In Suckling's tragedy of Brennoralt he makes the lover steal into his mistress's bedchamber, and draw the curtains; then, when his heart is full of her charms, as she lies sleeping, instead of being carried away by the violence of his desires into thoughts of a warmer nature, sleep, which is the image of death, gives this generous lover reflections of a different kind, which regard rather her safety than his own passion. For, beholding her as she lies sleeping, he utters these words:

"So misers look upon their gold,

"Which, while they joy to see, they fear to lose :
The pleasure of the sight scarce equalling
"The jealousy of being dispossess'd by others.
"Her face is like the milky way i'th' sky,
"A meeting of gentle lights without name !"

"Heav'n! shall this fresh ornament of the world,
"These precious love-lines, pass with other

"things

"Amongst the wastes of time? what pity 'twere!

common

"When Milton makes Adam leaning on his arm, beholding Eve, and lying in the contemplation of her beauty, he describes the utmost tenderness and guardian affection in one word:

"Adam, with looks of cordial love,
"Hung over her enamour'd."

"This is that sort of passion which truly deserves the name of love, and has something more generous than friendship itself; for it has a constant care of the object beloved, abstracted from its own interests in the possession of it."

Sappho was proceeding on the subject, when my sister produced a letter sent to her in the time of my absence, in celebration of the marriage state, which is the condition wherein only this sort of passion reigns in full authority. The epistle is as follows:

"Dear Madam,

"Your brother being absent, I dare take the liberty of writing to you my thoughts of that state, which our whole sex either is, or desires to be in. You will easily guess I mean matrimony, which I hear so much decryed, that it was with no small labour I maintained my ground against two opponents; but, as your brother observed of Socrates, I drew them into my conclusion, from their own concessions; thus:

"In marriage are two happy things allow'd,
"A wife in wedding shee:s, and in a shroud.
"How can a marriage-state then be accurs'd,
"Since the last day 's as happy as the first?

"If you think they were too easily confuted, you may conclude them not of the first sense, by their talking against marriage. Yours,

MARIANA."

I observed Sappho began to redden at this epistle; and turning to a lady, who was playing with a dog she was so fond of as to carry him abroad with her; "Nay," says she, "I cannot blame the men if they have mean ideas of our souls and affections, and wonder so many are brought to take us for companions for life, when they see our endearments so triflingly placed: for, to my knowledge, Mr. Truman would give half his estate for half the affection you have shown to that Shock: nor do I believe you would be ashamed to confess, that I saw you cry, when he had the colic last week with lapping sour milk. What more could you do for your lover himself?" "What more!" replied the lady. "There is not a man in England for whom I could lament half so much." Then she stifled the animal with kisses, and called him beau, life, dear, monsieur,

pretty fellow, and what not, in the hurry of her impertinence. Sappho rose up; as she always does at any thing she observes done, which discovers in her own sex a levity of mind, that renders them inconsiderable in the opinion of ours.

N° 41. THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1709.

White's Chocolate-house, July 12.

THERE is no one thing more to be lamented in our nation, than their general affectation of every thing that is foreign; nay, we carry it so far, that we are more anxious for our own countrymen when they have crossed the seas, than when we see them in the same dangerous condition before our eyes at home: else how is it possible, that on the twenty-ninth of the last month, there should have been a battle fought in our very streets of London, and nobody at this end of the town have heard of it? I protest, I, who make it my business to enquire after adventures, should never have known this, had not the following account been sent me inclosed in a letter. This, it seems, is the way of giving out orders in the Artillery-company; and they prepare for a day of action with so little concern, as only to call it, "An Exercise of Arms."

"An Exercise at Arms of the Artillery-company, to be performed on Wednesday, June the twenty-ninth, 1709, under the command of Sir Joseph Woolfe, Knight and Alderman, General; Charles Hopson, Esquire, present Sheritt, Lieutenant-general; Captain Richard Synge, Major; Major John Shorey, Captain of Grenadiers; Captain William Grayhurst, Captain John Butler, Captain Robert Carellis, Captains. The body marched from the Artillery-ground, through Moorgate, Coleman-street, Lothbury, Broadstreet, Finch-lane, Cornhill, Cheapside, St. Martin's, St. Anne's-lane, hault the pikes under the wall in Noble-street, draw up the firelocks facing the Goldsmiths-hall, make ready and face to the left, and fire, and so ditto three times. Beat to arms, and march round the hall, as up Lad-lane, Gutter-lane, Honey-lane, and so wheel to the right, and make your salute to my lord, and so down St. Anne's-lane, up Aldersgate-street, Barbican, and draw up in Red-cross-street, the right at St. Paul's alley in the rear. March off Lieutenantgeneral with half the body up Beech-lane: he sends a sub-division up King's-head-court, and takes post in it, and marches two divisions round into Redlion-market, to defend that pass, and succour the division in King's-head-court; but keeps in Whitecross-street, facing Beech-lane, the rest of the body ready drawn up. Then the General marches up Beech-lane, is attacked, but forces the division in the court into the market, and enters with three divisions while he presses the Lieutenant-general's main body; and at the same time the three divisions force those of the revolters out of the market, and so all the Lieutenant-general's body retreats into Chiswell-street, and lodges two divisions in Grub

street; and as the General marches on, they fall on his flank, but soon made to give way: but having a retreating-place in Red-lion-court, but could not hold it, being put to flight through Paul's-alley, and pursued by the General's grenadiers, while he marches up and attacks their main body, but are opposed again by a party of men as lay in Blackraven-court; but they are forced also to retire soon in the utmost confusion, and at the same time, those brave divisions in Paul's-alley ply their rear with grenadoes, that with precipitation they take to the route along Bunhill-row: so the General marches into the Artillery-ground, and being drawn up, finds the revolting party to have found entrance, and makes a show as if for a battle, and both armies soon engage in form, and fire by platoons."

Much might be said for the improvement of this system; which, for its style and invention, may instruct Generals and their historians, both in fighting a battle, and describing it when it is over. These elegant expressions," ditto-and so-but soon-but having-but could not-but are-but they finds the party to have found," &c. do certainly give great life and spirit to the relation.

Indeed, I am extremely concerned for the Lieutenant-general, who, by his overthrow and defeat, is made a deplorable instance of the fortune of war, and vicissitudes of human affairs. He, alas! has lost, in Beech-lane and Chiswell-street, all the glory he lately gained in and about Holborn and St. Giles's. The art of subdividing first, and dividing afterwards, is new and surprising; and according to this method, the troops are disposed in King's-head-court and Red-lion-market : nor is the conduct of these leaders less conspicuous in their choice of the ground or field of battle. Happy was it, that the