he will pardon me if I fingle out one of them in particular, who has made me fo very humble a Request, that I cannot forbear complying with it. I To the SPECTATOR. SIR, March 15, 17. Am at present fo unfortunate, as to 'have nothing to do, but to mind my own Bufinefs; and therefore beg of you that you will be pleased to put me into fome fmall Poft under you. I obferve that you have appointed your Printer and Publisher to receive Letters and Advertisements for the City of London; and fhall think my felf very much honoured by you, if you will appoint me to take in Letters and Advertisements 'for the City of Westminster and the "Dutchy of Lancaster. Though I cannot promise to fill fuch an Employ❝ment with fufficient Abilities, I will ' endeavour to make up with Industry and Fidelity what I want in Parts and Genius. I am, SIR, Your most obedient Servant, C Charles Lillie. N° 17. Tuesday, March 20. Tetrum ante Omnia vultum. Juv. S INCE our Perfons are not of our own Making, when they are fuch as appear Defective or Uncomely, it is, methinks, an honeft and laudable Fortitude to dare to be Ugly; at least to keep our felves from being abashed with a Confcioufnéfs of Imperfections which we cannot help, and in which there is no Guilt. I would not defend an haggard Beau, for paffing away much time at a Glass, and giving Softneffes and languishing Graces to Deformity: All I intend is, that we ought to be contented with our Countenance and Shape, fo far, as never to give our felves an uneafie Refle&tion on that Subject. It is to the ordinary People, who are not accustomed to make very proper Remarks on any Occafion, Matter of great Jeft, if a Man enters with a prominent Pair of Shoul Shoulders into an Affembly, or is diftinguished by an Expansion of Mouth, or Obliquity of Afpect. It is happy for a Man, that has any of these Oddneffes about him, if he can be as merry upon himself, as others are apt to be upon that Occafion: When he can poffefs himself with fuch a Chearfulnefs, Women and Children, who were at first frighted at him, will afterwards be as much pleafed with him. As it is barbarous in others to railly him for natural Defects, it is extreamly agreeable when he can Jeft upon himself for them. MADAM Maintenon's first Husband was an Hero in this Kind, and has drawn many Pleafantries from the Irreregularity of his Shape, which he defcribes as very much resembling the Letter Z. He diverts himself likewife by reprefenting to his Reader the Make of an Engine and Pully, with which he used to take off his Hat. When there happens to be any thing ridicu lous in a Vifage, and the Owner of it thinks it an Afpect of Dignity, he must be of very great Quality to be exempt from Raillery: The beft Expedient therefore is to be pleafant upon himself. himself. Prince Harry and Falfaffe, in Shakespear, have carried the Ridicule upon Fat and Lean as far as it will go. Falstaffe is humorously called Woolfack, Bed-preffer, and Hill of Fleft; Harry, a Starveling, an Elves-Skin, a Sheath, a Bow-cafe, and a Tuck. There is, in feveral Incidents of the Converfation between them, the Jeft ftill kept up upon the Perfon. Great Tendernefs and Senfibility in this Point is one of the greatest Weakneffes of Self-love." For my own part, I am a little unhappy in the Mold of my Face, which is not quite fo long as it is broad: Whe-' ther this might not partly arife from my opening my Mouth much feldomer than other People, and by confequence not fo much lengthning the Fibres of my Vifage, I am not at leifure to determine. However it be, I have been often put out of Countenance by the Shortness of my Face, and was formerly at great Pains in concealing it by wearing a Periwig with an high Foretop, and letting my Beard grow. But now I have thoroughly got over this Delicacy, and could be contented it were much fhorter, provided it might qualify me for a Member of the Mer ry ry Club, which the following Letter gives me an Account of. I have received it from Oxford, and as it abounds with the Spirit of Mirth and good Humour which is natural to that Place, I fhall fet it down Word for Word as it came to me. Moft Profound Sir, HAVING been very well enter 'tained, in the last of your Spe'culations that I have yet feen, by your Specimen upon Clubs, which I there'fore hope you will continue, I fhall take the Liberty to furnish you with a "brief Account of fuch a one as perhaps you have not feen in all your Travels, unless it was your Fortune to touch upon fome of the woody Parts of the African Continent, in your Voyage to or from Grand Cairo. There have arofe in this Univerfity (long fince you left us without faying any thing) fe❝veral of these inferior Hebdomadal Societies, as the Punning Club, the Witty Club, and amongst the reft, the HandSome Club; as a Burlesque upon which, a certain merry Species, that feem to have come into the World in Mafquerade, for fome Years laft paft have af 6 • fociated |