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landlord by the hand with great good-humour, and said, By G- you seem to be an honest fellow, ' and good blood; if you'll come and see me in London, I'll give you your skinful of wine, and treat you with a play and a whore every night you stay. I'll shew you how it is to live,. my boy. But here, bring me some paper, my girl; ; come, let us have one of your love-letters to air my boots.' Upon which, the landlord presented him with a piece of an old news paper, 'D-n you,' says the gent. this is not half enough; have you never a Bible or Common-prayer-book 6 in the house? Half a dozen chapters of Genesis, with a few prayers, make an excellent fire in a pair of boots.' Oh! Lord forgive you,' says the landlord, sure you would not burn such books 6 as those.' "No!' cries the spark, where was you born? go into a shop of London, and buy 'some butter, or a quartern of tea, and then you'll 6 see what use is made of these books.' " Ay!' says the landlord, we have a saying here in our 'country, that 'tis as sure as the devil is in Lon'don, and if he was not there, they could not be so

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wicked as they be.' Here a country fellow who had been standing up in one corner of the kitchen, eating of cold bacon and beans, and who, I observed, trembled at every oath this spark fwore, took his dish and pot, and marched out of the kitchen, fearing, as I afterwards learned, that the house would fall down about his ears, for he was sure, he said, That man in the gold-laced hat was the devil.' The young spark, having now displayed all his wit and humour, and exerted his talents to the utmost, thought he had sufficiently recommended himself to my favour, and convinced me he was a gentleman. He therefore with an air addressed himself to me, and asked me, which way I was travelling? To which I gave him no answer.

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He then exalted his voice; but at my continuing silent, he asked the landlord if I was deaf? Upon which, the landlord told him, he did not believe the gentleman was dunch, for that he talked very well just now. The man of wit whispered in the landlord's ear, and said, I suppose he is either a parson or a fool. He then drank a dram, observing that a man should not cool too fast; paid sixpence more than his reckoning, called for his horse, gave the ostler a shilling, and galloped out of the inn, thoroughly satisfied that we all agreed with him in thinking him a clever fellow, and a man of great importance. The landlord smiling, took up his money, and said he was a comical gentleman, but that it was a thousand pities he swore so much; if it was not for that, he was a very good customer, and as generous as a prince, for that the night before, he had treated every body in the house. I then asked him, if he knew that comical gentleman as he called him? No, really, sir, said the landlord, though a gentleman was saying last night, that he was a sort of rider, or rideout, to a linendraper at London. This, Mr. Censor, I have since found to be true; for having occasion to buy some cloth, I went last week into a linen-draper's shop, in which I found a young fellow, whose decent behaviour, and plain dress, shewed he was a tradesman. Upon looking full in his face, I thought I had seen it before, nor was it long before I recollected where it was, and that this was the same beau I had met with in Somersetshire. The difference in the same man in London, where he was known, and in the country where he was a stranger, was beyond expression; and was it not impertinent to make observations to you, I could enlarge upon this sort of behaviour; for I am firmly of opinion, that there is neither spirit nor good sense in oaths, nor any wit or humour in blasphemy. But

as vulgar errors require an abler pen than mine to correct them, I shall leave that task to you, and am, sir,

Your humble servant,

R. S.

NUMB. 34. TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1752.

Natio comada est. JUVENAL.

We are a nation of players.

T is the advice of Solomon, to train up a child in the way he shall go; and this, in the opinion of Quintilian, can never be undertaken too early. He, indeed, begins his institution even with the very

nurse.

he

The wise man here, very plainly supposes a previous determination in the parent in what way intends his child shall go; for without having fixed this with certainty, it will be impossible for any man to fulfil the precept.

Now all the ways of life in which, in this country, men walk themselves, and in which they so manifestly intend to train their children, seem to me to be reducible to two; viz. the way of spending an estate, and the way of getting one. These may, indeed, in this sense, be called the two great high roads in this kingdom.

As to the former, it is much the less beaten and frequented track, as it requires a certain viaticum obvious to the reader, which is not in the possession of every one in this way, therefore, the eldest sons of great families, and heirs of great estates, can only be trained. The methods of training here, are no more than twofold, both very easy and apposite; it is therefore no wonder that they are both pursued with very little deviation by almost every

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parent. The one, which is universally practised in the country, contains very few rules, and these extremely simple; such as drinking, racing, cockfighting, hunting, with other rural exercises. The other, which is proper to the town, and indeed, to the higher people, is somewhat more complex. This includes dancing, fencing, whoring, gaming, travelling, dressing, French connoisseurship, and perhaps two or three other less material articles.

But the great and difficult point is that of training youth in the other great road, namely in the way to get an estate. Here, as in our journey over vast and wide plains, the many different tracks are apt to beget uncertainty and confusion, and we are aften extremely puzzled which of these to choose for ourselves, and which to recommend to our children.

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The most beaten tracks in this road are those of. the professions, such as the church, the law, the army, &c. In some one of these, the younger children of the nobility and gentry have usually been trained, often with very ill success; arising sometimes from a partial opinion of the talents of the child, and more often from flattering ourselves with hopes of more interest with the great than we have really had.

To all these professions many things may be objected, as we shall presently see, when we compare them with a path in life, which I am about to recommend to my reader, and which we shall find clear from most of the objections that may be raised against any other.

Without farther preface, the way of life which I mean to recommend, is that of the stage, in which I shall hope for the future to see several of our young nobility and gentry trained up, and particularly those of the most promising parts.

In the first place then, the stage at present pro mises a much better provision than any of the pro

fessions; for though perhaps it is true that there are in the church, the law, the state, the army, &c. some few posts which yield the professors greater profit than is to be acquired on the stage; yet these bear no proportion to the infinite numbers who are trained in the several professions, and who almost literally starve. The income of an actor of any rank, is from six to twelve hundred a year; whereas, that of two-thirds of the gentlemen of the army is considerably under one hundred; the income of nine-tenths of the clergy is less than fifty pounds a year; and the profits in the law, to ninety-nine in a hundred, amount not to a single shilling.

And as for those few posts of great emolument, upon which we all cast our eyes, as the adventurers in a lottery do on the few great prizes, if we impartially examine our own abilities, how few of us shall dare to aspire so high? whereas on the stage, scarce any abilities are required, and we see men, whom nobody allows to deserve the name of actors, enjoying salaries of three, four, and five hundred year..

Again, if we consider the great pains and time, the head-achs, and the heart-achs, which lead up to the top of either the army or the law:

Qui studet optatam cursu contingere motam,
Multa tulit, fecitque puer:

This consideration will sufficiently discourage our at tempts, especially when, on the other hand, we may on the stage leap all at once into eminence; and if we expect no more than four or five hundred pounds for the first year of our acting, our demands will be thought modest.

And farther, in any of the professions, all our abilities will be thrown away, and all our time and labour lost, unless we have other ingredients to recommend us. Unless we have some powerful friend. or relation, or some beautiful wife or sister, we

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