too with the Daughters, and go down in the Female Line; fo that, methinks, I don't envy Ariftotle, for having been Tutor to Alexander the Great; nor Cato, 'for having been the Father of the memorable Porcia. -IT was neceffary for me to give this fhort History of my Self, before I could imagine to please you, with telling you, that, by inculcating to them all the Speculations, that came abroad into the World, from those two venerable Efquires, Ifaac Bickerfaff and Neftor Ironfide, • I made them what they now are.

THE young Gentleman is now going from under my Charge, and I am forry for it; becaufe I dare anfwer, he'll fet out into the World with a greater Knowledge of it, than fome have parted from it, after a whole Life spent in it; and enters the great Stage to my Credit and his Advantage. When he comes to • act fuch and fuch a Part, as even you may think worthy one of your Panegyricks, I'll adminifter to you, if I live, one of the greatest Pleafures, that a wife and good old Man can receive. I'll point out to you the very Seed of that Virtue; tell you when I gathered it from your Collections, and fow'd it in him; how ⚫ it thriv'd in him by degrees, till it attained to its full • Growth and Perfection. How must a Man, sensible as you are, who are acquainted with the moft nice Touches of Paffion, the most delicate and exquifite < Feelings, be mov'd, when you find your felf to have been the firft Caufe of the chief Virtues in that very Man, which you, without Prejudice or Affection, choofe out juftly to difpofe your Applaufe upon? Continue therefore, Sir, thus to do good to the Publick; the frequent Notices of which, by Letters from all People, but more especially from thofe that are Guardians, may cheer up your Heart at a Gloomy, Splenetick, Melancholy Moment, and make the uneafy Hours of Age grow lightfom on your Hands.

I would by no means have you make an End yet. Above thirty of us have affembled our felves lately, ⚫ and form'd a Venerable Club of Guardians; and, in the Name of the whole Society, I, whom they have • elected Prefident, am defired to let you know, that moft of our fair Wards, being very much addicted

⚫ to

1

to Reading, will take ill Courses in their Scholarship, if you should leave off Setting them right, by your Weekly Entertainments: Some of them have been already buying up Novels; others are going to read over whole Folio's of Knight-Errantry; fome are about to set themselves hard to the Study of Poetry; and a La'dy of the first Quality is going to turn Play-Wright, ⚫ and brings, for an Example, that renown'd Poetess, the Dutchefs of Newcastle; and to excel in the Comick, ' fhe firmly refolves to make her felf Mistress of all the undecent Scenes written by Mrs. Behn.

SIR, I would have you speak, at large, of the ill Effects thefe Authors may have upon the Minds of young Ladies: But there are two among our Wards, who have very depraved Appetites: The one of an Airy Temper in the Country, gives her Mind intirely to Songs and Ballads; and the other to be versed in the Town Scandal, ftands Tooth and Nail by the Veracity of the Author of the Atalantis, and vows ⚫ fhe'll never have done studying it, till fhe has it all by heart.

THE Corruption is growing as general, as the present Distemper among the Black Cattle; and tho' it ⚫ has not as yet reach'd my WHITE FLOCK, I beg ⚫ you would speak of all thefe, by way of Prevention.

I am Your obliged Reader,

and Admirer,

The Prefident of the Club of Guardians.

THIS Gentleman's Exhortation, I muft own, is fo powerful upon me, it has altered the Refolution I lately had, to lay afide my Labours, and indulge my self in my old Age. My Correfpondent is a Man of Sense and Judgment, and has a delicate Tafte of Things which any way concern him in the niceft Capacity, that of a Guardian of tender Youth. The good old Gentleman has himself pointed out the most pernicious Books a studious Lady can employ her Time in, and I need only warn them by Examples. BIDDY

B 2

BIDDY, the Daughter of an eminent Physician, who had often pleas'd her felf with finging Ballads of Coachmen marrying the Daughters of feveral Knights, with Houses moated round, till her Mind was capable of any evil Impreffion lightly made, came, at last, to walk into that way, according to her Mind, and danc'd away, with Tom the Coachman, into a Road for Life. A Crack of the Whip in the Court-Yard, was to be the Signal, when all was for the Heirefs's Removal, and the whole Family, with her self, have smarted for that Stroke, ever since.

A young Lady, that has Beauty and Wit too, hath fpoil'd both, by injurious Art and Study. She has read over Oroonoko and Othello fo often, and with so much Rapture, fhe is perfuaded, that, to have a manly Soul, requires the Complexion of a Moor; and nothing will please the bright Eyes of this Fair Creature, but a Man that looks Black in the Face. A ftring of Swarthy Fellows ride behind her Coach; but 'tis believ'd one of a shining Cole Black Colour, and of a more daring and faucy Af pect than the rest, will ride with her in it, at the last; and as handsom a General Officer, as ever went into Scar

let, looks very Bluely, for fear of his Dingy Rival: However, a Relation of her's, who confults her Good, more than her felf, is in hopes the will compound with him; for a Portuguese of a very fwarthy Kind, he being a very rich Merchant into the Bargain.

