207 ment of the good old Man is, that Fidelia, where Merit and Fortune cannot be overlook'd by Epiftolary Lovers, reads over the Accounts of her Conquefts, plays on her Spinet the gayeft Airs, (and while fhe is doing fo, you would think her formed only for Gallantry) to intimate to him the Pleasures fhe despises for his Sake.

THOSE who think themselves the Pattern of good Breeding and Gallantry, would be aftonished to hear that in those Intervals when the old Gentleman is at Ease, and can bear Company, there are at his House in the most regular Order, Affemblies of People of the highest Merit; where there is Converfation without Mention of the Faults of the Abfent, Benevolence between Men and Women without Paffion, and the highest Subjects of Morality treated of as natural and accidental Discourse; All which is owing to the Genius of Fidelia, who at once makes her Father's Way to another World eafy, and her felf capable of being an Honour to his Name in this.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

Was the other Day at the Bear-Garden in hopes to have feen your short Face; but not being fo fortunate, I must tell you by way of Letter, That there is a Mystery among the Gladiators which has escaped your Spectatorial Penetration. For being in a Box at an Ale-house near that renowned Seat of Honour above' mentioned, I over-heard two Masters of the Science agreeing to quarrel on the next Opportunity. This was to happen in the Company of a Set of the Fraternity of Basket-Hilts, who were to meet that Evening. When this was fettled, one asked the other, Will you give Cuts or receive? the other anfwered, Receive. It was replied, Are you a paffionate Man? No, provided you cut no more nor no deeper than we agree. I thought it my Duty to acquaint you with this, that the People may not pay their Money for Fighting, and be 'cheated.

.

T

Your humble Servant,

Scabbard Rufly.

Wednesday,

And then let Virtue follow, if he will.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

A

LL Men, through different Paths, make at the fame common thing, Money; and it is to her we owe the Politician, the Merchant, and the Lawyer; nay, to be free with you, I believe to that also we are beholden for our Spectator. I am apt to think, that could we look into our own Hearts, we should fee Money engraved in them in more lively and moving Characters than Self-Prefervation; for who can reflect upon the Merchant hoifting Sail in a doubtful Purfuit of her, and all Mankind facrificing their Quiet to her, but muft perceive that the Characters of SelfPrefervation (which were doubtlefs originally the brighteft) are fullied, if not wholly defaced; and that thofe of Money (which at first was only valuable as a Mean to Security) are of late fo brightened, that the • Characters of Self-Prefervation, like a lefs Light fet by a greater, are become almoft imperceptible? Thus has Money got the upper Hand of what all Mankind formerly thought moft dear, viz. Security; and I wish I ⚫ could fay fhe had here put a Stop to her Victories; but, alas! common Honefty fell a Sacrifice to her. This is the Way Scholaftick Men talk of the greatest Good in the World; but I, a Tradesman, fhall give you ano⚫ther Account of this Matter in the plain Narrative of my own Life. I think it proper, in the first Place, to acquaint my Readers, that fince my fetting out in the World, which was in the Year 1660, I never wanted Money; having begun with an indifferent good Stock

6

209 in the Tobacco-Trade, to which I was bred; and by ⚫ the continual Succeffes, it has pleased Providence to blefs my Endeavours with, am at last arrived at what they call a Plumb. To uphold my Discourse in the Manner ⚫ of your Wits or Philofophers, by speaking fine Things, or drawing Inferences, as they pretend, from the Nature of the Subject, I account it vain; having never found any thing in the Writings of fuch Men, that did not favour more of the Invention of the Brain, or what is ftiled Speculation,than of found Judgment or profitable • Obfervation. I will readily grant indeed, that there is. ⚫ what the Wits call Natural in their Talk; which is the ⚫utmoft thofe curious Authors can affume to themselves, ⚫ and is indeed all they endeavour at, for they are but la⚫mentable Teachers. And, what, I pray, is Natural? • That which is Pleafing and Easy: And what are Pleafing and Eafy? forfooth, a new Thought or Conceit dreffed up in smooth quaint Language, to make you fmile and wag your Head, as being what you never imagined before, and yet wonder why you had not; meer frothy Amusements! fit only for Boys or filly Women to be caught with.

