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knowledge of one's felf, than to hear what palles in Mufcovy or Poland; and to amufe ourselves with fuch writings as tend to the wearing out of ignorance, paffion, and prejudice, than fuch as naturally conduce to inflame hatreds, and make enmities irreconcilable?

In the next place I would recommend this paper to the daily perufal of thofe 1 gentlemen whom I cannot but confider as my good brothers and allies, I mean the fraternity of fpectators, who live in the world without having any thing to do in it; and either by the affluence of their fortunes, or laziness of their dif pofitions, have no other business with the rest of mankind, but to look upon them. Under this clafs of men are comprehended all contemplative Tradefmen, titular Phyficians, Fellows of the Royal Society, Templars that are not given to be contentious, and Statefinen that are out of bufinefs; in fhort, every one that confiders the world as a theatre, and defires to form a right judgment of those who are the actors on it.

There is another fet of men that I muft likewife lay a claim to, whom I have lately called the Blanks of fociety, as being altogether unfurnished with ideas, till the bufinefs and converfation of the day has fupplied them. I have often confidered thefe poor fouls with an eye of great commiferation, when I have heard them afking the firit man they have met with, whether there was any news ftirring? and by that means gathering together materials for thinking. Thefe needy perfons do not know what to talk of, till about twelve o'clock in the morning; for by that time they are pretty good judges of the weather, know which way the wind fits, and

whether the Dutch mail be come in. As they lie at the mercy of the first man they meet, and are grave or impertinent all the day long, according to the notions which they have imbibed in the morning, I would earnestly intreat them not to stir out of their chambers till they have read this paper, and do promife them that I will daily inftil into them fuch found and wholefome fentiments, as fhall have a good effect on their converfation for the enfuing twelve hours,

But there are none to whom this paper will be more useful than to the female world. I have often thought there has not been fufficient pains taken in finding

out proper employments and diversion s for the fair ones. Their amufements feem contrived for them, rather as they are women, than as they are reasonable Creatures; and are more adapted to the fex than to the fpecies. The toilet is their great fcene of business, and the right adjusting of their hair the principal employment of their lives. The forting of a fuit of ribbons is reckoned a very good morning's work; and if they make an excurfion to a mercer's or a toyfhop, fo great a fatigue makes them unfit for any thing else all the day after. Their more ferious occupations are fewing and embroidery, and their greatest. drudgery the preparation of jellies and Tweet-meats. This, I fay, is the ftate of ordinary women; though I know there are multitudes of thofe of a more elevated life and converfation, that move in an exalted fphere of knowledge and virtue, that join all the beauties of the mind to the ornaments of drefs, and infpire a kind of awe and refpect, as well as love, into their male-beholders. I hope to increase the number of thefe by publishing this daily paper, which I fhall always endeavour to make an innocent if not an improving entertainment, and by that means at least divert the minds of my female readers from greater trifles. At the fame time, as I would fain give fome finishing touches to thofe which are already the moft beautiful pieces in human nature, I shall endeavour to point out all thofe imperfections that are the blemishes, as well as thofe virtues which are the embellifhments, of the fex. In the mean while I hope thefe my gentle readers, who have fo much time on their hands, will not grudge throwing away a quarter of an hour in a day on this paper, fince they may do it without any hin drance to business.

I know feveral of my friends and well-wishers are in great pain for me, left I should not be able to keep up the fpirit of a paper which I oblige myself to furnish every day; but to make them eafy in this particular, I will promife them faithfully to give it over as foon as I grow dull, This I know will be matter of great raillery to the fmall wits; who will frequently put me in mind of my promife, defire me to keep my word, affure me that it is high time to give over, with many other little pleasantries

of

of the like nature, which men of a little fmart genius cannot forbear throwing eut against their best friends, when they have fuch a handle given them of being

witty. But let them remember that I do hereby enter my caveat against this piece of raillery.

N° XI. TUESDAY, MARCH 13.

DAT VENIAM CORVIS, VEXAT CENSURA COLUMBAS.

Juv. SAT. II. VER. 63.

THE DOVES ARE CENSUR'D, WHILE THE CROWS ARE SPAR'D.

C

Arietta feemed to regard this piece of raillery as an outrage done to her fex; as indeed I have always obferved that women, whether out of a nicer regard to their honour, or what other reafon cannot tell, are more fenfibly touched with thofe general afperfions which are caft upon their fex, than men are by what is faid of theirs.

