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ped in a ridiculous habit, when they fancy them- | see he had a clean shirt on, which was ruffled selves in the height of the mode. Since that down to his middle. speculation I have received a letter (which I there hinted at) from a gentleman who is now on the western circuit.

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"Being a lawyer of the Middle-Temple, a Cornishman by birth, I generally ride the western circuit for my health; and as I am not interrupted with clients, have leisure to make many observations that escape the notice of my fellow-travelers.

"One of the most fashionable women I met with in all the circuit was my landlady at Staines, where I chanced to be on a holiday. Her commode was not half a foot high, and her petticoat within some yards of a modish circumference. In the same place I observed a young fellow with a tolerable periwig, had it not been covered with a hat that was shaped in the Ramilie-cock. As I proceeded in my journey, I observed the petticoat grew scantier and scantier, and about threescore miles from London was so very unfashionable, that a woman might walk in it without any mauner of inconvenience.

"Not far from Salisbury I took notice of a justice of the peace's lady, who was at least ten years behind-hand in her dress, but at the same time as fine as hauds could make her. She was flounced and furbelowed from head to foot; every ribbon was wrinkled, and every part of her garments in curl, so that she looked like one of those animals which in the country we call a Friesland hen.

"Not many miles beyond this place I was informed that one of the last year's little muffs had by some means or other straggled into those parts, and that all the women of fashion were cutting their old muffs in two, or retrenching them, according to the little model which was got among them. I cannot believe the report they have there, that it was sent down franked by a parliament-man in a little packet; but probably by next winter this fashion will be at the height in the country, when it is quite out at London.

From this place, during our progress through the most western parts of the kingdom, we fancied ourselves in King Charles the Second's reign, the people having made very little variations in their dress since that time. The smartest of the country 'squires appears still in the Monmouthcock, and when they go a wooing (whether they have any post in the militia or not) they generally put on a red coat. We were, indeed, very much surprised, at the place we lay at last night, to meet with a gentleman that had accoutered himself in a nightcap wig, a coat with long pockets and slit sleeves, and a pair of shoes with high scollop tops; but we soon found by his conversation that he was a person who laughed at the ig norance and rusticity of the country people, and was resolved to live and die in the mode.

"Sir, if you think this account of my travels may be of any advantage to the public, I will next year trouble you with such occurrences as I shall meet with in other parts of England. For I am informed there are greater curiosities in the northeru circuit than in the western; and that a fashion makes it progress much slower into Cumberland than into Cornwall. I have heard in particular, that the Steenkirk* arrived but two months ago at Newcastle, and that there are several commodes in those parts which are worth taking a journey thither to see.” C.

No. 120.] MONDAY, JULY 30, 1711.
-Semperque recentes
Convectare juvat prædas, et vivere rapto.
VIRG. En., vii, 748.

A plundering race, still eager to invade, On spoil they live, and make of theft a trade. As I was yesterday riding out in the fields with my friend Sir Roger, we saw at a little distance from us a troop of gipsies. Upon the first discov ery of them, my friend was in some doubt whether he should not exert the justice of the peace upon such a band of lawless vagrants; but not having "The greatest beau at our next country sessions his clerk with him, who is a necessary counselor was dressed in a most monstrous flaxen periwig, with him on these occasious, and fearing that his that was made in King William's reign. The poultry might fare the worse for it, let the thought wearer of it goes, it seems, in his own hair when drop-but at the same time gave me a particular he is at home, and lets his wig lie in a buckle for account of the mischiefs they do in the country, a whole half-year, that he may put it on upon oc- in stealing people's goods and spoiling their sercasion to meet the judges in it. vants. "If a stray piece of linen hangs upon a hedge," says Sir Roger, "they are sure to have it; if the hog loses his way in the fields, it is ten to one but he becomes their prey: our geese cannot live in peace for them; if a man prosecutes them with severity, his hen-roost is sure to pay for it. They generally straggle into these parts about this time of the year; and set the heads of our servant-maids so agog for husbands, that we do not expect to have any business done as it should be while they are in the country. I have an honest dairy-maid who crosses their hands with a piece of silver every summer, and never fails being promised the handsomest young fellow in the parish for her pains. Your friend the butler has been fool enough to be seduced by them; and "Upon our way from hence we saw a young fel-though he is sure to lose a knife, a fork or a spoon low riding toward us full gallop, with a bob wig and a black silken bag tied to it. He stopped short at the coach, to ask us how far the judges were behind us. His stay was so very short, that we had only time to observe his new silk waistcoat, which was unbuttoned in several places, to let us

