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prefs through crowds, who endeavour at the fame end with himself, the favour of a commander. He will however in his way of talk excufe generals, for not difpofing according to men's defert, or inquiring into it; For,' fays he, that great man who has a mind to help 'me, has as many to break through to come at me, as I have to come at him. Therefore he will conclude, that the man who would make a figure, especially in a military way, muft get over all falfe modeity; and affift his patron against the importunity of other pretenders, by a proper affurance in his own vindication. He fays it is a civil cowardice to be backward in afferting what you ought to expect, as it is a military fear to be flow in attacking when it is your duty. With this candour does the gentleman fpeak of himfelf and others. The fame frankness runs through all his converfation. The military part of his life has furnished him with many adventures, in the relation of which he is very agreeable to the company; for he is never overbearing, though accustomed to command men in the utmost degree below him; nor ever too obfequious, from an habit of obeying men highly above him.

But that our fociety may not appear a fet of humourists, unacquainted with the gallantries and pleasures of the age, we have among us the gallant Will Honeycomb; a gentleman who according to his years should be in the decline of his life; but having ever been very careful of his perfon, and always had a very eafy fortune, time has made but a very little impreffion, either by wrinkles on his forehead, or traces in his brain. His perfon is well turned, of a good height. He is very ready at that fort of difcourfe with which men ufually entertain woHe has all his life dreffed very well, and remembers habits as others do men. He can smile when one fpeaks to him, and laughs eafily. He knows the hiftory of every mode, and can inform you from which of the French king's wenches our wives and daughters had this manner of curling their hair, that way of placing their hoods; whofe frailty was covered by fuch-a fort of petticoat, and whofe vanity to fhew her foot made that part of the drefs fo fhort in fuch a year. In a word, all his converfation and knowledge have been in

men.

the female world. As other men of his age will take notice to you what fuch a minifter faid upon fuch and fuch an occafion; he will tell you, when the Duke of Monmouth danced at court, such a woman was then fmitten; another was taken with him at the head of his troop in the Park. In all thefe important relations, he has ever about the fame time received a kind glance or a blow of a fan from fome celebrated beauty, mother of the prefent Lord fuch-a-one. If you fpeak of a young commoner that faid a lively thing in the houfe, he starts up- He has good blood in his veins; Tom Mirabell begot him; the rogue cheated me in that affair, that young fellow's mother ufed me more like a dog, than any woman I ever made advances to. This way of talking of his very much enlivens the converfation among us of a more fedate turn; and I find there is not one of the company, but myself, who rarely fpeak at all, but fpeaks of him as of that fort of man who is ufually called a well-bred fine gentleman. To conclude his character, where women are not concerned, he is an honest worthy man.

I cannot tell whether I am to account him, whom I am next to fpeak of, as one of our company; for he vifits us but feldom, but, when he does, it adds to every man elfe a new enjoyment of himfelf.

He is a clergyman, a very philofophic man, of general learning, great fanctity of life, and the molt exact good breeding. He has the misfortune to be of a very weak conftitution, and confequently cannot accept of fuch cares and bufinefs as preferments in his function would oblige him to; he is therefore among divines what a chambercounsellor is among lawyers. The probity of his mind, and the integrity of his life, create him followers; as being eloquent or loud advances others. He feldom introduces the fubject he speaks upon; but we are fo far gone in years, that he obferves when he is among us, an earnestnefs to have him fall on fome divine topic, which he always treats with much authority, as one who has no interefts in this world, as one who is haftening to the object of all his wifhes, and conceives hope from his decays and infirmities. Thefe are my ordinary companions.

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No III.

IN

N° III. SATURDAY, MARCH 3.

ET QUO QUISQUE FERE STUDIO DEVINCTUS ADHÆRET,
AUT QUIBUS IN REBUS MULTUM SUMUS ANTE MORATI,
ATQUE IN QUA RATIONE FUIT CONTENTA MAGIS MENS,
IN SOMNIS EADEM PLERUMQUE VIDEMUR OBIRE.

LUCR. L. 4. v. 959

WHAT STUDIES PLEASE, WHAT MOST DELIGHT, AND FILL MEN'S THOUGHTS, THEY DREAM THEM O'ER AT NIGHT. CREECH.

