and more they cannot, will not arrive at. Were it not thus, the noble Martius would not be the only man in England whom nobody can understand, though he talks more than any man else. Will Dactyle the epigrammatist, Jack Comma the grammarian, Nick Cross-grain who writes anagrams, and myself, made a pretty company at a corner of this room; and entered very peaceably upon a subject fit enough for us, which was, the examination of the force of the particle for,' when Martius joined us. He, being well known to us all, asked what we were upon? for he had a mind to consummate the happiness of the day, which had been spent among the stars of the first magnitude among the men of letters; and therefore, to put a period to it as he had commenced it, he should be glad to be allowed to participate of the pleasure of our society. I told him the subject. Faith, gentlemen,' said Martius, your subject is humble; and, if you will give me leave to elevate the conversation, I should humbly offer that you would enlarge your inquiries to the word "for-as-much;" for though I take it,' said he, to be but one word, yet the particle "much" implying quantity, the particle" as” similitude, it will be greater, and more like ourselves, to treat of for-as-much.' Jack Comma is always serious, and answered; Martius, I must take the liberty to say, that you have fallen into all this error and profuse manner of speech by a certain hurry in your imagination, for want of being more exact in the knowledge of the parts of speech; and it is so with all men who have not well studied, the particle "for." You have spoken "for" without making any inference, which is the great use of that particle. There is no manner of force in your ob servation of quantity and similitude in the syllables "as" and "much." But it is ever the fault of men of great wit to be incorrect; which evil they run into by an indiscreet use of the word "for." Consider all the books of controversy which have been written, and I will engage you will observe, that all the debate lies in this point, whether they brought in "for" in a just manner; or forced it in for their own use, rather than as understanding the use of the word itself? There is nothing like familiar instances: you have heard the story of the Irishman, who reading, "Money for live hair," took a lodging, and expected to be paid for living at that house. If this man had known "for" was in that place of a quite different signification from the particle "to," he could not have fallen into the mistake of taking live for what the Latins call vivere, or rather habitare.' Martius seemed at a loss; and admiring his profound learning, wished he had been bred a scholar, for he did not take the scope of his discourse. This wise debate, of which we had much more, made me reflect upon the difference of their capacities, and wonder that there could be as it were a diversity in men's genius for nonsense; that one should bluster, while another crept, in absurdities. Martius moves like a blind man, lifting his legs higher than the ordinary way of stepping; and Comma, like one who is only short-sighted, picking his way when he should be marching on. Want of learning makes Martius a brisk entertaining fool, and gives him a full scope; but that which Comma has, and calls learning, makes him diffident, and curbs his natural understanding, to the great loss of the men of raillery. This conversation confirmed me in the opinion, that learning usually does but improve in us what nature endowed us with. He that wants good sense is unhappy in having learning, for he has thereby only more ways of exposing himself; and he that has sense knows that learning is not knowledge, but rather the art of using it. STEELE. N° 59. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1709. Quicquid agunt homines nostri est farrago libelli. JUV. Sat. i. 85, 86. Whatever good is done, whatever ill- White's Chocolate-house, August 24. ESOP has gained to himself an immortal renown for figuring the manners, desires, passions, and interests of men, by fables of beasts and birds. I shall, in my future accounts of our modern heroes and wits, vulgarly called sharpers,' imitate the method of that delightful moralist; and think, I cannot represent those worthies more naturally than under the shadow of a pack of dogs; for this set of men are, like them, made up of 'finders, lurchers, and setters.' Some search for the prey, others pursue, others take it; and if it be worth it, they all come in at the death, and worry the carcass. It would require a most exact knowledge of the field and the harbours where the deer lie, to recount all the revolutions in the chase. But I am diverted from the train of my discourse of the fraternity about this town, by letters from Hampstead', which give me an account, there is a late institution there, under the name of a rafflingshop; which is, it seems, secretly supported by a person who is a deep practitioner in the law, and out of tenderness of conscience has, under the name of his maid Sisly, set up this easier way of conveyancing and alienating estates from one family to another. He is so far from having an intelligence with the rest of the fraternity, that all the humbler cheats who appear there, are out-faced by the partners in the bank, and driven off by the reflection of superior brass. This notice is given to all the silly faces that pass that way, that they may not be decoyed in by the soft allurement of a fine lady, who is the sign to the pageantry. At the same time signior Hawksly, who is the patron of the household, is desired to leave off this interloping trade, or admit, as he ought to do, the knights of the industry to their share in the spoil. But this little matter is only by way of digression. Therefore to return to our worthies. The present race of terriers and hounds would starve, were it not for the inchanted Actæon 2, who has kept the whole pack for many successions of I See N° 57. note. 2 It has been related of sir John Jacob, a knight in Cambridgeshire about this time, that at the age of 70, he continued to play at hazard; when he could hardly discern by the assistance of his spectacles whether he won or lost. When laughed at for this folly, and told, that to be sure he must play by the ear; I cannot help it,' said he ; ' I have been used to play above 40 years; and I can no more leave it off now, than I can stop the issues about me, which have been the means of protracting my life to this date.' hunting seasons. Actæon has long tracts of rich soil; but had the misfortune in his youth to fall under the power of sorcery, and has been ever since, some parts of the year, a deer, and in some parts a man. While he is a man, such is the force of magic, he no sooner grows to such a bulk and fatness, but he is again turned into a deer, and hunted until he is lean: upon which he returns to his human shape. Many arts have been tried, and many resolutions taken by Acteon himself, to follow such methods as would break the inchantment; but all have hitherto proved ineffectual. I have therefore, by midnight watchings and much care found out, that there is no way to save him from the jaws of his hounds, but to destroy the pack, which, by astrological prescience, I find I am destined to perform. For which end I have sent out my familiar, to bring me a list of all the places where they are harboured, that I may know where to sound my horn, and bring them together, and take an account of their haunts and their marks, against another opportunity. Will's Coffee-house, August 24. THE author of the ensuing letter, by his name and the quotations he makes from the ancients, seems a sort of spy from the old world, whom we moderns ought to be careful of offending: therefore, I must be free, and own it a fair hit where he takes me, rather than disoblige him. SIR, HAVING a peculiar humour of desiring to be somewhat the better or wiser from what I read, I am always uneasy when, in any profound writer, for I |