and all the Swedish Generals dined with the Czar that very Day, and received Affurances, That they should find Muscovy was not unacquainted with the Laws of Honour and Humanity.

The TATLER. [N° 59. From Tuesday Aug. 23. to Thursday Aug. 25. 1709. White's Chocolate-houfe, August 24.

SO P has gained to himself an immortal Renown for figuring the Manners, Defires, Paffions, and Interefts of Men, by Fables of Beafts and Birds: I fhall in my future Accounts of our modern Heroes and Wits, vulgarly called Sharpers, imitate the Method of that delightful Moralift; and think, I cannot reprefent those Worthies more naturally than under the Shadow of a Pack of Dogs; for this Set of Men are like them, made up of Finders, Lur chers, and Setters. Some fearch for the Prey, others purfue, others take it; and if it be worth it, they all come in at the Death, and worry the Carcass. It would require a most exact Knowledge of the Field, and the Harbours where the Deer lie, to recount all the Revolutions in the Chase.

But I am diverted from the Train of my Difcourfe of the Fraternity about this Town by Letters from Hampstead, which give me an Ac count, there is a late Inftitution there, under the Name of a Raffling-Shop, which is, it seems,

fecretly

fecretly fupported by a Perfon who is a deep Practitioner in the Law, and, out of Tendernefs of Conscience, has, under the Name of his Maid Sily, fet up this eafier Way of Conveyancing and Alienating Estates from one Family to another. He is fo far from having an Intelligence with the rest of the Fraternity, that all the humbler Cheats who appear there, are faced by the Partners in the Bank, and driven off by the Reflection of fuperior Brass. This Notice is given to all the filly Faces that pass that Way, that they may not be decoyed in by the foft Allurement of a Fine Lady, who is the Sign to the Pageantry. And at the fame Time Signior Hawksly, who is the Patron of the Houthold, is defired to leave off this interloping Trade, or admit, as he ought to do, the Knights of the Industry to their Share in the Spoil. But this little Matter is only by Way of Digreffion. Therefore to return to our Worthies.

The present Race of Terriers and Hounds would ftarve, were it not for the inchanted Acteon, who has kept the whole Pack for many Succeffions of Hunting-Seafons. Acteon has

long Tracts of rich Soil; but had the Misfortune in his Youth to fall under the Power of Sorcery, and has been ever fince, fome Parts of the Year, a Deer, and in fome Parts a Man. While he is a Man, (such is the Force of Magick) be no fooner grows to fuch a Bulk and Fatness, but he is again turned into a Deer, and hunted till he is lean; upon which he returns to his Humane Shape. Many Arts have been tried, and many Refolutions taken by Acteon

himself, to follow fuch Methods as would break the Inchantment; but all have hitherto proved ineffectual. I have therefore, by Midnight Watchings and much Care, found out, that there is no way to fave him from the Jaws of his Hounds, but to destroy the Pack, which, by Aftrological Præfcience, I find I am deftin'd to perform. For which End I have fent out my Familiar, to bring me a Lift of all the Places where they are harboured, that I may know where to found my Horn, and bring them together, and take an Account of their Haunts and their Marks, against another Opportunity.

Will's Coffee-houfe, August 24.

The Author of the enfuing Letter, by his Name, and the Quotations he makes from the Ancients, seems a Sort of Spy from the Old World, whom we Moderns ought to be careful of offending; therefore I must be free, and own it a fair Hit where he takes me, rather than difoblige him.

SIR,

H4

Aving a peculiar Humour of defiring to be Somewhat the better or wifer for what I read, I am always uneafy when, in any profound Writer, (for I read no others) I happen to meet with what I cannot understand. When this falls out, 'tis a great Grievance to me that I am not able to confult the Author himself about his Meaning; for Commentators are a Sect that has little Share in my Efteem, your elaborate Writings have, among many others, this Advantage, that their Author is still alive,

and

and ready (as his extenfive Charity makes us expect) to explain whatever may be found in them too Sublime for vulgar Understandings. This, Sir, makes me prefume to ask you, How the Hampstead Hero's Character could be perfectly new when the last Letters came away, and yet Sir John Suckling fo well acquainted with it Sixty Years ago? I hope, Sir, you will not take this amifs: I can affure you, I have a profound Respect for you; which makes me write this, with the fame Difpofition with which Longinus bids us read Homer and Plato. Whenin reading (fays he) any of those celebrated Authors, we meet with a Paffage to which we cannot well reconcile our Reasons, we ought firmly to believe, that were those great Wits prefent to answer for themselves, we should to our Wonder be convinced, that we only are guilty of the Miftakes we before attributed to them. If you think fit to remove the Scruple that now torments me, 'twill be an Encouragement to me to Settle a frequent Correspondence with you, feve ral Things falling in my Way which would not, perhaps, be altogether foreign to your Purpose, and whereon your Thoughts would be very acceptable to Your most humble Servant,

Obadiah Greenhat.

I own this is clean, and Mr. Greenhat has convinced me that I have writ Nonfence; yet am I not at all offended at him.

Scimus, & hanc Veniam petimufq; damufq; Viciffim.

This is the true Art of Raillery, when a Man turns another into Ridicule, and hows at the

fame Time he is in good Humour, and not urged on by Malice against the Perfon he rallies. Obadiah Greenbat has hit this very well: For to make an Apology to Ifaac Bickerstaff, an unknown Student and Horary Hiftorian, as well as Aftrologer, and with a grave Face to say, He fpeaks of him by the fame Rules with which he would treat Homer or Plato, is to place him in Company where he cannot expect to make a Figure; and makes him flatter himself, that it is only being named with them which renders him most ridiculous.

I have not known, and I am now paft my. Grand Climacterick, being 64 Years of Age, according to my Way of Life, or rather (if you will allow Punning in an old Gentleman) according to my Way of Paftime; I fay, as old as I am, I have not been acquainted with many of the Greenbats. There is indeed one Zedekiah Greenhat, who is lucky also in his Way. He has a very agreeable Manner; for when he has a Mind throughly to correct a Man, he never takes from him any Thing, but he allows him fomething for it, or else, he blames him for Things wherein he is not defective, as well as for Matters wherein he is. This makes a weak Man believe he is in Jest in the whole. T'other Day he told Beau Prim, who is thought impotent, that his Miftrefs had declared the would not have him, because he was a Sloven, and had committed a Rape. The Beau bit at the Banter, and faid very gravely, He thought to be clean was as much as was ne ceffary; and that as to the Rape, he wondered

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