while, like the Cuckoo in the fable, I am mixing my note with the Nightingale's, I cannot refift the vanity of crying out, How fweetly we Birds fing! If I knew of any great or amiable qualification that your Lordship did not really poffefs, I would (according to the ufual custom of Dedications) beftow it freely; but till I am otherwise inftructed, I fhall reft fatisfied with paying my moft grateful acknowledgments to your Lordship, and with fubfcribing myself Your LORDSHIP'S obliged, and moft obedient servant, ADAM FITZ-ADAM. THE WORL D. NUMB. I. THURSDAY, Jan. 4, 1753. "Nihil dulcius eft, bene quam munita tenere But, above all, 'tis pleasantest to get On the calm, peaceful, flourishing head of it; Others with cares and dangers vex each hour, A Lucret. } Creech. T the village of Aronche, in the province of Eftremadura, (fays an old Spanish author), lived Gonzales de Caftra, who, from the age " of twelve to fifty-two, was deaf, dumb, and blind. "His cheerful fubmiffion to fo deplorable a misfor"tune, and the misfortune itself, so endeared him to "the village, that, to worship the Holy Virgin, and to love and ferve Gonzales, were confidered as duties "of the fame importance; and to neglect the latter 66 was to offend the former. "It happened one day, as he was fitting at his door, "and offering up his mental prayers to St Jago, that "he found himself, on a fudden, restored to all the "privileges he had loft. The news ran quickly thro' "the village, and old and young, rich and poor, the "bufy and the idle, thronged round him with congratulations. But, as if the bleffings of this life were only given us for afflictions, he began, in a few weeks, to lose "the relifh of his enjoyments, and to repine at the poffeffion of thofe faculties which ferved only to "difcover to him the follies and disorders of his neigh"bours, and to teach him, that the intent of speech 86 was too often to deceive. Though the inhabitants of Aronche were as ho"neft as other villagers, yet Gonzales, who had form"ed his ideas of men and things from their natures "and ufes, grew offended at their manners. He faw "the avarice of age, the prodigality of youth, the cr quarrels of brothers, the treachery of friends, the "frauds of lovers, the infolence of the rich, the knave"ry of the poor, and the depravity of all. Thefe, as "he faw and heard, he fpoke of with complaint, and "endeavoured, by the gentleft admonitions, to excite men to goodness." From this place the story is torn out to the last paragraph; which fays, "That he lived to a comfortable "old age, defpifed and hated by his neighbours, for 66 pretending to be wifer and better than themselves; " and that he breathed out his foul in these memo"rable words, that He who would enjoy many friends, "and live happy in the world, should be deaf, dumb, and "blind to the follies and vices of it?", If candour, humility, and an earneft defire of inftruction and amendment, were not the diftinguishing characteristics of the prefent times, this fimple ftory had filenced me as an author: but when every day's experience fhows me, that our young gentlemen of fashion are lamenting at every tavern the frailties of their natures, and confeffing to one another whofe daughters they have ruined, and whofe wives they have corrupted; not by way of boafting, as fome have ignorantly imagined, but to be reproved and amended by their penitential companions: when I obferve too, from an almoft blameable degree of modefty, they accuse themfelves of more vices than they have conttitutions to commit; I am led by a kind of impulfe to this Work; which is indeed to be a public repofitory for the real frailties of these young gentlemen, in order to relieve them from the neceffity of fuch private confeflions. The present times are no lefs favourable to me in another very material circumstance. It was the opinion of our ancestors, that there are few things more difficult, or that required greater fkill and addrefs, than the speaking properly of one's felf. But if by fpeaking properly be meant fpeaking fuccefsfully, the art is now as well known among us as that of printing, or of making gunpowder. Whoever is acquainted with the writings of those eminent practitioners in phyfic, who make their appearance either in hand-bills or in the weekly or daily papers, will fee clearly that there is a certain and invariable method of fpeaking of one's felf to every body's fatisfaction. I fhall therefore introduce my own importance to the public, as near as I can, in the manner and words of thofe gentlemen, not doubting of the fame credit, and the fame advantages. ADVERTISEMENT. TO be spoke with every Thursday at Tully's Head in Pall-Mall, ADAM FITZ-ADAM; who, after forty years' travel through all the parts of the known ⚫ and unknown world; after having investigated all ⚫ the sciences, acquired all languages, and entered into the deepest receffes of nature and the paffions, is, at last, for the emolument and glory of his native country, returned to England, where he undertakes to cure all the difeafes of the human mind. He cures lieing, cheating, fwearing, drinking, gaming, • avarice, and ambition, in the men; and envy, flander, coquetry, prudery, vanity, wantonnefs, and inconftancy, in the women. He undertakes, by a fafe, pleasant, and speedy method, to get husbands fór young maids, and good-humour for old ones. He ⚫ inftructs wives, after the easiest and newest fashion, in the art of pleasing, and widows in the art of mourn⚫ing. He gives common fenfe to philofophers, can. dour to difputants, modefty to critics, decency_to men of fashion, and frugality to tradefmen. For • farther particulars enquire at the place above mentioned, or of any of the kings and princes in Europe, Afia, Africa, or America. N. B. The Doctor performs his operations by leni⚫tives and alteratives; never applying corrofives, but ⚫ when inveterate ill habits have rendered gentler methods ineffectual.' Having thus fatisfied the public of my amazing abilities, and having, no doubt, raised its curiofity to an extraordinary height, I fhall defcend, all at once, from my doctorial dignity, to address myfelf to my readers, as the author of a weekly paper of amusement called THE WORLD. My defign in this Paper is to ridicule, with novelty |