Look you, fays Triftram, I know, Mr. Wildair, you are going to defire me to advance; but the late call of the Bank, where I have not yet made my laft payment, has obliged me---Tom interrupted him, by fhewing him the bill of a thousand pounds. When he had looked at it for a convenient time, and as often furveyed Tom's looks and countenance; Look you, Mr. Wildair, a thousand pounds--Before he could proceed, he shews him the order for three thousand more- -Sir Triftram examined the orders at the light, and finding at the writing the name, there was a certain ftroke in one letter, which the father and he had agreed fhould be to fuch directions as he defired might be more immediately honoured, he forthwith pays the money. The poffeffion of four thousand pounds gave my young Gentleman a new train of thoughts: He began to reflect upon his birth, the great expectations he was born to, and the unfuitable ways he had long purfued. Instead of that unthinking creature he was before, he is now provident, generous, and difcreet. The father and fon have an exact and regular correfpondence, with mutual and unreferved confidence in each other. The fon looks upon his father as the best tenant he could have in the country, and the father finds the fon the most safe banker he could have in the city.

Will's Coffee-house, August 26.

There is not any thing in Nature fo extravagant, but that you will find one man or other that fhall practise or maintain it; otherwife Harry Spondee could not have made fo long an harangue as he did here this evening, concerning the force and efficacy of well-applied Nonfenfe. Among Ladies, he pofitively averred it was the moft prevailing part of eloquence; and had fo little complaifance as to fay, a woman is never taken by her reafon, but always by her paffion. He proceeded to affert, the way to move that, was only to astonish her. I know, continued he, a very late inftance of this; for being by accident in the room next to Strephon, I could not help over-hearing him as he made Love to a certain great Lady's woman. The true method in your appli

D 3

cation

N° 60. cation to one of this fecond rank of understanding, is not to elevate and furprize, but rather to elevate and amaze. Strephon is a perfect matter in this kind of perfuafion His way is, to run over with a soft air a multitude of words, without meaning or connexion; but fuch as do each of them apart give a pleafing idea, though they have nothing to do with each other as he affembles them. After the common phrases of salutation, and making his entry into the room, I perceived he had taken the fair nymph's hand, and kiffing it faid, Witness to my happinefs ye groves! be fill ye rivulets! oh! woods, caves, fountains, trees, dales, mountains, hills, and ftreams! oh! faireft! could you love me? To which I overheard her anfwer, with a very pretty lifp, Oh! Strephon, you are a dangerous creature: Why do you talk thefe tender things to me? But you men of wit

Is it then poffible, faid the enamoured Strephon, that the regards my forrows! Oh! pity, thou balmy cure to an heart over-loaded. If rapture, folicitation, foft defire, and pleafing anxiety-But ftill I live in the most afflicting of all circumftances, doubt--Cannot my charmer name the place and moment?

There all thofe joys infatiably to prove,

With which rich beauty feeds the glutton, Love,

Forgive me, Madam, it is not that my heart is weary of its chain, but--This incoherent ftuff was answered by a tender figh, Why do you put your wit to a weak woman? Strephon faw he had made fome progress in her heart, and purfued it, by faying that he would certainly wait upon her at fuch an hour near Rosamond's pond; and the The fylvan Deities, and rural Powers of the place, facred and inviolable to Love; Love, the mover of all noble hearts, fhould hear his vows repeated by the streams and echoes. The affignation was accordingly made. This ftyle he calls the unintelligible method of fpeaking his mind; and I will engage, had this gallant fpoken plain English, he had never understood him half fo readily: For we may take it for granted, that he will be esteemed as a very cold Lover, who discovers to his miftrefs that he is in his fenfes.

From

From my own Apartment, August 26,

The following Letter came to my hand, with a res queft to have the fubject recommended to our readers, particularly the fmart Fellows; who are defired to repair to Major Touch-hole, who can help them to firelocks that are only fit for exercife..

66

MA

Just ready for the prefs.

