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great heaps of gold on either fide the throne now appeared to be only heaps of paper, or little piles of notched ticks, bound up together in bundles like Bath-faggots.

Whilft I was lamenting this fudden defolation that had been made before me, the whole fcene vanished: In the room of the frightful fpectres, there now entered a fecond dance of apparitions, very agreeably matched together, and made up of very amiable phantoms. The first pair was Liberty with Monarchy at her right hand; the fecond was Moderation, leading in Religion; and the third a perfon' whom I had never feen, with the genius of Great Britain.

with which others are tormented, is the only pleafing folitude. I can very justly fay with the ancient fage," I am never lefs alone than when alone." As I am infignificant to the company' in public places, and as it is vifible I do not come thither, as most do, to fhew myfelf; I gratify the vanity of all who pretend to make an appearance, and have often as kind looks from well-drefs'd gentlemen and ladies, as a poet would bestow upon one of his audience. There are fo many gratifications attend this public fort of obfcurity, that fome little diftaftes I daily receive have loft their anguifh; and I did the other day, without the leaft difpleasure, over"That ftrange fellow;" hear one fay of me,

was.

At the firft entrance the Lady revived, the bags fwelled to their former bulk, the piles of faggots and heaps of paper and another answer, "I have known the fellow's "face these twelve years, and fo muft you; but changed into pyramids of guincas; and for my "I believe you are the first ever afked who he own part, I was fo tranfported with joy, that I There are, I must confefs, many to awaked, though, I must confefs, I would fain have fallen asleep again to have closed my vifion, if I whom my perfon is as well known as that of C. their nearest relations, who give themfelves no farther trouble about calling me by my name or quality, but speak of me very currently by Mr. What d'ye call him.

could have done it.

N° 4.
MONDAY, MARCH 5.
---Egregii mortalem altique filenti ?

HOR. Sat. 6. 1. 2. v. 58.

One of uncommon filencé and referve.

A

N author, when he first appears in the world, is very apt to believe it has nothing to think of but his performances. With a good share of this vanity in my heart, I made it my bufinefs these three days to liften after my own fame; and as I have fometimes met with circumftances which did not difplease me, I have been encountered by others which gave me as much mortification. It is incredible to think how empty I have in this time obferved fome part of the fpecies to be, what mere blanks they are when they firft come abroad in the morning, how utterly they are at a stand until they are a fet a-going by fome paragraph in a news-paper: fuch perfons are very acceptable to a young author, for they defire no more in any thing but to be new to be agreeable. If I found confolation among fuch, I was as much difquieted by the incapacity of others. Thefe are mortals who have a certain curiofity without power of reflection, and perused my papers like fpectators rather than readers. But there is fo little pleasure in inquiries that fo nearly concern ourfelves (it being the worst way in the world to fame, to be too anxious about it) that upon the whole I refolved for the future to go on in my ordinary way; and without too much fear or hope about the bufinefs of reputation, to be very careful of the design of my actions, but very negligent of the confequences of them.

It is an endless and frivolous purfuit to act by any other rule than the care of fatisfying our own minds in what we do. One would think a filent man, who concerned himself with no one breathing, fhould be very little liable to misinterpretations; and yet I remember I was once taken up for a Jefuit, for no other reafon but my profound taciturnity. It is from this misfortune, that to be out of harm's way, I have ever fince affected crowds. He who comes into affemblies only to gratify his curiofity, and not to make a figure, enjoys the pleafures of retirement in a more exquifite degree than he poffibly could in his clofet; the lover, the ambitious, and the mifer, are followed thither by a worse crowd than any they can withdraw from. To be exempt from the paffions

To make up for thefe trivial difadvantages, I have the high fatisfaction of beholding all nature with an unprejudiced eye; and having nothing to do with men's paffions or interefts, I can with the greater fagacity confider their talents, manners, failings, and me

rits.

It is remarkable that thofe who want any one fenfe poffefs the others with greater force and vivacity. Thus my want of, or rather refignation of, fpeech, gives me all the advantages of a dumb man. I have, methinks, a more than ordinary penetration in feeing; and flatter myself that I have looked into the higheft and loweft of mankind, and make fhrewd gueffes, without being. admitted to their conversation, at the inmost thoughts and reflections of all whom I behold. It is from hence that good or ill fortune has no manner of force towards affecting my judgment, I fee men flourishing in courts, and languishing in jails, without being prejudiced from their circumftances to their favour or disadvantage; but from their inward manner of bearing their condition, often pity the profperous, and admire the unhappy.

