SATURDAY, Nov. 13, 1731.

T is obferv'd, that none are better pleas'd with their own fweet Perfons then thofe on whom Nature has beftow'd fome remarkable Deformity.-The ugly Beau can fet whole Hours before a Glafs to admire his own hideous Features; and you never fee a Coquet, be fhe never fo difagreeable, but fancies all Mankind is dying for her. The Folly and Blindne is much the fame in Refpect to the Uglinefs of the Mind. The Pert, the Stupid, and the Ignorant, are generally content with their own fine Parts, and, can admire thofe Qualities in themfelves for which they are defpifed by the reft of the World.

When one of this latt Clafs takes it into his Head to teaze the Publick in the Character of a Writer, and happens to meet his juft Fate, that is, to be damn'd, neglected, and defpifed, you hear him talk of Nothing but the extraordinary Effect of his Writings, and of their vaft Success with Men of all Parties.

There is an Animal exactly of this Turn, who has been endeavouring, for feveral Years paft, to force himself and his filly Papers upon the Town; he has been more voluminous, for the Time, than any of his Cotemporaries, but fo obfcure, that his Name would never have been heard of or knov n to the Publick, had not his Adverfaries, whote Writings meet with better Quarter, vouchfafed to take Notice of him for his ill Manners. Bb

VOL. II.

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his ill Manners he owes the Glory of being drawn from his Obfcurity, and having his Name fo much as fet down in the Roll of Writers. In vain

are his Papers given away gratis every Week by Thoufands; they are committed unread to a Place which, for Decency's Sake, I will not name, there to rot and perish in their Kindred Element, never more to fee the Light. Nevertheless, like fome great Philofophers of old, he bears that within him which fupports him against the Neglect and Scorn of uncourteous Readers; perhaps, it will

be thought, that I mean a good Confcience; — I muft beg Pardon; I mean Nothing like it; in a Word then, I mean a most exalted Idea of his own fublime Genius. He always talks of himself, and compliments himself. In one Paper, he tells you, that he himself is satisfied with the Success which his Works have had among Men of Senfe, without Diftinction of Parties. In another, he boats

of the shameful Defeat he has given his Adverfaries.— In a third, that Nobody now is written on the other Side. fince he has oppofed them.

regards any thing that By now he means, -In fine, he places

his own Works before him as a Mirror, where, like the ugly Beau before the Glafs, he is always admiring his own Deformities.

But I much fufpect, that this Gentleman is not quite fo happy as he pretends to be; by certain Symptoms, it is eafy to difcover, that there is a fecret Mortification gnawing at his Heart, and that the Reception which he must know the Writers of the oppofite Side meet with from the People is Wormwood and Gall to him; for, in the Midst of thefe Flights of Self-Admiration, he is as malicious as an old Monkey, and as envious as a bad Poet, whenever he speaks of those who have written on the other Side.

I will not deny, indeed, but that he has given one of his Adverfaries a home Thrust. -It is faid, that skilful Difputants, like skilful Fencers, never make an Attack upon an Enemy, without being fo well upon Guard, that they cannot be hit in the fame Place. Our Hero, who is as wife as he is ftout, has obferv'd this Conduct with Refpect to the Craftsman. He reproaches that Author, that his Paper is funk two thousand a Week in the Sale, within three Months; and fure he may fafely defy the Craftsman to prove that the F. B. can ever fink two thoufand, or two hundred, nay ten in a Week, in the Sale, as long as the World endures.

I have fome Notion, that I am partly the Caufe of this exceffive Boafting, for I own I actually bought three of his Papers, that is to fay, one a Week, for three Weeks fucceffively. So un

expected and unusual a Rise might well turn the Head of fuch a Ninny; however, if it be not too late, I congratulate him upon the vaft SALE of his Paper.

But, notwithstanding this Kindness, he has abufed me at a moft unmerciful Rate; yes, I have already had the Misfortune of falling under the Lafh of his defperate Pen; but fure he wrongs himself to meddle with fo poor an Adverfary.

I am.

not an Enemy worthy of fo great a Genius. To fhew how unequal this Match is, in the Space of a few Lines, he has knock'd me down with

filly ridiculous Creature,

lowest Wretch alive, foolib Writer, &c. I own freely, I am not able to reply to fuch a Torrent of Wit.

I can on

ly put him in Mind of what Shakespear fays, upon fuch an Occafion.

It's excellent to have a Giant's Strength,

But barbarous to use it like a Giant.

But, to speak more feriously, I cannot deny but he has Caufe enough to be incenfed against me were it only for ufhering into the World that Letter of October the 23d. - To be call'd Fool has no great Matter in it; but to be prov'd an Ideot is not to be forgiven. As to the Blackguard Language which it has drawn from him, I am not angry with him for it; I know the poor Fellow is hired to fay fomething, and that Dialect is the best Thing he can produce, to fupply the Place of Reafon, Truth, and Argument; he fhall never make me fo much as grave, till he advances fomething against me that may, at leaft, look like Sense. I know his Papers (tho' they should be read) will never be able to make any Man ridiculous, except himfelf and his Patron.

But, fince I have begun with him, I must not quit him before I give the Publick a further Specimen of the Profundity of his Wit, and his fine Talent at Reasoning. He lately, from the Redundance of a moft fertile Imagination, rais'd fome Falfhoods against a Gentleman of Honour, but, by a Defect in Judgment altogether unworthy of a Perfon who has practis'd Lying his whole Life, he turn'd them against his own Patron. The Thing I mean, is the impudent Charge he brought against a Gentleman, of receiving a Bribe for the Share he had in the Profecution and Banifhment of the Bishop of Rochefter. Now, if we should grant every thing he has faid upon that Occafion to be true, (which we are far from doing) what would it Might he not as well tell the People in plain English, Gentlemen, you complain, that the Nation is very much in Debt, that the Taxes are extremely burthenfome to the poor People, but you fee how your Money is difpos'd of, it is given away by my worthy P-n, who is the honcheft Man living, in Bribes to your Reprefentatives,

amount to?

tatives, in order to get a Bishop of the Church of England banish'd, and to have the Liberty of fome other Perfons taken away. I appeal to every impartial Man, if this be not the whole Subftance, in other Words, of every thing he has faid, in Re lation to that Piece of Hiftory.

We took Notice, in the Paper of October the 23d, of the Folly, as well as amazing Impudence of fuch an Afperfion, and the Fellow has anfwered juft in the Manner we premifed; that is to fay, he has made it worfe; he ftill infifts, that a Bribe was given, and for the Purpofes here named, but fays, the Perfon who received it did not do the Business he was hired to do; his Words are, He received the Wages, without doing the Work.- -Thus, in one Paper, he makes his Patron act the most flagitious Part that a Man in his Station can act, corrupting the Representatives of the People, and, not content with that, in the next Paper, he muft represent him as a F-1, giving Bribes to Perfons that will not perform the Services for which they are given.

If the Writers on the other Side had advanced thefe daring Falfhoods, and made fuch Reflections on them as he has done, would it not be faid, that they were endeavouring to fpirit up the Mob to tear the Minifter to Pieces? that, fince they could not have their Revenge in a judicial Way, they were ufing their utmoft Artifices to exasperate the People against him, by a Senfe of feign'd Corruptions and Abuses, in Hopes that, in fome mad Fit of Refentment, they fhould join as one Man, to extirpate him and his whole Family?

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Perhaps, he will tell me, in his next Paper, that he has not directly charg'd the Mgiving the Bribe; that he has only laid it upon the late K. I cannot deny, indeed, but that he has, in very plain Terms, laid the Bribery upon

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