"I must not here omit an adventure which happened to us in a country church upon the frontiers of Cornwall. As we were in the midst of the service, a lady, who is the chief woman of the place, and had passed the winter at London with her husband, entered the congregation in a little head. dress, and a hooped petticoat. The people, who were wonderfully startled at such a sight, all of them rose up. Some stared at the prodigious bottom, and some at the little top of this strange dress. In the meantime the lady of the manor filled the area of the church, and walked up to her pew with an unspeakable satisfaction, amidst the whispers, conjectures, and astonishments of the whole congregation.

every time his fortune is told him, generally shuts himself up in the pantry with an old gipsy for above half an hour once in a twelvemonth. Sweethearts are the things they live upon, which they bestow very plentifully upon all those who apply themselves to them. You see now and then some

*The Steenkirk was a kind of military cravat of black silk; Counselors generally go on the circuits through the coun- probably first worn at the battle of Steenkirk, fought August ties in which they are born and bred. 2, 1692.

handsome young jides among tnem: the sluts have white teeth and black eyes."

himself lost a child some years before The pa rents, after a long search for him, gave him for Sir Roger observing that I listened with great drowned in one of the canals with which that attention to his account of a people who were so country abounds; and the mother was so afflicted entirely new to me, told me, that if I would, they at the loss of a fine boy, who was her only son, should tell us our fortunes. As I was very well that she died for grief of it. Upon laying together pleased with the knight's proposal, we rode up, all particulars, and examining several moles and and communicated our hands to them. A Cas-marks by which the mother used to describe the sandra of the crew, after having examined my child when he was first missing, the boy proved lines very diligently, told me, that I loved a pretty to be the son of the merchant whose heart had so maid in a corner, that I was a good woman's unaccountably melted at the sight of him. The man, with some other particulars which I do not | lad was very well pleased to find a father who was think proper to relate. My friend Sir Roger so rich and likely to leave him a good estate: the alighted from his horse, and exposing his palm father on the other hand was not a little delighted to two or three that stood by him, they crumpled to see a son return to him, whom he had given up it all shapes, and diligently scanned every wrinkle for lost, with such a strength of constitution, that could be made in it; when one of them, who sharpness of understanding, and skill in lanwas older and more sunburnt than the rest, told guages." Here the printed story leaves off; but him, that he had a widow in his line of life. if I may give credit to reports, our linguist havUpon which the knight cried, "Go, go, you are ing received such extraordinary rudiments toward an idle baggage" and at the same time smiled a good education, was afterward trained up in upon me. The gipsy finding he was not dis-everything that became a gentleman; wearing off pleased in his heart, told him, after a farther by little and little all the vicious habits and pracinquiry into his hand, that his true-love was con- tices that he had been used to in the course of his stant, and that she should dream of him to-night. peregrinations. Nay, it is said, that he has since My old friend cried pish, and bid her go on. The been employed in foreign courts upon national gipsy told him that he was a bachelor, but would business, with great reputation to himself and not be so long; and that he was dearer to some- honor to those who sent him, and that he has body than he thought. The knight still repeated, visited several countries as a public minister in She was an idle baggage," and bid her go on. which he formerly wandered as a gipsy.-C. "Ah, master," said the gipsy, "that roguish leer of yours makes a pretty woman's heart ache; you have not that simper about the mouth for nothing." The uncouth gibberish with which all this was uttered, like the darkness of an oracle, made us the more attentive to it. To be short, the knight left the money with her that he had crossed her hand with, and got up again on his horse.

