N° 87.

T

Saturday, October 29, 1709.

Will's Coffee-boufe, October 28.

HERE is nothing which I contemplate with greater Pleasure than the Dignity of Human Nature, which often fhews itfelf in all Conditions of Life: For notwithstanding the Degeneracy and Meannefs that is crept into it, there are a thoufand Occafions in which it breaks through its original Corruption, and fhews what it once was, and what it will be hereafter. I confider the Soul of Man, as the Ruin of a glorious Pile of Building; where amidst great Heaps of Rubbish, you meet with noble Fragments of Sculpture, broken Pillars and Obelisks, and a Magnificence in Confufion. Virtue and Wisdom are continually employed in clearing the Ruins, removing thefe diforderly Heaps, recovering the noble Pieces that lie buried under them, and adjufting them as well as poffible according to their ancient Symmetry and Beauty. A happy Education, Converfation with the fineft Spirits, looking Abroad into the Works of Nature, and Obfervations upon Mankind, are the great Affiftances to this neceffary. and glorious Work. But even among those who have never had the Happiness of any of thefe Advantages, there are fometimes fuch Exertions of the Greatnefs that is natural to the Mind of Man, as fhew Capacities and Abilities, which only want thefe accidental Helps to fetch them out, and fhew them in a proper Light. A Plebeian Soul is still the Ruin of this glorious Edifice, though incumber'd with all its Rubbish. This Reflection rafe in me from a Letter which my Servant dropp'd as he was dreffing me, and which he told me was communicated to him as he is an Acquaintance of fome of the Perfons mentioned in it. The Epiftle is from one Serjeant Hall of the Foot-Guards. It is directed,

To

To Serjeant Cabe, in the Coldftream Regiment of FootGuards, at the Red Lettice in the Butcher Row near Temple Bar.

I WAS fo pleased with several Touches in it, that I could not forbear fhewing it to a Clufter of Criticks, who instead of Confidering it in the Light I have done, examined it by the Rules of Epiftolary Writing: For as these Gentlemen are feldom Men of any great Ge nius, they work altogether by Mechanical Rules, and are able to difcover no Beauties that are not pointed but by Bouhours and Rapin: The Letter is as fol lows:

Comrade,

I

From the Camp before Mons, Sept. 26. RECEIVED Yours, and am glad yourself and your Wife are in good Health, with all the rest of my Friends. Our Battalion fuffered more than I could with in the Action. But who can withstand Fate? Poor Richard Stevenfon had his Fate with a great many more: He was killed dead before we entered the Trenches. We had above 200 of our ⚫ Battalion killed and wounded: We loft io Serjeants, 6 are as followeth: Jennings, Cafiles, Roach, Sherring, Meyrick, and my Son Smith. The reft are not your Acquaintance. I have received a very bad Shot in my Head myfelf, but am in Hopes, and please God, I fhall recover. I continue in the Field, and lie at my Colonel's Quarters. Arthur is very well; but I can give you no Account of Elms; he was in the Hofpital before I came into the Field. I will not pretend to give you an Account of the Battle, knowing you have a better in the Frints. Pray give my Service to Mrs. Cook and her Daughter, to Mr. Stoffet and his Wife, and to Mr. Lyver, and Thomas Hogfden, and to Mr. Ragdell, and to all my Friends and Acquaintance in general who do afk after me. My Love to Mrs. Stevenson. am forry for the fending fuch ill News. Her Huf band was gathering a little Money together to fend to his Wife, and put it into my Hands. I have Seven Shillings and Three Pence, which I fhall take

6

I

Can

⚫ Care to fend her; wifhing your Wife a fafe Delivery and both of you all Happiness, reft

Your affured Friend,

and Comrade,

John Hall,

WE had but an indifferent Breakfast, but the Moun⚫feers never had fuch a Dinner in all their Lives.

'MY kind Love to my Comrade Hinton, and Mrs. Morgan, and to John Brown and his Wife. I fent two Shillings, and Stevenson Six-pence, to drink with you at Mr. Cook's; but I have heard nothing from him. It was by Mr. Edgar.

CORPORAL Hartwell defires to be remember'd to you, and defires you to enquire of Edgar, what is become of his Wife Pegg; and when you write to • fend Word in your Letter what Trade the drives.

• WE have here very bad Weather, which I doubt I will be an Hindrance to the Siege; but I am in Hopes we shall be Mafters of the Town in a little Time, and ⚫ then I believe we shall go to Garrison.

