No. 97.] Thursday, July 2. --Furor eat post omnia perdere naulum.-Juv. which I have here related to you, I may not sue her for damages in a court of justice. Your advice in this particular, will very much oblige, "Your most humble admirer, "SIMON SOFTLY." Before 1 answer Mr. Softly's request, I find myself under a necessity of discussing two nice points: first of all, what it is, in cases of this nature, that amounts to an encouragement; and secondly, what it is that amounts to a promise. Each of which subjects requires more time to examine than I am at present master of. Besides, I would have my friend Simon consider, whether he has any counsel that would undertake his cause in forma pauperis, he having unluckily disabled himself, by his own account of the matter, from prosecuting his suit any other way. know, sir, is using a man like a fool, and so I told her; but the worst of it is, that I have spent my fortune to no purpose. All therefore that I desire of you is, to tell me wheSIR,-I was left a thousand pounds by anther, upon exhibiting the several particulars uncle, and being a man, to my thinking, very likely to get a rich widow, I laid aside all thoughts of making my fortune any other way, and without loss of time made my application to one who had buried her husband about a week before. By the help of some of her she friends, who were my relations, I got into her company when she would see no man besides myself and her lawyer, who is a little, rivelled, spindle-shanked gentleman, and married to boot, so that I had no reason to fear him. Upon my first seeing her, she said in conversation, within my hearing, that she thought a pale complexion the most agreeable, either in man or woman: now you must know, sir, my face is as white as chalk. This gave me some encourage ment, so that, to mend the matter, I bought a fine flaxen, long wig, that cost me thirty guineas, and found an opportunity of seeing her in it the next day. She then let drop some expressions about an agate snuff-box. In answer, however, to Mr. Softly's reimmediately took the hint and bought one, quest, I shall acquaint him with a method being unwilling to omit any thing that might made use of by a young fellow in King make me desirable in her eyes. I was be- Charles the Second's reign, whom I shall trayed after the same manner into a brocade here call Silvio, who had long made love, waistcoat, a sword-knot, a pair of silver- with much artifice and intrigue, to a rich ringed gloves, and a diamond ring. But widow, whose true name I shall conceal unwhether out of fickleness, or a design upon der that of Zelinda. Silvio, who was much ne, I cannot tell; but I found by her dis- more smitten with her fortune than her percourse, that what she liked one day she dis-son, finding a twelvemonth's application unliked another; so that in six months space I was forced to equip myself above a dozen times. As I told you before, I took her hints at a distance, for I could never find an opportunity of talking with her directly to the point. All this time, however, I was In order to this he presented her with a allowed the utmost familiarities with her bill of costs; having particularised in it the lap-dog, and have played with it above an several expenses he had been at in his long hour together, without receiving the least perplexed amour. Zelinda was so pleased reprimand, and had many other marks of with the humour of the fellow, and his frank favour shown me, which I thought amounted way of dealing, that, upon the perusal of to a promise. If she chanced to drop her the bill, she sent him a purse of fifteen hunfan, she received it from my hands with dred guineas, by the right application of great civility. If she wanted any thing, I which, the lover, in less than a year, got a reached it for her. I have filled her tea- woman of greater fortune than her he had pot above a hundred times, and have after-missed. The several articles in the bill of wards received a dish of it from her own costs I pretty well remember, though I have hands. Now, sir, do you judge if, after such forgotten the particular sum charged to each encouragements, she was not obliged to mar-article. ry me. I forgot to tell you that I kept a chair by the week, on purpose to carry me thither and back again. Not to trouble you with a long letter, in the space of about a twelvemonth I have run out of my whole thousand pounds upon her, having laid out the last fifty in a new suit of clothes, in which I was resolved to receive her final answer, which amounted to this, that she was engaged to another; that she never dreamt I had any such thing in my head as marriage; and that she thought I had frequented her house only because that I loved to be in company with my relations. This, you successful, was resolved to make a saving bargain of it, and since he could not get the widow's estate into his possession, to recover at least what he had laid out of his own in the pursuit of it. Laid out in supernumerary full-buttom wigs. Fiddles for a serenade, with a speaking trumpet. Gilt paper in letters, and billet-doux with perfumed wax. A ream of sonnets and love verses, purchased at different times of Mr. Triplett at a crown a sheet. To Zelinda two sticks of May cherries. Last summer, at several times, a bushel of peaches. Three