man's difadvantage. I never directly defame, but I do what is as bad in the confequence, for I have often made a man fay fuch and fuch a lively expreffion, who was born a mere elder brother, When one has faid in my hearing, fuch a one is no wiser than he fhould be, I immediately have replied- Now 'faith, 'I cannot fee that, he faid a very good thing to my lord fuch a one, upon 'fuch an occafion,' and the like. Such an honeft dolt as this has been watched in every expreffion he uttered, upon my recommendation of him, and confequently been fubject to the more ridicule. I once endeavoured to cure myfelf of this impertinent quality, and refolved to hold my tongue for feven days together; I did fo, but then I had fo many winks and unnecessary distortions of my face upon what any body elfe faid, that I found I only for bore the expreffion, and that I still lyed in my heart to every man I met with. You are to know one thing, which I believe you will fay is a pity, confidering the ufe I fhould have made of it, I never travelled in my life; but I do not know whether I could have spoken of any foreign country with more familiarity than I do at prefent, in company who are ftrangers to me. I have curfed the inns in Germany; commended the brothels in Venice; the freedom of converfation in France; and though I never was out of this dear town, and fifty miles about it, have been three nights together dogged by bravoes for an intrigue with a cardinal's mistress at Rome. It were endless to give you particulars of this kind, but I can assure you, Mr. Spectator, there are about twenty or thirty of us in this town, I mean by this town the cities of London and Westminfter; I fay there are in town a fufficient number of us to make a fociety among ourselves; and fince we cannot be believed any longer, I beg of you to print this my letter, that we may meet together, and be under fuch regulation as there may be no occafion for belief or confidence among us. If you think fit we might be called The Hiftorians, for Liar is become a very harsh word. And that a member of the fociety may not hereafter be ill received by the rest of the world, I defire you would explain a little this fort of men, and not let us Hiftorians be ranked, as we are in the imaginations of ordinary people, among common liars, make-bates, impoftors, and incendiaries. For your instruction herein, you are to know that an Hiftorian in conversation is only a perfon of fo pregnant a fancy, that he cannot be contented with ordinary occurrences. I know a man of quality of our order, who is of the wrong fide of forty-three, and has been of that age, according to Tully's jeft, for fome years fince, whofe vein is upon the romantic. Give him the leaft occafion, and he will tell you fomething fo very particular that happened in fuch a year, and in fuch company, where by the by was present fuch a one, who was afterwards made fuch a thing. Out of all these circumstances, in the beft language in the world, he will join together with fuch probable incidents an account that shews a perfon of the deepest penetration, the honestest mind, and withal fomething fo humble when he speaks of himself, that you would admire. Dear Sir, why should this be lying? There is nothing fo inftructive. He has withal the graveft afpect; fomething fo very venerable and great. Another of thefe Hiftorians is a young man whom we would take in, though he extremely wants parts; as people fend children, before they can learn any thing, to school to keep them out of harm's way. He tells things which have nothing at all in them, and can neither please nor displease, but merely take up your time to no manner of purpose, no manner of delight; but he is good-natured, and does it because he loves to be faying fomething to you, and entertain you. I could name you a foldier that hath done very great things without flaughter; he is prodigioufly dull and flow of head, but what he can fay is for ever false, so that we must have him. Give me leave to tell you of one more who is a lover; he is the most afflicted creature in the world, left what happened between him and a great beauty fhould ever be known. Yet again he comforts himself Hang the jade her woman. If money can keep the flut trufty I will do it, though I mortgage every acre: Anthony and Cleopatra for that; All for Love and the World 'well loft.' Then, Sir, there is my little merchant, honeft Indigo of the 'Change, there is my man for lofs and gain; there is tare and tret, there is lying all round a L the 264 the globe; he has fuch a prodigious intelligence, he knows all the French are doing, or what we intend or ought to intend, and has it from fuch hands. But