man to have it in his eye, and believe all that are taken from him by his want of industry are to be demanded of him. I dare say, Favonius has very few of these losses. Favonius, in the midst of a thousand impertinent assailants of the divine truths, is an undisturbed defender of them. He protects all under his care, by the clearness of his understanding, and the example of his life: he visits dying men with the air of a man who hopes for his own dissolution, and enforces in others a contempt of this life, by his own expectation of the next. voice and behaviour are the lively images of a composed and well-governed zeal. None can leave him for the frivolous jargon uttered by the ordinary teachers among dissenters, but such who cannot distinguish vociferation from cloquence, and argument from ailing. He is so great a judge of mankind, and touches our passions with so superior a command, that he who deserts his congregation must be a stranger to the dictates of nature as well as to those of grace. His But I must proceed to other matters, and resolve the questions of other inquirers; as in the fol. lowing. Upon reading that part of the Tatler, N° 69, where mention is made of a certain chapel-clerk, there arose a dispute, and that produced a wager, whether by the words chapel-clerk was meant a clergyman or layman? by a clergyman I mean one in holy orders. It was not that any body in the company pretended to guess who the person was; but some asserted, that by Mr. Bickerstaff's words must be meant a clergyman only: others said, * Dr. Smalridge. that those words might have been said of any clerk of a parish; and some of them more properly of a layman. The wager is half a dozen bottles of wine: in which, if you please to determine it, your health, and all the family of the Staffs, shall certainly be drunk: and you will singularly oblige another very considerable family; I mean that of your humble servants, THE TRENCHER CAPS,' It is very customary with us learned men, to find perplexities where no one else can see any. The honest gentlemen, who wrote this, are much at a loss to understand what I thought very plain; and, in return, their epistle is so plain, that I cannot understand it. This, perhaps, is at first a little like nonsense: but I desire all persons to examine these writings with an eye to my being far gone in the occult sciences; and remember, that it is the privilege of the learned and the great to be understood when they please: for as a man of much business may be allowed to leave company when he pleases ; so one of high learning may be above your capacity when he thinks fit. But, without further speeches or fooling, I must inform my friends, the Trencher Caps, in plain words, that I meant, in the place they speak of, a drunken clerk of a church; and I will return their civility among my relations, and drink their healths as they do ours. N° 73. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1709. Quicquid agunt homines nostri est farrago libelli. JUV. Sat. i. 85, 86. Whate'er men do, or say, or think, or dream, White's Chocolate-house, September 26. P. I CANNOT express the confusion the following letter gave me, which I received by Sir Thomas this morning. There cannot be a greater surprise than to meet with sudden enmity in the midst of a familiar and friendly correspondence; which is my case in relation to this epistle: and I have no way to purge myself to the world, but by publishing both it and my answer: MR. BICKERSTAFF, You are a very impudent fellow to put me into the Tatler. Rot you, Sir, I have more wit than you; and rot me, I have more money than most fools I have bubbled. All persons of quality admire me; though, rot me if I value a blue garter any more than I do a blue apron. Every body knows I am brave; therefore have a care how you provoke 6 SIR, The Answer. MONOCULUS.' Did I not very well know your hand, as well by the spelling as the character, I should not have believed yours of to-day had come from you. But when all men are acquainted that I have had all my intelligence from you, relating to your fraternity, Jet them pronounce who is the more impudent. I confess, I have had a peculiar tenderness for you, by reason of that luxuriant eloquence of which you are master, and have treated you accordingly; for which you have turned your florid violence against your ancient friend and school-fellow. You know your own conscience you gave me leave to touch upon your vein of speaking, provided I hid your other talents in which I believed you sincere, because, like the ancient Sinon, you have before now suffered yourself to be defaced to carry on a plot. Besides, Sir, rot me, language for a person of your present station! Fy, fy, I am really ashamed for you, and shall no more depend upon your intelli gence. Keep your temper, wash your face, and go to bed. in ISAAC BICKERSTAFF. For aught I know, this fellow may have confused the description of the pack, on purpose to ensnare the game, while I have all along believed he was destroying them as well as myself; but because they pretend to bark more than ordinary, I shall let them see that I will not throw away the whip, until they know better how to behave themselves. But I must not, at the same time, omit the praises of their economy, expressed in the following advice: MR. BICKERSTAFF, Sept. 17. Though your thoughts are at present employed upon the tables of fame, and marshalling your il. lustrious dead, it is hoped the living may not be neglected, nor defrauded of their just honours; and since you have begun to publish to the world the great sagacity and vigilance of the Knights of the Industry, it will be expected you shall proceed to do justice to all the societies of them you can be informed of; especially since their own great industry covers their actions as much as possible from that public notice which is their due. "Paulum sepulta distat inertiæ Celata virtus. HOR. iv. Od. ix. 29. "Hidden vice and concealed virtue are much alike. Be pleased, therefore, to let the following me. moirs have a place in their history. 'In a certain part of the town, famous for the freshest oysters, and the plainest English, there is a house or rather a college, sacred to hospitality and the industrious arts. At the entrance is hieroglyphically drawn a cavalier contending with a monster, with jaws expanded, just ready to devour him. Hither the brethren of the industry resort; but to avoid ostentation, they wear no habits of distinction, and perform their exercises with as little noise and shew as possible. Here are no under graduates, but each is master of his art. They are distributed according to their various talents, and detached abroad in parties, to divide the labours of the day. They have dogs as well-nosed and as fleet as any, and no sportsmen show greater activity. Some beat for the game, some hunt it, others come in at the death; and my honest landlord makes very good venison sauce, and eats his share of the dinner. I would fain pursue my metaphors; but a venerable person who stands by me, and waits to bring you this letter, and whom, by a certain bene volence in his look, I suspect to be Pacolet, reproves me, and obliges me to write in plainer terms, that the society had fixed their eyes on a gay young gen. |