porters whom I planted about her to watch her motions. The first, who stood sentry near her door. | The second, who had his stand at the stables where her coach was pu up. The third, who kept watch at the corner of the street where Ned Courtall lives, who has since married her. Two additional porters planted over her during the whole month of May. every part of the strings, and at last told her master she had tried the fiddle all over, but could not for her heart find whereabout the tune lay. But though the whole burden of such a paper is only fit to rest on the shoulders of a Bickerstaffe, or an Ironside, there are several who can acquit themselves of a single day's labour in it with suitable abilities. These are gentlemen whom I have often invited to this trial of wit, and who have seve Five conjurers kept in pay all last winter. Spy-money to John Trott her footman, and Mrs, Sarah Wheedle her companion. A new Conningsmark blade to fight Nedral of them acquitted themselves to my priCourtall. To Zelinda's woman (Mrs. Abigal) an Indian fan, a dozen pair of white kid gloves, a piece of Flanders lace, and fifteen guineas in dry money. Secret service-money to Betty at the ring. Ditto, to Mrs. Tape, the mantua-maker. Loss of time. THE first who undertook to instruct the world in single papers, was Isaac Bickerstaffe, of famous memory: a man nearly related to the family of the Ironsides. We have often smoked a pipe together, for I was so much in his books, that at his decease he left me a silver standish, a pair of spectacles, and the lamp by which he used to write his lucubrations. The venerable Isaac was succeeded by a gentleman of the same family, very memorable for the shortness of his face and of his speeches. This ingenious author published his thoughts, and held his tongue, with great applause, for two years together. I Nestor Ironside have now for some time undertaken to fill the place of these my two renowned kinsmen and predecessors. For it is observed of every branch of our family, that we have all of us a wonderful inclination to give good advice, though it is remarkable of some of us, that we are apt on this occasion rather to give than take. However it be, I cannot but observe, with some secret pride, that this way of writing diurnal papers has not succeeded for any space of time in the hands of any persons who are not of our line. I believe I speak within compass, when I affirm that above a hundred different authors have endeavoured after our family way of writing, some of which have been writers in other kinds of the greatest eminence in the kingdom; but I do not know how it has happened, they nave none of them hit upon the art. Their projects have always dropped after a few unsuccessful essays. It puts me in mind of a story which was lately told me by a pleasant friend of mine, who has a very fine hand on the violin. His maid servant, seeing his instrument lying upon the table, and being sensible there was music in it, if she knew how to fetch it out, drew the bow over vate emolument, as well as to their own reputation. My paper among the republic of letters is the Ulysses his bow, in which every man of wit or learning may try his strength. One who does not care to write a book without being sure of his abilities, may see by this means if his parts and talents are to the public taste. This I take to be of great advantage to men of the best sense, who are always diffi dent of their private judgment, till it receives a sanction from the public. Provoco ad populum, I appeal to the people, was the usual saying of a very excellent dramatic poet, when he had any disputes with particular persons about the justness and regularity of his productions. It is but a melancholy comfort for an author to be satisfied that he has written up to the rules of art, when he finds he has no admirers in the world besides himself. Common modesty should, on this occasion, make a man suspect his own judgment, and that he misapplies the rules of his art, when he finds himself singular in the applause which he bestows upon his own writings. The public is always even with an author who has not a just deference for them. The contempt is reciprocal. I laugh at every one, said an old Cynic, who laughs at me, Do you so? replied the philosopher; then let me tell you, you live the merriest life of any man in Athens. It is not therefore the least use of this my paper, that it gives a timorous writer, and such is every good one, an opportunity of putting his abilities to the proof, and of sounding the public before he launches into it. For this reason I look upon my paper as a kind of nursery for authors, and question not but some, who have made a good figure here, will hereafter flourish under their own names in more long and elaborate works, After having thus far enlarged upon this particular, I have one favour to beg of the candid and courteous reader, that, when he meets with any thing in this paper which may appear a little dull or heavy, (though I hope this will not be often,) he will believe it is the work of some other person, and not of Nestor-Ironside. I have, I know not how, been drawn inte tattle of myself, more majorum, almost the length of a whole Guardian. I shall therefore fill up the remaining part of it with what still relates to my own person, and