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fat in the throne of it. The laziness of this Prince threw him upon the choice of a perfon who was fit to spend his life in contentions, an able and profound Attorney, to whom he mortgaged his whole empire. This Divite is the most kilful of all politicians: He has a perfect art in being unintelligible in difcourfe, and uncomeatable in business. But he, having no understanding in this polite way, brought in upon us, to get in his money, ladder-dancers, rope-dancers, jugglers, and mountebanks, to ftrut in the place of Shakespear's heroes, and Johnson's humourists. When the feat of wit was thus mortgaged, without equity of redemption, an architect arofe, who has built the Mufe a new palace, but fecured her no retinue; so that instead of Action there, we have been put off by Song and Dance. This later help of found has alfo began to fail for want of voices; there fore the palace has fince been put into the hands of a Surgeon, who cuts any foreign fellow into an Eunuch, and paffes him upon us for a finger of Italy.

Ac. I will go out of town to-morrow.

Friend. Things are come to this pafs; and yet the world will not understand, that the theatre has much the fame effect on the manners of the age, as the Bank on the credit of the nation. Wit and fpirit, humour and good fenfe, can never be revived, but under the government of those who are judges of fuch talents, who know, that whatever is put up in their ftead, is but a fhort and trifling expedient, to fupport the appearance of them for a feaion. It is poffible, a peace will give leisure to put these matters under new regulations; but, at prefent, all the affiftance we can fee towards our recovery is as far from giving us help, as a poultice is from performing what can be done only by the Grand Elixir.

Will's Coffee-houfe, May 6.

According to our late defign in the applauded verfes on the Morning, which you lately had from hence, we proceed to improve that juft intention, and present you with other labours, made proper to the place in which they were written. The following Poem comes from Copenhagen, and is as fine a winter-piece as we have ever VOL. I. E

had

had from any of the fchools of the most learned Painters. Such images as thefe give us a new pleasure in our fight, and fix upon our minds traces of reflexion, which accompany us whenever the like objects occur. In short, excellent poetry and description dwell upon us fo agreeably, that all the readers of them are made to think, if not write, like men of wit. But it would be injury to detain you longer from this excellent performance, which is addreffed to the Earl of Dorfet by Mr. Philips, the author of several choice poems in Mr. Tonfon's new Mifcellany.

Copenhagen, March 9, 1709.

From frozen climes, and endless tracts of fnow,
From streams that northern winds forbid to flow;
What prefent fhall the Mufe to Dorset bring,
Or how, fo near the Pole, attempt to fing?
The hoary winter here conceals from fight
All pleafing objects that to verse invite.
The hills and dales, and the delightful woods,
The flow'ry plains, and filver-ftreaming floods,
By fnow difguis'd, in bright confufion lie,
And with one dazling wafte fatigue the eye.

No gentle breathing breeze prepares the spring,
No birds within the defart region fing.

The hips unmov'd the boilt'rous winds defy,
While rattling chariots o'er the ocean fly.
The vaft Leviathan wants room to play,
And spout his waters in the face of day,
The ftarving wolves along the main fea prowl,
And to the moon in icy vallies howl.
For many a fhining league the level main
Here fpreads itself into a glaffy plain :
There folid billows of enormous fize,
Alps of green ice, in wild diforder rife.

And yet but lately have I feen, ev'n here,
The winter in a lovely drefs appear.
Ere yet the clouds let fall the treafur'd fnow,
Or winds begun thro' hazy skies to blow.
At ev'ning a keen eastern breeze arofe;
And the defcending rain unfully'd froze.
Soon as the filent shades of night withdrew,
The ruddy morn difclos'd at once to view

The

The face of Nature in a rich disguise,
And brighten'd ev'ry object to my eyes:
For ev'ry fhrub, and every blade of grafs,

And ev'ry pointed thorn, feem'd wrought in glass,
In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns fhow,
While thro' the ice the crimson berries glow.
The thick-fprung reeds the wat'ry marshes yield
Seem polish'd lances in a hoftile field.

