Friends and Neighbours.. I know a Maiden Aunt of a great Family, who is one of thefe Antiquated Sibyls, that forebodes and prophefies from one end of the Year to the other. She is always feeing Apparitions, and hearing Death-Watches; and was the other Day almost frighted out of her Wits by the great Houfe-Dog, that howled in the Stable at a time when the lay ill of the Tooth-ach., Such an extravagant Caft of Mind engages Multitudes of People, not only in impertinent Terrors, but in fupernumerary Duties of Life; and arifes from that Fear and Ignorance which are natural to the Soul of Man, The Horror with which we entertain the Thoughts of Death (or indeed of any future Evil) and the uncertainty of its Approach, fill a melancholy Mind with innumerable Apprehenfions and Sufpicions, and confequently difpofe it to the Obfervation of fuch groundlefs Prodigies and Preditions. For as it is the chief Concern of Wife Men to retrench the Evils of Life by the Reafonings of Philofophy; it is the Employment of Fools to multiply them by the Sentiments of Superftition..

FOR my own Part, I fhould be very much troubled were I endowed with this Divining Quality, though it fhould inform me truly of every thing that can befal me.. I would not anticipate the Relifh of any Happiness, nor feel the Weight of any Mifery, before it actually arrives.

I know but one way of fortifying my Soul against thefe gloomy Prefages and Terrors of Mind, and that is, by fecuring to my felf the Friendship and Protection of that. Being who difpofes of Events, and governs Futurity.. He fees, at one View, the whole Thread of my Existence, not only that Part of it which I have already paffed through, but that which runs forward into all the Depths of Eternity. When I lay me down to Sleep, I recommend my felf to his Care; when I awake, I give my self up to his Direction. Amidst all the Evils that threaten me, I will look up to him for Help, and question not but. he will either avert them, or turn them to my Advantage.. Though I know neither the Time nor the Manner of the Death I am to die, I am not all folicitous about it; because I am fure that he knows them both, and that he will Kot fail to comfort and fupport me under them. C

Friday,

I

At Venus obfcuro gradientes aëre fepfit,
Et multo Nebula circum Dea fudit amictu,
Cernere ne quis eos

Virg. Shall here communicate to the World a couple of Letters, which I believe will give the Reader as good an Entertainment as any that I am able to furnish him with, and therefore fhall make no Apology for them.

SIR,

To the SPECTATOR, C..

“ I Am one of the Directors of the Society for the Re

formation of Manners, and therefore think my felf a proper Perfon for your Correspondence. I have thoroughly examined the prefent State of Religion in Great Britain, and am able to acquaint you with the ⚫ predominant Vice of every Market-Town in the whole Island. I can tell you the Progress that Virtue has made in all our Cities, Boroughs, and Corporations; and know as well the evil Practices that are committed in • Berwick or Exeter, as what is done in my own Family. In a word, Sir, I have my Correfpondents in the re<moteft Parts of the Nation, who fend me up pun&tual Accounts from time to time of all the little Irregu-. larities that fall under their Notice in their feveral Diftricts and Divifions.

I am no lefs acquainted with the particular Quarters and Regions of this great Town, than with the diffe• rent Parts and Distributions of the whole Nation. I can defcribe every Parish by its Impieties, and can tell · you in which of our Streets Lewdness prevails, which Gaming has taken the Poffeffion of, and where Drunkennefs has the better of them both. When I am ← difpofed

got

6.

difpofed to raise a Fine for the Poor, I know the Lanes and Allies that are inhabited by common Swearers. When I would encourage the Hofpital of Bridewell and improve the Hempen Manufacture, I am very well acquainted with all the Haunts and Reforts of Female Night-walkers.

AFTER this fhort Account of my self, I must let you know, that the Defign of this Paper is to give you Information of a certain irregular Affembly which I think falls very properly under your Obfervation, especially fince the Perfons it is compofed of are Criminals too confiderable for the Animadverfions of our Society. 'I mean, Sir, the Midnight Mafque, which has of late ⚫ been very frequently held in one of the moft confpicuous Parts of the Town, and which I hear will be continued with Additions and Improvements. As all the • Perfons who compofe this lawless Affembly are mafqued, we dare not attack any of them in our Way, lest we should send a Woman of Quality to Bridewell, or a • Peer of Great Britain to the Counter: Befides that, their • Numbers are so very great, that I am afraid they would be able to rout our whole Fraternity, though we were accompanied with all our Guard of Conftables. Both thefe Reasons, which fecure them from our Authority, ⚫ make them obnoxious to yours; As both their Disguise and their Numbers will give no particular Perfon Rea• fon to think himself affronted by you.

