OUR Minds are of fuch a Make, that they naturally give themselves up to every Diverfion which they are much accustomed to, and we always find that Play, when followed with Affiduity, engroffes the whole Woman. She quickly grows uneafie in her own Family, takes but little Pleasure in all the domestick innocent Endearments of Life, and grows more fond of Pamm than of her Husband. My Friend Theophrastus, the best of Husbands and of Fathers, has often complained to me, with Tears in his Eyes, of the late Hours he is forced to keep if he would enjoy his Wife's Converfation. When fhe returns to me with Joy in her Face, it does not arife, fays he, from the Sight of her Husband, but from the good Luck fhe has had at Cards. On the contrary, fays he, if she has been a Lofer I am doubly a Sufferer by it. She comes home out of humour, is angry with every Body, difpleafed with all I can do or fay, and in Reality for no other Reafon but because she has been throwing away my Eftate. What Charming Bedfellows and Companions for Life are Men likely to meet with that chufe their Wives out of fuch Women of Vogue and Fashion? What a Race of Worthies, what Patriots, what Heroes must we expect from Mothers of this Make?

I come in the next Place to confider the ill Confequences which Gaming has on the Bodies of our Female Adventurers. It is fo ordered that almost every thing which corrupts the Soul decays the Body. The Beauties of the Face and Mind are generally deftroyed by the fame Means. This Confideration fhould have a particular Weight with the Female World, who were defigned to please the Eye and attract the Regards of the other half of the Species. Now there is nothing that wears out a fine Face like the Vigils of the Card-Table, and those cutting Passions which naturally attend them. Hollow Eyes, haggard Looks, and pale Complexions, are the natural Indications of a Female Gamefter. Her Morning Sleeps are not able to repair her Midnight Watchings. I have known a Wo'man carried off half dead from Baffette, and have many a time grieved to fee a Perfon of Quality gliding by me in her Chair at Two a Clock in the Morning, and looking like a Spectre amidst a glare of Flambeaux. In fhort, I

never knew a thorough-paced Female Gamefter hold her Beauty two Winters together.

BUT there is ftill another Cafe in which the Body is more endangered than in the former. All Play-Debts must be paid in Specie, or by an Equivalent. The Man that plays beyond his Income pawns his Eftate; the Woman muft find out fomething elfe to Mortgage when her Pinmony is gone : The Husband has his Lands to difpofe of, the Wife her Perfon. Now when the Female Body is once Dipp'd, if the Creditor be very importunate, I leave my Reader to confider the Confequences.

N° 121. Thursday, July 30.

Hinc Exaudiri gemitus, iraque Leonum.

Virg.

Old NESTOR,

E

Roarings of the Lion.

VER fince the firft Notice you gave of the Erection ' of that useful Monument of yours in Button's Coffee houfe, I have had a restless Ambition to imitate the renowned London Prentice, and boldly venture my Hand down the Throat of your Lion. The Subject of this Letter is a Relation of a Club whereof I am a Member, and which has made a confiderable Noife of late, I mean the Silent Club. The Year of our Inftitution is 1694, the Number of Members Twelve, ' and the Place of our Meeting is Dumb's Ally in Holborn. • We look upon our felves as the Relicks of the old Pythagoreans, and have this Maxim in common with them, which is the Foundation of our Defign, that Talking Spoils Company. The Prefident of our Society is one who was born Deaf and Dumb, and owes that Bleffing to Nature, which in the reft of us is owing to Industry alone. I find upon Enquiry, that the greater part of us are married Men, and such whose Wives are remarkably loud at home: Hither we fly for Refuge, and enjoy at

