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those admirable machines, whereby the passions of a philosopher are gratefully agitated, and his soul affected with the sweet emotions of joy and surprise!

very great bustle in town. There are come out against me two pamphlets and two Examiners; but there are printed on my side a letter to the Guardian about Dunkirk, and a pamphlet called, Dunkirk or Dover. I am no proper judge who How many fox-hunters and rural squires are has the better of the argument, the Examiner to be found in Great Britain, who are ignorant or myself: but I am sure my seconds are better that they have all this while lived on a planet ; than his. I have addressed a defence against that the sun is several thousand times bigger the ill treatment I have received for my letter than the earth; and that there are other worlds (which ought to have made every man in Eng- within our view greater and more glorious than land my friend) to the bailiff of Stockbridge, our own! Ay, but,' says some illiterate felbecause, as the world goes, I am to think my-low, I enjoy the world, and leave others to conself very much obliged to that honest man, and template it. Yes, you eat and drink, and run esteem him my patron, who allowed that fifty about upon it, that is, you enjoy it as a brute; was a greater number than one-and-twenty, and but to enjoy it as a rational being, is to know it, returned me accordingly to serve for that bo- to be sensible of its greatness and beauty, to be rough. delighted with its harmony, and by these reflections to obtain just sentiments of the Almighty mind that framed it.

There are very many scurrilous things said against me, but I have turned them to my advantage, by quoting them at large, and by that means swelling the volume to a shilling price. If I may be so free with myself, I might put you in mind, upon this occasion, of one of those animals which are famous for their love of mankind, that, when a bone is thrown at them, fall to eating it, instead of flying at the person who threw it. Please to read the account of the channel, by the map at Will's, and you will find what I represent concerning the importance of Dunkirk, as to its situation, very just. I am, sir, very often your great admirer,

RICHARD STEELE.'

Thursday, September 24, 1713.

No. 169.]
-Cœlumque tueri

Jussit-
Ovid. Met. Lib. i. 85.
And bade him lift to heaven his wond'ring eyes.

IN fair weather, when my heart is cheered, and I feel that exaltation of spirits which results from light and warmth, joined with a beautiful prospect of nature; I regard myself as one placed by the hand of God in the midst of an ample theatre, in which the sun, moon, and stars, the fruits also, and vegetables of the earth, perpetually changing their positions, or their aspects, exhibit an elegant entertainment to the understanding, as well as to the eye.

Thunder and lightning, rain and hail, the painted bow, and the glaring comets, are decorations of this mighty theatre. And the sable hemisphere studded with spangles, the blue vault at noon, the glorious gildings and rich colours in the horizon, I look on as so many successive scenes.

When I consider things in this light, methinks it is a sort of impiety to have no attention to the course of nature, and the revolutions of the heavenly bodies. To be regardless of those phenomena that are placed within our view, on purpose to entertain our faculties, and display the wisdom and power of their Creator, is an affront to Providence of the same kind, (I hope it is not impious to make such a simile) as it would be to a good poet, to fit out his play without minding the plot or beauties of it.

And yet how few are there who attend to the drama of nature, its artificial structure, and

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The man who, unembarrassed with vulgar cares, leisurely attends to the flux of things in heaven, and things on earth, and observes the laws by which they are governed, hath secured to himself an easy and convenient seat, where he beholds with pleasure all that passes on the stage of nature, while those about him are, some fast asleep, and others struggling for the highest places, or turning their eyes from the entertainment prepared by Providence, to play at pushpin with one another.

But

Within this ample circumference of the world, the glorious lights that are hung on high, the meteors in the middle region, the various livery of the earth, and the profusion of good things that distinguish the seasons, yield a prospect which annihilates all human grandeur. when we have seen frequent returns of the same things, when we have often viewed the heaven and the earth in all their various array, our attention flags, and our admiration ceases. All the art and magnificence in nature could not make us pleased with the same entertainment, presented a hundred years successively to our view.

