ment of the good old man is, that Fidelia, where merit and fortune cannot be overlooked by epiftolary lovers, reads over the accounts of her conquefts, plays on her fpinet the gayeft airs, (and while fhe is doing fo, you would think her formed only for galantry) to intimate to him the pleasures the defpifes for his fake.

Thofe who think themselves the pattern of good breeding and galantry, would be aftonifhed to hear that in thofe intervals when the old gentleman is at ease, and can bear company, there are at his houfe in the most regular order, affemblies of people of the higheft merit ; where there is converfation without mention of the faults of the abfent, benevolence between men and women without paffion, and the higheft fubjects of morality treated of as natural and accidental difcourfe; all which, is owing to the genius of Fidelia, who at once makes her father's way to another world eafy, and herself capable of being an honour to his name in this.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I

Was the other day at the Bear-Garden in hopes to have feen your short face; but not being fo fortunate, I must tell you by way of letter, That there is a mystery among the gladiators which has escaped your fpectatorial penetration. For being in a box at an alehoufe near that renowned feat of honour above-men⚫tioned, I over-heard two mafters of the science agreeing to quarrel on the next opportunity. This was to happen in the company of a fet of the fraternity of basket-hilts; who were to meet that evening. When this was fet⚫tled, one afked the other, Will you give cuts or receive? ⚫ the other answered, Receive. It was replied, are you • a paffionate man? No, provided you cut no more nor • no deeper than we agree. I thought it my duty to acquaint you with this, that the people may not pay ⚫ their money for fighting, and be cheated.

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Your bumble fervant,

T

Scabbard Ruffy.

Wednesday,

POPE.

And then let virtue follow, if he will.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

A

LL men, through different paths, make at the fame common thing, Money; and it is to her we owe the politician, the merchant, and the lawyer; nay to be free with you, I believe to that alfo we are beholden for our Spectator. I am apt to think, that could we look into our own hearts, we 'fhould fee money engraved in them in more lively and moving characters than felf-prefervation; for who can reflect upon the merchant hoifting fail in a doubtful purfuit of her, and all mankind facrificing their quiet to her, but mult perceive that the characters of selfprefervation (which were doubtlefs originally the brighteft) are fullied, if not wholly defaced; and that thofe of money (which at firft was only valuable as a mean to fecurity) are of ate fo brightened, that the characters of felf-prefervation, like a lefs light fet by a greater, are become almost imperceptible? Thus has money got the upper hand of what all mankind formerly thought mot dear, viz. fecurity; and I wish I could fay the had here put a stop to her victories; but,. alas! common honefty fell a facrifice to her. This is the way fcholaftic men talk of the greatest good in the. world but I, a tradefman, fhall give you another account of this matter in the plain narrative of my own life. I think it proper, in the firft place, to acquaint my readers, that fince my fetting out in the world, which was in the year 1660, I never wanted money; having begun with an indifferent good stock

in the tobacco-trade, to which I was bred; and by the continual fucceffes, it has pleased Providence to • bless my endeavours with, am at last arrived at what they call a Plumb. To uphold my difcourfe in the manner of your wits or philofophers, by peaking fine things, or drawing inferences, as they pretend, from the nature of the fubject, I account it vain; having never found any thing in the writings of fuch men, that ⚫ did not favour more of the invention of the brain, or what is ftiled speculation, than of found judgment or profitable obfervation. I will readily grant indeed, that there is what the wits call natural in their talk; which is the utmoft thofe curious authors can affume to themfelves, and is indeed all they endeavour at, for they are but lamentable teachers. And what, I pray, is • natural? That which is pleafing and eafy: And what are pleafing and eafy? Forfooth, a new thought or ⚫ conceit dreffed up in fmooth quaint language, to make you fmile and wag your head, as being what you' never imagined before, and yet wonder why you had not; mere frothy amusements! fit only for boys or filly women to be caught with.