N one of my late rambles, or rather fpeculations, I looked into the great hall where the bank is kept, and was not a little pleased to fee the directors, fecretaries, and clerks, with all the other members of that wealthy corporation, ranged in their feveral ftations, according to the parts they act in that just and regular œconomy. This revived in my mentory the many difcourfes which I had both read and heard concerning the decay of public credit, with the methods of reftoring it, and which, in my opinion, have always been defective, because they have always been made with an eye to feparate interefts, and party principles.

The thoughts of the day gave my mind employment for the whole night, fo that I fell infenfibly into a kind of methodical dream, which difpofed all my contemplations into a vifion or allegory, or what else the reader fhall please to call it.

Methought I returned to the great hall, where I had been the morning before, but, to my furprife, inftead of the company that I left there, I saw, towards the upper end of the hall, a beautiful virgin, feated on a throne of gold. Her name (as they told me) was Public Credit. The walls, inftead of being adorned with pictures and maps, were hung with many acts of parliament written in golden letters. At the upper end of the hall was the Magna Charta, with the act of uniformity on the righthand, and the act of toleration on the left. At the lower end of the hall was the act of settlement, which was placed full in the eye of the virgin that fat upon the throne. Both the fides of the hall were covered with fuch acts of parlia ment as had been made for the establishment of public funds. The lady feem. ed to fet an unfpeakable value upon thefe feveral pieces of furniture, infomuch that the often refreshed her eye with them,

and often fmiled with a fecret pleasure as fhe looked upon them; but, at the fame time, fhewed a very particular uneafinefs, if the faw any thing approaching that might hurt them. She appeared indeed infinitely timorous in all her behaviour: and, whether it was from the delicacy of her conftitution, or that she was troubled with vapours, as I was afterwards told by one who I found was none of her well-wishers, the changed colour, and ftartled at every thing the heard. She was likewife (as I afterwards found) a greater valetudinarian than any I had ever met with even in her own fex, and fubject to fuch momentary confumptions, that, in the twinkling of an eye, fhe would fall away from the moft florid complexion, and the most healthful state of body, and wither into a skeleton. Her recoveries were often as fudden as her decays, infomuch that she would revive in a moment out of a wasting distemper into a habit of the highest health and vigour.

I had very foon an opportunity of obferving these quick turns and changes in her conftitution. There fat at her feet a couple of secretaries, who received every hour letters from all parts of the world, which the one or the other of them was perpetually reading to hers and, according to the news he heard. to which the was exceedingly attentive, fhe changed colour, and discovered many fymptoms of health or fickness.

Behind the throne was a prodigious heap of bags of money, which were piled upon one another fo high that they touched the cieling. The floor, on her right-hand and on her left, was covered with vaft fums of gold that rofe up in pyramids on either fide of her: but this I did not fo much wonder at, when I heard, upon inquiry, that he had the fame virtue in her touch, which the poets tell us a Lydian king was former

ly

ly poffeffed of; and that the could convert whatever the pleased into that precious metal.

After a little dizziness, and confused hurry of thought, which a man often meets with in a dream, methought the hall was alarmed, the doors flew open, and there entered half a dozen of the moft hideous phantoms that I had ever feen, even in a dream, before that time. They came in two by two, though matched in the most diffociable manner, and mingled together in a kind of dance. It would be tedious to defcribe their habits and perfons; for which reafon, I fhall only inform my reader that the first couple were Tyranny and Anarchy, the fecond were Bigotry and Atheifm, the third, the Genius of a Commonwealth, and a young man of about twenty-two years of age, whose name I could not learn. He had a sword in his right-hand, which in the dance he often brandifhed at the A&t of Settlement; and a citizen, who stood by me, whifpered in my car, that he faw a fponge in his left-hand. The dance of fo many jarring natures put me in mind of the fun, moon, and earth, in the Rehearfal, that danced together for no other end but to eclipfe one another.

The reader will easily fuppofe, by what has been before faid, that the lady on the throne would have been almoft frighted to distraction, had the feen but any one of thefe fpectres; what then muft have been her condition when the faw them all in a body? She fainted and died away at the fight

Et neque jam color eft mifto candore rubori; Nec viger,et wires, et quæ modò vifa placebant; Nee carpus remanet

OVID. MET. L. 3. V. 491.

Her fpirits faint, Her blooming cheeks affume a palid taint, And scarce her form remains.

There was as great a change in the hill of money-bags, and the heaps of money, the former fhrinking and falling into fo many empty bags, that I now found not above a tenth part of them had been filled with money. The reft that took up the fame space, and made the fame figure as the bags that were really filled with money, had been blown up with air, and called into my memory the bags full of wind, which Homer tells us his hero received as a prefent from olus. The great heaps of gold on either fide the throne now appeared to be only heaps of paper, or little piles of notched sticks, bound up together in bundles like Bath-faggots.