Thofe who converfe with the dumb, know from the turn of their eyes, and the changes of their countenances, their fentiments of the objects before them. I have indulged my filence to fuch an extravagance, that the few who are intimate with me, anfwer my fmiles with concurrent fentences, and argue to the very point I thaked my head at, without my fpeaking. Will Honeycomb was very entertaining the other night at a play, to a gentleman who fat on his right hand, while I was at his left. The gentleman believed Will was talking to himself, when upon my looking with great approbation at a young thing in a box before us, he faid, "I am quite. "of another opinion. She has, I allow, a very "pleasing aspect, but methinks that fimplicity "in her countenance is rather childish than in"nocent." When I obferved her a second time, he faid, "I grant her dress is very becoming, but "perhaps the merit of that choice is owing to "her mother; for though, continued he, I al"low a beauty to be as much commended for "the elegance of her drefs, as a wit for that of "his language; yet if the has ftolen the colour

"of

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"of her ribbonds from an other, or had advice "about her trimmings, I fhall not allow her the "praise of drefs, any more than I would call a plagiary an author." When I threw my eyes towards the next woman to her, Will fpoke what I looked, according to his romantic imagination, in the following manner.

"Behold, you who dare, that charming virgin; "behold the beauty of her perfon chaftifed by "the innocence of her thoughts. Chastity, "good-nature, and affability, are the graces "that play in her countenance; fhe knows fhe is "handsome, but she knows he is good. Con"fcious beauty adorned with confcious virtue ! "What a spirit are there in those eyes! What a "bloom in that perfon! How is the whole wo44 man expreffed in her appearance! her air has "the beauty of motion, and her look the force "of language."

It was prudence to turn away my eyes from this object, and therefore I turned them to the thoughtless creatures who make up the lump of that fex, and move a knowing eye no more than the portraitures of infignificant people by ordinary painters, which are but pictures of pictures.

Thus the working of my own mind is the general entertainment of my life; I never enter into the commerce of discourse with any but my particular friends, and not in public even with them. Such an habit has perhaps raised in me uncommon reflections; but this effect I cannot communicate but by my writings. As my pleasures are almost wholly confined to thofe of the fight, I take it for a peculiar happiness that I have always had an easy and familiar admittance to the fair fex. If I never praifed or flattered, I never belyed or contradicted them. As thefe compofe half the world, and are, by the just complaifance and gallantry of our nation, the more powerful part of our people, I shall dedicate a confiderable fhare of thefe my fpeculations to their fervice, and fhall lead the young through all the becoming duties of virginity, marriage and widowhood. When it is a woman's day, in my works, I fhall endeavour at a ftile and air fuitable to their understanding. When I fay this, I must be underftood to mean, that I fhall not lower but exalt the fubjects I treat upon. Difcourfe for their entertainment, is not to be debafed but refined. A man may appear learned without talking fentences, as in his ordinay gefture he difcovers he can dance though he cannot cut capers. In a word, I fhall take it for the greatest glory of my work, if among perfonable women this paper may furnish Tea-Table Talk. In order to it, I fhall treat on matters which relate to females, as

they are concerned to approach or fly from the other fex, or as they are tied to them by blood, intereft, or affection. Upon this occafion I think it but reasonable to declare, that whatever fkill 1 may have in fpeculation, I fhall never betray what the eyes of lovers fay to each other in my prefence. At the fame time I fhall not think myfelf obliged, by this promife, to conceal any falfe proteftations which I obferve made by glances in public affemblies; but endeavour to make both fexes appear in their conduct what they are in their hearts. By this means, love, during the sime of my fpeculations, fhall be carried on with the fame fincerity as any other affairs of less confideration. As this is the greatest concern, men fhall be from henceforth liable to the greatest reproach.ior mifcchaviour in it. Falfehood in

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HOR, Ars Poet, ver. 5. Admitted to the fight, wou'd you not laugh?

Common fenfe

N Opera may be allowed to be extravagantAly decorations, as its only fign is to gratify the fenfes, and keep up an indolent attention in the audience. however requires, that there should be nothing in the fcenes and machines which may appear childifh and abfurd. How would the wits of King Charles's time have laughed to have feen Nicolini expofed to a tempeft in robes of ermine, and failing in an open boat upon a fea of pafteboard? What a field of raillery would they have been let into, had they been entertained with painted dragons fpitting wild-fire, enchanted chariots drawn by Flanders mares, and real cascades in artificial landfkips? A little skill in criticifm would inform us, that fhadows and realities ought not to the fcenes which are defigned as the reprefentatibe mixed together in the fame piece; and, that and not with the things themfelves. If one would on of nature, fhould be filled with refemblances, reprefent a wide champain country filled with herds and flocks, it would be ridiculous to draw the country only upon the fcenes, and to croud feveral parts of the ftage with fheep and oxen. This is joining together inconfiftencies, and making the decoration partly real and partly imaginary. I would recommend what I have faid here to the directors, as well as to the admirers of our modern Opera.

