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can make for it, is to warn others not to fall into the like. In order to this I must acquaint you, ⚫ that some time in February last I went to the Tuef• day's masquerade. Upon my first going in I was • attacked by half a dozen female quakers, who • feemed willing to adopt me for a brother; but

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upon a nearer examination, I found they were a • fisterhood of coquettes disguised in that precife 'habit. I was foon after taken out to dance, and,

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as I fancied, by a woman of the first quality, for < she was very tall, and moved gracefully. As foon as the minuet was over, we ogled one another through our masks; and, as I am very well read ' in Waller, I repeated to her the four following ' verses out of his poem to Vandike.

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The heedless lover does not know
Whose eyes they are that wound him fo;
But, confounded with thy art,

Inquires her name that has his heart.

‹ I pronounced these words with fuch a lauguish

ing air that I had fome reafon to conclude I had made a conquest. She told me that the hoped my face was not a-kin to my tongue, and looking upon her watch, I accidentally difcovered the figure of a coronet on the back part of it. I was so transported with the thought of fuch an amour, that I plied her from one room to another with all the gallantries I could invent; and at length brought things to fo happy an issue, that ' she gave me a private meeting the next day, without page or footman, coach or equipage. My heart danced in raptures, but I had not lived in ⚫ this golden dream above three days, before I * found good reason to wish that I had continued true to my laundress. I have fince heard, by a very great accident, that this fine lady does not live far from Covent-Garden, and that I am not

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' the first cully whom she has passed herself upon 'for a countess.

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Thus, Sir, you see how I have mistaken a • Cloud for a Juno; and if you can make any use ' of this adventure, for the benefit of those who may poffibly be as vain young coxcombs as my

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felf, I do most heartily give you leave. I am, Sir,

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Your most humble admirer,

B. L.'

I design to visit the next masquerade myself, in the fame habit I wore at Grand Cairo; and until then shall fufpend my judgment of this midnight entertainment.

C

No 9. SATURDAY, MARCH 10.

-Tigris agit rabidâ cum tigride pacem
Perpetuam, Jaevis inter fe convenit urfis.
Juv. Sat. xv. ver. 163.
Tiger with tiger, bear with bear, you'll find
In leagues offenfive and defenfive join'd.

TATE.

MA AN is faid to be a fociable animal, and, as an instance of it, we may observe, that we take all occafions and pretences of forming ourselves into those little nocturnal affemblies, which are commonly known by the name of clubs. When a fet of men find themselves agree in any particular, though never so trivial, they establish themselves into a kind of fraternity, and meet once or twice a week, upon the account of fuch a fantastick resemblance. I know a confiderable market-town, in which there was a club of fat men, that did not come together (as you may well suppose) to entertain one another with sprightliness and wit, but to keep one another in countenance. The room where VOL. I.

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the club met was fomething of the largest, and had two entrances, the one by a door of a moderate fize, and the other by a pair of folding doors. If a candidate for this corpulent club could make his entrance through the first, he was looked upon as unqualified; but if he stuck in the paffage, and could not force his way through it, the folding doors were immediately thrown open for his reception, and he was faluted as a brother. I have heard that this club, though it consisted but of fifteen perfons, weighed above three tun.

In oppofition to this society, there sprung up ànother, compofed of scarecrows and skeletons, who, being very meagre and envious, did all they could to thwart the designs of their bulky brethren, whom they represented as men of dangerous principles; until at length they worked them out of the favour of the people, and confequently out of the magiftracy. These factions tore the corporation in pieces for feveral years, until at length they came to this accommodation; that the two bailiffs of the town should be annually chofen out of the two clubs ; by which means the principal magiftrates are at this day coupled like rabbets, one fat and one lean.

Every one has heard of the club, or rather the confederacy of the Kings. This grand alliance was formed a little after the return of King Charles the Second, and admitted into it men of all qualities and profeffions, provided they agreed in the firname of King, which, as they imagined, fufficiently declared the owners of it to be altogether untainted with republican and anti-monarchical principles.

A Christian name has likewife been often used as a badge of distinction, and made the occafion of a club. That of the George's, which used to meet at the fign of the George on St. George's day, and fwear Before George, is still fresh in every one's me

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1.There

There are at present in several parts of this city

what they call Street-Clubs, in which the chief inhabitants of the street converse together every night. I remember, upon my inquiring after lodgings in Ormond-Street, the landlord, to recommend that quarter of the town, told me, there was at that time a very good club in it; he alfo told me, upon farther difcourse with him, that two or three noify country-fquires, who were fettled there the year before, had confiderably funk the price of houserent; and that the club (to prevent the like inconveniences for the future) had thoughts of taking every house that became vacant into their own hands, until they had found a tenant for it, of a fociable nature and good converfation.

The Hum-Drum club, of which I was formerly an unworthy member, was made up of very honeft gentlemen, of peaceable dispositions, that used to fit together, smoke their pipes, and say nothing until midnight. The Mum club (as I am informed) is an institution of the fame nature, and as great an enemy to noife.

After these two innocent societies, I cannot forbear mentioning a very mischievous one, that was erected in the reign of King Charles the Second: I mean the Club of Duelists, in which none was to be admitted that had not fought his man. The prefident of it was faid to have killed half a dozen in fingle combat; and, as for the other members, they took their seats according to the number of their flain. There was likewise a fide-table, for fuch as had only drawn blood, and shewn a laudable ambition of taking the first opportunity to qualify themselves for the first table. This club, confifting only of men of honour, did not continue long, most of the members of it being put to the fword, or hanged, a little after its institution.

Our modern celebrated clubs are founded upon cating and drinking, which are points wherein most

men agree, and in which the learned and illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philofopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear a part. The Kit-Cat itself is faid to have taken its original from a mutton-pye. 'The Beef-Stake, and October clubs, are neither of them averse to eating and drinking, if we may form a judgment of them from their respective titles.

When men are thus knit together, by a love of fociety, not a fpirit of faction, and do not meet to cenfure or annoy those that are absent, but to enjoy one another; when they are thus combined for their own improvement, or for the good of others, or at least to relax themselves from the business of the day, by an innocent and chearful converfation, there may be fomething very useful in these little institutions and establishments.

I cannot forbear concluding this paper with a scheme of laws that I met with upon a wall in a little alehouse: How I came thither I may inform my Reader at a more convenient time. These laws were enacted by a knot of artisans and mechanicks, who used to meet every night; and, as there is fomething in them which gives us a pretty picture of low life, I shall tranfcribe them word for word.

RULES to be observed in the Two-Penny Club, erected in this place for the preservation of friendship and good neighbourhood.

I. Every member at his first coming in shall lay down his two-pence.

II. Every member shall fill his pipe out of his own box.

III. If any member absents himself, he shall forfeit a penny for the use of the club, unless in cafe of fickness or imprisonment.

IV. If any member fwears or curses, his neigh

bour may give him a kick upon the thins.

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