much bigger than the reft, was formed like a matron, dreffed in the habit of an elderly woman of Quality in Queen Elizabeth's days. The moft remarkable parts of her drefs, were the beaver with the fteeple crown, the fcarf that was darker than fable, and the lawn apron that was whiter than ermin. Her gown was of the richest black velvet, and juft upon her heart fhe wore feveral large diamonds of an ineftimable value, difpofed in the form of a crofs. She bore an inexpreffible chearfulness and dignity in her afpect; and though the feemed in years, appeared with fo much fpirit and vivacity, as gave her at the fame time an air of old age and immortality. I found my heart touched with fo much love and reverence at the fight of her, that the tears ran down my face as I looked upon her; and ftill the more I looked upon her, the more my heart was melted with the fentiments of filial tenderness and duty. I discovered every moment fomething fo charming in this figure, that I could fcarce take my eyes off it. On its right-hand there far the figure of a woman fo covered with ornaments, that her face, her body, and her hands, were almost entirely hid under them. The little you could fee of her face was painted; and, what I thought very odd, had fomething in it like artificial wrinkles; but I was the lefs furprized at it, when I faw upon her forehead an old-fashioned tower of gray hairs. Her head-drefs rofe very high by three feveral ftories or degrees; her gar-. ments had a thousand colours in them, and were embroidered with croffes in gold, filver, and filk: She had nothing on, fo much as a glove or a flipper, which was not marked with this figure; nay, fo fuperftitiously fond did the appear of it, that the fat cross-legged. I was quickly fick of this tawdry compofition of ribbands, filks, and jewels, and therefore caft my eye on a dame which was juft the reverfe of it. I need not tell my reader, that the Lady before defcribed was Popery, or that the I am going to defcribe is Prefbytery. She fat on the left-hand of the venerable matron, and fo much refembled her in the features of her countenance, that The feemed her fifter; but at the fame time that one observed a likeness in her beauty, one could not but take notice, that there was fomething in it fickly and fplene

tic.

tic. Her face had enough to discover the relation; but it was drawn up into a peevish figure, foured with dif content, and over-caft with melancholy. She seemed offended at the matron for the fhape of her hat, as too much refembling the triple coronet of the perfon who fat by her. One might fee likewife, that the diffented from the white apron and the cross; for which reafons The had made herself a plain homely dowdy, and turned her face towards the fectaries that fat on her left-hand, as being afraid of looking upon the matron, left she fhould fee the harlot by her.

On the right-hand of Popery fat Judaifm, reprefented by an old man embroidered with phylatteries, and diftinguished by many typical figures, which I had not kill enough to unriddle. He was placed among the rubbish of a temple; but inftead of weeping over it, which I fhould have expected from him, he was counting out a bag of money upon the ruins of it.

On his right-hand was Deifm, or Natural Religion. This was a figure of an half-naked aukward countrywench, who, with proper ornaments and education, would have made an agreeable and beautiful appearance; but for want of thofe advantages, was fuch a spectacle, as a man would blush to look upon.

I have now, continued my friend, given you an account of those who were placed on the right-hand of the matron, and who, according to the order in which they fat, were Deifm, Judaism, and Popery. On the left-hand, as I told you, appeared Prefbytery. The next to her was a figure which fomewhat puzzled me: It was that of a man looking, with horror in his eyes, upon a filver bafon filled with water. Obferving fomething in his countenance that looked like Lunacy, I fancied at firft, that he was to exprefs that kind of dif traction which the Phyficians call the Hydro-Phobia; but confidering what the intention of the fhow was, I immediately recollected myfelf, and concluded it to be Anabaptifm.

The next figure was a man that fat under a moft profound compofure of mind: He wore an hat whose brims were exactly parallel with the horizon: His garment had neither fleeve nor fkirt, nor fo much as a fuperfluous

button.

button.. What they called his cravat, was a little piece of white linen quilled with great exactness, and hanging below his chin about two inches. Seeing a book in his hand, I asked our artist what it was, who told me it was the Quakers Religion; upon which I defired a fight of it. Upon perufal, I found it to be nothing but a newfashioned Grammar, or an art of abridging ordinary difcourfe. The nouns were reduced to a very small number, as the Light, Friend, Babylon. The principal of his pronouns was Thou; and as for You, Ye, and Yours, I found they were not looked upon as parts of fpeech in this Grammar. All the verbs wanted the fecond perfon plural; the participles ended all in Ing or Ed, which were marked with a particular accent. There were no adverbs befides Yea and Nay. The fame thrift was observed in the prepofitions. The conjunctions were only Hem! and Ha! and the interjections brought under the three heads of Sighing, Sobbing, and Groaning.

