beau, dressed in a long perriwig, and reposing himself upo vet cushions under a canopy of state. The inscription is a able to the monument; for instead of celebrating the ma markable actions he had performed in the service of his co it acquaints us only with the manner of his death, in which impossible for him to reap any honor. The Dutch, whom apt to despise for want of genius, show an infinitely greater of antiquity and politeness in their buildings and works of nature, than what we meet with in those of our own co The monuments of their admirals, which have been erected public expense, represent them like themselves; and are ad with rostral crowns and naval ornaments, with beautiful fes of sea-weed, shells, and coral.

But to return to our subject. I have left the reposito our English Kings for the contemplation of another day, w shall find my mind disposed for so serious an amusement know that entertainments of this nature are apt to raise dar dismal thoughts in timorous minds, and gloomy imaginat but for my own part, though I am always serious, I do not what it is to be melancholy; and can therefore take a vie nature in her deep and solemn scenes, with the same pleasu in her most gay and delightful ones. By this means I car prove myself with those objects, which others consider with When I look upon the tombs of the great, every em of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beau every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the gri parents upon a tomb-stone, my heart melts with compass when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I con rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow

astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together. C.

No. 28. MONDAY, APRIL 2.

-Neque semper arcum

Tendit Apollo.

HOR. Od. 10, v. 19.

Nor does Apollo always bend his bow.

I SHALL here present my reader with a letter from a projector, concerning a new office which he thinks may very much contri bute to the embellishment of the city, and to the driving bar barity out of our streets. I consider it as a satire upon projectors in general, and a lively picture of the whole art of modern criticism.

'SIR,

'OBSERVING that you have thoughts of creating certain officers under you, for the inspection of several petty enormities which you yourself cannot attend to; and finding daily absurdities hung upon the sign-posts of this city,' to the great scandal of foreigners, as well as those of our own country, who are curious spectators of the same: I do humbly propose, that you would be pleased to make me your Superintendent of all such

1 V. Tatler with Nichols's notes, No. 18-87.—G.

When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some, &c.] Better thus When, in reading the several dates of the tombs, I find that some, &c.--H

figures and devices as are or shall be made use of on this sion; with full powers to rectify or expunge whatever I find irregular or defective. For want of such an officer, th nothing like sound literature and good sense to be met w those objects that are every where thrusting themselves o the eye, and endeavouring to become visible. Our street filled with blue boars, black swans, and red lions; not to tion flying pigs, and hogs in armour, with many other crea more extraordinary than any in the deserts of Africa. Stra that one who has all the birds and beasts in nature to chus of, should live at the sign of an Ens Rationis!

My first task therefore should be, like that of Hercule clear the city from monsters.-In the second place I would bid, that creatures of jarring and incongruous natures shoul joined together in the same sign; such as the bell and the n tongue, the dog and gridiron. The fox and goose may be posed to have met; but what has the fox and the seven sta do together? And when did the lamb and dolphin ever except upon a sign-post? As for the cat and fiddle, there conceit in it; and therefore I do not intend that any thing I here said should affect it. I must however observe to you L this subject, that it is usual for a young tradesman, at his setting up, to add to his sign that of the master whom he seras the husband, after marriage, gives a place to his mistre arms in his own coat. This I take to have given rise to m of those absurdities which are committed over our heads; = as I am informed, first occasioned the three nuns and a h which we see so frequently joined together. I would there establish certain rules, for the determining how far one tra man may give the sign of another, and in what cases he may allowed to quarter it with his own.

In the third place, I would enjoin every shop to make

of a sign which bears some affinity to the wares in which it deals What can be more inconsistent than to see a bawd at the sign of the Angel, or a tailor at the lion? A cook should not live at the boot, nor a shoemaker at the roasted pig; and yet, for want of this regulation, I have seen a goat set up before the door of a perfumer, and the French King's head at a sword-cutler's.

'An ingenious foreigner observes, that several of those gentlemen who value themselves upon their families, and overlook such as are bred to trade, bear the tools of their forefathers in their coats of arms. I will not examine how true this is in fact; but though it may not be necessary for posterity thus to set up the sign of their forefathers; I think it highly proper for those who actually profess the trade, to shew some such marks of it before their doors.

'When the name gives an occasion for an ingenious sign-post, I would likewise advise the owner to take that opportunity of letting the world know who he is. It would have been ridiculous for the ingenious Mrs. Salmon to have lived at the sign of the trout; for which reason she has erected before her house the figure of the fish that is her namesake. Mr. Bell has likewise distin guished himself by a device of the same nature and here, sir, I must beg leave to observe to you, that this particular figure of a bell has given occasion to several pieces of wit in this kind. A man of your reading must know that Able Drugger gained great applause by it in the time of Ben Johnson. Our apocryphal heathen god is also represented by this figure; which, in conjunction with the dragon, makes a very handsome picture in several of our streets.1 As for the Bell Savage, which is the sign of a savage man standing by a bell, I was formerly very much puzzled upon the conceit of it, till I accidentally fell into the reading of

1 St. George.-C.

an old romance translated out of the French; which gives a count of a very beautiful woman who was found in a wilder and is called in the French La Belle Sauvage, and is where translated by our countrymen the Bell Savage. This of philology will, I hope, convince you that I have made posts my study, and consequently qualified myself for the em ment which I solicit at your hands. But before I conclude letter, I must communicate to you another remark which I made upon the subject with which I am now entertaining namely, that I can give a shrewd guess at the humour of th habitant by the sign that hangs before his door. A surly cho fellow, generally makes choice of a bear; as men of milder positions frequently live at the lamb. Seeing a punch-1 painted upon a sign near Charing-cross, and very curiously nished, with a couple of angels hovering over it, and squeezi lemon into it, I had the curiosity to ask after the master of house, and found upon inquiry, as I had guessed by the li agrémens upon his sign, that he was a Frenchman. I know, it is not requisite for me to enlarge upon these hints to a gen man of your great abilities; so, humbly recommending mysel your favour and patronage,

'HAVING heard that this nation is a great encourager of in nuity, I have brought with me a rope-dancer that was caught one of the woods belonging to the Great Mogul. He is by bi a monkey; but swings upon a rope, takes a pipe of tobacco, a