my or terrify those who have the distribution of it in their hands; when a judge is capable of being influenced by any thing but law, or a cause may be recommended by any thing that is foreign to its own merits, we may venture to pronounce that such a nation is hastening to its ruin. correspondents. Now I would have them all know, that on the twentieth instant it is my intention to erect a lion's head in imitation of those I have described in Venice, through which all the private intelligence of that commonwealth is said to pass. This head is to open a most wide and voracious mouth, which shall take in such letters and For this reason the best law that has ever papers as are conveyed to me by my corres- passed in our days, is that which continues pondents, it being my resolution to have a our judges in their posts during their good particular regard to all such matters as behaviour, without leaving them to the mercome to my hands through the mouth of the cy of such who in ill times might, by an unlion. There will be under it a box, of which due influence over them, trouble and perthe key will be in my own custody, to re-vert the course of justice. I dare say the ceive such papers as are dropped into it. extraordinary person who is now posted in Whatever the lion swallows I shall digest the chief station of the law, would have for the use of the public. This head re-been the same had that act never passed; quires some time to finish, the workman be- but it is a great satisfaction to all honest ing resolved to give it several masterly touches, and to represent it as ravenous as possible. It will be set up in Buttons' coffee-house in Covent-Garden, who is directed to show the way to the Lion's head, and to instruct any young author how to convey his works into the mouth of it with safety and secrecy, No. 99.1 Saturday, July, 4. Justum, et tenacem propositi virum Mente quatit solidâ, neque Auster Impavidum ferient ruinæ.-Hor. THERE is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice. Most of the other virtues are the virtues of created beings, or accommodated to our nature as we are men. Justice is that which is practised by God himself, and to be practised in its perfection by none but him. Omniscience and omnipotence are requisite for the full exertion of it. The one, to discover every degree of uprightness or iniquity in thoughts, words, and actions. The other, to measure out and impart suitable rewards and punish ments. As to be perfectly just is an attribute in the divine nature, to be so to the utmost of our abilities is the glory of a man. Such a one who has the public administration in his hands, acts like the representative of his Maker, in recompensing the virtuous, and punishing the offenders. By the extirpating of a criminal, he averts the judgments of heaven, when ready to fall upon an impious 'people: or, as my friend Cato expresses it much better in a sentiment conformable to his character, men, that, while we see the greatest orna ment of the profession in its highest post, we are sure he cannot hurt himself by that assiduous, regular, and impartial administration of justice, for which he is so universally celebrated by the whole kingdom. Such men are to be reckoned among the greatest national blessings, and should have that honour paid them whilst they are yet living, which will not fail to crown their memory when dead. I always rejoice when I see a tribunal filled with a man of an upright and inflexible temper, who, in the execution of his country's laws, can overcome all private fear, resentment, solicitation, and even pity itself. Whatever passion enters into a sentence or decision, so far will there be in it a tincture of injustice. In short, justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind, that we may suppose her thoughts are wholly intent on the equity of a cause, without being divert ed or prejudiced by objects foreign to it. I shall conclude this paper with a Persiar story, which is very suitable to my present subject. It will not a little please the reader, if he has the same taste of it which I myself have. As one of the sultans lay encamped on the plains of Avala, a certain great man of the army entered by force into a peasant's house, and finding his wife very handsome, turned the good man out of his dwelling: and went to bed to her. The peasant complained the next morning to the sultan, and desired redress; but was not able to point out the criminal. The emperor, who was very much incensed at the injury done to the poor man, told him that probably the offender might give his wife another visit, and if he did, commanded him immediately to repair to his tent and acquaint him with it. Accordingly, within two or three days, the officer entered again the peasant's house, and turned the owner out of doors; who thereupon applied himself to the imperial When a nation once loses its regard to jus-tent, as he was ordered. The sultan went tice; when they do not look upon it as some-in person, with his guards, to the poor man's thing venerable, holy, and inviolable; when house, where he arrived about midnight. As any of them dare presume to lessen, affront, the attendants carried each of them a flam When by just vengeance impio us mortals perish, beau in their hands, the sultan, &fter having ordered