THE Coffee-houses have ever fince been my chief Places of Refort, where I have made the greatest Improvements; in order to which I have taken a particular Care never to be of the fame Opinion with the Man I converfed with. I was a Tory at Button's, and a Whig at Child's; a Friend to the Englishman, or an Advocate for the Examiner, as it best served my Turn; Some fancy me a great Enemy to the French King, though, in reality, I only make use of him for a Help to Difcourfe. In fhort, I wrangle and difpute for Exercise; and have carried this Point so far, that I was once like to have been run through the Body for making a little too free with my Betters. IN a Word, I am quite another Man to what I MY old Acquaintance scarce know me; nay I was asked the other Day by a few at Jonathan's, whether I was not related to a dumb Gentleman, who ufed to come to that Coffee-Houfe? But I think I never was better pleased in my Life than about a Week ago, when, as I was battling it across the Table with a young Templar, his Companion gave him a Pull by the Sleeve, begging him to come away, for that the old Prig would talk him to Death. BEING now a very good Proficient in Discourse, I fhall appear in the World with this Addition to my Character, that my Countrymen may reap the Fruits of my new acquired Loquacity. THOSE who have been prefent at publick Difputes in the University, know that it is usual to maintain Herefies for Argument's fake. I have heard a Man a most impudent Socinian for Half an Hour, who has been an Orthodox Divine all his Life after. I have taken the fame Method to accomplish my felf in the Gift of Utterance, having talked above a Twelvemonth, not fo much for the Benefit of my Hearers as of my felf. But fince I have now gained the Fa culty, ? culty, I have been fo long endeavouring after, I intend to make a right Use of it, and fhall think my felf obliged, for the future, to speak always in Truth and Sincerity of Heart. While a Man is learning to fence, he practifes both on Friend and Foe; but when he is a Mafter in the Art, he never exerts it but on what he thinks the right Side. a THAT this laft Allufion may not give my Reader wrong Idea of my Design in this Paper, I muft here inform him, that the Author of it is of no Faction, that he is a Friend to no Interests but those of Truth and Virtue, nor a Foe to any but those of Vice and Folly. Though I make more Noife in the World than I used to do, I am ftill refolved to act in it as an indifferent SPECTATOR. It is not my Ambition to encrease the Number either of Whigs or Tories, but of wife and good Men, and I could heartily with there were not Faults common to both Parties, which afford me fufficient Matter to work upon, without descending to those which are peculiar to either. IF in a Multitude of Counsellors there is Safety, we ought to think our felves the fecureft Nation in the World. Moft of our Garrets are inhabited by Statesmen, who watch over the Liberties of their Country, and make a Shift to keep themselves from starving, by taking into their Care the Properties of their Fellow-Subjects. L AS thefe Politicians of both Sides have already worked the Nation into a most unnatural Ferment, I fhall be fo far from endeavouring to raise it to a greater Height, that, on the contrary, it fhall be the chief Tendency of my Papers, to infpire my Countrymen with a mutual Good-will and Benevolence. Whatever Faults either Party may be guilty of, they are rather inflamed than cured by thofe Reproaches, which they caft upon one another. The most likely Method of rectifying any Man's Conduct, is, by recommending to him the Principles of Truth and Honour, Religion and Virtue; and fo long as he acts with an Eye to these Principles, whatever Party he is of, he can not not fail of being a good Englishman, and a Lover of his Country. AS for the Perfons concerned in this Work, the Names of all of them, or at least of fuch as defire it, fhall be published hereafter: "Till which time I must entreat the courteous Reader to fufpend his Curiofity, and rather to consider what is written, than who they are that write it. HAVING thus adjusted all neceffary Preliminaries with my Reader, I fhall not trouble him with any more prefatory Difcourfes, but proceed in my old Method, and entertain him with Speculations on every ufeful Subject that falls in my Way. N° 557. Monday, June 21. Quippe domum timet ambiguam, Tyriofque bilingues. T Virg. HERE is nothing, fays Plato, fo delightful, as the hearing or the fpeaking of Truth. For this Reason there is no Converfation fo agreeable as that of the Man of Integrity, who hears without any Intention to betray, and fpeaks without any Inten tion to deceive. AMONG all the Accounts which are given of Cato, I do not remember one that more redounds to his Honour than the following Paffage related by Plutarch. As an Advocate was pleading the Caufe of his Client before one of the Prætors, he could only produce a fingle Witness in a Point where the Law required the Teftimony of two Perfons; upon which the Advocate infifted on the Integrity of that Perfon whom he had produced; but the Prætor told him, That where the Law required two Witneffes he would not accept of one, tho' it were Cato himself. Such a Speech from a Perfon who fat at the Head of a Court of Juftice, while Cato was ftill living, fhews us, more than than a thousand Examples, the high Reputation this great Man had gained among his Contemporaries upon the Account of his Sincerity. WHEN fuch an inflexible Integrity is a little foftned and qualified by the Rules of Conversation and Good-breeding, there is not a more shining Virtue in the whole Catalogue of Social Duties. A Man however ought to take great Care not to polish himself out of his Veracity, nor to refine his Behaviour to the Prejudice of his Virtue. THIS Subject is exquifitely treated in the most elegant Sermon of the great British Preacher. I fhall beg Leave to transcribe out of it two or three Sentences, as a proper Introduction to a very curious Letter, which I fall make the chief Entertainment of this Specularion. THE old English Plainnefs and Sincerity, that ⚫ generous Integrity of Nature, and Honefty of Difpofition, which always argues true Greatness of Mind, and is ufually accompanied with undaunted Courage and Refolution, is in a great Measure loft among us. THE Dialect of Converfation is now-a-days fo fwelled with Vanity and Compliment, and fo furfeited (as I may fay) of Expreffions of Kindness and Refpect, that if a Man that lived an Age or two ago fhould return into the World again, he would really want a Dictionary to help him to underftand his own Language, and to know the true ⚫ intrinfick Value of the Phrafe in fafhion; and would hardly, at firft, believe at what a low Rate the highest Strains and Expreffions of Kindness ima⚫ginable do commonly pars in current Payment; and when he fhould come to understand it, it would be a great while before he could bring himself with a good Countenance and a good Confcience, to converfe with Men upon equal Terms and in their ! own Way. I have by me a Letter which I look upon as a great Curiofity, and which may ferve as an Exempli fication fication to the foregoing Paffage, cited out of this most excellent Prelate. It is faid to have been written in King Charles II's Reign by the Ambaffador of Bantam, a little after his Arrival in England. ་ Mafter, THE People, where I now am, have Tongues ⚫ to Bantam, and thou knowest the Inhabitants of one · had |