: was this artful design of vending these rarities : but I meant only the good of the world, in that, and all other things which I divulge. And now I am upon this subject, I must do myself justice in relation to an article in a former paper, * wherein I made mention of a person who keeps a puppet-show in the town of Bath; I tender of naming names, and only just hinted, that he makes larger promises, when he invites people to his dramatic representations than he is able to perform: but I am credibly informed, that he makes a profane, lewd jester, whom he calls Punch, speak to the dishonour of Isaac Bickerstaff with great familiarity; and before all my learned friends in that place, takes upon him to dispute my title to the appellation of Esquire. I think I need not say much to convince all the world, that this Mr. Powel, for that is his name, is a pragmatical and vain person, to pretend to argue with me on any subject. Mecum certâsse feretur; that is to say, it will be an honour to him to have it said he contended with me: but I would have him to know, that I can look beyond his wires, and know very well the whole trick of his art; and that it is only by these wires that the eye of the spectator is cheated, and hindered from seeing that there is a thread on one of Punch's chops, which draws it up, and lets it fall at the discretion of the said Powel, who stands behind and plays him, and makes him speak saucily of his betters. He ! to pretend to make prologues against me !-But a man never behaves himself with decency in his own * All the papers and passages about Powel, the puppet-showman, relate to the controversy between and Offspring Blackall, Bishop of Exeter, on which they were intended as å banter; it is needless to say that the wit and raillery is employed on the side of Hoadly. a case; therefore I shall command myself, and never trouble me further with this little fellow, who is himself but a tall puppet, and has not brains enough to make even wood speak as it ought to do: and I, that have heard the groaning board, can despise all that his puppets shall be able to speak as long as they live. But Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius, Every log of wood will not make a Mercury.' He has pretended to write to me also from the Bath, and says he thought to have deferred giving me an answer until he came to his books ; but that my writings might do well with the waters: which are pert expressions, that become a school-boy better than one that is to teach others : and when I have said a civil thing to him, he cries, 'Oh! I thank -I am your humble servant for that.' Ah! Mr. Powel, these smart civilities will never run down men of learning: I know well enough your design is to have all men automata, like your puppets ; but the world is grown too wise, and can look through these thin devices. I know your design to make a reply to this : but be sure you stick close to my words; for if you bring me into discourses concerning the government of your puppets, I must tell you, 'I neither am, nor have been, nor will be, at leisure to answer you.' It is really a burning shame this man should be tolerated in abusing the world with such representations of things : but his parts decay, and he is not much more alive than Partridge. you for that 6 FROM MY OWN APARTMENT, JULY 14. I must beg pardon of my readers, that for this time I have, I fear, huddled up my discourse, have ing been very busy in helping an old friend of mine out of town. He has a very good estate, is a man of wit ; but he has been three years absent from town, and cannot bear a jest ; for which reason I have, with some pains, convinced him, that he can no more live here than if he were a downright bankrupt. He was so fond of dear London, that he began to fret, only inwardly; but being unable to laugh and be laughed at, I took a place in the northern coach for him and his family : and hope he has got to-night safe from all sneerers in his own parlour. ST. JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE, JULY 20. This morning we received by express the agreeable news of the surrender of the town of Tournay on the twenty-eighth instant, N. S. The place was assaulted by the attacks of General Schuylemberg, and that of General Lottum, at the same time. The action at both those parts of the town was very obstinate, and the allies lost a considerable number in the beginning of the dispute; but the fight was continued with so great bravery, that the enemy, observing our men to be masters of all the posts which were necessary for a general attack, beat the chamade, and hostages were received from the town, and others sent from the besiegers, in order to come to a formal capitulation for the surrender of the place. We have also this day received advice, that Sir John Leake, who lies off Dunkirk, had intercepted several ships laden with corn from the Baltic; and that the Dutch privateers had fallen in with others, and carried them into Holland. The French letters advise, that the young son to the Duke of Anjou lived but eight days. No. 45. SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1709. Credo pudicitiam, Saturno rege, moratam JUY. SAT. vi. 1. In Saturn's reign, at nature's early birth, DRYDEN. 6 WHITE'S CHOCOLATE-HOUSE, JULY 22. The other day I took a walk a mile or two out of town, and strolling wherever chance led me, I was insensibly carried into a by-road, along which was a very agreeable quickset, of an extraordinary height, which surrounded a very delicious seat and garden. From one angle of the hedge, I heard a voice cry, “Sir, Sir!'- -This raised my curiosity, and I heard the same voice say, but in a gentle tone, ‘Come forward, come forward !' I did so, and one through the hedge called me by my name, and bid me go on to the left, and I should be admitted to visit an old acquaintance in distress. The laws of knight-errantry made me obey the summons without hesitation; and I was let in at the backgate of a lovely house by a maid-servant, who carried me from room to room till I came into a gallery; at the end of which I saw a fine lady, dressed in the most sumptuous habit, as if she were going to a ball, but with the most abject and disconsolate sorrow in her face that I ever beheld. As I came near, she burst into tears, and cried, “Sir, do not you know the unhappy Teraminta ?' I soon recollected her whole person : ‘But,' said I, ‘madam, a 6 you. the simplicity of dress, in which I have ever seen you at your good father's house, and the cheerfulness of countenance with which you always appeared, are so unlike the fashion and temper you are now in, that I did not easily recover the memory of Your habit was then decent and modest, your looks serene and beautiful: whence then this unaccountable change? Nothing can speak so deep a sorrow as your present aspect ; yet your dress is made for jollity and revelling !'-'It is,' said she, an unspeakable pleasure to meet with one I know, and to bewail myself to any that is not an utter stranger to humanity. • When my father died, he left me to a wide world, with no defence against the insults of fortune ; but rather, a thousand snares to entrap me in the dangers to which youth and innocence are exposed, in an age wherein honour and virtue are become mere words, and used only as they serve to betray those who understand them in their native sense, and obey them as the guides and motives of their being. The wickedest of all men living, the abandoned Decius, who has no knowledge of any good art or purpose of human life, but as it tends to the satisfaction of his appetites, had opportunities of frequently seeing and entertaining me at a house where mixed company boarded, and where he placed himself for the base intention which he has since brought to pass. Decius saw enough in me to raise his brutal desires, and my circumstances gave him hopes of accomplishing them. But all the glittering expectations he could lay before me, joined by my private terrors of poverty itself, could not for some months prevail upon me; yet, however I hated his intention, I still had a secret satisfaction in his courtship, and always exposed myself to his so your friend |