It is not my prefent intention to inftruct my readers* in the methods of acquiring riches; that may be the "work of another effay but to exhibit the real and • folid advantages I have found by them in my long and ⚫ manifold experience; nor yet all the advantages of fo worthy and valuable a bleffing, (for who does not know or imagine the comforts of being warm or living at. eafe? And that power and pre-eminence are their infe parable attendants?) But only to inftance the great. fupports they afford us under the feverest calamities and misfortunes; to hew that the love of them is a fpecial antidote against immorality and vice, and that. the fame does likewife naturally difpofe men actions of piety and devotion: All which I can make out by my own experience, who think myself no ways particular from the rest of mankind, nor better nor worfe by nature than generally other men are.

6

to.

In the year 1655, when the fickness was, I loft by it my wife and two children, which were all my flock. Probably I might have had more, confidering

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I was married between four and five years; but finding her to be a teeming woman, I was careful, as having then little above a brace of thousand pounds to carry on my trade and maintain a family with. I loved them as ufually men do their wives and children, and there⚫fore could not refift the firft impulfes of nature on fo ⚫ wounding a lofs; but I quickly roused myself, and found means to alleviate, and at laft conquer my af'fliction, by reflecting how that fhe and her children having been no great expence to me, the best part of ⚫ her fortune was Яtill left; that my charge being reduced to my felf, a journeyman, and a maid, I might live far cheaper than before; and that being now a ⚫ childless widower, I might perhaps marry a no lefs deferving woman, and with a much better fortune than fhe brought, which was but 800l. And to convince my readers that such confiderations as these were proper ⚫and apt to produce fuch an effect, I remember it was the conftant obfervation at that deplorable time when fo many hundreds were fwept away daily, that the rich ever bore the lofs of their families and rela⚫tions far better than the poor; the latter having little or nothing before-hand, and living from hand to mouth, placed the whole comfort and fatisfaction of their lives in their wives and children, and were therefore inconfolable.

The following year happened the fire; at which time, by good providence, it was my fortune to have converted the greatest part of my effects into ready money, on the profpect of an extraordinary advantage which I was preparing to lay hold on. This calamity was very terrible and aftonishing, the fury of the flames being fuch, that whole ftreets, at fevera! diftant places, were destroyed at one and the fame time, fo that (as it is well known) almoft all our citizens were burnt out of what they had. But what did I then do? I did not ftand gazing on the ruins of our noble metropolis; I did not thake my head, wring my hands, figh and shed tears; I confidered with myfelf what could this avail; I fell a plodding what advantages might be made of the ready cafh I had, and immediately bethought myself that wonderful pennyworths

might be bought of the goods that were faved out of the fire. In fhort, with about 2000l. and a little credit, I bought as much tobacco as raised my estate to the value of rocool. I then looked on the ashes of our city, and the mifery of its late inhabitants, as an effect of the juft wrath and indignation of heaven towards a finful and perverse people.

After this I married again, and that wife dying, I took another, but both proved to be idle baggages: the first gave me a great deal of plague and vexation by her extravagancies, and I became one of the bywords of the city. I knew it would be to no manner of purpose to go about to curb the fancies and • inclinations of women, which fly out the more for being restrained; but what I could I did, I watched her 'narrowly, and by good luck found her in the embraces (for which I had two witneffes with me) of a wealthy fpark of the court-end of the town; of whom I recovered 15000 pounds, which made me • amends for what she had idly fquandred, and put a filence to all my neighbours, taking off my reproach by the gain they faw I had by it. The laft died about two years after I married her, in labour of three children. I conjecture they were begot by a country'kinfman of hers, whom, at her recommendation, I 'took into my family, and gave wages to as a journey· man. What this creature expended in delicacies and high diet with her kinsman (as well as I could compute by the poulterers, fishmongers, and grocers bills) ⚫ amounted in the faid two years to one hundred eightyfix pounds, four fhillings, and five-pence half-penny. The fine apparel, bracelets, lockets, and treats, &c. ' of the other, according to the best calculation, came in three years and about three quarters to seven hundred forty four pounds, feven fhiliings and nine pence. After this I refolv'd never to marry more, and ⚫ found I had been a gainer by my marriages, and the damages granted me for the abufes of my bed, (all charges deducted) eight thousand three hundred pounds. ⚫ within a trifle.

I come now to fhew the good effects of the love • of money on the lives of men towards rendring them ⚫ hon eft