It is a maxim in this club, that the steward never dies; for as they fucceed one another by way of rotation, no man is to quit the great elbow-chair which ftands at the upper end of the table, "'till his fucceffor is in a readiness to fill it; infomuch that there has not been a Sede vacante in the memory of man.

This club was inftituted towards the end, or, as fome of them fay, about the middle, of the civil wars, and continued without interruption till the time of the Great Fire, which burnt them out, and difperfed them for feveral weeks. The fteward at that time maintained his poft till he had like to have been blown up with a neighbouring houfe, which was demolished in order to flop the fire; and would not leave the chair at laft, till he had emptied all the bottles upon the table, and received repeated directions from the club to withdraw himfelf. This fteward is frequently talked of in the club, and looked upon by every member of it as a greater man than the famous captain mentioned in my lord Clarendon, who was burnt in his fhip becaufe he would not quit it without orders. It is faid that towards the clofe of 1700, being the great year of jubilee, the club had it under confideration whether they fhould break up or continue their feffion; but after many speeches and debates, it was at length agreed to fit out the other century. This refolution paffed in a general club nemine contradicente.

Having given this fhort account of the inftitution and continuation of the Everlafting Club, I fhould here endeavour to fay fomething of the manners and characters of its feveral members, which I fhall do according to the beft lights I have received in this matter.

It appears by their books in general, that, fince their firft inftitution, they have fmoked fifty tun of tobacco, drank thirty thoufand butts of ale, one thoufand hogfheads of red port, two hundred barrels of brandy, and a kil derkin of fmall-beer. There had been likewife a great confumption of cards. It is alfo faid, that they obferve the law in Ben Jonfon's club, which orders the fire to be a'ways kept in, focus perennis efto, as well for the convenience of lighting their pipes, as to cure the dampnefs of the club-room. They have an old woman in the nature of a veftal, whofe bulinefs it is to cherish and perpetuate the fire which burns from generation to generation, and

has

293 has feen the glafs-houfe fires in and out above an hun-dred times.

The Everlasting Club treats all other clubs with an eye: of contempt, and talks even of the Kit-Cat and October as of a couple of upfarts. Their ordinary discourse, as much as I have been able to learn of it, turns altogether upon fuch adventures as have paffed in their own affembly; of members who have taken the glafs in their turns for a week together, without ftirring out of the club; of others who have not miffed their morning's draught for twenty years together: fometimes they fpeak in raptures of a run of ale in king Charles's reign; and fometimes reflect with aftonishment upon games at whift, which - have been miraculously recovered by members of the fociety, when in all human probability the cafe was defpe-

rate.

They delight in feveral old catches, which they fing at: all hours, to encourage one another to moisten their clay, and grow immortal by drinking; with many other edi-fying exhortations of the like nature.

There are four general clubs held in a year, at which times they fill up vacancies, appoint waiters, confirm thes old fire-maker, or elect a new one, fettle contributions for coals, pipes, tobacco, and other neceffaries.

The fenior member has out-lived the whole club twice over, and has been drunk with the grandfathers of fome of the prefent fitting members.

Thurfday, May 24.

C

N° 73

O Dea certè!

VIRG. En. i. 332.

CO Goddess! for no lefs you seem.

IT is very frange to confider, that a creature like man, who is fenfible of fo many weakneffes and imperfections, fhould be actuated by a love of fame: that vice and ignorance, imperfection and mifery, fhould contend for praife, and endeavour as much as poffible to make themselves objects-of admiration,

But notwithstanding man's effential perfection is bat very little, his comparative perfection may be very confiderable. If he looks upon himfelf in an abstracted light, he has not much to beast of; but if he confiders himself with regard to others, he may find occafion of glorying, if not in his own virtues, at least in the absence of another's imperfections. This gives a different turn to the reflexions of the wife man and the fool. The first endeavours to shine in himself, and the last to outshine others. The first is humbled by the fenfe of his own infirmities, the laft is lifted up by the difcovery of those which he obferves in other men. The wife man confiders what he wants, and the fool what he abounds in. The wife man is happy when he gains his own approbation, and the fool when he recommends himself to the applaufe of those about him.

But however unreasonable and abfurd this paffion for admiration may appear in fuch a creature as man, it is not wholly to be difcouraged; fince it often produces. very good effects, not only as it reftrains him from doing any thing which is mean and contemptible, but as it pushes him to actions which are great and glorious. The principle may be defective or faulty; but the confequences it produces are fo good, that, for the benefit of mankind, it ought not to be extinguished.