I am led into this way of thinking by a question started the other night, viz: Whether it were possible that a man should be weary of a fortunate and healthy course of life? My opinion was, that the bare repetition of the same objects, abstracted from all other inconveniencies, was sufficient to create in our minds a distaste of the world; and that the abhorrence old men have of death, proceeds rather from a distrust of what may follow, than from the prospect of losing any present enjoyments. For (as an ancient author somewhere expresses it) when a man has seen the vicissitudes of night and day, winter and summer, spring and autumn, the returning faces of the several parts of nature, what is there further to detain his fancy here below?

The spectacle indeed is glorious, and may bear viewing several times. But in a very few scenes of revolving years, we feel a satiety of the same images: the mind grows impatient to see the curtain drawn, and behold new scenes disclosed; and the imagination is in this life, filled with a confused idea of the next.

Death, considered in this light, is no more than passing from one entertainment to another.

If the present objects are grown tiresome and distasteful, it is in order to prepare our minds for a more exquisite relish of those which are fresh and new. If the good things we have hitherto enjoyed are transient, they will be succeeded by those which the inexhaustible power of the Deity will supply to eternal ages. If the pleasures of our present state are blended with pain and uneasiness, our future will consist of sincere unmixed delights. Blessed hope! the thought whereof turns the very imperfections of our nature into occasions of comfort and joy. But what consolation is left to the man who hath no hope or prospect of these things? View him in that part of life, when the natural decay of his faculties concurs with the frequency of the same objects to make him weary of this world, when like a man who hangs upon a precipice, his present situation is uneasy, and the moment that he quits his hold, he is sure of sinking into hell or annihilation.

There is not any character so hateful as his who invents racks and tortures for mankind. The free-thinkers make it their business to introduce doubts, perplexities, and despair, into the minds of men, and, according to the poet's rule, are most justly punished by their own schemes.

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ther, tin, lead, coals, &c. So much as the exported superfluities amount unto, so much also is the clear national profit.

'III. The importing of foreign materials to be manufactured at home, especially when the goods, after they are manufactured, are mostly sent abroad, is also, without dispute, very beneficial; as for instance, Spanish wool, which for that reason is exempted from paying any duties.

IV. The importation of foreign materials, to be manufactured here, although the manufactured goods are chiefly consumed by us, may be also beneficial; especially when the said materials are procured in exchange for our commodities; as raw silk, grogram-yarn, and other goods brought from Turkey.

'V. Foreign materials, wrought up here into such goods as would otherwise be imported ready manufactured, is a means of saving money to the nation: such is the importation of hemp, flax, and raw silk; it is therefore to be wondered at, that these commodities are not exempt from all duties, as well as Spanish wool.

'VI. A trade may be called good which exchanges manufactures for manufactures, and commodities for commodities. Germany takes as much in value of our woollen and other goods, as we do of their linen: by this means numbers of people are employed on both sides, to their mutual advantage.

'VII. An importation of commodities, bought partly for money and partly for goods, may be of national advantage; if the greatest part of the commodities thus imported, are again exported, as in the case of East India goods, and generally all imports of goods which are reexported, are beneficial to a nation.

VIII. The carrying of goods from one foreign country to another, is a profitable article in trade. Our ships are often thus employed between Portugal, Italy, and the Levant, and sometimes in the East Indies.