As we were riding away, Sir Roger told me, that he knew several sensible people who believed these gipsies now and then foretold very strange things; and for half an hour together appeared more jocund than ordinary. In the height of his good humor, meeting a common beggar upon the road, who was no conjurer, as he went to relieve him he found his pocket was picked; that being a kind of palmistry at which this race of vermin are very dextrous.

VIRG. Ecl., 1, 63.

No. 131] TUESDAY, JULY 31, 1711. -Ipsæ rursum concedite sylvæ. Once more, ye woods, adieu, Ir is usual for a man who loves country sports to preserve the game in his own grounds, and divert himself upon those that belong to his neighbor. My friend Sir Roger generally goes two or three miles from his house, and gets into the frontiers of his estate, before he beats about in search of a hare or partridge, on purpose to span his own fields, where he is always sure of finding diversion, when the worst comes to the worst. By this means the breed about his house has time to increase and multiply, beside that the sport is more agreeable where the game is harder to come at, and where it does not lie so thick as to produce any perplexity or confusion in the pursuit. For these reasons the country gentleman, like the fox, seldom preys near his own home.

I might here entertain my reader with historical remarks on this idle, profligate people, who infest all the countries of Europe, and live in the midst of governments in a kind of commonwealth by themselves. But instead of entering into observations of this nature, I shall fill the remaining In the same manner I have made a month's part of my paper with a story which is still fresh excursion out of the town, which is the great field in Holland, and was printed in one of our month of game for sportsmen of my species, to try my ly accounts about twenty years ago. "As the fortune in the country, where I have started severtrek-schuyt, or hackney-boat which carries passen al subjects, and hunted them down, with some gers from Leyden to Amsterdam, was putting off, pleasure to myself, and I hope to others. I am a boy running along the side of the canal desired here forced to use a great deal of diligence before to be taken in: which the master of the boat I can spring anything to my mind; whereas in refused, because the lad had not quite money town, while I am following one character, it is ten enough to pay the usual fare.* An eminent mer- to one but I am crossed in my way by another, chant being pleased with the looks of the boy, and and put up such a variety of odd creatures in secretly touched with compassion toward him, both sexes, that they foil the scent of one another, paid the money for him, and ordered him to be and puzzle the chase. My greatest difficulty in taken on board. Upon talking with him after-the country is to find sport, and in town to choose ward, he found that he could speak readily in it. In the meantime, as I have given a whole three or four languages, and learned upon farther month's rest to the cities of London and Westexamination, that he had been stolen away when minster, I promise myself abundance of new game he was a child by a gipsy, and had rambled ever upon my return thither. since with a gang of those strollers up and down several parts of Europe. It happened that the merchant, whose heart seemed to have inclined toward the boy by a secret kind of instinct, had

*Hardly more than three pence.

It is indeed high time for me to leave the country, since I find the whole neighborhood begin to grow very inquisitive after my name and charac ter; my love of solitude, taciturnity, and particular way of life, having raised a great curiosity in all these parts.

woods and meadows. If thou dost not come up quickly, we shall conclude that thou art in love with one of Sir Roger's dairy-maids. Service to the knight. Sir Andrew is grown the cock of the club since he left us, and if he does not return quickly will make every mother's son of us com. Dear Spec., thine eternally,

66

The notions which have been framed of me are various some look upon me as very proud, some as very modest, and some as very melancholy. Will Wimble, as my friend the butler tells me, observing me very much alone, and extremely silent when I am in company, is afraid I have killed a man. The country people seem to sus-monwealth's-men. pect me for a conjurer; and some of them hearing of the visit which I made to Moll White, will needs have it that Sir Roger has brought down a cunning man with him, to cure the old woman, and free the country from her charms. So that the character which I go under in part of the neighborhood, is what they call here a White Witch.

