bour and me, if you please to give your thoughts upon treaties of this nature, wherein all the nobility and gentry of this nation (in the unfortunate methods marriages are at prefent in) come at one time or other unavoidably to be engaged; efpecially it is my humble requeft you will be particular in fpeaking to the following points, to wit

1. Whether honourable love ought to be mentioned firit to the young lady or her parents?

2. If to the young lady firit, whether a man is obliged to comply with all the parents demand afterwards, under pain of breaking off difhonourably?

3. If to the parents firit, whether the lover may infilt upon what the father pretends to give, and refufe to make fuch fettlement as muft incapacitate him for any thing afterwards; without just imputation of being mercenary, or put ting a flight upon the lady, by entertaining views upon the contingency of her death?

4. What instructions a mother ought to give her daughter upon fuch occafions; and what the old lady's part properly is in fuch treaties, her husband being alive?

5. How far a young lady is in duty obliged to obferve her mother's directions, and not to receive any letters or meffages without her knowledge?

6. How far a daughter is obliged to exert the power the has over her lover, for the eafe and advantage of her father and his family; and how far fhe may confult and endeavour the intereft of the family fhe is to marry into?

7. How far letters and confidants of

both fexes may regularly be employed, and wherein they may be improper?

8. When a young lady's pen is employed about fettlements, fortunes, or the like, whether it be an affront to give the fame answers as if it had been in the hand-writing of thofe that inftructed her.

Laftly, be pleafed at your leifure to correct that too common way among fathers, of publifhing in the world that they will give their daughters twice the fortune they really intend, and thereby drawing young gentlemen, whofe eftates are often in debt, into a dilemma, either of croffing a fixed inclination, contra&ted by a long habit of thinking upon the fame perfon, and fo being miferable that way; or elfe beginning the world under a burden they can never get quit of.

Thus, fage Sir, have I laid before yon all that does at prefent occur to me on the important fubject of Marriage; but before I feal up my epiftle, I must defire you farther to confider how far treaties of this fort come under the head of bargain and fale. Whether you cannot find out meafures to have the whole tranfacted in fairer and more open market than at prefent? How would it be come you to put the laws in execution against foreftallers, who take up the young things of each fex before they are expofed to an honeft fale, or the worth or imperfection of the purchafe is tho roughly confidered?

We mightily want a demand for women in thefe parts. I am, fagacious Sir, your most obedient and most humble fervant,

A Public Spirit is fo great and amiable a character, that molt people pretend to it, and perhaps think they have it in the matt ordinary occurrences of life. Mrs. Cornelia Lizard, buys abundance of romances for the encouragement of learning; and Mrs. Annabella fquanders away her money, in buying fine cloaths, because it fets a great many poor people at work. I know a gentleman who drinks vast quantities of ale and October, to encourage

LUCAN.

T. L.

our own manufactures; and another who takes his three bottles of French claret every night, because it brings a great

custom to the Crown.

I have been led into this chat by reading fome letters upon my paper of Thurfday was fe'nnight. Having there acquainted the world, that I have, by long contemplation and philofophy, attained to fo great a ftrength of fancy, as to believe every thing to be my own, which other people poflefs only for oftentation;

it feems that fome perfons have taken it in their heads, that they are public benefactors to the world, while they are only indulging their own ambition or infirmities. My first letter is from an ingenious author, who is a great friend to his country, because he can get neither victuals nor cloaths any other way.

