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military Hats glare full in the Face; and he has prepared a familiar cafy Cock for all good Companions beC tween the above-mentioned Extremes. For this end he has confulted the moft Learned of his Acquaintance for the true Form and Dimenfions of the Lepidum Caput, and made a Hat fit for it.

YOUR faid Officer does further reprefent, That the young Divines about Town are many of them got inC to the Cock Military, and defires your Inftructions therein.

T

THAT the Town has been for feveral Days very well behaved; and further your faid Officer faith not.

Tuef

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N° 533.

Tuesday, November 11.

Immo duas dabo, inquit illo, una fi parum eft: Et fi duarum poenitebit, adduntur dua.

Plaut.

To the SPECTATOR.

SIR,

Y

OU have often given us very excellent Difcour fes against that unnatural Cuftom of Parents, in forcing their Children to marry contrary to their Inclinations. My own Cafe, without further Preface, I will lay before you, and leave you to judge of it. My Father and Mother both being in declining Years, would fain fee me, their eldest Son, C as they call it fettled. I am as much for that as they can be; but I must be fettled, it seems, not according to my C own, but their liking. Upon this account I am teazed every day, because I have not yet fallen in love, in fpite

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of Nature, with one of a neighbouring Gentleman's Daughters; for out of their abundant Generofity, they give me the choice of four. Jack, begins my Father, Mrs. Catherine is a fine Woman Yes, Sir, but the is rather too old She will make 'the more difcreet Manager, Boy. • Then my Mother plays her part. Is not Mrs. Betty exceeding fair? Yes Madam, but he is of no Converfation; fhe has no Fire, no agreeable Vivacity; fhe neither fpeaks nor looks 'with Spirit. True, Son; but for those very reafons, the will be an eafy, foft, obliging, tractable Creature. After all, cries an old Aunt, (who belongs to the Clafs of thofe who read Plays with Spectacles on) what think you, Nephew, of proper Mrs. Dorothy? 'What do I think? why I think fhe cannot be above fix foot two inches high. Well, well, you may banter as long as you please, but Height of Stature is commanding and majeftick. Come, come, fays a Coufin of mine in the Family, I'll fit him; Fidelia is yet behind. Pretty Mifs Fiddy muft please you-Oh! your very humble Servant, dear Cof. fhe is as much too young

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young as her eldest Sifter is too old. Is it fo indeed, quoth fhe, good Mr. Pert? You, who are but barely turned of twenty two, and Mifs Fiddy in C half a Year's time will be in her Teens, C and fhe is capable of learning any thing. Then the will be fo obfervant; fhe'll cry perhaps now and then, but never be angry. Thus they 'will think for me in this matter, wherein I am more particularly concerned than any body elfe. If I name any 'Woman in the World, one of these Daughters has certainly the fame Qualities. You fee by these few Hints, 'Mr. SPECTATOR, what a comfortable Life I lead. To be still more open and free with you, I have been • paffionately fond of a young Lady (whom give me leave to call Miranda) now for thefe three Years. I have often urged the matter home to my Parents with all the Submiffion of a Son, but the Impatience of a Lover. Pray, Sir, think of three Years; what inexpreffible Scenes of Inquietude, what Variety of Mifery must I have gone through in three long whole Years? Miranda's Fortune is equal to thofe I have mentioned; but her Re

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lations are not Intimates with mine. Ah! there's the Rub. Miranda's Perfon, Wit, and Humour, are what the nicest Fancy could imagine; and though we know you to be fo elegant a Judge of Beauty, yet there is none among all your various Characters of 'fine Women preferable to Miranda. In a word, she is never guilty of doing any thing but one amifs, (if she can be thought to do amifs by me) in 'being as blind to my Faults, as he is to her own Perfections.

I am, SIR,

! Your very humble obedient Servant,

Duftereraftus.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

WHEN you spent so much time as you did fately in cenfuring

the ambitious young Gentlemen who ride in Triumph through Town and Country in Coach-boxes, I wished you had employed thofe Moments in confideration of what paffes fometimes within-fide of thofe Vehicles. I am fure I fuffered fufficiently by the Info

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