N° 625. Monday, December 6.

N

-Experiar quid concedatur in illos,

Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis atque Latinâ. Juv.

EXT to the People who want a Place there are. none to be pitied more than those who are folicited for one: A plain Anfwer, with a Denial in it, is looked upon as Pride, and a civil Anfwer as Promise.

NOTHING is more ridiculous than the Pretenfions of People upon these Occafions. Every thing a Man hath fuffered, whilft his Enemies were in play, was certainly brought about by the Malice of the op pofite Party. A bad Caufe would not have been loft, if fuch an one had not been upon the Bench; nor a profligate Youth difinherited, if he had not got drunk every Night by toasting an outed Ministry. I remember a Tory, who having been fined in a Court of Juftice for a Prank that deferved the Pillory, defired upon the Merit of it to be made a Juftice of Peace when his Friends came into Power; and fhall never forget a Whig Criminal, who, upon being indicted for a Rape told his Friends, You fee what a Man fuffers for sticking to his Principles.

THE Truth of it is, the Sufferings of a Man in a Party are of a very doubtful Nature. When they are fuch as have promoted a good Cause, and fallen upon a Man undefervedly, they have a Right to be heard and recompenfed beyond any other Pretenfions. But when they rife out of Bashfulness or Indiscretion, and the Purfuit of fuch Measures as have rather ruined, than promoted the Interest they 'aim at, (which hath always been the Cafe of many great Sufferers) they only ferve

to

to recommend them to the Children of Violence or Folly.

I have by me a Bundle of Memorials prefented by feveral Cavaliers upon the Reftauration of K. Charles II. which may ferve, as fo many Inftances, to our prefent Purpose.

AMONG feveral Perfons and Pretenfions recorded by my Author, he mentions one of a very great Estate, who, for having roafted an Ox whole, and diftributed a Hogfhead upon K. Charles's Birth-Day, defired to be provided for, as his Majesty in his great Wisdom shall think fit.

ANOTHER put in to be Prince Henry's Governor, for having dared to drink his Health in the worst of Times.

A Third petitioned for a Colonel's Commiffion, for having Curfed Oliver Cromwell, the Day before his Death, on a publick Bowling-Green.

BUT the moft whimfical Petition I have met with is that of B. B. Efq; who defired the Honour of Knighthood, for having Cuckolded Sir T. W. a notorious Roundhead.

THERE is likewise the Petition of one, who, having let his Beard grow from the Martyrdom of K. Charles the First, till the Restauration of K. Charles the Second, defired, in Confideration thereof, to be made a Privy-Counsellor.

I must not omit a Memorial fetting forth, that the Memorialist had, with great dispatch, carried a Letter from a certain Lord to a certain Lord, wherein, as it afterwards appeared, Measures were concerted for the Restauration, and without which he verily believes that happy Revolution had never been effected; who thereupon humbly prays to be made Post-Master-General.

A certain Gentleman, who seems to write with a great deal of Spirit, and uses the Words Gallantry and Gentleman-like very often in his Petition, begs that (in Confideration of his having worn his Hat for ten Years paft in the Loyal Cavalier Cock, to his great Danger and Detriment) he may be made a Captain of the Guards.

I fhall close my Account of this Collection of Memorials, with the Copy of one Petition at Length, which I recommend to my Reader as a very valuable Piece.

The Petition of E. H. Efq; humbly Sheweth,

TH

HAT your Petitioner's Father's Brother's Un⚫cle, Colonel W. H. loft the Third Finger of • his Left Hand at Edge-hill Fight.

THAT your Petitioner, notwithstanding_the ⚫ smallness of his Fortune, (he being a younger Brother) always kept Hofpitality, and drank Confufion to the Roundheads in half a Score Bumpers every Sunday in the Year, as feveral honeft Gentlemen ' (whofe Names are under-written) are ready to teftifie.

