longs to tell her Confident, that the hopes to be married. in a little time, and, in order to talk of the pretty Fellow that dwells fo much in her Thoughts, asks her very gravely, what he would advife her to do in a cafe of fo much Difficulty. Why elfe fhould Melissa, who had not a thoufand Pound in the World, go into every Quarter of the Town to ask her Acquaintance whether they would advise her to take Tom Townly, that made his Addreffes to her with an Eftate of five thoufand a Year? 'Tis very pleasant on this Occafion, to hear the Lady propose her Doubts, and to. fee the Pains fhe is at to get over them. I MUST not here omit a Practice that is in use among the vainer Part of our own Sex, who will often ask a Friend's Advice, in relation to a Fortune whom they are never likely to come at. WILL HONEYCOMB, who is now on the Verge of Threefcore, took me afide not long fince, and asked me in his moft serious Look, whether I would advise him to marry my Lady Betty Single, who, by the way, is one of the greatest Fortunes about Town. I ftar'd him full in the Face upon fo ftrange a Question; upon which he immediately gave me an Inventory of her Jewels and Eftate, adding that he was refolved to do nothing in a matter of fuch confequence without my Approbation. Finding he would have an Answer, I told him, if he could get the Lady's Confent he had mine. This is about the tenth Match which, to my knowledge, WILL has confulted his Friends upon, without ever opening his Mind to the Party herself." I HAVE been engaged in this Subject by the following Letter, which comes to me from fome notable young Fe male Scribe, who, by the Contents of it, feems to have carried Matters fo far, that fhe is ripe for asking Advice; but as I would not lofe her Good-Will, nor forfeit the Reputation which I have with her for Wisdom, I fhall only communicate the Letter to the Publick, without returning any Answer to it. Mr. SPECTATOR, very tall, WOW, Sir, the thing is this: Mr. Shapely is the Now prettieft Gentleman about Town. He is but not too tall neither. He dances like an Angel. His • Mouth is made I don't know how, but 'tis the prettiest • that ' that I ever faw in my Life. He is always laughing, ❝ for he has an infinite deal of Wit. If you did but fee how he rolls his Stockings! He has a thousand pretty Fancies, and I am fure if you faw him, you would like him. He is a very good Scholar, and can talk • Latin as fast as English. I wish you could but fee him dance. Now you must understand poor Mr. Shapely has no Estate; but how can he help that, you know • And yet my Friends are fo unreasonable as to be always teazing me about him, because he has no Eftate: but I am fure he has that that is better than an Estate; for he is a Good-natured, Ingenious, Modeft, Civil, Tall, Well-bred, Handfome Man, and I am obliged to him for his Civilities ever fince I faw him. I forgot to tell you that he has black Eyes, and looks upon me now and then as if he had Tears in them. And yet my Friends are fo unreasonable, that they would have me be uncivil to him. I have a good Portion which they cannot hinder me of, and I fhall be fourteen on the 29th Day of Auguft next, and am therefore willing to fettle in the World as foon as I can, and fo is Mr. Shapely. But every body I advise with here is poor Mr. Shapely's Enemy. I'defire therefore you will give me your Advice, for I know you are a wife Man : and if you advise me well I am refolved to follow it. 'I heartily wifh you could fee him dance, and am, No.476. Friday, September 5. Lucidus Ordo. Hor. daily which I beftow on the A Publick, there are fome which are written with Re gularity and Method, and others that run out into the Wildness of thofe Compofitions which go by the Names of Efays. As for the firft, I have the whole Scheme of the Discourse in my Mind before I fet Pen to Paper. In the other Kind of Writing, it is fufficient that I have several Thoughts on a Subject, without troubling my self to range them in fuch order, thatthey may feem to grow out of one another,and be disposed under the proper Heads. Seneca and Montaigne are Patterns for Writing in this laft kind,as Tully and Ariftotle excel in the other. When I read an Author of Genius who writes without Method, I fancy my felf in a Wood that abounds with a great many noble Objects, rifing among one another in the greatest Confufion and Disorder. When I read a methodical Difcourse, I am in a regular Plantation, and can place my felf in its several Centres, fo as to take a View of all the Lines and Walks that are ftruck from them. You may ramble in the one a whole Day together, and every