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pington, by falling in love with his coat, being in raptures with his peruke, seeming ravished with the genteel dangle of his fword-knot; and, in fhort, to recommend himself to his noble elder brother, by affecting to be captivated with his favourites. In like manner, the Author, who would make his Dedication really valuable, should not talk to his patron of his honour, and virtue, and integrity, and a pack of unfashionable qualities, which only ferve to difgrace a Fine Gentleman; but boldly paint him what he really is, and at the fame time convince him of his merit in being a fool, and his glory in being a fcoundrel. This mode of Dedication, though proper at all times, will appear with a particular good grace before A Syftem of Immoral Philofophy: wherefore, as my book is now finished, I have here fent you a rough draught of the Epiftle Dedicatory, and fhall be glad to hear your opinion of it.

May it please your Grace! or, My Lord!

or, Sir!

You are in every point fo complete a Fine Gentleman, that the following Treatife is but a faint tranfcript of your accomplishments. There is not one qualification, requifite in the character of a man of fpirit, which you do not poffefs. Give me leave therefore, on the prefent occafion, to point forth your inestimable qualities to the world, and hold up to the public view fo glorious an example. You diftinguished yourfelf fo early in life, and exalted yourfelf fo far above the common pitch of vulgar Bucks, that you was diftinguished, before the age of twenty, with the noble appellation of Stag: and when I confider the many gallant exploits you have performed, the number of rafcally poltrons you have fent out of the world, the number of pretty little foundlings you have brought into it, how many girls you have debauched, how many women of quality you have intrigued with, and how many hogheads of French wine have run through your body, I cannot help contemplating you as a Stag of the firft head.

What great reafon have you to value yourself on your noble atchievements at Arthur's! The fums you formerly lost, and thofe you have lately won, are amazing inftances of your fpirit and addrefs; firit, in venturing fo deeply, before you was let into the fecret; and then, in ma

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Nor have your exploits on the Turf rendered you lefs famous. Let the annals of Pond and Heber deliver down to pofterity the glorious account of what plates you have won, what matches you made, and how often the Knowing Ones have been taken in; when, for private reafons you have found it neceffary, that your horfe fhould run on the wrong fide of the poft, or be diftanced after winning the first heat. I need not mention your own skill in Horfemanfhip, and in how many matches you have condefcended to ride yourfelf; for in this particular, it must be acknowledged, you cannot be outdone, even by your groom or jockey.

All the world will witness the many inftances of your Courage, which has been often tried and exerted in Hyde Park, and behind Montague Houfe; nay, you have fometimes been known to draw your fword moft heroically at the opera, the play, and even at private routes and affemblies. How often have you put to flight a whole army of watch men, conftables, and beadles, with the juftices at their head! You have cleared a whole bawdy-house before you, and taken many a tavern by storm: you have pinned a waiter to the ground; and have befides proved yourself an excellent markfman, by fhooting a poft-boy flying. With fo much valour and firin nefs, it is not to be doubted, but that you would behave with the fame intrepidity, if occafion called, upon Houn flow Heath, or in Maidenhead Thicket: and, if it were neceffary, you would as boldly refign yourfelf up to the hands of Jack Ketch, and fwing as gentedly as Maclean or Gentleman Harry. The famne noble fpirit would likewife enable you to aim the piftol at your own head, and go out of the world like a man of honour and a gentleman,

But your Courage has not rendered you infufceptible of the fofter paflions, to which your heart has been ever inclined. To fay nothing of your gall lantries with women of fafion, your intrigues with milliners and mantua makers, or your feducing raw country 2 M

girls

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as well as established your confequence, in the proper place, by fecuring half a dozen boroughs. As to Religion, you foon unravelled every mystery of that; and not only know the Bible to be as romantic as the Alcoran, but have also written several volumes, to make your difcoveries plainer to meaner capacities. The ridiculous prejudices of a foolish world unhappily prevent your publishing them at prefent: but you have wifely provided, that they fhall one day fee the light; when, I doubt not, they will he deemed invaluable, and be as univerfally admired, as the Posthumous Works of Lord Bolingbroke.

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N° CXXIII. THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1756.

QUO PATRE SIT NATUS, NUM IGNOTA MATRE INHONESTUS?

SAY, WHO CAN CLAIM THE FOUNDLING FOR THEIR SON?
MY LORD AND MOLLY? OR HER GRACE AND JOHN?

