Ac. Dear fir, hold. What you have told me already of this change in converfation is too miferable to be heard with any delight; but methinks, as these new creatures appear in the world, it might give an excellent field to writers for the stage, to divert us with the representation of them there.

Friend. No, no; as you fay, there might be some hopes of redrefs of thefe grievances, if there were proper care taken of the theatre; but the hiftory of that is yet more lamentable, than that of the decay of converfation I gave you.

Ac. Pray, fir, a little: I have not been in town these fix years, until within this fortnight.

Friend. It is now fome years fince feveral revolutions in the gay world had made the empire of the stage subject to very fatal convulfions, which were too dangerous to be cured by the fkill of little king Oberon, who then fat in the throne of it. The laziness of this prince threw him upon the choice of a perfon who was fit to spend his life in contentions, an able and profound attorney, to whom he mortgaged his whole empire. This Divito is the most skilful of all politicians. He has a perfect art in being unintelligible in difcourfe, and uncomeatable in business. But he, having no understanding in this polite way, brought in upon us, to get in his money, ladder-dancers, rope-dancers, jugglers, and mountebanks, to ftrut in the place of Shakespeare's heroes, and Jonfon's humourists. When the feat of wit was thus mortgaged, without equity of redemption, an architect arose, who has built the Mute a new palace, but fecured her no retinue; fo that instead of action there, we have been put off by fong and dance. This later help of found has alfo began to fail for want of voices; therefore the palace has fince been put into the hands of a furgeon, who cuts any foreign fellow into an eunuch, and paffes him upon us for a finger of Italy.

Ac. I will go out of town to-morrow.

Friend. Things are come to this pass; and yet the world will not understand, that the theatre has much the fame effect on the manners of the age, as the bank on VOL. I.

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the credit of the nation. Wit and fpirit, humour and good fenfe, can never be revived, but under the government of those who are judges of fuch talents, who know, that whatever is put up in their ftead, is but a short and trifling expedient, to fupport the appearance of them for a feafon. It is poffible, a peace will give leifure to put thefe matters under new regulations; but, at present, all the affistance we can fee towards our recovery is as far from giving us help, as a poultice is from performing what can be done only by the grand elixir.

Will's Coffee-house, May 6.

ACCORDING to our late defign in the applauded verfes on the Morning, which you lately had from hence, we proceed to improve that juft intention, and present you with other labours, made proper to the place in which they were written. The following poem comes from Copenhagen, and is as fine a winter-piece as we have ever had om any of the schools of the most learned painters. Such images as thefe give us a new pleasure in our fight, and fix upon our minds traces of reflexion, which accompany us whenever the like objects occur. In short, excellent poetry and defcription dwell upon us fo agreeably, that all the readers of them are made to think, if not write, like men of wit. But it would be injury to detain you longer from this excellent performance, which is addreffed to the earl of Dorfet by Mr. Philips, the author of feveral choice poems in Mr. Tonfon's new Mifcellany.

Copenhagen, March 9, 1709.

FROM frozen climes, and endless tracts of fnow,
From ftreams that northern winds forbid to flow;
What prefent fhall the Mufe to Dorset bring,
Or how, fo near the pole, attempt to fing?
The hoary winter here conceals from fight
All pleafing objects that to verfe invite.
The hills and dales, and the delightful woods,
The flow'ry plains, and filver-ftreaming floods,

By

By fnow difguis'd, in bright confusion lie,
And with one dazzling wafte fatigue the eye.

No gentle breathing breeze prepares the spring,
No birds within the defert region fing.

The fhips unmov'd the boift'rous winds defy,
While rattling chariots o'er the ocean fly.
The vaft leviathan wants rooms to play,
And spout his waters in the face of day.
The ftarving wolves along the main sea prowl,
And to the moon in icy vallies howl.
For many a fhining league the level main
Here fpreads itfelf into a glaffy plain :
There folid billows of enormous fize,
Alps of green ice, in wild diforder rife.

