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of Duellifts, in which none was to be admitted that had not fought his man. The Prefident of it was faid to have killed half a dozen in fingle combat; and as for the other members, they took their feats according to the number of their flain. There was likewife a fide-table for fuch as had only drawn blood, and fhewn a laudable ambition of taking the first opportunity to qualify themfelves for the firft table. This club, confifting only of men of honour, did not continue long, most of the members of it being put to the fword, or hanged, a little after its inftitution.

Our modern celebrated clubs are founded upon eating and drinking, which are points wherein moft men agree; and in which the learned and illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philofopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear a part. The Kit-Cat itfelf is faid to have taken its original from a mutton-pye. The Beaf-steak and October clubs are neither of them averfe to eating and drinking, if we may form a judgment of them from their re1pective titles.

When men are thus knit together by a love of fociety, not a spirit of faction, and don't meet to cenfure or annoy thofe that are abfent, but to enjoy one another; when they are thus combined for their own improvement, or for the good of others, or at least to relax themselves from the bufincfs of the day, by an innocent and cheerful converfation, there may be fomething very useful in these little inftitutions and establishments.

I cannot forbear concluding this paper with a fcheme of laws that I met with upon a wall in a little alehoufe: how I came thither I may inform my reader at a more convenient time. Thefe laws were enacted by a knot of artifans and mechanics, who used to meet every night; and as there is fomething in them which gives us a pretty picture of low life, I thall tranfcribe them word for word.

RULES

RULES to be obferved in the Two-penny Club, erected in this Place, for the Prefervation of Friendship and good Neighbourhood.

I. Every member at his firft coming in, fhall lay down his two-pence.

II. Every member shall fill his pipe out of his own box.

III. If any member abfents himself, he fhall forfeit a penny for the ufe of the club, unlefs in cafe of ficknefs or imprisonment.

IV. If any member fwears or curfes, his neighbour may give him a kick upon the fhins.

V. If any member tells ftories in the club that are not true, he fhall forfeit for every third lyc, an halfpenny.

VI. If any member ftrikes another wrongfully, he fhall pay his club for him.

VII. If any member brings his wife into the club, he fhall pay for whatever the drinks or fmokes.

VIII. If any member's wife come to fetch him home from the club, the fhall fpeak to him without the door. IX. If any member calls another cuckold, he shall be turned out of the club.

X. None fhall be admitted into the club that is of the fame trade with any member of it.

XI. None of the club fhall have his clothes or fhoes ade or mended, but by a brother-member.

XII. No Nonjurer fhall be capable of being a mem→ ber.

The morality of this little club is guarded by such wholefome laws and penalties, that I queftion not but my reader will be as well pleafed with them as he would have been with the leges convivales of Ben Johnson, the regulations of an old Roman club cited by Lipfius, or the rules of a Symposium in an ancient Greek author. C.

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No. X. MONDAY, MARCH 12.

Non aliter quam qui adverfo vix flumine lembum
Remigiis fuvigit: fi bachia forte remifit,
Atque illum in præceps prono rapit alveus amni.

VIRG.

So the boat's brawny crew the current stem,
And, flow advancing, fruggle with the stream:
But if they flack their hand, or ceafe to ftrive,
Then down the flood with headlong hafte they drive.

DRYDEN.

IT is with much fatisfaction that I hear this great city inquiring day by day after thefe my papers, and receiving my morning lectures with a becoming ferioufnefs and attention. My publifher tells me, that there are already three thoufand of them diftributed every day; fo that if I allow twenty readers to every paper, which I look upon as a modeft computation, I may reckon about threefcore thousand difcipies in London and Wefininfter, who I hope will take care to distinguish themfelves from the thoughtlefs herd of their ignorant and unattentive brethren. Since I have raifed to myfelf fo great an audience, I fhall fpare no pains to make their inftruction agrecable, and their diverfion ufeful: For which reafons I fhall endeavour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality, that my readers may, if poffible, both ways find their account in the fpeculation of the day. And to the end that their virtue and difcretion may not be fhort tranfient intermitting starts of thought, I have refolved to refresh their memories from day to day, till I have recovered them out of that defperate ftate of vice and folly into which the age is fallen. The mind that lies fallow but a fingle day, fprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by a conftant and affiduous culture. It was faid of Socrates, that he brought philofophy down from heaven, to inhabit among men; and I fhall be ambitious to have it faid of me, that I have

brought

brought philofophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at teatables and in coffee-houfes.