'But a trade is disadvantageous to a nation

'London, Sept. 22. 'MOST VENERABLE NESTOR,-The plan laid down in your first paper gives me a title and authority to apply to you in behalf of the trading world. According to the general scheme you proposed in your said first paper, you have not professed only to entertain men of wit and 'IX. When there is a necessity to import polite taste, but also to be useful to the trader goods which a nation cannot be without, aland the artificer. You cannot do your country though such goods are chiefly purchased with greater service than by informing all ranks of money, it cannot be accounted a bad trade, as men amongst us, that the greatest benefactor to our trade to Norway and other parts, from them all is the merchant. The merchant ad-whence are imported naval stores, and materivances the gentleman's rent, gives the artificer als for building. food, and supplies the courtier's luxury. But give me leave to say, that neither you, nor all your clan of wits, can put together so useful and commodious a treatise for the welfare of your fellow-subjects as that which an eminent merchant of the city has lately written. It is called, General Maxims of Trade, particularly applied to the Commerce between Great-Britain and 2. Much worse is that trade which brings in France. I have made an extract of it, so as to a commodity that is not only consumed amongst bring it within the compass of your paper, which us, but hinders the consumption of the like quantake as follows: tity of ours. As is the importation of brandy, which hinders the spending of our extracts of malt and molasses; therefore very prudently charged with excessive duties.

'I. That trade which exports manufactures made of the product of the country, is undoubtedly good: such as the sending abroad our Yorkshire cloth, Colchester baize, Exeter serges, Norwich stuffs, &c.; which being made purely of British wool, as much as those exports amount to, so much is the clear gain of the nation.

'II. That trade which helps off the consumption of our superfluities, is also visibly advantageous; as the exporting of alum, copperas, lea

1. Which brings in things of mere luxury and pleasure, which are entirely, or for the most part, consumed among us; and such I reckon the wine trade to be, especially when the wine is purchased with money, and not in exchange for our commodities.

3. That trade is eminently bad, which supplies the same goods as we manufacture ourselves, especially if we can make enough for our consumption: and I take this to be the case of the silk manufacture; which, with great labour and industry, is brought to perfection in London, Canterbury, and other places

4. The importation upon easy terms of such | Britain, except to our plantations, but all are manufactures as are already introduced in a consumed at home; therefore no benefit can be country, must be of bad consequence, and check reaped this way by the French trade. their progress; as it would undoubtedly be the case of the linen and paper manufactures in Great Britain, (which are of late very much improved) if those commodities were suffered to be brought in without paying very high duties. 'Let us now judge of our trade with France by the foregoing maxims.

I. The exportation of our woollen goods to France, is so well barred against, that there is not the least hope of reaping any benefit by this article. They have their work done for half the price we pay for ours. And since they send great quantities of woollen goods to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, the Rhine, and other places, although they pay a duty upon exportation, it is a demonstration, that they have more than is sufficient for their own wear, and consequently no great occasion for any of ours. The French cannot but be so sensible of the advantage they have over us in point of cheapness, that I do not doubt they will give us leave to import into France not only woollen goods, but all other commodities whatsoever, upon very easy duties, provided we permit them to import into Great Britain wines, brandies, silk, linen, and paper, upon paying the same duties as others do. And when that is done, you will send little more to France than now you do, and they will import into Great Britain ten times more than now they

can.

II. As to our superfluities, it must be owned the French have occasion for some of them, as lead, tin, leather, copperas, coals, alum, and several other things of small value, as also some few of our plantation commodities; but these goods they will have whether we take any of theirs or no, because they want them. All these commodities together, that the French want from us, may amount to about two hundred thousand pounds yearly.

'III. As to materials; I do not know of any one sort useful to us that ever was imported from France into England. They have indeed hemp, flax, and wool in abundance, and some raw silk; but they are too wise to let us have any, especially as long as they entertain any hopes we shall be so self-denying, as to take those materials from them after they are manufactured.

'IV. Exchanging commodities for commodities (if for the like value on both sides) might be beneficial; but it is far from being the case between us and France. Our ships went constantly in ballast (except now and then some lead) to St. Malo, Morlaix, Nantes, Rochelle, Bourdeaux, Bayonne, &c. and ever came back full of linen, wines, brandy, and paper; and if it was so before the revolution, when one of our pounds sterling cost the French but thirteen livres, what are they like to take from us (except what they of necessity want) now that for each pound sterling they must pay us twenty livres, which enhances the price of all British commodities to the French above fifty per cent.

