The face of nature in a rich disguise,

And brighten'd ev'ry object to my eyes:
For every shrub, and every blade of grass,

And every pointed thorn, seem'd wrought in glass;
In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns show,
While thro' the ice the crimson berries glow.
The thick-sprung reeds the watery marshes yield
Seem polish'd lances in a hostile field.

The stag in limpid currents, with surprize,
Sees crystal branches on his forehead rise.

The spreading oak, the beech, and towering pine,
Glaz'd over, in the freezing æther shine:
The frighted birds the rattling branches shun,
That wave and glitter in the distant sun.
When, if a sudden gust of wind arise,

The brittle forest into atoms flies;

The crackling wood beneath the tempest bends,
And in a spangled shower the prospect ends;
Or, if a Southern gale the region warm,
And by degrees unbind the wintery charm,
The traveller a miry country sees,

And journeys sąd beneath the dropping trees.
Like some deluded peasant, Merlin leads
Thro' fragrant bowers and thro' delicious meads;
While here enchanted gardens to him rise,
And airy fabrics there attract his eyes,
His wandering feet the magic paths pursue;
And while he thinks the fair illusion true,
The trackless scenes disperse in fluid air,
And woods and wilds, and thorny ways appear:
A tedious road the weary wretch returns,
And as he goes, the transient vision mourns.

From my own Apartment, May 6.

There has a mail this day arrived from Holland 3 but the matter of the advices importing rather what gives us great expectations, than any positive assurances, I shall, for this time, decline giving you what I know; and apply the following verses of Mr. Dryden, in the second part of "Almanzor," to the present circumstances of things, without dis

covering what my knowledge in astronomy suggests

to me:

When Empire in its childhood first appears,

A watchful fate o'ersees its tender years;

Till, grown more strong, it thrusts and stretches out,
And elbows all the kingdoms round about:

The place thus made for its first breathing free,
It moves again for ease and luxury;

Till, swelling by degrees, it has possest

The greater space, and now crowds up the rest.
When from behind there starts some petty state,
And pushes on its now unwieldy fate;
Then down the precipice of time it goes,
And sinks in minutes, which in ages rose.

N° 13. TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1709.

Quicquid agunt homines

nostri est farrago libelli.

JUV. Sat. I. 85, 86.

Whate'er men do, or say, or think, or dream,
Oui motley paper seizes for its theme.

From my own Apartment, May 8.

P.

MUCH hurry and business has to-day perplexed me into a mood too thoughtful for going into company; for which reason, instead of the tavern, I went into Lincoln's-inn walks; and, having taken a round or two, I sat down, according to the allowed familiarity of these places, on a bench; at the other end of which sat a venerable gentleman, who, speaking with a very affable air, "Mr. Bickerstaff," said he, "I take it for a very great piece of good fortune that

you have found me out." "Sir," said I, " I had never, that I know of, the honour of seeing you before." 66 That," replied he, " is what I have often lamented; but, I assure you, I have for many years done you good offices, without being observed by you; or else, when you had any little glimpse of my being concerned in an affair, you have fled from me, and shunned me like an enemy; but, however, the part I am to act in the world is such, that I am to go on in doing good, though I meet with never so many repulses, even from those I oblige. This, thought I, shews a great goodnature, but little judgment, in the persons upon whom he confers his favours. He immediately took notice to me, that he observed, by my countenance, I thought him indiscreet in his beneficence; and proceeded to tell me his quality in the following manner : "I know thee, Isaac, to be so well versed in the occult sciences, that I need not much preface, or make long preparations to gain your faith that there are airy beings, who are employed in the care and attendance of men, as nurses are to infants, until they come to an age in which they can act of themselves. These beings are usually called, amongst men, guardian angels; and, Mr. Bickerstaff, I am to acquaint you, that I am to be yours for some time to come; it being our orders to vary our stations, and sometimes to have one patient under our protection, and sometimes another, with a power of assuming what shape we please, to ensnare our wards into their own good. I have of late been upon such hard duty, and know you have so much work for me, that I think fit to appear to you face to face, to desire you will give me as little occasion for vigilance as you can." "Sir," said 1, "it will be a great instruction to me in my behaviour, if you please to give me some account of

your late employments, and what hardships or satisfactions you have had in them, that I may govern myself accordingly." He answered," To give you an example of the drudgery we go through, I will entertain you only with my three last stations. I was on the first of April last put to mortify a great Beauty, with whom I was a week; from her I went to a common swearer, and have been last with a gamester. When I first came to my lady, I found my great work was to guard well her eyes and ears; but her flatterers were so numerous, and the house, after the modern way, so full of looking-glasses, that I seldom had her safe but in her sleep. Whenever we went abroad, we were surrounded by an army of enemies; when a wellmade man appeared, he was sure to have a sideglance of observation; if a disagreeable fellow, he had a full face, out of mere inclination to conquests: but at the close of the evening, on the sixth of the last month, my ward was sitting on a couch, reading Ovid's Epistles; and as she came to this line of Helen to Paris,

"She half consents who silently denies *,"

entered Philander†, who is the most skilful of all men in an address to women. He is arrived at the perfection of that art which gains them; which is, to talk like a very miserable man, but look like a very happy one.' I saw Dictinna blush at his entrance, which gave me the alarm; but he immediately said something so agreeably on her being at study, and the novelty of finding a lady employed

*This line occurs in a joint translation of "Helen's Epistle to Paris," by the Earl of Mulgrave and Dryden, in the editio of "Ovid's Epistles, 1709."

† Supposed to be Lord Halifax.

is so grave a manner, that he on a sudden became very familiarly a man of no consequence, and in an instant laid all her suspicions of his skill asleep, as he had almost done mine; until I observed him very dangerously turn his discourse upon the elegance of her dress, and her judgment in the choice of that very pretty mourning. Having had women before under my care, I trembled at the apprehension of a man of sense who could talk upon trifles, and resolved to stick to my post with all the circumspection imaginable. In short, I prepossessed her against all he could say to the advantage of her dress and person; but he turned again the discourse, where I found I had no power over her, on the abusing her friends and acquaintance. He allowed, indeed, that Flora had a little beauty, and a great deal of wit; but then she was so ungainly in her behaviour, and such a laughing hoyden! Pastorella had with him the allowance of being blameless; but what was that towards being praise-worthy? To be only innocent, is not to be virtuous ! He afterwards spoke so much against Mrs. Dipple's forehead, Mrs. Prim's mouth, Mrs. Dentrifice's teeth, and Mrs. Fidget's cheeks, that she grew downright in love with him: for it is always to be understood, that a lady takes all you detract from the rest of her sex to be a gift to her. In a word, things went so far that I was dismissed and she will remember that evening nine months, from the sixth of April, by a very remarkable token. The next, as I said, I went to, was a common swearer. Never was a creature so puzzled as myself, when I came first to view his brain; half of it was worn out, and filled up with mere expletives, that had nothing to do with any other parts of the texture; therefore, when he called for his cloaths in a morning, he would cry, John John does