As i was walking in the streets about a fortnight ago, I faw an ordinary fellow carrying a cage full of little birds upon his shoulder; and, as I was wondering with myself what use he would put them to, he was met very luckily by an acquaintance, who had the fame curiofity. Upon his afking him what he had upon his fhoulder, he told him that he had been buying fparrows for the opera. Sparrows for the opera, fays his friend, licking his lips, what, are they to be roafted? No, no, fays the other, they are to enter towards the end of the firft act, and to fly about the stage.

fo far, that I immediately bought the opera, by This ftrange dialogue awakened my curiosity which means I perceived that the fparrows were to act the part of finging-birds in a delightful fparrows put the fame trick upon the audience, grove; though upon a nearer enquiry I found the that Sir Martin Mar-all practifed upon his mistrefs; for though they flew in fight, the mufick calls which were planted behind the scenes. proceeded from a confort of flagelets and birdsAt the fame time I made this difcovery, I found by the difcourfe of the actors, that there were great defigns on foot for the improvement of the opera; that it had been propofed to break down a part of the wall, and to furprife the audience with a

party

party of an hundred horfe, and that there was actually a project of bringing the New-River into the house, to be employed in jetteaus and waterworks. This project, as I have fince heard, i poftponed till the fummer-feafon; when it is thought the coolness that proceeds from fountains and cascades will be more acceptable and refreshing to people of quality. In the mean time, to find out a more agreeable entertainment for the winter-season, the opera of Rinaldo is filled with thunder and lightening, illuminations and fire-works; which the audience may look upon without catching cold, and indeed, without much danger of being burnt; for there are feveral engines filled with water, and ready to play at a minute's warning, in cafe any fuch accident fhould happen. However, as I have a very great friendship for the owner of this theatre, I hope that he has been wife enough to infure his houfe before he would let this opera be acted in it.

It is no wonder that those scenes fhould be very surprising which were contrived by two poets of different nations, and raised by two magicians of different sexes. Armida (as we are told in the argument) was an Amazonian enchantrefs, and poor Signior Caffani (as we learn from the perfons reprefented) a Chriftian-conjurer (Mago Chriftiano). I must confefs I am very much puzzled to find how an amazon should be verfed in the black art, or how a good Chriftian, for fuch is the part of the magician, fhould deal with the devil.

To confider the poet after the conjurer, I fhall give you a taste of the Italian from the first lines

of his preface. Eccoti, benigno lettore, un parto di poche fere, che fe ben nato di notte, non é peró aborto di tenebre, má fi fará conofcere figlio d'Apolio con qualche aggio di Parnaffo. Behold, gentle reader, the birth of a few evenings, which, tho' it be the offspring of the night, is not the abortive of darkness, but will make itself known to ⚫ be the son of Apollo, with a certain ray of Parnaffus. He afterwards proceeds to call Mynheer Handel the Orpheus of our age, and to acquaint us, in the fame fublimity of ftile, that he compofed this opera in a fortnight, Such are the wits to whofe taftes we fo ambitiously conform ourselves. The truth of it is, the fineft writers among the modern Italians exprefs themfelves in fuch a florid form of words, and fuch tedious cir cumlocutions, as are ufed by none but pedants in our own country; and at the fame time fill their writings with fuch poor imaginations and conceits, as our youths are afhamed of before they have been two years at the university. Some may be apt to think that it is the difference of genius which produces the difference in the works of the two nations; but to fhew there is nothing in this, if we look into the writings of the old Italians, fuch as Cicero and Virgil, we fhall find that the English writers, in their way of thinking and expreffing themfelves, refemble thofe authors much more than the modern Italians pretend to do. And as for the poet himself, from whom the dreams of this opera are taken, I must intirely agree with Monfieur Boileau, that one verfe in Virgil is worth all the Clincant or Tinfel of Taffo.

