servation farther into common life, and remark, that it is a faculty, when properly directed, very fit to recommend young persons to the favour of such patrons, as are generally studious to promote the interest of politeness, and the honour of their country. I am therefore much grieved to hear the frequent complaints of some rising authors whom I have taken under my guardianship. Since my circumstances will not allow me to give them due encouragement, I must take upon me the person of a philosopher, and make them a present of my advice. I would not have any poet whatsoever, who is not born to five hundred a year, deliver himself up to wit, but as it is subservient to the improvement of his fortune. This talent is useful in all professions, and should be considered not as a wife, but as an attendant. Let them take an old man's word; the desire of fame grows languid in a few years, and thoughts of ease and convenience erase the fairy images of glory and honour. Even those who have succeeded both in fame and fortune, look back on the petty trifles of their youth with some regret, when their minds are turned to more exalted and useful speculations. This is admirably expressed in the following lines by an author*, whom I have formerly done justice to on the account of his pastoral poems.

In search of Wisdom, far from Wit I fly;
Wit is a harlot beauteous to the eye,
In whose bewitching arms our early time
We waste, and vigour of our youthful prime:
But when Reflection comes with riper years,
And Manhood with a thoughtful brow appears;
We cast the mistress off to take a wife,
And, wed to Wisdom, lead a happy life.

A passage which happened to me some years ago confirmed several maxims of frugality in my mind. A woollen-draper of my acquaintance, remarkable for

Mr. Ambrose Philips.

his learning and good-nature, pulled out his pocketbook, wherein he shewed me at the one end several well-chosen mottos, and several patterns of cloth at the other.-I, like a well-bred man, praised both sorts of goods; whereupon he tore out the mottos, and generously gave them to me: but, with great prudence, put up the patterns in his pocket again.

I am sensible that any accounts of my own secret history can have but little weight with young men of sanguine expectations. I shall therefore take this opportunity to present my wards with the history of an ancient Greek poet, which was sent me from the library of Fez, and is to be found there in the end of a very ancient manuscript of Homer's works, which was brought by the barbarians from Constantinople. The name of the poet is torn out, nor have the critics yet determined it. I have faithfully translated part of it, and desire that it may be diligently perused by all men who design to live by their wits.

I was born at the foot of a certain mountain in Greece called Parnassus, where the country is remarkably delicious. My mother, while she was with child with me longed for laurel-leaves; and as I lay in my cradle, a swarm of bees settled about my mouth, without doing me any injury. These were looked upon as presages of my being a great man; and the early promises I gave of a quick wit, and lively fancy, confirmed the high opinion my friends had conceived of me. It would be an idle tale to relate the trifling adventures of my youth, until I arrived at my twentieth year. It was then that the love I bore to a beautiful young virgin, with whom I had innocently and familiarly conversed from my childhood, became the public talk of our village. I was so taken up with my passion, that I entirely neglected

* Perhaps Will. Pate, a draper, celebrated for his wit and learning.

all other affairs: and though the daughter of Machaon the physician, and a rich heiress, the daughter of a famous Grecian orator, were offered me in marriage, I peremptorily refused both the matches, and rashly vowed to live and die with the lovely Polyhymnia. În vain did my parents remonstrate to me, that the tradition of her being descended from the Gods was too poor a portion for one of my narrow fortune ; that except her fine green-house and garden, she had not one foot of land; and though she should gain the lawsuit about the summit of Parnassus (which had yet many pretenders to it), that the air was so bleak there, and the ground so barren, that it would certainly starve the possessor. I fear my obstinacy in this particular broke my mother's heart, who died a short time after, and was soon followed by my father.

I now found myself at liberty, and notwithstanding the opposition of a great many rivals, I won and enjoyed Polyhymnia. Our amour was known to the whole country, and all who saw, extolled the beauty of my mistress, and pronounced me happy, in the possession of so many charms. We lived in great splendour and gaiety, I being persuaded that high living was necessary to keep up my reputation, and the beauty of my mistress; from whom I had daily expectations given me of a post in the government, or some lavish present from the great men of our commonwealth. I was so proud of my partner, that I was perpetually bringing company to see her, and was a little tiresome to my acquaintance, by talking continually of her several beauties. She herself had a most exalted conceit of her charms, and often invited the ladies to ask their opinions of her dress; which if they disapproved in any particular, she called them a pack of envious insipid things, and ridiculed them in all companies. She had a delicate set of teeth, which appeared most to advantage when

she was angry; and therefore she was very often in a passion. By this imprudent behaviour, when we had run out of our money, we had no living soul to befriend us; and every body cried out it was a judgment upon me for being a slave to such a proud minx, such a conceited hussy.

I loved her passionately, and exclaimed against a blind and injudicious world. Besides, I had several children by her, and was likely still to have more; for I always thought the youngest the most beautiful. I must not forget that a certain great lord offered me a considerable sum in my necessity, to have the reputation of fathering one of them: but I rejected his offer with disdain. In order to support her family and vanities, she carried me to Athens: where she put me upon a hundred pranks to get money. Sometimes she dressed me in an antique robe, and placed a diadem on my head, and made me gather a mob about me by talking in a blustering tone, and unintelligible language. Sometimes she made me foam at the mouth, roll my eyes, invoke the gods, and act a sort of madness which the Athenians call the Pindarism. At another time she put a sheephook into my hand, and drove me round my garret, calling it the plains of Arcadia. When these projects failed, she gave out, with great success, that I was an old astrologer*; after that a dumb mant, and last of all she made me pass for a liont.

It may seem strange, that, after so tedious a slavery, I should ever get my freedom. But so it happened, that during the three last transformations I grew acquainted with the Lady Sophia, whose superior charms cooled my passion for Polyhymnia; insomuch that some envious dull fellows gave it out,

* Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq. an astrologer in the Tatler.
A dumb man in the Spectator.

A lion in the Guardian.

my mistress had jilted and left me. But the slanders of my enemies were silenced by my public espousal of Sophia; who, with a greatness of soul, void of all jealousy, hath taken Polyhymnia for her woman, and is dressed by her every day.

N° 142. MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 1713.

-Pacis mala: sævior armis

Luxuria incubuit, victumque ulciscitur- Juv. Sat. vi. 291.
-Th' inveterate ills of peace,

And wasteful riot; whose destructive charms
Revenge the vanquished

DRYDEN.

BEING obliged, at present, to attend a particular affair of my own*, I do empower my printer to look into the arcana of the lion, and select out of them such as may be of public utility; and Mr. Button is hereby authorized and commanded to give my said printer free ingress and egress to the lion, without any hinderance, let, or molestation whatsoever, until such time as he shall receive orders to the contrary. And for so doing this shall be his warrant.

NESTOR IRONSIDE.

By virtue of the foregoing order, the lion has been carefully examined, and the two following papers being found upon him, are thought very proper for public use.

'Given in at the lion's mouth at six of the clock
in the morning.

MR. IRONSIDE,

'I came very early this morning to rouse your lion,

The particular affair alluded to here was probably Steele's election as M. P. for Stockbridge.