that they do not weep fo much for the lofs of a husband, as for the want of one.

"THE principal rule by which the whole fociety are to govern themfelves is this, to cry up the pleasures of a fingle life upon all occafions, in order to deter the reft of their fex from marriage, and ingrofs the whole male "world to themselves.

THEY are obliged, when any one makes love to a • member of the fociety, to communicate his name, at ⚫ which time the whole affembly fit upon his reputation, perfon, fortune, and good humour; and if they find him qualified for a fifter of the club, they lay their heads together how to make him fure. By this means they are acquainted with all the widow-hunters about town, ⚫ who often afford them great diverfion. There is an honeft Irish gentleman, it seems, who knows nothing of this fociety, but at different times has made love to the whole club.

THEIR Converfation often turns upon their former husbands, and it is very diverting to hear them relate ⚫ their feveral arts and ftratagems, with which they amufed the jealous, pacified the choleric, or wheedled the good-natured man, till at last, to use the club phrase, "They fent him out of the house with his heels fore"most.'

THE politics, which are moft cultivated by this fociety of She-Machiavels, relate chiefly to thefe two a points, how to treat a lover, and how to manage a hufband. As for the first fet of artifices, they are too nu• merous to come within the compafs of your paper, and fhall therefore be referved for a fecond letter.

Not

THE management of a husband is built upon the following doctrines, which are univerfally affented to by 'the whole club. Not to give him his head at first. Not to allow him too great freedoms and familiarities. to be treated by him like a raw girl, but as a woman ⚫ that knows the world. Not to leffen any thing of her former figure. To celebrate the generofity, or any other virtue, of a deceased hufband, which the would recommend to his fucceffor. To turn away all his old friends and fervants, that he may have the dear man to * herself. To make him difinherit the undutiful childrem

of any former wife. Never to be thoroughly convinced of his affection, till he has made over to her all his goods and chattles.

AFTER fo long a letter, I am without more cere

mony,

Your humble fervant, &c.'

No. 562.

Friday, July 2.

----Præfens, abfens ut fies. Ter. Eun. act. 1. fc. 2.

Be prefent as if absent.

T is a hard and nice fubject for a man to fpeak of

·

and misty, grates his own heart to

;

fay any thing of difparagement, and the reader's ears to hear any thing of praise from him.' Let the tenor of his difcourfe be what it will upon this fubject, it generally proceeds from vanity. An oftentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an abfurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear perfon.

SOME very great writers have been guilty of this fault. Is is obferved of Tully in particular, that his works run very much in the firft perfon, and that he takes all occafions of doing himself justice. 'Does he think,' fays Brutus, that his confulfhip deferves more applause than my putting Cæfar to death, because I am not perpetually talking of the ides of March, as he is of the nones of • December?' I need not acquaint my learned reader, that in the ides of March, Brutus deftroyed Cafar, and that Cicero quafhed the confpiracy of Catiline in the calends of December. How fhocking foever this great man's talking of himself might have been to his contemporaries, I must confefs I am never better pleafed than when he is on this fubject. Such openings of the heart give a man a, thorough infight into his perfonal character, and illustrate several paffages in the hiftory of his life: befides, that there is fome little pleafure in difcovering the infirmity of a great man, and feeing how the opinion he has of himself agrees with what the world entertains of him.

THE

THE gentlemen of Port-Royal, who were more eminent for their learning and their humility than any other in France, banished the way of speaking in the first perfon out of all their works, as rifing from vain-glory and felf-conceit. To fhew their particular averfion to it, they branded this form of writing with the name of an Egotifm; a figure not to be found among the ancient rhe

toricians.

THE most violent egotifm which I have met with in the course of my reading, is that of Cardinal Wolfey, Ego et rex meus, I and my king; as perhaps the most eminent egotist that ever appeared in the world, was Montagne, the author of the celebrated effays. This lively old Gafcon has woven all his bodily infirmities into his works, and after having spoken of the faults or virtues of any other man, immediately publishes to the world how it ftands with himfelf in that particular. Had he kept his own counfel he might have paffed for a much better man, though perhaps he would not have been fo diverting an author. The title of an effay promifes perhaps a difcourfe upon Virgil or Julius Cæfar; but when you look into it, you are fure to meet with more upon Monfieur Montagne, than of either of them. The younger Scaliger, who feems to have been no great friend to this author, after having acquainted the world that his father fold herrings, adds these words; La grande fadaife de Montagne, qui a ecrit qu'il aimoit mieux le vin blanc--diable a-t-on a faire de fçavoir ce qu'il aime ? que my part,' fays Montagne, I am a great lover of your " white wines---- What the devil fignifies it to the public,' fays Scaliger, whether he is a lover of white

⚫ wines or of red wines?'