But to return to the fparrows; there have been fo many flights of them let loofe in this opera, that it is feared the houfe will never get rid cf them; and that in other plays they may make their entrance in very wrong and improper foenes,

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fo as to be seen flying in a Lady's bed-chamber, or perching upon a King's throne; besides the inconveniencies which the heads of the audiences may fometimes fuffer from them. I am credibly informed, that there was once a defign of cafting into an opera the ftory of Whittington and his cat, and that in order to it, there had been got together a great quantity of mice; but Mr. Rich, the proprietor of the play-house, very prudently confider'd that it would be impoffible for the cat to kill them all, and that confequently the princes of the stage might be as much infefted with mice, as the prince of the island was before the cat's arrival upon it; for which reason he would not permit it to be acted in his house. And indeed I cannot blame him; for, as he faid very well upon that occafion, I do not hear that any of the performers in our opera pretend to equal the famous pied piper, who made all the mice of a great town in Germany follow his mufic, and by that means cleared the place of those little noxious animals

Before I difmifs this paper, I must inform my reader, that I hear there is a treaty on foot with London and Wife (who will be appointed gardeners of the play-house) to furnish the opera of Rinaldo and Armida with an orange-grove; and that the next time it is acted, the finging-birds will be perfonated by tom-tits; the undertakers being refolved to fpare neither pains nor money for the gratification of the audience.

No. 6. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7.
Credebant boc grande nefas, & morte piandum,
Si juvenis vetulo non affurrexerat -

C.

Juv. Sat. xiii. 34 'Twas impious then (fo much was age rever'd} For youth to keep their feat, when an old man appear'd.

KNOW no evil under the fun fo great as the

abufe of the understanding, and yet there is no one vice more common. It has diffufed itself through both fexes and all qualities of mankind; and there is hardly that perfon to be found, who is not more concerned for the reputation of wit and fenfe, than honefty and virtue. But this unhappy affectation of being wife rather than honeft, witty than good-natur'd, is the fource

of most of the ill habits of life. Such false imprefions are owing to the abandoned writings of men of wit, and the aukward imitation of the rest of mankind.

For this reafon Sir Roger was faying last night, that he was of opinion none but men of fine parts deferve to be hanged. The reflections of fuch men are fo delicate upon all occurrences which they are concerned in, that they should be expoled to more than ordinary infamy and punith ment for offending against fuch quick admonitions as their own fouls give them, and blunting the Ane edge of their minds in fuch a manner, that they are no more fhocked at vice and folly, than men of flower capacities. There is no greater monster in being, than a very ill man of great parts; he lives like a man in a palfy, with one fide of him dead. While perhaps he enjoys the fatisfaction of luxury, of wealth, of ambition, he has loit the talle of good-will, of friendship, of innocence. Scarecrow, the beggar in Lincola's-in-Fields, who difabled himself in his

right leg, and asks alms all day to get himself a warm fupper and a trull at night, is not half fo defpicable a wretch as fuch a man of fenfe. The beggar has no relifh above fenfations; he finds reft more agreeable than motion; and while he has a warm fire and his doxy, never reflects that he deferves to be whipped. Every man who terminates his fatisfactions and enjoyments within the fupply of his own neceffities and paffions, is, fays Sir Roger, in my eye, as poor a rogue as Scarecrow. But, continued he, for the lofs of public and private virtue, we are beholden to your men of parts forfooth; it is with them no matter what is done, fo it be done with an air. But to me, who am fo whimsical in a corrupt age as to act according to nature and reafon, a felfish man, in the most shining circumstance and equipage, appears in the fame condition with the fellow above-mentioned, but more contempt ble, in proportion to what more he robs the public of, and enjoys above him. I lay it down therefore for a rule, that the whole man is to move, together; that every action of any importance, is to have a profpect of public good; and that the general tendency of our indifferent actions ought to be agreeable to the dictates of reafon, of religion, of good breeding; without this, a man, as I before have hinted, is hopping inftead of walking, he is not in his intire and proper mo

tion.

While the honeft knight was thus bewildering himself in good starts, I looked attentively upon him, which made him, I thought, collect his mind a little. What I aim at, fays he, is to reprefent, that I am of opinion, to polish our understandings and neglect our manners, is of all things the most inexcufabie. Reafon fhould gowern paffion, but instead of that, you fee, it is often fubfervient to it; and as unaccountable as one would think it, a wife man is not always a good man. This degeneracy is not only the gift of particular perfons, but at fome times of a whole people: and perhaps it may appear upon examination, that the moft polite ages are the leaft virtuous. This may be attributed to the folly of admitting wit and learning as merit in themselves, without confidering the application of them. By this means it becomes a rule, not fo much to regard what we do, as how we do it. But this falfe beauty will not pass upon men of honeft minds and true tafte: Sir Richard Blackmore fays, with as much good fenfe as virtue, "It is a mighty difhoncur and shame to employ "excellent faculties and abundance of wit to humour and please men in their vices and follies. "The great enemy of mankind, notwithstanding