alas, whither am I running! while I complain, while I remonftrate to you, even all this is a lye, and there is not one fuch perfon of quality, lover, fol、 of. But I will catch myfelf once in my T N° CXXXVII. TUESDAY, AUGUST 7. AT HÆC ETIAM SERVIS SEMPER LIBERA FUERUNT, TIMERENT, GAUDERENT, DOLERENT, SUO POTIUS QUAM ALTERIUS ARBITRIO. TULL. EPIST. EVEN SLAVES WERE ALWAYS AT LIBERTY TO FEAR, REJOICE, AND GRIEVE, AT THEIR OWN RATHER THAN ANOTHER'S PLEASURE. It is no fmall concepta to sfrom that T is no fmall concern to me, that I part of mankind whofe portion it is to live in fervitude, that thofe whom they depend upon will not allow them to be even as happy as their condition will admit of. There are, as these unhappy correfpondents inform me, masters who are offended at a chearful countenance, and think a fervant is broke loose from them, if he does not preferve the utinoft awe in their prefence. There is one who fays, if he looks fatisfied, his mafter atks him what makes him fo pert this morning; if a little four- Hark ye, firrah, are not you paid your wages? The poor creatures live in the most extreme mifery together: the mafter knows not how to preferve refpect, nor the fervant how to give it. It feems this perfon is of fo fullen a nature, that he knows but little fatisfaction in the midft of a plentiful fortune, and fecretly frets to fee any appearance of content, in one that lives upon the hundredth part of his income, who is unhappy in the poffeflion of the whole. Uneafy perfons, who cannot poffefs their own minds, vent their spleen upon all who depend upon them; which, I think, is expreffed in a lively manner in the following letters. SIR, AUGUST 2, 1711. I when any thing is to be remembered, with I am, Sir, your humble fervant, both, that I fhould be very glad to see them in the Specter. My lady herfelf is of no mind in the world, and for that reafon her woman is of twenty minds in a moment. My lady is one that never knows what to do with herfelf; the pulls on and puts off every thing she wears twenty times before the refolves upon it for that day. I ftand at one end of the room, and reach things to her woman. When my lady asks for a thing, I hear and have half brought it, when the woman meets me in the middle of the room to receive it, and at that inftant she says, no the will not have it. Then I go back, and her woman comes up to her, and by this time fhe will have that and two or three things more in an inftant: the woman and I run to each other; I am loaded and delivering the things to her, when my lady fays fhe wants none of all these things, and we are the dulleft creatures in the world, and the the unhappiest woman living, for the fhall not be dreffed in any time. Thus we ftand not knowing what to do, when our good lady with all the patience in the world tells us as plain as the can speak, that fhe will have temper becaufe we have no manner of understanding; and begins again to drefs, and fee if we can find out of ourselves what we are to do. When the is dreffed fhe goes to dinner, and after fhe has difliked every thing there, fhe calls for her coach, then commands it in again, and then she will not go out at all, and then will go too, and orders the chariot. Now, good Mr. Specter, I defire you would in the behalf of all who ferve froward ladies, give out in your paper, that nothing can be done without allowing time for it, and that one cannot be back again with what one was fent for, if one is called back before one can go a ftep for that they want. And if you please, let them know that all miftreffes are as like as all fervants. I am your loving friend, PATIENCE GIDDY. These are great calamities; but I met the other day in the Five Fields towards Chelsea, a pleafanter tyrant than either of the above reprefented. A fat fellow was paffing on in his open waistcoat; a boy of fourteen in a livery, carrying after him his cloke, upper coat, hat, wig, and fword. The poor lad was ready to fink with the weight, and could not keep up with his master, who turned back every half furlong, and wondered what inade the lazy young dog lag behind. There is fomething very unaccountable, that people cannot put themselves in the condition of the perfons below them, when they confider the commands they give. But there is nothing more common, than to fee a fellow, who, if he were reduced to it, would not be hired by any man living, lament that he is troubled with the most worthless dogs in nature. It would, perhaps, be running too far out of common life to urge, that he who is not matter of himself and his own paffions cannot be a proper master of another. Equanimity in a man's own words and actions, will eafily