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his Circumftances, humbles the Poet to exalt the Citizen. Like a true Tradesman, I hardly ever look into any Books but thofe of Accompts. To fay the Truth, I cannot, I think, give you a better Idea of my being a downright Man of Traffick, than by acknowledging oftner read the Advertisements, than the Matter of even your Paper. I am under a great Temptation to take this Opportunity of admonishing other Writers to follow my Example, and trouble the Town no more; but as it is my present Business to increase the Number of Buyers rather than Sellers, I haften to tell you that I am,

SIR, Your most humble

and most obedient Servant, Peter Motteux.

N° 289.

Thursday, January 31.

Vita fumma brevis fpem nos vetat inchoare longam. Hor.

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PON taking my Seat in a Coffee-house I often draw the Eyes of the whole Room upon me, when in the hottest Seasons of News, and at a time perhaps that the Dutch Mail is juft come in, they hear me ask the Coffee-man for his last Week's Bill of Mortality: I find that I have been fometimes taken on this occafion for a Parish Sexton, fometimes for an Undertaker, and sometimes for a Doctor of Phyfick. In this, however, I am guided by the Spirit of a Philofopher, as I take occafion from hence to reflect upon the regular Increase and Diminution of Mankind, and confider the feveral various Ways through which we pafs from Life to Eternity. I am very well pleased with these Weekly Admonitions, that bring into my Mind fuch Thoughts as ought to be the daily Entertainment of every reasonable Creature; and can confider, with Pleasure to my felf, by which of thofe Deliverances, or, as we commonly

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N° 289. call them, Diftempers, I may poffibly make my Escape out of this World of Sorrows, into that Condition of Exiftence, wherein I hope to be Happier than it is poffible for me at present to conceive.

BUT this is not all the Ufe I make of the above-mentioned Weekly Paper. A Bill of Mortality is in my Opinion an unanfwerable Argument for a Providence. How can we, without fuppofing our felves under the constant Care of a Supreme Being, give any poffible Account for that nice Proportion which we find in every great City, between the Deaths and Births of its Inhabitants, and between the Number of Males and that of Females, who are brought into the World? What else could adjust in fo exact a manner the Recruits of every Nation to its Loffes, and divide these new Supplies of People into fuch-equal Bodies of both Sexes? Chance could never hold the Balance with fo fteady a Hand. Were we not counted out by an intelligent Supervifor, we fhould fometimes be overcharged with Multitudes, and at others wafte away into a Defert: We fhould be fometimes a populus virorum, as Florus elegantly expreffes it, a Generation of Males, and at others a Species of Women. We may extend this Confideration to every Species of living Creatures, and confider the whole animal World as an huge Army made up of an innumerable Corps, if I may ufe that Term, whose Quota's have been kept intire near five thousand Years, in fo wonderful a manner, that there is not probably a fingle Species loft during this long Tract of Time. Could we have general Bills of Mortality of every kind of Animal, or particular ones of every Species in each Continent and Island, I could almoft fay in every Wood, Marsh or Mountain, what aftonishing Inftances would they be of that Providence which watches over all its Works?

I have heard of a great Man in the Romish Church, who upon reading those Words in the 5th Chapter of Genefis, And all the Days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty Years, and he died; and all the Days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve Years, and he died; and all the Days of Methufalah were nine hundred and fixty nine Years, and he died; immediately fhut himfelf up in a Convent, and retired from the World, as not thinking any thing in this Life worth pursuing, which had not regard to another.

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THE Truth of it is, there is nothing in Hiftory which is fo improving to the Reader, as thofe Accounts which we meet with of the Deaths of eminent Perfons, and of their Behaviour in that dreadful Seafon. I may also add, that there are no Parts in Hiftory which affect and please the Reader in fo fenfible a manner. The Reason I take to be this, because there is no other fingle Circumftance in the Story of any Perfon, which can poffibly be the Cafe of every one who reads it. A Battle or a Triumph are Conjunctures in which not one Man in a Million is likely to be engaged; but when we fee a Perfon at the Point of Death, we cannot forbear being attentive to every thing he fays or does, because we are fure that fome time or other we shall ourselves be in the fame melancholy Cir cumftances. The General, the Statesman, or the Philofopher, are perhaps Characters which we may never act in; but the dying Man is one whom, fooner or later, we fhall certainly resemble.

IT is, perhaps, for the fame kind of Reason that few Books, written in English, have been fo much perused as Doctor Sherlock's Difcourfe upon Death; though at the fame time I must own, that he who has not perufed this Excellent Piece, has not perhaps read one of the strongest Perfuafives to a Religious Life that ever was written in any Language.

