they did not underftand the Language, may then be informed of the Art of Reading movingly and fervently, how to place the Emphafis, and give the proper Accent to each Word, and how to vary the Voice according to the Nature of the Sentence. There is certainly a very great Difference between the Reading a Prayer and a Gazette, which I beg of you to inform a Sett of Readers, who affect, forfooth, a certain Gentleman-like Familiarity of Tone, and mend the Language as they go on, cry ing inftead of Pardoneth and Abfolveth, Pardons and Abfolves, Thefe are often pretty Claffical Scholars, and would think it an unpardonable Sin to read Virgil or Martial with fo little Tafte as they do Divine Service.

THIS Indifferency feems to me to arife from the Endeavours of avoiding the Imputation of Cant, and the • falfe Notion of it. It will be proper therefore to trace the Original and Signification of this Word. Cant is, by fome People, derived from one Andrew Cant, who, they fay, was a Presbyterian Minifter in fome illiterate Part of Scotland, who by Exercise and Use had obtained the Faculty, alias Gift, of Talking in the Pulpit in fuch ← a Dialect, that it's faid he was understood by none but his own Congregation, and not by all of them. Since Maf. Cant's time, it has been understood in a larger • Senfe, and fignifies all fudden Exclamations, Whinings, unufual Tones, and in fine all Praying and Preaching, like the unlearned of the Presbyterians. But I hope a proper Elevation of Voice, a due Emphafis and Accent, are not to come within this Defcription: So that our Readers may ftill be as unlike the Presbyterians as they please. The Diffenters (I mean fuch as I have heard) do indeed elevate their Voices, but it is with fudden jumps from the lower to the higher part of them and that with so little Sense or Skill, that their Elevation and Cadence is Bawling and Muttering. They make ufe of an Emphafis, but fo improperly, that it is often placed on fome very infignificant Particle, as upon if, or and. Now if thefe Improprieties have so great an Effect on the People, as we fee they have, how, great an Influence would the Service of our Church, containing the best Prayers that ever were compofed, ⚫ and that in Terms moft affecting, moft humble, and

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moft expreffive of our Wants, and Dependance on the Subject of our Worship, difpos'd in moft proper Order, and void of all Confufion; what Influence, I fay, would thefe Prayers have, were they delivered with a due Emphafis, and appofite Rifing and Variation of Voice, the Sentence concluded with a gentle Cadence, and, in a Word, with fuch an Accent and turn of Speech as is peculiar to Prayer?

T

AS the matter of Worship is now managed, in Diffenting Congregations, you find infignificant Words and Phrases raifed by a lively Vehemence; in our own Churches, the most exalted Senfe depreciated, by a difpaffionate Indolence. I remember to have heard Dr. Se fay in his Pulpit, of the Common-Prayer, that, at least, it was as perfect as any thing of Human Inftitution: If the Gentlemen who err in this kind would please to recollect the many Pleafantries they have read upon those who recite good Things with an ill Grace, they would go on to think that what in that Cafe is only Ridiculous, in themfelyes is Impious. But leaving this to their own Reflections, I fhall conclude this Trouble with what Cafar faid upon the Irregularity of Tone in one who read before him, Do you read or fing? If you fing, you fing very ill,

Your most Humble Servant,

N° 148. Monday, August 20.

M

-Exempta juvat spinis e pluribus una. Hor. Y Correfpondents affure me that the Enormities which they lately complained of, and I publifhed an Account of, are fo far from being amended, that new Evils arife every Day to interrupt their Converfation, in Contempt of my Reproofs. My Friend who writes from the Coffee-house near the Temple, informs me, that the Gentleman who conftantly fings a Voluntary in spite of the whole Company, was more mufical

than

than ordinary after reading my Paper; and has not been contented with that, but has danced up to the Glass in the Middle of the Room, and practifed Minuet fteps to his own Humming. The incorrigible Creature has gone ftill farther, and in the open Coffee-houfe, with one Hand extended as leading à Lady in it, he has danced both French and Country-Dances, and admonifhed his fuppofed Partner by Smiles and Nods to hold up her Head, and fall back, according to the refpective Facings and Evolu tions of the Dance. Before this Gentleman began this his Exercife, he was pleased to clear his Throat by coughing and fpitting a full half Hour; and as foon as he ftruck up, he appealed to an Attorney's Clerk in the Room, whether he hit as he ought, Since you from Death have faved me? and then asked the young Fellow (pointing to a Chancery-Bill under his Arm) whether that was an Opera-Score he carried or not? Without staying for an Anfwer he fell into the Exercise above-mentioned, and pra tifed his Airs to the full Houfe who were turned upon him, without the leaft Shame or Repentance for his former Tranfgreffions.