V. Goods imported to be re-exported, is certainly a national advantage; but few or no French goods are ever exported from Great

VI. Letting ships to freight cannot but be of some profit to a nation; but it is very rare if the French ever make use of any other ships than their own; they victual and man cheaper than we, therefore nothing is to be got from them by this article.

'VII. Things that are of absolute necessity cannot be reckoned prejudicial to a nation; but France produces nothing that is necessary, or even convenient, or but which we had better be without, except claret.

'VIII. If the importation of commodities of mere luxury, to be consumed amongst us, be a sensible disadvantage, the French trade in this particular might be highly pernicious to this nation; for if the duties on French wines be lowered to a considerable degree, the least we can suppose would be imported into England and Scotland is eighteen thousand tons a year, which being most clarets, at a moderate computation, would cost in France four hundred and fifty thousand pounds.

But

IX. As to brandy; since we have laid high duties upon it, the distilling of spirits from malt and molasses is much improved and increased, by means of which a good sum of money is yearly saved to the nation; for very little brandy hath been imported either from Italy, Portugal, or Spain, by reason that our English spirits are near as good as those countries' brandies. as French brandy is esteemed, and is indeed very good, if the extraordinary duty on that liquor be taken off, there is no doubt but great quantities will be imported. We will suppose only three thousand tons a year, which will cost Great Britain about seventy thousand pounds yearly, and prejudice besides the extracts of our own malt spirits.

'X. Linen is an article of more consequence than many people are aware of: Ireland, Scotland, and several counties in England, have made large steps towards the improvement of that useful manufacture, both in quantity and quality; and with good encouragement would doubtless, in a few years, bring it to perfection, and perhaps make sufficient for our own consumption; which besides employing great numbers of people, and improving many acres of land, would save us a good sum of money, which is yearly laid out abroad in that commodity. As the case stands at present, it improves daily; but if the duties on French linen be reduced, it is to be feared it will come over so cheap, that our looms must be laid aside, and six or seven hundred thousand pounds a year be sent over to France for that commodity.

'XI. The manufacture of paper is very near akin to that of linen. Since the high duties laid on foreign paper, and that none hath been imported from France, where it is cheapest, the making of it is increased to such a degree in England, that we import none of the lower sorts from abroad, and make them all ourselves; but if the French duties be taken off, undoubtedly inost of the mills which are employed in the making of white paper, must leave off their work, and thirty or forty thousand pounds a

I HAVE received letters of congratulation and thanks from several of the most eminent chocolate-houses and coffee-houses, upon my late gal

year be remitted over to France for that commodity. 'XII. The last article concerns the silk manufacture. Since the late French wars, it is in-lantry and success in opposing myself to the

creased to a mighty degree. Spitalfields alone manufactures to the value of two millions a year, and were daily improving, till the late fears about lowering the French duties. What pity that so noble a manufacture, so extensive, and so beneficial to an infinite number of people, should run the hazard of being ruined! It is however to be feared, that if the French can import their wrought silks upon easy terms, they outdo us so much in cheapness of labour; and they have Italian and Levant raw silk upon so much easier terms than we, besides great quantities of their own in Provence, Languedoc, and other provinces, that in all probability half the looms in Spitalfields would be laid down, and our ladies be again clothed in French silks. The loss that would accrue to the nation by so great a mischief, cannot be valued at less than five hundred thousand pounds a year.

long swords. One tells me, that whereas his rooms were too little before, now his customers can saunter up and down from corner to corner, and table to table, without any let or molestation. I find I have likewise cleared a great many alleys and by-lanes, made the public walks about town more spacious, and all the passages about the court and the exchange more free and open. Several of my female wards have sent me the kindest billets upon this occasion, in which they tell me, that I have saved them some pounds in the year, by freeing their furbelows, flounces, and hoops, from the annoyance both of hilt and point. A scout whom I sent abroad to observe the posture, and to pry into the intentions of the enemy, brings me word that the Terrible club is quite blown up, and that I have totally routed the men that seemed to delight in arms. My lion, whose jaws are at all hours open to intelligence, informs me, that there are £450,000 a few enormous weapons still in being; but that 70,000 they are to be met with only in gaming-houses, 600,000 and some of the obscure retreats of lovers in and 30,000 about Drury-lane and Covent-garden. I am 500,000 highly delighted with an adventure that befell

