་

Themes, will make a greater Advance to the Refor mation you feem to aim at, than the Method you have hitherto taken, by putting Mankind beyond the Power of retrieving themfelves, or indeed to think it poffible. But if after all your Endeavours in this new Way, there fhould then remain any harden'd Impenitents, you must e'en give them up to the Rigour of the Law, as Delinquents not within the Benefit of their Clergy. Pardon me, good Mr. Bickerstaff, for the Tedioufnefs of this Epiftle, and believe 'tis .. not from any Self-Conviction I have taken up fo much of your Time, or my own, but fuppofing you mean all your Lucubrations fhould tend to the good of Mankind, I may the easier hope your Pardon, being

to

SIR, Yours, &c. Grecian-Coffee-house, September 29.

THIS Evening I thought fit to notify to the Literati of this Houfe, and by that Means to all the World, That on Saturday the 15th of October next enfuing, I defign fix my firft Table of Fame; and defire that fuch as are acquainted with the Characters of the Twelve most famous Men that have ever appeared in the World, would fend in their Lifts, or name any one Man for that Table, affigning alfo his Place at it before that Time, upon Pain of having fuch his Man of Fame poftponed, or placed too high for ever. I fhall not, upon any Application whatfoever, alter the Place which upon that Day I fhall give to any of thefe Worthies. But whereas there are many who take upon them to admire this Hero, or that Author, upon Second-hand, I expect each Subfcriber fhould under-write his Reafon for the Place he allots his Candidate.

THE Thing is of the laft Confequence; for we are about fettling the greatest Point that ever has been debated in any Age, and I fhall take Precautions accordingly. Let every Man who votes, confider, That he is now going to give away that, for which the Soldier gave up his Reft, his Pleafure, and his Life; the Scholar refign'd his whole Series of Thought, his Midnight Repofe, and his Morning Slumbers. In a Word, he is (as I may fay) to be Judge of that After-Life, which noble

133 noble Spirits prefer to their very real Beings. I hope I fhall be forgiven therefore, if I make fome Objections against their Jury, as they fhall occur to me. The whole of the Number by whom they are to be try'd, are to be Scholars. Lam perfwaded alfo, that Ariftotle will be put up by all of that Clafs of Men. However, in Behalf of others, fuch as wear the Livery of Ariftotle, the two famous Universities are called upon on this Occafion; but I except the Men of Queen's, Exeter, and Jefus Colleges, in Oxford, who are not to be Electors,. becaufe he fhall not be crown'd for an implicit Faith in his Writings, but receive his Honour from fuch Judges. as fhall allow him to be cenfur'd. Upon this Election (as I was just now going to fay) I banish all who think and fpeak after others to concern themfelves in it. For which Reafon all illiterate diftant Admirers are forbidden to corrupt the Voices, by fending, according to the new Mode, any poor Students, Coals and Candles for their Votes in Behalf of fuch Worthies as they pretend to esteem. All News-Writers are alfo excluded,, because they confider Fame as it is a Report which gives Foundation to the filling up their Rhapfodies, and not as it is the Emanation or Confequence of good and evik Actions. These are excepted against as juftly as But-chers in cafe of Life and Death: Their Familiarity with the greatest Names takes off the Delicacy of their Regard, as dealing in Blood makes the Lanii lefs tender of spilling it.

St. James's Coffee-houfe, Sept. 28..

LETTERS from Lisbon of the 25th Inftant, N. S fpeak of a Battle which has been fought near the River Cinca, in which General Staremberg had overthrown the Army of the Duke of Anjou. The Perfons who fend this, excufe their not giving Particulars, because they believed an Account must have arrived here before we could hear from them. They had Advices from diffe-rent Parts, which concurr'd in the Circumstances of the Action; after which the Army of his Catholick Majeky advanced as far as Fraga, and the Enemy retired to Saragoffa. There are Reports, That the Duke of Anjou was in the Engagement; but Letters of good Authority. fay, That Prince was on the Road towards the Camp when

Gf

when he receiv'd the News of the Defeat of his Troops. We promife our felves great Confequences from fuch an Advantage obtain'd by fo accomplish'd a General'as Staremberg, who, among the Men of this prefent Age, is efteem'd the Third in Military Fame and Reputation.

N° 75.

From my own Apartment, Septemb, 30.

AM called off from publick Differtations by a Domeftick Affair of great Importance, which is no lefs than the Difpofal of my Sifter Jenny for Life. The Girl is a Girl of great Merit, and pleafing Converfation; but I being born of my Father's First Wife, and the of his Third, the converfes with me rather like a Daughter than a Sifter. I have indeed told her, That if the kept her Honour, and behaved her felf in fuch a Manner as became the Bickerstaffs, I would get her an agreeable Man for her Husband; which was a Promife I made her after reading a Paffage in Pliny's Epiftles. That polite Author had been employ'd to find out a Confort for his Friend's Daughter, and gives the following Character of the Man he had pitch'd upon:

ACILIANO plurimum Vigoris & Industrie quanquam in maxima Verecundia: Eft illi Facies liberalis, multo San guine, multo Rubore, fuffufa: Eft ingenua totius Corporis Pulchritudo, & quidam fenatorius Decor, qua ego nequa quam arbitror negligenda: Debet enim hoc Caftitati Puellarum quafi Premium dari.