TO NESTOR IRONSIDE, ESQ. SIR,

OF all the Precautions with which you have instructed the world, I like that beft which is upon Natural and Fantaftical Pleasure, because it falls in very much with my own way of thinking. As you receive real delight from what creates only imaginary fatisfactions in others; fo do I raife to myfelf all the conveniencies of life by amufing the fancy of the world. I am, in a word, a member of that numerous tribe who write for their daily bread. I flourish in a dearth of foreign news; and though I do not pretend to the spleen, I am never fo well as in the time of a wefterly wind. When it blows from that auspicious point, I raise to myself contributions from the British ifle, by affrighting my fuperftitious countrymen with printed relations of Murders, Spirits, Prodigies, or Monsters. According as my neceffities fuggeft to me, I hereby provide for my being. The laft fuminer I paid a large debt for brandy and tobacco, by a wonderful defcription of a fiery dragon; and lived for ten days together upon a whale and a mermaid. When winter draws near, I generally conjure up my Spirits, and have my Apparitions ready against long dark evenings. From November laft till January, I lived folely upon Murders; and have, fince that time, had a comfortable fubfiftence from a Plague and a Famine. I made the Pope pay for my beef and mutton laft Lent, out of pure fpite to the Romish religion; and at prefent my good friend the King of Sweden finds me in clean linen, and the Mufti gets me credit at the tavern.

The fecond is from an old friend of mine in the country, who fancies that he is perpetually doing good, because he cannot live without drinking.

OLD IRON,

WE take thy papers in at the bowling

upon

green, where the country gentic. men meet every Tuesday, and we look thee as comical dog. Sir Harry was hugely pleated at thy fancy of growing rich at other folks' coft; and, life the better fince I find I do my neighfor my own part, I like my own way of bours as much good as myfelf. I now fmoke my pipe with the greater pleafure, because my wife fays the likes it well enough at fecond-hand; and drink ftale will, nobody eife does. I design to beer the more hardly, becaufe, unless I ftand for our borough the next election, on purpose to make the fquire on the other fide tap luftily for the good of our town; and have fome thoughts of trying to get knighted, because our neighbours take a pride in faying they have been with Sir Such-a-one.

I have a pack of pure flow hounds against thou comeft into the country; and Nanny my fat doe fhall bleed when we have thee at Hawthorn-Hill. Pr'ythee do not keep ftaring at gilt coaches, and ftealing necklaces and trinkets from people with thy looks. Take my word thee more good than all thou canft get for it, a gallon of my October will do by fine fights at London, which I will thine eye. I am, Old Iron, thine to thou mayft put in the fhine of

engage

command,

that I have dreffed for fome years out of the pride of my heart; but am very glad that you have fo far fettled my confcience in that particular, that I can now look upon my vanities as fo many virtues. Since I am fatisfied that my perfon and garh give pleasure to my fellow-creatures, I fhall not think the three hours bufinefs. I ufually attend at my toilette, below the dignity of a rational foul. I am content to fuffer great torment from my stays, that my fhape may appear graceful to the eyes of others; and often mortify myfelf with fafting, rather than my fatnefs fhould give diftaste to any man in England.

I am making up a rich brocade for the benefit of mankind; and defign, in a little time, to treat the town with a thoufand pounds worth of jewels. I have

ordered my chariot to be new painted for your ufe and the world's; and have prevailed upon my husband to prefent you with a pair of fine Flanders mares, by driving them every evening round the Ring. Gay pendants for my ears, a coftly cross for my neck, a diamond of the beft water for my finger, shall be purchased at any rate to enrich you; and I am refolved to be a patriot in every limb. My husband will not feruple to oblige me in thefe trifles, fince I have perfuaded him from your scheme, that Pin-Money is only fo much fet apart for charitable ufes. You fee, Sir, how expenfive you are to me, and I hope you will efteem me accordingly; efpecially when I affure you that I am, as far as you can fee me, entirely yours,

THE tragedy of Cato has increased the number of my correfpondents; but none of them can take it ill, that I give the preference to the letters which come from a learned body, and which, on this occafion, may not improperly be termed the Plaufus Academici. The first is from my Lady Lizard's youngest fon, who, (as I mentioned in a former Precaution) is Fellow of All-Souls, and applies himself to the ftudy of Divinity.

SIR,

1 Return you thanks for your prefent of Cato: I have read it over several times with the greatest attention and pleafure imaginable. You defire to know my thoughts of it, and at the fame time compliment me upon my knowledge of the ancient poets. Perhaps you may not allow me to be a good judge of them, when I tell you, that the Tragedy of Cato exceeds, in my opinion, any of the dramatic pieces of the ancients. But thefe are books I have fome time fince laid by; being, as you know, engaged in the reading of Divinity, and converfant chiefly in the poetry of the truly infpired writers. I fcarce thought any modern tragedy could have mixed fuit.

