guilty of, and which are only considered by them as things of course, and of too little consequence for palliation or apology.

Whoever is a frequenter of public assemblies, or joins in a party at cards in private families, will give evidence to the truth of this complaint. I am, for my own part, a lover of the game of whist, and should oftener be seen in those places where it is played for trifles, if I was not offended at the manners of my friends. How common is it with some people, at the conclusion of every unsuccessful hand of cards, to burst forth into sallies of fretful complaints of their own amazing ill-fortune, and the constant and invariable success of their antagonists! They have such excellent memories as to be able to recount every game they have lost for six months successively, and yet are so extremely forgetful at the same time, as not to recollect a single game that they have won. Or if you put them in mind of any extraordinary success that you have been witness to, they acknowledge it with reluctance, and assure you, upon their honours, that in a whole twelvemonth's play, they never rose winners but that once.

But if these Growlers (a name which I shall always call the men of this class by) would content themselves with giving repeated histories of their own ill-fortunes, without making invidious remarks upon the successes of others, the evil would not be so great. Indeed, I am apt to impute it to their fears, that they stop short of the grossest affronts: for I have seen in their faces such rancour and inveteracy, that nothing but a lively apprehension of consequences could have restrained their tongues.

Happy would it be for the ladies if they had the same consequences to apprehend; for, I am sorry to say it, I have met with females-I will not say

Growlers: the word is too harsh for them; let me call them Fretters, who, with the prettiest faces, and the liveliest wit imaginable, have condescended to be the jest and disturbance of the whole company.

In fashionable life, indeed, where every one is acting behind the mask of good breeding, and where nature is never seen to peep out but upon very extraordinary occasions, frequent convulsions of the features, flushings succeeded by paleness, twistings of the body, fits of the fidgets, and complaints of immoderate heat, are the only symptoms of illfortune. But if we travel eastward from St. James's, and visit the territories of my good lord mayor, we shall see nature stript of her masquerade, and hear gentlemen and ladies speaking the language of the heart.

For the entertainment of polite life, and because polite life is sometimes a little in want of entertainment, I shall set down a conversation that passed a few nights ago, at an assemblée in Thames-street, between two Fretters at a whist-table; one of which had a beautiful daughter of eighteen years of age, leaning upon her mother's chair.

Five trumps, two honours, and lose four by cards? But I believe, madam, you never lost a game in the whole course of life.'

Now and then, madam.'

your

Not in the memory of your daughter, I believe :* and miss is not so extremely young neither. are trumps-Well! if ever I play again!

are three by cards, madam—'

Clubs

-You

And two by honours. I had them in my own hand.'

I beg your pardon, madam; I had really forgot whose deal it was. But I thought the cloven-footed gentleman had left off teaching. Pray, madam,

will he expect more than one's soul for half a dozen lessons?'

You are pleased to be severe, madam; but you know I am not easily put out of temper. What's the trump?'

I was extremely pleased with the cool behaviour of this lady, and could not help whispering to her daughter, You have a sweet-tempered mamma, miss. How happy would it be if every lady of her acquaintance was so amiably disposed! I observed that miss blushed and looked down: but I was ignorant of the reason, till all at once her mamma's good fortune changed, and her adversary, by holding the four honours in her own hand, and by the assistance of her partner, won the game at a deal.

And now, madam,' cried the patient lady, 'is it you or I who have bargained with the devil? I declare it upon my nonour, I never won a game against you in my life. Indeed, I should wonder if I had, unless there had been a curtain between you and your partner. But one has a fine time on't indeed! to be always losing, and yet always to be baited for winning; I defy any one to say that I ever rose a winner in my born days. There was last summer at Tunbridge! Did any human creature see me so much as win a game? And ask Mr. A, and Sir Richard B, and Dean C, and Lord and Lady D, and all the company at Bath this winter, if I did not lose two or three guineas every night at halfcrown whist, for two months together. But I did not fret and talk of the devil, madam; no, madam; nor did I trouble the company with my losings, nor play the after-game, nor say provoking things No, madam; I leave such behaviour to ladies that

Lord! my dear, how you heat yourself! You

are absolutely in a passion. Come, let us cut for partners.'

Which they immediately did; and happening to get together, and to win the next game, they were the best company, and the civilest people I ever saw. Many of my readers may be too ready to conceive an ill opinion of these ladies; but I have the pleasure of assuring them, from undoubted authority, that they are in all other respects very excellent. people, and so remarkable for patience and goodhumour, that one of them has been known to lose her husband, and both of them their reputations, without the least emotion or concern.

To be serious on this occasion; I have many acquaintance of both sexes, who, though really goodnatured and worthy people, are violating every day the laws of decency and politeness by these outrageous sallies of petulance and impertinence.

I know of no other reason for a man's troubling his friends with the history of his misfortunes, but either to receive comfort from their pity, or advantage from their charity. If the Growler will tell me that he reaps either of these benefits by disturbing all about him; if he will assure me of his having raised compassion in a single breast, or that he has once induced his adversary to change hands with him out of charity, I shall allow that he acts upon principles of prudence, and that he is not a most teasing, ridiculous, and contemptible animal.

I would not be understood to hint at gaming in this paper. I am glad to find that destructive passion attacked from the stage, and wish success to the attempt. Nor do I condemn the custom of playing at cards for small sums, in those whose tempers and circumstances are unhurt by what they lose. On the contrary, I look upon cards as an innocent and useful amusement; calculated to interrupt the formal

conversations and private cabals of large companies, and to give a man something to do who has nothing to say. My design at present is, to signify to these Growlers and Fretters, that they are public as well as private nuisances; and to caution all quiet and civilized persons against cutting in with them at the same tables, or replying to their complaints but by a laugh of contempt.

I shall conclude this paper with acquainting my readers, that, in imitation of the great Mr. Hoyle, I am preparing a book for the press, entitled Rules of Behaviour for the Game of Whist; showing, through an almost-infinite variety of good and bad hands, in what degree the muscles of the face are to be contracted or extended; and how often a lady may be permitted to change colour, or a gentleman to bite his lips, in the course of the game. To which will be added, for the benefit of all cool and dispassionate players, an exact calculation of the odds against Growlers and Fretters.

No. 8. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1753.

Date obolum Belisario.

A PHILOSOPHER, as I am, who contemplates the world with serious reflection, will be struck with nothing in it more than its vicissitudes. If he has lived any time, he must have had ample opportunities of exercising his meditations on the vanity of all sublunary conditions. The changes of empires, the fall of ministers, the exaltation of obscure persons, are the continual incidents of human comedy. I remember that one of the first passages in history