'To sum up all, if we pay to France yearly, For their wines

For their brandies

For their linen
For their paper
For their silks

'And they take from us in lead, tin, leather, alum, copperas, coals, horn, plates, &c. and plantation goods to the value of

'Great Britain loses by the balance of that trade yearly

my witty antagonist, Tom Swagger, captain of £1,650,000 the band of long swords. He had the misfortune three days ago to fall into company with a master of the noble science of defence, who

200,000 taking Mr. Swagger by his habit, and the airs he gave himself, to be one of the profession, gave him a fair invitation to Mary-le-bone, to exercise at the usual weapons. The captain thought this so foul a disgrace to a gentleman, that he slunk away in the greatest confusion, and has never been seen since at the Tilt-yard coffee-house, nor in any of his usual haunts.

1,450,000

'All which is humbly submitted to your consideration by, sir, your most humble servant, 'GENEROSITY THRIFT.'

ADVERTISEMENT,

For the Protection of Honour, Truth, Virtue, and Innocence.

He is

As there is nothing made in vain, and as every plant and every animal, though never so noisome, has its use in the creation; so these men of terror may be disposed of, so as to make a figure in the polite world. It was in this view, Mr. Ironside has ordered his amanuensis to that I received a visit last night from a person, prepare for his perusal whatever he may have who pretends to be employed here from several gathered, from his table-talk, or otherwise, a foreign princes in negotiating matters of less volume to be printed in twelves, called, The Art importance. He tells me, that the continual of Defamation discovered. This piece is to conwars in Europe have in a manner quite drained sist of the true characters of all persons calum- the cantons of Switzerland of their supernume niated by the Examiner; and after such charac-rary subjects, and that he foresees there will be ters, the true and only method of sullying them a great scarcity of them to serve at the entrance set forth in examples from the ingenious and of courts, and the palaces of great men. artificial author, the said Examiner. of opinion this want may very seasonably be supplied out of the great numbers of such gentlemen, as I have given notice of in my paper of the twenty-fifth past, and that his design is in a few weeks, when the town fills, to put out public advertisements to this effect, not questioning but it may turn to a good account: 'That if any person of good stature and fierce demeanor, as well members of the Terrible club, as others of the like exterior ferocity whose ambition is to cock and look big, without exposing themselves to any bodily danger, will repair to his lodgings, they shall (provided they bring their swords with them) be furnished with shoulder-belts, broad hats, red feathers,

N. B. To this will be added the true characters of persons he has commended, with observations to show, that panegyric is not that author's

talent.

No. 171.]

Saturday, September 26, 1713.

Fuit ista quondam in hac republica virtus, ut viri fortes acrioribus suppliciis civem perniciosum, quam acerbissimum hostem coercerent. Cicer. in Catalin.

There was once that virtue in this commonwealth,

that a bad fellow-citizen was thought to deserve a severer correction than the bitterest enemy.

and halberts, and be transported without farther trouble into several courts and families of distinction, where they may eat, and drink, and strut, at free cost.' As this project was not communicated to me for a secret, I thought it might be for the service of the above-said persons to divulge it with all convenient speed; that those who are disposed to employ their talents to the best advantage, and to shine in the station of life for which they seem to be born, may have time to adorn their upper lip, by raising a quickset beard there in the form of whiskers, that they may pass to all intents and purposes for true Switzers.

