as if they were fo infignificant as to be wholly provided for when they are fed and clothed.

It is with great indignation that I fee fuch Crouds of the female world loft to human Society, and condemned to a lazinefs, which makes life pass away with less relish than in the hardeft labour. Paleftris in her Drawingroom, is fupported by fpirits to keep off the returns of fpleen and melancholy, before she can get over half of the day for want of fomething to do, while the Wench in the Kitchen fings and fcowers from morning to night.

The next difagreeable thing to a lazy Lady, is a very bafy one. A man of bufinefs in good company, who gives an account of his abilities and dispatches, is hardly more infupportable than her they call a notable woman, and a manager. Lady Good-day, where I visited the other day at a very polite circle, entertained a great Lady with a Recipe for a poultice, and gave us to understand, that she had done extraordinary cures fince fhe was last in town. It seems a countryman had wounded himself with his fcythe as he was mowing; and we were obliged to hear of her Charity, her Medicine, and her Humility, in the harsheft tone, and coarfest language imaginable.

What I would requeft in all this prattle is, that our. females would either let us have their persons, or their minds, in fuch perfection as Nature defigned them.

The way to this is, that thofe who are in the quality of Gentlewomen, fhould propofe to themselves fome fuitable method of paffing away their time. This would furnish them with reflections and fentiments proper for the companions of reasonable men, and prevent the un natural marriages which happen every day between the moft accomplished women and the verieft oafs; the worthieft men and the most infignificant females. Were the general turn of womens education of another kind than it is at prefent, we should want one another for more reasons than we do as the world now goes. The common defign of parents, is to get their Girls off as well as they can, and make no confcience of putting into our hands a bargain for our whole life, which will make our hearts ake every day of it.

I shall therefore take this matter into fericus confideration, and will propofe, for the better improvement of

the

the fair Sex, a "Female Library." This collection of books fhall confift of fuch Authors as do not corrupt while they divert, but fhall tend more immediately to improve them, as they are women. They fhall be fuch as fhall not hurt a feature by the aufterity of their reflections, nor caufe one impertinent glance by the wantonnefs of them. They fhall all tend to advance the value of their innocence as virgins, improve their understanding as wives, and regulate their tenderness as parents. It has been very often faid in these Lucubrations, that the ideas which moft frequently pass through our imaginations, leave traces of themfelves in our countenances. There shall be a ftrict regard had to this in my Female Library, which fhall be furnished with nothing that fhall give fupplies to oftentation or impertinence; but the whole fhall be fo digefted for the use of my ftudents, that they fhall not go out of character in their enquiries, but their knowledge appear only a cultivated innocence.

N° 249. Saturday, November 11, 1710

Per varios cafus, per tot difcrimina rerum,

Tendimus

VIRG. En. 1. ver. 208.

Through various hazards, and events, we move.

I'

DRYDEN

From my own Apartment, November 10.

WAS laft night vifited by a friend of mine who has an inexhaustible fund of difcourfe, and never fails to entertain his company with a variety of thoughts and hints that are altogether new and uncommon. ther it were in complaifance to my way of living, or his real opinion, he advanced the following paradox,, That:

Whe

it required much greater talents to fill up and become a retired life, than a life of bufinefs. Upon this occafion he rallied very agreeably the bufy men of the age, who only valued themfelves for being in motion, and paffing through a series of trifling and infignificant actions. In the heat of his difcourfe, feeing a piece of money lying on my table, I defy, fays he, any of these active perfons to produce half the adventures that this Twelvepenny piece has been engaged in, were it poffible for him to give us an account of his life.

My friend's talk made fo odd an impreffion upon my mind, that foon after I was a-bed I fell infenfibly into a moft unaccountable Reverie, that had neither moral nor defign in it, and cannot be fo properly called a dream as a delirium.

Methought the fhilling that lay upon the table, reared itfelf upon its edge, and turning the face towards me, opened its mouth, and in a foft filver found gave me the following account of his life and adventures.