THAT your Petitioner is remarkable in his Country for having dared to treat Sir P. P. a curfed Sequeftrator, and three Members of the Affembly of • Divines, with Brawn and Minced Pies upon New• Year's Day.

THAT your faid humble Petitioner hath been five times imprifoned in five feveral County-Goals, 'for having been a Ring-leader in five different Riots; into which his Zeal for the Royal Caufe hurried him, when Men of greater Eftates had not the Courage 'to rife.

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THAT he, the said E. H. hath had fix Duels and four and twenty Boxing-Matches in Defence of his Majefty's Title; and that he received fuch a Blow upon the Head at a Bonfire in Stratford upon Avon, as he hath been never the better for from that Day < to this.

THAT your Petitioner hath been so far from improving his Fortune, in the late damnable Times, that he verily believes, and hath good Reafon to ima"gine, that if he had been Mafter of an Estate, he had infallibly been plundered and fequeftred.

YOUR

YOUR Petitioner, in Confideration of his faid • Merits and Sufferings, humbly requests that he may have the Place of Receiver of the Taxes, Collector ⚫ of the Cuftoms, Clerk of the Peace, Deputy Lieu⚫ tenant, or whatsoever else he shall be thought qua<lified for.

And your Petitioner shall ever Pray, &c.

N° 630. Wednesday, December 8.

H

Favete linguis

Hor.

AVING no fpare Time to write any thing of my own, or to correct what is fent me by others, I have thought fit to publish the following Letters.

SI.R,

Oxford, Novemb. 22. IF you would be fo kind to me, as to fufpend that

Satisfaction, which the Learned World must receive in reading one of your Speculations, by publifhing this Endeavour, you will very much oblige ⚫ and improve one who has the Boldness to hope, that he may be admitted into the number of your Correfpondents.

I have often wondered to hear Men of good Senfe and good Nature profefs a Diflike to Mufick, when, at the fame time, they do not fcruple to own, that it has the most agreeable and improving Influences • over their Minds: It seems to me an unhappy ConC tradiction, that thofe Perfons fhould have an Indifference for an Art, which raises in them fuch a Variety of fublime Pleasures.

• HOW

HOWEVER, though fome few, by their own or the unreasonable Prejudices of others, may be led ⚫ into a Diftafte of thofe Mufical Societies which are

erected meerly for Entertainment, yet fure I may • venture to say, that no one can have the least Reason ⚫ for Difaffection to that folemn kind of Melody which • confifts of the Praises of our Creator.

YOU have, I prefume, already prevented me in an Argument upon this Occafion, (which some Divines have fuccefsfully advanced upon a much greater) ⚫ that Mufical Sacrifice and Adoration has claimed a Place ⚫ in the Laws and Cuftoms of the most different Nations: As the Grecians and Romans of the Prophane, the Jews and Chriftians of the Sacred World did as ⚫ unanimoufly agree in this, as they difagreed in all other Parts of their OEconomy.

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I know there are not wanting fome who are of Opinion that the pompous kind of Mufick which is in Ufe in foreign Churches is the most excellent, as • it most affects our Senfes. But I am fwayed by my Judgment to the Modesty which is obferved in the mufical Part of our Devotions. Methinks there is fomething very laudable in the Custom of a Volun tary before the First Leffon; by this we are fuppofed to be prepared for the Admiffion of thofe Divine Truths, which we are thortly to receive. We are then to caft all worldly Regards from off our Hearts, all Tumults within are then becalmed, and there 'fhould be nothing near the Soul but Peace and Tranquility. So that in this fhort Office of Praise, the • Man is raised above himself, and is almost loft already amidft the Joys of Futurity.

I have heard fome nice Obfervers frequently commend the Policy of our Church in this Particular, that it leads us on by fuch eafie and regular Methods, that we are perfectly deceived into Piety. When the Spirits begin to languish (as they too often do) with

a

conftant Series of Petitions, fhe takes care to allow them a pious Refpite, and relieves them with the Raptures of an Anthem. Nor can we doubt that the

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