he was a Dancing-Mafter, and had been reading a Dance or two before he went out, which had been written by one who taught at an Academy in France. Ho obferved me at a Stand, and went on to inform me, That now articulate Motions, as well as Sounds, were exprefs'd by proper Characters; and that there is nothing fo common, as to communicate a Dance by a Letter. I befeeched him hereafter to meditate in a Ground-Room, for that otherwise it would be impoffible for an Artist of any other Kind to live near him, and that I was fure, feveral of his Thoughts this Morning would have fhaken my Spectacles off my Nofe, had I been my self at Study.

I then took my Leave of this Virtuoso, and returned to my Chamber, meditating on the various Occupations of rational Creatures.

:

Rura mihi placeant, riguiq; in Vallibus Amnes
Flumina amen Sylvafq, inglorius

N° 89.

Thursday, Novem. 3. 1709.

Grecian Coffee-house, Nov. 2.

I have received this short Epistle from an unknown Hand.

SIR,.

HAVE no more to trouble you with, than to defire you would in your next help me to fome Answer to the Inclosed concerning your felf. In the mean Time I congratulate you upon the Increase of your Fame, which you fee has extended it felf beyond the Bills of Mortality..

SIR,

HAT the Country is barren of News, has been the
Excufe Time out of Mind for dropping a Correfpon-

dence

dence with our Friends in London; as if it were impoffible out of a Coffee-house to write an agreeable Letter. I am too ingenuous to endeavour at the covering of my Negligence with fo common an Excufe. Doubtlefs, amongst Friends bred as we have been, to the Knowledge of Books as well as Men, a Letter dated from a Garden, a Grotto, a Fountain, a Wood, a Meadow, or the Banks of a River, may be more entertaining, than one from Tom's, Will's, White's, or St. James's. Ipromife therefore to be frequent for the future in my rural Dates to you: But for fear you should, from what I have faid, be induced to believe I fhun the Commerce of Men, I must inform you, That there is a frefb Topick of Difour fe lately rifen amongst the Ingenious in our Part of the World, and is become the more fashionable for the Ladies gi ving into it. This we owe to Ifaac Bickerstaff, who is very much cenfured by some, and as much justified by others. Some criticife his style, his Humour, and his Matter; others admire the whole Man: Some pretend, from the Informations of their Friends in Town, to decypher the Author; and others confefs they are loft in their Gueffes. For my Part, I must own my self a profeffed Admirer of the Paper, and defire you to fend me a compleat Set, together with your Thoughts of the Squire and bis Lucubrations.

THERE is no Pleafure like that of receiving Praise from the Praife-worthy, and I own it is a very solid Happiness, that thefe my Lucubrations are approved by a Perfon of fo fine a Tafte as the Author of this Letter, who is capable of enjoying the World in the Simplicity of its natural Beauties. This Paftoral Letter, if I may fo call it, muft be written by a Man who carries his Entertainment where-ever he goes, and is undoubtedly one of thofe happy Men who appear far otherwife to the Vulgar. I dare fay, he is not envied by the Vicious, the Vain, the Frolick, and the Loud; but is continually bleffed with that ftrong and ferious Delight which flows from a well-taught and liberal Mind. With great Refpect to Country Sports, I may fay, this Gentleman could pafs his Time agreeably, if there were not a Hare or a Fox in his Country. That calm and elegant Satisfaction which the Vulgar call Melancholy, is the true and proper Delight of Men of Knowledge and Virtue. What we take for Diversion, which is a kind

of forgetting ourselves, is but a mean Way of Entertainment, in Comparison of that which is confidering, knowing, and enjoying our felves. The Pleafures of ordinary People are in their Paffions; but the Seat of this Delight is in the Reafon and Understanding. Such a Frame of Mind raises that sweet Enthusiasm which warms the Imagination at the Sight of every Work of Nature, and turns all round youinto Picture and Landskip. I fhall ever be proud of Advices from this Gentleman; for I profefs writing News from the learned as well as the bufy World.

As for my Labours, which he is pleased to enquire after, if they can but wear one Impertinence out of human Life, deftroy a fingle Vice, or give a Morning's Chearfulness to an honest Mind; in short, if the World can be but one Virtue the better, or in any Degree lefs vicious, or receive from them the fmallest Addition to their innocent Diverfions, I fhall not think my Pains, or indeed my Life, to have been spent in vain.

THUS far as to my Studies. It will be expected I hould in the next Place give fome Account of my Life. I fhall therefore, for the Satisfaction of the prefent Age, and the Benefit of Pofterity, prefent the World with the following Abridgment of it.