'INDEFATIGABLE NESTOR,-Give me leave to thank you, in behalf of myself and my whole family, for the daily diversion and improvement we receive from your labours. At the same time I must acquaint you, that we have all of us taken a mighty liking to your lion. His roarings are the joy of my heart, and I have a little boy, not three years old, that talks of nothing else, and who, I hope, will be more afraid of him as he grows up. That your animal may be kept in good plight, and not roar for want of prey, I shall, out of my esteem and affection for you, contribute what I can towards his sustenance: "Love me, love, my lion," says the proverb. I will not pretend, at any time, to furnish out a full meal for him; but I shall now and then send him a savory morsel, a tid bit. You must know, I am but a kind of holiday writer, and never could find in my heart to set my pen to a work of above five or six periods long. My friends tell me my performances are little and pretty. As they have no manner of connexion one with the other, I write them upon loose pieces of paper, and throw them into a drawer by themselves; this drawer I call the lion's pantry. I give you my word, I put nothing into it but what is clean and wholesome nourriture. Therefore remember me to the lion, and let him know, that I shall always pick and cull the pantry for him; and there are morsels in it, I can assure you, will make his chaps to water. I am, with the greatest respect, sir, your most obedient servant, and most assiduous reader.'

I must ask pardon of Mrs. Dorothy Care, that I have suffered her billet to lie by me these three weeks without taking the least notice of it. But I believe the kind warning in it, to our sex, will not be now too late.

must own, much the more beautiful sex. I am,
sir, your humble reader,
"DOROTHY CARE,

No. 172.]

Monday, September 28, 1713.

-Vitam excoluere per artes. Virg. Æn. vi. 663.
They grac'd their age with new invented arts.
Dryden.

'MR. IRONSIDE,-I have been a long time in expectation of something from you on the subject of speech and letters. I believe the world might be as agreeably entertained on that subject, as with any thing that ever came into the lion's mouth. For this end I send you the fol lowing sketch; and am, yours, PHILOGRAM.

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Upon taking a view of the several species of living creatures our earth is stocked with, we may easily observe, that the lower orders of them, such as insects and fishes, are wholly without a power of making known their wants and calamities. Others, which are conversant with man, have some few ways of expressing the pleasure and pain they undergo by certain sounds and gestures; but man has articulate sounds whereby to make known his inward sentiments and affections, though his organs of speech are no other than what he has in common with many other less perfect animals. But the use of letters, as significative of these sounds, is such an additional improvement to them, that I know not whether we ought not to attribute the invention of them to the assistance of a power more than human.

"There is this great difficulty which could not but attend the first invention of letters, to wit, that all the world must conspire in affixing steadily the same signs to their sounds, which affixing was at first as arbitrary as possible; there being no more connexion between the letters and the sounds they are expressive of, than there is between those sounds and the ideas of the mind they immediately stand for. Notwithstanding which difficulty, and the variety of languages, the powers of the letters in each are very nearly the same, being in all places about twenty-four.

'But be the difficulty of the invention as great as it will, the use of it is manifest, particularly in the advantage it has above the method of conveying our thoughts by words or sounds, because this way we are confined to narrow 'GOOD MR. IRONSIDE,-I have waited with im- limits of place and time: whereas we may have patience for that same unicorn you promised occasion to correspond with a friend at a disshould be erected for the fair sex. My business tance; or a desire, upon a particular occasion, is, before winter comes on, to desire you would to take the opinion of an honest gentleman who precaution your own sex against being Adam- has been dead this thousand years. Both which ites, by exposing their bare breasts to the rigour defects are supplied by the noble invention of of the season. It was this practice amongst the letters. By this means we materialize our ideas, fellows, which at first encouraged our sex to show and make them as lasting as the ink and paper, so much of their necks. The downy dock their vehicles. This making our thoughts by leaves you speak of would make good stomach-art visible to the eye, which nature had made ers for the beaux. In a word, good Nestor, so long as the men take a pride in showing their hairy skins, we may with a much better grace set out our snowy chests to view. We are, we own, the weaker, but at the same time, you

intelligible only by the ear, is next to the adding a sixth sense, as it is a supply in case of the defect of one of the five nature gave us, namely, hearing, by making the voice become visible.

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