237 extremely tender how they let loofe even the man who has right on his fide, to act with any mixture of refentment against the defendant. Virtuous and modeft men, though they be used with fome artifice, and have it in their power to avenge themselves, are flow in the application of that power, and are ever constrained to go into rigorous measures. They are careful to demonftrate themselves not only perfons injured, but also that to bear it no longer would be a means to make the offender injure others, before they proceed. Such men clap their hands upon their hearts, and confider, what it is to have at their mercy the life of a citizen. Such would have it to fay to their own fouls, if poffible, that they were merciful when they could have deftroyed, rather than when it was in their power to have fpared a man, they deftroyed. This is a due to the common calamity of human life, due in fome measure to our very enemies. They who fcruple doing the leaft injury, are cautious of exacting the utmost justice.

Let any one who is converfant in the variety of human life reflect upon it, and he will find the man who wants mercy has a tafte of no enjoyment of any kind. There is a natural difrelish of every thing which is good in his very nature, and he is born an enemy to the world. He is ever extremely partial to himself in all his actions, and has no fenfe of iniquity but from the punishment which fhall attend it. The law of the land is his gofpel, and all his cafes of confcience are determined by his attorney. Such men know not what it is to gladden the heart of a miferable man, that riches are the inftruments of ferving the purposes of heaven or hell, according to the difpofition of the poffeffor. The wealthy can torment or gratify all who are in their power, and choose to do one or other as they are affected with love or hatred to mankind. As for fuch who are insensible of the concerns of others, but merely as they affect themselves, these men are to be valued only for their mortality, and as we hope better things from their heirs. I could not but read with great delight a letter from an eminent citizen, who has Failed, to one who was intimate with him in his better

fortune,

fortune, and able by his countenance to retrieve his loft

condition.

SIR,

IT

T is in vain to multiply words and make apologies for what is never to be defended by the best advocate in the world, the guilt of being unfortunate. All that a man in my condition can do or fay, will be • received with prejudice by the generality of mankind, but I hope not with you: You have been a great in• ftrument in helping me to get what I have loft, and I know (for that reason, as well as kindness to me) you cannot but be in pain to fee me undone. To fhew · you I am not a man incapable of bearing calamity, I will, though a poor man, lay afide the diftinction • between us, and talk with the frankness we did when we were nearer to an equality: As all I do will be ⚫ received with prejudice, all you do will be looked upon with partiality. What I defire of you is, that you, ⚫ who are courted by all, would fmile upon me, who am 'fhunned by all. Let that grace and favour which your fortune throws upon you, be turned to make up the coldness and indifference that is used towards me. All good and generous men will have an eye of kindnefs for me for my own fake, and the reft of the world will regard me for yours. There is a happy contagion in riches, as well as a deftructive one in poverty; • The rich can make rich without parting with any of • their store, and the converfation of the poor makes men poor, though they borrow nothing of them. How this is to be accounted for I know not; but mens esti⚫mation follows us according to the company we keep. If you are what you were to me, you can go a great way towards my recovery; if you are not, my good • fortune, if ever it returns, will return by flower ap⚫proaches.

I am, SIR,

Your affectionate friend,

and humble fervant.

This was anfwered with a condescention that did not, by long impertinent profeffions of kindness, infult his distress, but was as follows.

66

Dear Tom,

I

I

Am very glad to hear that you have heart enough to begin the world a second time. I affure you, "do not think your numerous family at all diminished (in the gifts of nature for which I have ever so much "admired them) by what has fo lately happened to you. "I fhall not only countenance your affairs with my appearance for you, but fhall accommodate you with a "confiderable fum at common intereft for three years. "You know I could make more of it; but I have fo great a love for you, that I can wave opportunities "of gain to help you; for I do not care whether they "fay of me after I am dead, that I had an hundred or fifty thousand pounds more than I wanted when I was ..living.

66

T

Your obliged bumble fervant.

N° 457

Thursday, August 14.

-Multa & præclara minantis.

Hor. Sat. 3. 1. a. v. 9.

I

Seeming to promise something wond'rous great.

