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the Arbour moft part of laft Night. Oh! dear Betty, muft the Nightingales fing to thofe who marry for Moand not to us true Lovers! Oh my dear Betty, that ⚫ we could meet this Night where we used to do in the • Wood.

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NOW, my Dear, if I may not have the Bleffing of kiffing your fweet Lips, I beg I may have the Happinefs of kiffing your fair Hand, with a few Lines from. your dear felf, prefented by whom you please or think fit. I believe, if Time would permit me, I could write all Day; but the Time being fhort, and Paper little, no more from your never-failing Lover till Death,

James

POOR James! Since his Time and Paper were fo fhort; I, that have more than I can use well of both, will put the Sentiments of his kind Letter (the Style of which feems to be confufed with Scraps he had got in hearing and reading what he did not understand) into what he meant to exprefs.

Dear Creature,

AN you then neglect him who has forgot all his

in thinking of you? When I do fo, you appear more amiable to me than Venus does in the most beautiful Defcription that was ever made of her. All this Kindness you return with an Accufation, that I do not love you: But the contrary is fo manifeft, that I cannot think you in earneft. But the Certainty given me in your Meffage by Molly, that you do not love me, is what robs me of all Comfort. She fays you will not fee me: If you can have fo much Cruelty, at laft write to me, that I may kiss the Impreffion made by your fair Hand. I love you above all things, and, in my Condition, what you look upon with Indifference is to me the most exquifite Pleafure or Pain. Our young Lady, and a fine Gentleman from London, who are to marry for mercenary Ends, walk about our Gardens, and hear the Voice of Evening Nightingales, as if for Fashion-fake they courted thofe Solitudes, because they have heard Lovers do fo. Oh Betty! could I hear thofe Rivulets murmur, and Birds fing while you ftood near me, how little fenfible fhould I be that we are

both

both Servants, that there is any thing on Earth above us. Oh! I could write to you as long as I love till Death

it felf.

you,

JAMES.

N. B. By the Words Ill-Conditions, JAMES means in a Woman Coquetry, in a Man Inconftancy.

72. Wednesday, May 23.

R

Genus immortale manet, multofque per annos
Stat fortuna Domus, & avi numerantur avorum. Virg.

H

AVING already given my Reader an Account of feveral extraordinary Clubs both ancient and modern, I did not defign to have troubled him with any more Narratives of this Nature; but I have lately received Information of a Club which I can call neither ancient nor modern, that I dare fay will be no lefs furpri fing to my Reader than it was to my felf; for which Reafon I fhall communicate it to the Publick as one of the greatest Curiofities in its kind,

A Friend of mine complaining of a Tradesman who is related to him, after having reprefented him as a very idle worthless Fellow, who neglected his Family, and spent moft of his Time over a Bottle, told me, to conclude his Character, that he was a Member of the Everlasting Club. So very odd a Title raifed my Curiofity to enquire into the Nature of a Club that had fuch a founding Name; upon which my Friend gave me the following Account. THE Everlasting Club confifts of a hundred Members,

who divide the whole twenty four Hours among them in fuch a manner, that the Club fits Day and Night from one end of the Year to another; no Party prefumin to rife till they are relieved by thofe who are in course to fucceed them. By this means a Member of the Everlafting Club never wants Company; for tho he is not upon Duty himself, he is fure to find fome who are; fo that if he be difpofed to take a Whet, a Nooning, an Evening's Draught, or a Bottle after Midnight, he goes to the Club, and finds a Knot of Friends to his Mind.

IT

IT is a Maxim in this Club That the Steward never dies; for as they fucceed one another by way of Rotation, no Man is to quit the great Elbow-chair which ftands at the upper End of the Table, till his Succeffor is in a Readinefs to fill it; infomuch that there has not been a Sede vacante in the Memory of Man.

THIS Club was inftituted towards the End (or, as fome of them fay, about the Middle) of the Civil Wars, and continued without Interruption till the Time of the Great Fire, which burnt them out, and difperfed them for feveral Weeks. The Steward at that time maintained his Poft till he had like to have been blown up with a neighbouring Houfe, (which was demolished in order to ftop the Fire;) and would not leave the Chair at last, till he had emptied all the Bottles upon the Table, and received repeated Directions from the Club to withdraw himself. This Steward is frequently talked of in the Club, and looked upon by every Member of it as a greater Man, than the famous Captain mentioned in my Lord Clarendon, who was burnt in his Ship because he would not quit it without Orders. It is faid that towards the Clofe of 1700, being the great Year of Jubilee, the Club had it under Confideration whether they fhould break up or continue their Seffion; but after many Speeches and Debates, it was at length agreed to fit out the other Century. This Refolution paffed in a general Club Nemine Contradicente.

