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often drawn up in the shape of trees, had taken a fancy to difpofe of his own illegitiinate iffue in a figure of the fame

kind.

Nec longum tempus & ingens,

Exit ad cælum ramis felicibus arbos,

Miraturgue novas frondes, & non fua poma.

VIRG. Georg. 2. v. 80.

And in fhort Space the laden boughs arife,
With happy fruit advancing to the skies:
The mother plant admires the leaves unknown,.
Of alien trees, and apples not her own.

DRYDEN.

THE trunk of the tree was marked with his own name, Will Maple. Out of the fide of it grew a large barren branch, infcribed Mary Maple, the name of his unhappy wife. The head was adorned with five huge boughs. On the bottom of the first was written in capital characters Kate Cole, who branched out into three fprings, viz. William, Richard, and Rebecca. Sall Twiford gave birth to another bough that hot up into Sarah, Tom, Will, and Frank. The third arm of the tree had only a fingle infant in it, with a space left for a fecond, the parent from whom it fprung being near her time when the author took this ingenious device into his head. The two other great boughs were very plentifully loaden with fruit of the fame kind; befides which, there were many ornamental branches that did not bear. In short, a more flourishing tree never came out of the herald's office.

WHAT makes this generation of vermin fo very prolific, is the indefatigable diligence with which they apply themfelves to their business. A man does not undergo more watchings and fatigues in a campaign, than in the course of a vicious amour. As it is faid of fome men, that they make their business their pleasure, thofe fons of darkness may be faid to make their pleasure their bufinefs. They might conquer their corrupt inclinations with half the pains they are at in gratifying them.

NOR is the invention of these men lefs to be admired than their industry and vigilance. There is a fragment of Apollodorus the comic poet, (who was contemporary with.

Menander)

Menander) which is full of humour, as follows: Thou mayeft shut up thy doors, fays he, with bars and bolts: it will be impoffible for the blacksmith to make them fo falt, but a cat and a whoremafter will find a way through them. In a word, there is no head fo full of stratagems as that of a libidinous inan.

WERE I to propose a punishment for this infamous race of propagators, it should be to fend them, after the second or third offence, into our American colonies, in order to people thofe parts of her majefty's dominions where there is a want of inhabitants, and in the phrafe of Diogenes, to plant men. Some countries punish this crime with death; but I think fuch a banishment would be fufficient, and might turn this generative faculty to the advantage of the. public.

In the mean time, till thefe gentlemen may be thus difpofed of, I would earnestly exhort them to take care of thofe unfortunate creatures whom they have brought into the world by thefe indirect methods, and to give their fpurious children fuch an education as may render them more virtuous than their parents. This is the beft atonement they can make for their own crimes, and indeed the only method that is left them to repair their paft mifcarriages.

I WOULD likeways defire them to confider, whether they are not bound in common humanity, as well as by all the obligations of religion and nature, to make fome provision for those whom they have not only given life to, but intailed upon them, tho' very unreafonably, a degree of fhame and difgrace. And here I cannot but take notice of thofe depraved notions which prevail among us, and which must have taken rife from our natural inclination to favour a vice to which we are fo very prone, namely, that baftardy and cuckoldom fhould be looked upon as reproaches, and that the ignominy, which is only due to lewdness and falfhood, fhould fall in fo unreafonable a manner upon the perfons who are innocent.

་ ན

I HAVE been infenfibly drawn into this difcourfe by the following letter, which is drawn up with fuch a spirit of fincerity, that I queftion not but the writer of it has reprefented his cafe in a true and genuine light.

S. I. R

SIR,

I

Aм one of thofe people who, by the general opinion of the world, are counted both infamous and • unhappy.

My father is a very eminent man in this kingdom, and 'one who bears confiderable offices in it. I am his fon, 'but my misfortune is, that I dare not call him father, nor he without shame, own me as his iffue, I being illegitimate, and therefore deprived of that endearing ⚫ tenderness and unparalleled fatisfaction which a good man finds in the love and converfation of a parent: neither have I the opportunities to render him the duties of a fon, he having always carried himself at so vast a distance, and with fuch fuperiority towards me, that by long ufe I have contracted a timorousness when before him, which 'hinders me from declaring my own neceffities, and giv " ing him to understand the inconveniencies I undergo.

