sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them," &c. Now, I pray thee, friend, as thou art a man skilled in many things, tell me who is meant by the diseased, the sick, the broken, the driven away, and the lost? and whether the prophecy in this chapter be accomplished, or yet to come to pass? and thou wilt oblige thy friend, though unknown.

19th of the seventh month.'

S

This matter is too sacred for this paper; but I cannot see what injury it would do any clergyman 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 hoped for his own dissolution, and enforces in others a contempt of this life, by his own expectation of the next. His voice and behaviour are the lively images of a composed and wellgoverned zeal. None can leave him for the frivolous jargon uttered by the ordinary teachers among dissenters', but such who cannot distinguish vociferation from eloquence, and argument from railing. 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.

But I must proceed to other matters, and re

› Dr. Smalridge. See Preface to the fourth volume of the Tatler, and Tatler, No. 114.

See Tatler, No. 66. and notes.

6

solve the questions of other inquirers; as in the following:

6 SIR,

UPON reading that part of the Tatler, No. 69. where mention is made of a certain chapelclerk, 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, 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 drank; and you will singularly oblige another very considerable family; I mean that of your humble servants,

Heddington, Sept. 19.

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 farther speeches or fool

ing, I must inform my friend, 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.

WHITE'S CHOCOLATE-HOUSE, SEPTEMBER 26.

I CANNOT express the confusion the following letter gave me, which I received by sir Thomas" this morning. There cannot be a greater surprize 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:

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 • MONOCULUS."

*STEELE'S and HUGHES's.

u The waiter at White's chocolate-house.

Sir Humphrey Moneux. See Tatler, No, 36. and note.

THE ANSWER.

'SIR,

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, let 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 in 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 intelligence. Keep your temper, wash your face, and go to bed.

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

y As for the satirical part of these writings, those against the gentlemen who profess gaming are the most licentious: but the main of them I take to come from losing gamesters, as invectives against the fortunate; for in very many of them I was very little else but the transcriber. If any have been more particularly marked at, such persons may impute it to their own behaviour before they were touched upon, in publicly speaking their resentment against the author, and professing they would support any man who should insult him.' Steele. See Tatler, No. 271.

see that I will not throw away the whip, till 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,

THOUGH your thoughts are at present employed upon the Tables of Fame, and marshalling your illustrious 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 should 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 sepultæ distat inertiæ

Celata virtus.

HOR. 4 Od. ix. 29.

Hidden vice and concealed virtue are much alike.

Be pleased, therefore, to let the following memoirs 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 him2.

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

z It is at present very obvious that a public-house at Billingsgate, with the sign of the George, is here meant: but, if ever the scene of the fishmarket should be changed (as the place of execution, Tyburn, was in 1783) posterity will be at a loss to understand this allusion.