I am to the laft Degree at a Lofs what to do with this young Fellow, except I declare him an Outlaw, and pro nounce it penal for any one to fpeak to him in the faid Houfe which he frequents, and direct that he be obliged te drink his Tea and Coffee without Sugar, and not re ceive from any Perfon whatsoever any thing above mere Neceffaries.

AS we in England are a fober People, and generally inclined rather to a certain Bashfulness of Behaviour in Publick, it is amazing whence fome Fellows come whom one meets with in this Town; They do not at all feem to be the Growth of our Ifland; the Pert, the Talkative, all fuch as have no Senfe of the Obfervation of others, are certainly of foreign Extraction. As for my Part, I am as much furprized when I fee a talkative Englishman, as I' fhould be to fee the Indian Pine growing on one of our quick-fet Hedges; where thefe Creatures get Sun enough, to make them fuch lively Animals and dull Men, is above my Philofophy.

THERE are another Kind of Impertinents which a Man is perplexed with in mixed Company, and thofe are

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your loud Speakers: Thefe treat Mankind as if we were all deaf, they do not exprefs but declare themselves. Many of these are guilty of this Outrage out of Vanity, be caufe they think all they fay is well; or that they have their own Perfons in fuch Veneration, that they believe nothing which concerns them can be infignificant to any Body elfe. For thefe Peoples fake, I have often lamented that we cannot clofe our Ears with as much Eafe as we can our Eyes: It is very uneafie that we muft neceffarily be under Perfecution. Next to thefe Bawlers, is a troublesome Creature who comes with the Air of your Friend and your Intimate, and that is your Whisperer. There is one of them at a Coffee-houfe which I my felf frequent, who obferving me to be a Man pretty well made for Secrets, gets by me, and with a Whisper tells me things which all the Town knows. It is no very hard Matter to guefs ar the Source of this Impertinence, which is nothing else but a Method or Mechanick Art of being wife. You ne ver fee any frequent in it, whom you can fuppofe to have any thing in the World to do. Thefe Perfons are worfe than Bawlers, as much as a fecret Enemy is more dange rous than declared one. I wish this my Coffee-house Friend would take this for an Intimation, that I have not heard one Word he has told me for these several Years; whereas he now thinks me the most trufty Repository of his Secrets. The Whifperers have a pleasant Way of ending the clofe Converfation, with faying aloud, Do not you think fo? Then whifper again, and then aloud, but you know that Perfon; Then whisper again. The thing would be well enough, if they whispered to keep the Folly of what they fay among Friends, but alas, they do it to preferve the Importance of their Thoughts. I am fure I could name you more than one Perfon whom no Man living ever heard talk upon any Subject in Nature, or e ver faw in his whole Life with a Book in his Hand, that I know not how can whifper fomething like Knowledge of what has and does pafs in the World; which you would think he learned from fome familiar Spirit that did not think him worthy to receive the whole Story. But in truth Whisperers deal only in half Accounts of what they entertain you with. A great Help to their Difcourfe is, That the Town fays, and People begin to talk very free

ly,

ly, and they had it from Perfons too confiderable to be named, what they will tell you when things are riper. My Friend has winked upon me any Day fince I came to Town last, and has communicated to me as a Secret, that he defigned in a very short Time to tell me a Secret; but I fhall know what he means, he now affures me, in lefs than a Fortnight's Time.

BUT I must not omit the dearer Part of Mankind, I mean the Ladies, to take up a whole Paper upon Grievances which concern the Men only; but shall humbly propofe, that we change Fools for an Experiment only. A certain Set of Ladies complain they are frequently perplexed with a Vifitant, who affects to be wifer than they are; which Character he hopes to preferve by an obftinate Gravity, and great Guard againft difcovering his Opinion upon any Occafion whatever. A painful Silence has hitherto gained him no further Advantage, than that as he might, if he had behaved himself with Freedom, been excepted againft, but as to this and that Particular, he now offends in the whole. To relieve thefe Ladies, my good Friends and Correfpondents, I fhall exchange my dancing Outlaw for their dumb Vifitant, and affign the filent Gentleman all the Haunts of the Dancer: In order to which, I have fent them by the Penny-Poft the following Letters for their Conduct in their new Converfations.

SIR,

I

Have, you may be fure, heard of your Irregularities without regard to my Obfervations upon you; but fhall not treat you with fo much Rigour as you deferve. If f you will give your felf the Trouble to repair to the Place mentioned in the Poftfcript to this Letter at Seven this Evening, you will be conducted into a fpacious Room well lighted, where there are Ladies and Mufick. You will fee a young Lady laughing next the Window to the Street; you may take her out, for fhe loves you as well as she does any Man, tho' fhe never faw you before. She never thought in her Life, any more than your felf. She will not be furprized when you accoft her, nor concerned when you leave her. Haften from a Place where you are laughed at, to one where you will be admired. You are of no Confe