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Pleasure that Wit would in another Man. He has made his Fortunes himself; and fays that England may be richer than other Kingdoms, by as plain. Methods as he himself is richer than other Men; though at the fame Time I can fay this of him, that there is not a Point in the Compass but blows home a Ship in which he is an Owner.

NEXT to Sir ANDREW in the Club-Room fits Captain SENTRY, a Gentleman of great Courage, good Understanding, but invincible Modefty. He is one of those that deferve very well, but are very aukward at putting their Talents within the Obfervation of fuch as fhould take notice of them. He was fome Years a Captain, and behaved himself with great Gallantry in feveral Engagements and at feveral Sieges; but having a small Estate of his own, and being next Heir to Sir RoGER, he has quitted a Way of Life in which no Man can rife suitably to his Merit, who is not fomething of a Courtier as well as a Soldier. I have heard him often lament, that in a Profeffion where Merit is placed in fo confpicuous a View, Impudence fhould get the better of Modefty. When he has talked to this Purpose I never heard him make a four Expreffion, but frankly confefs that he left the World, because he was not fit for it. A ftrict Honefty and an even regular Behaviour, are in themselves Obftacles to him that muft prefs through Crowds, who endeavour at the fame End with himfelf, the Favour of a Commander. He will however in his way of Talk excufe Generals, for not difpofing according to Men's Defert, or enquiring into it: For, fays he, that great Man who has 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 Modefty, 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 Candor does the Gentleman fpeak of himfelf and others. The fame Frankness runs through

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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 over-bearing, though accustomed to command Men in the utmoft Degree below him; nor ever too obfequious, from an Habit of obeying Men. highly above him.

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BUT that our Society may not appear a Set of Humourifts unacquainted with the Gallantries and Pleasures. of the Age, we have among us the Gallant WILL. HoNEYCOMB, a Gentleman who according to his Years fhould be in the Decline of his Life, but having ever been very careful of his Perfon, and always had a very eafie Fortune, Time has made but very little Impreffion, either by Wrinkles on his Forehead, or Traces in his Brain. His Perfon is well turn'd, of a good Height. He is very ready at that fort of Difcourfe with which Men ufually entertain Women. He has all his Life dreffed very well, and remembers Habits as others do Men. He can fmile when one speaks to him, and laughs eafily. He knows the Hiftory of every Mode, and can inform 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 Conversation and. Knowledge has been in 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, fuch a Woman was then smitten, another was taken with him at the Head of his Troop in the Park. In all these 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-aone. 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 Talkingof

his very much enlivens the Converfation among us of a more fedate Turn; and I find there is not one of the Company, but my felf, who rarely fpeak at all, but fpeaks of him as of that Sort of Man who is ufually called a well-bred fine Gentleman. To conclude his Character, where Women are not concerned, he is an honeft worthy Man.

I cannot tell whether I am to account him whom I am next to speak 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 Philofophick Man, of general Learning, great Santity of Life, and the moft exact 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 Chamber-Counsellor 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 Subject he fpeaks upon; but we are fo far gone in Years, that he obferves when he is among us, an Earneftnefs to have him fall on fome divine Topick, 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 Wishes, and conceives Hope from his Decays and Infirmities. Thefe are my ordinary Companions. R

N° 3.

Saturday, March 3.

Qui quifque ferè ftudio devinctus adheret:

Aut quibus in rebus multùm fumus antè morati :
Atque in qua ratione fuit contenta magis mens;
In fomnis eadem plerumque videmur obire. Lucr. L. 4.

IN

N one of my late Rambles, or rather Speculations, I looked into the great Hall where the Bank is kept, and was not a little pleafed to fee the Directors, Secretaries and Clerks, with all the other Members of that

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wealthy Corporation, ranged in their feveral Stations, according to the Parts they act in that just and regular Oeconomy. This revived in my Memory the many Dif courfes which I had both read and heard concerning the Decay of publick 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 separate 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.

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METHOUGHTS I returned to the Great Hall, where I had been the Morning before, but, to my Sur prize, instead of the Company that I left there, 1 faw towards the upper end of the Hall, a beautiful Virgin, feated on a Throne of Gold. Her Name (as they told me) was Publick 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 right Hand, and 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 fate upon the Throne. Both the Sides of the Hall were covered with fuch Acts of Parliament as had been made for the Eftablishment of Publick Funds. The Lady feemed to fet an unspeak able Value upon these feveral Pieces of Furniture, info much that fhe often refreshed her Eye with them, and often fmiled with a Secret Pleasure, as fhe looked upon them; but, at the fame time, fhewed a very particular Unealinefs, if fhe 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 fhe was troubled with Vapours, as I was afterwards told by one who I found was none of her Well-wishers, the changed Cofour, and ftartled at every thing she heard. She was likewife (as I afterwards found) a greater Valetudinarian than any I had ever met with, even in her own Sex, and sub

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ject to fuch momentary Confumptions, that in the twinkling of an Eye, fhe would fall away from the moft florid Complexion, and the moft 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 thefe quick Turns and Changes in her Conftitution. There fate 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 her; and, according to the News fhe heard, to which he was exceedingly attentive, fhe changed Colour, and discovered many Symptoms of Health or Sickness.

BEHIND the Throne was a prodigious Heap of Bags of Money, which were piled upon one another fo high that they touched the Ceiling. The Floor, on her right Hand, and on her left, was covered with vaft Sums 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 Enquiry, that he had the fame Virtue in her Touch, which the Poets tell us a Lydian King was formerly poffefs'd of: and that she could convert whatever the pleas'd into that precious Metal.

AFTER a little Dizzinefs, and confufed Hurry of Thought, which a Man often meets with in a Dream, methoughts the Hall was alarmed, the Doors flew Open, and there enter'd 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 firft Couple were Tyranny and Anarchy, the fecond were Bigotry and Atheism, the third the Genius of a Common-wealth and a young Man of about twentytwo Years of Age, whofe Name I could not learn. He had a Sword in his right Hand, which in the Dance he often brandished at the Act of Settlement; and a Citizen, who stood by me, whisper'd in my Ear, that he faw

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