Talents within the Observation of such as should take Notice
of them. He was some Years a Captain, and behaved
himself with great Gallantry in several Engagements, and
at several Sieges; but having a small Estate of his own,
and being next Heir to Sir ROGER, he has quitted a Way of
Life in which no Man can rise suitably to his Merit, who
is not something of a Courtier as well as a Soldier. I
have heard him often lament, that in a Profession where
Merit is placed in so conspicuous a View, Impudence
should get the better of Modesty. When he has talked to
this Purpose I never heard him make a sour Expression,
but frankly confess that he left the World, because he was
not fit for it. A strict Honesty and an even regular
Behaviour, are in themselves Obstacles to him that must
press through Crowds, who endeavour at the same End
with himself, the Favour of a Commander, He will
however in his Way of Talk excuse Generals, for not
disposing according to Mens Desert, or enquiring into it:
For, says he, that great Man who has a Mind to help me,
has as many to break through to come at me, as I have to
come at him: Therefore he will conclude, that the Man
who would make a Figure, especially in a military Way,
must get over all false Modesty, and assist his Patron
against the Importunity of other Pretenders, by a proper
Assurance in his own Vindication. He says it is a civil
Cowardice to be backward in asserting what you ought to
expect, as it is a military Fear to be slow in attacking
when it is your Duty, With this Candour does the
Gentleman speak of himself and others.
The same

The

Frankness runs through all his Conversation. military Part of his Life has furnish'd him with many Adventures, in the Relation of which he is very agreeable to the Company; for he is never over-bearing, though accustomed to command Men in the utmost Degree below him; nor ever too obsequious, from an Habit of obeying Men highly above him

But that our Society may not appear a Set of Humourists unacquainted with the Gallantries and Pleasures of the Age, we have among us the gallant WILL. HONEYCOMB, a Gentleman who according to his Years should be in the Decline of his Life, but having

1711.

ever been very careful of his Person, and always had No. 2. a very easie Fortune, Time has made but very little Friday, Impression, either by Wrinkles on his Forehead, or Traces March 2, in his Brain. His Person is well turn'd, of a good Height He is very ready at that sort of Discourse with which Men usually entertain Women, He has all his Life dressed very well, and remembers Habits as others do Men. He can smile when one speaks to him, and laughs easily. He knows the History of every Mode, and can inform you from which of the French King's Wenches our Wives and Daughters had this Manner of curling their Hair, that Way of placing their Hoods; whose Frailty was covered by such a Sort of Petticoat, and whose Vanity to shew her Foot_made that Part of the Dress so short in such a Year, In a Word, all his Conversation and Knowledge has been in the female World: As other Men of his Age will take Notice to you what such a Minister said upon such and such an Occasion, he will tell you when the Duke of Monmouth danced at Court such a Woman was then smitten, another was taken with him at the Head of his Troop in the Park. In all these important Relations, he has ever about the same Time received a kind Glance or a Blow of a Fan from some celebrated Beauty, Mother of the Present Lord such-a-one. If you speak of a young Commoner that said a lively thing in the House, he starts up, 'He has good Blood in his Veins, Tom Mirabell begot him, the Rogue cheated me in that affair; that young Fellow's Mother used me more like a Dog than_any Woman I ever made Advances to. This way of Talking of his very much enlivens the Conversation among us of a more sedate Turn; and I find there is not one of the Company, but my self, who rarely speak at all, but speaks of him as of that Sort of Man, who is usually called a well-bred fine Gentleman, To conclude his Character, where Women are not concern'd, he is an honest worthy Man.

I cannot tell whether I am to account him whom I am next to speak of, as one of our Company; for he visits us but seldom, but when he does it adds to every Man else a new Enjoyment of himself. He is a Clergy

man,

man, a very philosophick Man, of general Learning, great Sanctity of Life, and the most exact good Breeding, He has the Misfortune to be of a very weak Constitution, and consequently cannot accept of such Cares and Business as Preferments in his Function would oblige him to: He is therefore among Divines what a Chamber Counsellor is among Lawyers. The Probity of his Mind, and the Integrity of his Life, create him Followers, as being eloquent or loud advances others, He seldom introduces the Subject he speaks upon; but we are so far gone in Years, that he observes, when he is among us, an Earnestness to have him fall on some divine Topick, which he always treats with much Authority, as one who has no Interests in this World, as one who is hastening to the Object of all his Wishes, and conceives Hope from his Decays and Infirmities. These are my ordinary Companions.

No. 3,
[ADDISON.]

Saturday, March 3.