CLEORA

HOR. ARS POET. 1.400.

ROSCOMMON.

ably with fuch serious studies, and little imagined to have found fuch exquilite poetry, much lefs fuch exalted fentiments of virtue, in the dramatic performance of a cotemporary.

How elegant, just, and virtuous, is that reflection of Portius

The ways of Heav'n are dark and intricate, Puzzled in mazes and perplex'd with errors; Our understanding traces em in vain,

Loft and bewildered in the fruitless fearch; Nor fees with how much art the windings run, Nor where the regular confufion ends.

Cato's foliloquy at the beginning of the fifth act is inimitable, as indeed is almost every thing in the whole play: but what I would obferve, by particularly pointing at thefe places, is, that fuch virtuous and moral fentiments were never before put into the mouth of a British actor; and I congratulate my countrymen on the virtue they have fhewn in giving them (as you tell me) fuch loud and repeated applaufes. They have now cleared themfelves of the im-putation which a late writer had thrown upon them in his gozd Speculation.. Give me leave to tranfcribe his words.

In the firft fcene of Terence's play, the Self-Tormentor, when one of the old men accufes the other of impertinence for interpofing in his affairs, he

anfwers- I am a man, and cannot "help feeling any forrow that can arrive at man." It is faid this fentence ⚫ was received with univerfal applaufe. There cannot be a greater argument of the general good understanding of a people, than a fudden content to give their approbation of a fentiment which

has no emotion in it.

If it were spoken with never fo great kill in the actor, the manner of uttering that fentence could, have nothing in it which could ftrike any but people of the greatest humanity, nay people elegant and fkilful in obfervations upon it. It is poffible he might have laid his hand on his breaft, and with a winning infinuation in his counteC nance, expreffed to his neighbour, that he was a man who made his cafe his own; yet I will engage a player in Covent Garden might hit fuch an at

⚫titude a thousand times before he would

6

• have been regarded.' Thefe obfervations in favour of the Roman people, may now be very juftly applied to our own nation.

Here will I hold. If there's a power above us, (And that there is, all nature cries aloud Through all her works) he must delight in

virtue;

And that which he delights in must be happy. This will be allowed, I hope, to be as virtuous a fentiment as that which he quotes out of Terence; and the general applaufe with which (you fay) it was received, muft certainly make this writer (notwithstanding his great affurance in pronouncing upon our ill tafte) alter his opinion of his countrymen.

Our Poetry, I believe, and not our Morals, has been generally worfe than that of the Romans; for it is plain, when we can equal the best dramatic perform ance of that polite age, a British audience may vie with the Roman theatre in the virtue of their applaufes.

However different in other things our opinions may be, all parties agree in doing honour to a man who is an honour to our country. How are our hearts warmed by this excellent tragedy, with the love of liberty and our conftitution? How irrefiftible is virtue in the charac

ter of Cato? Who would not fay with the Numidian prince to MarciaI'll gaze for ever on thy godlike father, Transplanting, one by one, into my life His bright perfections, till I fhine like him. Rome herfelf received not fo great advantages from her patriot, as Britain will from this admirable reprefentation of him: our British Cato improves our lan guage as well as our morals; nor will it be in the power of tyrants to rob us of him, (or to use the last line of an epigram to the author)-

In vain your Cato ftabs, he cannot die. fervant, I am, Sir, your most obliged humble WILLIAM LIZARD.

OXON. ALL-SOULS COLL. MAY 6.

