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Occurrences. I know a Man of Quality of our Order, who is of the wrong Side of Forty-three, and has been of that Age, according to Tully's Jeft, for fome Years fince, whofe Vein is upon the Romantick. Give him the leaft Occafion, and he will tell you fomething fo very particular that happened in fuch a Year, and in fuch Company, where by the By was prefent fuch a one, who was afterwards made fuch a thing. Out of all thefe Circumftances, in the best Language in the World, he will join together with fuch probable Incidents an Account that fhews a Perfon of the deepest Penetration, the honeftest Mind, and withal fomething fo humble when he fpeaks of himself, that you would admire. Dear Sir, why should this be Lying! There is nothing fo inftructive. He has withal the graveft Afpect; fomething fo very venerable and great! Another of thefe Hiftorians is a Young Man whom we would take in, tho he extreamly wants Parts ; as People fend Children (before they can learn any thing) to School to keep them out of Harm's way. He tells Things which have nothing at all in them, and can neither pleafe nor difpleafe, but meerly take up your Time to no manner of Purpose, no manner of Delight; but he is Good-natured, and does it because he loves to be faying fomething to you, and entertain you. I could name you a Soldier that hath done very great things without Slaughter; he is prodigioufly dull and flow of Head, but what he can fay is for ever falfe, fo that we must have him.

GIVE me leave to tell you of one more who is a Lover, he is the most afflicted Creature in the World, left what happened between him and a Great Beauty fhould ever be known. Yet again he comforts himself, Hang the Jade her Woman. If Mony can keep the Slut trufty I will do it tho' I mortgage every Acre; Anthony and Cleopatra for that; All for Love, and the World well loft.

THEN, Sir, there is my little Merchant, honeft Indigo of the Change, there's my Man for Lofs and Gain; ⚫ there's Tare and Tret, there's lying all round the Globe; he has fuch a prodigious Intelligence he knows all the French are doing, and what we intend or ought to intend, and has it from fuch Hands. But alas whither am I running! While I complain, while I remonstrate to

you,

you, even all this is a Lie, and there is not one fuch Perfon of Quality, Lover, Soldier, or Merchant as I have • now described in the whole World, that I know of. But I will catch my felf once in my Life, and in spite of Na. ture fpeak one Truth, to wit that I am

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Your humble Servant, &c.

N° 137.

Tuesday, Auguft 7.

At hac etiam fervis femper libera fuerunt, timerent, gauderent, dolerent fuo potius quam alterius arbitrio.. Tull. Epift.

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T is no fmall Concern to me, that I find fo many Complaints from that Part of Mankind whofe Portion it is to live in Servitude, that those whom they depend upon will not allow them to be even as happy as their Condition will admit of. There are, as thefe unhappy Correfpondents inform me, Mafters who areoffended at a chearful Countenance, and think a Servant is broke loofe from them, if he does not preferve the utmost Awe in their Prefence. There is one who fays, if he looks fatisfied, his Mafter asks him what makes him fo pert this Morning; ifa little fower, Hark ye, Sirrah, are not you paid your Wages? The poor Creatures live in the most extreme Mifery together: The Mafter knows not how to preferve Refpect, nor the Servant how to give it. It feems this Perfon is of fo fullen a Nature, that he knows but little Satisfaction in the midft of a plentiful Fortune, and fecretly frets to fee any Appearance of Content, in one that lives upon the hundredth Part of his Income, who is unhappy in the Poffeffion of the Whole. Uneafie Perfons, who cannot poffefs their own Minds, vent their Spleen upon all who depend upon them; which, I think, is expreffed in a lively manner in the following Letters,

SIR,

August 2, 1711.'