BY reading a Book of Knight-Errantry, the Fair Scotiffa betray'd a Caftle well Eftated round, into the Poffeffion of a tall, refolute, brawny Highlander; and for his being ftrong enough, to mafter, before her Eyes, a wild Beaft, with nothing but his Hands, as she was gazing at him from a Turret, call'd up the Champion, and granted him to lock those Arms, in Embraces, round her delicate Neck.

THE Adventurous Lady Dulcinea, call'd a Porter, to carry a Letter, from her Home to his own House, and to his own proper Perfon: In which he was courted to confider, Whether he would be troubled with her there for Life. And her Sifter follow'd as romantically, by stepping out of a Window to a merry Cobler, only for whittling Old Walfingham in his Stall, as nicely as his Blackbird,

THOUGH

THOUGH once I refolv'd to write no more ; yet, in Compliance to my Fair Readers, I have fet upon this my laft Volume, as a New Year's Gift.

W

No 637.

Friday, January 7.

Naturam expellas furcâ, tamen ufque recurret.

Hor.

HE Evil, which, of all in the World, the most rea

and eafily makes its way into the Minds of

the Fair Sex, and, whence once gotten in, and brought to bear, is the hardest and last to be rooted out, is Superftition. Any old Matron or Nurse, can fix in a Young Creature, all the odd Maxims of this Fantastical Doctrine, fo ftrongly, as to put it out of the Reach of the best Reason, and the most powerful Erudition of the beft Doctors of Divinity living, ever to evince or confute them. This Vice, when implanted in a Woman, is as durable, as a Story of Spirits told to a Youth of Tenderness, which ufually commands and terrifies his Memory for Life. The latter intimidates those, who are otherwife by Nature formed the most Courageous; the former renders a vaft Number of the Fair Congregation of the Faithful, real Infidels.

MANY a brave Soldier, that could stand undaunted in the open Day, when Death in a thousand Shapes and Poftures ftood before his Eyes, has been frighted and fcar'd out of his Wits in the dark, when he could not fee, nor had the least reason to apprehend any Danger near him. He would fcale a Wall without a Sword in his Hand; but he dare not go up a pair of Stairs, without the Light of a Taper: He would walk upon Grounds where Mines were springing up all round him; but could not for his life go crofs a Church-yard at night: He would galantly go and ftand in a Breach, juft after a Lift brought him of a thousand killed and wounded there; and yet, could not lie alone quiet and fecure in his Bed, after the Repetition of a Story, that his Nurse had told him five

or fix and twenty Years before. In fine, he never wasafraid of the most evident Probability of being made a Ghost any Minute of the Day; but was startled at ftrange Fancies of feeing one every Moment of the Night.

THUS it fares among the Fair Sex, when once they give way to be bigotted to any kind of Superftition. LADY Betty, who was fo very Pious, that the might properly be termed a Fille Devote in Religion, never did an holy Act in her Life-time, without a Mixture and Dash of Superftition. On Saturday Evening fhe muft be dipping, forfooth, into the Bible, upon the frivolous Belief, that, at the first Lift of the Leaf, she should be by Providence directed, hap-hazard, to the Performance of her Duty on the Sunday following. The Text of the Bible accidentally pointed her out, to obferve her Devotions in the Community next day; but an unlucky Dream interfered, that told her, if she went abroad, fome Misfortune would certainly befal her. The Dream-Book and the Gospel held a Combat in her Mind for a long while; and tho' fhe read the former with Superftition, and the latter with Devotion, yet the Dream, at laft, got the better of the Revelation, and she was afraid of getting her Death by Virtue, notwithstanding she knew that her Lover was to be in the

very next Pew.

OMNIAMANTE, who never knew, what it was to be otherwise than Innocent, and hath no Paffion, that is ftrong or violent in her, but a very Lawful one, which is, what we may call indeed, more than a Month's Mind after Matrimony; has had above four different Husbands of hers in her Company, by turning her Smicket on a St. Agnes's Night, and all in four Years time; and yet, has been fo far from having been once a Widow, that she is ftill a Maid to this very Day. About a Year after she fhould have been a Widow to the Fourth Husband, according to her annual Calculation, a Gentleman, whom fhe approv'd of, and who really lov'd her, and deserved to have been her First, made his Addreffes to her. The Match in less than fix Weeks time was agreed upon. But as fhe was one Day recollecting herself, when his first Love-Letters came to her hands, fhe had a fcruple upon the Date of it; upon that he grew more Referved: He was a long Time before he could fcrew out of her the

Reason