to one of the greateft Congregations of the Church of England about Town: After the Service was over, he declared he was very well fatisfied with the little Ceremony which was ufed towards God Almighty; but at the fame time he feared he fhould not be able to go through thofe required towards one a nother: As to this Point he was in a ftate of Defpair, and feared he was not well-bred enough to be a Convert. There have been many Scandals of this kind given to our Proteftant Diffenters from the outward Pomp and Refpect we take to our felves in our Religious Affemblies. A Quaker who came one day into a Church, fixed his Eye upon an old Lady with a Carpet larger than that from the Pulpit before her, expe&ting when she would hold forth. An Anabaptift who defigns to come over himself, and all his Family, within few Months, is fenfible they want Breeding enough for our Congregations, and has fent his two eldest Daughters to learn to dance, that they may not misbehave themselves at Church: It is worth confidering whether, in regard to aukward People with fcrupulous Confciences, a good Chriftian of the beft Air in the World

World ought not rather to deny her self the Opportunity of fhewing fo many Graces, than keep than keep a bashful Profelyte without the Pale of the Church. T

Graces,than

N9 260, Friday, December 28. vr

Singula de nobis anni prædantur euntes.

Hor.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Am now in the fixty fifth

Year of my Age, and ha

I

ving been the greater part of my Days a Man of Pleasure, the Decay of my Faculties is a Stagnation of my Life. But how is it, Sir, that my Appetites are encreased upon me with the Lofs of Power to gratifie them? I write this, like a Criminal, to warn People to enter upon what Reformation they please to make in themfelves in their Youth, and not expect they fhall be capable of it from a fond Opinion fome have often in their Mouths, that if we do not leave our Defires they

will

will leave us. It is far otherwife: I am now as vain in my Drefs, and as flippant if I fee a pretty Woman, as "when in my Youth I ftood upon a Bench in the Pit to furvey the whole Circle of Beauties. The Folly is fo extravagant with me, and I went on with fo little Check of my Defires, or 'Refignation of them, that I can af fure you, I very often, meerly to entertain my own Thoughts, fit with my Spectacles on, writing Love-Letters to the Beauties that have been long fince in their Graves. This is to warm my Heart with the faint Memory of Delights which were once agreeable to me; but how much happier would my Life have been now, if I could have looked back on any worthy Action done for my Country? If I had laid out that which I profused in Luxury and Wantonnefs, in Acts of Generofity or Charity? I have lived a Batchelor to this Day; and inftead of a numerous Offspring, with which in the regular Ways of Life I might poffibly have delighted my felf, I have only to amufe my felf with the Repetition of old Stories and Intrigues which no one will believe I ever was · con

• concerned in. I do not know whe ther you have ever treated of it or not; but you cannot fall on a better Subject, than that of the Art of growing old. In fuch a Lecture you must 'propofe, that no one fet his Heart upon what is tranfient, the Beauty grows wrinkled while we are yet gazing at her. The witty Man finks into a Humourift imperceptibly," for want of reflecting that all things around him are in a Flux, and continual changing: Thus he is in the fpace of ten or fifteen Years furrounded by a new Set of People, whose C Manners are as natural to them as his Delights, Method of thinking, and "Mode of living, were formerly to him and his Friends. But the Mifchief is, he looks upon the fame kind of Errors which he himself was guilty of with an Eye of Scorn, and with that 'fort of Ill-will which Men entertain against each other for different Opinions: Thus a crafie Conftitution, and an uneafie Mind, is fretted with • vexatious Paffions for young Mens doing foolishly what it is Folly to do at all. Dear Sir, this is my present State of Mind, I hate thofe I fhould

laugh

bat,

and envy thofe I contemn. The time of Youth and vigorous Manhood, paffed the Way in which I have difpofed of it, is attended with thefe Confequences; but to thofe who live and pafs away a Life as they ought, all Parts of it are equally plea fant, only the Memory of good and worthy Actions is a Feaft which must give a quicker Relish to the Soul, than ever it could poffibly tafte in the highest Enjoyments or Jollities of Youth. As for me, if I fit down in my great Chair and begin to ponder, the Vagaries of a Child are not more ridiculous than the Circumftances which are heaped up in my Memory; fine Gowns, Country "Dances, Ends of Tunes, interrupted Converfations, and mid-night Quarrels, are what muft neceffarily compofe my Soliloquy. I beg of you to print this, that fome Ladies of my Acquaintance, and my Years, may be perfwaded to wear warm NightCaps this cold Seafon; and that my old Friend Jack Tawdery may buy him a Cane, and not creep with the Air of a Strut. I must add to all this, that if it were not for one Plea

1

fure,