they would, but purpofely avoid it, that they may not be made to work. I have hitherto gained a livelihood by holding my tongue, but fhall now open my mouth in order to fill it. If I appear a little word-bound in my firft folutions and refponfes, I hope it will not be imputed to any want of forefight, but to the long difufe of 'fpeech. I doubt not by this invention to have all my • former customers over again; for if I have promifed any of them lovers or hufbands, riches or good luck, it is my defign to confirm to them viva voce, what I have already given them under my hand. If you will honour me with a vifit, I will compliment you with the first opening of my mouth, and if you please you may make an entertaining dialogue out of the converfation of two • dumb men. Excufe this trouble, worthy Sir, from one 'who has been a long time Your filent admirer, CORNELIUS AGRIPPA.' I have received the following letter, or rather billetdoux, from a pert young baggage, who congratulates with me upon the fame occafion. I 'Dear Mr PRATE-A-PACE, June 23. 1714. Aм a member of a female fociety who call ourselves the chit-chat club, and am ordered by the whole fifterhood to congratulate you upon the ufe of your < tongue. We have all of us a mighty mind to hear you talk, and if you will take your place among us for an evening, we have unanimously agreed to allow you one minute in ten without interruption. I am, SIR, Your humble fervant, S. T.' "P. S. You may find us at my lady Betty Clack's, "who will leave orders with her porter, that if an elderly gentleman, with a fhort face, inquires for her, he fhall be admitted, and no queftions afked." As As this particular paper fhall confift wholly of what I have received from my correfpondents, I thall fill up the remaining part of it with other congratulatory letters of the fame nature. SIR, Oxford, June 25. 1714. 7E are here wonderfully pleafed with the opening W of your mouth, and very frequently open ours ⚫ in approbation of your defign; efpecially fince we find you are refolved to preferve your taciturnity as to all party-matters. We do not question but you are as great an orator as Sir Hudibras, of whom the poet fweetly fings, < If He could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope. you will fend us down the half dozen well-turned periods, that produced fuch dismal effects in your mufcles, we will depofite them near an old manufcript of Tully's orations, among the archives of the univerfity; • for we all agree with you, that there is not a more remarkable accident recorded in history, fince that which happened to the fon of Crefus, nay, I believe you might have gone higher, and have added Balaam's afs. We are impatient to fee more of your productions, and expect what words will next fall from you, with as much attention as those who were fet to watch the fpeaking head, which frier Bacon formerly erected in this place. - We are, Worthy SIR, Your most humble fervants, B. R. T. D. &c. I Honeft SPEC, Middle-Temple, June 24. Aм very glad to hear that thou beginneft to prate; and find, by thy yesterday's vifion, that thou art fo ufed to it, that thou canst not forbear talking in thy fleep. Let me only advife thee to fpeak like other men, for I am afraid thou wilt be very queer, if thou doft not intend to use the phrafes in fashion, as thou calleft VOL. VIII. C them ⚫ them in thy fecond paper. Haft thou a mind to pass for a Bantomite, or to make us all Quakers? 1 do affure thee, dear Spec, I am not polifhed out of my veracity, • when I subscribe myself Thy conftant admirer, and humble fervant, FRANK TOWNLY.' No. 561. Wednesday, June 30. --Paulatim abolere Sichæum Incipit, et vivo tentat prævertere amore Fampridem refides animos defuetaque corda. But be-- Virg. En. 1. v.724. Works in the pliant bofom of the fair, And moulds her heart anew, and blots her former care. I SIR, Dryden. AM a tall, broad-fhouldered, impudent, black fellow, and, as I thought, every way qualified for a rich widow: but, after having tried my fortune for above three years together, I have not been able to get ⚫ one fingle relict in the mind. My first attacks were generally fuccefsful, but always broke off as foon as they came to the word fettlement. Though I have not im⚫ proved my fortune this way, I have my experience, and ⚫ have learned several secrets which may be of use to those unhappy gentlemen, who are commonly diftinguished by the name of widow-hunters, and who do not know that this tribe of women are, generally speaking, as much upon the catch as themfelves. I fhall here communicate to you the myfteries of a certain female cabal of this order, who call themfelves the widow-club. This club confifts of nine experienced dames, who take their places once a week round a large oval table. 