A justice of peace, who lives about five miles off, and is not of Sir Roger's party, has, it seems, said twice or thrice at his table, that he wishes Sir Roger does not harbor a Jesuit in his house, and that he thinks the gentlemen of the country would do very well to make me give some account of myself.

On the other side, some of Sir Roger's friends are afraid the old knight is imposed upon by a designing fellow; and as they have heard that he converses very promiscuously when he is in town, do not know but he has brought down with him some discarded whig, that is sullen, and says nothing because he is out of place.

Such is the variety of opinions which are here entertained of me, so that I pass among some for a disaffected person, and among others for a popish priest; among some for a wizard, and among others for a murderer; and all this for no other reason that I can imagine, but because I do not hoot, and halloo, and make a noise. It is true, my friend Sir Roger tells them,-"That it is my way," and that I am only a philosopher-but this will not satisfy them. They think there is more in me than he discovers, and that I do not hold my tongue for nothing.

For these and other reasons I shall set out for London to-morrow, having found by experience that the country is not the place for a person of my temper, who does not love jollity, and what they call good neighborhood. A man that is out of humor when an unexpected guest breaks in upon him, and does not care for sacrificing an afternoon to every chance comer-that will be the master of his own time, and the pursuer of his own inclinations, makes but a very unsociable figure in this kind of life. I shall therefore retire into the town, if I may make use of that phrase, and get into the crowd again as fast as I can, in order to be alone. I can there raise what speculations I please upon others without being observed myself, and at the same time enjoy all the advantages of company with all the privileges of solitude. In the meanwhile, to finish the month, and conclude these my rural speculations, I shall here insert a letter from my friend Will Honeycomb, who has not lived a month for these forty years out of the smoke of London, and rallies me after his way upon my country life.

"DEAR SPEC.,

"I suppose this letter will find thee picking of daisies, or smelling to a lock of hay, or passing away thy time in some innocent country diversion of the like nature. I have however orders from the club to summon thee up to town, being all of us cursedly afraid thou wilt not be able to relish our company, after thy conversations with Moll White and Will Wimble. Prithee do not send us up any more stories of a cock and a bull, nor frighten the town with spirits and witches. Thy speculations begin to smell confoundedly of

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"WILL HONEYCOMB.

No. 132.] WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1711. Qui, aut tempus quid postulet non videt, aut plura loqui tur, aut se ostentat, aut eorum quibuscum est rationem non habet, is ineptus esse dicitur.-TULL.

That man may be called impertinent, who considers not the circumstances of time, or engrosses the conversation, or makes himself the subject of his discourse, or pays no regard to the company he is in.

HAVING notified to my good friend Sir Roger that I should set out for London the next day, his horses were ready at the appointed hour in the evening; and attended by one of his grooms, I arrived at the county-town at twilight, in order to be ready for the stage-coach the day following. As soon as we arrived at the inn, the servant who waited upon me inquired of the chamberlain in my hearing what company he had for the coach? The fellow answered, "Mrs. Betty Arable, the great fortune, and the widow her mother; a recruiting officer (who took a place because they were to go); young 'Squire Quickset, her cousin (that her mother wished her to be married to), Ephraim the Quaker, her guardian; and a gentleman that had studied himself dumb from Sir Roger de Coverley's." I observed by what he said of myself, that according to his office he dealt much in intelligence; and doubted not but there was some foundation for his reports of the rest of the company, as well as for the whimsical account he gave of me. The next morning at day-break we were all called; and I, who know my own natural shyness, and endeavor to be as little liable to be disputed with as possible, dressed immediately that I might make no one wait. The first preparation for our setting out was, that the captain's half-pike was placed near the coachman, and a drum behind the coach. In the meantime the drummer, the captain's equipage, was very loud, "that none of the captain's things should be placed so as to be spoiled;" upon which his cloak-bag was fixed in the seat of the coach; and the captain himself, according to a frequent, though invidious behavior of military men, ordered his man to look sharp that none but one of the ladies should have the place he had taken fronting the coach-box.

