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solitude, as in taking in the system of the | his wound was not mortal. He is at present universe, observing the mutual dependence and one of the free-thinkers of the age, and now harmony, by which the whole frame of it hangs writing a pamphlet against several received together, beating down his passions, or swelling opinions concerning the existence of fairies. bis thoughts with magnificent ideas of Providence, makes a nobler figure in the eye of an intelligent being, than the greatest conqueror amidst all the pomps and solemnities of a triumph. On the contrary, there is not a more ridculous animal than an atheist in his retirement. His mind is incapable of rapture or elevation. He can only consider himself as an insignificant figure in a landscape, and wandering up and down in a field or a meadow, under the same terms as the meanest animals about him, and as subject to as total a mortality as they; with this aggravation, that he is the only one amongst them, who lies under the apprehension of it.

In distresses, he must be of all creatures the most helpless and forlorn; he feels the whole pressure of a present calamity, without being relieved by the memory of any thing that is past or the prospect of any thing that is to come. Annihilation is the greatest blessing that he proposes to himself, and a halter or a pistol the only refuge he can fly to. But if you would behold one of these gloomy miscreants in his poorest figure, you must consider him under the terrors, or at the approach, of death.

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About thirty years ago I was a shipboard with one of these vermin, when there arose a brisk gale, which could frighten nobody but himself. Upon the rolling of the ship, he fell upon his knees, and confessed to the chaplain, that he had been a vile atheist, and had denied a Supreme Being ever since he came to his estate. The good man was astonished, and a report immediately ran through the ship, that there was an atheist upon the upper deck.' Several of the common seamen, who had never heard the word before, thought it had been some strange fish; but they were more surprised when they saw it was a man, and heard out of his own mouth, that he never believed until that day that there was a God. As he lay in the agonies of confession, one of the honest tars whispered to the boatswain, that it would be a good deed to heave him overboard.' But we were now within sight of port, when of a sudden the wind fell, and the penitent relapsed, begging all of us

As I have taken upon me to censure the faults of the age and country in which I live, I should have thought myself inexcusable to have passed over this crying one, which is the subject of my present discourse. I shall, therefore, from time to time, give my countrymen particular cautions against this distemper of the mind, that is almost become fashionable, and by that means more likely to spread. I have somewhere either read or heard a very memorable sentence, that a man would be a most insupportable monster, should he have the faults that are incident to his years, constitution, profession, family, religion, age, and country; and yet every man is in danger of them all. For this reason, as I am an old man, I take particular care to avoid being covetous, and telling long stories. As I am choleric, I forbear not only swearing, but all interjections of fretting, as pugh! or pish! and the like. As I am a layman, I resolve not to conceive an aversion for a wise and a good man, because bis coat is of a different colour from mine. As I am descended of the ancient family of the Bickerstaffs, I never call a man of merit an upstart. As a protestant, I do not suffer my zeal so far to transport me, as to name the pope and the devil together. As I am fallen into this degenerate age, I guard myself particularly against the folly I have been now speaking of. And, as I am an Englishman, I am very cautious not to hate a stranger, or despise a poor Palatine.

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No. 112.] Tuesday, December 27, 1709.

Accedat snavitas quædam oportet sermonum, atque morum, handquaquam mediocre condimentum amicitiæ: tristitia autem, et in omni re severitas absit. Habet illa quidem gravitatem, sed amicitia remissior esse debet, ot liberior, et dulcior, et ad omnem comitatem facilitatemque proclivior. Cic. De Amicitia.

There should be added a certain sweetness of discourse and manners, which is no inconsiderable sauce to friend. ship. But by all means throw out sadness and severity in every thing. There is something of gravity indeed in it; but friendship requires a greater remissness, freedom, and pleasantness, and an inclination to good temper and af fability.

Sheer-lane, December 26.

As I was looking over my letters this morn

that were present, as we were gentlemen, noting, I chanced to cast my eye upon the follow

to say any thing of what had passed.'

He had not been ashore above two days, when one of the company began to rally him upon his devotion on shipboard, which the other denied in so high terms, that it produced the lie on both sides, and ended in a duel. The atheist was run through the body, and after some loss of blood, became as good a Christian as he was at sea, until he found that

ing one, which came to my hands about two I have since learned, was the person that writ months ago from an old friend of mine, who, as the agreeable epistle inserted in my paper of the third of the last month. It is of the same turn with the other, and may be looked upon as a specimen of right country letters.

