"I then better'd my condition a little, and lived a ⚫ whole fummer in the shape of a bee; but being tired with the painful and penurious life I had undergone in my two laft tranfmigrations, I fell into the other extreme, and turned drone. As I one day headed a party to plunder an hive, we were received fo warmly by the fwarm which defended it, that we were most ⚫ of us left dead upon the spot. I might tell you of many other tranfmigrations ⚫ which I went through: how I was a town-rake, and ⚫ afterwards did penance in a bay gelding for ten years; · as alfo how I was a tailor, a fhrimp, and a tom-tit. In the last of these my shapes I was hot in the Chriftmas holidays by a young jackanapes, who would needs try his new gun upon me. ་ • to. But I fhall pafs over these and feveral other ftages • of life, to remind of the you young beau who made. ..love to you about fix years fince. You may remember madam, how he masked, and danced, and fung, and play'd a thousand tricks to gain you; and how he was at laft carried off by a cold that he got under your ⚫ window one night in a ferenade. I was that unfortu· nate young fellow whom you were then fo cruel Not long after my fhifting that unlucky body, I found myself upon a hill in Ethiopia, where I lived in my prefent grotefque fhape, till I was caught by a fervant of the English factory, and fent over into • Great-Britain: I need not inform you how I came into your hands. You fee, madam, this is not the firft time that you have had me in a chain : I am, however very happy in this my captivity, as you often bestow on me thofe kiffes and careffes which I would have given the world for, when I was a man. I hope this difcovery of my perfon will not tend to my difadvantage, but that you will still continue your accu • ftomed favours to Your most devoted humble fervant, Pugg. P. S. I would advife your little fhock-dog to keep out of my way; for as I look upon him to be the most • formidable of my rivals, I may chance one time or • other to give him such a snap as he won't like." Friday, No 344 Friday, April 4. In folo vivendi caufa palato eft. Juv. Sat. 11. v. IE. Such, whofe fole blifs is eating; who can give Mr. SPECTATOR, I CONGREVE. Think it has not yet fallen into your way to difcourfe on little ambition, or the many whimfical ways men fall into, to distinguish themselves among their acquaintance: Such obfervations, well purfued, would make a pretty history of low life. I myself am got into a great reputation, which arofe (as most extraordinary occurrences in a man's life feem to do) from a meer accident. I was fome days ago unfortunately engaged among a fet of gentlemen, who efleem a man according to the quantity of food he throws down at a meal. Now I, who am ever for diftinguishing myfelf according to the notions of fuperiority which the rest of the company entertain, eat fo immoderately for their applaufe, as had like to have coft me my life. What added to my misfortune was, that having naturally a good ftomach, and having lived foberly for fome time, my body was as well prepared for this contention as if it had been by appointment. I had quickly vanquished every glutton in company but one, who was fuch a prodigy in his way, and withal fo very merry during the whole entertainment, that he infenfibly betrayed me to continue his competitor, which in a little time concluded in a complete victory over my rival; after which, by way of infult, I eat a confiderable proportion beyond what the fpectators thought me obliged in honour to do. The effect however of this engagement, has made mo * refolve never to eat more for renown; and I have, purE 2 • fuant fuant to this refolution, compounded three wagers I had depending on the ftrength of my ftomach; which happened very luckily, becaufe it was ftipulated in our articles either to play or pay. How a man of common fenfe could be thus engaged, is hard to determine; but the occafion of this is to defire you to inform several gluttons of my acquaintance. who look on me with envy, that they had beit moderate their ambition in time, left infamy or death attend their fuccefs. I forgot to tell you, Sir, with what unfpeakable pleasure I received the acclamations and applaufe of the whole board, when I had almoft eat my antagonist into convulfions: It was then that I returned his mirth upon him with fuch fuccefs as he was hardly able to fwallow, though prompted by a defire of faine, and a paffionate fondness for diftinction. I had not endeavoured to excel fo far, had not the company been fo loud in their approbation of my victory. I don't queftion but the fame thirst after glory has often caufed a man to drink quarts without taking breath, and prompted men to many other difficult enterprises; ⚫ which if otherwife purfued, might turn very much to a man's advantage. This ambition of mine was indeed extravagantly purfued, however I can't help obferving, that you hardly ever fee a man commended for a good ftomach, but he immediately falls to eating more (tho' he had before dined) as well to confirm the perfon that commended him in his good opinion of him, as to convince any other at the table, who may have ⚫ been unattertive enough not to have done juftice to his character. < I am, Sir, Your most humble fervant, Mr. SPECTATOR, I Epicure Mammon. Have writ to you three or four times, to defire you would take notice of an impertinent cuftom the women, the fine women, have lately fallen into, of taking fnuff. This filly trick is attended with fuch a coquet air in fome ladies, and such a fedate mascu⚫line one in others, that I cannot tell which moft to complain plain of; but they are to me equally difagreeable. Mrs. Santer is fo impatient of being without it, that the takes it as often as fhe does falt at meals, and as fhe 'affects a wonderful ease and negligence in all her manner, an upper lip mixed with fnuff and the fauce, is what is prefented to the obfervation of all who have the honour to eat with her. The pretty creature her niece does all the can to be as difagreeable as her aunt; and if she is not as offenfive to the eye, she is quite as much to the ear, and makes up all the wants in a confident air, by a naufeous rattle of the nose, when the fnuff is delivered, and the fingers make the ftops and clofes on the noltrils. This, perhaps, is not a very courtly image in fpeaking of ladies; that is very true but where arifes the offence? It it in thofe who commit, or those who obferve it? As for my part, I have been fo extremely difgufted with this filthy phyfic hanging on the lip, that the most agree⚫able converfation, cr perfon, has not been able to make up for it. As to thofe who take it for no other end but to give themselves occafion for pretty action, or to fill up little intervals of difcourfe, I can bear with them; but then they must not ufe it when another is fpeaking, who ought to be heard with too much refpect, to admit of offering at that time from hand to hand the fnuff box. But Flavilla is fo far taken with her behaviour in this kind, that the pulls out her box which is indeed full of good (Brazile) in the middle of the fermon; and to fhew fhe has the audacity of a ' well-bred woman, fhe offers it the men as well as the women who fit near her: But fince by this time all the world knows fhe has a fine hand, I am in hopes fhe may give herself no further trouble in this matter. On Sunday was fevennight, when they came about for the offering, he gave her charity with a very good air, but at the fame time asked the church-warden, if ' he would take a pinch. Pray, Sir, think of these things in time, and you will oblige, T Sir, your most humble fervant. £ 3 Saturday, No 345 Saturday, April 5. San&tius his animal, mentisque capacius alta Ovid. Met. lib. 1. v. 76. A creature of a more exalted kind Was wanting yet, and then was man defign'd; T DRYDEN. HE accounts which Raphael gives of the battle of angels and the creation of the world, have in them thofe qualifications which the critics judge requifite to an epifode. They are nearly related to the principal action, and have a juft connexion with the fable. The eighth book opens with a beautiful description of the impreffion which this difcourfe of the archangel made on our first parents. Adam afterwards, by a very natural curiofity, inquires concerning the motions of thofe celeftial bodies which make the moft glorious appearance among the fix days works. The poet here with a great deal of art, reprefents Eve as withdrawing from this part of their conversation, to amusements more fuitable to her fex. He well knew that the episode in this book, which is filled with Adam's account of his paffion and efteem for Eve, would have been improper for her hearing, and has therefore devised very just and beautiful reafons for her retiring. So fpake our fire, and by his count'nance feem'd And grace that won who saw to wish her stay, Her |