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Deen those abominab e interpolations I have before mentioned. Upon the reading of it in cold blood, it looked rather like a conference of fiends than of men. In short, every one trembled at himself upon hearing calmly what he had pronounced amidst the heat and inadvertency of discourse.

case is so, I desire only you would entreat our people of quality, who are not to be interrupted in their pleasure, to think of the practice of any moral duty, that they would at least fine for their sins, and give something to these poor children: a little out of their luxury and superfluity would atone, in some measure, for the wanton use of the "I shall only mention another occasion wherein rest of their fortunes. It would not, methinks, be he made use of the same invention to cure a dif- amiss, if the ladies who hunt the cloisters and ferent kind of men, who are the pests of all polite passages of the playhouses, were, upon every conversation, and murder time as much as either offense, obliged to pay to this excellent institution of the two former, though they do it more inno- of schools of charity. This method would make cently-I mean, that dull generation of story-tel-offenders themselves do service to the public. lers. My friend got together about half-a-dozen But in the meantime I desire you would publish of his acquaintance, who were infected with this this voluntary reparation which Mr. Powell does strange malady. The first day one of them, sit-our parish, for the noise he has made in it by the ing down, entered upon the siege of Namur, constant rattling of coaches, drums, trumpets, which lasted till four o'clock, their time of part triumphs, and battles. The destruction of Troy, ing. The second day a North Briton took posses- adorned with Highland dances, are to make up sion of the discourse, which it was impossible to the entertainment of all who are so well disposed get out of his hands so long as the company as not to forbear a light entertainment, for no stayed together. The third day was engrossed other reason but that it is to do a good action. after the same manner by a story of the same length. They at last began to reflect upon this barbarous way of treating one another, and by this means awakened out of that lethargy with which each of them had been seized for several years.

"I am, sir, your most humble Servant,
"RALPH BELLFRY."

"I am credibly informed, that all the insinua-
tions which a certain writer made against Mr.
Powell at the Bath, are false and groundless."
"MR. SPECTATOR,

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"As you have somewhere declared, that extraordinary and uncommon characters of mankind are the game which you delight in, and as I look My employment, which is that of a broker, upon you to be the greatest sportsman, or, if you leading me often into taverns about the Exchange, please, the Nimrod among this species of writers, has given me occasion to observe a certain enor thought this discovery would not be unaccept-mity, which I shall here submit to your animadable to you.

I.

"I am, sir," etc.

No. 372.] WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1712.
-Pudet hæc opprobria nobis
Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli.
OVID, Met. i, 759.
To hear an open slander is a curse;
But not to find an answer is a worse.*-DRYDEN.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

piuts. I have so great a value and veneration for any who have but even an assenting Amen in the service of religion, that I am afraid lest these persons should incur some scandal by this practice; and would therefore have them, without raillery, advised to send the Florence and pullets home to their own houses, and not pretend to live as well as the overseers of the poor.

version. In three or four of these taverns, I have, at different times, taken notice of a precise set of people, with grave countenances, short wigs, black clothes, or dark camlet trimmed with black, and mourning gloves and hat-bands, who meet on certain days at each tavern successively, and keep a sort of moving club. Having often met with their faces, and observed a certain slinking way in their dropping in one after another, I had the curiosity to inquire into their characters, being the rather moved to it by their agreeing in the May 6, 1712. singularity of their dress; and I find, upon due “I AM Sexton of the parish of Covent-garden, examination, they are a knot of parish clerks, and complained to you some time ago, that as I who have taken a fancy to one another, and perwas tolling into prayers at eleven in the morn-haps settle the bills of mortality over their halfing, crowds of people of quality hastened to assemble at a puppet show on the other side of the garden. I had at the same time a very great disesteem for Mr. Powell, and his little thoughtless commonwealth, as if they had enticed the gentry into those wanderings: but let that be as it will, I now am convinced of the honest intentions of the said Mr. Powell and company and send this to acquaint you, that he has given all the profits which shall arise to-morrow night by his play to the use of the poor charity-children of this parish. I have been informed, sir, that in Holland all persens who set up any show, or act any stage-play, be the actors either of wood and wire, or flesh and blood, are obliged to pay out of their gains such a proportion to the honest and industrious poor in the neighborhood; by this means they make diversion and pleasure pay a tax to labor and industry. I have been told also, that all the time of Lent, in Roman Catholic countries, the persons of condition administer to the necessities of the poor, and attend the beds of lazars and diseased persons. Our protestant ladies and gentlemen are so much to seek for proper ways of passing time, that they are obliged to punchinello for knowing what to do with themselves. Since the

In the original publication in folio, the motto is wanting.