When he had a little recovered herfelf from the ferious anger fhe was in, the replied in the following manner.

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Sir, when I confider how per'fectly new all you have faid on this fubject is, and that the ftory you have given us is not quite two thousand years old, I cannot but think it a piece of prefumption to difpute with you; but your quotations put me in mind of the fable of the Lion and the Man. The man walking with that noble animal, fhewed him, in the oftentation of human fuperiority, a 'fign of a man killing a lion: Upon

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ARIETTA is vis, who have any fons of both fexes, who have any pretence to wit and gallantry. She is in that time of life which is neither affected with the follies of youth, or infirmities of age; and her converfation is fo mixed with gaiety and prudence, that fhe is agreeable both to the young and old. Her behaviour is very frank, without being in the leaft blameable; and as fhe is out of the track of any amorous or ambitious pursuits of her own, her vifitants entertain her with accounts of themselves very freely, whether they concern their paffions or their interefts. I made her a vifit this after. noon, having been formerly introduced to the honour of her acquaintance by my friend Will Honeycomb, who has prevailed upon her to admit me fometimes into her affembly, as a civil inoffenfive man. I found her accompanied with one person only, a common-place talker, who, upon my entrance, arose, and after a very flight civility fat down again; then turning to Arietta, pursued his difcourfe, which I found was upon the old topic of conftancy in love. He went on with great facility in repeating what he talks every day of his life; and with the ornaments of infig-please in your works, while we are nificant laughs and geftures, enforced his arguments by quotations out of plays and fongs, which allude to the perjuries of the fair, and the general levity of women. Methought he ftrove to fhine more than ordinary in his talkative way, that he might infult my filence, and diftinguish himself before a woman of Arietta's tafte and underftanding. She had often an inclination to interrupt him, but could find no opportunity, till the larum ceafed of itself, which it did not till he had repeated and murdered the celebrated ftory of the Ephefian matron.

which the lion faid very juftly-" We "lions are none of us painters, elfe we "could fhew a hundred men killed by "lions, for one lion killed by a man.' You men are writers, and can reprefent us women as unbecoming as you

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unable to return the injury. You have twice or thrice obferved in your difcourfe, that hypocrify is the very foundation of our education; and that an ability to diffemble our affections is a profeffed part of our breeding. Thefe, and fuch other reflections, are fprinkled up and down the writings of all ages, by authors, who leave behind them memorials of their refentment against the fcorns of particular women, in invectives against the whole fex. Such a writer, I doubt not, was the celebrated Petronius, who invented the pleasant aggravations of the frailty

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of the Ephefian lady; but when we confider this question between the fexes, which has been either a point of difpute or raillery ever fince there were men and women, let us take facts from plain people, and from fuch as have not either ambition or capacity to embellish their narrations with any beauties of imagination. I was the other day amuling myfelf with Suxtrack Ligon's account of Barbadoes; and in answer to your well-wrought tale, I will give you, (as it dwells upon my memory) out of that honeft traveller, in his fifty-fifth page, the hiftory of

from gon. at the End of this volume.

Inkle and Yarico.

Mr. Thomas Inkle, of London, aged twenty years, embarked in the Downs on the good fhip called the • Achilles, bound for the Weft Indies, ⚫ on the 16th of June, 1647, in order

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highly charmed with the limbs, features, and wild graces of the naked American; the American was no lefs ⚫ taken with the drefs, complexion, and 'fhape of an European, covered from head to foot. The Indian grew im. 'mediately' enamoured of him, and confequently folicitous for his prefervation. She therefore conveyed him to a cave, where the gave him a delicious repaft of fruits, and led him to a ftream to flake his thirft. In the midst of thefe good offices, the would ⚫ fometimes play with his hair, and delight in the oppofition of it's colour to that of her fingers; then open his bofom, then laugh at him for covering it. She was, it seems, a person of diftinction, for fhe every day came to him in a different dress, of the most beautiful fhells, bugles, and bredes. She likewife brought him a great many fpoils, which her other lovers had prefented to her, fo that his cave was richly adorned with all the spotted kins of beafts, and moft party-coloured feathers of fowls, which that world afforded. To make his confinement more tolerable, fhe would carry him in the dufk of the evening, or by the favour of the moon-light, to unfrequented groves and folitudes, and fhew him where to lie down in fafety, and fleep amidst the falls of waters, and melody of nightingales. Her part was to watch and hold him awake in her arms, for fear of her countrymen, and awake him on occafions to confult his fafety. In this manner did the lovers pafs away their time, till they had learned a language of their own, in which the voyager 'communicated to his miftrefs, how happy he should be to have her in his