'SIR,

This sets out to you from my summer-house

celebrates the friendship of Scipio and Lælius, who were the greatest as well as the politest men of their age, represents it as a beautifu.

upon the terrace, where I am enjoying a few hours sunshine, the scanty sweet remains of a fine autumn. The year is almost at the lowest; so that, in all appearance, the rest of my let-passage in their retirement, that they used to ters between this and spring will be dated from gather up shells on the sea-shore, and amuse my parlour fire, where the little fond prattle themselves with the variety of shape and of a wife and children will so often break in colour which they met with in those little unupon the connexion of my thoughts, that you regarded works of nature. The great Agesiwill easily discover it in my style. If this laus could be a companion to his own children, winter should prove as severe as the last, I can and was surprised by the ambassadors of Sparta, tell you beforehand, that I am likely to be a as he was riding among them upon a hobby. very miserable man, through the perverse tem- horse. Augustus, indeed, had no play-fellows per of my eldest boy. When the frost was in of his own begetting; but is said to have passed its extremity, you must know that most of the many of his hours with little Moorish boys at blackbirds, robins, and finches of the parish, a game of marbles, not unlike our modern whose music had entertained me in the summer, law. There is, methinks, a pleasure in seeing took refuge under my roof. Upon this, my care great men thus fall into the rank of mankind, was, to rise every morning before day, to set and entertain themselves with diversions and open my windows for the reception of the cold amusements that are agreeable to the very and the hungry, whom, at the same time, I re- weakest of their species. I must frankly conlieved with a very plentiful alms, by strewing fess, that it is to me a beauty in Cato's characcorn and seeds upon the floors and shelves. Butter, that he would drink a cheerful bottle with Dicky, without any regard to the laws of hos- his friend; and I cannot but own, that I have pitality, considered the casements as so many seen with great delight one of the most celetraps, and used every bird as a prisoner at dis-brated authors of the last age feeding the ducks cretion. Never did tyrant exercise more various cruelties. Some of the poor creatures he chased to death about the room; others he drove into the jaws of a blood-thirsty cat; and even in his greatest acts of mercy, either clipped the wings, or singed the tails, of his innocent captives. You will laugh, when I tell you I sympathized with every bird in its misfortunes; but I believe you will think me in the right for bewailing the child's unlucky humour. On the other hand, I am extremely pleased to see his younger brother carry a universal benevolence towards every thing that has life. When he was be-greater vigour and alacrity, when they return tween four and five years old, I caught him weeping over a beautiful butterfly, which he chanced to kill as he was playing with it; and I am informed, that this morning he has given his brother three-halfpence, which was his whole estate, to spare the life of a tom-tit. These are at present the matters of greatest moment within my observation, and I know are too trifling to be communicated to any but so wise a man as yourself, and from one who the happiness to be

Your most faithfu.,

" and most obedient servant.'

The best critic that ever wrote, speaking of some passages in Homer which appear extravagant or frivolous, says, indeed, that they are dreams, but the dreams of Jupiter. My friend's letter appears to me in the same light. One sees him in an idle hour; but at the same time in the idle hour of a wise man. A great mind has something in it too severe and forbidding, that is not capable of giving itself such little relaxations, and of condescending to these agreeable ways of trifling. Tully, when he

in St. James's Park. By instances of this nature, the heroes, the statesmen, the philosophers, become, as it were, familiar with us, and grow the more amiable, the less they endeavour to appear awful. A man who always acts in the severity of wisdom, or the haughtiness of quality, seems to move in a personated part. It looks too constrained and theatrical, for a man to be always in that character which distinguishes him from others; besides that the slackening and unbending our minds on some occasions makes them exert themselves with

to their proper and natural state.

As this innocent way of passing a leisure hour is not only consistent with a great character, but very graceful in it; so there are two sorts of people to whom I would most earnestly recommend it. The first are those who are uneasy out of want of thought; the second are those who are so out of a turbulence of spirit. The first are the impertinent, and the second the dangerous part of mankind.

