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find themselves agree in any particular, tho' never so trivial, they establish themselves into a kind of fraternity, and meet once or twice a week, upon the account of fuch a fantastic resemblance. I know a confiderable markettown, in which there was a club of fat men, that did not come together, as you may well fuppofe, to entertain one another with fprightliness and wit, but to keep one another in countenance; the room where 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 look'd 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, tho' it confifled but of fifteen perfons, weighed above three tun.

In oppofition to this society, there sprung up another compofed of fcarecrows and skeletons, who being very meagre and envious, did all they could to thwart the defigns of their bulky brethren, whom they represented as men of dangerous principles; till 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 several years, till 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 magistrates 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 furname of King, which, as they imagined, fufficiently declared the owners of it to be altogether untainted with republican and antimonarchical 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 swear before George, is still fresh in every one's memory.

There

There are at present in feveral 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 enquiring after lodgings in Ormond-ftreet, 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 discourse 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 inconveniencies for the future) had thoughts of taking every house that became vacant into their own hands, till they had found a tenant for it, of a fociable nature and good conversation.

The Hum-Drum club, of which I was formerly an unworthy member, was made up of very honeft gentlemen, of peaceable difpofitions, that used to fit together, fmoke their pipes, and fay nothing till midnight. The Mumclub, as I am informed, is an inftitution 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 Duellifts, 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 single combat; and as for the other members, they took their feats 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 confitting 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 inftitution.

Our modern celebrated clubs are founded upon eating and drinking, which are points wherein moft men agree, and in which the learned and illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philosopher 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 Beaf-Steak, 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

When men are thus knit together, by a love of fociety, not a fpirit of faction, and don't meet to cenfure or annoy those that are abfent, 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 fcheme of laws that I met with upon a wall in a little alchouse : how I came thither I may inform my reader at a more convenient time. These laws were enacted by a knot of artifans and mechanics, 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 case of fickness or imprifonment.

IV. If any member swears or curses, his neighbour may give him a kick upon the shins.

V. If any member tells stories in the club that are not true, he shall forfeit for every third lye, an halfpenny.

VI. If any member strikes another wrongfully, he shall pay his club for him.

VII. If any member brings his wife into the club, he shall pay for whatever she drinks or fmokes.

VIII. If any member's wife comes to fetch him home from the club, she shall fpeak to him without the door. IX. If any member calls another cuckold, he shall be turned out of the club.

X. None X. None shall be admitted into the club that is of the fame trade with any member of it.

XI. None of the club shall have his clothes or shoes made or mended, but by a brother-member.

XII. No Non-juror shall be capable of being a member.

The morality of this little club is guarded by fuch wholsome laws and penalties, that I question not but my reader will be as well pleased with them, as he would have been with the Leges Convivales of Ben Jonfon, the regulations of an old Roman club cited by Lipfius, or the rules of a Symposium in an ancient Greek author.

N° 10

I

Monday, March 12.

Non aliter quàm qui adverso vix flumine lembum
Remigiis fubigit: fi brachia fortè remifit,

Arque illum in præceps prono rapit alveus amni.

C

VIRG. Georg. I. ver. 201.

So the boat's brawny crew the current stem,
And, flow advancing, struggle with the stream:
But if they flack their hands, or cease to ítrive,
Then down the flood with headlong haste they drive.
DRYDEN.

T is with much fatisfaction that I hear this great city inquiring day by day after these my papers, and receiving my morning lectures with a becoming ferioufness and attention. My publisher tells me, that there are already three thousand of them distributed every day; fo that if I allow twenty readers to every paper, which I look upon as a modest computation, I may reckon about threefcore thousand disciples in London and Westminfter, who I hope will take care to diftinguith themselves from the thoughtless herd of their ignorant and unattentive brethren. Since I have raised to myself so great an audience, I shall spare no pains to make their instruction agreeable, agreeable, and their diversion useful. For which rea fons I shall endeavour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality, that my readers may, if poffible, both ways find their account in the speculation of the day. And to the end that their virtue and difcretion may not be short tranfient intermitting starts of thought, I have refolved to refresh their memories from day to day, till I have recovered them out of that defperate state of vice and folly into which the age is fallen. The mind that lies fallow but a fingle day, iprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by a conftant and affiduous culture. It was faid of Socrates, that he brought philosophy down from heaven, to inhabit among men; and I shall be ambitious to have it faid of me, that I have brought philofophy out of clofets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and afsemblies, at tea-tables and in coffee-houses.

I would therefore in a very particular manner recommend these my speculations to all well-regulated families, that fet apart an hour in every morning for tea and bread and butter; and would earnestly advise them for their good to order this paper to be punctually served up, and to be looked upon as a part of the tea-equipage.

Sir Francis Bacon observes, that a well-written book, compared with its rivals and antagoniils, is like Mofes's ferpent, that immediately fwallowed up and devoured those of the Ægyptians. I shall not be so vain as to think, that where the Spectator appears, the other public prints will vanish; but shall leave it to my readers confideration, whether it is not much better to be let into the knowledge of one's self, than to hear what passes in Muscovy or Poland; and to amuse ourselves with fuch writings as tend to the wearing out of ignorance, paffion, and prejudice, than such as naturally conduce to inflame hatreds, and make enmities irreconcilable?

In the next place I would recommend this paper to the daily perufal of those Gentlemen whom I cannot but confider as my good brothers and allies, I mean the fraternity of spectators, who live in the world without having any thing to do in it; and either by the affluence of their fortunes, or laziness of their difpofitions, have

no

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