all the lights to be put out, gave the word to enter the house, find out the criminal, and put him to death. This was immediately executed, and the corpse laid out upon the floor, by the emperor's command. He then bid every one light his flambeau, and stand about the dead body. The sultan approaching it, looked upon the face, and immediately fell upon his knees in prayer. Upon his rising up, he ordered the peasant to set before him whatever food he had in his house. The peasant brought out a great deal of coarse fare, of which the emperor ate very heartily. The peasant seeing him in good humour, presumed to ask of him, why he had ordered the flambeaux to be put out before he had commanded the adulterer to be slain? why, upon their their being lighted again, he looked upon the face of the dead body, and fell down by it in prayer? and why, after this, he had ordered meat to be set before him, of which he now ate so heartily? The sultan, being willing to gratify the curiosity of his host, answered him in this matmer. "Upon hearing the greatness of the offence which had been committed by one of the army, I had reason to think it might have been one of my own sons, for who else would have been so audacious and presuming? I gave orders therefore for the lights to be extinguished, that I might not be led astray, by partiality or compassion, from doing justice on the criminal. Upon the lighting of the flambeaux a second time, I looked upon the face of the dead person, and to my unspeakable joy, found that it was not my son. It was for this reason that I immediately fell upon my knees, and gave thanks to God. As for my eating heartily of the food you have set before me, you will cease to wonder at it, when you know that the great anxiety of mind I have been in, upon this occasion, since the first complaints you brought me, has hindered my eating any thing from that time till this very moment." THERE is a certain female ornament, by some called a Tucker, and by others the Neck-piece, being a slip of fine linen or muslin that used to run in a small kind of ruffle round the uppermost verge of the women's stays, and by that means covered a great part of the shoulders and bosom. Having thus given a definition, or rather description of the tucker, I must take notice, that our ladies have of late thrown aside this fig-leaf, and exposed, in its primitive nakedness, that gentle swelling of the breast which it was used to conceal. What their design by it is, they themselves best know. I observed this as I was sitting the other day by a famous she visitant at my Lady Lizard's, when accidentally as I was looking upon her face, letting my sight fall into her bosom, I was surprised with beauties which I never before discovered, and do not know where my eye would have run, if I had not immediately checked it. The lady herself could not forbear blushing when she observed by my looks, that she had made her neck. too beautiful and glaring an object, even for a man of my character and gravity. I could scarce forbear making use of my hand to cover so unseemly a sight. If we survey the pictures of our greatgrandmothers in Queen Elizabeth's time, we see them clothed down to the very wrists, and up to the very chin. The hands and face were the only samples they gave of their beautiful persons. The following age of females made larger discoveries of their complexion. They first of all tucked up their garments to the elbow, and, notwithstanding the tenderness of the sex, were content, for the information of mankind, to expose their arms to the coldness of the air, and injuries of the weather. This artifice hath succeeded to their wishes, and betrayed many to their arms, who might have escaped them, had they been still concealed. About the same time the ladies considering that the neck was a very modest part in a human body, they freed it from those yokes, I mean those monstrous linen ruffs, in which the simplicity of their grandmothers had inclosed it. In proportion as the age refined, the dress still sunk lower, so that, when we now say a woman has a handsome neck, we reckon into it many of the adjacent parts. The disuse of the tucker has still enlarged it, insomuch that the neck of a fine woman at present takes in almost half the body. Since the female neck thus grows upon us, and the ladies seem disposed to discover themselves to us more and more, I would fain have them tell us once for all how far they intend to go, and whether they have yet determined among themselves where to make a stop. For my own part, their necks, as they call them, are no more than busts of alabaster in my eye. I can look upon The yielding marble of a snowy breast, with as much coldness as this line of Mr. Waller represents in the object itself. But my fair readers ought to consider, that all their beholders are not Nestors. Every man is not sufficiently qualified with age and philosophy to be an indifferent spectator of such allurements. The eyes of young men are curious and penetrating, their imaginations of a roving nature, and their passions under no discipline or restraint. I am in pain for a woman of rank, when I see her thus exposing herself to the regards of every impudent, staring fellow. How can she ex pect that her quality can defend her, when she gives such provocation? I could