• Acilianus (for that was the Gentleman's Name) is • a Man of extraordinary Vigour and Industry, accompanied with the greatest Modefty. He has very much of the Gentleman, with a lively Colour, and Flush of Health in his Afpect. His whole Perfon is finely turn'd, and fpeaks him a Man of Quality: Which are Qualifications that, I think, ought by no Means to be over-look'd, and fhould be beftow'd on a • Daughter as the Reward of her Chastity.

135 A Woman' that will give her felf Liberties, need not put her Parents to fo much Trouble; for if fhe does not poffefs thefe Ornaments in a Husband, fhe can fupply her felf elsewhere. But this is not the Cafe of my Sifter Jenny, who, I may fay without Vanity, is as unfpotted a Spinfter as any in Great Britain. I fhall take this Occafion to recommend the Conduct of our own. Family in this Particular.

WE have in the Genealogy of our Houfe, the De-fcriptions and Pictures of our Ancestors from the Time: of King Arthur; in whofe Days there was one of my own Name, a Knight of his Round Table, and known by the Name of Sir Ifaac Bickerstaff. He was low of Stature, and of a very fwarthy Complexion, not unlike a Portugueze Jew. But he was more prudent than Men of that Height ufually are, and would often communicate to his Friends his Defign of lengthening and whitening his Pofterity. His eldeft Son Ralph, for that was his Name, was for this Reafon married to a Lady who had little elfe to recommend her, but that she was very tall and very fair. The Iffue of this Match, with the Help of high Shoes, made a tolerable Figure in the next Age; tho' the Complexion of the Family was ob-fcure till the fourth Generation from that Marriage.From which time,till the Reign of William the Conqueror, the Females of our Houfe were famous for their Nee dle-work and fine Skins. In the Male Line, there hap pened an unlucky Accident in the Reign of Richard the Third; the eldeft Son of Philip, then Chief of the Family, being born with an Hump-back and very high Nofe. This was the more aftonishing, because none of his Forefathers ever had fuch a Blemish; nor indeed was there any in the Neighbourhood of that Make, except the Butler, who was noted fox round Shoulders, and a Roman Nofe: What made the Nofe the lefs ex-cufable, was the remarkable Smallness of his Eyes.

THESE feveral Defects were mended by fucceeding Matches; the Eyes were open'd in the next Generation, and the Hump fell in a Century and half, but the greateft Difficulty was, how to reduce the Nofe; which I do not find was accomplish'd till about the middle of

Henry

Henry the Seventh's Reign, or rather the beginning of that of Henry the Eighth.

BUT while our Ancestors were thus taken up in cultivating the Eyes and Nofe, the Face of the Bicker ftaffs fell down infenfibly into Chin; which was not taken Notice of (their Thoughts being fo much employ'd upon the more noble Features) till it became almoft too long to be remedied.

BUT Length of Time, and fucceffive Care in our Alliances, have cured this alfo, and reduced our Faces into that tolerable Oval which we enjoy at prefent. I would not be tedious in this Difcourfe, but cannot but obferve, that our Race fuffer'd very much about three hundred Years ago, by the Marriage of one of our Heireffes with an eminent Courtier, who gave us Spin-dle-Shanks, and Cramps in our Bones, infomuch that we did not recover our Health and Legs till Sir Walter Bickerstaff married Maud the Milk-maid, of whom the then Garter King at Arms (a facetious Perfon) faid pleafantly enough, That fhe had fpoiled our Blood, but mended our Conftitutions.

AFTER this Account of the Effect our prudent Choice of Matches has had upon our Perfons and Features, I cannot but obferve, that there are daily Inftances of as great Changes made by Marriage upon Men's Minds and Humours. One might wear any Paffion out of a Family by Culture, as skilful Gardiners blot a Cofour out of a Tulip that hurts its Beauty. One might produce an affable Temper out of a Shrew, by grafting the Mild upon the Cholerick; or raife a Jack-pudding from a Prude, by inoculating Mirth and Melancholy. It is for Want of Care in the difpofing of our Children, with Regard to our Bodies and Minds, that we go into an Houfe and fee fuch different Complexions and Humours in the fame Race and Family. But to me it is as plain as a Pikeftaff, from what Mixture it is, that this Daughter filently lowrs, the other fteals a kind Look at you, a third is exactly Well-behaved, a fourth a Splenatick, and a fifth a Coquet.

IN this Difpofal of my Sifter, I have chofen with an Eye to her being a Wit, and provided, that the Bridegroom be a Man of a found and excellent Judgment,

who