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market of me, in all the turns of my perfon, the heaves of my paffion, and the fuitable changes of my posture, took occafion to commend my neck, my fhape, my eyes, my limbs. All this was accompanied with fuch speeches as you may have heard horse-courfers make in the fale of nags, when they are warranted for their foundnefs. You underitand by this time that I was left in a brothel, and exposed to the next bidder, that could purchase me of my patronefs. This is fo much the work of hell; the pleasure in the poffeffion of us wenches abates in proportion to the degrees we go beyond the bounds of innocence; and no man is gratified, if there is nothing left for him to debauch. Well, Sir, my first man, when I came upon the town, was Sir Jeoffry Foible, who was extremely lavish to me of his money, and took fuch a fancy to me, that he would have carried me off, if my patronefs would have taken any reasonable terms for me: but as he was old, his covetousness was his ftrongeft paffion, and poor I was foon left expofed to be the common refufe of all the rakes and debauchees in town. I cannot tell whe

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you will do me juftice or no, until I fee whether you print this or not; otherwife, as I now live with Sal, İ could give you a very juft account of who and who is together in this town. You perhaps will not believe it; but I know one who pretends to be a very good Proteftant who lies with a Roman Catholic: but more of this hereafter, as you pleafe me. There do come to our houfe the greatest politicians of the age; and Sal is more threwd than any body thinks: nobody can believe that fuch wife men could go to bawdy-houfes out of idle purposes, I have heard them often talk of Auguftus Cæfar, who had intrigues with the wives of fenators, not out of wantonnels but ftratagem.

It is a thousand pities you should be fo feverely virtuous as I fear you are;

otherwife, after one vifit or two, you would foon understand that we women of the town are not fuch useless correfpondents as you may imagine: you have undoubtedly heard that it was a courtezan who difcovered Catiline's confpiracy. If you print this I will tell you more; and am, in the mean time, Sir, your most humble fervant,

REBECCA NETTLETOP.

MR. SPECTATOR,

I Am an idle young woman that would

work for my livelihood, but that I am kept in fuch a manner as I cannot ftir out. My tyrant is an old jealous fellow, who allows me nothing to appear in. I have but one fhoe and one flipper: no head drefs, and no upper petticoat. As you fet up for a reformer, I defire you would take me out of this wicked way, and keep me yourself. EVE AFTERDAY,

MR. SPECTATOR,

Am to complain to you of a set of impertinent coxcombs, who vifit the apartments of us women of the town, only, as they call it, to fee the world. I must confefs to you, this to men of delicacy might have an effect to cure them; but as they are stupid, noisy, and drunken fellows, it tends only to make vice in themfelves, as they think, pleafant and humorous, and at the fame time naufeous in us. I fhall, Sir, here after from time to time give you the names of these wretches who pretend to enter our houfes merely as fpectators. These men think it wit to use us ill: pray tell them, however worthy we are of fuch treatment, it is unworthy them to be guilty of it towards us. Pray, Sir, take notice of this, and pity the oppreffed: I wish we could add to it, the innocent.

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N° CXCI. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9.

ὅλον ὄνειρον. »

HOM. IL. II. VER. 6.

DELUDING VISION OF THE NIGHT,

OME ludicrous fchoolmen have put the cafe, that if an afs were placed between two bundles of hay, which affected his fenfes equally on each fide, and tempted him in the very fame degree, whether it would be poffible for him to eat of either. They generally determine this question to the difadvantage of the afs, who they fay would ftarve in the midft of plenty, as not having a fingle grain of free-will to determine him more to the one than to the other. The bundle of hay on either fide ftriking his fight and finell in the fame proportion, would keep him in a perpetual fufpence, like the two magnets which, travellers have told us, are placed one of them in the roof, and the other in the floor of Mahomet's burying-place at Mecca, and by that means, fay they, pull the impoftor's iron coffin with fuch an equal attraction, that it hangs in the air between both of them. As for the afs's behaviour in fuch nice circumftances, whether he would tarve fooner than violate his neutrality to the two bundles of hay, I fhall not prefume to determine: but only take notice of the condust of our own fpecies in the fame perplexity. When a man has a mind to venture his money in a lottery, every figure of it appears equally alluring, and as likely to fucceed as any of it's fellows. They all of them have the fame pretentions to good luck, stand upon the fame foot of competition, and no manner of reafon can be given why a man should prefer one to the other before the lottery is drawn. In this cafe, therefore, caprice very often acts in the place of reafon, and forms to itfelf fome groundies imaginary motive, where real and fubfential ones are wanting. I know a well-meaning man that is very well pleated to rifk his good fortune upon the number 1711, because it is the year of our Lord. I am acquainted with a tacker that would give good deal for the rumber 134. On the contrary, I have been told of a certain zealous diffenter, who being a great enemy