Ir is remarkable, that I was bred by Hand, and eat nothing but Milk till I was a Twelve-Month old; from which Time, to the 8th Year of my Age, I was obferved to delight in Pudding and Potatoes; and indeed I retain a Benevolence for thatSort of Food to this Day. I do not remember that I distinguished my felf in any Thing at thofe Years, but by my great Skill at Taw, for which I was fo barbarously used, that it has ever fince given me an Averfion to Gaming. In my twelfth Year, fuffered very much for two or three falfe. Concords. At Fifteen I was fent to the University, and stayed there for fome Time; but a Drum paffing by, (being a Lover of Mufick) I lifted my self for a Soldier. As Years came on, I began to examine Things, and grew difcontented at the Times. This made me quit the Sword, and take to the Study of the Occult Sciences, in which I aso wrap'd up, that Oliver Cromwell had been buried, and taken up again, five Years before I heard he was

dead.

dead. This gave me first the Reputation of a Conjurer, which has been of great Difadvantage to me ever fince, and kept me out of all publick Employments. The greater Part of my latter Years has been divided be tween Dick's Coffee-houfe, the Trumpet in Sheer-Lane, · and my own Lodgings.

From my own Apartment, November 2.

THE Evil of unfeafonable Vifits has been complained of to me with much Vehemence by Perfons of both Sexes; and I am defired to confider this very important -Circumftance, that Men may know how to regulate their Conduct in an Affair which concerns no less than Life it felf. For to a rational Creature, it is almost the fame Cruelty to attack his Life, by robbing him of fo -many Moments of his Time, or fo many Drops of his · Blood. The Author of the following Letter has a just Delicacy in this Point, and hath put it into a very good Light.

Mr. Bickerstaff,

Octob. 29. AM very much afflicted with the Gravel, which makes: me fic and peevish. I defire to know of you, if it be reafonalle that any of my Acquaintance should take Advantage over me at this time, and afflict me with long Vifits, because they are idle, and I am confin'd.. Pray, Sir, reform the Town in this Matter. Men never confider wheter the fick Perfon be difpofed for Company, but make their Vfits to humour themfelves. You may talk upon this Topick, fo as to oblige all Perfons afflicted with chronical Diftempers, which I reckon Vifits. Don't think me a four Man, for love Converfation and my Friends; but I thin': one's most intimate Friend may be too familiar, and that there are fuch Things as unfeasonable Wit, and painful Mirth.

among

IT is with fome fo hard a Thing to employ the'rr Time, that it is a great good Fortune when they have a r Friend indifpofed, that they may be puntual in pe plexing him, when he is recover'd enough to be in that State which cannot be called Sicknefs or Health; when a he is too well to deny Company, and too ill to receive: them. It is no uncommon Cafe, if a Man is of any Figure or Power in the World, to be congratulated into a Relapfe..

Will's Coffee-houfe, November 2.

I was very well pleafed this Evening to hear a Gentleman exprefs a very becoming Indignation against a Practice which I my felf have been very much offended at. There is nothing (faid he) more ridiculous, than for an Actor to infert Words of his own in the Part he is to act, so that it is impoffible to fee the Poet for the Player: You'll have Penkethman and Bullock helping out Beaumont and Fletcher. It puts me in Mind (continued he) of a Collection of antique Statues which I once faw in a Gentleman's Poffeffion,who employ'd a neighbouring Stone Cutter to add Nofes, Ears, Arms, or Legs, to the maimed Works of Phidias or Praxiteles. You may be fure this Addition disfigured the Statues much more than Time had. I remember a Venus, that by the Nose he had given her, looked like Mother Shipton; and a Mercury, with a Pair of Legs that feemed very much fwelled with a Dropfy.

I thought the Gentleman's Obfervations very proper, and he told me, I had improved his Thought, in mentioning on this Occafion thofe wife Commentators who had filled up the Hemifticks of Virgil; particularly. that notable Poet, who, to make the Æneid more perfect, carried on the Story to Lavinia's Wedding. If the proper Officer will not condefcend to take Notice of thefe Abfurdities, I fhall my felf, as a Cenfor of the People, animadvent upon fuch Proceedings.

Will's Coffee-boufe, November 4

HE Paffion of Love happened to be the Subject Tor Difcourfe between two or three of us, at the Table of the Poets this Evening; and among other Obfervations, it was remarked, that the fame Senti

ment