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"I am, sir, your most humble Servant,
"HUMPHRY TRANSFER."
May 6th.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"I was last Wednesday night at a tavern in the city, among a set of men who call themselves the lawyers' club. You must know, sir, this club consists only of attorneys; and at this meeting every one proposes the cause he has then in hand to the board, upon which each member gives his judgment according to the experience he has met with. If it happens that any one puts a case of which they have had no precedent, it is noted down by their clerk, Will Goosequill (who registers all their proceedings), that one of them may go the next day with it to a counsel. This indeed is commendable, and ought to be the principal end of their meeting; but had you been there, to have heard them relate their methods of managing a cause, their manner of drawing out

their bills, and, in short, their arguments upon | For this reason a man truly modest is as much the several ways of abusing their clients, with the so when he is alone as in company, and as subject applause that is given to him who has done it to a blush in his closet as when the eyes of multimost artfully, you would before now have given tudes are upon him. your remarks on them. They are so conscious I do not remember to have met with any inthat their discourse ought to be kept a secret, that stance of modesty with which I am so well they are very cautious of admitting any person pleased as that celebrated one of the young prince, who is not of their profession. When any who whose father being a tributary king to the Roare not of the law are let in, the person who intro- mans, had several complaints laid against him heduces him says he is a very honest gentleman, fore the senate, as a tyrant and oppressor of his and he is taken in, as their cant is, to pay costs. subjects. The prince went to Rome to defend his I am admitted upon the recommendation of one father; but coming into the senate, and hearing a of their principals, as a very honest, good-natured multitude of crimes proved upon him, was so opfellow, that will never be in a plot, and only de-pressed when it came to his turn to speak, that he sires to drink his bottle and smoke his pipe. You was unable to utter a word. The story tells us, have formerly remarked upon several sorts of that the fathers were more moved at this instance clubs; and as the tendency of this is only to in- of modesty and ingenuity* than they could have crease fraud and deceit, I hope you will please been by the most pathetic oration, and, in short, pardoned the guilty father for this early promise of virtue in the son.

to take notice of it.

T.

"I am,

with respect, your humble Servant.
"H. R."

No. 373.] THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1712. Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis et umbra. Juv., Sat. xiv, 109. Vice oft is hid in Virtue's fair disguise, And in her borrow'd form escapes inquiring eyes. MR. LOCKE, in his treatise of the Human Understanding, has spent two chapters upon the abuse of words. The first and palpable abuse of words, he says, is when they are used without clear and distinct ideas; the second, when we are so inconstant and unsteady in the application of them, that we sometimes use them to signify one idea, sometimes another. He adds, that the result of our contemplations and reasonings, while we have no precise ideas fixed to our words, must needs be very confused and absurd. To avoid this inconvenience, more especially in moral-discourses, where the same word should be constantly used in the same sense, he earnestly recommends the use of definitions. A definition," says he, "is the only way whereby the precise meaning of moral words can be known." He therefore accuses those of great negligence who discourse of moral things with the least obscurity in the terms they make use of; since, upon the fore-mentioned ground, he does not scruple to say that he thinks "morality is capable of demonstration, as well as the mathematics."

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I take "assurance to be the faculty of possessing a man's self, or of saying and doing indifferent things without any uneasiness or emotion in the mind." That which generally gives a man assu rance is a moderate knowledge of the world, but, above all, a mind fixed and determined in itself to do nothing against the rules of honor and decency. An open and assured behavior is the natural consequence of such a resolution. A man thus armed, if his words or actions are at any time misrepresented, retires within himself, and from a consciousness of his own integrity, assumes force enough to despise the little censures of ignorance and malice.

Every one ought to cherish and encourage in himself the modesty and assurance I have here mentioned.

A man without assurance is liable to be made uneasy by the folly or ill-nature of every one he converses with. A man without modesty is lost to all sense of honor and virtue.

It is more than probable that the prince abovementioned possessed both these qualifications in a very eminent degree. Without assurance, he would never have undertaken to speak before the most august assembly in the world: without modesty, he would have pleaded the cause he had taken upon him, though it had appeared ever so scandalous.