OXON. CHRIST-CHURCH, MAY 7 MR. IRONSIDE,

YOU are, I perceive, a very wary old

fellow, more cautious than a late hearfal of a new play, would, at the habrother-writer of your's, who, at the rezard of his judgment, endeavour to prepoflefs the town in it's favour; whereas you very prudently waited until the tragedy of Cato had gained an univerfal and irrefiitible applaufe, and then with great boldness venture to pronounce your opinion of it to be the fame with that of all mankind. I will leave you to confider whether fuch a conduct becomes a Guardian, who ought to point out to us proper entertainments, and inftruct us when to bestow our applaufe. However, in fo plain a cafe, we did not wait for your directions; and I must tell you, that none here were earlier or louder in their praises of Cato, than we at ChriftChurch. This may, I hope, convince you, that we do not deferve the character (which envious dull fellows give us) of allowing nobody to have wit or parts but thofe of our own body, especially when I let you know that we are many of us, your affectionate humble fervants.

TO NESTOR IRONSIDE, ESQ.

OXON. WAD. COLL. MAY 7. MP. IRONSIDE,.

WERE the feat of the Mofes filent

while London is fo loud in their applaufe of Cato, the University's title

to

to that name might very well be fufpect ed;-in juftice therefore to your Alma Mater, let the world know our opinion of that tragedy here.

The author's other works had raifed our expectation of it to a very great height, yet it exceeds whatever we could promife ourselves from fo great a genius. Cæfar will no longer be a hero in our declamations: this tragedy has at once ftripped him of all the flattery and falfe colours, which hiftorians and the claffic authors had thrown upon him; and we fhall for the future treat him as a murderer of the best patriot of his age, and a deftroyer of the liberties of his country. Cato, as reprefented in thefe fcenes, will catt a blacker fhade on the memory

of that ufurper, than the picture of him did upon his triumph. Had this finished dramatic piece appeared fome hundred years ago, Cæfar would have loft fo many centuries of fame, and monarchs had difdained to let themselves be called by his name. However, it will be an honour to the times we live in, to have had fuch a work produced in them; and a pretty fpeculation for pofterity to ob ferve, that the tragedy of Cato was acted with general applaufe in 1713. I am, Sir, your most humble fervant, &c.

A. B,

P. S. The French translation of Cato now in the prefs, will, I hope, be in ufum Delphini.

PLIN. EPIST.

TO NESTOR IRONSIDE, ESQ. SIR,

THE

HERE is nothing in which men deceive them felves more ridiculoufly than in the point of Reading, and which, as it is commonly practifed under the notion of improvement, has lefs advantage. The generality of readers who are pleafed with wandering over a number of books almoft at the fame inftant, or, if confined to one, who purfue the author with much hurry and impatence to his last page, nuft, without doubt, be allowed to be notable digefters. This unfettled way of reading naturally feduces us into as undetermined a manner of thinking, which unprofitably fatigues the imagination, when a continued chain of thought would probably produce ineftimable conclufions. All authors are eligible either for their matter or ftyle; if for the firft, the elutidation and difpofition of it into proper lights, ought to employ a judicious reader: if for the laft, he ought to obferve how some common words are started into a new fignification; how fuch epithets are beautifully reconciled to things that feemed incompatible; and mult often remember the whole structure of a period, because by the leaft tranfpofition, that affemblage of words which is called a fyle, becomes utterly anni

hilated. The fwift difpatch of com. mon readers not only eludes their memory, but betrays their apprehenfion, when the turn of thought and expreffion would infenfibly grow naturai to them, would they but give them felves time to receive the impreffion. Suppofe we fix one of thefe readers in an eafy-chair, and obferve him paffing through a book with a grave ruminating face, how ridiculously must he look, if we defire him to give an account of an author he has just read over; and how unheeded muft the general character of it be, when given by one of these serene unobfervers? The common defence of these people is, that they have no defign in reading but for pleafure, which I think fhould rather arife from the reflection and remembrance of what one has read, than from the tranfient fatiffaction of what one does, and we should he pleafed proportionably as we are profited. It is prodigious arrogance in any one to imagine, that by one hafty course through a book, he can fully enter into the foul and fecrets of a writer, whofe life, perhaps, has been bufied in the birth of fuch production. Books that do not immediately concern some profeffion or science, are generally run over as mere empty entertainments, rather than as matter of improvement; though, in my opinion, a refined fpeculation

R

upon