IT is not my present Intention to inftruct my Rea⚫ders in the Methods of acquiring Riches; that may be the Work of another Effay; but to exhibit the real and • folid Advantages I have found by them in my long and <manifold Experience; nor yet all the Advantages of fo worthy and valuable a Bleffing, for who does not know or imagine the Comforts of being warm or living at • Eafe? And that Power and Pre-eminence are their infeparable Attendants?) But only to inftance the great Supports they afford us under the feverest Calamities and • Misfortunes; to fhew that the Love of them is a special Antidote against Immorality and Vice, and that the fame does likewife naturally dispose Men to Actions of Piety and Devotion: All which I can make out by my • own Experience, who think my felf no ways particular from the rest of Mankind, nor better nor worse by Na⚫ture than generally other Men are.

IN the Year 1665, when the Sickness was, I loft by it my Wife and two Children, which were all my Stock. Probably I might have had more, confidering

. I was

6

* I was married between 4 and 5 Years; but finding her to be a teeming Woman, I was careful, as having then> little above a Brace of thousand Pounds to carry on my Trade and maintain a Family with. I loved them as ufually Men do their Wives and Children, and therefore could not refift the firft Impulfes of Nature on fo wounding a Lofs; but I quickly roufed my felf, and found means to alleviate, and at laft conquer my Affliction, by reflecting how that fhe and her Children having been no great Expence to me, the best Part of her Fortune was ftill left; that my Charge being re⚫duced to myself, a Journeyman, and a Maid, I might live far cheaper than before; and that being now a childless Widower, I might perhaps marry a no lefs deferving Woman, and with a much better Fortune than fhe brought, which was but 8col. And to convince my Readers that fuch Confiderations as these were proper and apt to produce fuch an Effect, I remember it was the conftant Obfervation at that deplorable Time when fo many Hundreds were fwept away daily, that the Rich ever bore the Lofs of their Families and Relations far better than the Poor; the latter having little or nothing before-hand, and living from Hand to Mouth, placed the whole Comfort and Satisfaction of their Lives in their Wives and Children, and were therefore inconfolable.

6

THE following Year happened the Fire; at which Time, by good Providence, it was my Fortune to have converted the greatest Part of my Effects into ready Money, on the Profpect of an extraordinary Advantage which I was preparing to lay hold on. This Calamity was very terrible and aftonifhing, the fury of the. Flames being fuch, that whole Streets, at feveral diftant Places, were deftroyed at one and the fame Time, fo that (as it is well known) almost all our Citizens were burnt out of what they had. But what did I then do ?? "I did not ftand gazing on the Ruins of our noble Metropolis; I did not fhake my Head, wring my Hands figh and fhed Tears; I confider'd with myself what could this avail; I fell a plodding what Advantages might be made of the ready Cash I had, and immediately bethought myself that wonderful Pennyworths

6

might

might be bought of the Goods that were faved out of the Fire. In fhort, with about 2000l. and a little 'Credit, I bought as much Tobacco as raised my Estate 6 to the value of 10000/. I then looked on the Afbes of our City, and the Mifery of its late Inhabitants, as an Effect of the juft Wrath and Indignation of Heaven towards a finful and perverfe People.

6

AFTER this I married again, and that Wife dying, I took another, but both proved to be idle Baggages: the first gave me a great deal of Plague and Vexation by her Extravagancies, and I became one of the By'words of the City. I knew it would be to no man'ner of Purpose to go about to curb the Fancies and In'clinations of Women, which fly out the more for being restrained; but what I could I did. I watched her narrowly, and by good Luck found her in the Embraces (for which I had two Witneffes with me) of a wealthy Spark of the Court-end of the Town; of whom I recovered 15000 Pounds, which made me • amends for what she had idly fquandred, and put a Silence to all my Neighbours, taking off my Reproach by the Gain they faw I had by it. The last died about two Years after I married her, in Labour of three Children. I conjecture they were begot by a Country Kinfman of hers, whom, at her Recommendation, I ⚫ took into my Family, and gave Wages to as a Journeyman. What this Creature expended in Delicacies and high Diet with her Kinfman (as well as I could compute by the Poulterers, Fishmongers, and Grocers Bills) amounted in the faid two Years to one hundred eighty fix Pounds, four Shillings, and five Pence Half-penny. The fine Apparel, Bracelets, Lockets, and Treats, &c. of the other, according to the beft Calculation, came ' in three Years and about three Quarters to feven hundred forty four Pounds, feven Shillings and nine Pence. After this I refolv'd never to marry more, and found I had been a Gainer by my Marriages, and the Damages granted me for the Abufes of my Bed, (all charges deducted) eight thousand three hundred Pounds with' in a Trifle.

I come now to fhew the good Effects of the Love of ⚫ Money on the Lives of Men towards rendring them

honeft,