as a cat, and am with much ado become the master of her perfon, fuch as it is at prefent. She is however in my eye a very charming old woman. We often lament that we did not marry fooner, but fhe has nobody to blame for it but herfelf: you know · very well that he would never think of me while the had a tooth in her head. I have put the date of my paffion, anno amoris trigefimo primo, instead of a pofy, on my wedding-ring. I expect you should send me a congratulatory letter, or, if you please, an Epithala mium upon this occafion,

Mrs. Martha's and yours eternally,

SAM. HOPEWELL,"

In order to banish an evil out of the world, that does not only produce great uneafinefs to private perfons, but has alio a very bad influence on the public, I fhall endeavour to fhew the folly of Demurrage from two or three reflections, which I earneftly recommend to the thoughts of my fair readers.

First of all, I would have them seriously think on the fhortness of their time. Life is not long enough for a coquette to play all her tricks in. A timorous woman drops into her grave before the has done deliberating. Were the age of man the fame that it was before the flood, a lady might facrifice half a century to a fcruple, and be two or three ages in demurring. Had the nine hundred years good, the might hold out to the converfion of the Jews, before the thought fit to be prevailed upon. But, alas! fhe ought to play her part in hafte, when the confiders that fhe is fuddenly to quit the stage, and make room for others.

In the fecond place, I would defire my female readers to confider, that as the term of life is fhort, that of beauty is much fhorter. The finest skin wrinkles in a few years, and lofes the ftrength of its colourings fo foon, that we have fcarce time to admire it. I might embellish this fubject with rofes and rainbows, and feveral other ingenious conceits, which I may possibly referve for another opportunity.

There is a third confideration which I would likewife recommend to a Demurrer, and that is, the great danger of her falling in love when she is about threefcore, if the cannot fatisfy her doubts, and fcruples before that time. There is a kind of latter spring, that sometimes gets into the blood of an old woman and turns her into a very odd fort of an animal. I would therefore have the Demurter confider what a ftrange figure she will make, if the chances to get over all difficulties, and comes to a final refolution, in that unseasonable part of her life.

I would not however be understood, by any thing I have here faid, to difcourage that natural modesty in the fex, which renders a retreat from the first approaches of a lover both fashionable and graceful: all that I intend,