From what has been said. it is plain that modesty and assurance are both amiable, and may I know no two words that have been more very well meet in the same person. When they abused by the different and wrong interpretations are thus mixed and blended together, they comwhich are put upon them, than these two, modesty pose what we endeavor to express when we say and assurance. To say such a one is a modest a modest assurance;" by which we understand man, sometimes indeed passes for a good charac- the just mean between bashfulness and imputer; but at present is very often used to signify a dence. sheepish, awkward fellow, who has neither good breeding, politeness, nor any knowledge of the

world.

Again, a man of assurance, though at first it only denoted a person of a tree and open carriage, is now very usually applied to a profligate wretch, who can break through all the rules of decency and morality without a blush.

I shall endeavor, therefore, in this essay, to restore these words to their true meaning, to prevent the idea of modesty from being confounded with that of sheepishness, and to hinder impudence from passing for assurance.

If I was put to define modesty, I would call it "the reflection of an ingenious mind, either when a man has committed an action for which he censures himself, or fancies that he is exposed to the censure of others."

"Ingenious" seems to be here used for "ingenuous."

I shall conclude with observing, that as the same man may be modest and assured, so it is also possible for the same to be both impudent and bashful.

We have frequent instances of this odd kind of mixture in people of depraved minds and mean education, who, though they are not able to meet a man's eyes, or pronounce a sentence without confusion, can voluntarily commit the greatest villanies or most indecent actions.

Such a person seems to have made a resolution to do ill even in spite of himself, and in defiance of all those checks and restraints his temper and complexion seem to have laid in his way.

Upon the whole, I would endeavor to establish this maxim, that the practice of virtue is the most proper method to give a man a becoming

"Ingenuity" seems here to be used in the sense of “ingenuousness."

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rather to keep his affairs in method, and capable of a clear review in ease they should be examined by others, than that he built a renown upon anything that was past. I shall produce two fragments of his, to demonstrate that it was his rule of life to support himself rather by what he should perform, than what he had done already. In the tablet which he wore about him the same year in which he obtained the battle of Pharsalia, there were found these loose notes of his own conduct.

It is supposed, by the circumstances they alluded to, that they might be set down the evening of the same night.

and will be servile in his present fortune: let him wait. Send for Stertinius: he is modest, and his virtue is worth gaining. I have cooled my heart with reflection, and am fit to rejoice with the army to-morrow. He is a popular general, who can expose himself like a private man during a battle; but he is more popular who can rejoice but like a private man after a victory."

He reckon'd not the past, while aught remain'd Great to be done, or mighty to be gain'd.-Rowe. THERE is a fault, which, though common, wants & name. It is the very contrary to procrastina- "My part is now but begun, and my glory must nation. As we lose the present hour by delaying be sustained by the use I make of this victory, from day to day to execute what we ought to do otherwise my loss will be greater than that of immediately, so most of us take occasion to sit Pompey. Our personal reputation will rise or fall still and throw away the time in our possession as we bear our respective fortunes. All my priby retrospect on what is past, imagining we have vate enemies among the prisoners shall be spared. already acquitted ourselves, and established our I will forget this, in order to obtain such another characters in the sight of mankind. But when day. Trebutius is ashamed to see me; I will go we thus put a value upon ourselves for what we to his tent, and be reconciled in private. Give all have already done, any further than to explain the men of honor, who take part with me, the ourselves in order to assist our future conduct, terms I offered before the battle. Let them owe that will give us an overweening opinion of our this to their friends who have been long in my inmerit, to the prejudice of our present industry.terests. Power is weakened by the full use of it, The great rule, methinks, should be, to manage but extended by moderation. Galbinius is proud, the instant in which we stand, with fortitude, equanimity, and moderation, according to men's respective circumstances. If our past actions reproach us, they cannot be atoned for by our own severe reflections so effectually as by a contrary behavior. If they are praiseworthy, the memory of them is of no use but to act suitably to them. Thus a good present behavior is an implicit repentance for any miscarriage in what is past; but What is particularly proper for the example of present slackness will not make up for past acti- all who pretend to industry in the pursuit of hovity. Time has swallowed up all that we cotem- nor and virtue, is, that this hero was more than poraries did yesterday as irrevocably as it has ordinarily solicitous about his reputation, when a the actions of the antediluvians. But we are common mind would have thought itself in secuagain awake, and what shall we do to-day-to-rity, and given itself a loose to joy and triumph. day, which passes while we are yet speaking? Shall we remember the folly of last night, or resolve upon the exercise of virtue to-morrow? Last night is certainly gone, and to-morrow may never arrive. This instant make use of. Can you oblige any man of honor and virtue? Do it immediately. Can you visit a sick friend? Will it revive him to see you enter, and suspend your own ease and pleasure to comfort his weakness, and hear the impertinences of a wretch in pain? Do not stay to take coach, but be gone. Your mistress will bring sorrow, and your bottle madness. Go to neither-Such virtues and diversions as these are mentioned because they occur to all men. But every man is sufficiently convinced, that to suspend the use of the present moment, and resolve better for the future only, is an unpardonable folly. What I attempted to consider, was the mischief of setting such a value upon what is past, as to think we have done enough. Let a man have filled all the offices of life with the highest dignity till yesterday, and begin to live only to himself to-day, he must expect he will, in the effects upon his reputation, be considered as the man who died yesterday. The man who distinguishes himself from the rest, stands in a press of people those before him intercept his progress; and those behind him, if he does not urge on, will tread him down. Cæsar, of whom it was said that be thought nothing done while there was left anything for him to do, went on in performing the greatest exploits, without assuming to himself a privilege of taking rest upon the foundation of the merit of his former actions. It was the manner of that glorious captain to write down what scenes he had passed through; but it was

