It is to be presumed, that of this clause no gentleman in the army is ignorant; and those, who by the arrogance of their folly labour to render it ineffectual, should, as enemies to their Country, be driven out of it with detestation and contempt.

N° 71. TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1753.

Hominem pagina nostra sapit.

We strive to paint the manners and the mind.

MART.

LETTERS Written from the heart and on real occasions, though not always decorated with the flowers of eloquence, must be far more useful and interesting than the studied paragraphs of Pliny, or the pompous declamations of Balsac; as they contain just pictures of life and manners, and are the genuine emanations of nature. Of this kind I shall select a few from the heap I have received from my correspondents, each of which exhibits a different character, not exaggerated and heightened by circumstances that pass the bounds of reality.

SIR,

TO THE ADVENTURER.

Sombre-Hall, June 18. I am arrived with Sir Nicholas at this melancholy moated mansion. Would I could be annihilated during the insupportable tediousness of summer! We are to sup this evening, after having finished the whole afternoon, by day-light, think of that, in the new

arbour. My uncle, poor man, imagines he has a finer and richer prospect from thence, than the illuminated vistas at Vauxhall afford, only because he sees a parcel of woods and meadows, and blue hills, and corn fields. We have been visited by our only neighbour, Mrs. Thrifty, who entertained us with a dull history of the children she has educated at a little school of her own founding, and who values herself for not having been in town these ten years, and for not knowing what a drum means. My sister and I have laid a scheme to plague her, for we have sent her a card, intreating her to make one at Brag next Sunday. For heaven's sake send us your paper weekly, but do not give us so many grave ones; for we want to be diverted after studying Hoyle, which we do for three hours every afternoon with great attention, that the time may not pass away totally useless, and that we may be a match for Lady Shuffle next winter. Let us know what is done at the next Jubilee Masquerade. How shall I have patience to support my absence from it! And if Madame de Pompadour comes over, as was reported when I left town, impart to us a minute account of the complexion she now wears, and of every article of her dress; any milliner will explain the terms to you. I don't see that you have yet published the little novel I sent you; I assure you it was written by a right honourable: but you, I suppose, think the style colloquial as you call it, and the moral trite or trifling. Colonel Caper's pindaric ode on the E O table, must absolutely be inserted in your very next paper, or else never expect to hear again from

LETITIA.

TO THE ADVENTURER.

SIR,

I apply to you as a person of prudence and knowledge of the world, for directions how to extricate myself out of a great and uncommon difficulty. To. enable myself to breed up a numerous family on a small preferment, I have been advised to indulge my natural propensity for poetry, and to write a tragedy: my design is to apprentice my eldest son to a reputable tradesman, with the profits I shall acquire by the representation of my play, being deterred by the inordinate expenses of an University education from making him a scholar. An old gentlewoman in my parish, a great reader of religious controversy, whom celibacy and the reduction of interest have made morosely devout, accidentally hearing of my performance, undertook to censure me in all companies with acrimony and zeal, as acting inconsistently with the dignity of my public character, and as a promoter of debauchery and lewdness. She has informed my churchwardens, that the playhouse is the temple of Satan, and that the first Christians were strictly forbidden to enter the theatres, as places impure and contagious. My congregations grow thin;

my clerk shakes his head, and fears his master is not so sound as he ought to be. I was lately discoursing on the beautiful parable of the prodigal son, and most unfortunately quoted Erasmus's observation on it, ex quo quidem argumento posset non inelegans texi comedia'-' on which subject a most elegant comedy might be composed;' which has ruined me for ever, and destroyed all the little respect remaining for me in the minds of my parishioners.

What! cried they, would the parson put the Bible into verse? would he make stage-plays out of the Scriptures? How, Sir, am I to act? Assist me with your advice. Am I for ever to bear unreasonable obloquy, and undeserved reproach? or must I, to regain the good opinion of my people, relinquish all hopes of the five hundred pounds I was to gain by my piece, and generously burn my tragedy in my church-yard, in the face of my whole congregation?

Your's, &c.

JACOB THOMSON.

TO THE ADVENTURER.

SIR,

I had almost finished a view of the inside of St. Peter's at Rome in butterfly work, when my cruel parroquet accidentally trod upon the purple emperor, of which the high altar was to have been made. This is the first letter I have written after my dreadful loss; and it is to desire you to put an advertisement at the end of your next paper, signifying, that whoever has any 'purple emperors or swallow tails' to dispose of, may hear of a purchaser at Lady Whim's in New Bond-street.

Your's, &c.

TO THE ADVENTURER.

SIR,

If you will pay off my milk-score and lodgings, stop my taylor from arresting me, and put twenty pieces in my pocket, I will immediately set out for Lyons on foot, and stay there till I have translated into English the manuscript of Longinus which you talk of in your fifty-first paper. Favour me with

a speedy answer, directed to Mr. Quillit, at the corkcutter's in Wych-street, Drury-lane.

P. S. Seven booksellers have already applied to me, and offer to pay me very generously for my translation, especially as there is no French one for me to consult.

SIR,

TO THE ADVENTURER.

You affect great tenderness and sensibility whenever you speak of the ladies. I have always despised them as trifling and expensive animals; and have, therefore, enjoyed the delicious liberty of what they idly and opprobriously call an old bachelor. I consider love in no other light, than as the parent of misery and folly, and the son of idleness and ease. I am, therefore, inexpressibly delighted with a passage of uncommon sense and penetration, which I lately met with in the works of the celebrated Huet; and which, because no English writer has taken notice of it, I beg you will publish for the use of my countrymen, as it will impart to them a method of escaping the despicable lot of living under female tyranny.

6

'Love,' says this judicious prelate, is not only a passion of the soul like hatred and envy, but is also a malady of the body like a fever. It is situated in the blood and the animal spirits, which are extraordinarily inflamed and agitated; and it ought to be treated methodically by the rules of medicine, in order to effect a cure. I am of opinion, that this disorder may easily be subdued by plentiful sweats and copious bleedings, which would carry off the peccant humours and these violent inflammations, would purge the blood, calm its emotion, and reestablish it in its former natural state. This is not merely groundless conjecture, it is an opinion founded