IF we are rightly informed, the Rules that are obferved by this new Society are wonderfully contrived for the Advancement of Cuckoldom. The Women ei⚫ther come by themselves, or are introduced by Friends, who are obliged to quit them, upon their firft Entrance, ⚫ to the Converfation of any Body that addreffes himself to them. There are feveral Rooms where the Parties may retire, and, if they please, shew their Faces by Confent. Whispers, Squeezes, Nods, and Embraces, are the innocent Freedoms of the Place. In fhort, the ⚫ whole Defign of this libidinous Affembly, feems to terminate in Affignations and Intrigues; and I hope you will take effectual Methods, by your publick Advice and Admonitions, to prevent fuch a promifcuous Mul⚫titude

⚫titude of both Sexes from meeting together in fo clandeftine a Manner. I am

Your humble Servant,

and Fellow-Labourer,

T. B.

Not long after the Perufal of this Letter, I received another upon the fame Subject; which by the Date and Style of it, I take to be written by fome young Templer.

SIR,

Middle-Temple, 1710-11.

HEN a Man has been guilty of any Vice or

W Folly, I think the best Atonement he can

• make for it, is to warn others not to fall into the like. In order to this I must acquaint you, that fome time in February laft I went to the Tuesday's Mafquerade. Upon my first going in I was attacked by half a Dozen female Quakers, who feemed willing to adopt me for a Brother; but upon a nearer Examination 1 found they were a Sifterhood of Coquets difguised in that precife • Habit. I was soon after taken out to dance, and, as I • fancied, by a Woman of the firft Quality, for fhe was · very tall, and moved gracefully. As foon as the Minuet was over, we ogled one another through our Mafques, and as I am very well read in Waller, I repeated to her the four following Verfes out of his Poem to Vandike. The heedlefs Lover does not know

Whofe Eyes they are that wound him so;
But confounded with thy Art

Enquires her Name that has his Heart.

I pronounced thefe Words with fuch a languifhing Air that I had fome Reason to conclude I had made a Conqueft. She told me that he hoped my Face was not. akin to my Tongue; and looking upon her Watch, I accidentally difcovered the Figure of a Coronet on the back Part of it. I was fo tranfported with the Thought ⚫ of fuch an Amour, that I plied her from one Room to another with all the Gallantries I could invent; and at length brought things to fo happy an Iffue, that she

6

gave me a private Meeting the next Day, without Page or Footman, Coach or Equipage, My Heart danced in Raptures; but I had not lived in this golden Dream above three Days before I found good Reason to wish that I had continued true to my Laundress. I have fince heard, by a very great Accident, that this Fine Lady does not live far from Covent-Garden, and that I am not the firft Cully whom she has paffed her felf upon for a Countess.

THUS, Sir, you fee how I have mistaken a Cloud for a Juno; and if you can make any ufe of this Ad• venture, for the Benefit of those who may poffibly be as ⚫ vain young Coxcombs as my felf, I do moft heartily give you Leave. I am, S I R,

་

Your most humble Admirer,

B. L.

I defign to vifit the next Masquerade my felf, in the fame Habit I wore at Grand Cairo; and till then shall fufpend my Judgment of this Midnight Entertainment..

C

Saturday, March 10.

Tigris agit rabidâ cum tigride pacem

Perpetuam, favis inter fe convenit urfis,

M

Juv.

AN is faid to be a Sociable Animal, and, as an Inftance of it, we may obferve, that we take all Occafions and Pretences of forming our felves into thofe little Nocturnal Affemblies, which are commonly known by the Name of Clubs. When a Sett of Men find themfelves agree in any Particular, tho' never fo trivial, they establish themselves into a kind of Fraternity, and meet once or twice a Week, upon the Account of fuch a Fantastick Refemblance. I know a confiderable MarketTown, in which there was a Club of fat Men, that did not come together (as you may well fuppofe) to entertain one another with Sprightliness and Wit, but to keep

one