prince, and apprehensive of the danger of so great a change, voted against king William's accession to the throne. However, his following services sufficiently testified the truth of that his memorable expression, "Though he could not make a king, he could obey him." The whole course and tenour of his life ever since has been visibly animated, by a steady and constant zeal for the monarchy and episcopacy of these realms. He has been ever reviled by all who are cold to the interests of our established religion, or dissenters from it, as a favourer of persecution, and a bigot to the church, against the civil rights of his fellow-subjects. Thus it stood with him at the trial of doctor Sacheverell, when this noble earl had a very great share in obtaining the gentle sentence which the house of lords pronounced on that occasion. But, indeed, I have not heard that any of his lordship's dependents joined saint Harry in the pilgrimage which "that meek man" took afterwards round England, followed by drum, trumpet, and acclamations, to "visit the churches."-Civil prudence made it, perhaps, necessary to throw the public affairs into such hands as had no pretensions to popularity in either party, but from the distribution of the queen's favours. 'During such, and other later transactions, (which are too fresh to need being recounted) the earl of Nottingham has had the misfortune to differ with the lords who have the honour to be employed in the administration; but even among these incidents he has highly distinguished himself in procuring an act of parliament, to prevent that those who dissent from the church should serve in the state. 'I hope these are great and critical junctures wherein this gentleman has shown himself a patriot and lover of the church in as eminent manner, as any other of his fellow-subjects. 'He has at all times, and in all seasons, shown the same steady abhorrence to all innovations." But it is from this behaviour, that he has deserved so ill of the Examiner, as to be termed a "late convert" to those whom he calls factious, and introduced in his profane dialogue of April the sixth, with a servant and a mad woman. think I have, according to the Examiner's own description of merit, shown how little this nobleman deserves such treatment. I shall now appeal to all the world, to consider whether the outrage committed against the young lady had not been cruel and insufferable, towards the daughter of the highest offender. I discourse of religion? This is indeed " to lay at us and make every blow fell to the ground." 'There is no party concerned in this circumstance; but every man that hopes for a virtuous woman to his wife, that would defend his child, or protect his mistress, ought to receive this insolence as done to himself. "In the immediate presence of God and her majesty, that the family might appear to be entirely come over," says the fawning miscreant. It is very visible which of those powers (that he has put together) he is the more fearful of offending. But he mistakes his way in making his court to a pious sovereign, by naming her with the Deity, in order to find protection for insulting a virtuous woman, who comes to call upon him in the royal chapel. 'If life be (as it ought to be with people of their character, whom the Examiner attacks) less valuable and dear than honour and reputation, in that proportion is the Examiner worse than an assassin; we have stood by and tamely heard him aggravate the disgraces of the brave and the unfortunate, we have seen him double the anguish of the unhappy man, we have seen him trample on the ashes of the dead; but all this has concerned greater life, and could touch only public characters, they did but remotely affect our private and domestic interests; but when due regard is not had to the honour of women, all human society is assaulted. The highest person in the world is of that sex, and has the utmost sensibility of an outrage committed against it. She, who was the best wife that ever prince was blessed with, will, though she sits on a throne, jealously regard the honour of a young lady who has not entered into that condition. 'Lady Char-te's quality will make it impossible that this cruel usage can escape her majesty's notice; and it is the business of every honest man to trace the offender, and expose him to the indignation of his sovereign.' TOM LIZARD told us a story the other day, of some persons which our family know very well, with so much humour and life, that it caused a 'The utmost malice and invention could go great deal of mirth at the tea-table. His brono farther than to forge a story of her having ther Will, the templar, was highly delighted inadvertently done an indifferent action in a sa- with it, and the next day being with some of cred place. Of what temper can this man be his inns-of-court acquaintance, resolved (whemade, that could have no sense of the pangs hether out of the benevolence, or the pride of his must give a young lady to be barely mentioned in a public paper, much more to be named in a libellous manner, as having offended God and man. heart, I will not determine) to entertain them with what he called 'a pleasant humour enough.' I was in great pain for him when I heard him begin, and was not at all surprised to find the company very little moved by it. Will blushed, looked round the room, and with a forced laugh, Faith, gentlemen,' said he, 'I do not know what makes you look so grave; it was an ad 'But the wretch, as dull as he is wicked, felt it strike on his imagination, that knotting and perplexing would make a quaint sting at the end of