much reason, There are many who have particular engagements to the profecutor: There are many who are known to have ill-will to him for whom I appear; there are many who are naturally addicted to defamation, and envious of any good to any man, who may have contributed to spread reports of this kind: For nothing is fo fwift as fcandal, nothing is more easily fent abroad, nothing received with more welcome, nothing diffufes itself fo univerfally. I shall not defire, that if any report to our d'fadvantage bas any ground for it, you would overlook or extenuate it; Eut if there be any thing advanced, without a person who can fay whence he had it, or which is attested by one who forgot who told him it, or who bad it from one of fo little confideration that he did not then think it worth his notice, all fuch teftimonies as thefe, I know, you will think too flight to bave any credit against the innocence and honour of your fellowcitizens. When an ill report is traced, it very often vanishes among fuch as the orator has here recited. And how despicable a creature must that be, who is in pain for what paffes among fo frivolous a people? There is a town in Warwickshire of good note, and formerly pretty famous for much animofity and diffenfion, the chief families of which have now turned all their whispers, backbitings, envies, and private malices, into mirth and entertainment, by means of a peevish old gentlewoman, known by the title of the lady Bluemantle. This heroine had for many years together out-done the whole fifterhood of goffips, in invention, quick utterance, and unprovoked malice. This good body is of a lafting conftitution, though extremely decayed in her eyes, and decrepid in her feet. The two circumstances of being always at home from her lameness, and very attentive from her blindness, make her lodgings the receptacle of all that paffes in town, good or bad; but for the latter fhe feems to have the better memory. There is another thing to be noted of her, which is, That as it is ufual with old people, fhe has a livelier memory of things which paffed when he was very young. than of late years. Add to all this, that fhe does not only not love any body, but the hates every body. The ftatue in Rome does not ferve to vent malice half fo well, as this old lady does to disappoint it. She does not know the

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author of any thing that is told her, but can readily repeat the matter itself; therefore, though fhe expofes all the whole town, the offends no one body in it. She is fo exquifitely reflefs and peevish, that fhe quarrels with all about her, and fometimes in a freak will inftantly change her habitation. To indulge this humour, the is led about the grounds belonging to the fame houfe fhe is in, and the perfons to whom he is to remove, being in the plot, are ready to receive her at her own chamber again. At flated times, the gentlewoman at whofe houfe the fuppofes he is at the time, is fent for to quarrel with, according to her common cuftom: When they have a mind to drive the jeft, the is immediately urged to that degree, that he will board in a family with which the has never yet been; and away fhe will go this infiant, and tell them all that the reft have been faying of them. By this means he has been an inhabitant of every houfe in the place without ftirring from the fame habitation: and the many ftories which every body furnishes her with to favour that deceit, make her the general intelligencer of the town of all that can be faid by one woman against another. Thus groundless tories die away, and fometimes truths are fmothered under the general word, when they have a mind to discountenance a thing, Oh! that is in my lady Bluemantle's memoirs.

Whoever receives impreffions to the difadvantage of others without examination, is to be had in no other credit for intelligence than this good lady Bluemantle, who is fubjected to have her ears impofed upon for want of other helps to better information. Add to this, that other fcandal bearers fufpend the ufe of thefe faculties. which she has loft, rather than apply them to do juftice to their neighbours; and I think, for the fervice of my fair readers, to acquaint them, that there is a voluntary lady Bluemantle at every visit in town.

T

Friday,

No 428

Friday, July 11.

Occupet extremum scabies

Hor. Ars Poet. v. 417.

The Devil take the hindmot! [English Proverb.]

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T is an impertinent and unreasonable fault in converfation for one man to take up all the difcourfe. It may poffibly be objected to me myfelf, that I am guilty in this kind, in entertaining the town every day, and not giving fo many able perfons who have it more in their power, and as much in their inclination, an opportunity to oblige mankind with their thoughts." Befides, faid one whom I overheard the other day, why muft this paper turn altogether upon topics of learning and morality? Why fhould it pretend only to wit, humour, or the like? Things which are useful only to amufe men of literature and fuperior education. I would have it confift alfo of all things which may be neceffary or ufeful to any part of fociety, and the mechanic arts fhould have their place as well as the liberal The ways of gain, hufbandry, and thrift, will ferve a greater number of people, than difcourfes upon what was well faid or done by fuch a philofopher, hero, geneal, or poet. no fooner heard this critic talk of my works, but I minuted what he had faid; and from that inftant refolved to enlarge the plan of my fpeculations, by giving notice to all perions of all orders, and each fex, that if they are pleafed to fend me difcourfes, with their names and places of abode to them, fo that I can be fatisfied the writings are authentic, fuch their labours fhail be faithfully inferted in this paper. It will be of much more confequence to a youth in his apprenticeship, to know by what rules and arts fuch a one became theriff of the city of London, than to fee the fign of one of his own quality with a lion's heart in each hand. The world indeed is enchanted with romantic and improbable atchieve