• For

I CANNOT here forbear mentioning a tribe of egotists, for whom I have always had a mortal averfion, I mean the authors of memoirs, who are never mentioned in any works but their own, and who raise all their productions out of this fingle figure of fpeech.

Most of our modern prefaces favour very strongly of the egotifm. Every infignificant author fancies it of importance to the world, to know that he writ his book in the country, that he did it to pafs away fome of his idle hours, that it was published at the importunity of friends,

or

or that his natural temper, ftudies, or converfations, directed him to the choice of his fubject.

-----Id populus curat fcilicet.

Such informations cannot but be highly improving to the reader.

as a confider

upon

IN works of humour, especially when a man writes under a fictitious perfonage, the talking of one's felf may give some diverfion to the public; but I would advife every other writer never to speak of himself, unless there be fomething very confiderable in his character: though I am fenfible this rule will be of little ufe in the world, because there is no man who fancies his thoughts worth publishing, that does not look upon himself as able perfon. ISHALL clofe this with a remark paper fuch as are egotists in converfation: these are generally the vain or fhallow part of mankind, people being naturally full of themselves when they have nothing else in them. There is one kind of egotists which is very common in the world, though I do not remember that any writer has taken notice of them; I mean thofe empty conceited fellows, who repeat as fayings of their own, or fome of their particular friends, feveral jefts which were made before they were born, and which every one who has conversed in the world has heard a hundred times over. A forward young fellow of my acquaintance, was very guilty of this abfurdity: he would be always laying a new fcene for fome old piece of wit, and telling us, that as he and Jack fuch-a-one were together, one or the other of them had fuch a conceit on fuch an occafion; upon which he would laugh very heartily, and wonder the company did not join with him. When his mirth was over, I have often reprehended him out of Terence, Tuumne, obfecro te, hoc dictum erat? vetus credidi. But finding him still incorrigible, and having a kindness for the young coxcomb, who was otherwife a good-natured fellow, I recommended to his perufal the Oxford and Cambridge jefts, with feveral little pieces of pleafantry of the fame nature. Upon the reading of them, he was under no fmall confufion to find that all his jokes had paffed through feveral editions,

editions, and that what he thought was a new conceit, and had appropriated to his own ufe, had appeared in print before he or his ingenious friends were ever heard of. This had fo good an effect upon him, that he is content at present to pass for a man of plain fenfe in his ordinary converfation, and is never facetious but when he knows his company.

Monday, July 5

No. 563.

------Magni nominis umbra.

I

The fhadow of a mighty name.

5.

Lucan. 1. 1. v. 135

SHALL entertain my reader with two very curious letters. The first of them comes from a chimerical perfon, who I believe never writ to any body before.

I

SIR,

It

Am defcended from the ancient family of the Blanks, a name well known among all men of business. is always read in those little white spaces of writing ⚫ which want to be filled up, and which for that reafon are ⚫ called blank spaces, as of right appertaining to our family: for I confider myfelf as the lord of a manor, who lays his claim to all waftes or fpots of ground that are unappropriated. I am a near kinfman to John a Stiles and John a Nokes; and they, I am told, came in with the conqueror. I am mentioned oftener in both houfes ⚫ of parliament than any other perfon in Great Britain. My name is written, or, more properly speaking, not written, thus,

I am

appear un

S one that can turn my hand to every thing, and der any shape whatfoever. I can make myfelf man, wo" man, or child. I am fometimes metamorphofed into a year of our Lord, a day of the month, or an hour of the day. I very often represent a fum of money, and am generally the firft fubfidy that is granted to the crown. I have now and then fupplied the place of feveral thou⚫ fands of land-foldiers, and have as frequently been employed in the fea-fervice.

• Now,