• Poetical Logarithms, which being divided into feveral Squares, and all infcribed with fo many incoherent Words, appear to the Eye fomewhat like a Fortune⚫ telling Screen. What a joy muft it be to the unlearned Operator to find that thefe Words being carefully col<lected and writ down in Order according to the Pro⚫blem, ftart of themfelves into Hexameter and Penta• meter Verses? A Friend of mine, who is a Student in Aftrology, meeting with this Book, performed the Operation, by the Rules there fet down; he fhewed his • Verses to the next of his Acquaintance, who happened to understand Latin; and being informed they described a Tempest of Wind, very luckily prefixed them, toge⚫ther with a Translation, to an Almanack he was just then printing, and was fuppofed to have foretold the 'laft great Storm.

I think the only Improvement beyond this, would be that which the late Duke of Buckingham mentioned to a stupid Pretender to Poetry, as the Project of a Dutch Mechanick, viz. a Mill to make Verses. This being the most compendious Method of all which have yet been proposed, may deferve the Thoughts of our ⚫ modern Virtuofi who are employed in new Discoveries for the publick Good: And it may be worth the while to confider, whether in an Island where few are con⚫tent without being thought Wits, it will not be a com· mon Benefit, that Wit as well as Labour fhould be • made cheap.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I am, S IR,

Your bnmble Servant, &c.

OFTEN dine at a Gentleman's Houfe, where

I there are two young Ladies in themfelves very agree

⚫able, but very cold in their Behaviour, because they un⚫derstand me for a Person that is to break my Mind, as ⚫ the Phrase is, very suddenly to one of them. But I ⚫ take this Way to acquaint them, that I am not in Love < with either of them, in Hopes they will use me with ⚫ that agreeable Freedom and Indifference which they do

all

all the reft of the World, and not to drink to one ano←ther only, but sometimes cast a kind Look, with their • Service to,

SIR, Your bumble Servant.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

AM a young Gentleman, and take it for a Piece of Good-breeding to pull off my Hat when I fee any thing peculiarly charming in any Woman, whether I ⚫ know her or not. I take care that there is nothing ludicrous or arch in my Manner, as if I were to betray ⚫ a Woman into a Salutation by way of Jeft or Humour ; and yet except I am acquainted with her, I find the Sever takes it for a Rule, that she is to look upon this • Civility and Homage I pay to her fuppofed Merit, as

an Impertinence or Forwardness which fhe is to ob* ferve and neglect. I wish, Sir, you would fettle the • Business of Salutation; and please to inform me how • I shall resist the fudden Impulse I have to be civil to • what gives an Idea of Merit; or tell these Creatures

how to behave themselves in Return to the Efteem I ⚫ have for them. My Affairs are fuch, that your Deci'fion will be a Favour to me, if it be only to fave the unneceffary Expence of wearing out my Hat fo faft as I do at prefent.

From Eggs, which first are set upon the Board,
To Apples ripe, with which it laft is flor'd.

W

HEN I have finished any of my Speculations, it is my Method to confider which of the an cient Authors have touched upon the Subject that I treat of. By this means I meet with fome celebrated Thought upon it, or a Thought of my own expreffed in better Words, or fome Similitude for the Illuftration of my Subject. This is what gives birth to the Motto of a Speculation, which I rather choose to take out of the Poets than the Profe-writers, as the former generally give a finer Turn to a Thought than the latter, and by couching it in few Words, and in harmonious Numbers, make it more portable to the Memory.

MY Reader is therefore fure to meet with at least one good Line in every Paper, and very often finds his Imagination entertained by a Hint that awakens in his Memory fome beautiful Paffage in a Claffick Author.

IT was a Saying of an ancient Philofopher, which I find some of our Writers have afcribed to Queen Elizabeth, who perhaps might have taken occafion to repeat it, That a good Face is a Letter of Recommendation. It naturally makes the Beholders inquifitive into the Perfon who is the Owner of it, and generally prepoffeffes them in his Favour. A handfom Motto has the fame Effect. Befides that it always gives a fupernumerary Beauty to a Paper, and is fometimes in a manner neceffary when the Writer is engaged in what may appear a Paradox to vulgar Minds, as it fhews that he is fupported by good Authorities, and is not fingular in his Opinion.