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N° 428 atchievements, when the plain path to refpective greatnefs and fuccefs in the way of life a man is in, is wholly Overlooked. Is it poffible that a young man at prefent could pafs his time better, than in reading the hiftory of flocks, and knowing by what fecret springs they have had fuch fudden afcents and falls in the fame day? Could he be better conducted in his way to wealth, which is the great article of life, than in a treatise dated from Change-Alley by an able proficient there? Nothing certainly could be more ufeful, than to be well inftructed in his hopes and fears; to be diffident when others exult, and with a secret joy buy when others think it their intereft to fell. I invite all perfons who have any thing to fay for the profitable information of the public, to take their turns in my paper: They are welcome, from the late noble inventor of the longitude, to the humble author of strops for razors. carry fhips in fafety, to give help to people toft in a troubled fea, without knowing to what shore they bear, what rocks to avoid, or what coaft to pray for in their extremity, be a worthy labour, and an invention that deferves a statue; at the same time, he who has found a means to let the inftrument which is to make your vifage lefs horrible, and your perfon more fmug, easy in the operation, is worthy of fome kind of good reception: If things of high moment meet with renown, thofe of little confideration, fince of any confideration, are not to be defpifed. In order that no merit may lie hid and no art unimproved, I repeat it, that I call artificers, as well as philofophers, to my affiftance in the public fervice. It would be of great ufe if we had an exact history of the fucceffes of every great shop within the city-walls, what tracts of land have been purchafed by a conftant attendance within a walk of thirty foot; if it could alfo be noted in the equipage of those who are afcended from the fuccessful trade of their ancestors into figure and equipage. Such accounts would quicken industry in the purfuit of fuch acquifitions, and discountenance luxury in the enjoyment of them.

To diverfify these kinds of informations, the industry of the female world is not to be unobserved: She to

whose

whofe houshold-virtues it is owing, that men do honour to her husband, fhould be recorded with veneration; the who has wafted his labours, with infamy. When we are come into domeftic life in this manner, to awaken caution and attendance to the main point, it would not be amifs to give now and then a touch of tragedy, and defcribe that most dreadful of all human conditions, the cafe of bankruptcy; how plenty, credit, chearfulness, full hopes, and eafy poffeffions, are in an inftant turned into penury, faint afpects, diffidence, forrow, and mifery; how the man, who with an open hand the day before could adminifter to the extremities of others, is fhunn'd to day by the triend of his bosom. It would be useful to fhew how just this is on the negligent, how lamentable on the industrious. A paper written by a merchant, might give this ifland a true fenfe of the worth and importance of his character: It might be visible from what he could fay, That no foldier entring a breach adventures more for honour, than the trader does for wealth to his country. In both cafes the adventurers have their own advantage, but I know no cafes wherein every body elfe is a sharer in the fuccefs.

It is objected by readers of history, that the battles in those narrations are fcarce ever to be understood. This misfortune is to be afcribed to the ignorance of hiftorians in the methods of drawing up, changing the forms of a battalia, and the enemy retreating from, as well as approaching to, the charge. But in the dif courfes from the cor efpondents, whom I now invite, the danger will be of another kind; and it is neceffary to caution them only against ufing terms of art, and defcribing things that are familiar to them in words unknown to the reader I promise myself a great harvest of new circumstances, perfons and things from this propofal; and a world, which many think they are well acquainted with, difcovered as wholly new. This fort of intelligence will give a lively image of the chain and mutual dependance of human fociety, take off impertinent prejudices, enlarge the minds of thofe, whose views are confined to their own circumftances; and in hort, if the knowing in feveral arts, profeflions, and

trades