POPE.

to popery, and believing that bad men are the most fortunate in this world, will lay two to one on the number 666 againit any other number, becaufe, fays he, it is the number of the beast. Several would prefer the number 12,000 before any other, as it is the number of the pounds in the great prize. In short, fome are pleafed to find their own age in their number; fome that they have got a number which makes a pietty appearance in the cyphers; and others, becaufe it is the farne number that fucceeded in the laft lottery. Each of these, upon no other grounds, thinks he stands fairest for the great lot, and that he is poffefld of what may not be improperly called The Golden Number.`

Thefe principles of election are the pattimes and extravagancies of human reafon, which is of fo bufy a nature, that it will be exerting itself in the meaneft trifles, and working even when it wants materials. The wifeft of men are fometimes actuated by fuch unaccountable motives, as the life of the fool and the fuperftitious is guided by nothing else.

I am furprifed that none of the fortune-tellers, or, as the French call them, the Difeurs de bonne Avanture, who publifh their bills in every quarter of the town, have not turned our lotteries to their advantage: did any of them fet up for a catter of fortunate figures, what night he not get by his pretended difcoveries and predictions?

I remember among the advertisements in the Poft Boy of September the 27th, I was furprised to fee the following one:

This is to give notice, that ten fbillings over and above the market price. will be given for the ticket in 1.500.000l. Lottery, N° 132, by Nth. Cuff, at the Bible and Three • Crowns in Cheapfide.'

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This advertisement has given great matter of fpeculation to coffee-houts thecrifts. Mr. Cliff's principles and converfation have been canvaffed upon this occalion, and various conjectures

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made why he fhould thus fet his heart upon number 132. I have examined all the powers in thofe numbers, broken them into fractions, extracted the fquare and cube root, divided and multiplied them always, but could not arrive at the fecret till about three days ago, when I received the following letter from an unknown hand, by which I find that Mr. Nathaniel Cliff is only the agent, and not the principal in this advertife

ment.

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MR. SPECTATOR,

Am the perfon that lately advertised I would give ten fhillings more than the current price for the ticket N° 132 in the lottery now drawing; which is a fecret I have communicated to fome friends, who rally me inceffantly upon that account. You must I have but one ticket, for which reafon, and a certain dream I have lately had more than once, I was refolved it should be the number I most approved. I am fo pofitive I have pitched upon the great lot, that I could almost lay all I am worth of it. My vitions are fo frequent and strong upon this occafion, that I have not only poffeffed the lot, but difposed of the money which in all probability it will fell for. This morning in particular, I set up an equipage which I look upon to be the gayeft in the town; the liveries are very rich, but not gaudy. I should be very glad to fee a fpeculation or two upon lottery fubjects, in which you would oblige all people concerned, and in particular your most humble fervant,

GEORGE GOSLING.

P. S. Dear Spec, if I get the 12,000 pound, I will make thee a handfome prefent.

dent good luck, and thanked him for his intended kindness, I fhall for this time difmifs the fubject of the lottery, and only obferve that the greatest part of mankind are in fome degree guilty of my. friend Gosling's extravagance. We are apt to rely upon future profpects, and become really expenfive while we are only rich in poffibility. We live up to our expectations, not to our poffeffions, and make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we are. We out-run our prefent income, as not doubting to difburfe ourselves out of the profits of fome future place, project, or reverfion that we have in view. It is through this temper of mind, which is fo common among us, that we fee tradefmen break, who have met with no miffortunes in their bufinefs; and men of eftates reduced to poverty, who have never suffered from loffes or repairs, tenants, taxes, or law-fuits. In fhort, it is this foolish fanguine temper, this depending upon contingent futurities, that occafions romantic generofity, chimerical grandeur, fenfelefs oftentation, and generally ends in beggary and ruin. The man who will live above his prefent circumstances, is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them, or, as the Italian proverb runs, The man who lives by hope will die by hunger.'