not but observe, last winter, that, upon the disuse o the neck-piece (the ladies will pardon me if | it is not the fashionable term of art,) the whole tribe of oglers gave their eyes a new determination, and stared the fair sex in the neck rather than in the face. To prevent these saucy, familiar glances, I would entreat my gentle readers to sew on their tuckers again, to retrieve the modesty of their characters, and not to imitate the nakedness, but the innocence, of their mother Eve, They are written by a gentleman who has taken this opportunity to see France, and has given his friends in England a general account of what he has there met with, in several epistles. Those which follow were put into my hands with liberty to make them public, and I question not but my reader will think himself obliged to me for so doing. "SIR,-Since I had the happiness of seeing you last, I have encountered as many misfortunes as a knight-errant. I had a fall into the water at Calais, and since that several bruises upon land, lame post-horses by day, and hard beds at night, with many other dismal adventures. What most troubles and indeed surprises me in this particular, I have observed that the leaders in this fashion were most of them married women. What their design can be in making themselves bare, I cannot possibly imagine. Nobody exposes wares that are appropriated. When the bird is taken, the snare ought to be removed. It was a remarkable circumstance in the institution of Quorum animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit. the severe Lycurgus. As that great law- "My arrival at Paris was at first no less giver knew that the wealth and strength of uncomfortable, where I could not see a face, a republic consisted in the multitude of citi- nor hear a word that I ever met with bezens, he did all he could to encourage mar- fore; so that my most agreeable companions riage: in order to it, he prescribed a certain have been statues and pictures, which are loose dress for the Spartan maids, in which many of them very extraordinary; but what there were several artificial rents and open-particularly recommends them to me is, that ings, that, upon their putting themselves in motion discovered several limbs of the body to the beholders. Such were the baits and temptations made use of, by that wise lawgiver, to incline the young men of his age to marriage. But when the maid was once sped, she was not suffered to tantalise the male part of the commonwealth: her garments were closed up, and stitched together with the greatest care imaginable. The shape of her limbs and complexion of her body had gained their ends, and were ever after to be concealed from the notice of the public. I shall conclude this discourse of the tucker with a moral, which I have taught upon all occasions, and shall still continue to inculcate into my female readers; namely, that nothing bestows so much beauty on a woman as modesty. This is a maxim laid down by Ovid himself, the greatest master in the art of love, He observes upon it, that Venus pleases most when she appears (semi-reducta) in a figure withdrawing herself from the eye of the beholder. It is very probable he had in his thoughts the statue which we see in the Venus de Medicis, where she is represented in such a shy, retiring posture, and covers her bosom with one of her hands. In short, modesty gives the maid greater beauty than even the bloom of youth, it bestows on the wife the dignity of a matron, and reinstates the widow in her virginity. they do not speak French, and have a very good quality, rarely to be met with in this country, of not being too talkative. cr "I am settled for some time at Paris. Since my being here, I have made the tour of all the king's palaces, which has been I think the pleasantest part of my life. I could not believe it was in the power of art to furnish out such a multitude of noble scenes as I there met with, or that so many delightful prospects could lie within the compass of a man's imagination. There is every thing done that can be expected from a prince who removes mountains, turns the course of rivers, raises woods in a day's time, and plants a village or town on such a particular spot of ground, only for the bettering of a view. One would wonder to see how many tricks he has made the water play for his diversion. It turns itself into pyramids, triumphal arches, glass-bottles, imitates a firework, rises in a mist, or tells a story out of Esop. દુઃ "I do not believe, as good a poet as you are, that you can make finer landscapes than those about the king's houses, or, with all your descriptions, raise a more magnificent palace than Versailles. I am, however, so singular as to prefer Fontainbleau to all the rest. It is situated among rocks and woods, that give you a fine variety or salvage prospects. The king has humoured the genius of the place, and only made use of so much art as is necessary to help and regulate nature, without reforming her too much. The cascades seem to break through the clefts and cracks of rocks that are covered over with moss, and look as it they were piled upon one another by acci dent. There is an artificial wildness in the meadows, walks, and canals; and the garden, instead of a wall, is fenced on the lower end by a natural mound of rock-work, tha |