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IT is my misfortune to have been neither bred a scholar, foldier, nor to any kind of business, which renders < me entirely uncapable of making provifion for myself without his affiftance; and this creates a continual uneafinefs in my mind, fearing I fhall in time want bread: < my father, if I may fo call him, giving me but very faint affurances of doing any thing for me.

I HAVE hitherto lived fomewhat like a gentleman, and it would be very hard for me to labour for my living. I am in continual anxiety for my future fortune, and under a great unhappiness in lofing the sweet converfation and friendly advice of my parents; fo that I cannot look upon myself otherways than as a monster, ftrangely fprung up in nature, which every one is afhamed to own.

I AM thought to be a man of fome natural parts, and <by the continual reading what you have offered the world, become an admirer thereof, which has drawn me to make this confeffion; at the fame time hoping, if any thing herein fhall touch you with a fenfe of pity, you would then allow me the favour of your opinion thereupon; as alfo what part I, being unlawfully born, may claim of the man's affection who begot me, and how far in your opinion I am to be thought his fon, or he acknowledged

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acknowledged as my father. Your fentiments and advice herein will be a great confolation and fatisfaction to,

SIR,

Your admirer and humble fervant,

W. B.

Wednesday, Otober 24.

N° 204.

Urit grata protervitas,

I

Et vultus nimium lubricus afpici.

HOR. od. 19, l. I. v. 7.

With winning coynefs fhe my foul difarms:
Her face darts forth a thousand rays;

My eye-balls fim, and I grow giddy while I gaze.

4

CONGREVE.

Aм not at all difpleafed that I am become the courier of love, and that the diftreffed in that paffion convey their complaints to each other by my means. The following letters have lately come to my hands, and shall have their place with great willingness. As to the reader's entertainment, he will, I hope, forgive the inferting fuch particulars as to him may, perhaps, feem frivolous, but are to the perfons who wrote them of the highest confequence. I shall not trouble you with the prefaces, compliments, and apologies made to me before each epiftle when is was defired to be inferted: but in general they tell me, that the perfons to whom they are addreffed have intimations, by phrafes and illusions in them, from whence they came.

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To the SOTHADES.

HE word, by which I addrefs you, gives you, who understand Portuguese, a lively image of the tender regard I have for you. The SPECTATOR's late letter from Statira gave me the hint to ufe the fame method of explaining myself to you. I am not affronted at the defign your late behaviour discovered you had in ? your

one

· your addreffes to me; but I impute it to the degeneracyof the age, rather than your particular fault. As I aim at nothing more than being yours, I am willing to be a ftranger to your name, your fortune, or any figure which your wife might expect to make in the world, pro❝vided my commerce with you is not to be a guilty one, Irelign gay drefs, the pleature of vifits, equipage, plays, balls, and operas, for that fatisfaction of having you for ever mine. I am willing you fhall induftriously conceal the only caufe of triumph which I can know in this life. I wish only to have it my duty, as well as my inclination, to study your happiness. If this has not the effect this letter feems to aim at, you are to understand that I had a-mind to be rid of you, and took the readieft way to pall you with an offer of what you would never defift purfuing while you received ill ufage. Be a true man; be my flave while you doubt me, and neglect me when you think I love you. I defy you to find out what is your prefent circumftance with me; but I know while 'I can keep this fufpence,

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MAD AM,

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I am your admired

BELINDA.

Tis a ftrange ftate of mind a man is in, when the very imperfections of a woman he loves turn into ex'cellencies and advantages. I do affure you, I am very • much afraid of venturing upon you. I now like you in fpite of my reason, and think it an ill circumftance to we one's happiness to nothing but infatuation. I can • fee you ogle all the young fellows who look at you, and • obferve your eye wander after new conquests every moment you are in a public place; and yet there is fuch a beauty in all your looks and gestures, that I cannot but admire you in the very act of endeavouring to gain the hearts of others. My condition is the fame with that of the lover in the Way of the World. I have ftudied your faults fo long, that they are become as familiar to me, and I like them as well as I do my own. Look to it, Madam, and confider whether you think this gay behaviour will appear to me as amiable when an hufband, it does now to me a lover. Things are fo far adVOL. III. vnaced,

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