It should be an indispensable rule in life, to contract our delires to our prefent condition, and whatever may be our expectations, to live within the compafs of what we actually poffefs. It' will be time enough to enjoy an estate when it comes into our hands; but if we anticipate our good fortune, we shall lofe the pleafure of it when it arrives, and may poffibly never poffefs what we

After having wifhed my correfpon- have fo foolishly counted upon.

N° CXCII. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10.

UNO ORE OMNES OMNIA

BONA DICERE, ET LAUDARE FORTUNAS MEAS,
QUI GNATUM HABEREM TALI INGENIO PRÆDITUM.
TER. ANDR. ACT. I. Sc. I.

ALL MEN AGREED IN COMPLIMENTING ME, AND APPLAUDED MY GOOD FOR TUNE IN BEING THE FATHER OF SO TOWARDLY A SON.

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about him; and methought I could obferve in his countenance different motions of delight, as he turned his eye

towards

towards the one and the other of them. The man is a perfon moderate in his defigns for their preferment and welfare; and as he has an eafy fortune, he is not folicitous to make a great one. His eldeft fon is a child of a very towardly difpofition, and as much as the father loves him, I dare fay he will never be a knave to improve his fortune., I do not know any man who has a jufter relish of life than the perfon I am fpeaking of, or keeps a better guard against the terrors of want or the hopes of gain. It is usual in a crowd of children, for the parent to name out of his own flock all the great officers of the kingdom. There is fomething fo very furprifing in the parts of a child of a man's own, that there is nothing too great to be expected from his endowments. I know a good woman who has but three fons, and there is, the fays, nothing the expects with more certainty, than that the fhall fee one of them a bishop, the other a judge, and the third a court-p t-physician. The humour is, that any thing which can happen to any man's child, is expected by every man for his own. But my friend, whom I was going to speak of, does not flatter himfelf with fuch vain expectations, but has his eye more upon the virtue and difpofition of his children, than their advancement or wealth. Good habits are what will certainly improve a man's fortune and reputation; but on the other fide, affluence of fortune will not as probably produce good affections of the mind.

It is very natural for a man of a kind difpofition, to amufe himfelf with the promifes his imagination makes to him of the future condition of his children, and to reprefent to himself the figure they fhall bear in the world after he has left it. When his profpects of this kind are agreeable, his fondnefs gives as it were a longer date to his own life; and the furvivorship of a worthy man in his fon is a pleafure fcarce inferior to the hopes of the continuance of his own life. That man is happy who can believe of his fon, that he will efcape the follies and indifcretions of which he himfelf was guilty, and purfue and improve every thing that was valuable in him. The continuance of his virtue is much more to be regarded than that of his life; but it is the moft lamentable of all reflections, to think that the heir of a man's fortune is such a one as will be a ftranger to his

friends, alienated from the fame interetts, and a promoter of every thing which he himself difapproved. An estate in poffeffion of fuch a fucceffor to a good man, is worse than laid waste; and the family, of which he is the head, is in a more deplorable condition than that of being extinct.

When I vifit the agreeable feat of my honoured friend Ruricola, and walk from room to room revolving many pleating occurrences, and the expreffions of many juft fentiments I have heard him utter, and fee the booby his heir in pain while he is doing the honours of his houfe to the friend of his father, the heavinefs it gives one is not to be expreffed. Want of genius is not to be imputed to any man, but want of humanity is a man's own fault. The fon of Ruricola (whofe life was one continued feries of worthy actions and gentleman-like inclinations) is the companion of drunken clowns, and knows no fenfe of praife but in the flattery he receives from his own fervants; his pleafures are mean and inordinate, his language bafe and filthy, his behaviour rough and abfurd. Is this creature to be accounted the fucceffor of a man of virtue, wit, and breeding? At the fame time that I have this melancholy profpect at the houfe where I miss my old friend, I can go to a gentleman's not far off it, where he has a daughter who is the picture both of his body and mind, but both improved with the beauty and modefty peculiar to her fex. It is fhe who fupplies the lofs of her father to the world; the without his name or fortune, is a truer memorial of him, than her brother who fucceeds him in both. Such an offspring as the eldeft fon of my friend perpetuates his father in the fame manner as the appearance of his ghost would: it is indeed Ruricola, but it is Ruricola grown frightful.