66

his wit and angelic faculties, is the most odi"ous being in the whole creation. He goes on foon after to fay very generously, that he undertook the writing of his poem to refcue the Mufes cut of the hands of ravishers, to reftere. "them to their sweet and chatte manfions, and "to engage them in an employment fuitable "to their dignity." This certainly ought to be the purpofe of every man who appears in public, and whoever does not proceed upon that foundation, injures his country as tatt as he fucceeds in his ftudies. When modefty ceafes to be the chief ornament of one fex, and integrity of the other, fociety is upon a wrong bafts, and we fhall be ever after without rules to guide our judgment in what is really becoming and ornamental, Nature and reafon direct one thing, paffion and tu.

mour another: to follow the dictates of the two latter, is going into a road that is both endless and intricate; when we purfue the other, our paffage is delightful, and what we aim at eafily attainable.

I do not doubt but England is at prefent as polite a nation as any in the world; but any man who thinks can easily fee, that the affectation of being gay and in fashion, has very near eaten up our good fenfe and our religion. Is their any thing fo juft, as that mode and gallantry should be built upon exerting ourselves in what is proper and agreeable to the inftitutions of justice and piety among us? And yet is there any thing more common than that we run in perfect contradiction to them? All which is supported by no other pretenfion, than that it is done with what we call a good grace.

Nothing ought to be held laudable or becoming, but what nature itfelf fhould prompt us to think fo, Refpect to all kind of fuperiors is founded, methinks, upon inftin&t; and yet what is fo ridiculous as age? I make this abrupt tranfition to the mention of this vice more than any other, in order to introduce a little story, which I think a pretty instance that the most polite age is in danger of being the most vicious.

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It happened at Athens, during a public reprefentation of fome play exhibited in honour of the common-wealth, that an old Gentleman came too late for a place fuitable to his age and quality. Many of the young gentlemen, who ' obferved the difficulty and confufion he was in, 'made figns to him that they would accommodate him if he came where they fat: the good man buftled thro' the croud accordingly; but when he came to the feats to which he was invited, the jeft was to fit clofe, and expose him, as he ftood cut of countenance, to the whole au'dience. The frolic went round all the Athenian benches. But on thofe occafions there were alfo particular places affigned for foreigners: 'when the good man was fkulked towards the 'boxes appointed for the Lacedemonians, that ' honeft people, more virtuous than polite, rofe up all to a man, and with the greatest respect received him among them. The Athenians being fuddenly touched with a fenfe of the Spartan virtue and their own degeneracy, gave a thunder of applaufe; and the old man cried out, The Athenians understand what is good, but the Lacedemonians practise it.'

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'No. 7. THURSDAY, MARCH 8. Samnia, terrores magicos, miracula, fagas, Notturnos lures, portentaque Theffala rides ? HOR. Ep. ii. 208. Vifions, and magic fpells, can you defpife, And laugh at witches, ghofts, and prodigies?

OING yesterday to dine with an old ac

his whole family very much dejected. Upon afking him the occafion of it, he told me that his wife had dreamt a ftrange dream the night before, which they were afraid portended fome misAt her fortune to themfelves or their children. coming into the room 1. obferved a fettled mearcholy in her countenance, which I fhould have been troubled for, had I not heard from whence it proceeded: We were no fooner fat