his paper, and had no compunction, though he introduced his witticism at the ex-mirable story when I heard it.' pense of a young lady's quiet, and (as far as in him lies) her honour. Does he thus finish his When I came home I fell into a profound contemplation upon story-telling, and as I have nothing so much at heart as the good of my | the hearer, if it be chosen aptly for the story country, I resolved to lay down some precautions upon this subject. Thus, I remember Tom Lizard, after having made his sisters merry with an account of a I have often thought that a story-teller is formal old man's way of complimenting, owned born, as well as a poet. It is, I think, certain, very frankly, that his story would not have been that some men have such a peculiar cast of worth one farthing, if he had made the hat of mind, that they see things in another light than him whom he represented one inch narrower men of grave dispositions. Men of a lively Besides the marking distinct characters, and imagination, and a mirthful temper, will repre- selecting pertinent circumstances, it is likewise sent things to their hearers in the same manner necessary to leave off in time, and end smartly. as they themselves were affected with them; So that there is a kind of drama in the forming and whereas serious spirits might perhaps have of a story, and the manner of conducting and been disgusted at the sight of some odd occur-pointing it, is the same as in an epigram. It is rences in life; yet the very same occurrences a miserable thing, after one hath raised the exshall please them in a well-told story, where pectation of the company by humourous chathe disagreeable parts of the images are con- racters, and a pretty conceit, to pursue the cealed, and those only which are pleasing ex-matter too far. There is no retreating, and how hibited to the fancy. Story-telling is therefore poor it is for a story-teller to end his relation by not an art, but what we call 'a knack ;' it doth saying, 'that's all!' not so much subsist upon wit as upon humour; As the choosing of pertinent circumstances and I will add, that it is not perfect without is the life of a story, and that wherein humour proper gesticulations of the body, which natu- principally consists; so the collectors of imperrally attend such merry emotions of the mind. tinent particulars are the very bane and opiates I know very well, that a certain gravity of of conversation. Old men are great transgrescountenance sets some stories off to advantage, sors this way. Poor Ned Poppy,-he's gonewhere the hearer is to be surprised in the end; was a very honest man, but was so excessively but this is by no means a general rule; for it is tedious over his pipe, that he was not to be enfrequently convenient to aid and assist by cheer- dured. He knew so exactly what they had for ful looks, and whimsical agitations. I will go dinner; when such a thing happened; in what yet further, and affirm that the success of a story ditch his bay stone-horse had his sprain at that very often depends upon the make of the body, time, and how his man John,-no! 'twas Wiland formation of the features, of him who re. liam, started a hare in the common field; that lates it. I have been of this opinion ever since he never got to the end of his tale. Then he I criticised upon the chin of Dick Dewlap. I was extremely particular in marriages and very often had the weakness to repine at the inter-marriages, and cousins twice or thrice prosperity of his conceits, which made him pass removed; and whether such a thing happened for a wit with the widow at the coffee-house, and at the latter end of July, or the beginning of the ordinary mechanics that frequent it; nor August. He had a marvellous tendency like could I myself forbear laughing at them most wise to digressions; insomuch that if a consi heartily, though upon examination I thought derable person was mentioned in his story, he most of them very flat and insipid. I found after would straightway launch out into an episode some time, that the merit of his wit was found-of him; and again, if in that person's story he ed upon the shaking of a fat paunch, and the tossing up of a pair of rosy joles. Poor Dick had a fit of sickness, which robbed him of his fat and his fame at once; and it was full three months before he regained his reputation, which rose in proportion to his floridity. He is now very jolly and ingenious, and hath a good con stitution for wit. Those who are thus adorned with the gifts of nature, are apt to show their parts with too much ostentation: I would therefore advise all the professors of this art never to tell stories but as they seem to grow out of the subject matter of the conversation, or as they serve to illustrate or enliven it. Stories that are very common are generally irksome; but may be aptly introduced, provided they be only hinted at, and mentioned by way of allusion. Those that are altogether new should never be ushered in without a short and pertinent character of the chief persons concerned; because, by that means, you make the company acquainted with them; and it is a certain rule, that slight and trivial accounts of those who are familiar to us, administer more mirth, than the brightest points of wit in unknown characters. A little circumstance in the complexion or dress of the man you are talking of sets his image before had occasion to remember a third man, he broke off, and gave us his history, and so on. He always put me in mind of what sir William Temple informs us of the tale-tellers in the north of Ireland, who are hired to tell stories of giants