We were in some little time fixed in our seats, and sat with that dislike which people not too good-natured usually conceive of each other at first sight. The coach jumbled us insensibly into some sort of familiarity: and we had not moved above two miles, when the widow asked the captain what success he had in his recruiting? The officer, with a frankness he believed very graceful, told her, "that indeed he had but very little luck, and had suffered much by desertion, therefore should be glad to end his warfare in the service of her or her fair daughter. In a word," continued he, "I am a soldier, and to be plain is my character you see me, Madam, young, sound, and impudent; take me yourself, widow, or give me to her, I will be wholly at your disposal. I am a soldier of fortune, ha!"-This was followed by a vain laugh of his own, and a deep silence of all the rest of the company. I had nothing left for it but to fall fast asleep, which I did with all speed. "Come," said he, "resolve pon it, we

will make a wedding at the next town: we will make this pleasant companion who is fallen asleep, to be the bride-man; and," giving the Quaker a clap on the knee, he concluded, "this sly saint, who, I will warrant you, understands what is what as well as you or I, widow, shall give the bride as father." The Quaker, who happened to be a man of smartness, answered, "Friend, I take it in good part that thou hast given me the authority of a father over this comely and virtuous child; and I must assure thee, that if I have the giving her, I shall not bestow her on thee. Thy mirth, friend, savoreth of folly; thou art a person of a light mind; thy drum is a type of thee-it soundeth because it is empty. Verily, it is not from thy fullness, but thy emptiness, that thou hast spoken this day. Friend, friend, we have hired this coach in partnership with thee, to carry us to the great city; we cannot go any other way. This worthy mother must hear thee if thou wilt needs utter thy follies; we cannot help it, friend, I say: if thou wilt, we must hear thee; but if thou wert a man of understanding, thou wouldst not take advan tage of thy courageous countenance to abash us children of peace.-Thou art, thou sayest, a soldier; give quarter to us, who cannot resist thee. Why didst thou fleer at our friend, who feigned himself asleep? He said nothing; but how dost thou know what he containeth? If thou speakest improper things in the hearing of this virtuous young virgin, consider it is an outrage against a distressed person that cannot get from thee; to speak indiscreetly what we are obliged to hear, by being hasped up with thee in this public vehicle, is in some degree assaulting on the highroad."

thereof, but will the rather hide his superiority to them, that he may not be painful unto them. My good friend," continued he, turning to the officer, thee and I are to part by and by, and peradventure we may never meet again; but be advised by a plain man: modes and apparel are but trifles to the real man, therefore do not think such a man as thyself terrible for thy garb, nor such a one as me contemptible for mine. When two such as thee and I meet, with affections as we ought to have toward each other, thou shouldst rejoice to see my peaceable demeanor, and I should be glad to see thy strength and ability to protect me in it.”—T.

No. 133.] THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1711.
Quis desiderio sit pudor, aut modus
Tam chari capitis?-HOR. 1 Ou. xxiv, 3.
Such was his worth, our loss is such,
We cannot love too well, or grieve too much.

OLDIS WORTH.

THERE is a sort of delight, which is alternately mixed with terror and sorrow in the contemplation of death. The soul has its curiosity more than ordinarily awakened, when it turns its thoughts upon the conduct of such who have behaved themselves with an equal, a resigned, a cheerful, a generous, or heroic temper in that extremity. We are affected with these respective manners of behavior, as we secretly believe the part of the dying person imitated by ourselves, or such as we im agine ourselves more particularly capable of. Men of exalted minds march before us like princes, and are to the ordinary race of mankind rather subjects of their admiration than example. However, there are no ideas strike more forcibly upon our imaginations, than those which are raised from reflections upon the exits of great and excellent men. Innocent men who have suffered as criminals, though they were benefactors to human society, seem to be persous of the highest dis

Here Ephraim paused, and the captain with a happy and uncommon impudence (which can be convicted and support itself at the same time) cries, "Faith, friend, I thank thee; I should have been a little impertinent if thou hadst not repri-tinction, among the vastly greater number of manded me. Come, thou art, I see, a smoky old fellow, and I will be very orderly the ensuing part of my journey. I was going to give myself airs, but, ladies, I beg pardon."

human race, the dead. When the iniquity of the times brought Socrates to his execution, how great and wonderful is it to behold him, unsupported by anything but the testimony of his own con science and conjectures of hereafter, receive the poison with an air of warmth and good-humor, and, as if going on an agreeable journey, bespeak some deity to make it fortunate!