Tthat the Foundling Hospital will HE notices in the public papers, be open for the reception of infants in general under a certain age, have, I find, given univertal fatisfaction. The confequences of a big belly do not appear, fo dreadful as heretofore; and it was but yesterday, that a young fellow of intrigue told me, he was happy that his children would no longer be thrown out of the Hofpital, as he himself had been out of Arthur's, by black balls. For my part, though I have no lady in keep ing, no child by my houfe keeper, nor any other affair of gallantry on my hands, which makes me with to fwell the number of infants maintained by that charity, I must own myself to be exceedingly rejoiced at the extenfion of fo benevolent a defign. I look upon it as the certain prefervation of many hundreds in embryo: nor fhall we now hear of fo many helpless babes birth-trangled in a neceffary, or mothered by the ditch-delivered drab.' As a bastard is accounted in law, quafi nullius filius, the child of nobody, and related to nobody, and yet is bleffed with as fair

HOR.

degree of perfection with honelt maproportions, and capable of an equal

dam's iffue, it is furely an act of great bumanity thus to refcue them from untimely deaths and other miferies, which they do not merit, whatever may be the guilt of their parents.

Though it is obvious, that this Hofpital will be made the receptacle of many legitimate children; it is no lefs certain, that the rich, as well as the poor, will often fend their bafe-born bantlings to this general nursery. The wealthy man of quality, or fubftantial cit, may have their private family-reasons for not owning the fruits of their fecret amours, and be glad to put the little living witnefs of their intrigues out of the way. For this reason, an history of the Foundlings received there would be very curious and entertaining, as it would con-" tain many anecdotes not to be learned from any Parish-regifter. The reflec tions that paffed in my mind on this fübject, gave occafion the other evening to the following Dream.

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Methought, as I was ftanding at the private door of the Hospital, where a crowd

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crowd of females (each of them with a child in her arms) were preffing to get in, an elderly gentleman, whom from his white staff I took to be a governor of the charity, very courteously invited me to come in. I accepted his offer; and having feated myself near him' Mr. 'Town, fays he, I am confcious that

you look upon most of thefe little infants as the offsprings of fo many unmarried fathers and maiden mothers,

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as well as in their bufinefs, have fet up a whore and an one-horse chaife in 'partnership together.

That pert young baggage there, who fo boldly presses forward with her brat, is not the mother of it, but is maid to a fingle lady of the strictest honour and unblemished reputation About a twelvemonth ago, her mistress went to Bath for the benefit of her health: and ten months after, the tra

which have been clandeftinely fmugvelled into North Wales to fee a rela

gled into the world.. Know then, that I am one of thofe guardian Genii, ap pointed to fuperintend the fortunes of Bastards: therefore, as this Hofpital is more immediately under my tuition, I have put on this difguife; and, if you pleafe, will let you into the fecret hiftory of those babes who are my wards, and their parents.'

I affured him, his intelligence would be highly agreeable; and several now coming up to offer their children, he refumed his difcourfe. Obferve, faid he, that jolly little rogue, with plump 'cheeks, a florid complexion, blue eyes, and fandy locks. We have here already feveral of his brethren by the 'mother's fide; fome fair, fome brown,

and fome black: and yet they are all fuppofed to have come by the fame father. The mother has for many years ⚫ been housekeeper to a gentleman, who cannot fee that her children bear the marks of his own fervants, and that 'this very brat is the exact refemblance ⚫ of his coachman.

That puling whining infant there, ⚫ with a pale face, emaciated body, and 'distorted limbs, is the forced product of viper-broth and cantharides. It is "the offspring of a worn-out buck of quality, who, at the fame time he debauched the mother, ruined her conftitution by a filthy disease; in confequence of which, the, with much dif⚫ficulty, brought forth this juft image ⚫ of himself in miniature.

The next that offers, is the iffue of • a careful cit; who, as he keeps an ⚫ horfe for his own riding on Sundays, ⚫ which he lets out all the rest of the • week, keeps also a mistress for his re⚫ creation on the feventh day, who lets ⚫ herself out on the other fix. That • other babe owes his birth likewife to the city; but is the joint product, as we may fay, of two fathers; who be⚫ing great economists in their pleasures,

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tion; from whence he is juft returned. We may fuppofe, that she took a fancy to that pretty babe, while in the coun try, and brought it up to town with her, in order to place it here: as fhe 'did a few years ago to another charm ing boy; which, being too old to be got into this Hofpital, is now at a fchool in Yorkshire, where young gentlemen are boarded, cloathed, and educated, and found in all neceffaries, for ten pounds a year.