It grieves me to the very heart, when I see several young gentlemen, descended of honest parents, run up and down, hurrying from one end of the town to the other, calling in at every place of resort, without being able to fix a quarter of an hour in any, and in a particular haste without knowing for what. It would, methinks, be some consolation, if I could per suade these precipitate young gentlemen to compose this restlessness of mind, and apply themselves to any amusement, how trivial soever, that might give them employment, and keep them out of harm's way. They cannot imagine how great a relief it would be to them, if they could grow sedate enough to play for

--Ecce iterum Crispinus!
Once more Crispinus comes upon the stage.

Juv.

two or three hours at a game of push-pin. But | No.113.] Thursday, December 29, 1709. these busy, idle animals are only their own tormentors. The turbulent and dangerous are for embroiling councils, stirring up seditions, and subverting constitutions, out of a mere restlessness of temper, and an insensibility of all the pleasures of life that are calm and innocent. It is impossible for a man to be so much employed in any scene of action, as to have great and good affairs enough to fill up his whole time; there will still be chasms and empty spaces, in which a working mind will employ itself to its own prejudice, or that of others, unless it can be at ease in the exercise of such actions as are in themselves indifferent. How often have I wished, for the good of the nation, that several famous politicians could take any pleasure in feeding ducks! I look upon an able statesman out of business, like a huge whale, that will endeavour to overturn the ship, unless he has an empty cask to play with.

Hay-market, December 23. WHEREAS, the gentleman that behaved himself in a very disobedient and obstinate manuer at his late trial in Sheer-lane, on the twentieth instant, and was carried off dead upon taking away of his snuff-box, remains still unburied; the company of upholders, not knowing otherwise how they should be paid, have taken his goods in execution, to defray the charge of his funeral. His said effects are to be exposed to sale by auction, at their office in the Hay-market, on the fourth of January next, and are as follows

But to return to my good friend and correspondent: I am afraid we shall both be laughed at, when I confess, that we have often gone out into the field to look upon a bird's nest; and have more than once taken an evening's walk together, on purpose to see the sun set. I shall conclude with my answer to his foregoing letter:

DEAR SIR,

A very rich tweezer-case, containing twelve instruments for the use of each hour in the day.

Four pounds of scented snuff, with three gilt snuff-boxes; one of them with an invisible hinge, and a looking-glass in the lid.

Two more of ivory, with the portraitures on their lids of two ladies of the town; the originals to be seen every night in the side-boxes of the playhouse.

A sword, with a steel diamond hilt, never drawn but once at May-fair.

Six clean packs of cards, a quart of orangeflower-water, a pair of French scissars, a toothpick-case, and an eye-brow brush.

The strong box of the deceased, wherein were found, five billet-doux, a Bath shilling, a crooked sixpence, a silk garter, a lock of hair, and three broken fans.

A press for books; containing, on the upper shelf,

Three bottles of diet-drink.
Two boxes of pills.

A syringe, and other mathematical instru

ments.

A large glass-case, containing the linen and 'I thank you for your obliging letter, and cloaths of the deceased; among which are, two your kindness to the distressed, who will doubt-embroidered suits, a pocket perspective, a dozen less express their gratitude to you themselves pair of red-heeled shoes, three pair of red silk the next spring. As for Dick, the tyrant, I stockings, and an amber-headed cane. must desire you will put a stop to his proceedings; and, at the same time, take care that his little brother be no loser by his mercy to the tom-tit. For my own part, I am excluded all conversation with animals that delight only in a country life, and am therefore forced to entertain myself as well as I can with my little dog and cat. They both of them sit by my fire every night, expecting my coming home with impatience; and, at my entrance, never fail of running up to me, and bidding me welcome, each of them in his proper language. As they have been bred up together from their infancy, and seen no other company, they have learned each other's manners, so that the dog often gives himself the airs of a cat, and the cat, in several of her motions and gestures, affects the behaviour of the little dog. When they are at play, I often make one with them: and sometimes please myself with considering how much reason and instinct are capable of delighting each other. Thus, you see, I have communicated to you, the material occurrences in my family, with the same freedom that you use to me, as I am, with the same sincerity and affection,

Your most faithful humble servant,
ISAAC BICKERSTAFF.

On the second shelf are several miscellaneous
works; as,
Lampoons.
Plays.
Tailors' bills.

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And an almanack for the year seventeen hundred.

On the third shelf,

A bundle of letters unopened, indorsed in the hand of the deceased, 'Letters from the old Gentleman.'

Lessons for the flute.

Toland's Christianity not mysterious' and a paper filled with patterns of several fashionable stuffs.