ARS Triumphant; or, London's Glory: Being the whole art of encampment, with the method of embattelling armies, marching them off, pofting the "officers, forming hollow fquares, and the various ways "of paying the falute with the half-pike; as it was performed by the Trained-bands of London this year,, 4 One thoufand feven hundred and nine, in that nurfery of Bellona, the Artillery-ground. Wherein you.. "have a new method how to form a strong line of foot, with large intervals between each platoon, very ufe"ful to prevent the breaking in of horse. A civil way "of performing the military ceremony; wherein the Major alights from his horfe, and at the head of hist company falutes the Lieutenant-Colonel; and the "Lieutenant-Colonel, to return the compliment, courteously difmounts, and after the fame manner falutes "his Major: Exactly as it was performed, with abun "dance of applaufe, on the fifth of July laft. Likewife an account of a new invention, made use of in the red "regiment, to quell mutineering Captains; with feve"ral other things alike useful for the Public. To which

is added, an appendix by Major Touch-bole; proving "the method of difcipline now used in our armies to be very defective: With an effay towards an amend64 ment. Dedicated to the Lieutenant-Colonel of the firit regiment."

"Mr. Bickerstaff has now in the prefs, A Defence of aukward Fellows against the clafs of the Smarts: "With a differtation upon the Gravity which becomes Weighty perfons. Illuftrated by way of fable, and a "difcourfe

66

D. 4

"difcourfe on the nature of the elephant, the cow, the "dray-horse, and the dromedary, which have motions

66

equally fteady and grave. To this is added a Treatife written by an elephant, according to Pliny, against receiving foreigners into the foreft. Adapted to fome "prefent circumftances. Together with allufions to "fuch beafts as declare against the poor Palatines.”

N° 61. Tuesday,

Tuesday, August 30, 1709.

White's Chocolate-house, August 29.

MONG many phrafes which have crept into converfation, especially of fuch company as frequent this place, there is not one which misleads me more, than that of a "Fellow of a great deal of fire." This metaphorical term, Fire, has done much good in keeping coxcombs in awe of one another; but at the fame time it has made them troublesome to every body else. You fee, in the very air of a "Fellow of Fire," fomething fo expreffive of what he would be at, that if it were not for felf-prefervation, a man would laugh out.

I had laft night the fate to drink a bottle with two of thefe Firemen, who are indeed dispersed like the Myrmidons in all quarters, and to be met with among those of the most different education. One of my companions was a fcholar with Fire; and the other a foldier of the fame complexion. My learned man would fall into difputes, and argue without any manner of provocation or contradiction: The other was decifive without words, and would give a fhrug or an oath to exprefs his opinion. My learned man was a mere fcholar, and my man of war as mere a foldier. The particularity of the first was ridiculous, that of the fecond, terrible. They were relations by blood, which in fome measure moderated their extravagancies towards each other: I gave myself up merely as a perfon of no note in the company; but as

if brought to be convinced, that I was an inconfiderable thing, any otherwise than that they would shew each other to me, and make me fpectator of the triumph they alternately enjoyed. The fcholar has been very converfant with books, and the other with men, only; which makes them both fuperficial: for the tafte of books is neceffary to our behaviour in the best company, and the knowledge of men is required for a true relish of books: but they have both Fire, which makes one pafs for a man of fenfe, and the other for a fine Gentleman. I found I could easily enough pafs my time with the fcholar for if I feemed not to do juftice to his parts and fentiments, he pitied me, and let me alone. But the warrior could not let it reft there; I must know all that happened within his fhallow obfervations of the nature of the war: To all which he added an air of lazinefs, and contempt of thofe of his companions who were eminent for delighting in the exercise and knowledge of their duty. Thus it is, that all the young fellows of much animal life, and little understanding, who repair to our armies, ufurp upon the converfation of reasonable men, under the notion of having Fire.

The word has not been of greater ufe to fhallow lovers, to fupply them with chat to their mistreffes, than it has been to pretended men of pleasure to fupport them in being pert and dull, and saying of every fool of their order,Such a one has Fire." There is Colonel Truncheon who marches with divifions ready on all occafions; an hero who never doubted in his life, but is ever pofitively fixed in the wrong, not out of obftinate opinion, but invincible ftupidity.

is

It is very unhappy for this Latitude of London, that it poffible for fuch as can learn only fashion, habit, and a fet of common phrafes of falutation, to pafs with no other accomplishments, in this nation of freedom, for men of converfation and fenfe. All these ought to pretend to is, not to offend; but they carry it fo far, as to be negligent, whether they offend or not; "For they "have Fire." But their force differs from true fpirit, as much as a vicious from a mettlefome horse. A man of Fire is a general enemy to all the waiters where you drink; is the only man affronted at the company's be

D 5

ing