I know not to what to attribute the brutal turn which this young man has taken, except it may be to a certain severity and diftance which his father ufed towards him, and might, perhaps, have occafioned a diflike to thofe modes of life which were not made amiable to him by freedom and affability.

We may promife ourselves that no fuch excrefcence will appear in the family of the Cornelii, where the father lives with his fons like their eldeft brother, and the fons converfe with him as

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if they did it for no other reafon but that he is the wifeft man of their acquaintance. As the Cornelii are eminent traders, their good correfpondence with each other is ufeful to all that know them, as well as to themselves; and their friendfhip, good-will, and kind offices, are difpofed of jointly as well as their fortune, fo that no one ever obliged one of them, who had not the obligation multiplied in returns from them all.

It is the most beautiful object the eyes of man can behold, to see a man of worth and his fon live in an intire unreferved correfpondence. The mutual kindness and affection between them give an inexpreffible fatisfaction to all who know them. It is a fublime pleasure which increafes by the participation. It is as facred as friendthip, as pleafurable as love, and as joyful as religion. This ftate of mind does not only diffipate forrow, which would be extreme without it, but enlarges pleafures which would otherwise be contemptible. The moft indifferent thing has it's force and beauty when it is fpoke by a kind father, and an infignificant trifle has it's weight when offered by a dutiful child. I know not how to exprefs it, but I think I may call it a tranfplanted felf-love. All the enjoyments and fufferings which a man meets with are regarded only as they concern him in the relation he has to another. A man's very honour receives a new value to him, when he thinks that when he is in his grave, it will be had in remembrance that fuch an action was done by fuch a one's father. Such confiderations fweeten the old man's evening, and his foliloquy delights him when he can fay to himielf- No man

can tell my child his father was either unmerciful or unjuft: my fon fhall meet many a man who fhall fay to "him" I was obliged to thy father, "and be my child a friend to his child "for ever."

It is not in the power of all men to leave illuftrious names or great fortunes to their pofterity, but they can very much conduce to their having industry, probity, valour, and juftice: it is in every man's power to leave his fon the honour of defcending from a virtuous man, and add the bleffings of heaven to whatever he leaves him. I fhall end this rhapfody with a letter to an excellent young man of my acquaintance, who has lately lott a worthy father.

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DEAR SIR,

Know no part of life more impertinent than the office of adminiftering confolation: I will not enter into it, for I cannot but applaud your grief. The virtuous principles you had from that excellent man, whom you have loft, have wrought in you as they ought, to make a youth of three and twenty incapable of comfort upon coming into poffeffion of a great fortune. I doubt not but you will honour his memory by a modeft enjoyment of his eftate; and feorn to triumph over his grave, by employing in riot, excefs, and debauchery, what he purchafed with fo much industry, prudence, and wifdom. This is the true way to fhew the fenfe you have of your lofs, and to take away the diftrefs of others upon the occafion. You cannot, recal your father by your grief, but you may revive him to his friends by your conduct.

No CXCIII. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11.

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INGENTEM FORIBUS DOMUS ALTA SUPERBIS
MANE SALUTANTUM TOTIS VOMIT ADIBUS UNDAM.

VIRG. GEORG. II. VER. 461.

HIS LORDSHIP'S PALACE, FROM IT'S STATELY DOORS,
A FLOOD OF LEVEE-HUNTING MORTALS POURS.

WHEN we look round us, and countenances what it is that fo anxiously

behold the ftrange variety of faces and perfons which fill the ftreets with bufinefs and hurry, it is no unpleafant amusement to make guefles at their different purfuits, and judge by their

engages their prefent attention. Of all this bufy crowd, there are none who would give a man inclined to fuch inquiries better diverfion for his thoughts, than those whom we call good courtiers,

and

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