"riage; confidering it was promised under fuch cir "cumftances as one may very well fuppofe fhe did not what he did voluntarily, but becaufe fhe was helpless otherwife. She is advised fomething about engage"ments made in goal, which the thinks the fame, as "to the reafon of the thing. But, dear Sir, fhe relies upon your advice, and gives you her fervice; as ❝ does Your humble fervant, Rebecca Midriffe. The cafe is very hard; and I fear the plea fhe is advised to make, from the fimilitude of a man who is in Dureffe, will not prevail. But though I defpair of remedy as to the mother, the law gives the child his choice of his father where the birth is thus legally ambiguous. To ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, Efquire. The humble Petition of the Company of Linendrapers, refiding within the liberty of Westminster, SHEWETH, T 66 HAT there has of late prevailed among the Ladies fo great an affectation of nakedness, "that they have not only left the bofom wholly bare, "but lowered their stays fome inches below the former "mode. "That in particular, Mrs. Arabella Overdo has not "the least appearance of linen; and our beft customers "fhew but little above the fmall of their backs. "That by this means your Petitioners are in danger "of lofing the advantage of covering a ninth part of "every woman of Quality in Great-Britain. "Your Petitioners humbly offer the premises to your "Indulgence's confideration, and shall ever, ̧ &c.” F 3 Before Before I answer this Petition, I am inclined to examine the offenders myself. N° 216. Saturday, August 26, 1710. Nugis addere pondus. HOR. Ep. 19. lib. 1. ver. 42. Weight and importance fome to trifles give. R. WYNNE. From my own Apartment, Auguft 25. ftanding miracle, and endowed with fuch qualities, as could not be impreffed on it by a power and wif dom lefs than infinite. For this reason, I would not difcourage any fearches that are made into the moft minute and trivial parts of the creation. However, fince the world abounds in the nobleft fields of fpeculation, it is, methinks, the mark of a little genius to be wholly converfant among infects, reptiles, animalcules, and thofe trifling rarities that furnia out the apartment of a Virtuofo. 2 ( There are fome men whofe heads are fo oddly turned this way, that though they are utter ftrangers to the common occurrences of life, they are able to discover the sex of a cockle, or defcribe the generation of a mite, in all its circumstances. They are fo little verfed in the world, that they fcarce know a horfe from an ox; but at the fame time, will tell you with a great deal of gravity, that a flea is a rhinoceros, and a fnail an herma phrodite. I have known one of thefe whimsical Philo fophers, who has fet a greater value upon a collection of spiders than he would upon a flock of fheep, and has fold hiɛ coat off his back to purchase a tarantula. I would I would not have a fcholar wholly unacquainted with thefe fecrets and curiofities of Nature; but certainly the mind of man, that is capable of fo much higher contemplations, fhould not be altogether fixed upon fuch mean and difproportioned objects. Obfervations of this kind are apt to alienate us too much from the knowledge of the world, and to make us ferious upon Trifles; by which means they expofe philofophy to the ridicule of the witty, and contempt of the ignorant. In fhort, ftudies of this nature fhould be the diverfions, relaxa-" tions, and amufements; not the care, bufinefs, and concern of life. It is indeed wonderful to confider, that there should be a fort of learned men, who are wholly employed in' gathering together the refufe of Nature, if I may call it fo, and hoarding up in their chefts and cabinets fuch creatures as others industriously avoid the fight of. One does not know how to mention fome of the most precious parts of their treafure, without a kind of an apology for it. I have been fhewn a beetle valued at twenty crowns, and a toad at an hundred: But we must take this for a general rule, That whatever appears trivial or obfcene in the common notions of the world, looks grave and, philofophical in the eye of a Virtuofo. To fhew this humour in its perfection, I fhall prefent my reader with the legacy of a certain Virtuofo, who laid out a confiderable eftate in natural rarities and curiofities, which upon his death-bed he bequeathed to his relations and friends, in the following words: IA The WILL of a Virtuofo. Nicholas Gimcrack, being in found health of mind, but in great weakness of body, do by this my laft will and teftament beftow my worldly goods and chattels in manner following: Imprimis, To my dear wife, One box of butterflies, A female skeleton, A dead cockatrice. F 4 Item, Item, To my daughter Elizabeth, My receipt for preferving dead caterpillars, As alfo my preparations of winter May-dew, and embryo-pickle. Item, To my little daughter Fanny, Three crocodile's eggs. And upon the birth of her first child, if the marries with her mother's confent, The neft of an humming-bird. Item, To my eldest brother, as an acknowledgment for the lands he has vefted in my fon Charles, I bequeath My last year's collection of grafhoppers. Item, To his daughter Susanna, being his only child, I bequeath my English weeds pafted on royal paper, With my large folio of Indian cabbage, Item, To my learned and worthy friend Doctor Fobaunes Elferickius, Profeffor in Anatomy, and my affociate in the studies of Nature, as an eternal monument of my affection and friendship for him, I bequeath My rat's tefticles, and to him and his iffue male; and in default of fuch iffue in the faid Doctor Elferickius, then to return to my executor and his heirs for ever. Having fully provided for my Nephew Ifaac, by making over to him fome years fince, A horned Scarabæus, The fkin of a rattle-fnake, and I make no further provifion for him in this my Will. My eldest fon John, having spoke difrefpectfully of his little fifter, whom I keep by me in fpirits of wine, and in many other instances behaved himself undutifully towards me, I do difinherit, and wholly cut off from any part part of this my perfonal eftate, by giving him a fingle cockle-fhell. To my fecond fon Charles I give and bequeath all my flowers, plants, minerals, moffes, fhells, pebbles, foffils, beetles, butterflies, caterpillars, grafhoppers and vermin, not above fpecified: As alfo all my monsters, both wet and dry; making the faid Charles whole and fole executor of this my laft Will and Teftament, he paying, or caufing to be paid, the aforefaid legacies within the space of fix months after my decease. And. I do hereby revoke all other Wills whatsoever by me. formerly made. ADVERTISEMENT. "Whereas an ignorant upftart in Aftrology has pub"licly endeavoured to perfuade the world, that he is "the late John Partridge, who died the twenty-eighth "of March 1708. Thefe are to certify all whom it may 66. concern, that the true John Partridge was not only "dead at that time, but continues fo to this prefent day. "Beware of counterfeits, for fuch are abroad." N° 217 Tuesday, Auguft 29, 1710. Atque deos atque aftra vocat crudelia mater. VIRG. Ecl. 5. ver 23. DRYDEN. She figh'd, the fobb'd, and, furious with defpair, SI From my own Apartment, August 28. AS I was paffing by a neighbour's house this morn ing, I overhead the wife of the family speaking things to her husband which gave me much disturbance, F.5 and |