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to improve his fortune by trade and ⚫ merchandise. Our adventurer was the third fon of an eminent citizen, who had taken particular care to inftil into his mind an early love of gain, by making him a perfect master of numbers, and confequently giving him a quick view of lofs and advantage, and preventing the natural impulfes of his paffions, by prepoffeffion towards his interefts. With a mind • thus turned, young Inkle had a per⚫fon every way agreeable, a ruddy vigour in his countenance, ftrength in his limbs, with ringlets of fair hair loosely flowing on his fhoulders. It happened, in the courfe of the voyage, that the Achilles, in fome diftrefs, put ⚫ into a creek on the main of America, in fearch of provifions. The youth, who is the hero of my ftory, among others went afhore on this occafion. From their first landing they were obferved by a party of Indians, who hid ⚫ themselves in the woods for that purpofe. The English unadvisedly marched a great diftance from the fhore into the country, and were intercepted by the natives, who flew the greateit number of them. Our adventurer elcaped among others, by flying into a forelt. Upon his coming into a remote and pathlefs part of the wood, he threw himself, tired, and breathicfs, on a little hillock, when an Indian maid ruthed from a thicket behind him. After the firft furprize,utmoft joy and fatisfaction, accompa

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they appeared mutually agreeable to
4ch other. If the European was

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own country, where the fhould be clothed in fuch filks as his waistcoat ' was made of, and be carried in houses drawn by horfes, without being expofed to wind and weather. All this he promited her the enjoyment of, without fuch fears and alarms as they were tormented with. In this tender 'correfpondence thefe lovers lived for feveral months, when Yarico, inftructed by her lover, difcovered a ⚫ veffel on the coaft, to which the made fignals; and in the night, with the

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nied him to a fhip's crew of his countrymen, bound for Barbadoes. When ⚫ a velel

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tion, the prudent and frugal young man fold Yarico to a Barbadian merchant; notwithstanding the poor girl, to commiferate her condition, told him that he was with child by him; but he only made ufe of that information to rife in his demands upon the pur'chafer.'

I was fo touched with this ftory (which I think should be always a counterpart to the Ephefian matron) that I left the room with tears in my eyes; which a woman of Arietta's good fenfe did, I am fure, take for greater applaufe, than any compliments I could make her.

N° XII. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14.

VETERES AVIAS TIBI DE PULMONE REVELLO.

PERS. SAT. V.92.

I ROOT THE OLD WOMAN FROM MY TREMBLING HEART.

T my coming to London, it was fome time before I could fettle myself in a house to my liking. I was forced to quit my first lodgings, by reafon of an officious landlady, that would be asking me every morning how I had flept. I then fell into an honest family, and lived very happily for above a week; when my landlord, who was a jolly good-natured man, took it into his head that I wanted company, and therefore would frequently come into my chamber to keep me from being alone. This I bore for two or three days; but telling me one day that he was afraid I was melancholy, I thought it was high time for me to be gone, and accordingly took new lodgings that very night. About a week after, I found my jolly landlord, who, as I faid before, was an honest hearty man, had put me into an advertisement of the Daily Courant, in the following words: Whereas a melancholy man left his ⚫ lodgings on Thursday laft in the af⚫ternoon, and was afterwards seen going towards Illington; if any one can give notice of him to R. B. fifhmonger in the Strand, he fhall be very well ' rewarded for his pains.' As I am the best man in the world to keep my own counsel, and my landlord the fishmonger not knowing my name, this accident of my life was never discovered to this very day.