diffufe itself through his whole family. Pamphilio has the happiest houshold of any man I know, and that proceeds from the humane regard he has to them in their private perfons, as well as in refpect that they are his fervants. If there be any occafion, wherein they may in themselves be fuppofed to be unfit to attend their master's concerns, by reafon of any attention to their own, he is fo good as to place himself in their condition. I thought it very becoming in him, when at dinner the other day he made an apology for want of more attendants. He faid- One of my footmen is gone to the wedding of his fifter, and the other I do not expect to wait, because his father died but two days ago.". T N° CXXXVIII. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8. UTITUR IN RE NON DUBIA TESTIBUS NON NECESSARIIS. HE USES UNNECESSARY PROOFS IN AN INDISPUTABLE POINT. TULL. ONE meets now and then with per Tully tells us of an author that spent fome fors who are extremely learned and knotty in expounding clear safes. pages to prove that generals could nor perform the great enterprises which have 2 L 2 . made made them fo illuftrious, if they had not had men. He afferted alfo, it feems, that a minifter at home, no more than a commander abroad, could do any thing without other men were his inftruments and affiftants. On this occafion he produces the example of Themistocles, Pericles, Cyrus, and Alexander himself, whom he denies to have been capable of effecting what they did, except they had been followed by others. It is pleafant enough to fee fuch perfons contend without opponents, and triumph without victory. It is no final misfortune to any whe have a juft value for their time, when this quality of being fo very circumftantial, and careful to be exact, happens to fhew itself in a man whofe quality obliges them to attend his proofs, that it is now day, and the like. But this is augmented when the fame genius gets into authority, as it often does. Nay, I have known it more than once afcend the very pulpit. One of this fort taking it in his head to be a great admirer of Dr. Tillotfon and Dr. Beveridge, never failed of proving out of thefe great authors things which no man living would have denied him upon his own fing e authority. One day refolving to come to the point in hand, he said, according to that excellent divine- I will enter upon the matter;' or in his words, in his fifteenth fermon of the folio edition, page 160. I fhall briefly explain the words, and then confider the matter contained in 'them.' The author above-mentioned by the orator is placed for ever in a very ridiculous light, and we meet every day in converfation fuch as deferve the fame kind of renown, for troubling thofe with whom they converfe with the like certainties. The perfons that I have always thought to deferve the highest admiration in this kind are your ordinary story-tellers, who are the most religiously careful of keeping to the truth in every particular circumftance of a narration, whether it concern the main end or not. A gentleman whom I had the honour to be in company with the other day, upon fome occafion that he was pleafed to take, faid, he remembered a very pretty repartee made by a very witty inan in King Charles's time upon the like occalion. I remember,' faid he, upon entering into the tale, much about the time of Oates's plot, that a coufin-german of mine and I were at the Bear in Holbourn: no, I am out, it was at the Crofs-Keys; but Jack Thomfon was there, for he was very great with the gentleman who • made the answer. But I am fure it was fpoken fomewhere thereabouts, for we drank a bottle in that neigh-fo bourhood every evening; but no mat⚫ter for all that, the thing is the fame; 'but . This honeft gentleman needed not, one would think, strain his modesty so far as to alter his defign of entering upon the matter,' to that of briefly explaining. But fo it was, that he would not even be contented with that authority, but added alfo the other divine to ftrengthen his method; and told us, with the pious and learned Dr. Beveridge, page 4th of his 9th volume I fhall endeavour to make it as plain as I can from the words which I have now read, wherein for that purpose we fhall confider This wifeacre was reckoned by the parish, who did not understand him, a most excellent preacher; but that he read too much, and was humble that he did not trust enough to his own parts. Next to thefe ingenious gentlemen, who argue for what nobody can deny He was going on to fettle the geogra- them, are to be ranked a fort of people phy of the jeft when I left the room, who do not indeed attempt to prove inwondering at this odd turn of head which