my No. 245, publick Diversions which are grown so very fashionTuesday, able among us. If you would recommend to our Wives Dec. 11, and Daughters, who read your Papers with a great deal 1711 of Pleasure, some of those Sports and Pastimes that may be practised within Doors, and by the Fire side, we who are Masters of Families should be hugely obliged to you. I need not tell you that I would have these Sports and Pastimes not only Merry, but Innocent, for which Reason I have not mentioned either Whisk or Lanterloo, nor indeed so much as One and Thirty, After having communicated to you my Request upon this Subject, will be so free as to tell Wife and I pass how you away these tedious Winter Evenings with a great deal of Pleasure. Tho' she be young and handsome, and good humoured to a Miracle, she does not care for gadding abroad like others of her Sex. There is a very friendly Man, a Colonel in the Army, whom I am mightily obliged to for his Civilities, that comes to see me almost every Night; for he is not one of those giddy young Fellows that cannot live out of a Play-house. When we are together we very often make a Party at blind Man's Buff, which is a Sport that I like the better, because there is a good deal of Exercise in it. The Colonel and I are blinded by Turns, and you would laugh your Heart out to see what Pains my Dear takes to Hoodwink us, so that it is impossible for us to see the least glimpse of Light. The poor Colonel sometimes hits his Nose against a Post, and makes us die with Laughing, I have generally the good Luck not to hurt my self, but am very often above half an Hour before I can catch either of them; for you must know we hide our selves up and down in Corners, that we may have the more Sport. I only give you this Hint as a Sample of such Innocent Diversions as I would have you recommend; and am, Most Esteemed SIR, Your ever Loving Freind, The following Letter was occasioned by my last Methods Methods therein mentioned, of making such Absence No. 245, supportable, 'Sir, Among the several Ways of Consolation, which absent Lovers make use of while their Souls are in that State of Departure, which, you say, is Death in Love, there are some very material ones, that have escaped your Notice. Among these, the First and most received is a crooked Shilling, which has administered great Com fort to our Fore-fathers, and is still made use of on this Occasion with very good Effect in most Parts of Her Majesty's Dominions. There are some, I know, who think a Crown Piece cut into two equal Parts, and preserved by the distant Lovers, is of more Sovereign Vertue than the former. But since Opinions are divided Fin this Particular, why may not the same Persons make use of both? The Figure of a Heart, whether cut in Stone or cast in Metal, whether bleeding upon an Altar, stuck with Darts, or held in the Hand of a Cupid, has I always been looked upon as Talismanick in Distresses of this nature. I am acquainted with many a brave Fellow, who carries his Mistress in the Lid of his Snuff box, and by that Expedient has supported himself under the Absence of a whole Campaign. For my own part, I have tried all these Remedies, but never found so E much Benefit from any as from a Ring, in which my Mistress's Hair is platted together very artificialy in a kind of True-Lover's Knot. As I have received great Benefit from this Secret, I think my self obliged to communicate it to the Publick, for the good of my Fellow Subjects, I desire you will add this Letter as an Appendix to your Consolations upon Absence, and am, Your very Humble Servant, T. B.' I shall conclude this Paper with a Letter from an University Gentleman, occasioned by my last Tuesday's Paper, wherein I gave some Account of the great Feuds which happened formerly in those learned Bodies, between the modern Greeks and Trojans. Tuesday, Dec. 11, 1711 No. 245, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 1711, 'Sir, This will give you to understand, that there is at present in this Society whereof I am a Member a very considerable Body of Trojans, who, upon a proper Occasion, would not fail to declare our selves. In the mean while we do all we can to annoy our Enemies by Stratagem, and are resolved, by the first Opportunity, to attack Mr. Joshua Barnes, whom we look upon as the Achilles of the opposite Party, As for my self, I have had the Reputation, ever since I came from School, of being a trusty Trojan, and am resolved never to give Quarter to the smallest Particle of Greek, where ever I chance to meet it. It is for this reason I take it very ill of you, that you sometimes hang out Greek Colours at the Head of your Paper, and sometimes give a Word of the Enemy even in the Body of it. When I meet with any thing of this Nature I throw down your Speculations upon the Table; with