I must not here omit to acknowledge, that I have received feveral Letters upon this Subject, but find one common Error running through them all, which is, That the Writers of them believe their Fate in thefe Cafes depends upon the Aftrologer, and not upon the Stars, as in the following Letter from one, who I fear, flatters himfelf with Hopes of Succefs, which are altogether groundlefs, fince he does not feem to me fo great a Fool as he takes himself to be. SIR, C COMING to Town, and finding my Friend Mr. Partridge dead and buried, and you the only Conjurer in Repute, I am under a Neceffity of applying myself to you for a Favour, which nevertheless I confefs it would better become a Friend to afk, than one who is, as I am, altoge ther a Stranger to you; but Poverty, you know, is impudent; and as that gives me the Occafion, fo that alone could give me the Confidence to be thus importunate. I am, Sir, very poor, and very defirous to be otherwife: I have got ten Pounds, which I dfign to venture in the Lottery now on Foot. What I defire of you is, that by your Art, you will choose fuch a Ticket for me as fhall arife a Benefit fufficient to maintain me. I must beg Leave to inform you, That I am good for nothing, and must therefore infift upon a larger Lot than would fatisfy thofe who are capable by their own Abilities of adding something to what you ould affign them; whereas I must expect an absolute independent Maintenance, because, as 1 faid, I can do nothing. 'Tis poffible, after this free Confeffion of mine, you may think I don't deferve to be rich; but I hope you'll likewife obferve, I can ill afford to be poor. My own Opinion is, that I am well qualified for an Estate, and have a good Title to Luck in a Lottery; but I refign myself wholly to your Mercy, not without Hopes that you will confider, the lefs I deferve, the greater the Generofity in you. If you rejet me, I have agreed with an Acquaintance of mine to bury me for my ten Pounds. I once more recommend myself your Favour, and bid you Adieu. to I cannot forbear publishing another Letter which I have received, because it redounds to my own Credit, as well as to that of a very honeft Footman. Mr. Mr. Bickerstaff, Jan. 23, 1709-10 I AM bound in Juftice to acquaint you, That I put an Advertisement into your laft Paper about a Watch which was loft, and was brought to me on the very Day your Paper came out, by a Footman, who told me, That he would have brought it, if he had not read your Difcourfe en that Day against Avarice; but that fince he had read it, he fcorned to take a Reward for doing what in Juftice be ought to do. I am, SIR, Your moft humble Servant, John Hammond Quem mala ftultitia, & quæcunq; infcitia veri Hor. Whoever is blindly led by Folly or Ignorance of the Truth, the Stoics efteem him mad; and all come under this Denomination, except a wife Man, from a King to the meaneft of the Mob. No 125. T Thursday, January 26, 1709. From my own Apartment, January 25. HERE is a Sect of antient Philofophers, who, I think, have left more Volumes behind them, and those better written, than any other of the Fraternities in Philofophy. It was a Maxim of this Sect, That all thofe who do not live up to the Principles of Reason and Virtue, are Madmen. Every one who governs himself by these Rules, is allowed the Title of Wife, and reputed to be in his Senfes: And every one in Proportion, as he deviates from them, is pronounced frantick and distracted. Cicero having chofen this Maxim for for his Theme, takes Occafion to argue from it very agreeably with Clodius, his implacable Adverfary, who had procured his Banifhment. A City (fays he) is an Affembly diftinguished into Bodies of Men, who are in Poffeffion of their refpective Rights and Privileges, caft under proper Subordinations, and in all its Parts obedient to the Rules of Law and Equity. He then reprefents the Government from whence he was banished, at a Time when the Conful, Senate and Laws, had loft their Authority, as a Commonwealth of Lunaticks. For this Reafon he regards his Expulfion from Rome, as a Man would being turned out of Bedlam, if the Inhabitants of it should drive him out of their Walls as a Perfon unfit for their Community. We are therefore to look upon every Man's Brain to be touched, however he may appear in the general Conduct of his Life, if he has an unjaftifiable Singularity in any Part of his Converfation or Behaviour: Or if he fwerves from right Reafon, however common his Kind of Madness may be, we shall not excufe him for its being epidemical, it being our prefent Design to clap up all fuch as have the Marks of Madness upon them, who are now permitted to go about the Streets for no other Reafon, but because they do no Mischief in their Fits. Abundance of imaginary great" Men are put in Straw to bring them to a right Senfe of themselves. And is it not altogether as reafonable, that an infignificant Man, who has an immoderate Opinion of his Merits, and a quite different