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That chubby little boy, which you fee in the arms of yonder ftrapping wench in a camblet gown, and red cloak, is her own fon. She is by profeffion a bed-maker in one of the univeilities, and of the fame college, in which the father (a grave tutor) holds a fellowship, under the ufual condi dition of not marrying, Many sober gentlemen of the cloth, who are in the fame ferape, are glad to take the benefit of this charity and if all of the fame reverend order, like the priests abroad, were laid under the fame re trictions, you might expect to fee a particular Hofpital erected for the reception of the Sons of the Clergy.

That next child belongs to a fea captain's lady, whofe husband is expected to return every moment from a long voyage; the fears of which have happily haftened the birth of this infant a full month before it's time. That other is the polthumous child of a wealthy old gentleman, who married a young girl for love, and died in the honey-noon. This his fon and. heir was not born till near a twelvemonth after his decease, because it's birth was retarded by the exceffive grief of his widow; who on that account rather chofe to lie-in privately, and to lodge their only child here, than to have it's legitimacy, and her own honour, called in question by her bufband's relations."

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My companion pointed out to me feveral others, whofe original was no lefs extraordinary; among which, I remember, he told me, one was the unhallowed brood of a Methodift Teacher, and another the premature fpawn of a Maid of Honour. A poor author eafed himfelf of a very heavy load of two twindaughters, which in an evil hour he begot on an hawker of pamphlets, after he had been writing a lufcious novel: but I could not help fmiling at the marks' fent in with thefe new Mufes, fignifying that one had been chriftened Terpsichore, and the other Polyhymnia. Several bantlings were imported from Hington, Hoxton, and other villages within the found of Bow Bell: many were tranfplanted hither out of the country; and a whole litter of brats were ent in from two or three parishes in

particular, for which it is doubtful whee ther they were most indebted to the parfon or the fquire.

A modeft-looking woman now brought a very fine babe to be admitted; but the governors rejected it, as it appeared to be above two months old. The mother, on the contrary, perfifted in affirming, that it was but juft born; and, addreffing herfelf to me, defired me to look at it. I accordingly took it in my arms;. and while I was toffing it up and down, and praifing it's beauty, the fly huffy contrived to flip away, leaving the precious charge to my care. The efforts which I made to bawl after her, and the fqualling of the brat, which rung piteoufly in my ears, luckily awaked me: and I was very happy to find, that I had only been dandling my pillow, instead of a bantling.

N° CXXIV. THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1756.

ACCIPE, PER LONGOS TIBI QUI DESERVIAT ANNOS:
ACCIPE, QUI PURA NORIT AMARE FIDE.

6

IST NULLI CESSURA FIDES; SINE CRIMINE MORES;
NUDAQUE SIMPLICITAS, PURPUREUSQUE PUDOR.
NON MIHI MILLE PLACENT; NON SUM DESULTOR AMORTS;
TU MIHI (SI QUA FIDES) CURA PEKENNIS ERIS.

J

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SCORN ME NOT, CHLOE; ME, WHOSE FAITH WILL TRY'D,
LONG YEARS APPROVE, AND HONEST PASSIONS GUIDE:
MY SPOTLESS SOUL NO FOUL AFFECTIONS MOVE,
BUT CHASTE SIMPLICITY, AND MODEST LOVE:
NOR 1, LIKE SHALLOW FOPS, FROM FAIR TO FAIR
ROVING AT RANDOM, FAITHLESS PASSION SWEAR,
EUT THOU ALONE SHALT BE MY CONSTANT CARE.

LMOST every man is or has

or has been, a Lover. One has fought for his miftrefs, another drank for her, another wrote for her, and another has done all three and yet, perhaps, in fpite of their duels, poetry, and bumpers, not one of them ever entertained a finceré paffion. I have lately taken a furvey of the numerous tribe of Enamoratos, and after having obferved the · various shapes' they wear, think I may fafely pronounce, that though all profels to have been in Love, there are very few who are really capable of it.

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It is a maxim of Rochefoucault's, that many men would never have been in Love, if they had never heard of Loves The justice of this remark is aqual to it's fhrewdneft. The ridicu

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lous prate of a family has frequently great influence on young minds, who learn to love, as they do every thing elfe, by imitation. Young creatures, almoft mere children, have been confamed with this fecond-hand flame lighted up at another's paffion; and, in confequence of the Loves of the footman and chambermaid, I have known' little mafter fancy himself a dying fwain, at the age of thirteen, and little mifs pining away with Love in a bib and hanging feeves.

