deference to their power: I do not know why I fhould not do the fame, out of fear or refpect to my knowledge. Falways preferve decorums and civilities to the Fair Sex: Therefore, if a certain Lady, who left her coach at the New-Exchange door in the Strand, and, whipt down Durham-Yard into a boat with a young Gentleman for Vaux-Hall; I fay, if fhe will fend me word, that I may give the fan which the dropped, and I found, to fifter Jenny, there fhall be no more faid of it. I'expect hufh-money to be regularly fent for every folly or vice any one commits in this whole town; and hope, I may, pretend to deferve it better than a chamber-maid or a Valet de Chambre : They only whifper it to the little fet of their companions; but I can tell it to all men living, or who are to live. Therefore I defire all my readers to pay their fines, or mend their lives..

my.

White's Chocolate-houfe, June 8.

My Familiar being come from France, with an anfwerto my letter to Lewis of that kingdom, inftead of going. on in a difcourfe of what he had feen in that Court, he put on the immediate concern of a guardian, and fell to enquiring into my thoughts and adventures fince his journey. As fhort as his ftay had been, I confeffed I had had many occafions for his affiftance in my conduct; but communicated to him my thoughts of putting all my force against the horrid and fenfelefs cuftom of Duels If it were poffible, faid he, to laugh at things in themfelves fo deeply tragical as the impertinent profufion of human life, I think I could divert you with a figure I faw. juft after my death, when the Philofopher threw me, as I told you fome days ago, into the pail of water.

"You are to know, that when men leave the body,. "there are receptacles for them as foon as they depart,, "according to the manner in which they lived and died.. "At the very infant I was killed, there came away "with me a Spirit which had loft its body in a Duel.. "We were both examined. Me the whole affembly "looked at with kindness and pity, but at the fame ❝ time with an air of welcome and confolation: They pronounced me very happy,. who, had died in. inno66. cence ;;

0.3

"cence; and told me, a quite different place was allotted to me, than that which was appointed for my "companion; there being a great diftance from the "manfions of fools and innocents: Though at the fame time, faid one of the ghofts, there is a great affinity "between an idiot who has been fo for a long life, and a child who departs before maturity. But this Gen"tleman who has arrived with you is a fool of his own. "making, is ignorant out of choice, and will fare accordingly. The affembly began to flock about him; "and one faid to him, Sir, I obferved you came into "the gate of perfons murdered, and I defire to know, "what brought you to your untimely end? He faid, he

had been a Second.. Socrates (who may be faid to "have been murdered by the commonwealth of Athens) "ftood by, and began to draw near him, in order, af ❝ter his manner, to lead him into a sense of his error "by conceffions in his own difcourfe. Sir, said that “divine and amicable Spirit, What was the quarrel?

he answered, We fhall know very fuddenly, when "the principal in the business comes, for he was defperately wounded before I fell. Sir, faid the fage, "Had you an eftate? Yes, Sir, the new gueft an"fwered, I have left it in a very good condition, and "made my will the night before this occafion.

Did

you read it before you figned it? Yes, fure, Sir, "faid the new comer.. Socrates replies, Could a man, "that would not give his eftate without reading the in

ftrument, difpofe of his life without asking a question? "That illuftrious fhade turned from him, and a croud: "of impertinent goblins, who had been drolls and pa

rafites in their lifetime, and were knocked on the "head for their fauciness, came about my fellow-travel-

ler, and made themfelves very merry with questions. "about the words Cart and Terce, and other terms of Fencers. But his thoughts began to fettle into reflection upon the adventure which had robbed him of his late Being: And with a wretched figh, faid he, «How terrible are conviction and guilt, when they come too late for Penitence !"

