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No 228. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21.

Percun&torem fugito, nam garrulus idem eft.
HOR. Ep. xviii. lib. 1. ver. 69.

Shun the inquifitive and curious man;
For what he hears he will relate again. PooLY.
THERE is a creature who has all the organs

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fpeech, a tolerable good capacity for conceiving what is faid to it, together with a pretty proper behaviour in all the occurrences of common life; but naturally very vacant of thought in itfelf, and therefore forced to apply itself to foreign affiftances. Of this make is that man who is very inquifitive. You may often obferve, that though he speaks as good fenfe as any man upon any thing with which he is well acquainted, he cannot truft to the range of his own fancy to entertain himfelf upon that foundation, but goes on ftill to new inquiries. Thus, though you know he is fit for the moft po lite converfation, you fhall fee him very well contented to fit by a jockey, giving an account of the many revolutions in his horfe's health, what potion he made him take, how that agreed with him, how afterwards he came to his stomach and his exercife, or any the like impertinence; and be as well pleafed as if you talked to him on the most important truths. This humour is far from making a man unhappy, though it may fubject him to rallery; for he generally falls in with a person who seems to be born for him, which is your talkative fellow. It is fo ordered that there is a fecret bent, as natural as the meeting of different fexes, in those two characters, to fupply each other's wants. I had the honour the other day to fit in a publick room, and faw an inquifitive man look with an air of satisfaction upon the approach of one of thefe talk

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ers. The man of ready utterance fat down by him, and rubbing his head, leaning on his arm, and making an uneafy countenance, he began: There is no manner of news to-day. I cannot tell what is the matter with me, but I flept very ill laft night; whether I caught cold or no I know not, ' but I fancy I do not wear fhoes thick enough for the weather, and I have coughed all this week: It must be fo, for the cuftom of wafhing my head winter and fummer with cold water, prevents any injury from the feafon entering that way; fo it must come in at my feet; but I take no notice of it: As it comes fo it goes. Moft of our evils proceed from too much tenderness; and our faces are naturally as little able to refift the cold as other parts. The Indian answered very well to an European, who afked him how he could go naked; I am all face,'

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I obferved this difcourfe was as welcome to my general inquirer as any other of more confequence could have been; but fomebody calling our talker to another part of the room, the inquirer told the next man who fat by him, that Mr. Such-a-one, who was just gone from him, ufed to wafh his head in cold water every morning; and fo repeated almoft verbatim all that had been faid to him. The truth is, the inquifitive are the funnels of converfation; they do not take in any thing for their own ufe, but merely to pafs it to another: They are the channels through which all the good and evil that is fpoken in town are conveyed. Such as are offended at them, or think they fuffer by their behaviour, may themfelves mend that inconveni ence; for they are not a malicious people, and if you will fupply them, you may contradict any thing that they have faid before by their own mouths.. A farther account of a thing is one of the gratefullest goods that can arrive to them; and it is feldom that they are more particular than to fay, The

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town will have it fo, or I have it from a good hand: So that there is room for the town to know the matter more particularly, and for a better hand to contradict what was faid by a good one.

I have not known this humour more ridiculous than in a father, who has been earnestly follicitous to have an account how his fon has paffed his leifure hours; if it be in a way thoroughly infignificant, there cannot be a greater joy than an inquirer discovers in seeing him follow fo hopefully his own fteps: But this humour among men is most pleafant when they are faying fomething which is not wholly proper for a third perfon to hear, and yet is in itfelf indifferent. The other day there came in a well-dreffed young fellow, and two gentlemen of this fpecies inmediately fell a whifpering his pedigree. I could overheer, by breaks, She was his aunt; then an answer, Ay, fhe was of the mother's fide: Then again, in a little lower voice, His father wore generally a darker wig; anfwer, Not much. But this gentleman wears higher heels to his fhoes.

As the inquifitive, in my opinion, are fuch merely from a vacancy in their own imaginations, there is nothing, methinks, fo dangerous as to communicate fecrets to them; for the fame temper of inqui ry makes them as impertinently communicative : But no man, though he converfes with them, need put himself in their power, for they will be contented with matters of lefs moment as well. When there is fuel enough, no matter what it is-Thus the ends of fentences in the news-papers, as, This wants confirmation, This occafions many speculations, and Time will difcover the event, are read by them, and confidered not as mere expletives.

One may fee now and then this humour accompanied with an infatiable defire of knowing what paffes, without turning it to any use in the world, but merely their own entertainment. A mind which

which is gratified this way is adapted to humour and pleafantry, and formed for an unconcerned character in the world; and, like myself, to be a mere fpectator. This curiofity, without malice or felf-intereft, lays up in the imagination a magazine of circumstances which cannot but entertain when they are produced in converfation. If one were to know, from the man of the first quality to the meaneft fervants, the different intrigues, fentiments, pleasures and interefts of mankind, would it not be the most pleasing entertainment imaginable to enjoy fo conftant a farce, as the obferving mankind much more different from themselves in their fecret thoughts and publick actions, than in their night-caps and long periwigs?

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

PLUTARCH tells us, that Caius Gracchus, the Roman, was frequently hurried by his paffion into fo loud and tumultuous a way of fpeaking, ⚫ and fo ftrained his voice as not to be able to proceed. To remedy this excefs, he had an ingenious fervant, by name Licinius, always attending him 'with a pitch-pipe or inftrument to regulate the voice; who, whenever he heard his master begin to be high, immediately touched a foft note; at which, it is faid, Caius would presently abate and grow calm.'

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Upon recollecting this story, I have frequently ⚫ wondered that this ufeful inftrument fhould have been fo long difcontinued; efpecially fince we find that this good office of Licinius has preserved his memory for many hundred years, which, methinks, fhould have encouraged fome one to have revived it, if not for the publick good, yet for his • own credit. It may be objected, that our loud talkers are fo fond of their own noife, that they 'would not take it well to be checked by their fervants: But granting this to be true, furely any

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of their hearers have a very good title to play a foft note in their own defence. To be fhort, no Licinius appearing and the noife increafing, I was refolved to give this late long vacation to the good ' of my country; and I have at length, by the af'fistance of an ingenious artist, (who works to the Royal Society) almost compleated my defign, and fhall be ready in a fhort time to furnish the publick with what number of these inftruments they pleafe, either to lodge at coffeehouses, or carry for their own private ufe. In the mean time I fliall pay that refpect to feveral gentlemen, who I know will be in danger of offending against this 'inftrument, to give them notice of it by private letters, in which I fhall only write, Get a Licinius.

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'I fhould now trouble you no longer, but that • I must not conclude without defiring you to accept one of thefe pipes, which fhall be left for you with Buckley; and which I hope will be ferviceable to you, fince as you are filent yourself you are most open to the infults of the noify.

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'I am, Sir, &c. W. B.

I had almoft forgot to inform you, that as an 'improvement in this inftrument, there will be a particular note, which I call a hufh-note; and this is to be made ufe of against a long ftory, fwearing, obfcenenefs, and the like.'

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THURSDAY,

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