CONTENTS. 1. INTRODUCTORY paper. Some description of the present 3. Love of praise. Instances of flattery in the dedication of Sepulveda to the king of Spain, also in Ben Jonson'; masques in the court of James I. That poet an imi- tator of Aristophanes. Vanity of authors in prefixing their prints to their works. Portrait of a citizen on horseback. Anecdote of a dancing-master and his 4. Visit to Sir Theodore and Lady Thimble. Their coun- try house and family described. 5. Visit continued. Calliope reads part of an epic poem. Doctor Mac Infidel discourses against Christ's miracles. 6. Conversation with Calliope subsequent to Dr. Mac In- fidel's discourse. Two letters from Captain Henry 7. Calliope's interview and reconciliation with Captain Con- 9. The same continued to his death. 10. Pythagoras compared with Christ; the heathen argument 11. Defence of Christ's miracles against modern cavils, par- ticularly of the supernatural darkness at the passion. 12. Danger of sudden elevation. Quotation from Ben Jon- son's Sir Epicure Mammon. Letters from Pisistratus to Solon, and Solon to Pisistratus, in answer. Anec- 13. On the subject of divorces, with ironical rules for their further propagation and encouragement. 14. Tragic story of Abdullah and Quarima. 15. Upon resignation to Providence. Diary of Chaubert the 16. Chaubert's diary concluded. Translation of a fragment 17. Character of Vanessa. Visit to that lady, with a conver- 20. On the practice of puffing. Enumeration of persons ad- 21. Remarks on the state of society in France, Spain, and 26. History and account of Mr. Jedediah Fish, a teacher of 29. Of actors; their merit and importance. Advice to that 30. Of prejudice; its various descriptions. 31. Account of magic from the old Christian writers, with several anecdotes of magicians, &c. 32. Continuation of the above. The forms and ceremonies used by sorcerers, collected from the above writers. 33. A visit to Vanessa. An old gentleman silences a talkative person by a fable. Vanessa's remarks thereupon. 34. Letter from Mr. Jedediah Fish, with the cases of several persons brought to their hearing by his process. Re- flections thereupon, and a hint to parents 35. Upon pleasure as pursued by system. A meditation upon this pursuit, entitled the Voluptuary's Soliloquy. 36. The advantages of public education exemplified in the story of Geminus and Gemellus. 37. The story of Geminus and Gemellus concluded. 38. The case of the Jews considered. Their method of se- creting their religion in countries where the inquisition is in force. Letter from Abraham Abrahams, a Jew. Observations on this letter. Some hints as a general 39. Dialogue between two Jews, extracted from an old novel, THE OBSERVER. NUMBER I. WHEN a man breaks in upon a company of strangers, to which he is not invited, the intrusion does or does not demand an apology, according to the nature of the business which brings him thither: if it imports the company only, and he has no interest in the errand, the less time he spends in ceremony the better; and he must be a very silly fellow indeed, who stands shuffling and apologizing, when he ought either to warn people of their danger, or inform them of their good fortune: but where this is not the case, and the man, so intruding, has nothing more to say for himself, than that he is come to sit down in their company, to prattle and tell stories, and club his share to the general festivity of the table, it will behove him to recommend himself very speedily to the good graces of his new acquaintance; and if his conversation furnishes neither instruction nor amusement, if he starts no new topics, or does not talk agreeably upon old ones, 'tis well if he does not make his exit as abruptly as he entered. In like manner, every author finds a material difference in his first approaches to the public, whether his subject recommends him, or he is to recommend his subject: if he has any thing new in art or science to produce, any thing important to communicate for the benefit of mankind, he need be under no difficulty in demanding their attention to a business, which it is so much their interest to hear and understand; on the contrary, if he has nothing to tell his readers, but what they knew before he told it, there must be some candour on their part, and great address on his, to secure to such an author a good reception in the world. I am at this instant under all the embarrassments incident to a man in the last-mentioned predicament: I am exceedingly desirous to make my best bow to the good company I am intruding myself upon, and yet equally anxious, that in so doing I may neither make my first advances with the stiff grimace of a dancing-master, nor with the too familiar air of a self-important. As I pretend to nothing more in these pages, than to tell my readers what I have observed of men and books, in the most amusing manner I am able, I know not what to say to them more than humbly to request a hearing; and, as I am in perfect charity and goodhumour with them, sincerely to hope that they on their parts will be in like good-humour and charity with me. My first wish was to have followed the steps of these essayists, who have so successfully set the fashion of publishing their lucubrations from day to day in separate papers. This mode of marching into the world by detachments has been happily taken up by men of great generalship in literature, of whom some are yet amongst us. Though Mr. Addison, in his Spectator, N° 124, has asserted, that a man who publishes his works in a volume, has an infinite advantage over one who communicates his writings |