The captain was so little out of humor, and our company was so far from being soured by this little ruffle, that Ephraim and he took a particular delight in being agreeable to each other for the future; and assumed their different provinces in When Phocion's good actions had met with the the conduct of the company. Our reckonings, like reward from his country, and he was led to apartments, and accommodation, fell under Ephra- death with many other of his friends, they be im; and the captain looked to all disputes upon wailing their fate, he walking composedly toward the road, as the good behavior of our coachman, the place of his execution, how gracefully does he and the right we had of taking place, as going to support his illustrious character to the very last London, of all vehicles coming from thence. The instant! One of the rabble spitting at him as he occurrences we met with were ordinary, and very passed, with his usual authority he called to know little happened which could entertain by the re-if no one was ready to teach this fellow how to lation of them: but when I considered the com- behave himself. When a poor-spirited creature pany we were in, I took it for no small good-that died at the same time for his crimes, bemoanfortune, that the whole journey was not spent ined himself unmanfully, he rebuked him with this impertinences, which to one part of us might be an entertainment, to the other a suffering. What therefore Ephraim said when we were almost arrived at London, had to me an air not only of good understanding, but good breeding. Upon the young lady's expressing her satisfaction in the journey, and declaring how delightful it had Feen to her, Ephraim declared himself as fol

lows:

"There is no ordinary part of human life which expresseth so much a good mind, and a high inward man, as his behavior upon meeting with strangers, especially such as may seem the most unsuitable companions to him: such a man, when he falleth in the way with persons of simplicity and innocence, however knowing he may be in the ways of men, will not vaunt himself

question, "Is it no consolation to such a man as thou art to die with Phocion?" At the instant when he was to die, they asked what commands he had for his son: he answered, "To forget this injury of the Athenians.” Niocles, his friend, under the same sentence, desired he might drink the potion before him: Phocion said "because he never had denied him anything, he would not even this, the most difficult request he had ever made."

These instances were very noble and great, and the reflections of those sublime spirits had made death to them what it is really intended to be by the Author of nature, a relief from a various being, ever subject to sorrows and difficulties.

Epaminondas, the Theban general, having re

ceived in fight a mortal stab with a sword, which | are already performed (as to thy concern in them) was left in his body, lay in that posture till he had in his sight, before whom the past, present, and intelligence that his troops had obtained the future appear at one view. While others with victory, and then permitted it to be drawn out, at their talents were tormented with ambition, with which instant he expressed himself in this manner: vain-glory, with envy, with emulation-how well "This is not the end of my life, my fellow-sol- didst thou turn thy mind to its own improvement diers; it is now your Epaminondas is born, who in things out of the power of fortune: in probity, dies in so much glory.' in integrity, in the practice and study of justice! How silent thy passage, how private thy journey. how glorious thy end! Many have I known more famous, some more knowing, not one so innocent.""-R.

It were an endless labor to collect the accounts, with which all ages have filled the world, of noble and heroic minds that have resigned this being, as if the termination of life were but an ordinary occurrence of it.

This commonplace way of thinking I fell into from an awkward endeavor to throw off a real and fresh affliction, by turning over books in a melancholy mood; but it is not easy to remove griefs which touch the heart, by applying remedies which only entertain the imagination. As therefore this paper is to consist of anything which concerns human life, I cannot help letting the present subject regard what has been the last object of my eyes, though an entertainment of

Sorrow.