Notion of his own Abilities from what the reft of the World entertain, fhould have the fame Care taken of him, as a Beggar who fancies himself a Duke or a Prince? Or why should a Man, who ftarves in the midst of Plenty, be trusted with himself, more than he who fancies he is an Emperor in the midst of Poverty? I have feveral Women of Quality in my Thoughts, who fet fo exorbitant a Value upon themselves, that I have often most heartily pitied them, and wifhed them for their Recovery under the fame Difcipline with the Pewterer's Wife. I find by feveral Hints in antient Authors, that when the Romans were in the Height of Power and Luxury, they affigned out of their vaft Dominions an Island called Anticyrā, as an Habitation for Madmen: This was the Bedlam of the the Roman Empire, whither all Perfons who had loft their Wits used to refort from all Parts of the World in Queft of them. Several of the Roman Emperors were advised to repair to this lfland; but moft of them, inftead of liftening to fuch fober Counfels, gave Way to their Distraction, till the People knocked them in the Head as defpairing of their Cure. In fhort, it was as ufual for Men of diftempered Brains to take a Voyage to Anticyra in thofe Days, as it is in ours for Perfons who have a Disorder in their Lungs to go to Montpelier. THE prodigious Crops of Hellebore with which this whole Island abounded, did not only furnish them with incomparable Tea, Snuff, and Hungary Water, but impregnated the Air of the Country with fuch fober and falutiferous Steams, as very mach comforted the Heads, and refreshed the Senfes of all that breathed in it. A discarded Statesman, that at his first Landing appeared ftark ftaring Mad, would become Calm in a Week's Time; and upon his Return home, live eafy and fatiffied in his Retirement. A moaping Lover would grow a pleasant Fellow by that Time he had rid Thrice about the Ifland; and a hair-brained Rake, after a short Stay in the Country, go home again a compofed, grave, worthy Gentleman. I have premised these Particulars before I enter on the main Defign of this Paper, because I would not be thought altogether notional in what I have to fay, and pafs only for a Projector in Morality. I could quote Horace and Seneca, and fome other antient Writers of good Repute, upon the fame Occafion, and make out by their Teftimony, that our Streets are filled with diftra&ted Perfons, that our Shops and Taverns, private and publick Houses, fwarm with them; and that it is very hard to make up a tolerable Affembly without a Majority of them. But what I have already faid, is, I hope, fufficient to juftify the enfuing Project, which I fhall therefore give some Account of without any further Preface. 1. IT is humbly propofed, That a proper Receptacle or Habitation, be forthwith erected for all fuch Perfons upon due Trial and Examination, fhall appear to be of their Wits. 2. THAT 2. THAT to ferve the prefent Exigency, the College in Moorfields be very much extended at both Ends; and that it be converted into a Square, by adding three other Sides to it. 3 THAT no body be admitted into thefe three additional Sides, but fuch whofe Phrenfy can lay no Claim to any Apartment in that Row of Building which is already erected. 4. THAT the Architect, Phyfician, Apothechary, Surgeon, Keepers, Nurfes and Porters, be all ad each of them crack'd, provided that their ihrenfy does not le in the Profeffion or Employment to which they fhall feverally and respectively be affigned. that N. B. IT is thought fit to give the foregoing Notice, none may prefent himself here for any Poft of Honour or Profit who is not duly qualified. 5. THAT over all the Gates of the additional Buildings, there be Figures placed in the fame Manner as over the Entrance of the Edifice already erected; provided they represent fuch Distractions only as are proper for those additional Buildings; as of an envious Man gnawing his own Flesh, a Gamefter pulling himself by the Ears, and knocking his Head against a Marble Pillar, a covetous Man warming himself over a Heap of Gold, a Coward flying from his own Shadow, and the like. HAVING laid down this general Scheme of my Defign, I do hereby invite all Perfons who are willing to encourage fo publick fpirited a Project, to bring in their Contributions as foon as poffible, and to apprehend forthwith any Politician whom they shall catch raving in a Coffee-house, or any Free-thinker whom they fhall find publishing his Deliriums, or any other Person who fhall give the like manifeft Signs of a crazed Imagination: And [ do at the fame Time give this publick Notice to all the Madmen about this great City, That they may return to their Senfes with all imaginable Expedition, left if they should come into my Hands, I fhould put them into a Regimen which they would not like: For if I find any ore of them perfift in his frantick Behaviour, I will make him in a Month's Time as famous as ever Oliver's Porter was. VOL. III. D Anguillam |