There was at the end of the Grammar a little nomenclature, called, "The Chriflian Man's Vocabulary, which gave new appellations, or, if you will, chriftian names to almost every thing in life. I replaced the book in the hand of the figure, not without admiring the fimplicity of its garb, fpeech, and behaviour.

Juft oppofite to this row of Religions, there was a ftatue dreffed in a fool's coat, with a cap of bells upon his head, laughing and pointing at the figures that food before him. This ideot is fuppofed to fay in his heart, what David's fool did fome thoufands of years ago, and was therefore defigned as a proper reprefentative of those among us, who are called Atheifts and Infidels by others, and Free-thinkers by themselves.

There were many other groupes of figures which I did not know the meaning of; but feeing a collection of both fexes turning their backs upon the company, and laying their heads very clofe together, I enquired after their religion, and found that they called themfelves the Philadelphians, or the family of Love.

In the oppofite corner there fat another little congregation of strange figures, opening their m uths as wide

as

i

as they could gape, and distinguished by the title of the Sweet Singers of Ifrael.

I must not omit, that in this affembly of wax there were feveral pieces that moved by clock-work, and gave great fatisfaction to the fpectators. Behind the matron there flood one of thefe figures, and behind Popery another, which, as the Artift told us, were each of them the Genius of the perfon they attended. That behind Popery reprefented Perfecution, and the other Moderation. The first of thefe moved by fecret fprings towards a great heap of dead bodies, that lay piled upon one another at a confiderable diftance behind the principal figures. There were written on the foreheads of thefe dead men feveral hard words, as "Præ- Adamites, Sab

batarians, Camaronians, Muggletonians, Brownifts, "Independants, Mafonites, Camifars," and the like. At the approach of Perfecution, it was fo contrived, that as fhe held up her bloody flag, the whole affembly of dead men, like thofe in the Rehearsal, ftarted up and drew their fwords. This was followed by great clashings and noife, when, in the midft of the tumult, the figure of Moderation moved gently towards this new army, which, upon her holding up a paper in her hand, infcribed, "Liberty of Confcience," immediately fell into a heap of carcaffes, remaining in the fame quiet pofture in which they lay at firft.

N° 258. Saturday, December 2, 1710.

Occidit miferos crambe repetita

Ju v. Sat. 7. ver. 154

The fame ftale viands, ferv'd up o'er and o'er,

The ftomach naufeates

R. WYNNE.

From

From my own Apartment, December 2.

HEN a man keeps a conftant table, he may be

W allowed fometimes to ferve up a cold difh of meat,

or tofs up the fragments of a feast in a ragoût. I have fometimes, in a fcarcity of provifions, been obliged to take the fame kind of liberty, and to entertain my reader with the leavings of a former treat. I muft this day have recourse to the fame method, and beg my guests to fit down to a kind of Saturday's dinner. To let the metaphor reft, I intend to fill up this Paper with a bundle of Letters, relating to fubjects on which I have formerly treated; and have ordered my Bookfeller to print at the end of each Letter the minutes with which I indorfed it, after the first perufal of it.

To ISAAC BICKER STAFF, Efquire.

SIR,

D

Nov. 22, 1710.

INING yesterday with Mr. South-British and Mr. William North-Briton, two Gentlemen, who, "before you ordered it otherwife, were known by the names of Mr. English and Mr. William Scot: Among "other things, the maid of the house, who in her time "I believe may have been a North British warming-pan, "brought us up a difh of North-British collops. We "liked our entertainment very well; only we observed "the table-cloth being not fo fine as we could have "wifhed," was North British cloth. But the worst of "it was, we were disturbed all dinner-time by the noise "of the children, who were playing in the paved court "at North- British hoppers; fo we paid our North-Briton "fooner than we defigned, and took coach to North"Briton yard, about which place most of us live. We "had indeed gone a foot, only we were under fome apprehenfions, left a North-British mift fhould wet a "South British man to the skin.

in one

"We think this matter properly expreffed, according "to the accuracy of the new ftyle, fettled by you VOL. IV.

N

" of