"I Have read your Spectator of the third of the last Month, and with I had the Happiness of being preferred to serve so good a Mafter as Sir ROGER.. The Character of my Mafter is the very Reverse of that good and gentle Knight's. All his Directions are given, and his Mind revealed by way of Contraries: As when any thing is to be remembred, with a peculiar Cast of Face he cries, Be fure to forget now. If I am to make hafte back, Don't come these two Hours; be fure to call by the Way upon fome of your Companions. Then an• other excellent Way of his is, if he fets me any thing to do, which he knows must neceffarily take up half a Day, he calls ten Times in a Quarter of an Hour to know whether I have done yet. This is his Manner; and the fame Perverfenefs runs through all his Actions, according as the Circumftances vary. Besides all this, he is fo fufpicious, that he submits himself to the Drudgery of a Spy. He is as unhappy himself as he makes his Servants: He is conftantly watching us, and we differ no more in Pleafure and Liberty than as a Goaler ⚫ and a Prifoner. He lays Traps for Faults, and no fooner makes a Difcovery, but falls into fuch Language, as I am more afhamed of for coming from him, than for being directed to me. This, Sir, is a fhort Sketch of a Mafter I have ferved upwards of nine Years; and tho' I have never wronged him, I confèfs my Defpair of pleafing him has very much abated my Endeavour to do it. If you will give me Leave to ⚫ steal a Sentence out of my Mafter's Clarendon, I fhall tell you my Cafe in a Word, Being used worse than I • deferved, I cared less to deferve well than I had done.

I am, SIR, Your Humble Servant,
RALPH VATET.

Dear Mr. SPECTER,

Am the next Thing to a Lady's Woman, and am under both my Lady and her Woman. I am fo ufed by them both, that I fhould be very glad to fee them in the SPECTER. My Lady her felf is of no

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Mind in the World, and for that Reafon her Woman is of twenty Minds in a Moment. My Lady is one that never knows what to do with her felf; fhe pulls on and puts off every Thing fhe wears twenty Times be'fore the refolves upon it for that Day. I ftand at one End of the Room, and reach Things to her Woman. When my Lady asks for a Thing, I hear and have half brought it, when the Woman meets me in the middle of the Room to receive it, and at that Instant she says No fhe will not have it. Then I go back, and her Woman comes up to her, and by this Time fhe will have that, and two or three Things more in an Inftant: The Woman and I run to each other; I am loaded and delivering the Things to her, when my Lady fays fhe wants none of all these Things, and we are the dulleft Creatures in the World, and the the unhappiest Woman living, for fhe fhan't be drefs'd in any Time. Thus we ftand not knowing what to do, when our good Lady with all the Patience in the • World tells us as plain as the can fpeak, that she will have Temper because we have no manner of Under• ftanding; and begins again to dress, and fee if we can find out of our felves what we are to do. When fhe is Dreffed fhe goes to Dinner, and after he has ⚫ disliked every thing there, fhe calls for the Coach, then ⚫ commands it in again, and then fhe will not go out at all, and then will go too, and orders the Chariot, Now good Mr SPECTER, I defire you would in the Behalf of all who ferve froward Ladies, give out in your Paper, that nothing can be done without allowing Time for it, and that one cannot be back again with what one was fent for, if one is called back before one can go a Step for that they want. And if you please let them know that all Miftreffes are as like as all Servants.

THESE are great Calamities; but I met the other Day in the five Fields towards Chelfea, a pleafanter Tyrant than either of the above reprefented. A fat Fellow

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was puffing on in his open Waftecoat; a Boy of fourteen in a Livery, carrying after him his Cloak, upper Coat, Hat, Wig, and Sword. The poor Lad was ready to fink with the Weight, and could not keep up with his Mafter, who turned back every half Furlong, and wondered what made the lazy young Dog lag behind.

THERE is fomething very unaccountable, that People cannot put themselves in the Condition of the Perfons below them, when they confider the Commands they give. But there is nothing more common, than to fee a Fellow (who if he were reduced to it, would not be hired by any Man living) lament that he is troubled with the most worthlefs Dogs in Nature.

IT would, perhaps, be running too far out of common Life, to urge, that he who is not Mafter of himself and his own Paffions, cannot be a proper Mafter of another. Equanimity in a Man's own Words and Actions, will eafily diffufe it felf through his whole Family. Pamphilio has the happieft Houfhold of any Man I know, and that proceeds from the human Regard he has to them in their private Perfons, as well as in Refpect that they are his Servants. If there be any Occafion, wherein they may in themselves be fuppofed to be unfit to attend their Mafter's Concerns, by reafon of an Attention to their own, he is fo good as to place himself in their Condition. I thought it very becoming in him, when at Dinner the other Day he made an Apology for want of more Attendants. He faid, One of my Footmen is gone to the Wedding of his Sifter, and the other I don't expect to wait, becaufe his Father died but two Days ago..

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Wednesday