was not lazily urged; but he fhewed himself fuperior to the coachman in the perfonal qualities of courage and activity, to confirm that of his being well allied, before his birth was of any fervice to him If one might moralize from this filly ftory, a man would fay, that whatever advantages of fortune, birth, or any other good, people poffefs above the reft of the world, they fhould fhew collateral eminences befides those distinctions; or those distinctions will avail only to keep up common decencies and ceremonies, and not to preferve a real place of favour or esteem in the opinion and common fense of their fellow-creatures. The folly of peoples procedure, in imagining that nothing more is neceffary than property and fuperior circumftances to fupport them in diftinction, appears in no way fo much as in the domeftic part of life. It is ordinary to feed their hu mours into unnatural excrefcences, if I may fo fpeak, and make their whole being a wayward and uneafy condition, for want of the obvious reflection that all parts of human life is a commerce. It is not only paying wages and giving commands, that conftitutes a mafter of a family; but prudence, equal behaviour, with readiness to protect and cherish them, is what entitles a man to that character in their very hearts and fentiments. It is pleasant enough to obferve, that men expect from their dependents, from their fole motive of fear, all the good effects which a liberal education, and affluent fortune, and every other advantage, cannot produce in themselves. A man will have his fervant juft, diligent, fober and chafte, for no other reasons but the terror of lofing his mafter's favour; when all the laws divine and human cannot keep him whom he ferves within bounds, with relation to any one of those virtues. But both in great and ordinary affairs, all fuperiority, which is not founded on merit and virtue, is fupported only by artifice and N 2 ftratagem. ftratagem. Thus you fee flatterers are the agents in families of humourists, and thofe who govern themselves by any thing but reafon. Make-bates, distant relations, poor-kinfmen, and indigent followers, are the fry which fupport the oeconomy of an humourfome rich man. He is eternally whif pered with intelligence of who are true or falfe to him in matters of no confequence, and he maintains twenty friends to defend him against the infinuations of one who would perhaps cheat him of an old coat. I fhall not enter into further fpeculation upon this fubject at prefent, but think the following letters and petition are made up of proper fentiments on this occafion. 6 • Mr. SPECTATOR, I Aм a fervant to an old Lady who is governed by one fhe calls her friend; who is fo familiar an one, that she takes upon her to advise her without being called to it, and makes her uneafy with all about her. Pray, Sir, be pleased to give us fome remarks upon voluntary counsellors and let thefe people know that to give any body advice, is to fay to that perfon,. I am your betters. Pray, Sir, as near as you can, describe that eternal flirt and difturber of families, Mrs. Taperty, who is always vifiting and putting people in a way, as they call it. If you can make her ftay at home one evening, you will be a general ⚫ benefactor to all the ladies-women in town, and particularly to, < Your loving Friend, Aм a footman, and live with one of those men, each of whom is faid to be one of the beft humoured men in the world, but that he is paffionate. Pray be pleafed to inform them, • that that he who is paffionate, and takes no care to command his haftinefs, does more injury to his ⚫ friends and fervants in one half hour, than whole ̈ ''years can atone for. This master of mine, who ' is the best man alive in common fame, difobliges 'fome body every day he lives; and ftrikes me for 'the next thing I do, because he is out of humour at it. If these Gentlemen knew that they do all 'the mischief that is ever done in conversation, they would reform; and I who have been a spectator of Gentlemen at dinner for many years, ' have seen that indifcretion does ten times more ''mifchief than ill-nature. But you will reprefent this better than, • Your abufed humble fervant," THOMAS SMOKY.'. To the SPECTATOR The humble petition of John Steward, Robert Butler, Harry Cook, and Abigail Chambers, in behalf of themselves and their relations, belonging to and difperfed in feveral fervices of most of the great families within the cities of London and Westminster. SHEWETH,'. THAT in many of the families in which your petitioners live and are employed, the feveral 'heads of them are wholly unacquainted with what 'is business, and are very little judges when they are well or ill used by us your faid petitioners. That for want of fuch skill in their own af- fairs, and by indulgence of their own laziness and pride, they continually keep about them certain 'mifchievous animals called Spics. • That whenever a fpy is entertained, the peace of that houfe is from that moment banished, That fpies never give an account of good fervices, N3 4 vices, but reprefent our mirth and freedom by the words, wantonnefs and diforder. That in all families were there are fpies, there is a general jealoufy and misunderstanding. That the mafters and mistreffes of fuch houses • live in continual fufpicion of their ingenuous and true fervants, and are given up to the management of thofe who are falfe and perfidious. That fuch mafters and mistreffes who entertain fpies, are no longer more than ciphers in their own families; and that we your petitioners are 'with great difdain obliged to pay all our refpect, ⚫ and expect all our maintenance from fuch spies. Your petitioners therefore most humbly pray, That you would reprefent the premises to all perfons of condition; and your petitioners, as in duty bound, fhall for ever pray, • &c. T ་ Phebe pater, fi das hujus mihi nominis ufum, } OVID. Met. lib. ii. ver. 36. Illuftrious parent! fince you don't defpifeA parent's name fome certain token give, That I may Clymene's proud boast believe, Nor longer under falfe reproaches grieve. THERE is a loofe tribe of men whom I have not yet taken notice of, that ramble into all the corners of this great city, in order to feduce fuch unfortunate females as fall into their walks. Thefe abandoned profligates raife up iffue in every quarter of the town, and very often, for a valuable confideration, father it upon the church-warden. By AGNAGE By this means there are feveral married men who have a little family in most of the parishes of Londen and Weftminster, and feveral bachelors who are undone by a charge of children. When a man once gives himself this liberty of preying at large, and living upon the common, he finds fo much game in a populous city, that it is furprising to confider the numbers which he fometimes propagates. We fee many a young fellow who is fcarce of age, that could lay his claim to the Jus Trium Liberorum, or the privileges, which were granted by the Roman laws to all fuch as were fathers of three children: Nay, I have heard a rake, who was not quite five and twenty, declare himfelf the father of a feventh fon, and very prudently determine to breed him up a phyfician. In fhort, the town is full of thefe young patriarchs, not to mention feveral battered beaus, who, like heedlefs fpendthrifts that fquander away their ef tates before they are masters of them, have raised up their whole ftock of children before marriage. I must not here omit the particular whim of an impudent libertine, that had a little smattering of heraldry; and obferving how the genealogies of great families were often drawn up in the fhape of trees, had taken a fancy to difpofe of his own ille gitimate iffue in a figure of the fame kind. -Nec longum tempus et ingens Exiit ad cælum ramis felicibus arbos, VIRG. Georg. ii. ver. 80. And in short space the laden boughs arife, DRYDEN. The trunk of the tree was marked with his own name, |