And yet but lately have I feen, ev'n here,
The winter in a lovely drefs appear.
Ere yet the clouds let fall the treafur'd fnow,
Or winds begun thro' hazy fkies to blow.
At ev'ning a keen eastern breeze arose;
And the defcending rain unfully'd froze.
Soon as the filent fhades of night withdrew,
The ruddy morn disclos'd at once to view
The face of nature in a rich difguife,
And brighten'd ev'ry object to my eyes:
For ev'ry fhrub, and every blade of grafs,
And ev'ry pointed thorn, feem'd wrought in glafs,
In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns fhow,
While thro' the ice the crimfon berries glow.
The thick fprung-reeds the wat'ry marthes yield
Seem polifh'd lances in a hoftile field.

The ftag in limpid currents, with surprise,
Sees cryftal branches on his forehead rife;
The spreading oak, the beech, and tow'ring pine,
Glaz'd over, in the freezing æther shine;
The frighted birds the rattling branches fhun,
That wave and glitter in the distant sun.
When, if a fudden guft of wind arife,

The brittle foreft into atoms flies:

The crackling wood beneath the tempeft bends,
And in a fpangled fhow'r the profpect ends;

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Or,

Or, if a fouthern gale the region warm,
And by degrees unbind the wint'ry charm,
The traveller a miry country fees,

And journies fad beneath the dropping trees.
Like fome deluded peafant Merlin leads
Thro' fragrant bow'rs, and thro' delicious meads;
While her enchanted gardens to him rise,
And airy fabrics there attract his eyes,
His wand'ring feet the magic paths pursue ;
And while he thinks the fair illusion true,
The tracklefs fcenes difperfe in fluid air,
And woods, and wilds, and thorny ways appear.
A tedious road the weary wretch returns,
And as he goes, the tranfient vifion mourns.

From my own Apartment, May 6.

THERE has a mail this day arrived from Holland; but the matter of the advices importing rather what gives us great expectations, than any pofitive affurances, I fhall, for this time, decline giving you what I know; and apply the following verfes of Mr. Dryden, in the fecond part of Almanzor, to the prefent circumstances of things, without difcovering what my knowledge in aftronomy fuggefts to me.

When empire in its childhood first appears,
A watchful fate o'erfees its tender years:

Till grown more ftrong, it thrufts and ftretches out,
And elbows all the kingdoms round about.
The place thus made for its firft breathing free,
It moves again for eafe and luxury:

Till fwelling by degrees it has poffeft

The greater space, and now crowds up the reft.
When from behind there starts fome petty state,
And pushes on its now unwieldy fate.
Then down the precipice of time it goes,
And finks in minutes, which in ages rofe.

NO.

NO. 13.

TUESDAY, MAY, IO, 1709.

From my own Apartment, May 8.

MUCH hurry and business had to-day perplexed me into a mood too thoughtful for going into company; for which reason, inftead of the tavern, I went into Lincoln's-inn walks; and having taken a round or two, I fat down, according to the allowed familiarity of these places, on a bench; at the other end of which fat a venerable gentleman, who fpeaking with a very affable air, Mr. Bickerftaff, faid he, I take it for a very great piece of good fortune that you have found me out. Sir, faid I, I had never, that I know of, the honour of feeing you before. That, replied he, is what I have often lamented; but I affure you, I have for many years done you many good offices, without being obferved by you; or elfe, when you had any little glimpfe of my being concerned in an affair, you have fled from me, and fhunned me like an enemy; but however, the part I am to act in the world is fuch, that I am to go on in doing good, though I meet with never fo many repulfes, even from thofe I oblige. This, thought I, fhows a great good-nature, but little judgment in the perfons upon whom he confers his favours. He immediately took notice to me, that he observed by my countenance I thought him indiscreet in his beneficence, and proceeded to tell me his quality in the following manner. I know thee, Ifaac, to be fo well verfed in the occult fciences, that I need not much preface, or make long preparations to gain your faith that there are airy beings, who are employed in the care and attendance of men, as nurfes are to infants, until they come to an age in which they can act of themfelves. Thefe beings are ufually called amongst men, Guardian Angels; and, Mr. Bickerftaff, I am to acquaint you, that I am to be yours for fome time to come; it being our orders to vary our stations, and fometimes to have one patient under our protection, and sometimes another, with a power of affuming what shape we please,

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