No terror to my view, No frightful face of danger can be new: my care. DRYDEN. The advantages, which have accrued to thofe whom I have advised in their affairs, by virtue of this fort of prescience, have been very confiderable. A nephew of mine, who has never put his money into the ftocks, or taken it out, without my advice, has in a few years raised five hundred pounds to almoft fo many thousands. As for myself, who look upon riches to confifl rather in content than poffeffions, and measure the greatness of the mind rather by its tranquillity than its ambition, I have feldom ufed my glass to make my way in the world, but often to retire from it. This is a by-path to happinefs, which was first discovered to me by a moft pleafing apothegm of Pythagoras: When the winds,' fays he, rife, worship the echo. That great philofopher (whether to make his doctrines the more venerable, or to gild his precepts with the beauty of imagination, or to awaken the curiosity of his difciples, for I will not fuppofe, what is usually said, that he did it to conceal his wifdom from the vulgar) has couched feveral admirable precepts in remote allusions, and mysterious fentences. By the wind in this apothegm, are meant ftate hurricanes and popular tumults. When thefe rife, fays he, worship the echo; that is, withdraw yourself from the multitude into defarts, woods, folitudes, or the like retirements, which are the ufual habitations of the echo. NO. 215. THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1710. From my own Apartment, August 23. LYSANDER has writ to me out of the country, and tells me, after many other circumstances, that he had passed a great deal of time with much pleasure and tranquillity; until his happiness was interrupted by an indifcreet flatterer, who came down into thofe parts to vifit a relation. With the circumftances in which he represents the matter, he had no fmall provocation to be offended; for he attacked him in fo wrong a season, that he could not have any relish of pleasure in it; though, perhaps, at another time it might have pafled upon him without giving him much uneafinefs. Lyfander had, after a long fatiety of the town, been so happy as to get to a folitude he extremely liked, and recovered a pleasure he had fo long difcontinued, that of reading. He was got to the bank of a rivulet, covered by a pleasing fhade, and fanned by a foft breeze; which threw his mind into that fort of compofure and attention, in which a man, though with indolence, enjoys the utmoft liveliness of his fpirits, and the greatest ftrength of his mind at the fame time. In this ftate, Lyfander represents that he was reading Virgil's Georgics, when on a fudden the gentleman above mentioned furprised him; and without any manner of preparation falls upon him at once; • What! I have found you at last, after fearching all over the wood! we wanted you at cards after dinner but you are much better employed. I have heard indeed that you are an excellent fcholar. But at the fame time, is it not a little unkind to rob the ladies, who like you fo well, of the pleasure of your company? But that is indeed the misfortune of you great scholars; you are feldom fo fit for the world as those who never trouble themfelves with books. Well, I fee you are taken up with your learning there, and I will leave you.' Lyfander says, he he made him no answer, but took a refolution to complain to me. It is a fubftantial affliction, when men govern themfelves by the rules of good-breeding, that by the very force of them they are fubjected to the infolence of thofe who either never will, or never can, understand them. The fuperficial part of mankind form to themfelves little measures of behaviour from the outfide of things. By the force of thefe narrow conceptions, they act among themselves with applaufe; and do not apprehend they are contemptible to thofe of higher understanding, who are reftrained by decencies above their knowledge from fhewing a diflike. Hence it is, that becaufe complaifance is a good quality in converfation, one impertinent takes upon him on all occafions to commend; and becaufe mirth is agreeable, another thinks it fit eternally to jeft. I have of late received many packets of letters, complaining of thefe fpreading evils. A lady who is lately arrived at the Bath acquaints me, there were in the itage-coach wherein the went down a common flatterer, and a common jefter. These gentlemen were, fhe tells me, rivals in her favour; and adds, if there ever happened a cafe wherein of two perfons one was not liked more than another, it was in that journey. They differed only in proportion to the degree of diflike between the naufeous and the infipid. Both these cha racters of men are born out of a barrenness of imagination. They are never fools by nature; but become fuch out of an impotent ambition of being, what she rever intended them, men of wit and converfation. I therefore think fit to declare, that, according to the known laws of this land, a man may be a very honeft gentleman, and enjoy himself and his friend, without being a wit; and I absolve all men from taking pains to be fuch for the future. As the prefent cafe ftands, is it not very unhappy that Lyfander must be attacked and applauded in a wood, and Corinna jolted and commended in a stage coach; and this for no manner of reafon, but because other people have a mind to fhew their parts? I grant indeed, if thefe people, F2 as as they have understanding enough for it, would confine their accomplishments to thofe of their own degree of talents, it were to be tolerated; but when they are fo infolent as to interrupt the meditations of the wife, the conversations of the agreeable, and the whole behaviour of the modest, it becomes a grievance naturally in my jurifdiction. Among themselves, I cannot only overlook, but approve it. I was present the other day at a converfation, where a man of this height of breeding and fenfe told a young woman of the fame form, To be fure, madam, every thing must please that comes from a lady. She answered, I know, fir, you are fo much a gentleman, that you think fo. Why, this was well on both fides; and it is impoffible that fuch a gentleman and lady fhould do otherwise than think well of one another. These are but loose hints of the difturbares in human fociety for which there is yet no remedy: but I fhall in a little time publish tables of respect and civility, by which perfons may be inftructed in the proper times and feafons, as well as what degree of intimacy, a man may be allowed to commend or rally his companions; the promifcuous licence of which is, at prefent, far from being among the small errors in converfation. P. S. The following letter was left, with a request to be immediately answered, left the artifices used against a lady in diftrefs may come into common practice. • SIR, My eldest fifter buried her firft husband about fix months ago; and at his funeral, a gentleman of more art than honefty, on the night of his interment, while she was not herself, but in the utinoft agony of her grief, spoke to her of the subject of love. In that weakness and diftraction which my fifter was in, as one ready to fall is apt to lean on any body, he obtained her promise of marriage, which was accordingly confummated eleven weeks after. There is no affliction comes alone, but one brings another. My fifter is now ready to lie-in. She humbly asks of you, as you are a friend to the fex, to let her know, know, who is the lawful father of this child, or whether fhe may not be relieved from this fecond marriage; confidering it was promised under fuch circumftances as one may very well fuppofe fhe did not what fhe did voluntarily, but because the was helpless otherwife. She is advised fomething about engagements made in gaol, which the thinks the fame, as to the reafon of the thing. But, dear fir, the relies upon your advice, and gives you her fervice; as does Your humble fervant, REBECCA MIDRIFFE. The cafe is very hard; and I fear the plea fhe is advised to make, from the fimilitude of a man who is in dureffe, will not prevail. But though I defpair of remedy as to the mother, the law gives the child his choice of his father where the birth is thus legally ambiguous. To ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, Efquire. The humble petition of the company of Linendrapers, refiding within the liberty of Westminster, • SHEWETH, "THAT there has of late prevailed among the ladies fo great an affectation of nakedness, that they have not only left the bofom wholly bare, but lowered their stays fome inches below the former mode. That, in particular, Mrs. Arabella Overdo has not the leaft appearance of linen; and our best customers fhew but little above the small of their backs. That by this means your petitioners are in danger of lofing the advantage of covering a ninth part of every woman of quality in Great Britain. "Your petitioners humbly offer the premises to your Indulgence's confideration, and fhall ever, &c.' F 3 Before |