But though this is a very great instance of his temper, I must confess I am more taken with his reflections when he retired to his closet in some disturbance upon the repeated ill omens of Calphurnia's dream, the night before his death. The literal translation of that fragment shall conclude this paper.

"Be it so then. If I am to die to-morrow, that is what I am to do to-morrow. It will not be then, because I am willing it should be then; nor shall I escape it, because I am unwilling. It is in the gods when, but in myself how, I shall die. If Calphurnia's dreams are fumes of indigestion, how shall I behold the day after to-morrow! If they are from the gods, their admonition is not to prepare me to escape from their decree, but to meet it. I have lived a fullness of days and of glory: what is there that Cæsar has not done with as much honor as ancient heroes ?-Cæsar has not yet died! Cæsar is prepared to die.”—T.

No. 375.

SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1712.

Non possidentem multa vocaveris
Recte beatum: rectius occupat
Nomen beati, qui deorum
Muneribus sapientur uti,
Duramque callet pauperiem pati,
Pejusque letho flagitium timet.

HOR. 4 Od. ix, 45.

We barbarously call them blest
Who are of largest tenements possest,
While swelling coffers break their owner's rest.
More truly happy those who can

Govern that little empire, man;

Who spend their treasure freely, as 't was giv'n
By the large bounty of indulgent Heav'n;

Who, in a fix'd unalterable state,
Smile at the doubtful tide of Fate,

And scorn alike her friendship and her hate
Who poison less than falsehood fear,
Loth to purchase life so dear.-STEPNEY.

I HAVE more than once had occasion to mention a noble saying of Seneca the philosopher, that a virtuous person struggling with misfortunes, and rising above them, is an object on which the gods themselves may look down with delight. I shall therefore set before my reader a scene of this kind of distress in private life, for the speculation of this day.

I do not intend marriage, but if you are wise, you
will use your authority with her not to be too nice,
when she has an opportunity of saving you and
your family, and of making herself happy.
"I am," etc.

This letter came to the hands of Amanda's mother. She opened and read it with great surprise and concern. She did not think it proper to explain herself to the messenger, but, desiring him to call again the next morning, she wrote to her daughter as follows:

"

DEAREST CHILD,

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Your father and I have just received a letter from a gentleman who pretends love to you, with a proposal that insults our misfortunes, and would throw us to a lower degree of misery than any thing which is come upon us. How could this barbarous man think that the tenderest of parents would be tempted to supply their wants by giving. up the best of children to infamy and ruin? It is a mean and cruel artifice to make this proposal at a time when he thinks our necessities must compel us to anything; but we will not eat the bread. of shame; and therefore we charge thee not to think of us, but to avoid the snare which is laid for thy virtue. Beware of pitying us: it is not so bad as you perhaps have been told. All things will yet be well, and I shall write my child better news.