and enchanters to lull people asleep. These historians are obliged, by their bargain, to go on without stopping; so that after the patient hath, by this benefit, enjoyed a long nap, he is sure to find the operator proceeding in his work. Ned procured the like effect in me the last time I was with him. As he was in the third hour of his story, and very thankful that his memory did not fail him, I fairly nodded in the elbow chair. He was much af fronted at this, till I told him, 'Old friend, you have your infirmity, and I have mine.' But of all evils in story-telling, the humour of telling tales, one after another, in great numbers, is the least supportable. Sir Harry Pandolf and his son gave my lady Lizard great offence in this particular. Sir Harry hath what they call a string of stories, which he tells over every Christmas. When our family visits there, we are constantly, after supper, entertained with the Glastonbury Thorn. When we have won. dered at that a little, Ay, but, father,' saith the son, let us have the Spirit in the Wood.' After that hath been laughed at, Ay, but father,' | difficult virtue to forbear going into a family, cries the booby again, tell us how you served though she was in love with the heir of it, for the robber.' Alack-a-day,' saith sir Harry, no other reason but because her happiness was with a smile, and rubbing his forehead, 'I have inconsistent with the tranquillity of the whole almost forgot that; but 'tis a pleasant conceit, house, to which she should be allied. I say, I to be sure.' Accordingly he tells that and think it a more generous virtue in Lucia to twenty more in the same independent order, conquer her love from this motive, than in and without the least variation, at this day, as Marcia to suspend hers in the present circumhe hath done to my knowledge, ever since the stances of her father and her country: but pray revolution. I must not forget a very odd com- be here to settle these matters. I am, your pliment that sir Harry always makes my lady most obliged and obedient humble servant, when he dines here. After dinner he strokes 'MARY LIZARD.' his belly, and says with a feigned concern in his countenance, Madam, I have lost by you to-day.' How so, sir Harry?' replies my lady; 'Madam,' says he, 'I have lost an excellent stomach. At this, his son and heir laughs immoderately, and winks upon Mrs. Annabella. This is the thirty-third time that sir Harry hath been thus arch, and I can bear it no longer. As the telling of stories is a great help and life to conversation, I always encourage them, if they are pertinent and innocent; in opposition to those gloomy mortals, who disdain every thing but matter of fact. Those grave fellows are my aversion, who sift every thing with the utmost nicety, and find the malignity of a lie in a piece of humour, pushed a little beyond exact truth. I likewise have a poor opinion of those who have got a trick of keeping a steady countenance, that cock their hats, and look glum when a pleasant thing is said, and ask, 'Well! and what then?' Men of wit and parts should treat one another with benevolence: and I will lay it down as a maxim, that if you seem to have a good opinion of another man's wit, he will allow you to have judgment. I made all the haste imaginable to the family, where I found Tom with the play in his hand, and the whole company with a sublime cheerfulness in their countenance, all ready to speak to me at once: and before I could draw my chair, my lady herself repeated, 'Tis not a set of features, or complexion, I was going to speak, when Mrs. Cornelia stood up, and with the most gentle accent and sweetest tone of voice succeeded her mother: So the pure limpid stream, when foul with stains I thought now they would have given me time to draw a chair; but the Sparkler took hold of me, and I heard her with the utmost delight pursue her admiration of Lucia in the words of Portius: Athwart the terrors that thy vow Has planted round thee, thou appear'st more fair, More amiable, and risest in thy charms, Loveliest of women! Heaven is in thy soul, Beauty and virtue shine for ever round thee, Bright'ning each other; thou art all divine! When the ladies had done speaking, I took the liberty to take my place; while Tom, who, like a just courtier, thinks the interest of his prince and country the same, dwelt upon these lines: I HAD for some days observed something in agitation, which was carried by smiles and whispers between my lady Lizard and her daughters, with a professed declaration that Mr. Ironside should not be in the secret. I would not trespass upon the integrity of the Sparkler so much as to solicit her to break her word even in a trifle; but I take it for an instance of her kindness to me, that as soon as she was at liberty, she was impatient to let me know it, and this morning sent me the follow-time, it went to my heart that Annabella, for ing billet: 'SIR,-My brother Tom waited upon us all last night to Cato; we sat in the first seats in the box of the eighteen-penny gallery. You must come hither this morning, for we shall be full of debates about the characters. I was for Marcia last night, but find that partiality was owing to the awe I was under in her father's presence; but this morning Lucia is my woYou will tell me whether I am right or no when I see you; but I think it is a more man. Remember, O my friends, the laws, the rights, whom I have long had some apprehensions, encouraged as much as it ought. There is no medium in this case, for the advantages of action, and the representation of vice and virtue in an agreeable or odious manner