That vaft heap of volumes, filled with Love, and fufficient in number to make a library, are great enflamers, and feldom fail to produce that kind of paffion described by Rochefoucault. The chief of thefe literary feducers are the old romances, and their degenerate

Spawn,

spawn, the modern novels. The young tudent reads of the emotions of Love, till he imagines that he feels them throbbing and fluttering in his little breast; as valetudinarians ftudy the history of a difeafe, till they fancy themselves affected with every fymptom of it. For this reason, I am always forry to fee any of this trash in the bands of young people: I look upon Caffandra and Cleopatra, as well as Betty Barnes, Polly Willis, Sec. as no better than bawds; and confider Don Bellianis of Greece, and Sir Amadis de Gaul, with George Edwards, Loveill, &c. as arrant pimps. But though romances and novels are both equally ftimulatives, yet their operations are very different. The romance-itudent becomes a fond Corydon of Sicily, or a very Damon of Arcadia, and is in good truth fuch a dying fwain, that he believes he fall hang himfelf on the next willow, or drown himself in the next pond, if he should lofe the object of his wishes: but the young novelift turns out more a man of the world; and after having gained the affections of his miftrefs, forms an hundred schemes to fecure the poffeffion of her, and to bam her relations.

There are, among the tribe of Lovers, a fort of luke warm gentlemen, who can hardly be faid, in the language of love, to entertain a flame for their miftrefs. These are your men of fuperlative delicacy and refinement, who loath the gross ideas annexed to the amours of the vulgar, and aim at fomething more fpiritualized and fublime. Thefe philofophers in Love doat on the mind alone of their mistress, and would fain fee her naked foul divefted of it's material incumbrances. Gentlenen of this complexion might perhaps not improperly be ranged in the romantic clafs, but they have affumed to themselves the name of Platonic Lovers.

Platonism, however, is in thefe days, very scarce; and there is another clafs, infinitely more numerous, compofed of a fort of Lovers, whom we may july diftinguish by the title of Epicureans. The principles of this feet are diametrically opponite, to thofe of the Platonics. They think no more of the foul of their mitrefs than a Muffuhnan, but are in raptures with her perfon. A Lover of this fort is in perpetual extafies: his pation is fo violent, that he even fcorches You with his flame; and he runs over

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the perfections of his mistress in the fame ftile that a jockey praifes his horse: Such limbs fuch eyes! fuch a neck and breaft! fuch-oh, the's a rare piece! Their ideas go no farther than mère external accomplishments; and, as ` their wounds may be faid to be only fkin-deep, we cannot allow their breasts to he finitten with Love, though perhaps they may rankle with a much groffer paffion. Yet it must be owned, that nothing is more common, than for gentlemen of this caft to be involved in what is called a Love-match: but then it is owing to the fame caufe with the marriage of Sir John Brute, who fays

I married my wife, becaused I wanted to lie with her, and he would not • let me.'

Other gentlemen, of a gay difpofition and warin conftitution, who go in the catalogue for Lovers, are adorers of almoft every woman they fee. The flame of Love is as eafily kindled in them, as the fparks are ftruck out of a flint; and it alto expires as foon. A Lover of this fort dances one day with a lady at a ball, and lofes his heart to her in a'minuer; the next, another carries it off in the Mall; and the next day, perhaps, he goes out of town, and lodges it in the poffeffion of all the country beauties fucceffively, till at last he brings it back to town with him, and prefents it to the first woman he meets. This clafs is very numerous; but ought by no means to hold a place among the tribe of true Lovers, fince a gentleman who is thus in Love with every body, may fairly be faid not to be in Love at all.

Love is univerfally allowed, to be whimfical, and if whim is the effence of Love, none can be accounted truer Lovers, than those who admire their iniftrefs for fome particular charm, which enchains them, though it would fingly never captivate any body elfe. Some gentlemen have been won to conjugal embraces by a pair of fine arms; others have been held fast by an even white fet of teeth; and I know a very good scholar, who was enfpared by a fet of golden treffes, because it was the taste of the ancients, and the true claffical hair. Thofe ladies, whofe Lovers are fuch piecemeal admirers, are in perpetual danger of lofing them. Ara, or a pimple, may abate their affection. All thofe, the object of whofe adoration is merely a pretty face or a fine perfon,

are

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