Au eminent citizen, who had lived in good fashion and credit, was, by a train of accidents, and by an unavoidable perplexity in his affairs, reduced to a low condition. There is a modesty usually attending faultless poverty, which made him rather choose to reduce his manner of living to his present circumstances, than solicit his friends in order to support the show of an estate when the substance was gone. His wife, who was a woman of sense and virtue, behaved herself on this occasion with uncommon decency, and never appeared so amiable in his eyes as now. Instead of upbraiding him with the ample fortune she had brought, or the many great offers she had refused for his sake, she redoubled all the instances of her affection, while her husband was continually pouring out his heart to her in complaints that he had ruined the best wonian in the world. He sometimes came home at a time when she did not "I have been interrupted: I know not how I' expect him, and surprised her in tears, which she was moved to say things would mend. As I was endeavored to conceal, and always put on an air going on, I was startled by the noise of one that of cheerfulness to receive him. To lessen their knocked at the door, and hath brought us an unexpense, their eldest daughter (whom I shall call expected supply of a debt which has long been Amanda) was sent into the country, to the house owing. Oh! I will now tell thee all. It is some of an honest farmer, who had married a servant days I have lived almost without support, having of the family. This young woman was appre- conveyed what little money I could raise to your hensive of the ruin which was approaching, and poor father. Thou wilt weep to think where he had privately engaged a friend in the neighbor-is, yet be assured he will be soon at liberty. That hood to give her an account of what passed from time to time in her father's affairs. Amanda was in the bloom of her youth and beauty; when the lord of the manor, who often called in at the farmer's house, as he followed his country sports, fell passionately in love with her. He was a man of great generosity, but, from a loose education, had contracted a hearty aversion to marriage. He therefore entertained a design upon Amanda's virtue, which at present he thought fit to keep private. The innocent creature, who never suspected his intentions, was pleased with his person; and, having observed his growing passion for her, hoped by so advantageous a match she might quickly be in a capacity of supporting her impoverished relations. One day, as he called to see her, he found her in tears, over a letter she had

just received from her friend, which gave an account that her father had lately been stripped of everything by an execution. The lover, who with some difficulty found out the cause of her grief, took this occasion to make her a proposal. It is impossible to express Amanda's confusion when she found his pretensions were not honorable. She was now deserted of all her hopes, and had no power to speak, but, rushing from him in the utmost disturbance, locked herself up in her chamoer. He immediately dispatched a messenger to ner father with the following letter:

"SIR,

"I have heard of your misfortunes, and have offered your daughter, if she will live with me, to settle on her four hundred pounds a-year, and to lay down the sum for which you are now distressed. I will be so ingenuous as to tell you that

cruel letter would have broke his heart, but I have concealed it from him. I have no companion at present beside little Fanny, who stands watching. my looks as I write, and is crying for her sister. She says she is sure you are not well, having discovered that my present trouble is about you. But do not think I would thus repeat my sorrows to grieve thee. No; it is to entreat thee not to make them insupportable, by adding what would be worse than all. Let us bear cheerfully an afflic tion which we have not brought on ourselves, and remember there is a Power who can better deliver us out of it than by the loss of thy innocence. Heaven preserve my dear child!

"Thy affectionate Mother,

deliver this letter to Amanda, carried it first to his The messenger, notwithstanding he promised to master, who he imagined would be glad to have self. His master was impatient to know the success an opportunity of giving it into her hands himof his proposal, and therefore broke open the letlittle moved at so true a picture of virtue in dister privately to see the contents. He was not a tress; but at the same time was infinitely surprised to find his offers rejected. However, he resolved not to suppress the letter, but carefully sealed, it up again, and carried it to Amanda. All his endeavors to see her were in vain till she was assured he brought a letter from her mother. He would not part with it but upon condition that she would read it without leaving the room. While she was perusing it, he fixed his eyes on her face with the deepest attention. Her concern gave a new softness to her beauty, and, when she burst into tears he could no longer refrain from bearing a part in

her sorrow, and telling her, that he too had read the letter, and was resolved to make reparation for having been the occasion of it. My reader will not be displeased to see the second epistle which he now. wrote to Amanda's mother.

