blood, and fhewn a laudable ambition of taking the first opportunity to qualify themfelves for the firft table. This Club, confifting only of men of honour, did not continue long, most of the members of it being put to the sword, or hanged, a little after its inftitution. Our modern celebrated clubs are founded upon eating and drinking, which are points wherein moft men agree, and in which the learned and illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philofopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear a part. The Kit-Cat * itself is faid to have taken its original from a mutton-pie. The BeefSteak †, and October clubs, are neither of them averfe to eating and drinking, if we may form a judgment of them from their refpective titles. When men are thus knit together, by a love of fociety not a spirit of faction, and do not *An account of this Club, which took its name from Christopher Cat, the maker of their mutton-pies, has been given in the new edition of the TATLER, with notes, in 6 vols. The portraits of its members were drawn by Kneller, who was himself one of their number, and all portraits of the fame dimenfions and form, are at this time called Kit-Kat pictures. The original portraits are now the property of William Baker, Efq. to whom they came by inheritance from J. Tonfon, who was secretary to the Club. It was originally formed in Shire-lane, about the time of the trial of the feven bishops, for a little free evening converfation, but in Q. Anne's reign, comprehended above forty noblemen and gentlemen of the first rank for quality, merit, and fortune, firm friends to the Hanoverian fucceffion. + Of this Club, it is faid, that Mrs. Woffington, the only woman in it, was prefident; Richard Eftcourt the comedian was their providore, and as an honourable badge of his office, wore a small gridiron of gold hung round his neck with a green filk ribband. meet meet to cenfure or annoy those that are absent, but to enjoy one another; when they are thus combined for their own improvement, or for the good of others, or at least to relax themfelves from the bufinefs of the day, by an innocent and chearful converfation, there may be something very useful in these little inftitutions and establishments. I cannot forbear concluding this Paper with a scheme of laws that I met with upon a wall in a little alehoufe. How I came thither I may inform my reader at a more convenient time. These laws were enacted by a knot of artisans and mechanics, who used to meet every night; and as there is something in them which gives us a pretty picture of low life, I fhall tranfcribe them word for word. RULES to be obferved in the Two-penny Club, erected in this place for the prefervation of friendship and good neighbourhood. I. Every member at his first coming in shall lay down his two-pence. II. Every member fhall fill his pipe out of his own box. III. If any member abfents himself he shall forfeit a penny for the ufe of the club, unless in cafe of ficknefs or imprisonment. IV. If any member fwears or curfes, his neighbour may give him a kick upon the shins. V. If any member tell ftories in the Club that are not true, he fhall forfeit for every third lie an half-penny. E 4 VI. If VI. If any member ftrikes another wrongfully, he shall pay his Club for him. VII. If any member brings his wife into the Club, he fhall pay for whatever the drinks or fmokes. VIII. If any member's wife comes to fetch him home from the Club, she shall speak to him without the door. IX. If any member calls another cuckold, he fhall be turned out of the Club. X. None shall be admitted into the Club that is of the fame trade with any member of it. XI. None of the Club fhall have his clothes or fhoes made or mended, but by a brothermember. XII. No non-juror fhall be capable of being a member. The morality of this little club is guarded by fuch wholesome laws and penalties, that I queftion not but my reader will be as well pleased with them, as he would have been with the Leges Convivales of Ben Jonfon, the regulations of an old Roman Club cited by Lipfius, or the rules of a Sympofium in an ancient Greek author *. C+. Sce"Rules for a Club formerly eftablished in Philadelphia." Supplement to Dr. FRANKLIN'S Works, 8vo. P. 533. "Secret Hiftory of Clubs, &c." 8vo. 1709; republihed with additions, 12mo. 1746. Truth and falfehood are fo blended in this catch-penny book, that it is dif ficult to collect any certain information from it; the last edition is worse than the first. By ADDISON, dated perhaps from Chelfea. See N° 6; and N° 7, final Notes. N° 10. N° 10. Monday, March 11, 1710-11. Non aliter quàm qui adverfo vix flumine lembum So the boat's brawny crew the current ftem, IT 'T is with much fatisfaction that I hear this great city inquiring day by day after these my Papers, and receiving my morning lectures with a becoming seriousness and attention. My publisher tells me, that there are already three thousand of them diftributed every day*: So that if I allow twenty readers to every Paper, which I look upon as a modeft computation, I may reckon about threefcore thousand disciples in London and Westminster, who I hope will take care to diftinguish themselves from the thoughtless herd of their ignorant and inattentive bre "Ces Difcours ont paru d'abord un a un, fur des feuilles "volantes, en forme de Gazettes, et il s'en eft debite jufques a "VINGT MILLE par jour, &c." Le SPECTATEUR, Pref. See TATLER, with Notes, vol. vi. N° 271, p. 452, Note on Dr. JOHNSON's calculation, &c. thren. thren. Since I have raised to myself so great an audience, I fhall fpare no pains to make their instruction agreeable, and their diversion useful. For which reafons I fhall endeavour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality, that my readers may, if poffible, both ways find their account in the Speculation of the day. And to the end that their virtue and difcretion may not be fhort, tranfient, intermitting ftarts of thought, I have refolved to refresh their memories from day to day, till I have recovered them out of that defperate state of vice and folly, into which the age is fallen. The mind that lies fallow but a fingle day, sprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by a conftant and affiduous culture. It was faid of Socrates, that he brought Philofophy down from heaven, to inhabit among men; and I shall be ambitious to have it faid of me, that I have brought Philofophy out of closets and libraries, fchools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and affemblies, at tea-tables and in coffee-houses. I would therefore in a very particular manner recommend these my Speculations to all wellregulated families, that fet apart an hour in every morning for tea and bread and butter; and would earnestly advise them for their good to order this Paper to be punctually ferved up, to be looked upon as a part of the tea-equipage. and Sir Francis Bacon obferves, that a well-written book, compared with its rivals and antagonifts, is like Mofes's ferpent, that immediately fwallowed up and devoured thofe of the Egyp |