that Form of Words which we make use of when we declare War upon an Author, Græcum est non potest legi. I give you this Hint, that you may for the future abstain from any such Hostilities at your Peril, C No. 246, Troilus.' Wednesday, December 12, Οὐκ ἄρα σοί γε πατὴρ ἦν ἱππότα Πηλεύς, Ayol, Papejus art to print what I now write to you; for I have no other Way to communicate what I have Dec. 12, 1711 in general; and when it does so, you do more than No. 246. writing Wit and Humour, Give me Leave then to tell Wednes you, that of all the Abuses that ever you have as yet day, endeavoured to reform, certainly not one wanted so much your Assistance as the Abuse in nursing of Children. It is unmerciful to see, that a Woman endowed with all the Perfections and Blessings of Nature, can, as soon as she is delivered, turn off her innocent, tender, and helpless Infant, and give it up to a Woman that is (ten thousand to one) neither in Health nor good Condi tion, neither sound in Mind nor Body, that has neither Honour nor Reputation, neither Love nor Pity for the poor Babe, but more Regard for the Money than for the whole Child, and never will take further Care of it than what by all the Encouragement of Money and Presents she is forced to; like sop's Earth, which would not nurse the Plant of another Ground, altho' I never so much improved, by Reason that Plant was not of its own Production. And since another's Child is no more natural to a Nurse than a Plant to a strange and different Ground, how can it be supposed that the Child should thrive? and if it thrives, must it not imbibe the gross Humours and Qualities of the Nurse, like a Plant in a different Ground, or like a Graft upon a different Stock? Do not we observe, that a Lamb sucking a Goat changes very much its Nature, nay even its Skin and Wooll into the Goat kind? The Power of a Nurse over a Child, by infusing into it with her Milk her Qualities and Disposition, is sufficiently and daily ob served. Hence came that old Saying concerning an Ill natured and malicious Fellow, that he had imbibed his Malice with his Nurse's Milk, or that some Brute or other had been his Nurse. Hence Romulus and Remus were said to have been nursed by a Wolf, Telephus the Son of Hercules by a Hind, Pelias the Son of Neptune by a Mare, and Egistus by a Goat; not that they had actually sucked such Creatures, as some Simpletons have imagined, but that their Nurses had been of such a Nature and Temper, and infused such into them. Many Instances may be produced from good Authorities and 1711, No. 246. and daily Experience, that Children actually suck in the Wednes several Passions and depraved Inclinations of their Nurses, day, as Anger, Malice, Fear, Melancholy, Sadness, Desire, and Dec. 12, Aversion. This Diodorus, Lib. 2. witnesses, when he speaks saying, That Nero the Emperor's Nurse had been very much addicted to Drinking, which Habit Nero re ceived from his Nurse, and was so very particular in this, that the People took so much Notice of it, as instead of Tiberius Nero, they call'd him Biberius Mero. The same Diodorus also relates of Caligula, predecessor to Nero, that his Nurse used to moisten the Nipples of her Breast frequently with Blood, to make Caligula take the better Hold of them; which, says Diodorus, was the Cause that made him so blood-thirsty and cruel all his Life-time after, that he not only committed frequent Murder by his own Hand, but likewise wish'd that all human Kind wore but one Neck, that he might have the Pleasure to cut it off. Such like Degeneracies astonish the Parents, not knowing after whom the Child can take, seeing the one to incline to Stealing, another Drinking, Cruelty, Stupidity; yet all these are not minded: Nay, it is easie to demonstrate, that a Child, although it be born from the best of Parents, may be corrupted by an illtempered Nurse. How many Children do we see daily brought into Fits, Consumptions, Rickets, &c. meerly by sucking their Nurses when in a Passion or Fury, But indeed almost any Disorder of the Nurse is a Disorder to the Child, and few Nurses can be found in this Town but what labour under some Distemper or other. The first Question that is generally asked a young Woman that wants to be a Nurse, why she should be a Nurse to other People's Children; is answered by her having an ill Husband, and that she must make Shift to live. I think now this very Answer is enough to give any Body a Shock if duly considered; for an ill Husband may, or ten to one if he does not, bring home to his Wife an ill Distemper, or at least Vexation and Disturb ance. Besides, as she takes the Child out of meer Necessity, her Food will be accordingly, or else very coarse at best; whence proceeds an ill concocted and coarse Food for the Child, for as the Blood so is the Milk: and |