The ftag in limpid currents, with furprize,
Sees crystal branches on his forehead rife.
The fpreading oak, the beech, and tow'ring pine,
Glaz'd over, in the freezing æther shine.
The frighted birds the rattling branches fhun,
That wave and glitter in the diftant fun.
When, if a fudden guft of wind arife,
The brittle foreft into atoms flies:

The crackling wood beneath the tempeft bends,
And in a spangled fhow'r the profpect ends;
Or, if a fouthern gale the region warm,
And by degrees unbind the wintry charm,
The traveller a miry country fees,

And journies faid beneath the dropping trees.
Like fome deluded peafant Merlin leads
Thro' fragrant bow'rs, and thro' delicious meads;
While her enchanted gardens to him rife,
And airy fabrics there attract his eyes,
His wond'ring feet the magic paths purfue;
And while he thinks the fair illufion true,
The tracklefs fcenes difperfe in fluid air,
And woods, and wilds, and thorny ways appear:
A tedious road the weary wretch returns,
And as he goes, the tranfient vifion mourns.

From my own Apartment, May 6.

There has a mail this day arrived from Holland; but the matter of the advices importing rather what gives us great expectations, than any pofitive affurances, 1-fhall, for this time, decline giving you what I know; and apply the following verfes of Mr. Dryden, in the fecond part of Almanzor, to the prefent circumftances of things,

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withou

without discovering what my 'knowledge in aftronomy fuggefts to me.

When Empire in its childhood first appears,

A watchful fate o'erfees its tender years:

Till grown more ftrong, it thrufts and ftretches out,
And elbows all the kingdoms round about.

The place thus made for its firft breathing free,
It moves again for ease and luxury :
Till fwelling by degrees it has poffeft
The greater space, and now crouds up the reft.
When from behind there ftarts fome petty State,
And pushes on its now unwieldy fate.
Then down the precipice of time it goes,
And finks in minutes, which in ages rofe.

No 13.

Tuesday, May 10, '1709.

From my own Apartment, May 8.

UCH hurry and bufinefs had to day perplexed

me into a mood too thoughtful for going into company; for which reafon, inftead of the tavern, I went into Lincoln's-Inn Walks; and having taken a round or two, I fat down, according to the allowed familiarity of these places, on a bench; at the other end of which fat a venerable gentleman, who fpeaking with a very affable air, "Mr. Bickerstaff," said he, “ I take it " for a very great piece of good fortune that you have

found me out." "Sir," faid I, "I had never, that "I know of, the honour of feeing you before." That," replied he, " is what I have often lamented; but I af* fure you, I have for many years done you many good offices, without being obferved by you; or elfe, "when you had any little glimpse of my being concerned in an affair, you have fled from me, and *fhunned me like an enemy; but however, the part I

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am to act in the world is fuch, that I am to go on in "doing good,, though I meet with never fo many re"pulfes, even from thofe I oblige." This, thought 1, fhows a great good-nature, but little judgment in the perfons upon whom he confers his favours. He immediately took notice to me, that he obferved by my countenance I thought him indifcreet in his beneficence, and proceeded to tell me his quality in the following manner :: I know thee, Ifaac, to be fo well verfed in the "Occult Sciences, that I need not much preface, or "make long preparations to gain your faith that there are Airy Beings, who are employed in the care and "attendance of men, as nurses are to infants, until they come to an age in which they can act of themfelves. "Thefe Beings are ufually called amongst men, Guar"dian Angels; and, Mr. Bickerstaff, I am to acquaint that I am to be yours for fome time to come; it being our orders to vary our ftations, and fometimes ❝to have one patient under our protection, and fometimes another, with a power of affuming what fhape we please, to enfnare our Wards into their own good.. “I have of late been upon fuch hard duty, and know you have fo much work for me, that I think fit to appear to you face to face, to defire you will give me 66 as little occafion for vigilance as you can." Sir," faid I," it will be a great inftruction to me in beha"viour, if you please to give me fome account of your late employments, and what hardships or fatisfactions you have had in them, that I may govern myself accordingly." He answered, To give you an example of the drudgery we go through, I will entertain you only with my three laft ftations: I was on the first of April laft put to mortify a great Beauty, with whom £ was a week; from her I went to a common Swearer, and have been laft with a Gamefter. When I first came to my Lady, I found my great work was to guard well her eyes and ears; but her flatterers were fo numerous, and the houfe, after the modern way, fo full of lookingglaffes, that I feldom had her fafe but in her fleep. Whenever we went abroad, we were furrounded by an army of enemies: when a well-made man appeared, he

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