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• Mr. SPECTATOR,

T

HE town cannot be unacquainted that in divers parts of it there are vociferous fets of men who are called rattling clubs; but what fhocks me moft is, they have now the front to invade the church and inftitute thefe • focieties there, as a clan of them have in late times done, to fuch a degree of infolence as has given the partition where they refide, in a church near one of the city gates, the deno⚫mination of the rattling pew. Thefe gay fellows, from humble lay profeffions, fet up for • critics without any tincture of letters or reading, and have the vanity to think they can lay hold of fomething from the parfon which may

⚫ be formed into ridicule.

It is needless to obferve that the gentlemen, who every Sunday have the hard province of inftructing these wretches in a way they are in no prefent difpofition to take, have a • fixed character for learning and eloquence, not to be tainted by the weak efforts of this contemptible part of their audiences. Whether the pulpit is taken by these gentlemen or any ftrangers their friends, the way of the club is • this: if any fentiments are delivered too sublime for their conception; if any uncommon. topic is entered on, or one in ufe new-modified with the fineft judgment and dexterity; or any controverted point be never fo elegantly handled in fhort, whatever furpaffes the narrow limits of their theology, or is not

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fuited to their tafte, they are all immediately upon the watch, fixing their eyes upon each • other with as much warmth as our gladiators ⚫ of Hockley in the Hole, and waiting like them for a hit; if one touches, all take fire, and their noddles inftantly meet in the centre of the pew; then, as by beat of drum, with exact difcipline, they rear up into a full length ⚫ of ftature, and with odd looks and gefticulations 'confer together in fo loud and clamorous a manner, continued to the clofe of the difcourfe, ⚫ and during the after-pfalm, as it is not to be • filenced but by the bells. Nor does this fuffice them, without aiming to propagate their noife through all the church, by fignals given to the adjoining feats, where others defigned for this fraternity are fometimes placed upon trial to receive them.

The folly as well as rudeness of this practice is in nothing more confpicuous than this, that all that follows in the fermon is loft; for, whenever our sparks take alarm, they blaze out and grow fo tumultuous that no after-explanation can avail, it being impoffible for themselves or any near them to give an account thereof. If any thing really novel is advanced, how averfe foever it may be to their way of thinking, to fay nothing of duty, men of lefs levity than thefe would be led by a natural curiofity to • hear the whole.

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Laughter, where things facred are transacted, is far lefs pardonable than whining at a conventicle; the laft has at leaft a femblance of

grace,

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grace, and where the affectation is unseen may poffibly imprint wholesome leffons on the fincere; but the firft has no excufe, breaking through all the rules of order and decency, ⚫ and manifefting a remiffness of mind in thofe important matters which require the strictest compofure and steadiness of thought: a proof ⚫ of the greatest folly in the world.

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• I fhall not here enter upon the veneration • due to the fanctity of the place, the reverence owing the minister, or the refpect that fo great an affembly as a whole parish may justly claim. I fhall only tell them, that, as the Spanish cobler, to reclaim a profligate fon, bid him "have fome regard to the dignity of "his family," fo they as gentlemen (for we who are citizens affume to be fuch one day in a week) are bound for the future to repent of, and abstain from, the grofs abufes here mentioned, whereof they have been guilty in contempt of heaven and earth, and contrary to the laws in this cafe made and provided.

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' I am, Sir,

• Your very humble fervant,

'R. M.'

STELLE appears to have been an excellent Arbiter Elegantiarum, and well fkilled in the "policy of literature." This volume in folio is pretty clear from the humorous objection early and juftly made to STEELE's anterior publications on the score of multiplicity of advertisements. TAT. with notes, vol. I. N°21, p. 239. For three or four papers running, though room is not wanting, not a fingle advertisement occurs. This circumftance feems to confirm what Dr. Johnson says of the

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N° 631. Friday, December 10, 1714.

Simplex munditiis

I'

Elegant by cleanlinefs

HOR. 1 Od. v. 5.

HAD occafion to go a few miles out of town, fome days fince, in a ftage coach, where I had for my fellow travellers a dirty beau, and a pretty young quaker woman. Having no inclination to talk much at that time, I placed myself backward, with a defign to furvey them and pick a speculation out of my two companions. Their different figures were fufficient of themselves to draw my attention. The gentleman was dreffed in a fuit, the ground whereof had been black, as I perceived from fome few spaces that had escaped the powder, which was incorporated with the greatest part of his coat: his periwig, which coft no mall fum*, was after fo flovenly a manner caft over his fhoulders, that it feemed not to have been combed fince the year 1712; his linen, which was not much concealed, was daubed with plain Spanish from the chin to the flow fale of this volume on its firft appearance, perhaps on the authority of the curious pamphlet mentioned in the preceding Paper ad finem. See "Johnfon's Lives of English Poets," vol. II. p. 380, 8vo. edit. 1781; and "Letter to the SPECT. &c." p. 15, 17, & passim.

* Duumvir's fair wig coft forty guineas. See TAT. with Notes, N° 54.

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lowest button; and the diamond upon his finger (which naturally dreaded the water) put me in mind how it fparkled amidst the rubbish of the mine where it was firft difcovered. On the other hand, the pretty quaker appeared in all the elegance of cleanliness. Not a fpeck was to be found upon her. A clear, clean, oval face, juft edged about with little thin plaits of the pureft cambrick, received great advantages from the fhade of her black hood; as did the whitenefs of her arms from that fober-coloured ftuff in which she had clothed herself. The plain-, ness of her dress was very well fuited to the fimplicity of her phrafes; all which, put together, though they could not give me a great opinion of her religion, they did of her innocence.

This adventure occafioned my throwing together a few hints upon CLEANLINESS, which I fhall confider as one of the half-virtues, as Ariftotle calls them, and fhall recommend it under the three following heads; as it is a mark of politeness; as it produces love; and as it bears analogy to purity of mind.

Firft, It is a mark of politenefs. It is univerfally agreed upon, that no one, unadorned with this virtue, can go into company without giving a manifeft offence. The easier or higher any one's fortune is, this duty rifes proportionably. The different nations of the world are as much distinguished by their cleanlinefs as by their. arts and sciences. The more any country is civilized, the more they confult this part of politeness. We need but compare our ideas

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