THE Confideration, with which I fhall clofe this Effay upon Death, is one of the most ancient and most beaten Morals that has been recommended to Mankind. But its being fo very common, and fo univerfally received, though it takes away from it the Grace of Novelty, adds very much to the Weight of it, as it fhews that it falls in with the general Senfe of Mankind. In fhort, I would have every one confider, that he is in this Life nothing more than a Paffenger, and that he is not to fet up his Reft here, but to keep an attentive Eye upon that State of Being to which he approaches every Moment, and which will be for ever fixed and permanent. This fingle Confideration would be fufficient to extinguish the Bitterness of Hatred, the Thirst of Avarice, and the Cruelty of Ambition.

I am very much pleased with the Paffage of Antiphanes a very ancient Poet, who lived near an hundred Years be

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No 289. ore Socrates, which represents the Life of Man under this View, as I have here translated it Word for Word. Be not grieved, fays he, above measure for thy deceafed Friends. They are not dead, but have only finished that Journey which it is necessary for every one of us to take: We our felves must go to that great Place of Reception in which they are all of them affembled, and in this general Rendezvous of Mankind, live together in another State of Being.

I think I have, in a former Paper, taken notice of those beautiful Metaphors in Scripture, where Life is termed a Pilgrimage, and those who pafs through it are called Strangers and Sojourners upon Earth. I fhall conclude this with a Story, which I have fomewhere read in the Travels of Sir John Chardin; that Gentleman after having told us, that the Inns which receive the Caravans in Perfia, and the Eastern Countries, are called by the Name of Caravansaries, gives us a Relation to the following Purpose.

A Dervife, travelling through Tartary, being arrived at the Town of Balk, went into the King's Palace by Miftake, as thinking it to be a publick Inn or Caravanfary. Having looked about him for fome time, he enter'd into a long Gallery, where he laid down his Wallet, and fpread his Carpet, in order to repofe himself upon it after the Manner of the Eastern Nations. He had not been long in this Pofture before he was difcovered by fome of the Guards, who asked him what was his Bufinefs in that Place? The Dervise told them he intended to take up his Night's Lodging in that Caravanfary. The Guards let him know, in a very angry manner, that the House he was in was not a Caravanfary, but the King's Palace. It happened that the King himself paffed through the Gallery during this Debate, and fmiling at the Mistake of the Dervife, asked him how he could poffibly be fo dull as not to distinguish a Palace from a Caravanfary? Sir, fays the Dervife, give me leave to ask your Majesty a Question or two. Who were the Perfons that lodged in this House when it was first built? the King replied, His Ancestors. And who, fays the Dervife, was the laft Perfon that lodged here? The King replied, His Father. And who is it, fays the Dervife, that lodges here at prefent? the King told him, that it was he himself. And who, fays the Der

wife, will be here after you? The King anfwered. The young Prince his Son. Ah Sir, faid the Dervife, a House that changes its Inhabitants fo often, and receives fuch a perpetual Succeffion of Guefts, is not a Palace but a Caravanfary.

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No 290.

290. Friday, February 1.

Projicit ampullas & fefquipedalia verba.

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Hor.

HE Players, who know I am very much their Friend, take all Opportunities to exprefs a Gratitude to me for being fo. They could not have a better Occafion of Obliging me, than one which they lately took hold of. They defired my Friend WILL. HONEYCOM B to bring me to the Reading of a new Tragedy, it is called The Diftreffed Mother. I muft confefs, tho' fome Days are paffed fince I enjoyed that Entertainment, the Paffions of the feveral Characters dwell strongly upon my Imagination; and I congratulate to the Age, that they are at laft to fee Truth and human Life reprefented in the Incidents which concern Heroes and Heroines. The Stile of the Play is fuch as becomes thofe of the first Education, and the Sentiments worthy those of the highest Figure. It was a moft exquifite Pleafure to me, to obferve real Tears drop from the Eyes of those who had long made it their Profeffion to diffemble Affliction ;and the Player, who read, frequently throw down the Book, till he had given vent to the Humanity which rofe in him at fome irresistible Touches of the imagined Sorrow. We have seldom had any Female Distress on the Stage, which did not, upon cool Examination, appear to flow from the Weakness rather than the Misfortune of the Perfon represented: But in this Tragedy you are not entertained with the ungoverned Paffions of fuch as are enamoured of each other merely as they are Men and Women, but their Regards are founded upon high Conceptions of each other's Virtue and Merit; and the Character

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