Whilft I was lamenting this fudden defolation that had been made before me, the whole fcene vanifhed: in the room of the frightful spectres, there now entered a second 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. At the firft entrance the lady revived, the bags fwelled to their former bulk, the piles of faggots and heaps of paper changed into pyramids of guineas: and for my own part, I was fo tranfported with joy, that I awaked, though, I mult confefs, I would fain have fallen afleep again to have closed my vifion, if I could have done it.

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abroad in the morning, how utterly they are at a stand until they are set agoing by fome paragraph in a newspaper: 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 perufed my papers like fpectators rather than readers. But there is fo little pleasure in enquiries that fo nearly concern ourselves, (it being the worft 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 defign 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 mifinterpretations; 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 exquite 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 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 myself; I gratify the vanity of all who pretend to make an appearance, and have often as kind looks from welldreffed 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 ther anguifh; and I did the other day, without the leaft difpleasure, overhear one fay of me That frange fellow;

and another answer- I have known the fellow's face thefe twelve years, and fo muft you; but I believe you are the first ever afked who he was. There are, I must confefs, many to whom my perfon is as well known as that of their nearest relations, who give themfelves no farther trouble about calling me by my name or quality, but fpeak of me very currently by Mr. What d'ye call him.

To make up for thefe trivial disadvantages, 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 merits.

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 lowett of mankind, and make fhrewd gueffes, without being admitted to their converfation, at the inmoft 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 circumstances to their favour or difadvantage; but from their inward manner of bearing their condition, often pity tl e profperous, and admire the unhappy.

Thofe who converfe with the dumb, know from the turn of their eyes, and the changes of their countenance, 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 fhaked 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 pleafing afpect, but methinks that fiinplicity in her counte

⚫nance

nance is rather childish than innocent.' When I obferved her a fecond time, he faid I grant her drefs is very becoming, but perhaps the merit of that choice is owing to her mother; for though,' continued he, I allow a beauty to be as much commended for the elegance of her dress, as a wit for that of his language; yet, if he has • ftolen the colour of her ribbands from another, or had advice about her trimmings, I shall not allow her the praife of dress, any more than I would call a plagiary an author.' When I threw my eye towards the next woman to her, Will spoke what I looked, according to his romantic imagination, in the following manner.

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Behold, you who dare, that charm'ing virgin; behold the beauty of her • perfon chastised by the innocence of her thoughts. Chastity, good-nature, ' and affability, are the graces that play ' in her countenance; she knows the is handsome, but fhe knows the is good. Confcious beauty adorned with confcious virtue! What a fpirit is there ⚫ in thofe eyes! What a bloom in that perfon! How is the whole woman ex• preffed 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 thoughtlefs creatures who make up the lump of that fex, and move a knowing eye no more than the portraitures of infignificant people by ordimary 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 difcourfe 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 almoft wholly confined to thofe of the fight, I take it for a peculiar happiness that I have always had an ealy and familiar admittance to the fair fex. If I never praifed or flattered, I never belyed or contradicted them. As these compofe Half the world, and are, by the juft

complaifance and gallantry of our nation, the more powerful part of our people, I fhall 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 shall endeavour at a file and air fuitable to their understanding. When I fay this, I must be understood to mean, that I fhall not lower but exalt the subjects 【 treat upon. Difcourfe for their entertainment, is not to be debased but refined. A man may appear learned without talking fentences, as in his ordinary gefture he difcovers he can dance though he does not cut capers. In a word, I fhall take it for the greatest glory of my work, if among reasonable 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 skill I 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 myself obliged, by this promife, to conceal any falle 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 time of my fpeculations, fhall be carried on with the fame fincerity as any other affairs of lefs confideration. As this is the greateft concern, men fhall be from henceforth liable to the greatest reproach for misbehaviour in it. Falfehood in love shall hereafter bear a blacker afpect, than infidelity in friendship, or villainy in bufinefs. For this great and good end, all breaches against that noble paffion, the cement of fociety, fhall be feverely examined. But this, and all other matters loosely hinted at now, and in my former papers, fhall have their proper place in my following difcourfes; the prefent writing is only to admonish the world, that they shall not find me an idle but a bufy Spectator.

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N° V.

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