I would therefore in a very particular manner, recommend thefe my fpeculations to all well-regulated families that fet apart an hour in every morning for tea and bread and butter; and would earneftly advife them for their good, to order this paper to be punctually ferved up, and to be looked upon as a part of the tea-equipage.

Sir Francis Bacon obferves, that a well-written book, compared with its rivals and antagonists, is like Mofes's ferpent, that immediately fwallowed up and devoured thofe of the Egyptians. I fhall not be fo vain as to think that, where the Spectator appears, the other public prints will vanifh; but fhall leave it to my readers confideration, whether it is not much better to be let into the knowledge of one's felf than to hear what paffes in Mufcovy or Poland; and to amufe ourselves with fuch writings as tend to the wearing out of ignorance, paffion, and prejudice, than fuch as naturally conduce to inflame hatreds, and make enmitics irreconcilcable!

In the next place I would recommend this paper to the daily perufal of thofe gentlemen whom I cannot but confider as my good brothers and allies, I mean the fraternity of fpectators, who live in the world without having any thing to do in it; and either by the affluence of their fortunes, or laziness of their difpofitions, have no other bufinefs with the reft of mankind but to look upon them. Under this clafs of men are comprehended all contemplative Tradefmen, titular Phyficians, Fellows of the Royal Society, Templars that are not given to be contentious, and Statesmen that are out of business: in fhort, every one that confiders the world as a theatre, and defires to form a right judgment of those who are the actors on it.

There is another fet of men that I must likewife lay a claim to, whom I have lately called the Blanks of Society, as being altogether unfurnished with ideas, till the bu finefs and converfation of the day has fupplied them. I have often confidered these poor fouls with an eye of E 3 great

great commiferation, when I have heard them afking the first man they have met with, whether there was any news ftirring and by that means gathering together materials for thinking. Thefe needy perfons do not know what to talk of till about twelve o'clock in the morning; for by that time they are pretty good judges of the weather, know which way the wind fits, and whether the Dutch mail be come in. As they lie at the mercy of the firft man they meet, and are grave or impertinent all the day long, according to the notions which they have imbibed in the morning, I would earneftly intreat them not to ftir out of their chambers till they have read this paper; and do promife them that I will daily inftil into them fuch found and wholesome fentiments, as fhall have a good effect on their converfation for the enfuing twelve hours.

Their

But there are none to whom this paper will be more ufetur than to the female world. I have often thought there has not been fufficient pains taken in finding out proper employments and diverfions for the fair ones. Their amufements feem contrived for them, rather as they are women than as they are reafonable creatures; and are more adapted to the fex than to the fpecies. The toilet is their great fcene of bufincfs, and the right adjufting of their hair the principal employment of their lives. The forting of a fuit of ribbons is reckoned a very good morning's work; and if they make an excurfion to a mercer's or a toy-fhop, fo great a fatigue makes them unfit for any thing else all the day after. more ferious occupations are fewing and embroidery, and their greatest drudgery the preparation of jellies and fweet-meats. This, I fay, is the ftate of ordinary women; though I know there are multitudes of thofe of a more elevated life and converfation, that move in an exalted fphere of knowledge and virtue, that join all the beauties of the mind to the ornaments of drefs, and infpire a kind of awe and refpect, as well as love, into their male-beholders. I hope to increate the number of thefe by publishing this daily paper, which I fhall always endeavour to make an innocent if not an improving entertainment,

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