On the lower shelf,

One sbce.
A pair of snuffers.

A French grammar.

Being informed that several dead men, in A mourning hatband; and half a bottle of and about this city, do keep out of the way usquebaugh. and abscond, for fear of being buried; and, being willing to respite their interment, in con

There will be added to these goods, to make a complete auction, a collection of gold snuff-sideration of their families, and in hopes of Doxes and clouded canes, which are to continue in fashion for three months after the sale.

The whole are to be set up and prized by Charles Bubbleboy, who is to open the auction with a speech.

I find I am so very unhappy, that, while I am busy in correcting the folly and vice of one sex, several exorbitances break out in the other. I have not thoroughly examined their new fashioned petticoats, but shall set aside one day in the next week for that purpose. The following petition on this subject was presented to me this morning:

'The humble petition of William Jingle, Coach-maker and Chair-maker, of the liberty of Westminster;

their amendment, I shall allow them certain privileged places, where they may appear to one another, without causing any let or molestation to the living, or receiving any, in their own persons, from the company of upholders. Between the hours of seven and

nine in the morning, they may appear in safety at St. James's coffee-house, or at White's, if they do not keep their beds, which is more proper for men in their condition. From nine to eleven, I allow them to walk from Story's to Rosamond's pond in the Park, or in any other public walks which are not frequented by the living at that time. Between eleven and three, they are to vanish, and keep out of sight until three in the afternoon, at which time they may go to the Exchange until five; and then, if they please, divert themselves at

To Isaac Bickerstaff, Esquire, Censor of the Hay-market, or Drury-lane, until the play

Great Britain;

Showeth,- That upon the late invention of Mrs. Catharine Cross-stich, mantua-maker, the petticoats of ladies were too wide for entering into any coach or chair which was in use before the said invention.

'That, for the service of the said ladies, your petitioner has built a round chair, in the form of a lantern, six yards and a half in circumference, with a stool in the centre of it; the said vehicle being so contrived, as to receive the passenger by opening in two in the middle, and closing mathematically when she is seated.

"That your petitioner has also invented a coach for the reception of one lady only, who is to be let in at the top.

"That the said coach has been tried by a lady's woman in one of these full petticoats, who was let down from a balcony, and drawn up again by pullies, to the great satisfaction of her lady, and all who beheld her.

Your petitioner, therefore, most humbly prays, that, for the encouragement of ingenuity and useful inventions, he may be heard before vou pass sentence upon the petticoats aforesaid. 'And your petitioner, &c.'

I have likewise received a female petition, signed by several thousands, praying that I would not any longer defer giving judgment in the case of the petticoat, many of them having put off the making new cloaths, until such time as they know what verdict will pass upon it. I do therefore, hereby certify to all whom it may concern, that I do design to set apart Tuesday

next for the final determination of that matter, having already ordered a jury of matrons to be impannelled, for the clearing up of any difficult points that may arise in the trial.

begins. It is further granted in favour of these persons, that they may be received at any table where there are more present than seven in number: provided that they do not take upon them to talk, judge, commend, or find fault with any speech, action, or behaviour of the living. In which case, it shall be lawful to seize their persons at any place or hour whatsoever, and to convey their bodies to the next undertaker's; any thing in this advertisement to the contrary notwithstanding.

No. 114.] Saturday, December 31, 1709.

Ut in vitâ, sie in studiis, pulcherrimum et humanissimum existimo, severitatem comitatemque miscere, ne illa in tristitiam, hæc in petulantiam procedat. Plin. Epist.

As in a man's life, so in his studies, I think it the most beautiful and humane thing in the world, so to mingle gravity with pleasantry, that the one may not sink into melancholy, nor the other rise up into wantonness.

Sheer-lane, December 30.