It is obferved by Cicero, that men of the greatest and the most shining parts are the most actuated by ambition; and if we look into the two fexes, I believe we shall find: this principle of action ftronger in women than in men.

The paffion for praife, which is fo very vehement in the fair fex, produces excellent effects in women of fenfe, who defire to be admired for that only which deferves ad-miration and I think we may obferve, without a compliment to thein, that many of them do not only live in a. more uniform courfe of virtue, but with an infinitely greater regard to their honour, than what we find in the generality of our own fex. How many inftances have we of chastity, fidelity, devotion? How many ladies diftinguish themselves by the education of their children, care of their families, and love of their husbands, which are the great qualities and atchievements of woman-kind: as the making of war, the carrying on of traffic, the adminiftration of justice, are thofe by which men grow famous, and get themselves a name?

But

But as this paffion for admiration, when it works according to reafon, improves the beautiful part of our fpecies in every thing that is laudable; fo nothing is more deftructive to them when it is governed by vanity and folly. What I have therefore here to fay, only regards the vain part of the fex, whom for certain reafons, which the reader will hereafter fee at large, I fhall diftinguish by the name of Idols. An Idol is wholly taken up in the adorning of her perfon. You fee in every pofture of her body, air of her face, and motion of her head, that it is her bufinefs and employment to gain adorersFor this reafon your Idols appear in all public places and affemblies, in order to feduce men to their worship. The play-houfe is very frequently filled with Idols; feveral of them are carried in proceffion every evening about the Ring, and feveral of them fet up their worship even in churches. They are to be accosted in the language poper to the Deity. Life and death are in their power: joys of heaven and pains of hell are at their disposal : paradife is in their arms; and eternity in every moment that you are prefent with them. Raptures, tranfports, and ecftafies, are the rewards which they confer: fighs and tears, prayers and broken hearts, are the offerings which are paid to them. Their fmiles make men happy; their frowns drive them to defpair. I fhall only add under this head, that Ovid's book of the Art of Love is a kind of. heathen ritual, which contains all the forms of worship which are made use of to an Idol:

It would be as difficult a task to reckon up thefe different kinds of Idols, as Milton's was to number those: that were known in Canaan, and the lands adjoining. Most of them are worshiped, like Moloch, in fire and flames. Some of them, like Baal, love to see their vo-taries cut and flashed, and, fhedding their blood for them like the Idol in the Apocrypha, muft have treats and colla tions prepared for them every night. It has indeed been known, that fome of them have been used by their incensed worshipers like the Chinese Idols, who are whip-ped and fcourged when they refufe to comply with the prayers that are offered to them.

I must here observe, that those idolaters, who devote themselves to the Idols I am here fpeaking of, differ very much from all other kinds of idolaters. For as others

fall out because they worship different Idols, thefe idolaters quarrel because they worship the fame.

The intention therefore of the Idol is quite contrary to the wishes of the idolater: as the one defires to confine the idol to himself, the whole bufinefs and ambition of the other is to multiply adorers. This humour of an Idol is prettily defcribed in a tale of Chaucer : he reprefents one of them fitting at a table with three of her votaries about her, who are all of them courting her favour, and paying their adorations: fhe fmiled upon ore, drank to another, and tred upon the other's foot which was under the table. Now which of those three, fays the old bard, do you think was the favourite? In troth, fays he, not one of all the three.

The behaviour of this old Idol in Chaucer, puts me in mind of the beautiful Clarinda, one of the greatest Idols among the moderns. She is worshiped once a week by candlelight, in the midst of a large congregation, generally called an affembly. Some of the gayeft youths in the nation endeavour to plant themselves in her eye, while the fits in form with multitudes of tapers burning about her. To encourage the zeal of idolaters, fhe beflows a mark of her favour upon every one of them, be fore they go out of her prefence. She asks a question of one, telis a flory to another, glances an ogle upon a third, takes a pinch of fnuff from the fourth, lets her fan drop by accident to give the fifth an occafion of taking it up. In short, every one goes away fatisfied with his fuccefs, and encouraged to renew his devotions on the fame canonical hour that day fevennight..

An Idol may be undeified by many accidental caufes. Marriage in particular is a kind of Counter-Apotheofis, or a deification inverted. When a man becomes familiar with his goddefs, the quickly finks into a woman.

Old age is likewife a great decayer of your Idol. The truth of it is, there is not a more unhappy being than a fuperannuated Idol, especially when he has contracted. fuch airs and behaviour as are only graceful when her worshipers are about her.

Confidering therefore that in these and many other cafes the Woman generally outlives the Idol; I muft return to the moral of this paper, and defire my fair readers to give a proper direction to their paffion for being

admired;