fince I have called out for help in my catalogue of a lady's library, I have received many letters upon that head, fome of which I shall give an account of.

In the first clafs I fhall take notice of those which come to me from eminent bookfellers, who every one of them mention with respect the authors they have printed, and confequently have an eye to their own advantage more than to that of the ladies. One tells me, that he thinks it absolutely neceffary for women to have true notions of right and equity, and that therefore they cannot perufe a better book than Dalton's Country Judice: another thinks they cannot be without The Complete Jockey. A third obferving the curiofity and defire of prying into fecrets, which he tells me is natural to the fair fex, is of opinion this female inclination, if well directed, might turn very much to their advantage, and therefore recommends to me Mr. Mede upon the Revelations. A fourth lays it down as an unquestionable truth, that a lady cannot be thoroughly accomplished who has not read The fecret Treaties and Negociat ons of Marshal D'Eftrades. Mr. Jacob Tonfon, jun. is of opinion, that Bailey's Dictionary might be of very great ufe to the ladies, in order to make them general scholars. Another, whofe name I have forgotten, thinks it highly proper that every woman with child fhould read Mr. Wall's Hiftory of Infant Baptifmn; as another is very importunate with me to recommend to all my female readers The Finishing Stroke; being a Vindication of the Patriarchal Scheme, &c.

In the fecond clafs I fhall mention books which are recommended by husbands, if I may believe the writers of them. Whether or no they are real husbands or perfonated ones I cannot tell, but the books they recommend are as follow. A Paraphrafe on the Hiftory of Sufannah. Rules to keep Lent. The Chriftian's Overthrow prevented. A Diffuafive from the Play-house. The Virtues of Camphire, with Directions to make Camphire Tea. The Pleafures of a Country Life. The Government of the Tongue. A letter dated from Cheapfide defires me that I would advise all young wives to make

make themselves miftreffes of Wingate's Arithmetic, and concludes with a poftfcript, that he hopes I will not forget The Countefs of Kent's Receipts.

I may reckon the ladies themfelves as a third class among thefe my correspondents and privy-counsellors. In a letter from one of them, I am advised to place Pharamond at the head of my catalogue, and, if I think proper, to give the fecond place to Caffandra. Coquetilla begs me not to think of nailing women upon their knees with manuals of devotion, nor of fcorching their faces with books of housewifry. Florella defires to know if there are any books written against prudes, and intreats me, if there are, to give them a place in my library. Plays of all forts have their feveral advocates : All for Love is mentioned in above fifteen letters; Sophonifba, or Hannibal's Overthrow, in a dozen; the Innocent Adultery is likewife highly approved of; Mithridates, King of Pontus, has many Friends; Alexander the Great and Aurengzebe have the fame number of voices; but Theodofius, or the Force of Love, carries it from all the reft.

I should, in the last place, mention fuch books as have been propofed by men of learning, and those who appear competent judges of this matter, and muft here take occafion to thank A. B. whoever it is that conceals himself under those two letters, for his advice upon this fubject: but as I find the work I have undertaken to be very difficult, I fhall defer the executing of it until I am further acquainted with the thoughts of my judicious contemporaries, and have time to examine the feveral books they offer to me; being refolved, in an affair of this moment, to proceed with the greatest caution.

In the mean while, as I have taken the ladies under my particular care, I fhall make it my business to find out in the belt authors ancient and modern fuch paffages as may be for their use, and endeavour to accommodate them as well as I can to their tafte; not queftioning but the valuable part of the fex will eafily pardon me, if from time to time I laugh at thofe little vanities and follies which appear in the behaviour of fome of them,

and

and which are more proper for ridicule than a serious cenfure. Most books being calculated for male readers, and generally written with an eye to men of learning, makes a work of this nature the more neceffary; befides, I am the more encouraged, because I flatter myfelf that I fee the fex daily improving by these my speculations. My fair readers are already deeper fcholars than the beaus; I could name fome of them who talk much better than feveral gentlemen that make a figure at Will's; and as I frequently receive letters from the fine Ladies and pretty Fellows, I cannot but observe that the former are fuperior to the others not only in the fenfe but in the fpelling. This cannot but have a good effect upon the female world, and keep them from being charmed by thofe empty coxcombs that have hitherto been admired among the women, though laughed at among the men.