I muft confefs, the Motto is of little Ufe to an unlearned Reader, for which Reafon I confider it only as a Word to the Wife. But as for my unlearned Friends, if

they

203 they cannot relish the Motto, I take care to make Provifion for them in the Body of my Paper. If they do not understand the Sign that is hung out, they know very well by it, that they may meet with Entertainment in the House; and I think I was never better pleased than with a plain Man's Compliment, who, upon his Friend's telling him that he would like the Spectator much better if he understood the Motto, replied, That good Wine needs no Bush.

I have heard of a Couple of Preachers in a Country Town, who endeavoured which fhould out-shine one another, and draw together the greatest Congregation. One of them being well verfed in the Fathers, used to quote every now and then a Latin Sentence to his illiterate Hearers, who it seems found themselves fo edified by it, that they flocked in greater Numbers to this learned Man than to his Rival. The other finding his Congregation mouldering every Sunday, and hearing at length what was the Occafion of it, refolved to give his Parish a little Latin in his Turn; but being unacquainted with any of the Fathers, he digefted into his Sermons the whole Book of Quæ Genus, adding however fuch Explications to it as he thought might be for the Benefit of his People. He afterwards entered upon As in præfenti, which he converted in the fame manner to the Ufe of his Parishioners. This in a very little time thickned his Audience, filled his Church, and routed his Antagonist.

THE natural Love to Latin, which is fo prevalent in our common People, makes me think that my Speculations fare never the worse among them for that little Scrap which appears at the Head of them; and what the more encourages me in the Ufe of Quotations in an unknown Tongue, is, that I hear the Ladies, whofe Approbation I value more than that of the whole learned World, declare themselves in a more particular manner pleased with my Greek Mottos.

DESIGNING this Day's Work for a Differtation upon the two Extremities of my Paper, and having already difpatch'd my Motto, I fhall, in the next place, discourse upon thofe fingle Capital Letters, which are placed at the End of it, and which have afforded great Matter of Specu

lation to the Curious. I have heard various Conjectures upon this Subject. Some tell us that C is the Mark of thofe Papers that are written by the Clergyman, though others afcribe them to the Club in general: That the Papers marked with R were written by my Friend Sir ROGER: That L fignifies the Lawyer, whom I have described in my fecond Speculation; and that T ftands for the Trader or Merchant: But the Letter X, which is placed at the End of fome few of my Papers, is that which has puzzled the whole Town, as they cannot think of any Name which begins with that Letter, except Xenophon and Xerxes, who can neither of them be fuppofed to have had any Hand in these Speculations.

IN Answer to these inquifitive Gentlemen, who have many of them made Inquiries of me by Letter, I must tell them the Reply of an ancient Philofopher, who carried fomething hidden under his Cloke. A certain Acquaintance defiring him to let him know what it was he covered fo carefully; I cover it, fays he, on purpose that you should not know. I have made ufe of thefe obfcure Marks for the fame Purpose. They are, perhaps, little Amulets or Charms to preferve the Paper against the Fascination and Malice of evil Eyes; for which Reason I would not have my Reader furprised, if hereafter he fees any of my Papers marked with a Q, a Z, a Y, an &c, or with the Word Abracadabra.

I fhall, however, fo far explain my self to the Reader, as to let him know that the Letters C, L, and X, are Cabaliftical, and carry more in them than it is proper for the World to be acquainted with. Those who are verfed in the Philofophy of Pythagoras, and fwear by the Tetrachtys, that is the Number Four, will know very well that the Number Ten, which is fignified by the Letter X, (and which has fo much perplexed the Town) has in it many particular Powers; that it is called by Platonick Writers the Complete Number; that One, Two, Three and Four put together make up the Number Ten; and that Ten is all. But these are not Mysteries for ordinary Readers to be let into. A Man must have spent many Years in hard Study before he can arrive at the Knowledge of them.

WE