Pacolet was going on in

ftrain, but he recovered

from it, and told me, as too foon to give my

❝ di courfe

difcourfe on this fubject so ferious a turn; you have "chiefly to do with that part of mankind which must "be led into reflection by degrees, and you must treat "this custom with humour and raillery to get an audi66 ence, before you come to pronounce fentence upon it. "There is foundation enough for raising such entertain-"ments from the practice on this occafion. Do not you: "know, that often a man is called out of bed to follow implicitely a Coxcomb (with whom he would not keep company on any other occafion) to ruin and death?"Then, a good lift of fuch as are qualified, by the laws "of these uncourteous men of chivalry, to enter into "combat (who are often perfons of honour, without "common honesty): Thefe,, I fay, ranged and drawn up in their proper order, would give an averfion to doing any thing in common with fuch as men laugh. at and contemn.. But to go through this work, you "must not let your thoughts vary, or make excurfions. ❝ from your theme:. Confider at the fame time, that "the matter has been often treated by the ablest and

6.6

greatest Writers; yet that must not difcourage you :: "For the properest person to handle it, is one who has ❝roved into mixed converfations, and must have oppor"tunities (which I fhall give you) of feeing these fort.

of men in their pleasures and gratifications, among which, they pretend to reckon fighting. It was plea"fantly enough faid of a bully in France, when Duels "first began to be punished: The King has taken a"way gaming and ftage-playing, and now fighting "too; how does he expect Gentlemen fhall divert them "felves?"

Saturday,

N° 27.

Saturday, June 11, 1709.

White's Chocolate-houfe, June 9.

ACOLET being gone a-trolling among the men of among men of

PAGO

the frequent difputes we meet with, and furnish me with materials for my treatife on Duelling; I have room left to go on in my information to my country readers, whereby they may underftand the bright people whofe memoirs I have taken upon me to write. But in my difcourfe of the twenty-eighth of the laft month, Lomitted to mention the moft agreeable of all bad characters, and that is, a Rake.

A Rake is a man always to be pitied; and, if he lives, is one day certainly reclaimed; for his faults proceed not from choice or inclination, but from frong paffions and appetites, which are in youth too violent for the curb of reafon, good fenfe, good manners, and good nature: All which he must have by nature and education, before he can be allowed to be, or have been of this order. He is a poor unwieldy wretch, that commits faults out of the redundance of his good qualities. His pity and compaffion make him fometimes a bubble to all his fellows, let them be never so much below him in understanding. His defires run away with him, through the ftrength and force of a lively imagination, which hurries him on to unlawful pleasures, before reafon has power to come in to his refcue. Thus, with all the good intentions in the world to amendment, this creature fins on against Heaven, himself, his friends, and his country, who all call for a better ufe of his talents. There is not a being under the fun fo miferable as this: He goes on in a purfuit he himfelf difapproves, and has no enjoyment but what is followed by remorse no relief from remorse, but the repetition of his crime..

It

It is poffible I may talk of this perfon with too much indulgence; but I must repeat it, that I think this a cha racter which is moft the object of pity of any in the world. Thes man in the pangs of the ftone, gout, or any acute diftemper, is not in fo deplorable a condition in the eye of right sense, as he that errs and repents, and repents and errs om. The fellow with broken limbs juftly deferves your alms for his impotent condition; but he that cannot ufe his own reason is in a much worse state; for you fee him in miférable circumstances, with his remedy at the fame time in his own poffeffion, if he would, or could ufe it. This is the cause that, of all ill characters, the Rake has the best quarter in the world; for when he is himfelf, and unruffled with intemp perance, you fee his natural faculties exert themfelves, and attract an eye of favour towards his infirmities. D

rogues

But if we look round us here, how many dull are there, that would fain be what this poor r man hates himself for? All the noife towards fix in the evening, is caufed by his mimics and imitators. How ought men of fenfe to be careful of their actions, if it were merely from the indignation of feeing themselves ill drawn by fuch little pretenders? Not to fay, he that leads is guilty of all the actions of his followers; and a Rake has imitators whom you would never expect fhould prove fo. Second-hand vice, fure, of all, is the molt nauseous. There is hardly a folly more abfurd, or which feems lefs to be accounted for, (though it is what we fee every day) than that grave and honeft Natures give into this way, and at the fame time have good fenfe, if they thought fit to ufe it: But the fatality (under which moft men labour) of defiring to be what they are not, makes them go out of a method, in which they might be received with applaufe, and would certainly excel, into one, wherein they will all their life have the air of ftrangers to what they

aim at.

.

Y

For this reafon, I have not lamented the metamorphofis of any one 1 know, fo much as of Nobilis, who was born with fweetnefs of temper, juft apprehenfion, and every thing else that might make him a man fit for his order. But instead of the purfuit of fober ftudies and applications, in which he would certainly be capable of