Moment discover something or other that is new to you; but when you have done, you will have but a confused imperfect Notion of the Place: In the other, your Eye commands the whole Profpect, and gives you fuch an Idea of it, as is not eafily worn out of the Memory. IRREGULARITY and want of Method are only fup-portable in Men of great Learning or Genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore chuse to throw down their Pearls in Heaps before the Reader, rather than be at the Pains of ftringing them. METHOD is of Advantage to a Work, both in respect to the Writer and the Reader. In regard to the first, it is a great Help to his Invention. When a Man has plann'd plann'd his Difcourfe, he finds a great many Thoughts rifing out of every Head, that do not offer themselves upon the general Survey of a Subject. His Thoughts are at the fame time more intelligible, and better discover their Drift and Meaning, when they are placed in their proper Lights, and follow one another in a regular Series, than when they are thrown together without Order and Connexion. There is always an Obfcurity in Confufion, and the fame Sentence that would have enlightened the Reader in one part of a Difcourfe, perplexes him in another. For the fame reafon likewife every Thought in a methodical Discourse fhews it felf in its greatest Beauty, as the feveral Figures in a Piece of Painting receive new Grace from their Difpofition in the Picture. The Advantages of a Reader from a methodical Difcourfe, are correfpondent with thofe of the Writer. He comprehends every thing eafily, takes it in with Pleasure, and retains it long. METHOD is not lefs requifite in ordinary Converfation than in Writing, provided a Man would talk to make himself understood. I, who hear a thousand Coffee-house Debates every Day, am very fenfible of this want of Method in the Thoughts of my honeft Countrymen. There is not one Difpute in ten which is managed in thofe Schools of Politicks, where, after the three firft Sentences, the Question is not entirely loft. Our Difputants put me in mind of the Skuttle-Fish, that when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the Water about him till he becomes invifible. The Man who does not know how to methodize his Thoughts, has always, to borrow a Phrase from the Difpenfary, a barren Superfluity of Words; the Fruit is loft amidst the Exuberance of Leaves. TOM Puzzle is one of the most eminent immethodical Difputants of any that has fallen under my Obfervation. Tom has read enough to make him very impertinent; his Knowledge is fufficient to raise Doubts, but not to clear them. It is pity that he has fo much Learning, or that he has not a great deal more. With these Qualifications Tom fets up for a Free-thinker, finds a great. many things to blame in the Conftitution of his Country, and gives fhrewd Intimations that he does not believe another World. In fhort, Puzzle is an Atheist as much as as his Parts will give him leave. He has got about half a Dozen common-place Topicks, into which he never fails to turn the Conversation,whatever was the Occasion of it: Tho' the Matter in Debate be about Dorway or Denain, it is ten to one but half his Difcourfe runs upon the Unreasonableness of Bigotry and Prieft craft. This makes Mr. Puzzle the Admiration of all those who have lefs Senfe than himself, and the Contempt of all those who have more. There is none in Town whom Tom dreads fo much as my Friend Will Dry. Will, who is acquainted with Tom's Logick, when he finds him running off the Queftion, cuts him short with a What then? We allow all this to be true, but what is it to our present Purpofe? I have known Tom eloquent half an Hour together, and triumphing, as he thought, in the Superiority of the Argument, when he has been non-plus'd on a fudden by Mr. Dry's defiring him to tell the Company what ie was that he endeavoured to prove. In fhort, Dry is a Man of a clear methodical Head, but few Words, and gains the fame Advantages over Puzzle, that a small Body of regular Troops would gain over a numberless undifciplined Militia. C No.477. Saturday, September 6. An me ludit amabilis Infania? audire & videor pios SIR, H Quos & aquæ fubeunt & auræ, Hor. AVING lately read your Effay on the Pleasures of the Imagination, I was fo taken with your Thoughts upon fome of our English Gardens, that I cannot forbear troubling you with a Letter upon that Subject. I am one, you must know, who am looked upon as an Humourist in Gardening. I have feveral Acres about my House, which I call my Garden, and which a skilful Gardener would not know what to call. It is a Confufion of |