Shall this day lay before my reader a letter, written by the fame hand with that of laft Friday, which contained proposals for a printed news-paper, that fhould take in the whole circle of the penny-polt.

SIR,

TH

HE kind reception you gave my laft Friday's letter, in which I broached my project of a news paper, encourages me to lay before you two or three more; for, you must know, Sir, that we look upon you to be

the Lowndes of the learned world, and cannot think any fcheme practicable or rational before you have approved of it, tho' all the money we raise by it is on our own funds, and for our private ufe.

I have often thought that a News-Letter of Whispers, written every poft, and fent about the kingdom, after the fame manner as that of Mr. Dyer, Mr. Dawkes, or any other epiftolary hiftorian, might be highly gratifying to the public, well as beneficial to the author. By whispers I mean thofe pieces of news which are communicated as fecrets, and which bring a double pleafure to the hearer; firft, as they are private hiftory, and in the next place, as they have always in them a dash of fcandal. These are the two chief qualifications in an article of news, which recommend it, in a more than ordinary manner, to the ears of the curious. Sicknefs of perfons in high pofts, twilight vifits paid and received by minifters of flate, clandeftine courtships and marriages, fecret amours, loffes at play, applications for places, with their refpective fucceffes or repulfes, are the materials in which I chiefly intend to deal. I have two perfons, that are each of them the reprefentative of a fpecies, who are to furnish me with those whispers which I intend to convey to my correfpondents. The firft of thefe is Peter Hush, defcended from the ancient family of the Hushes: The other is the old Lady Blaft, who has a very numerous tribe of daughters in the two great cities of London and Westminster. Peter Hub has a whispering hole in most of the great coffee-houfes about town. If you are alone with him in a wide room, he carries you up into a corner of it, and speaks it in your ear. I have feen Peter feat himself in a company of feven or eight perfons, whom he never faw before in his life; and after having looked about to fee there was no one that over-heard him, has communicated to them in a low voice, and under the seal of fecrecy, the death of a great man in the country, who was perhaps a fox-hunting the very moment this account was given of him. If upon your entring into a coffee-houfe you fee a circle of heads bending over the table, and lying close to one another, it is ten to one but my friend Peter is among them. I have known

2

Peter

Peter publishing the whisper of the day by eight o'clock in the morning at Garraway's, by twelve at Will's, and before two at the Smyrna. When Peter has thus effectually lanched a fecret, I have been very well pleased to hear people whifpering it to one another at fecond hand, and fpreading it about as their own; for you must know, Sir, the great incentive to whispering is the ambition which every one has of being thought in the fecret, and being looked upon as a man who has accefs to greater people than one would imagine. After having given you this account of Peter Hush, I proceed to that virtuous Lady, the old Lady Blaft, who is to communicate to me the private tranfactions of the crimp table, with all the Arcana of the fair fex. The Lady Blaft, you must understand, has fuch a particular malignity in her whisper, that it blights like an eafterly wind, and withers every reputation that it breathes upon. She has a particular knack at making private weddings, and laft winter married above five women of quality to their footmen. Her whifper can make an innocent young woman big with child, or fill an healthful young fellow with diftempers that are not to be named. She can turn a vifit into an intrigue, and a diftant falute into an affignation. She can beggar the wealthy, and degrade the noble. In fhort, fhe can whisper men base or foolish, jealous or ill-natur'd, or, if occafion requires, can tell you the flips of their great grandmothers, and traduce the memory of honest coachmen that have been in their graves above these hundred years. By these and the like helps, I question not but I fhall furnish out a very handfom news letter. If you approve my project, I fhall begin to whisper by the very next poft, and question not but every one of my cuftomers will be very well pleased with me, when he confiders that every piece of news I fend him is a word in his ear, and lets him into a fecret.

Having given you a fketch of this project, I fhall,. in the next place, fuggeft to you another for a monthly pamphlet, which I fhall likewife fubmit to your Spectatorial wifdom. I need not tell you, Sir, that there are several authors in France, Germany, and Holland, as well as in our own country, who publish every month, what VOL. VI.

L

they