it came to pass, though I seldom failed of getting the daughter's consent, I could never in my life get the old people on my side. "I could give you an account of a thousand other 5 unsuccessful attempts, particularly of one which I made some years since upon an old woman, whom I had certainly borne away with flying colors if her relations had not come pouring in to her assistance from all parts of England; nay, I believe I should 10 have got her at last, had she not been carried off by an hard frost.” As Will's transitions are extremely quick, he turned from Sir Roger, and applying himself to me, told me there was a passage in the book1 I had considered last 15 Saturday which deserved to be writ in letters of gold; and, taking out a pocket Milton, read the following lines which are part of one of Adam's speeches to Eve after the fall: "Oh! why did our Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven Of Nature, and not fill the world at once Or find some other way to generate Mankind? This mischief had not then befall'n, 1 The tenth book of Paradise Lost. 10 As some misfortune brings him or mistake; By parents; or his happiest choice too late To human life, and household peace confound." Sir Roger listened to this passage with great attention, and desiring Mr. Honeycomb to fold down a leaf at the place, and lend him his book, the knight put it up in his pocket, and told us that he would read over those verses again before he went to bed. X. As I was sitting in my chamber and thinking on a subject for my next "Spectator," I heard two or three irregular bounces at my landlady's door, and upon the opening of it, a loud, cheerful voice inquir5 ing whether the philosopher was at home. The child who went to the door answered very innocently that he did not lodge there. I immediately recollected that it was my good friend Sir Roger's voice, and that I had promised to go with him on the water to Spring 10 Garden, in case it proved a good evening. The knight put me in mind of my promise from the bottom of the staircase, but told me that if I was speculating he would stay below till I had done. Upon my coming down, I found all the children of the family got about 15 my old friend, and my landlady herself, who is a notable prating gossip, engaged in a conference with him, being mightily pleased with his stroking her little boy upon the head, and bidding him be a good child. and mind his book. 1 They bind over their gardens to vice. We were no sooner come to the Temple Stairs but we were surrounded with a crowd of watermen, offering us their respective services. Sir Roger, after having looked about him very attentively, spied one with 5 a wooden leg, and immediately gave him orders to get his boat ready. As we were walking towards it, “You must know, says Sir Roger, "I never make use of anybody to row me that has not either lost a leg or an arm. I would rather bate him a few strokes of his 10 oar than not employ an honest man that had been wounded in the Queen's service. If I was a lord or a bishop, and kept a barge, I would not put a fellow in my livery that had not a wooden leg." My old friend, after having seated himself, and 15 trimmed the boat with his coachman, who, being a very sober man, always serves for ballast on these occasions, we made the best of our way for Fox-hall. Sir Roger obliged the waterman to give us the history of his right leg, and, hearing that he had left it at La 20 Hogue, with many particulars which passed in that glorious action, the knight, in the triumph of his heart, made several reflections on the greatness of the British nation; as, that one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen;1 that we could never be in danger 25 of popery so long as we took care of our fleet; that the Thames was the noblest river in Europe; that London Bridge was a greater piece of work than any of the seven wonders of the world; with many other honest 1 How do you explain Sir Roger's attitude toward the war? See Introduction, Sections 20 and 21. prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart of a true Englishman. After some short pause, the old knight, turning about his head twice or thrice, to take a survey of this 5 great metropolis, bid me observe how thick the city was set with churches, and that there was scarce a single steeple on this side Temple Bar. "A most heathenish sight!" says Sir Roger; "there is no religion at this end of the town. The fifty new 10 churches will very much mend the prospect; but church work is slow, church work is slow!" I do not remember I have anywhere mentioned, in Sir Roger's character, his custom of saluting everybody that passes by him with a good-morrow or good15 night. This the old man does out of the overflowings of his humanity, though at the same time it renders him so popular among all his country neighbors that it is thought to have gone a good way in making him once or twice knight of the shire. 20 He cannot forbear this exercise of benevolence even in town, when he meets with anyone in his morning or evening walk. It broke from him to several boats that passed by us upon the water; but to the knight's great surprise, as he gave the good-night to two or 25 three young fellows a little before our landing, one of them, instead of returning the civility, asked us what queer old put we had in the boat, with a great deal of the like Thames ribaldry. Sir Roger seemed a little shocked at first, but at length, assuming a face of 30 magistracy, told us that if he were a Middlesex justice |