young Flirts about Town had a defign to caft us out of the fashionable World, and to leave us in the lurch by fome of their late Refinements. Two or three of them ⚫ have been heard to fay, that they would kill every old • Woman about Town. In order to it, they began to 'throw off their Cloaths as fast as they could, and have played all thofe Pranks which you have so seasonably taken Notice of. We were forced to uncover after them, being unwilling to give out fo foon, and be regarded as Veterans in the beau monde. Some of us 6 have already caught our Deaths by it. For my own • part, I have not been without a Cold ever fince this foolish Fashion came up. I have followed it thus far ‹ with the hazard of my Life, and how much further I muft go no body knows, if your Paper does not bring us Relief. You may affure your felf that all the Antiquated Necks about Town are very much obliged to you. Whatever Fires and Flames are concealed in our . Bofoms (in which perhaps we vye with the youngest of the Sex) they are not fufficient to preferve us against the Wind and Weather. In taking fo many old Wo. men under your Care, you have been a real Guardian to us, and faved the Life of many of your Cotemporaries. In fhort, we all of us beg leave to Subfcribe our felves, Moft venerable NESTOR, Your humble Servants and Sisters: I am very well pleased with this Approbation of my good Sifters. 1 muft confefs I have always looked on the Tucker to be the Decus et Tutamen the Ornament and Defence of the Female Neck. My good old Lady, the Lady Lizard, condemned this Fashion from the beginning, and has obferved to me, with fome Concern, that her Sex, at the fame Time they are letting down their Stays, are tucking up their Petticoats, which grow fhorter and fhorter every Day. The Leg difcovers it felf in Proportion with the Neck. But I may poffibly take another Occafion of handling this Extremity, it being my Defign to keep a watchful Eye over every Part of the Female Sex, and to regulate them from Head to Foot. In the VOL. II. F mean mean time I shall fill up my Paper with a Letter which comes to me from another of my obliged Correfpon dents. Dear GUARDE E, You TH HIS comes to you from one of those Untucker'd 'Ladies whom you were fo fharp upon on Menday was Sennight. I think my felf mightily, beholden < to you for the Reprehenfion you then gave us. muft know I am a famous Olive Beauty. But though this Complexion makes a very good Face when there are a couple of black fparkling Eyes fet in it, it makes but a very indifferent Neck. Your Fair Women therefore thought of this Fashion to infult the Olives and the Brunetts. They know very well that a Neck of Ivory does not make fo fine a Show as one 6 of Alablafter. It is for this Reafon, Mr. Ironfide, that they are fo liberal in their Discoveries. We know very well, that a Woman of the whitest Neck in the World, is to you no more than a Woman of Snow; but Ovid, in Mr. Duke's Translation of him, feems to look upon • it with another Eye when he talks of Corinna, and : mentions Her heaving Breast, Courting the Hand, and fuing to be preft. WOMEN of my Complexion ought to be more modeft, especially fince our Faces debar us from all artificial Whitenings. Could you examine many of thefe Ladies who prefent you with fuch beautiful fnowy Chefts, you would find they are not all of a Piece. Good Father Neftor do not let us alone till you have ⚫fhortned our Necks, and reduced them to their ancient Standard. I am your most Obliged, Olivia. I fhall have a juft Regard to Olivia's Remonftrance, tho' at the fame time time I cannot but obferve that her Modefty feems to be entirely the Result of her Complexion. 泞 Friday, No 110. Friday, July 17. -Non ego paucis Offendor maculis, quas aut Incuria fudit T HE Candor which Horace fhows in the Motto of my Paper, is that which diftinguishes a Critick from a Caviller. He declares that he is not offended with those little Faults in a Poetical Compofition, which may be imputed to Inadvertency, or to the Imperfection of Human Nature. The truth of it is, there can be no more a perfect Work in the World than a perfect Man. To fay of a celebrated Piece that there are Faults in it, is in effect to fay no more, than that the Author of it was a Man. For this reafon I confider every Critick that attacks an Author in high Reputation as the Slave in the Roman Triumph, who was to call out to the Conqueror, Remember, Sir, that you are a Man. I fpeak this in relation to the following Letter, which Criticises the Works of a great Poet, whofe very Faults have more Beauty in them than the moft elaborate Compofitions of many more correct Writers. The Remarks are very curious and juft, and introduced by a Compliment to the Work of an Author, who I am fure would not care for being praised at the Expence of another's Repu tation. I must therefore defire my Correfpondent to excufe me, if I do not publish either the Preface or Con-. clufion of his Letter, but only the Critical Part of it. SIR, 'OUR UR Tragedy Writers have been notoriously defective in giving proper Sentiments to the Perfons they introduce. Nothing is more common than to hear an • Heathen F 2 Heathen talking of Angels and Devils, the Joys of Heaven and the Pains of Hell, according to the Chriftian Syftem. Lee's Alcander discovers himself to be a Cartelian in the firft Page of OEdipus. The Sun's Sick too, Shortly he'll be an Earth As Dryden's Cleomenes is acquainted with the Copernican Along the vaft Abyss. I have now Mr. Dryden's Don Sebaftian before me, in which I find frequent Allusions to Ancient Hiftory, and the old Mythology of the Heathen. It is not very natural to fuppofe a King of Portugal would be borrowing Thoughts out of Ovid's Metamorphofis when he : talked even to thofe of his own Court, but to allude to thefe Roman Fables when he talks to an Emperor of Barbary, feems very extraordinary. But obferve how ⚫he defies him out of the Clafficks in the following Lines: Why didst thou not engage me Man to Man, ALMEYDA at the fame time is more Book-Learned than Don Sebaftian. She plays an Hydra upon the Emperor that is full as good as the Gorgon. O that I had the fruitful Heads of Hydra, SHE afterwards, in Allufion to Hercules, bids him lay down the Lyon's Skin, and take the Distaff, and in the following Speech utters her Paffion ftill more Learnedly. No, & No, were we join'd, ev'n tho' it were in Death, THE Emperor of Barbary fhows himself acquainted with the Roman Poets as well as either of his Prifoners, and answers the foregoing Speech in the fame " Claffic Strain. Serpent, I will engender Poifon with thee. Our Offspring, like the Seed of Dragons Teeth, OVID feems to have been Muley Molock's Favourite " Author, witnefs the Lines that follow. She's ftill inexorable, ftill imperious And loud, as if like Bacchus born in Thunder. 'I fhall conclude my Remarks on his Part, with that Poetical Complaint of his being in Love, and leave my 'Reader to confider how prettily it wou'd found in the 'Mouth of an Emperor of Morocco. The God of Love once more has fhot his Fires Into my Soul, and. my whole Heart receives him. 'MULEY Zeydan is as ingenious a Man as his Bro'ther Muley Molock; as where he hints at the Story of Caftor and Pollux. May we ne'er meet! For like the Twins of Leda, when I mount 'AS for the Mufti we will fuppofe that he was bred up a Scholar, and not only verfed in the Law of Mahomet, but acquainted with all Kinds of polite Learning. For this Reafon he is not at all furprized when Dorax 'calls him a Phaeton in one Place, and in another tells him he is like Archimedes. THE Mufti afterwards mentions Ximenes, Albornoz, ' and Cardinal Wolfey by Name. The Poet feems to think he may make every Perfon, in his Play, know |