I am credibly informed that Tom Tattle paffes for an impertinent fellow, that Will Trippet begins to be fmoked, and that Frank Smoothly himself is within a month of a coxcomb, in cafe I think fit to continue this paper. For my part, as it is my business in fome meafure to detect fuch as would lead aftray weak minds by their falle pretences to wit and judgment, humour and gallantry, I fhall not fail to lend the beft lights I am able to the fair fex for the continuation of thefe their difcoveries.

L

No. XCIII.

SATURDAY, JUNE 16.

Spatio brevi

Spem longam refeces: dum loquimur, fugerit invida
Atas carpe diem, quàm minimum credula poftero.

Be wife, cut off long cares

From thy contracted span.

E'en whilst we fpeak the envious time
Doth make fwift haste away:

Then feize the prefent, use thy prime,
Nor trust another day.

WE

Нол.

CREECH

E all of us complain of the shortness of time, faith Seneca, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, fays he, are spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do: we are always complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them. That noble philofopher has defcribed our inconfiftency with ourselves in this particular, by all those various turns of expreffion and thought which are peculiar to his writings.

I often confider mankind as wholly inconsistent with itfelf in a point that bears some affinity to the former. Though we feem grieved at the fhortnefs of life in genera we are wishing every period of it at an end. The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of business, then to make up an eftate, then to arrive at honours, then to retire. Thus although the whole of life is allowed by every one to be fhort, the feveral divifions of it appear long and tedious. We are for lengthening our span in general, but would fain contract the parts of which it is compofed. The ufurer would be very well fatisfied to have all the time annihilated that lies between the prefent moment and next quarter day. The politician would be contented to lose three years in his life, could he place things in the pofture which he fancies they will stand in after fuch a revolution of time. The lover would be glad to ftrike out of his existence all the moments that are to pass away before the happy meeting. Thus, as fast as

our

our time runs, we should be very glad in most parts of our lives that it ran much fafter than it does. Several hours of the day hang upon our hands, nay we with away whole years; and travel through time as through a country filled with many wild and empty waftes, which we would fain hurry over, that we may arrive at those several little fettlements or imaginary points of rest which are dispersed up and down in it.

If we divide the life of most men into twenty parts, we fhall find that at least nineteen of them are mere gaps and chafins, which are neither filled with pleasure nor bufinefs. I do not however include in this calculation the life of those men who are in a perpetual hurry of affairs: but of those only who are not always engaged in fcenes of action; and I hope I fhall not do an unacceptable piece of fervice to thefe perfons if I point out to them certain methods for the filling up their empty spaces of life. The methods I fhall propofe to them are as follow.

The firft is the exercife of virtue, in the most general acceptation of the word. That particular scheme which comprehends the focial virtues, may give employment to the most industrious temper, and find a man in business more than the most active station of life. To advife the ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost every day of our lives. A man has frequent opportunities of mitigating the fiercenefs of a party; of doing juftice to the character of a de ferving man; of foftening the envious, quieting the angry, and rectifying the prejudiced; which are all of them employments fuited to a reasonable nature, and bring great fatisfaction to the perfon who can bufy himself in them with discretion.

There is another kind of virtue that may find employment for thofe retired hours in which we are altogether left to ourselves, and deftitute of company and converfation; I mean that intercourse and communication which every reasonable creature ought to maintain with the great Author of his being. The man who lives under an habitual fenfe of the divine prefence keeps up a perpetual chearfulness of temper, and enjoys every moment the faE 2

tis