HAVING given this fhort Account of the Inftitution and Continuation of the Everlasting Club, I should here endeavour to lay fomething of the Manners and Characers of its feveral Members, which I fhall do according to the beft Lights I have received in this Matter.

IT appears by their Books in general, that fince their firft Inftitution they have fmoaked Fifty Tun of Tobacco, drank thirty thoufand Butts of Ale, One Thoufand Hogfheads of Red Port, two hundred Barrels of Brandy, and a Kilderkin of fmall Beer: There has been likewise a great Confumption of Cards. It is alfo faid, that they obferve the Law in Ben Johnson's Club, which orders the Fire to be always kept in (focus perennis efto) as well for the Convenience of lighting their Pipes, as to cure the Dampness of the Club-Room. They have an old Wo

man

man in the nature of a Veftal, whofe Bufiness it is to cherish and perpetuate the Fire which burns from Generation to Generation, and has feen the Glafs-house Fires in and out above an Hundred times.

THE Everlasting Club treats all other Clubs with an Eye of Contempt, and talks even of the Kit-Cat and October as of a couple of Upstarts. Their ordinary Discourse (as much as I have been able to learn of it) turns altogether upon fuch Adventures as have paffed in their own Affembly; of Members who have taken the Glafs in their Turns for a Week together, without ftirring out of the Club; of others who have fmoaked an hundred Pipes at a Sitting; of others who have not miffed their Morning's Draught for twenty Years together: Sometimes they fpeak in Raptures of a Run of Ale in King Charles's Reign, and fometimes reflect with Aftonishment upon Games at Whisk, which have been miraculously recovered by Members of the Society, when in all human Probability the Cafe was defperate.

THEY delight in feveral old Catches, which they fing at all Hours to encourage one another to moiften their Clay, and grow immortal by drinking; with many other edifying Exhortations of like Nature.

THERE are four general Clubs held in a Year, at which Times they fill up Vacancies, appoint Waiters, confirm the old Fire-Maker, or elect a new one, fettle Contributions for Coals, Pipes, Tobacco, and other Neceffaries.

THE Senior Member has out-lived the whole Club twice over, and has been drunk with the Grandfathers of fome of the prefent fitting Members. C

Thursday, May 24.

N° 73.

O Dea certe!

I

Virg.

T is very ftrange to consider, that a Creature like Man, who is fenfible of fo many Weakneffes and Imperfections, fhould be a&tuated by a Love of Fame: That Vice and Ignorance, Imperfection and Mifery fhould contend

for

for Praife, and endeavour as much as poffible to make themselves Objects of Admiration.

BUT notwithstanding Man's Effential Perfection is but very little, his Comparative Perfection may be very confiderable. If he looks upon himself in an abftracted Light, he has not much to boast of; but if he confiders himself with regard to others, he may find Occafion of glorying, if not in his own Virtues, at least in the Abfence of an other's Imperfections. This gives a different Turn to the Reflections of the Wife Man and the Fool. The firft endeavours to fhine in himself, and the last to out-shine o thers. The first is humbled by the Senfe of his own Infirmities, the laft is lifted up by the Discovery of those which he obferves in other Men. The Wife Man confiders what he wants, and the Fool what he abounds in. The Wife Man is happy when he gains his own Appro bation, and the Fool when he Recommends himself to the Applaufe of those about him.

BUT however unreasonable and abfurd this Paffion for Admiration may appear in fuch a Creature as Man, it is not wholly to be difcouraged; fince it often produces very good Effects, not only as it restrains him from doing any thing which is mean and contemptible, but as it pufhes him to Actions which are great and glorious. The Principle maybe defective or faulty, but the Confequences it produces are fo good, that, for the Benefit of Mankind, it ought not to be extinguished.

IT is obferved by Cicero, that Men of the greatest and the moft fhining Parts are the most actuated by Ambitiand if we look into the two Sexes, I believe we hall find this Principle of Action stronger in Women than

on;

in Men.

THE Paffion for Praife, which is fo very vehement in the fair Sex, produces excellent Effects in Women of Senfe, who defire to be admired for that only which deferves Admiration: And I think we may obferve, with

out

Compliment to them, that many of them do not only live in a more uniform Course of Virtue, but with an infinitely greater Regard to their Honour, than what we find in the Generality of our own Sex. How many Inftances have we of Chastity, Fidelity, Devotion? How many Ladies diftinguish themselves by the Education of

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