and will probably be in the Prefident's chair before the dies. Thefe Ladies, upon their firft inftitution, ' refolved to give the pictures of their deceased Husbands to the Club-room, but two of them bringing in their dead at full length, they ⚫ covered all the walls. Upon which they came to a fecond refolution, that every matron 'fhould give her own picture, and fet it round with her Hufbands' in miniature. 'As they have most of them the misfortune to be troubled with the colic, they have a noble cellar of cordials and ftrong waters. • When they grow maudlin, they are very apt ❝ to commemorate their former partners with a tear. But afk them which of their husbands they condole, they are not able to tell you, and difcover plainly that they do not weep fo .much for the lofs of a husband as for the want of one. The principal rule by which the whole Society are to govern themfelves, is this, to cry up the pleafures of a fingle life upon all occafions, in order to deter the reft of their fex from Marriage, and engrofs the whole male world to themselves. 6 They are obliged, when any one makes love to a member of the Society, to communicate his name, at which time the whole affembly fit upon his reputation, person, fortune, and good humour; and if they find him qualified for a fifter of the Club, they lay their heads together how to make him fure. By • this this means they are acquainted with all the Widow-hunters about town, who often afford them great diverfion. There is an honest Irish gentleman it feems, who knows nothing of this Society, but at different times has made love to the whole Club. Their converfation often turns upon their • former husbands, and it is very diverting to hear them relate their feveral arts and ftratagems with which they amufed the jealous, pacified the choleric, or wheedled the goodnatured man, till at laft, to ufe the Club phrafe, "They fent him out of the house "with his heels foremoft." < 6 The politics which are most cultivated by this Society of She-Machiavels relate chiefly to these two points, how to treat a Lover, and how to manage a Hufband. As for the firft fet of artifices, they are too numerous to come within the compafs of your Paper, and fhall therefore be referved for a fecond letter. The management of a Hufband is built upon the following doctrines, which are univerfally affented to by the whole Club. Not to give him his head at firft. Not to allow him too great freedoms and familiarities. Not to be treated by him like a raw girl, but as a woman that knows the world. Not to leffen any thing of her former figure. To celebrate the generofity, or any other virtue, of a deceafed Hufband, which the would recommend to his fucceffor. To turn away all his old friends and fervants, that the may have the dear man to herself. To make him difinherit the un• dutiful children of any former wife. Never to be thoroughly convinced of his affection, until he has made over to her all his goods and chattels * After fo long a letter, I am, without more ceremony, • Your humble fervant, &c.' N° 562. Friday, July 2, 1714. Præfens, abfens ut fies. TER. Eun. Acti. Sc. 2. 66 66 66 66 Be prefent as if abfent. IT T is a hard and nice fubject for a man to fpeak of himself," fays Cowley+; " it grates his own heart to fay any thing of difparagement, and the reader's ears to hear any "thing of praise from him." Let the tenour of his difcourfe be what it will upon this fubject, it generally proceeds from VANITY. An Oftentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an abfurdity he has committed, than be debarred of talking of his own dear perfon. Some very great writers have been guilty of this fault. It is obferved of Tully in particular that his works run very much in the firft perfon, and that he takes all occafions of doing himself * By ADDISON; on the authority of Mr. Tickell. + COWLEY'S "Works," fel. Lond. 1669, Eff. II. p. 143. juftice. "Does he think," fays Brutus, "that "his Confulfhip deferves more applause than 66 my putting Cæfar to death, because I am not perpetually talking of the Ides of March, as "he is of the Nones of December?" I need not acquaint my learned reader, that in the Ides of March Brutus deftroyed Cæfar, and that Cicero quafhed the confpiracy of Catiline in the Calends of December. How fhocking foever this great man's talking of himself might have been to his contemporaries, I must confess I am never better pleased than when he is on this fubject. Such openings of the heart give a man a thorough infight into his perfonal character, and illuftrate feveral paffages in the history of his life: befides that, there is fome little pleafure in discovering the infirmity of a great man, and feeing how the opinion he has of himself agrees with what the world entertains of him. The gentlemen of Port Royal, who were more eminent for their learning and for their humility than any other in France, banished the way of speaking in the first perfon out of all their works, as rifing from Vain-GLORY and SelfCONCEIT. To fhew their particular averfion to it, they branded this form of writing with the name of an EGOTISM; a figure not to be found among the ancient rhetoricians. The most violent Egotifm which I have met with in the courie of my reading, is that of Cardinal Wolfey, Ego & Rex meus, "I and my king;" as perhaps the moft eminent Egotift that ever appeared in the world was Montaigne, 66 D 3 the the author of the celebrated Effays. This lively old Gafcon has woven all his bodily infirmities into his works; and, after having fpoken of the faults or virtues of any other men, immediately publifhes to the world how it ftands with himfelf in that particular. Had he kept his own counfel, he might have paffed for a much better man, though perhaps he would not have been fo diverting an author. The title of an Effay promifes perhaps a difcourfe upon Virgil or Julius Cæfar; but, when you look into it, you are fure to meet with more upon Monfieur Montaigne than of either of them. The younger Scaliger, who feems to have been no great friend to this author, after having acquainted the world that his father fold herrings, adds thefe words: La grande fadaife de Montaigne, qui a ecrit qu'il aimoit mieux le vin blanc 66 que diable a ton à faire de fçavoir ce qu'il aime For my part," fays Montaigne," I am a great lover of your white wines' "What the devil fignifies it to the public,' fays Scaliger, "whether he is a lover of white "wines or of red wines?" I cannot here forbear mentioning a tribe of Egotifts, for whom I have always had a mortal avertion, I mean the authors of Memoirs, who are never mentioned in any works but their own, and who raife all their productions out of this fingle figure of fpeech. Most of our modern prefaces favour very ftrongly, of the Egotifm. Every infignificant author fancies it of importance to the world to know |