I was born, fays he, on the fide of a mountain, near a little village of Peru, and made a voyage to England in an ingot, under the convoy of Sir Francis Drake. I was, foon after my arrival, taken out of my Indian habit, refined, naturalized, and put into the Briti mode, with the face of Queen Elizabeth on one fide, and the arms of the country on the other. Being thus equipped, I found in me a wonderful inclination to ramble, and vifit all the parts of the new world into which I was brought. The people very much favoured my natural difpofition, and fhifted me fo faft from hand to hand, that before I was five years old, I had, travelled into al most every corner of the nation. But in the beginning of my fixth year, to my unspeakable grief, I fell into the hands of a miferable old fellow, who clapped me into an iron cheft, where I found five hundred more of my own Quality who lay under the fame confinement. The only relief we had, was to be taken out and counted over in the fresh air every morning and evening. After an imprisonment of feveral years, we heard fomebody knocking at our cheft, and breaking it open with an hammer. This we found was the old man's heir, who, as his father lay dying, was so good as to come to our release:

release He feparated us that very day. What was the fate of my companions I know not: As for myself, I was fent to the Apothecary's shop for a pint of Sack. The Apothecary gave me to an Herb-woman, the Herbwoman to a Butcher, the Butcher to a Brewer, and the Brewer to his wife, who made a prefent of me to a Nonconformist preacher. After this manner I made my way merrily through the world; for, as I told you before, we Shillings love nothing fo much as travelling. I fometimes fetched in a fhoulder of mutton, fometimes a play-book, and often had the fatisfaction to treat a Templer at a Twelve-penny ordinary, or carry him with three friends to Westminster-hall.

In the midst of this pleafant progrefs, which I made from place to place, I was arrefted by a fuperftitious old woman, who fhut me up in a greasy purfe, in pursuance of a foolish faying, That while fhe kept a Queen Elizabeth's Shilling about her, she should never be without money. I continued here a close prifoner for many months, until at laft I was exchanged for eight and forty farthings.

I thus rambled from pocket to pocket until the beginning of the civil wars, when, to my fhame be it fpoken, I was employed in raifing Soldiers against the King For being of a very tempting breadth, a Serjeant made ufe of me to inveigle country fellows, and lift them into the fervice of the Parliament.

As foon as he had made one man fure, his way was to oblige him to take a Shilling of a more homely figure, and then practise the fame trick upon another. Thus I continued doing great mifchief to the Crown, until my officer chancing one morning to walk abroad earlier than ordinary, facrificed me to his pleasures, and made ufe of me to feduce a milk-maid. This wench bent me, and gave me to her fweetheart, applying more properly than the intended the ufual form of, "To my Love and from my Love." This ungenerous gallant marrying her within a few days after, pawned me for a dram of brandy; and drinking me out next day, I was beaten flat with an hammer, and again fet a running.

After

After many adventures, which it would be tedious to relate, I was fent to a young Spendthrift, in company with the Will of his deceased father. The young fellow, who I found was very extravagant, gave great demonAtrations of joy at receiving the Will; but opening it, he found himself difinherited, and cut off from the poffeffion of a fair eftate by virtue of my being made a prefent to him. This put him into fuch a paffion, that after having taken me in his hand, and curfed me, he fquirred me away from him as far as he could fling me. I chanced to light in an unfrequented place under a dead wall, where I lay undifcovered and useless, during the ufurpation of Oliver Cromwell.

About a year after the King's return, a poor Cavalier that was walking there about dinner-time, fortunately caft his eye upon me, and, to the great joy of us both, carried me to a Cook's fhop, where he dined upon me, and drank the King's health. When I came again into the world, I found that I had been happier in my retirement than I thought, having probably by that means escaped wearing a monftrous pair of breeches.

Being now of great credit and antiquity, I was rather looked upon as a Medal than an ordinary Coin; for which reafon a Gamefter laid hold of me, and converted me to a counter, having got together fome dozens of us for that ufe. We led a melancholy life in his poffeffion, being busy at thofe hours wherein current Coin is at reft, and partaking the fate of our mafter;. being in a. few moments valued at a crown, a pound, or a fixpence, according to the fituation in which the fortune of the cards placed us. I had at length the good luck to fee my mafter break, by which means I was again fent abroad under my primitive denomination of a Shilling.

I fhall pass over many other accidents of lefs moment, and haften to that fatal catastrophe when I fell into the hands of an artift, who conveyed me under ground, and. with an unmerciful pair of fheers cut off my titles, clipped my brims, retrenched my fhape, rubbed me to my inmoft ring; and in short, so spoiled and pillaged me, that he did not leave me worth a groat. You may think what a confufion I was in to fee myself thus curtailed and disfigured. I fhould have been ashamed to