I am now fettled with a widow wo

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man, who has a great many children, and complies with my humour in every thing. I do not remember that we have exchanged a word together there five years; my coffee comes into my chamber every morning without asking for it; if I want fire, I point to my chimney; if water, to my bafon; upon which my landlady nods, as much as to fay fhe takes my meaning, and immediately obeys my fignals. She has likewife modelled her family fo well, that when her little boy offers to pull me by the coat, or prattle in my face, his eldett fifter immediately calls him off, and bids him not disturb the gentleman. At my first entering into the family, I was troubled with the civility of their rifing up to me every time I came into the room; but my landlady obferving that upon these occasions I always cried Pifh, and went out again, has forbidden any fuch ceremony to be used in the houfe; fo that at prefent I walk into the kitchen or parlour without being taken notice of, or giving any interruption to the bufinefs or difcourfe of the family. The maid will ask her mistress, though I am by, whether the gentleman is ready to go to dinner, as the miftrefs (who is indeed an excellent housewife) fcolds at the fervants as heartily before my face as behind my back. In fhort, I move up and down the house, and enter into all companies with the fame liberty as a

cat,

cat, or any other domeftic animal, and am as little fufpected of telling any thing that I hear or fee.

I remember laft winter there were several young girls of the neighbourhood fitting about the fire with my landlady's daughters, and telling ftories of spirits and apparitions. Upon my opening the door, the young women broke off their difcourfe; but my landlady's daughters telling them that it was nobody but the gentleman, (for that is the name which I go by in the neighbourhood, as well as in the family) they went on without minding me. I feated myself by the candle that stood on a table at one end of the room; and pretending to read a book that I took out of my pocket, heard feveral dreadful stories of gholts as pale as afhes that had ftood at the feet of a bed, or walked over a churchyard by moon-light; and of others that had been conjured into the Red Sea, for disturbing people's reft, and drawing their curtains at midnight; with many other old women's fables of the like nature. As one fpirit raised another, I obferved that at the end of every story the whole company clofed their ranks, and crouded about the fire. I took notice in particular of a little boy, who was fo attentive to every story, that I am mistaken if he ventures to go to bed by himself this twelvemonth. Indeed they talked fo long, that the imaginations of the whole affembly were manifeftly crazed, and, I am fure, will be the worfe for it as long as they live. I heard one of the girls, that had looked upon me over her fhoulder, afking the company how long I had been in the room, and whether I did not look paler than I used to do. This put me under fome apprehenfions that I fhould be forced to explain myfelf if I did not setire; for which reafon I took the candle in my hand, and went up into my chamber, not without wondering at this unaccountable weakness in reasonable creatures, that they should love to altonith and terrify one another. Were I a father, I fhould take a particular care to preferve my children from these little horrors of imagination, which they are apt to contract when they are young, and are not able to fhake off when they are in years. I have known a foldier that has entered a breach, affrighted at his own fhadow, and look pale upon a little fcratching at his door, who the

day before had marched up against a battery of cannon. There are instances of perfons, who have been terrified even to distraction, at the figure of a tree, or the fhaking of a bullrush. The truth of it is, I look upon a found imagination as the greatest blessing of life, next to a clear judgment and a good confcience. In the mean time, fince there are very few whofe minds are not more or lefs fubject to thefe dreadful thoughts and apprehenfions, we ought to arm ourselves against them by the dictates of reafon and religion, to pull the old

woman out of our hearts, (as Perfius expreffes it in the motto of my paper) and extinguish thofe impertinent notions which we imbibed at a time that we were not able to judge of their abfurdity. Or if we believe, as many wife and good men have done, that there are fuch phantoms and apparitions as those I have been speaking of, let us endeavour to establish to ourselves an interest in Him who holds the reins of the whole creation in his hand, and moderates them after fuch a manner, that it is impoffible for one being to break loofe upon another without his knowledge and permiffion.

For my own part, I am apt to join in opinion with thofe who believe that all the regions of nature fwarm with fpirits; and that we have multitudes of fpectators on all our actions, when we think ourselves moft alone; but, inftead of terrifying myfelf with fuch a notion, I am wonderfully pleased to think that I am always engaged with fuch an innumerable fociety, in fearching out the wonders of the creation, and joining in the fame confort of praise and adoration.

Milton has finely described this mixed communion of men and fpirits in paradife; and had doubtless his eye upon a verfe in old Hefiod, which is almoft word for word the fame with his third line in the following paffage:

-Nor think, though men were none, That Heav'n would want fpectators, God Millions of fpiritual creatures walk the earth want praise:

Unfeen, both when we wake and when we neep:

Ail thefe with ceafelefs praife his works behold Both day and night. How often from the freep

Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard
Celestial voices to the midnight air,

Soley

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