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My

to my surprize, I heard some body say, Sir John, it is midnight, and time for the ship's Crew to go to bed. This I knew to be the Pilot's voice, and upon recollecting my self, I concluded that he had spoken these words to me some days before, though I could not hear them before the present thaw. Reader will easily imagine how the whole Crew was amazed, to hear every man talking, and see no man opening his mouth. In the midst of this great surprize we were all in, we heard a volley of oaths and curses, lasting for a long while, and uttered in a very hoarse voice, which I knew belonged to the Boatswain, who was a very cholerick fellow, and had taken his opportunity of cursing and swearing at me when he thought I could not hear him; for I had several times given him the Strappado on that account, as I did not fail to repeat it for these his pious soliloquies when I got him on shipboard.

I must not omit the names of several beauties in Wapping, which were heard every now and then, in the midst of a long sigh that accompanied them; as, Dear Kate! Pretty Mrs. Peggy! When shall I see my Sue again? this betrayed several amours which had been concealed till that time, and furnished us with a great deal of mirth in our return to England.

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When this confusion of voices was pretty well over, though I was afraid to offer at speaking, as fearing I should not be heard, I proposed a visit to the Dutch Cabin, which lay about a mile further up into the country. My Crew were extremely 25 rejoiced to find they had again recovered their hearing, though every man uttered his voice with the same apprehensions that I had done:

Et timide verba intermissa retentat.

At about half a mile's distance from our Cabin, we heard the groanings of a Bear, which at first startled us; but upon enquiry we were informed by some of our company, that he was dead, and now lay in Salt, having been killed upon that

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very spot about a fortnight before, in the time of the frost. Not far from the same place we were likewise entertained with some posthumous snarls and barkings of a Fox.

We at length arrived at the little Dutch Settlement, and 5 upon entering the room, found it filled with sighs that smelt of Brandy, and several other unsavoury sounds that were altogether inarticulate. My Valet, who was an Irishman, fell into so great a rage at what he heard, that he drew his Sword; but not knowing where to lay the blame, he put it up again. We were stunned with these confused noises, but did not hear a single word till about half an hour after; which I ascribed to the harsh and obdurate sounds of that Language, which wanted more time than ours to melt and become audible.

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After having here met with a very hearty welcome, we went to the French Cabin, who, to make amends for their three weeks Silence, were talking and disputing with greater rapidity and confusion than ever I heard in an Assembly even of that Nation. Their Language, as I found, upon the first giving of the weather, fell asunder and dissolved. I was here convinced of an Error into which I had before fallen; for I fancied, that for the freezing of the Sound, it was necessary for it to be [wrapped]1 up, and, as it were, preserved in breath; but I found my mistake, when I heard the sound of a Kit playing 25 [a] 2 [minuet] over our heads. I asked the occasion of it; upon which one of the company told me, that it would play there above a week longer if the thaw continued; for, says he, finding our selves bereft of speech, we prevailed upon one of the company, who had this Musical Instrument about him, to 30 play to us from morning to night; all which time we employed in dancing, in order to dissipate our Chagrin, et tuer le temps.

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Here Sir John gives very good Philosophical Reasons, why the Kit could be heard during the frost; but as they are something Prolix, I pass over them in silence, and shall only observe, that the honourable Author seems, by his Quotations, to have been well versed in the ancient Poets, which perhaps raised his fancy above the ordinary pitch of Historians, and very much contributed to the embellishment of his writings.

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THE SPECTATOR.

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N° 1. Thursday, March 1.

1711.

Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem

Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat. Hor.

I have observed, that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure, till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a mild or cholerick disposition, married or a batchelor, with other particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an Author. To gratify this curiosity, which is so natural to a reader, I design this Paper and my next as Prefatory discourses to my following writings, and shall give some account in them of the several Persons that are engaged in this work. As the chief 10 trouble of compiling, digesting, and correcting will fall to my share, I must do my self the justice to open the work with my own History.

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I was born to a small Hereditary Estate, which, according to the tradition of the Village where it lies, was bounded by the same hedges and ditches in William the Conqueror's time that it is at present, and has been delivered down from Father to Son whole and entire, without the loss or acquisition of a single field or meadow, during the space of six hundred years. There runs a story in the family, that when my Mother was 20 gone with child of me about three months, she dreamt that

she was brought to bed of a Judge: Whether this might proceed from a Law-suit which was then depending in the family, or my Father's being a Justice of the Peace, I cannot determine;

for I am not so vain as to think it presaged any dignity that I should arrive at in my future life, though that was the interpretation which the neighbourhood put upon it. The gravity of my behaviour at my very first appearance in the world, and all the time that I sucked, seemed to favour my Mother's dream: For, as she has often told me, I threw away my Rattle before I was two months old, and would not make use of my Coral till they had taken away the Bells from it.

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As for the rest of my infancy, there being nothing in it. remarkable, I shall pass it over in silence. I find, that during my nonage, I had the reputation of a very sullen youth, but was always a favourite of my Schoolmaster, who used to say, that my parts were solid, and would wear well. I had not been long at the University, before I distinguished my self by a most profound Silence; for during the space of eight years, 15 excepting in the publick exercises of the College, I scarce uttered the quantity of an hundred words; and indeed do not remember that I ever spoke three sentences together in my whole life. Whilst I was in this Learned body, I applied my self with so much diligence to my studies, that there are very few celebrated Books, either in the learned or modern tongues, which I am not acquainted with.

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Upon the death of my Father, I was resolved to travel into foreign countries, and therefore left the University, with the character of an odd unaccountable Fellow, that had a great 25 deal of Learning, if I would but shew it. An insatiable thirst after Knowledge carried me into all the countries of Europe in which there was any thing new or strange to be seen; nay to such a degree was my curiosity raised, that having read the controversies of some great men concerning the Antiquities of 30 Egypt, I made a voyage to Grand Cairo, on purpose to take the measure of a Pyramid: and as soon as I had set my self right in that particular, returned to my native country with great satisfaction.

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