fion he was under: and with the most beautiful complacency faid to him, "Sir, do not add to that load of forrow I fee in your countenance the awe of my prefence. Think you are speaking to your friend. If the circumstances of your distress will admit of it, you shall find me fo." To whom the ftranger: "Oh excellent Pharamond, name not a friend to the unfortunate Spinamont'. I had one but he is dead by my own hand; but, oh Pharamond, though it was by the hand of Spinamont, it was by the guilt of Pharamond. I come not, oh excellent prince, to implore your pardon; I come to relate my forrow, a forrow too great for human life to fupport: from henceforth fhall all occurrences appear dreams, or fhort intervals of amufement, from this one affliction which has feized my very being. Pardon me, oh Pharamond, if my griefs give me leave, that I lay before you, in the anguifh of a wounded mind, that you, good as you are, are guilty of the generous blood fpilt this day by this unhappy hand. Oh that it had perished before that inftant!" Here the stranger paufed, and recollecting his mind, after fome little medita 1 Mr. Thornhill, the gentleman here alluded to, under the fictitious or tranflated name of Spinamont, killed Sir Cholmondley Deering of Kent, Bart. in a duel, May 9, 1711.—— Swift's works, Vol. XXII. p. 234, in 8vo. Mr. Thornhill, called here Spinamont, was tried and acquitted; but about two months after, Swift says, he was murdered by two men on Turnham Green, who, as they stabbed him, bid him remember Sir Cholmondley Deering.-Swift's works, ut fupra, Vol. XXIII. p. 18. cr. 8vo. tion, he went on in a calmer tone and gesture, as follows. "There is an authority due to distress, and as none of human race is above the reach of forrow, none should be above the hearing the voice of it; I am fure Pharamond is not. Know then, that I have this morning unfortunately killed in a duel, the man whom of all men living I moft loved. I command myself too much in your royal prefence, to fay, Pharamond gave me my friend! Pharamond has taken him from me! I will not fay, fhall the merciful Pharamond destroy his own fubjects? Will the father of his country murder his people? But the merciful Pharamond does deftroy his fubjects, the father of his country does murder his people. Fortune is fo much the pursuit of mankind, that all glory and honour is in the power of a prince, because he has the diftribution of their fortunes. It is therefore the inadvertency, negligence, or guilt of princes to let any thing grow into cuftom which is against their laws. A court can make fashion and duty walk together; it can never without the guilt of a court happen, that it fhall not be unfashionable to do what is unlawful. But alas! in the dominions of Pharamond, by the force of a tyrant custom, which is mifnamed a point of honour, the duellift kills his friend whom he loves; and the judge condemns the duellift, while he approves his behaviour. Shame is the greatest of all evils; what avail laws, when death only attends the breach of them, and fhame obedience to them? As for me, oh Pharamond, were it poffible to describe the namelefs kinds of compunctions and tenderneffes I feel, when I reflect upon the little accidents in our former familiarity, my mind fwells into forrow which cannot be refifted enough to be filent in the presence of Pharamond. (With that he fell into a flood of tears, and wept aloud.) Why should not Pharamond hear the anguish he only can relieve others from in time to come? Let him hear from me, what they feel who have given death by the falfe mercy of his adminif tration, and form to himself the vengeance called for by those who have perished by his negligence.' Ꭱ m. m By Steele, who spoke and wrote against duelling, on all occafions with fervour and eloquence. See his fine papers on this fubject, Tat. Vol. I. and note, Nos 25, 26, 29, &c. Theatre, No 19, and 26; Spect. Nos 97, and 99; and Guard. No 20, 129, 133, and 161. The letter K at the end of this paper, No 84, feems to fignify its originality. See N° 4, and Nos 3, 2, 4, final notes on Steele's fignatures R and T. *** Drury Lane, June 7. The Royal Merchant, or Beggar's Bush. The Merchant, Mr. Wilks; Clause, Mr. Keene; Woolfort, Mr. Booth; Hubert, Mr. Mills; Orator Heggin, Mr. Eftcourt; Bertha, Mrs. Bradshaw; Vandunk, Mr. Bullock; and P. Prigfby, Mr. Norris, Spect. in folio. N° 85. Thursday, June 7, 1711. Interdum fpeciofa locis, morataque rectè HOR. Ars Poet. v. 319. When the sentiments and manners please, FRANCIS. Ir is the custom of the Mahometans, if they fee any printed or written paper upon the ground, to take it up and lay it afide carefully, as not knowing but it may contain fome piece. of their Alcoran. I muft confefs I have fo much of the Muffulman in me, that I cannot forbear looking into every printed paper which comes in my way, under whatsoever despicable circumstances it may appear; for as no mortal author, in the ordinary fate and viciffitude of things, knows to what use his works may fome time or other be applied, a man may often meet with very celebrated names in a paper of tobacco. I have lighted my pipe more than once with the writings of a prelate; and know a friend of mine, who, for these feveral years, has converted the effays of a man of quality into a kind of fringe for his candlesticks. I remember in particular, after having read over a poem of an eminent author on a victory, I met with feveral fragments of it upon the next rejoicing day, which had been employed in squibs and crackers, and by that means celebrated its fubject in a double capacity. I once met with a page of Mr. Baxter under a Christmas-pye. Whether or no the pastry-cook had made ufe of it through chance or waggery, for the defence of that fuperftitious viande, I know not; but upon the perufal of it, I conceived fo good an idea of the author's piety, that I bought the whole book. I have often profited by these accidental readings, and have fometimes found very curious pieces that are either out of print, or not to be met with in the fhops of our London bookfellers. For this reafon, when my friends take a furvey of my library, they are very much furprised to find upon the fhelf of folios, two long band-boxes ftanding upright among my books; till I let them fee that they are both of them lined with deep erudition and abftrufe literature. I might likewife mention a paper-kite, from which I have received great improvement; and a hat-cafe which I would not exchange for all the beavers in Great-Britain. This my inquifitive temper, or rather impertinent humour of prying into all forts of writing, with my natural averfion to loquacity, give me a good deal of employment when I enter any house in the country; for I cannot for my heart leave a room, before I have thoroughly studied the walls of it, and examined the feveral printed papers which are ufually pafted upon them. The laft piece that I met with upon this occa |