civil power, in the late and prefent reign, has been indebted to your counfels and wisdom. But to enumerate the great advantages which the public has received from your adminiftration, would be a more proper work for an history than for an addrefs of this nature. Your Lordship appears as great in your private life, as in the most important offices which You have borne. I would therefore rather choose to speak of the pleasure You afford all who are admitted into your converfation, of your elegant taste in all the polite parts of learning, of your great humanity and complacency of manners, and of the surprising influence which is peculiar to You in making every one who converfes with your Lordship prefer You to himself, without thinking the less meanly of his own talents. But if I should take notice of all that might be observed in your Lordfhip, I fhould have nothing new to say upon any other character of distinction. I am, MY LORD, YOUR LORDSHIP'S MOST OBEDIENT, MOST DEVOTED, HUMBLE SERVANT, THE SPECTATOR. THE Spectator's prefatory discourse, and account of bimfelf N° 1 2 On clubs, with the rules of the two-penny club The Spectator recommends the perufal of bis papers Arietta's character; the ftory of Inkle and Yarico Against telling ftories of fpirits and apparitions On female vanity 456 78 18 On the profeffions of divinity, law and phyfic Letters on the reigning tafle of plays and operas Wit, dangerous in an ill-natur'd or vicious man On the monuments in Westminster-abbey On ambition, and the anxiety occafioned by it 37 On laughter and April fools Letters to the ugly club; from Hecatiffa, &c. Letter from the prefident of the Ugly Club from Anna Bella: king Latinus, &c. Account of a new fect, called Lowngers The vifion of Marraton On party zeal in the fair fex On wit 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63 On the folly of a general mourning A criticifm on the play of Sir Fopling Flutter On the education of the fair fex On dancing On friendship The advantages of trade and commerce 64 65 66 67 68 69 A criticism on the old fong of Chevy Chafe 70 and 74 On the conquest of the paffions; love-letter from James to Betty An account of the Everlasting Club On the love of praife; defcription of a female idol 71 72 73 75 76 Character of Pharamond, and memoirs of his private life On abfence of mind, with the character of Menalcas 77 Hiftory of the Ugly Club at Cambridge 78 Letters from a young lady, and from Hecatiffa 79 The adventures of Brunetta and Phillis. The remonftrance of affronted THAT THE SPECTATOR. N° 1. Thursday, March 1, 1710-11. Non fumum ex fulgore, fed ex fumo dare lucem Hor. Ars Poet. ver. 143. One with a flash begins, and ends in smoke; ROSCOMMON. I HAVE obferved, that a reader feldom peruses a book with pleasure, till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a mild or choleric difpofition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an author. To gratify this curiofity, which is fo natural to a reader, I defign this paper and my next as prefatory difcouries to my following writings, and fhall give fome account in them of the feveral perfons that are engaged in this work. As the chief trouble of compiling, digefting, |