down

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but after having looked upon me a little while, "My dear, (fays fhe, turning to her husband,) you sc may now fee the ftranger that was in the can"dle laft night." Soon after this, as they began to talk of family affairs, a little boy at the lower end of the table told her, that he was to go into join-hand on Thursday. "Thurf"day! (fays he,) no, child, if it pleafe God, you "fhall not begin upon Childermas-day; tell your writing-mafter that Friday will be foon enough." I was reflecting with myself on the oddnefs of her fancy, and wondering that any body would establish it as a rule to lofe a day in every week. In the midst of these my mufings, the defired me to reach her a little falt upon the point of my knife, which I did in such a trepidation and hurry of obedience, that I let it drop by the way; at which the immediately ftartled, and faid it fell towards her. Upon this I looked very blank; and, obferving the concern of the whole table, began to confider myself, with fome confufion, as a perfon that had brought a difafter upon the family. The lady, however, recovering herself after a little fpace, faid to her husband with a figh, My dear, misfortunes never come fingle." My friend, I found, acted but an under-part at his table, and being a man of more good nature than understanding, thinks himself oblige to fall in with all the paffions and humours of his yoke-fellow: "Do not you remember, "child, (fays fhe,) that the pigeon-houfe fell the very afternoon that our careless wench fpilt the "falt upon the table? Yes, (fays he,) my dear, "and the next poft brought us an account of the "battle of Almanza." The reader may guefs at the figure I made after having done all this mifchief. I dispatched my dinner as foon as I could, with my ufual taciturnity; when to my utter confufion, the Lady feeing me quitting my knife and fork, and laying them acrofs one another upon my plate, defired me that I would humour her fo far as to take them out of that figure, and place them fide by fide. What the abfurdity was which I had committed I did not know, but I fuppofe there was fome traditionary fuperftition in it; and therefore, in obedience to the lady of the houfe, I difpofed of my knife and fork in two parrallel lines, which is the figure I fhall always lay them in for the future, though I do not know any reafon for it,

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It is not difficult for a man to fee that a perfon has conceived an averfion to him. For my own part, I quickly found by the Lady's looks that the regarded me as a very odd kind of fel low, with an unfortunate afpect. For which reafon I took my leave immediately after dinner, and withdrew to my own lodgings. Upon my return home, I fell into a profound contempla tion on the evils which attend the fuperftitious follies of mankind; how they fubject us to imaginary afflictions, and additional forrows, that do not properly come within our lot. As if the natural calamities of life were not fufficient for it, we turn the most indifferent circumftances into misfortunes, and fuffer as much from triAing accidents, as from real evils. I have known the shooting of a fstar spoil a night's reft; andhave feen a man in love grow pale and lofe his appetite upon the plucking of a merry-thought. Afcreechowl at midnight has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers; nay, the voice of a cricket bath

ftruck more terror than the roaring of a lion,
There is nothing fo inconfiderable, which may
not appear dreadful to an imagination that is
filled with omens and prognoftics. A rufty nail,
or a crooked pin, fhoot up into prodigies.
I remember I was once in a mixt affembly,
that was full of noife and mirth, when on a fud-
den an old woman unluckily obferved there were
thirteen of us in company. This remark struck
a pannic terror into feveral who were present,
infomuch that one or two of the Ladies were
going to leave the room; but a friend of mine
taking notice that one of our female companions
was big with child, affirmed there were four-
teen in the room, and that, inftead of portend-
ing one of the company thould die, it plainly
foretold one of them fhould be born. Had not
my friend found this expedient to break the
omen, I question not but half the women in the
company would have fallen fick that very night,

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An old maid, that is troubled with the vapours, produces infinite difturbances of this kind among her friends and neighbours. I know a maiden aunt, of a great family, who is one of these antiquated Sybyls, that forebodes and prophefies from one end of the year to the other, "She is always feeing apparitions, and hearing deathwatches; and was the other day almost frighted out of her wits by the great house-dog, that howled in the ftable at a time when the lay ill of the toothach. Such an extravagant caft of mind engages multitudes of people not only in impertinent ter rors, but in fupernumerary duties of life; and arifes from that fear and ignorance which are natural to the foul of man. The horror with which we entertain the thoughts, of death (or indeed of any future evil) and the uncertainty of its approach, fill a melancholy mind with innumer able apprehenfions and fufpicions, and confe quently difpafe it to the obfervation of fuch groundlefs prodigies and predictions. For as it is the chief concern of wife men to retrench the evils of life by the reafonings of philosophy; it is the employment of fools to multiply them by the fentiments of fuperftition.

For my own part, I fhould be very much troubled were I endowed with this divining qua lity, though it fhould inform me truly of every thing that can befall me, I would not antici pate the relish of any happiness, nor feel the weight of any mifery, before it actually arrives. I know but one way of fortifying my fou against thefe gloomy prefages and terrors of mind, and that is, by fecuring to myself the friendship and protection of the Being who difpofes of events, and governs futurity. He fees at one view, the whole thread of my existence, not only that part of it which I have already paffed through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of eternity. When lay me down to fleep, I recommend myself to his care; when I awake, I give myself up to his direction. Amidst all the evils that threaten me, I will look up to him for help, and queftion not but he will either avert them, or turn them to my advantage. Though I know neit er the time nor the manner of the death I am to die, I am not at all folicitous about it; because I am fure that he knows them both, and that he will not fail to comfort and fupport me under them.

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