་ present at a very important difpute, when a fhoemaker (a very honest fellow) affirmed to the general fatisfaction of his audience, that the world was eternal from the beginning, and would be fo to the end of it. At another time the discourse turning upon politics, a mercer, (no fmall man, I can. affure you) wonder'd what a duce we would have. I'm fure, fays he, there's not a happier island in England than Great-Britain; and a man may chufe his own Religion, that he may, whether it be Mahometifm or Infidelity. A little while ago I lent my Smith's Harmonics to my Mufick-mafter, who has fince return'd it, affuring me, that it is not worth a farthing; for 'twould teach me the Thievery may hap, but as for the Practicks, he'll put me into a betterer method. I could produce many more such instances which I have glean'd from their converfations; but thefe will be fufficient to convince the world that no subject is too high, no point too intricate for their exalted capacities. Nor is the thirft of knowledge lefs prevalent among the lower order of college fervants. T'other day I caught my bedmaker, a grave old matron, poring very feriously over a Folio, that lay open upon my table. I afk'd her what the was reading? Lord bless you, mafter, fays fhe, who I reading? I never could read in my life, bleffed be God; and yet I loves to look into a book too. My Scout indeed is a very learned fellow, and has an excellent knack at ufing hard words. One morning he told me, the gentleman in the next room contagious to mine defired to speak to me. I once overheard him give a fellow fervant very sober advice, not to go aftray but be true to his own wife; for Idolatry would furely bring a man to Inftruction at laft. I cannot conclude better than by giving a specimen of an Oxford tradesman's poetical genius, in an extract of a letter from my taylor, who (in the college phrafe) put the dun upon me. In my anfwer I advised him to perufe PHILIPS's defcription of a dun in his fplendid fhilling; to which he made. me this reply. But now to that which, you fay, breaks all friendship, a dun, horrible monster! I have bruis'd PHILIPS, tho' in fome places too hard. As to the appellation, I cannot think it rightly apply'd; For I Ne'er yet did thunder with my vocal heel, But you, Whom fortune's bleft with fplendid fhilling worth, Fruits, that doe chearful make the heart of mari. N. B. I have paid him. Thus have I taken fome pains to do juftice to that profound erudition and extenfive knowledge, which elevates all OXFORD above the common rout of mankind; and which evidently proves the neceffity and advantage of an University education. For if townsmen by our influence are' fo enlighten'd, what must we gownsmen be ourfelves? The STUDENT: A MODERN HISTORY. Communicated in a Letter from a Gentleman in LONDON, SIR, To the STUDENT. ERMIT me to take up a few pages of your fucceeding number with the relation of an incident I was a witness to last night. Let it not fright the gravity of the STUDENT, when I tell him it happen'd at the Masquerade: were Mafquerades and Students things incompatible, it would not have happen'd at all. I have many reafons for wifhing it particularly to appear to the world in your work: I only think it worthy the notice of the publick as the act of a Student: I would plead in favour of a Student against a too rigid father: and I would alarm other Students by example against the first steps. of an ill thing, the utmost confequences of which may not appear till much too late to be remedied. I need not give you the initial letters of the name of the hero of this story, when I tell you, he is the gayeft and best natured fellow among you; the delight of every body that knows him; and that he is unlucky enough to be the son of an old French Debauchee, who fent him two years ago to your University, with the pious refolution of making atonement for the fins of a generation of pick-pockets, by breeding him a clergyman. None are fo apt to fufpect the actions of others as those who have been blameable themfelves. The cautious father, who perfuaded himself that his own happinefs depended upon his fon's virtue, was upon the watch, while he liv'd with him, on every the flightest occafion; and when he parted with him to your community, confign'd him to the care of the most rigid man he could find in it: If the Roman method of giving children an averfion to vicious habits, by expofing flaves made infamous by them to their view, had any reason in it, my friend CHARLES (for I shall not spare his Chriftian name) has had an example always before him of such a kind, as ought to make virtue very amiable. The best measures however don't always fucceed. One of the first people I made out at last night's Mafquerade was CHARLES. He acknowledged the bold venture he had made to get to it, and frankly gave me for the reason of it, that he had hitherto known no pleasures but those of study, and was determin'd for once to try, by way of experiment, what there was in thofe of the other kind, which he faw most people of his age so abfolutely devoted to. My young friend knew fo little of the world, that he had perfuaded himself every woman, who came to a place of this kind, was to be had; and he had determined to fingle out the best that he could meet with, and either under the character of an abfolute rake, or that of an humbler lover, to carry her off. Determin'd not to be disappointed in this fcheme, he had enter'd the room in two dreffes, that of a sportsman underneath, but cover'd with a common Domino, and ornamented with an hat render'd very fingular by a glittering button. As I did not chufe the honourable office of pointing out a mistress to my friend, I no fooner heard his intentions than I left him. CHARLES hunted the room in vain two hours: at length a female figure coming up to a perfon just by him, and faying some very lively things in broken English, he enquired, as foon as the perfon spoken to was left alone, who fhe was. On being informed that it was the eminent Mademoiselle Brilliant the principal woman of the late French Comedy, he determined within himself that an actrefs could not be overburthen'd with virtue, and refolv'd upon making her the business of the night. He He fingled her out, attack'd her, and as he was well acquainted with the spirit and genius of the nation fhe belong'd to, he threw so much familiarity (not to say impudence) into his address, that the Lady grew difpleas'd, and when he prefs'd her to go out with him, whisper'd him in the eas, that he was by far the fauciest fellow she had ever convers'd with. She broke from him with this reprimand, which was deliver'd very seriously, and avoided him for half an hour. 'Twas in vain that fhe told him with a severity he could at that time by no means comprehend, that fhe was fatisfied about him: he kept up his pretenfions, and in fine, when fomebody, that had join'd them, prefs'd a familiarity with the Lady, he very modeftly told him, that he had engag'd her for that evening. It was not till his delivering this civil fpeech, that he found the perfon he was addreffing was in good earnest angry with him. He very narrowly escap'd the heaviest blow, that ever was given by a female hand, in return for it, by getting out of the way; and now perfectly convinced, to his great aftonishment, that his Lady was not to be carry'd that way, he threw off his Domino, lent his hat to the first man he met, and told him the button in it would be his credential to Madame Brilliant, whom he pointed out at a distance, for any thing he should chuse to demand of her: then putting on a cap he had in his pocket to compleat his new figure as a sportsman, he watch'd his opportunity for a new attack. As little of the world in general as CHARLES knew, he was not fo abfolute a Student, but that he was fenfible a man never could come in fo good a time to a lady in the character of a lover, as when she had just discarded an old one; and if he could affume a character contrary to that of the late difhonour'd favourite, his contrariety to him would be conftrued into a fort of merit. Full of this well conducted scheme the lover waited at a distance, while the young fellow, to whom he had lent his hat, and who had obferved the wearer of it to have been before in great familiarity with |