⚫ once

་

once the two greatest and most valuable Bleffings, Company and Retirement. When that eminent Relation of yours, the Spectator, Published his Weekly Papers, and gave us that remarkable Account of his Silence (for you must know tho' we don't read, yet we inspect all fuch useful Effays) we feemed unanimous to invite him to partake our Secrecy, but 'twas unluckily objected that he had juft then published a Difcourfe of his at his ⚫ own Club, and had not arrived to that happy Inactivity of the Tongue, which we expected from a Man of his Understanding. You will wonder, perhaps, how we managed this Debate, but 'twill be eafily accounted for, when I tell you that our Fingers are as nimble, and as infallible Interpreters of our Thoughts, as other Mens Tongues are; yet even this Mechanick Eloquence is on⚫ly allowed upon the weightieft Occafions. We admire the wife Inftitutions of the Turks, and other Eastern Nations, where all Commands are performed by Officious • Mutes; and we wonder that the polite Courts of Chri⚫ftendon fhould come fo far fhort of the Majefty of Barbarians. Ben Johnfon has gained an Eternal Reputa• tion among us by his Play called The Silent Woman. Every Member here is another Morofe while the Club is fitting, but at home may talk as much and as faft as his Family Occafions require, without breach of Statute. The Advantages we find from this Quakerlike Affembly are many. We confider, that the Understanding of Man is liable to Miftakes, and his Will fond of Contradictions; that Difputes, which are of no weight in themselves, are often very confiderable in their Effects. The difufe ⚫ of the Tongue is the only effectual Remedy against these. All Party Concerns, all private Scandal, all Infults over ⚫ another Man's weaker Reasons, must there be loft, where no Difputes arife. Another Advantage which follows from the firft, (and which is very rarely to be met with) is, that we are all upon the fame Level in Converfation. A Wag of my Acquaintance used to add a • third, viz. that, if ever we do Debate, we are sure to ⚫ have all our Arguments at our Fingers ends. Of all Lon ginus's Remarks, we are most enamour'd with that excellent Paffage, where he mentions Ajax's Silence as one

· of

of the noblest Instances of the Sublime, and (if you will "allow me to be free with a Namefake of yours) I 'fhould think that the everlafting Story-teller Neflor, had he been liken'd to the Afs inftead of our Hero, he had • fuffered lefs by the Comparison.

I have already defcribed the Practice and Sentiments of this Society, and fhall but barely mention the Report of the Neighbourhood, that we are not only as mute as Fifhes, but that we drink like Fishes too; that we are like the Welfhman's Owl, tho' we don't fing we pay it off with thinking; others take us for an Affembly of • difaffected Perfons, nay their Zeal to the Government ‹ has carried them fo far as to fend, laft Week, a Party < of Conftables to furprize us: You may easily imagine how exactly we reprefented the Roman Senators of old, fitting with majestick Silence, and undaunted at the Approach of an Army of Gauls. If you approve our Undertaking, you need not declare it to the World, < your Silence fhall be interpreted as Confent given to the Honourable Body of Mutes, and in particular to

Your Humble Servant,

of

Ned. Mum.

P.S. We have had but one Word spoken fince the Foundation, for which the Member was expelled by the ⚫ old Roman Cuftom of bending back the Thumb. He had just received the News of the Battel of Hochftat, and being too impatient to communicate his Joy, was unfortunately betray'd into a lapfus Lingua. We acted on the Principles of the Raman Manlius, and tho' we approved of the Caufe of his Error as juft, we condemned the Effect as a manifest Violation of his Duty.

I never could have thought a Dumb Man would have roared fo well out of my Lion's Mouth. My next pretty Correfpondent, like Shakespear's Lion in Pyramus and Thysbe, roars and it were any Nightingale.

Mr. IRONSIDE,

I

July 28, 1713.

Was afraid at firft
you were only in Jeft, and had a
Mind to expofe our Nakedness for the Diversion

of

of the Town; but fince I fee that you are in good Earneft and have Infallibilty of your fide, I cannot forbear returning my Thanks to you for the Care you take of ⚫us, having a Friend who has promised me to give my ⚫ Letters to the Lion, till we can communicate our Thoughts to you through our own proper Vehicle. Now you muft know, dear Sir, that if you don't take care to fup• prefs this exorbitant Growth of the Female Cheft, all that's left of my Waift must inevitably perifh. It is at this time reduced to the Depth of four Inches, by what ⚫ I have already made over to my Neck. But if the ftripping Defign, mentioned by Mrs. Figleaf yefterday, fhould take effect, Sir, I dread to think what it will come to. In fhort, there is no help for it, my Girdle and all must go. This is the naked Truth of the Matter. Have pity on me then, my Dear Guardian, and preferve me from being fo inhumanly expofed. I do affure you that I follow your Precepts as much as a young Woman can who will live in the World without being laughed at. I have no Hooped Petticoat, and when I am a Matron will wear broad Tuckers whether you fucceed or no. If the Flying Project takes, I intend to be the laft in Wings, being refolved in every thing to behave my felf as becomes

N° 122.

Your moft ObedientWard.

Friday, July 31.

Nec Magis expreffi vultus per ahenea Signa:

TH

Hor.

HAT I may get out of Debt with the Publick as faft as I can, I fhall here give them the remaining part of Strada's Criticifm on the Latin Heroick Poets. My Readers may fee the whole Work in the three Papers Numbered 115, 119, 122. Those who are acquainted with the Authors themselves, cannot but be pleafed to fee them fo juftly reprefented; and as for those who have never perufed the Originals, they may form a Judgment