'I. MRS I. MRS Prefident is a perfon who has difpofed of 'fix husbands, and is now determined to take a feventh; being of opinion, that there is as much virtue in the touch of a feventh husband as of a feventh fon. 'comrades are as follow. Her II. MRS Snap, who has four jointures, by four dif 'ferent bedfellows, of four different fhires. She is at prefent upon the point of marriage with a Middlefex man, and is faid to have an ambition of extending her poffeffions through all the counties in England, on this fide the Trent. III. MRS Medlar, who, after two hufbands and a gallant, is now wedded to an old gentleman of fixty. Upon her making her report to the club after a week's cohabitation, she is still allowed to fit as a widow, and accordingly takes her place at the board. 6 IV. THE widow Quick, married within a fortnight after the death of her laft husband. Her weeds have ferved her thrice, and are ftill as good as new. V. LADY Catharine Swallow. She was a widow at eighteen; and has fince buried a fecond husband and two coachmen. VI. The lady Waddle. She was married in the 15th year of her age to Sir Simon Waddle, Knt. aged three⚫fcore and twelve, by whom she had twins nine months ' after his decease. In the 55th year of her age fhe was married to James Spindle, Efq; a youth of one and twenty, who did not outlive the honey-moon. VII. Deborah Conqueft. The cafe of this lady is a fomething particular. She is the relict of Sir Sampfon Conqueft, fometime juftice of the quorum. Sir Sampfon was feven feet high, and two feet in breadth from the tip of one shoulder to the other. He had married three wives, who all of them died in childbed. This 'terrified the whole fex, who none of them durft venture on Sir Sampfon. At length Mrs Deborah undertook him, and gave fo good an account of him, that in three years time the very fairly laid him out, and measured his length upon the ground. This exploit has gained her fo great a reputation in the club, that they have added Sir Sampfon's three victories to hers, and give C 2 her her the merit of a fourth widowhood; and she takes her place accordingly. VIII. THE widow Wildfire, relict of Mr John Wildfire, fox-hunter, who broke his neck over a fix-bar gate. She took his death fo much to heart, that it was thought it would have put an end to her life, had she not diverted her forrows by receiving the addreffes of a gentleman in the neighbourhood, who made love to her in the fecond month of her widowhood. This gentleman was • difcarded in a fortnight for the fake of a young templar, who had the poffeffion of her for fix weeks after, till he was beaten out by a broken officer, who likewife gave up his place to a gentleman at court. The cour tier was as fhort-lived a favourite as his predeceffors, but had the pleasure to see himself fucceeded by a long ⚫ feries of lovers, who followed the widow Wildfire to the 37th year of her age, at which time there enfued a ceffation of ten years, when John Felt, haberdasher, took it in his head to be in love with her, and it is thought will very fuddenly carry her off. . IX. THE laft is pretty Mrs Runnet, who broke her firft hufband's heart before he was fixteen, at which time fhe was entered of the club, but foon after left it upon account of a fecond, whom she made fo quick a dispatch of, that she returned to her feat in lefs than a twelvemonth. This young matron is looked upon as the most rising member of the fociety, and will probably be in the president's chair before the dies. THESE ladies, upon their first institution, refolved to give the pictures of their deceased husbands to the clubroom; but two of them bringing in their dead at full length, they covered all the walls: upon which they came to a fecond refolution, that every matron fhould give her own picture, and fet it round with her hufbands in miniature. As they have most of them the misfortune to be troubled with the colic, they have a noble cellar of cordials and ftrong waters. When they grow maudlin, they are very apt to commemorate their former partners with a 43 tear. But ask them which of their husbands they condole, they are not able to tell you, and difcover plainly ⚫ that |