"MADAM

“I am full of shame, and will never forgive myself if I have not your pardon for what I lately wrote. It was far from my intention to add trouble to the afflicted; nor could anything but my being a stranger to you have betrayed me into a fault, for which, if I live, I shall endeavor to make you amends as a son. You cannot be unhappy while Amanda is your daughter; nor shall be, if anything can prevent it which is in the power of, "MADAM,

"Your most obedient, humble Servant,

My friend gave me the history; and interrupted my commendation of the man, by telling me the livelihood of these two animals is purchased rather by the good parts of the goose than of the leader; for it seems the peripatetic who walked before her was a watchman in that neighborhood; and the goose of herself, by frequently hearing this tone, out of her natural vigilance, not only observed, but answered it very regularly from time to time. The watchman was so affected with it, that he bought her, and has taken her in partner, only altering their hours of duty from night to day. The town has come into it, and they live very comfortably. This is the matter of fact. Now I desire you, who are a profound philosopher, to consider this alliance of instinct and reason. Your speculation may turn very naturally upon the force the superior part of mankind may have upon the spirits of such as, like this watchman, may be very near the standard of geese. And you may add to this practical observation,

This letter he sent by his steward, and soon after went up to town himself to complete the generous act he had now resolved on. By his friend-how, in all ages and times, the world has been ship and assistance Amanda's father was quickly in a condition of retrieving his perplexed affairs. To conclude, he married Amanda, and enjoyed the double satisfaction of having restored a worthy family to their former prosperity, and of making himself happy by an alliance to their virtues.

No. 376.] MONDAY, MAY, 16, 1712.

-Pavone ex Pythagoræo.
PERS., Sat. vi, 11.
From the Pythagorean peacock.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

scream.

"I HAVE observed that the officer you some time ago appointed as inspector of signs, has not done his duty so well as to give you an account of very many strange occurrences in the public streets, which are worthy of, but have escaped, your notice. Among all the oddnesses which I have ever met with, that which I am now telling you gave me most delight. You must have observed that all the cries in the street attract the attention of the passengers, and of the inhabitants in the several parts, by something very particular in their tone itself, in the dwelling upon a note, or else making themselves wholly unintelligible by a The person I am so delighted with has nothing to sell, but very gravely receives the bounty of the people, for no other merit but the homage they pay to his manner of signifying to them that he wants a subsidy. You must sure have heard speak of an old man who walks about the city, and that part of the suburbs which lies beyond the Tower, performing the office of a daywatchman, followed by a goose, which bears the bob of his ditty, and confirms what he says with a'Quack, quack.' I gave little heed to the mention of this known circumstance till, being the other day in those quarters, I passed by a decrepid old fellow with a pele in his hand, who just then was bawling out, Half an hour after one o'clock!' and immediately a dirty goose behind made her response, Quack, quack.' I could not forbear attending this grave procession for the length of half a street, with no small amazement to find the whole place so familiarly acquainted with a melancholy midnight voice at roon-day, giving them the hour, and exhorting them of the departure of time, with a bounce at their doors. While I was full of this novelty, I went into a friend's house, and told him how I was diverted with their whimsical monitor and his equipage.

carried away by odd unaccountable things, which one would think would pass upon no creature which had reason; and under the symbol of this goose, you may enter into the manner and method thick and thin, for they know not what, they of leading creatures with their eyes open through know not why.

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All which is humbly submitted to your spec tatorial wisdom by,

"Sir,

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"I have for several years had under my care the government and education of young ladies, which trust I have endeavored to discharge with due regard to their several capacities and fortunes. I have left nothing undone to imprint in every one of them a humble courteous mind, accompanied with a graceful becoming mien, and have made them pretty much acquainted with the household part of family affairs; but still I find there is something very much wanting in the air of my ladies, different from what I have observed in those who are esteemed your fine-bred women. Now, Sir. I must own to you, I never suffered my girls to learn to dance: but since I have read your discourse of dancing, where you have described the beauty and spirit there is in regular motion, I own myself your convert, and resolve for the future to give my young ladies that accomplishment. But upon imparting my design to their parents, I have been made very uneasy for some time, because several of them have declared, that if I did not make use of the master they recommended, they would take away their children. There was Colonel Jumper's lady, a colonel of the trainbands, that has a great interest in her parish; she recommends Mr. Trot for the prettiest master in town; that no man teaches a jig like him, that she has seen him rise six or seven capers together with the greatest ease imaginable; and that his scholars twist themselves more ways than the scholars of any master in town; beside, there is Madam Prim, an alderman's lady, recommends a master of their own name, but she declares he is not of their family, yet a very extraordinary man in his way; for, beside a very soft air he has in dancing, he gives them a particular behavior at a tea-table, and in presenting their suff-box; teaches to twirl, slip, or flirt a fan, and how to place patches to the best advantage, either for fat or lean, long or oval faces; for my lady says there is more in these things than the world imagines. But I must confess, the major part of those I am

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