before our eyes, are so irresistibly prevalent, that the theatre ought to be shut up, or carefully governed, in any nation that values the promotion of virtue or guard of innocence among its people. Speeches or sermons will ever suffer, in some degree, from the characters of those that make them; and mankind are so unwilling to reflect on what makes for their own mortification, that they are ever cavilling against the lives of those who speak in the cause of goodness, to keep themselves in countenance, and continue in beloved infirmities. But in the case of the stage, envy and detraction are baffled, and none are offended, but all insensibly won by personated characters, which they neither look upon as their rivals, or superiors; every man that has any degree of what is laudable in a theatrical character, is secretly pleased, and encouraged in the prosecution of that virtue without fancying any man about him has more of it. To this purpose I fell a talking at the tea-table, when my lady Lizard, with a look of some severity towards Annabella and Mrs. Betty, was pleased to say, that it must be from some trifling prepossession of mind that any one could be unmoved with the characters of this tragedy; nor do I yet understand to what circumstance in the family her ladyship alluded, when she made all the company look serious, and rehearsed, with a tone more exalted, those words of the heroine, In spite of all the virtues we can boast, The woman that deliberates is lost. Hac iter Elysium nobis. Virg. Æn. vi. 542. This path conducts us to th' Elysian fields. I HAVE frequently observed in the walks belonging to all the inns of court, a set of old fel. lows who appear to be humourists, and wrapped up in themselves; but have long been at a loss when I have seen them smile, and name my name as I passed by, and say, Old Ironside wears well. I am a mere boy to some of them who frequent Gray's-inn, but am not a little pleased to find they are even with the world, and return upon it its neglect towards them, which is all the defence we old fellows have against the petulancy of young people. I am very glad to observe that these sages of this peripatetic sect study tranquillity and indolence of body and mind, in the neighbourhood of so much contention as is carried on among the students of Littleton. The following letter gives us some light into the manners and max ims of these philosophers. 'To the Guardian. tune have been lamented in all ages, those per'SIR,-As the depredations of time and for. sons who have resisted and disputed the tyranny of either of these, have employed the sublimest these deceased heroes have had their places juspeculations of the writers in all languages. As diciously assigned them already in the temple of fame, I would immortalize some persons now alive, who to me are greater objects of envy, both as their bravery is exercised with the ut and as they are substantially happy on this side most tranquillity and pleasure to themselves, the grave, in opposition to all the Greek and Latin scraps to the contrary. inroads from the spleen, as I affirm all evil to 'As therefore I am naturally subject to cruel come from the east, as I am the weather-glass of every company I come into, I sometimes, according to Shakspeare, Sit like my grandsire cut in alabaster, Sleep whilst I wake, and creep into the jaundice 'I would furnish out a table of merry fame, in envious admiration of those jovial blades, who disappoint the strokes of age and fortune with the same gayety of soul, as when through youth or affluence they were in their prime for fancy, frolic, and achievement. There are, you may observe, in all public walks, persons who by a singular shabbiness of their attire, make a very ridiculous of dress. They are very sullen and involved, appearance in the opinion of the men and appear in such a state of distress and tribugenerally of that complexion which was in falation as to be thought inconsolable. They are shion during the pleasurable reign of Charles the Second. Some of them, indeed, are of a lighter brown, whose fortunes fell with that of king James. Now these, who are the jest of such as take themselves, and the world usually takes, to be in prosperity, are the very persons whose happiness, were it understood, would be looked upon with burning envy. I fell into the discovery of them in the following manner: One day last summer, being particularly under the dominion of the spleen, I resolved to sooth my melancholy in the company of such, whose appearance promised a full return of any complaints I could possibly utter. Living near Gray's-inn walk, I went thither in search of the persons above described, and found some of them seated upon a bench, where, as Milton sings, the unpierced shade Imbrowned their noontide bower. 