I went this evening to visit a friend, with a design to rally him, upon a story I had heard of his intending to steal a marriage without the privity of us his intimate friends and acquaintance. I came into his apartment with that intimacy which I have done for very many years, and walk ed directly into his bed-chamber, where I found my friend in the agonies of death,-What could I do? The innocent mirth of my thoughts struck upon me like the most flagitious wickedness: I in vain called upon him; he was senseless, and too far spent to have the least knowledge of my sorrow, or any pain in himself. Give me leave then to transcribe my soliloquy, as I stood by his mother, dumb with the weight of grief for a son who was her honor and her comfort, and never till that hour since his birth had been a moment's sorrow to her.

"How surprising is the change! From the possession of vigorous life and strength, to be reduced in a few hours to this fatal extremity! Those lips which look so pale and livid, within these few days gave delight to all who heard their utterance; it was the business, the purpose of his being, next to obeying him to whom he is gone, to please and instruct, and that for no other end but to please and instruct. Kindness was the motive of his actions, and with all the capacity requisite for making a figure in a contentious world, moderation, good-nature, affability, temperance, and chastity, were the arts of his excellent life. There as he lies in helpless agony, no wise man who knew him so well as I, but would resign all the world can bestow to be so near the end of such a life. Why does my heart so little obey my reason as to lament thee, thou excellent man? Heaven receive him or restore him!-Thy beloved mother, thy obliged friends, thy helpless servants, stand around thee without distinction. How much wouldst thou, hadst thou thy senses, say to each of us!

"But now that good heart bursts, and he is at rest. With that breath expired a soul who never indulged a passion unfit for the place he is gone to. Where are now thy plans of justice, of truth, of honor? Of what use the volumes thou hast collated, the arguments thou hast invented, the examples thou hast followed? Poor were the expectations of the studious, the modest, and the good, if the reward of their labors were only to be expected from man. No, my friend; thy intended pleadings, thy intended good offices to thy friends, thy intended services to thy country,

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No. 134] FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1711. -Opiferque per orbem

OVID. Met., i, 521.

Licor And am the great physician call'd below.-Dryden. DURING my absence in the country, several packets have been left for me, which were not forwarded to me, because I was expected every day in town. The author of the following letter dated from Tower-hill, having sometimes been entertained with some learned gentlemen in plushdoublets, who have vended their wares from a stage in that place, has pleasantly enough addressed to me as no less a sage in morality, than those are in physic. To comply with his kind inclination to make my cures famous, I shall give you his testimonial of my great abilities at large in his own words.

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"Your saying the other day there is something wonderful in the narrowness of those minds which can be pleased, and be barren of bounty to those who please them, makes me in pain that I am not a man of power. If I were, you should soon see how much I approve your speculations. In the meantime, I beg leave to supply that inability with the empty tribute of an honest mind by telling you plainly, I love and thank you for your daily refreshments. I constantly peruse your paper as I smoke my morning's pipe (though I cannot forbear reading the motto before I fill and light), and really it gives a grateful relish to every whiff; each paragraph is fraught either with useful or delightful notions, and I never fail of being highly diverted or improved. The variety of your subject surprises me as much as a box of pictures did formerly in which there was only one face, that, by pulling some pieces of isinglass over it, was changed into a grave senator or a Merry-Andrew, a patched lady or a nun, a beau or a black-a-moor, a prude or a coquette, a country esquire or a conjurer, with many other different representations very entertaining (as you are), though still the same at the bottom. This was a childish amusement, when I was carried away with outward appearance; but you make a deeper impression, and affect the secret springs of the mind; you charm the fancy, soothe the passions, and insensibly lead the reader to that sweetness of temper that you so well describe; you rouse generosity with that spirit, and inculcate humanity with that ease, that he must be miserably stupid that is not affected by you. I cannot say, indeed, that you have put impertinence to silence, or vanity out of countenance; but methinks, you have bid as fair for it as any man that ever appeared upon a public stage; and offer an infallible cure of vice and folly, for the price of one penny. And since it is usual for those who receive benefit by such famous operators, to publish an advertisement that others may reap the same

* Viz: Quack-doctors.

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