But, as I have already hinted, my assertion is more limited in its nature. What I mean to allege is, that the Dublin publick is ungrateful to me. In order to prove them So, I would enter upon a few details.

First, I agree with philosophers ancient and modern, that to be employed is to be happy. Consequently, he confers felicity, who furnishes occupation. And the less those for whom he finds it, had to do, the greater is their obligation to the finder. Now my paper not only gives the Dublin Otiosi something to talk of, but my Anonymousness supplies my neighbours with a fund of harmless business, (i. e. entertainment) consisting of their various conjectures who I am. To reveal my secret, would be to put a period to their amusements. Now I am a friend to curiosity.-Therefore, instead of murderously putting an end to this lively emotion, I would rather feed and keep it up. Let me ask the fair and better moiety of my readers, whether I be not, on the grounds stated, entitled to their warm gratitude at least?

Again, what continual subjects do I furnish, for innocent effusions of critical ill-nature, and wholesome evaporations of peevishness and spleen! supplying constant food for the consciousness of discernment, the pride of superiority, and the display of a refined and delicately fastidious taste!

Is not a well-tempered man entitled to some con

sideration? And is not this a class within which I shall be allowed to come, when it is recollected how many mortifying remarks I am exposed to hear, and must hear (if I would not betray myself,) without complaint?

I was lately charged with stealing from books which I have never seen; and of which, until the accusation, I had not even heard.

I have, in my presence, been described as a pedant and a punster; and though these latter imputations should be well-founded, yet they are not gratifying to the ear of the person so arraigned :—and I am merely claiming the praise of forbearance, and good humour.

One banterer, a few evenings ago, said I might do if I could keep myself awake; and suggested nose-tweaking, as an established remedy for drowsiness. A second, on this, enquired with an easy sneer, whether there was any equally efficacious, but milder preventive, to which, when overcome, my readers could resort. A third, dissenting from the first, declared, that I was very good when I was asleep: to which his neighbour answered, that this was no more than might have been expected, considering how confoundedly childish I appeared while I was awake. A fifth observed, that he had seen nothing tolerable in the Anonymous, except the translation of the first motto. But this not originally intoxicating commen

dation was diluted on the moment, by the observation of an English gentleman, that Paddy was entitled to little credit for knowing how to make a bull.

The Bramins refrain from eating animal food, or depriving any thing of life, lest in killing a pigeon, they might be guilty of an inadvertent parricide, or destroy some anonymous friend or relative at the least. My Namelessness would answer a good moral purpose, if it persuaded all companies in which my paper becomes a topic, to imitate the Indian scruple; and recollecting that I may be amongst them in disguise, humanely to abstain from those uncharitable animadversions, which might give my literary feelings and existence a mortal wound.

But a patient forbearance is not the only merit to which, as ground for indulgence, I am entitled to lay claim.

How often must I check my pen, when it is on the point of communicating sentiments or opinions, resembling those which I have been known to express, or deliver in society, and the repetition of which in this work, might consequently betray me! How many sentences, which already have escaped me, which I have taken time to prune and polish, and whose removal must produce a deplorable hiatus in my paper, (but which are liable to this insurmountable objection,) am I, in defence of my loved incognito, under the necessity of "discreetly blotting !"

But I am not only precluded from introducing into these essays any observation which I have been known to make; I am almost equally afraid to insert what I have been known to hear. Thus sit mihi fas audita loqui, though in most instances regarded as a claim as much of course, as that which the Speaker makes of his Majesty, at the commencement of a new parliament, is in my case one, which cannot be, even by myself, allowed; and there is a sort of special novelty, which in all my ideas, I am on my own account obliged to seek; independently of that, which my readers might require.

On the other hand, how frequently, when an interesting or pleasant idea occurs to me in company, do. I suppress it altogether! or let it drop, if half expressed, into a lame and impotent conclusion,-saying tacitly (is this a blunder?) to myself, "I will keep this thought in petto for my next number."

Such are my claims on the candour of the publick. If allowed, my readers will reap the fruits of their own indulgence, in the spirit which it must give to me. If disallowed, I shall either quit the field, or if I feel capable of continuing the exertion, still listen without a murmur to the harsh criticisms which fall around me; attending to them with no other view, than that of correcting those errors, which I shall find, however ungraciously, pointed out.

I.

NUMBER XIX.

SATURDAY, APRIL 25th, 1807.

I

-Quod fuit ante, relictum est:

Fitque quod haud fuerat.

OVID.

A mean and grovelling Chrysalis before,
Now on immortal, nameless wings I soar.

SIR,

To the Anonymous.

AM of the Staples family; and first saw the light in the county of Down, or Antrim; (Lucanus an Appulus, ancepts) where, as you say of the inhabitants of Dublin, I may be said to have vegetated. I however led, if not an active, a contented life; when in the flower of my age I was torn from my native soil, and very narrowly escaped drowning.-Indeed my escape was not merely "hair-breadth;" but even marvellous: for I remained under water not only long enough to have baffled the efforts of the Humane Society; but until my body had become putrid and corrupt. If at length I landed, it was but to diversify, not alleviate my disgraces: for I was instantly beaten so severely, that my very fibres were laid bare. This