'I squeezed in among them, and they did not only receive my moanings with singular hu manity, but gave me all possible encouragement to enlarge them. If the blackness of my spleen raised any imaginary distemper of body, some one of them immediately sympathized with me. If I spoke of any disappointment in my fortune another of them would abate my sorrowing by | the extremities of it, which I think is as folrecounting to me his own defeat upon the very lows: "Franciscus Bacon Eques Auratus Exsame circumstances. If I touched upon over- ecutor Testamenti Jeremia Bettenham Hujus looked merit, the whole assembly seemed to Hospitii Viri Abstemii et Contemplativi Hanc condole with me very feelingly upon that par- Sedem posuit in Memorium Ejusdem." Now ticular. In short, I could not make myself so this structure being erected in honourable mecalamitous in mind, body, or circumstances, but mory of the abstemious, the contemplative Mr. some one of them was upon a level with me. Bettenham, they take frequent occasion to rally When I had wound up my discourse, and was this erudition, which is to continue the rememripe for their intended raillery, at first they brance of a person, who, according to their crowned my narration with several piteous translation of the words, being confessed to sighs and groans, but after a short pause, and a have been of most splenetic memory, ought ra. signal given for the onset, they burst out into a ther to lie buried in oblivion. most incomprehensible fit of laughter. You may be sure I was notably out of countenance, which gave occasion to a second explosion of the same mirth. What troubled me most was, that their figure, age, and short swords, preserved them from any imputation of cowardice upon refusal of battle, and their number from insult. I had now no other way to be upon good terms with them, but desiring I might be admitted into this fraternity. This was at first vigorously opposed, it being objected to me, that I affected too much the appearance of a happy man to be received into a society so proud of appearing the most afflicted, However, as I only seemed to be what they really were, I am admitted by way of triumph upon probation for a year: and if within that time it shall be possible for them to infuse any of their gayety into me, I can, at Monmouth-street, upon mighty easy terms, pur-pare myself with such parts of history as have chase the robes necessary for my installment into this order; and when they have made me as happy, shall be willing to appear as miserable as any of this assembly. I confess I have ever since been ashamed, that I should once take that place to be sacred to the disconsolate, which I now must affirm to be the only Elysium on this side the Styx; and that ever I should look upon those personages as lively instances of the outrage of time and fortune, who disallow their empire with such inimitable bravery. Some of these are pretty good classical scholars, and they follow these studies always walking, upon account of a certain sentence in Pliny's epistles to the following effect. " "Tis inconceivable how much the understanding is enlivened by the exercise of the body." If therefore their author is a little difficult, you will see them fleeting with a very precipitate pace, and when it has been very perplexed and abstruse, I have seen a couple of these students prepare their apprehensions by still quicker motions, till they run into wisdom. These courses do not only make them go through their studies with pleasure and profit, but there is more spirit and vigour in their dialogues after the heat and hurry of these perambulations. This place was chosen as the peculiar resort of these sages, not only upon account of its air and situation, but in regard to certain edifices and seats therein raised with great magnificence and convenience and here, after the toils of their walks, and upon any stress of weather, these blessed inhabitants assemble themselves. There is one building particularly, in which, if the day permit, they have the most frequent conferences, not so much because of the loveliness of its eminence, as a sentence of literature incircling 'Lest they should flag in their own way of conversation, they admit a fair-one to relieve them with hers. There are two or three thin existences among them, which I think I may call the ghosts of departed beaux, who pay their court more particularly to this lady, though their passion never rises higher than a kiss, which is always Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, And sweet reluctant amorous delay. Milton. 'As it is the character of this fraternity to turn their seeming misfortunes to their advantage, they affirm it to be the greatest indulgence imaginable in these amours, that nature perpetuates their good inclinations to the fair, by an inability to extinguish them. 'During my year of probation, I am to pre engaged their application during the leisure of their ill-fortune; I am therefore to read Rushauthors I am not obliged to enter into the justworth and Clarendon, in the perusal of which ness of their reflections and characters, but am the battles of Marston-moor and Edgehill, in desired to read, with an eye particularly curious, one of which every man of this assembly has lost a relation; and each has a story which none who has not read those battles is able to taste. 'I had almost forgot to mention a most unsince, in a prodigious foggy morning, I went in exampled piece of their gallantry. Some time search of these persons to their usual place of resort, and perhaps shall hardly be believed, when I affirm, that, notwithstanding they sucked in so condensed and poisonous an æther, I found them enjoying themselves with as much vivacity, as if they had breathed in the serenity of Montpelier. I am, sir, your most humble J. W.' servant, I Do not know that I have been more intimately moved with pity in my whole life, than when I was reading a letter from a young wo man, not yet nineteen, in which there are these lamentable words, Alas! whither shall I fly? he has deceived, ruined, and left me.' The circumstances of her story are only those ordinary ones, that her lover was a man of greater fortune than she could expect would address to her upon honourable terms; but she said to herself, 'She had wit and beauty, and such charms as often captivate so far as to make men forget those meaner considerations, and innocent free |