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with the active part of mankind. Knowledge of books in reclufe men, is like that fort of lanthorn which hides him who carries it, and ferves only to pass through fecret and gloomy paths of his own; but in the poffeffion of a man of bufinefs, it is as a torch in the hand of one who is willing and able to fhew, thofe, who are bewildered, the way which leads to their profperity and welfare. A generous concern for your country, and a paffion for every thing which is truly great and noble, are what actuate all Your life and actions; and I hope You will forgive me that I have an ambition this book may be placed in the library of fo good a judge of what is valuable, in that library where the choice is fuch, that it will not be a difparage

.

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ment

ment to be the meaneft author in it. Forgive me, my Lord, for taking this occafion of telling all the world how ardently I love and honour You; and that I am, with the utmost gratitude for all your favours,

My LORD,

Your Lordship's

moft obliged,

moft obedient, and

most bumble Servant,

The SPECTATOR.

THE

SPECTATOR.

N°81 Saturday,
Saturday, June 2, 1711.

Qualis ubi audito venantum murmure tigris
Horruit in maculas —

A

Statiuss

As when the tigrefs hears the hunter's din,-
A thousand angry fpots defile her fkin.

BOUT the middle of laft winter Twent to fee an opera at the theatre in the Haymarket, where I could not but take notice of two parties of very fine women, that had placed themfelves in the oppofite fideboxes, and feemed drawn up in a kind of battle-array one against another. After a fhort furvey of them, I found they were patch'd differently; the faces on one hand being spotted on the right fide of the forehead, and thofe upon the other on the left. I quickly perceived that they caft hoftile glances upon one another; and that their patches were placed in thofe different fituations, as party-fignals to diftinguish friends from foes. In the middle-boxes, between thefe two oppofite: A 4

bodies,