•cealed Worth, I am difpleased with my felf, for having defigned to leave the World in order to be virtuous. I am forry you decline the Occafions ' which the Condition I am in might • afford me of enlarging your Fortunes; but know I contribute more to your Satisfaction, when I acknowledge I ' am the better Man, from the Influence and Authority you have over,

SIR,

Your most obliged and

moft bumble Servant,

R. O.

SIR,

I

Am intirely convinced of the Truth of what you were pleased to say to me, when I was laft with you alone. "You told me then of the filly Way I was in; but you told me fo, as I faw you loved me, otherwife I could not obey your Commands in letting you know my Thoughts fo fincerely as I 'do at prefent. I know the Creature 'for whom I refign fo much of my CharaEter, is all that you faid of her; but then the Trifler has fomething in her 'fo undefigning and harmless, that her

'Guilt in one kind disappears by the 'Comparison of her Innocence in anoC ther. Will Will you, virtuous Men, allow C no alteration of Offences? Muft Dear "Chloe be called by the hard Name you pious People give to common Women? I keep the folemn Promife I 'made you, in writing to you the State of my Mind, after your kind Admonition; and will endeavour to get the 'better of this Fondness, which makes 'me fo much her humble Servant, that 'I am almost afhamed to fubfcribe my • felf yours,

SIR,

T. D.

HERE is no State of Life fo

anxious as that of a Man who does not live according to the Dictates of his own Reason. It will feem odd to you, when I affure you that my "Love of Retirement first of all brought me to Court; but this will be no Riddle, when I acquaint you that I placed my felf here with a Defign of 'getting fo much Money as might enable me to purchase a handfome Retreat in the Country. At present my 'Circumstances enable me, and my Duty prompts me, to pass away the remain

ing Part of my Life in fuch a Retirement as I at firft propofed to my felf; but to my great Misfortune I ' have entirely loft the Relifh of it, and should now return to the Country with greater Reluctance than I at first came to Court. I am fo unhappy, as to know that what I am 'fond of are Trifles, and that what I neglect is of the greatest Importance: 'In fhort, I find a Contest in my Mind 'between Reafon and Fashion. I re'member you once told me, that I might live in the World, and out of it, at the fame time. Let me beg of you to explain this Paradox more at large to me, that I may conform my Life, if poffible, both to my Duty ' and my Inclination. I am

R

Your moft bumble Servant,

R. B.

Monday,

N° 28.

Monday, April 2.

I

-Neque femper arcum
Tendit Apollo.

Hor.

Shall here prefent my Reader with a Letter from a Projector, concerning a new Office which he thinks may very much contribute to the Embelishment of the City, and to the driving Barbarity out of our Streets. I confider it as a Satyr upon Projectors in general, and a lively Picture of the whole Art of Modern Criticism.

SIR,

OBSERVING that you have

"Thoughts of creating certain Officers under you, for the Infpection of feveral petty Enormities which you your felf cannot attend to; and finding daily Abfurdities hung out upon the Sign-Pofts of this City, to the great Scandal of Foreigners, as well as those of our own Country, who are curi

ous

'ous Spectators of the fame: I do hum'bly propose, that you would be pleafed to make me your Superintendant of 'all fuch Figures and Devices as are or 'fhall be made use of on this Occafion; with full Powers to rectifie or ex

punge whatever I fhall find irregular or defective. For want of fuch an 'Officer, there is nothing like found Literature and good Senfe to be met ' with in those Objects, that are every 'where thrusting themfelves out to the Eye, and endeavouring to become vi'fible. Our Streets are filled with blué Boars, black Swans, and red Lions; 'not to mention flying Pigs, and Hogs ' in Armour, with many other Crea"tures more extraordinary than any in 'the Defarts of Africk. Strange! that one who has all the Birds and Beasts in Nature to chufe out of should "live at the Sign of an Ens Rationis !

'My first Task therefore should be, like that of Hercules, to clear the Ci'ty from Monsters. In the fecond Place I would forbid, that Creatures ' of jarring and incongruous Natures, 'fhould be joined together in the fame Sign; fuch as the Bell and the NeatsTongue, the Dog and Gridiron. The

• Fox