I WAS Walking about my chamber this morn ing in a very gay humour, when I saw a coach stop at my door, and a youth about fifteen alighting out of it, whom I perceived to be the eldest son of my bosom friend that I gave some account of in my paper of the seventeenth of the last month. I felt a sensible pleasure rising in me at the sight of him, my acquaintance having begun with his father when he was just such a stripling, and about that very age. When he came up to me, he took me by the hand, and immediately said, 'Child, how does your father burst out in tears. I was extremely moved, and do?' He began to reply, 'My mother——' But

Story's Gate at one end of the Birdcage-walk, still re. tains its name; but Rosamond's-pond, at the other end, has been filled up within there few years.

before them, would have melted the hardest heart; but they soon perceived their father recover, whom I helped to remove into another room, with a resolution to accompany him until the first pangs of his affliction were abated. I

and therefore contented myself to sit by him, and condole with him in silence. For I shall here use the method of an ancient author, who, in one of his epistles, relating the virtues and death of Macrinus's wife, expresses himself thus: 'I shall suspend my advice to this best of friends, until he is made capable of receiving it by those three great remedies, the necessity of submission, length of time, and satiety of grief.'

could not go on for weeping. I went down | racter. My heart was torn in pieces, to see with him into the coach, and gathered out of the husband on one side suppressing and keephim, 'that his mother was then dying, and that, ing down the swellings of his grief, for fear o. while the holy man was doing the last offices disturbing her in her last moments; and the to her, he had taken that time to come and wife, even at that time, concealing the pains call me to his father, who, he said, would cer- she endured, for fear of increasing his affliction. tainly break his heart, if I did not go and com- She kept her eyes upon him for some moments fort him. The child's discretion in coming after she grew speechless, and soon after closed to me of his own head, and the tenderness he them for ever. In the moment of her deparshowed for his parents, would have quite over-ture, my friend, who had thus far commanded powered me, had I not resolved to fortify my-himself, gave a deep groan, and fell into a self for the seasonable performances of those swoon by her bed side. The distraction of the duties which I owed to my friend. As we were children, who thought they saw both their going, I could not but reflect upon the cha-parents expiring together, and now lying dead racter of that excellent woman, and the greatness of his grief for the loss of one who has ever been the support of him under all other afflictions. How, thought I, will he be able to bear the hour of her death, that could not, when I was lately with him, speak of a sick-knew consolation would now be impertinent; ness, which was then past, without sorrow! We were now got pretty far into Westminster, and arrived at my friend's house. At the door of it I met Favonius, not without a secret satisfaction to find he had been there. I had formerly conversed with him at this house; and as he abounds with that sort of virtue and knowledge which makes religion beautiful, and never leads the conversation into the violence and rage of party-disputes. I listened to him with great pleasure. Our discourse chanced to be upon the subject of death, which he treated with such a strength of reason, and greatness of soul, that, instead of being terrible, it appeared to a mind rightly cultivated, altogether to be contemned, or rather to be desired. As I met him at the door, I saw in his face a certain glowing of grief and humanity, heightened with an air of fortitude and resolution, which, as I afterwards found, had such an irresistible force, as to suspend the pains of the dying, and the lamentation of the nearest friends who attended her. I went up directly to the room where she lay, and was met at the entrance by my friend, who, notwithstanding his thoughts had been composed a little before, at the sight of me turned away his face and wept. The little family of children renewed the expressions of their sorrow according to their several ages and degrees of understanding. The eldest daughter was in tears, busied in attendance upon her mother; others were kneeling about the bed side; and what troubled me most was, to see a little boy, who was too young to know the reason, weeping only because his sisters did. The only one in the room who seemed resigned and comforted was the dying person. At my approach to the bed side, she told me, with a low broken voice, "This is kindly done-Take care of your friend -do not go from him!' She had before taken leave of her husband and children, in a manner proper for so solemn a parting, and, with a gracefulness peculiar to a woman of her cha

In the mean time, I cannot but consider, with much commisseration, the melancholy state of one who has had such a part of himself torn from him, and which he misses in every circumstance of life. His condition is like that of one who has lately lost his right arm, and is every moment offering to help himself with it. He does not appear to himself the same person in his house, at his table, in company, or in retirement; and loses the relish of all the pleasures and diversions that were before entertaining to him by her participation of them. The most agreeable objects recall the sorrow for her with whom he used to enjoy them. This additional satisfaction, from the taste of pleasures in the society of one we love, is admirably described by Milton, who represents Eve, though in Paradise itself, no further pleased with the beautiful objects around her, than as she sees them in company with Adam, in that passage so inexpressibly charming :*

With thee conversing, I forget all time;
All seasons, and their change; all please alike.
Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet
With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun,
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,
Glistering with dew; fragrant the fertile earth
After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; the silent night,
With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heaven, her starry train,
But neither breath of moru when she ascends

Paradise Lost, book jv. ver. 639.

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