the future, think my felf at least obliged to take fome Notice of fuch Letters as I receive, and may poffibly do it at the End of every Month

IN the mean time, I intend my prefent Paper as a fhort Answer to most of thofe which have been already fent me.

THE Publick however is not to expect I fhould let them into all my Secrets; and though I appear abftrufe to moft People, it is fufficient if I am underftood by my particular Correfpondents.

MY Well-wisher Van Nath is very arch, but not quite enough fo to appear in Print.

PHILADELPHUS will, in a little time, fee his Query fully answered by a Treatife which is now in the Prefs.

IT was very improper at that time to comply with Mr. G.

MISS Kitty muft excufe me.

THE Gentleman who fent me a Copy of Verses on his Mistress's Dancing, is I believe too thoroughly in Love to compofe correctly.

I have too great a Respect for both the Universities, to praife one at the Expence of the other.

TOM. Nimble is a very honeft Fellow, and I defire him to present my humble Service to his Coufin Fill. Bumper.

I am obliged for the Letter upon Prejudice.

I

may in due time animadvert on the Cafe of Grace Grumble.

THE Petition of P. S. granted.

THAT of Sarah Loveit, refused.

THE Papers of 4. S. are returned.

I thank Arifiippus for his kind Invitation.

MY Friend at Woodstock is a bold Man, to undertake for all within Ten Miles of him.

I am afraid the Entertainment of Tom Turnover will hardly be relifhed by the good Cities of London and Westminster.

1 muft

I must confider further of it, before I indulge W. F. in those Freedoms he takes with the Lady's Stock

ing an obliged to the ingenious Gentleman, who

I

fent mean Ode on the Subject of a late SPECTATOR, and fhall take particular Notice of his last Letter.

WHEN the Lady who wrote me a Letter, dated July the 20th, in relation to fome Paffages in a Lover, will be more particular in her Directions, I fhall be fo in my Anfwer.

THE poor Gentleman, who fancies my Writings could reclaim an Husband who can abufe fuch a Wife as he describes, has I am afraid too great an Opinion of my Skill.

PHILANTHROPOS is, I dare fay, a very wellmeaning Man, but is a little too prolix in his Compofitions.

CONSTANTIUS himself must be the best Judge in the Affair he mentions.

THE Letter dated from Lincoln is received. ARETHUS A and her Friend may hear further from me.

CELIA is a little too hafty.

HARRIOT is a good Girl, but must not curtfie to Folks fhe does not know.

I muft ingeniously confess my Friend Sampfon Bentftaff has quite puzzled me, and writ me a long Letter which I cannot comprehend one Word of.

COLLIDAN must also explain what he means by his Drigelling.

I think it beneath my Spectatorial Dignity, to concern my felf in the Affair of the boiled Dumpling. I fhall confult fome Litterati on the Project fent me for the Discovery of the Longitude.

I know not how to conclude this Paper better, than by inferting a Couple of Letters which are really genuine, and which I look upon to be two of the fmartest Pieces I have received from my Correfpondents of either Sex.

Brother

Brother SPEC,

'WHI

4

HILE you are furveying every Object that falls in your way, I am wholly taken up with one. Had that Sage, who demanded what Beauty was, lived to fee the dear Angel I love, he ' would not have asked fuch a Question. Had another feen her, he would himself have loved the Perfon in whom Heaven has made Virtue vifible; and were you your felf to be in her Company, you could never, with all your Loquacity, fay enough of her good Humour and Senfe. I fend you the Outlines of a Picture, which I can no more finish than I can fufficiently admire the dear Original. I am

Good Mr. Pert,

Your most affectionate Brother,

Conftantio Spec

I Will allow you nothing till you refolve me the following Question. Pray what's the Reason ⚫ that while you only talk now upon Wednesdays, Fridays, and Mondays, you pretend to be a greater Tatler, than when you fpoke every Day as you formerly used to do? If this be your plunging out of your Taciturnity, pray let the Length of your Speeches compenfate for the Scarcenefs of them..

I am,

Good Mr. Pert.

Your Admirer,

if you will be long enough for Me,

Amanda Lovelength.

Wednesday,

N° 582. Wednesday, August 28.

T

Tenet infanabile multos

Scribendi Caçoethes

Juv.

HERE is a certain Diftemper, which is menti oned neither by Galen nor Hippocrates, nor to be met with in the London Difpenfary. Juvemal, in the Motto of my Paper, terms it a Cacoethes; which is a hard Word for a Disease called in plain Englifh, the Itch of Writing. This Cacoethes is as Epidemical as the Small-Pox, there being very few who are not feized with it fome time or other in their Lives. There is however this Difference in these two Diftem. pers, that the first, after having indifpofed you for a time, never returns again; whereas this I am speaking of, when it is once got into the Blood, feldom comes out of it. The British Nation is very much afflicted with this Malady, and tho' very many Remedies have been applied to Perfons infected with it, few of them have ever proved fuccefsful. Some have been cauterized with Satyrs and Lampoons, but have received little or no Benefit from them; others have had their Heads faftened for an Hour together between a Cleft Board, which is made ufe of as a Cure for the Disease when it appears in its greatest Malignity. There is indeed one kind of this Malady which has been fometimes removed, like the Biting of a Tarantula, with the Sound of a mufical Inftrument, which is commonly known by the Name of a Cat-Call. But if you have a Patient of this kind under your Care, you may af fure your felf there is no other way of recovering him effectually, but by forbidding him the use of Pen, Ink, and Paper.

BUT to drop the Allegory before I have tired it out, there is no Species of Scriblers more offenfive,

and

and more incurable, than your Periodical Writers, whose Works return upon the Publick on certain Days and at ftated Times. We have not the Confolation in the Perufal of thefe Authors, which we find at the reading of all others, (namely) that we are fure, if we have but Patience, we may come to the End of their Labours. I have often admired a humorous Saying of Diogenes, who reading a dull Author to feveral of his Friends, when every one began to be tired, finding he was almost come to a Blank Leaf at the End of it, cried, Courage, Lads, I fee Land. On the contrary, our Progrefs through that kind of Writers I am now fpeaking of is never at an End. One Day makes Work for another, we do not know when to promife our felves Reft.

IT is a melancholy thing to confider, that the Art of Printing, which might be the greateft Bleffing to Mankind, fhould prove detrimental to us, and that it fhould be made ufe of to fcatter Prejudice and Ignorance through a People, inftead of conveying to them Truth and Knowledge.

I was lately reading a very whimfical Treatife, entitled, William Ramfey's Vindication of Aftrology. This profound Author, among many myftical Paffages, has the following one: The Abfence of the Sun is not the Caufe of Night, forafmuch as his Light is fo great that it may illuminate the Earth all over at once as clear as broad Day, but there are tenebrificous and dark Stars, by whofe Influence Night is brought on, and which do ray out Darkness and • Obfcurity upon the Earth, as the Sun does Light.

I confider Writers in the fame View this fage Aftrologer does the heavenly Bodies. Some of them are Stars that scatter Light, as others do Darkness. I could mention feveral Authors who are tenebrificous Stars of the first Magnitude, and point out a Knot of Gentlemen who have been dull in Confort, and may be looked upon as a dark Conftellation. The Nation has been a great while benighted with feveral of thefe Antiluminaries. I fuffered them to ray out their

Darkness