I SAW the Criticks prepared to nibble at my Letter; therefore examin'd it myself, partly in their Way, and partly my own. This is (faid I) truly a Letter, and an honeft Reprefentation of that chearful Heart which accompanies the poor Soldier in his Warfare. Is not there in this all the Topick of fubmitting to our Deftiny as well difcufs'd, as if a greater Man had been placed, like Brutus, in his Tent at Midnight, reflecting on all the Occurrences of past Life, and saying fine Things on Being itfelf? What Serjeant Hall knows of the Matter, is, that he wishes there had not been fo many killed, and he had himself a very bad Shot in the Head, and fhould recover if it pleafed God. But be that as it will, he takes Care, like a Man of Honour, as he certainly is, to let the Widow Stevenfon know, that he had Seven and Three-pence for her, and that if he lives, he is fure he fhall go into Garrifon at last. I doubt not but all the good Company at the RedLettice drank his Health with as much real Esteem as we

do

do of any of our Friends.

All that I am concerned for,

is, that Mrs. Peggy Hartwell may be offended at fhewing this Letter, because her Conduct in Mr. Hartwell's Abfence is a little enquired into. But I could not fink that Circumftance, because you Criticks would have loff one of the Parts which I doubt not but you have much to fay upon, Whether the Familiar Way is well hit in this Style or not? As for myself, I take a very particular Satiffaction in seeing any Letter that is fit only for those to read who are concerned in it, but efpecially on fuch a Subject.

IF we confider the Heap of an Army, utterly out of all Profpect of rifing and Preferment, as they certainly are, and such great Things executed by them, it is hard to account for the Motive of their Gallantry. But to me, who was a Cadet at the Battle of Coldftream in Scotland, when Monk charged at the Head of the Regiment, now called Coldftream from the Victory of that Day; (I remember it as well as if it were Yesterday) I flood on the Left of old Weft, who I believe is now at Chelsea ; I fay, to me, who know very well this Part of Mankind, I take the Gallantry of private Soldiers to proceed from the fame, if not from a nobler Impulse than that of Gentlemen and Officers. They have the fame Tafte of being acceptable to their Friends, and go thro' the Difficulties of that Profeffion by the fame irrefiftible Charm of Fellowship, and the Communication of Joys and Sorrows, which quickens the Relifh of Pleafure, and abates the Anguish of Pain. Add to this, that they have the fame Regard to Fame, though they do not expect fo great a Share as Men above them hope for; but I'll engage Serjeant Hall would die Ten Thousand Deaths, rather than a Word fhould be spoken at the Red Lettice, or any Part of the Butcher- Row, in Prejudice to his Courage or Honefty. If you will have my Opinion then of the Serjeant's Letter, I pronounce the Style to be mixed, but truly Epiftolary; the Sentiment relating to his own Wound, is in the Sublime; the Poftfcript of Pegg Hartwell, in the Gay; and the Whole, the Picture of the bravest Sort of Men, that is to say, a Man of great Courage and fmall Hopes.

From

From my own Apartment, O&tober 28.

WHEN I came Home this Evening, I found, after many Attempts to vary my Thoughts, that my Head still ran upon the Subject of the Difcourfe to Night at Will's, I fell therefore into the Amusement of proportioning the Glory of a Battle among the whole Army, and dividing it into Shares, according to the Method of the MillionLottery, In this Bank of Fame, by an exact Calculation, and the Rules of Political Arithmetick, I have allotted Ten hundred thousand Shares; Five hundred thousand of which is the Due of the General, Two hundred thousand I affign to the General Officers, and Two hundred thoufand more to all the Commiffioned Officers, from Colonels to Enfigns; the remaining Hundred thousand must be diftributed among the Non-commiffioned Officers, and private Men: According to which Computation, I find Serjeant Hall is to have one Share and a Fraction of two Fifths. When I was a Boy at Oxford, there was among the Antiquities near the Theatre a great Stone, on which were engraven the Names of all who fell in the Battle of Marathon. The generous and knowing People of Athens understood the Force of the Defire of Glory, and would not let the meanest Soldier perith in Oblivion, Were the natural Impulfe of the British Nation animated with fuch Monuments, What Man would be fo mean, as not to hazard his Life,for his Ten hundred thousandth Part of the Honour in fuch a Day as that of Blenheim or Blaregnies?

N° 88. Tuesday, November 1, 1709.

I

White's Chocolate-boufe, October 31.

HAVE lately received a Letter from a Friend in the Country wherein he acquaints me, That two or three Men of the Town are got among them, and