fignificant things, but are ever labourcan play away it's words, with uttering ing to raise arguments with you about nothing to the purpofe, ftill obferving matters you will give up to them withit's own impertinences, and yet proceed-out the leaft controverfy. One of these ing in them. I do not queftion but he informed the reft of his audience, who had more patience than I, of the birth and parentage, as well as the collateral alliances of his family, who made the repartee, and of him who provoked him to it. people told a gentleman who faid he saw Mr. fuch a one go this morning at nine of the clock towards the Gravel-pits Sir, I muft beg your pardon for that, for though I am very loth to have any difpute with you, yet I must take the liberty to tell you it was nine when I faw faw him at St. James's.' When men of this genius are pretty far gone in learning, they will put you to prove that fnow is white, and when you are upon that topic can say that there is really no fuch thing as colour in nature; in a word, they can turn what little knowledge they have into a ready capacity of railing doubts; into a capacity of being always frivolous and always unanswerable. It was of two difputants of this impertinent and laborious kind that the cynic faid- One of thefe fellows is milking a ram, and the other holds the pail.' ADVERTISEMENT. THE exercise of the fnuff-box, according to the most fashionable airs and motions, in oppofition to the exercife of the fan, will be taught with the best plain or perfumed fnuff, at Charles Lillie's, perfumer, at the corner of Beaufort Buildings in the Strand, and attendance given for the benefit of the young merchants about the Exchange for two hours every day at noon, except Saturdays, at a toy-fhop near Garraway's coffee-house. There will be likewife taught the ceremony of the fnuff-box, or rules for offering fnuff to a ftranger, a friend, or a mittrefs, according to the degrees of familiarity or diftance; with an explanation of the carelefs, the fcornful, the politic, and the furly pinch, and the geftures proper to each of them. N. B. The undertaker does not queftion but in a fhort time to have formed a body of regular fnuff-boxes ready to meet and make head against all the regiment of fans which have been lately disciplined, and are now in motion. T N° CXXXIX. THURSDAY, AUGUST 9. VERA GLORIA RADICES AGIT, ATQUE ETIAM PROPAGATUR: FICTA OMNIA CELERITER, TANQUAM FLOSCULI, DECIDUNT, NEC SIMULATUM POTEST QUIDQUAM ESSE DIUTURNUM. TULL. TRUE GLORY TAKES ROOT, AND EVEN SPREADS: ALL FALSE PRETENCES, LIKE FLOWERS, FALL TO THE GROUND; NOR CAN ANY COUNTERFEIT LAST LONG. F all the affections which attend human life, the love of glory is the most ardent. According as this is cultivated in princes, it produces the greatest good or the greatest evil. Where lovereigns have it by impreffions received from education only, it creates an ambitious rather than a noble mind; where it is the natural bent of the prince's inclination, it prompts him to the purfuit of things truly glorious. The two greatest men now in Europe, according to the common acceptation of the word Great, are Lewis King of France, and Peter Emperor of Ruffia. As it is certain that all fame does not arife from the practice of virtue, it is, methinks, no unpleafing amufement to examine the glory of these potentates, and diftinguish that which is empty, perifhing, and frivolous, from what is folid, lafting, and important. Lewis of France had his infancy attended by crafty and worldly men, who made extent of territory the most glorious inftance of power, and miftook the fpreading of fame for the acquifition of ho nour. The young monarch's heart was by fuch converfation cafily deluded into a fondness for vain-glory, and upon thefe unjuft principles to form or fall in with fuitable projects of invafion, rapine, murder, and all the guilts that attend war when it is unjuft. At the fame time this tyranny was laid, fciences and arts were encouraged in the most generous manner, as if men of higher faculties were to be bribed to per➡ mit the maffacre of the rest of the world. Every fuperftructure which the court of France built upon their first designs, which were in themfelves vicious, was fuitable to it's falfe foundation. The oftentation of riches, the vanity of equipage, fhame of poverty, and ignorance of modesty, were the common arts of life; the generous love of one woman was changed into gallantry for all the fex, and friendships among men turned into commerces of intereft, or mere profeffions. While thefe were the rules of life, perjuries in the prince, and a general corruption of manners in the fubject, were the fnares in which France has |