Et quo quisque fere studio devinctus adhaeret
Aut quibus in rebus multum sumus ante morati
Atque in ea ratione fuit contenta magis mens,

In somnis eadem plerumque videmur obire.—Lucr. L. 4.

R

INooned into theatre &t Hall where the Bank is kept, and

N one of my late Rambles, or rather Speculations, I

was not a little pleased to see the Directors, Secretaries, and Clerks, with all the other Members of that wealthy Corporation, ranged in their several Stations, according to the Parts they act in that just and regular Oeconomy, This revived in my Memory the many Discourses which I had both read and heard concerning the Decay of Publick Credit, with the Methods of restoring it, and which, in my Opinion, have always been defective, because they have always been made with an Eye to separate Interests, and Party Principles.

The Thoughts of the Day gave my Mind Employ ment for the whole Night, so that I fell insensibly into a kind of Methodical Dream, which dispos'd all my Contemplations into a Vision or Allegory, or what else the Reader shall please to call it.

Methoughts

March 3,

Methoughts I returned to the Great Hall, where I had No. 3. been the Morning before, but, to my Surprize, instead of Saturday, the Company that I left there, I saw towards the upper 1711 end of the Hall, a beautiful Virgin seated on a Throne of Gold, Her Name (as they told me) was Publick Credit. The Walls, instead of being adorn'd with Pictures and Maps, were hung with many Acts of Parliament written in Golden Letters. At the Upper end of the Hall was the Magna Charta, with the Act of Uniformity on the right Hand, and the Act of Toleration on the left. At the Lower end of the Hall was the Act of Settlement, which was placed full in the Eye of the Virgin that sat upon the Throne, Both the Sides of the Hall were covered with such Acts of Parliament as had been made for the Establishment of Publick Funds. The Lady seemed to set an unspeakable Value upon these several Pieces of Furniture, insomuch that she often refreshed her Eye with them, and often smiled with a Secret Pleasure, as she looked upon them; but, at the same time, showed a very particular Uneasiness, if she saw any thing approaching that might hurt them. She appeared indeed infinitely timorous in all her Behaviour: And, whether it was from the Delicacy of her Constitu tion, or that she was troubled with Vapours, as I was afterwards told by one who I found was none of her Well-wishers, she changed Colour, and startled at every thing she heard. She was likewise (as I afterwards found) a greater Valetudinarian than any I had ever met with, even in her own Sex, and subject to such Momentary Consumptions, that in the twinkling of an Eye, she would fall away from the most florid Com plexion, and the most healthful State of Body, and wither into a Skeleton. Her Recoveries were often as sudden as her Decays, insomuch that she would revive in a Moment out of a wasting Distemper, into a Habit of the highest Health and Vigour.

I had very soon an Opportunity of observing these quick Turns and Changes in her Constitution. There sat at her Feet a Couple of Secretaries, who received every Hour Letters from all Parts of the World, which the one or the other of them was perpetually reading

to

No. 3. to her; and, according to the News she heard, to Saturday, which she was exceedingly attentive, she changed March 3, Colour, and discovered many Symptoms of Health or Sickness.

1711

Behind the Throne was a prodigious Heap of Bags of Mony, which were piled upon one another so high that they touched the Ceiling. The Floor, on her right Hand and on her left, was covered with vast Sums of Gold that rose up in Pyramids on either side of her: But this I did not so much wonder at, when I heard, upon Enquiry, that she had the same Virtue in her Touch, which the Poets tell us a Lydian King was formerly possess'd of; and that she could convert what ever she pleas'd into that precious Metal.

*After a little Dizziness, and confused Hurry of Thought, which a Man often meets with in a Dream, methoughts the Hall was alarm'd, the Doors flew open and there enter'd half a dozen of the most hideous Phantoms that I had ever seen (even in a Dream) before that Time. They came in two by two, though match'd in the most dissociable Manner, and mingled together in a kind of Dance. It would be tedious to describe their Habits and Persons; for which Reason I shall only inform my Reader that the first Couple were Tyranny and Anarchy, the second were Bigotry and Atheism, the third the Genius of a Common-Wealth, and a young Man of about twenty two Years of Age, whose Name I could not learn. He had a Sword in his right Hand, which in the Dance he often brandished at the Act of Settlement; and a Citizen, who stood by me, whisper'd my Ear, that he saw a Spunge in his left Hand. Dance of so many jarring Natures put me in mind of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, in the Rehearsal, that danced together for no other end but to eclipse one another,

in

The

The Reader will easily suppose, by what has been before said, that the Lady on the Throne would have been almost frighted to Distraction, had she seen but any one of these Spectres; what then must have been her Condition when she saw them all in a Body? She fainted and dyed away at the Sight.

Et