I have reason to believe that Picardy will soon follow the example of Artois, in case the enemy continue in their present resolution of flying away from us. I think I told you the last time we were together my opinion about the Deulle. "The honest gentlemen upon the bench bid me tell you, that they would be glad to see you often among them. We shall be there all the warm hours of the day during the present posture of affairs.

"This happy opening of the campaign will, I. hope, give us a very joyful summer; and I propose to take many a pleasant walk with you, if you will sometimes come into the Park; for that is the only place in which I can be free from the malice of my enemies. Farewell, until three of the clock to-morrow morning!

'I am your most humble servant, &c. 'P. S. The king of Sweden is still at Bender.'

cess of my brave countrymen, I do not care for | ing, that I have not slept a wink these three hearing of a victory before day; and was there- nights. fore very much out of humour at this unseasonable visit. I had no sooner recovered my temper, and was falling asleep, but I was immediately startled by a second rap; and upon my maid's opening the door, heard the same voice ask her, if her master was yet up? and at the same time bid her tell me, that he was come on purpose to talk with me about a piece of home news, which every body in town will be full of two hours hence. I ordered my maid, as soon as she came into the room, without hearing her message, to tell the gentleman, 'that whatever his news was, I would rather hear it two hours hence than now; and that I persisted in my resolution not to speak with any body that morning.' The wench delivered my answer presently, and shut the door. It was impossible for me to compose myself to sleep after two such unexpected alarms; for which reason, I put on my clothes in a very peevish humour. I took several turns about my chamber, reflecting with a great deal of anger and contempt on these volunteers in politics, that undergo all the pain, watchfulness, and disquiet of a first minister, without turning it to the advantage either of themselves or their country; and yet it is surprising to consider how numer. ous this species of men is. There is nothing more frequent than to find a tailor breaking his rest on the affairs of Europe, and to see a cluster of porters sitting upon the ministry. Our streets swarm with politicians, and there is scarce a shop which is not held by a statesman. As I was musing after this manner, I heard the upholsterer at the door delivering a letter to my maid, and begging her, in a very great hurry, to give it to her master as soon as ever he was awake; which I opened, and found as follows:

MR. BICKERSTAFF,-I was to wait upon you about a week ago, to let you know that the honest gentlemen whom you conversed with upon the bench, at the end of the Mall, having heard that I had received five shillings of you, to give you a hundred pounds upon the great Turk's being driven out of Europe, desired me to acquaint you, that every one of that company would be willing to receive five shillings, to pay a hundred pounds on the same condition. Our last advices from Muscovy making this a fairer bet than it was a week ago, I do not question but you will accept the wager.

But this is not my present business. If you remember, I whispered a word in your ear, as we were walking up the Mall; and you see what has happened since. If I had seen you this morning, I would have told you in your ear another secret. I hope you will be recovered of your indisposition by to-morrow morning, when I will wait on you at the same hour as I did this; my private circumstances being such, that I cannot well appear in this quarter of the town after it is day.

I have been so taken up with the late good news from Holland, and expectation of further particulars, as well as with other transactions, of which I will tell you more to-morrow morn

I should have fretted myself to death at this promise of a second visit, if I had not found in I have since heard at large. I have, however, his letter an intimation of the good news which ordered my maid to tie up the knocker of my door, in such a manner as she would do if I was really indisposed. By which means I hope to escape breaking my morning's rest.

shall communicate one or two more, which I Since I have given this letter to the public, I have lately received from others of my corres pondents. The following is from a coquette, who is very angry at my having disposed of her in marriage to a Bass-viol.

MR. BICKERSTAFF,-I thought you would never have descended from the censor of Great

Britain, to become a match-maker. But pray,
why so severe upon the Kit? Had I been a
could not have used me worse.
Jew's-harp, that is nothing but tongue, you
Of all things,
a Bass-viol is my aversion. Had you married
me to a Bag-pipe or a Passing-bell, I should
have been better pleased. Dear father Isaac,
either choose me a better husband, or I will live
and die a Dulcimer. In hopes of receiving
satisfaction from you, I am yours, whilst

ISABELLA KIT.'

in this letter, was one occasion of my joining The pertness which this fair lady hath shown her to the Bass-viol, which is an instrument cities; as the sprightliness of the Kit ought to that wants to be quickened by these little vivabe checked and curbed by the gravity of the Bass-viol.

My next letter is from Tom Folio, who, it character of him so much to his disadvantage. seems, takes it amiss that I have published a

Sm, I suppose you mean Tom Fool, when you called me Tom Folio in a late trifling paper of yours; for I find, it is your design to run down all useful and solid learning. The tobaccopaper on which your own writings are usually printed, as well as the incorrectness of the press, and the scurvy letter, sufficiently show the extent of your knowledge. I question not but you

look upon John Morphew to be as great a man
as Elzevir; and Aldus to have been such an-
other as Bernard Lintot. If you would give me
my revenge, I would only desire of you to let
me publish an account of your library, which,
I dare say, would furnish out an extraordinary
catalogue.
TOM FOLIO.'

It hath always been my way to baffle reproach with silence; though I cannot but observe the disingenuous proceedings of this gentleman, who is not content to asperse my writings, but hath wounded, through my sides, those eminent and worthy citizens, Mr. John Morphew, and Mr. Bernard Lintot.

No. 161.]

Thursday, April 20, 1710.

Nunquam libertas gratior exstat Quam sub rege pio.

Never does liberty appear more amiable than under

the government of a pious and good prince.

From my own Apartment, April 19.

I was walking two or three days ago in a very pleasant retirement, and amusing myself with the reading of that ancient and beautiful allegory, called The Table of Cebes.' I was at last so tired with my walk, that I sat down to rest myself upon a bench that stood in the midst of an agreeable shade. The music of the birds, that filled all the trees about me, lulled me asleep before I was aware of it; which was followed by a dream, that I impute in some measure to the foregoing author, who had made an impression upon my imagination, and put 'me into his own way of thinking..

and more than supplied the absence of the sun. The place was covered with a wonderful profusion of flowers, that, without being disposed into regular borders and parterres, grew promiscuously; and had a greater beauty in their natural luxurianey and disorder, than they could

have received from the checks and restraints of art. There was a river that arose out of the south side of the mountain, that, by an infinite number of turnings and windings, seemed to visit every plant, and cherish the several beauties of the spring, with which the fields abounded. After having run to and fro in a wonderful variety of meanders, as unwilling to leave so charming a place, it at last throws itself into the hollow of a mountain; from whence it passes under a long range of rocks, and at length rises in that part of the Alps where the inhabitants think is the first source of the Rhône. This river, after having made its progress through those free nations, stagnates in a huge lake* at the leaving of them; and no sooner enters into the regions of slavery, but it runs through them with an incredible rapidity, and takes its shortest way to the sea.

I descended into the happy fields that lay be. neath me, and, in the midst of them, beheld the goddess sitting upon a throne. She had nothing to enclose her but the bounds of her own dominions, and nothing over her head but the heavens. Every glance of her eye cast a track of light where it fell, that revived the spring, and made all things smile about her. My heart grew cheerful at the sight of her; and, as she looked upon me, I found a certain confidence growing in me, and such an inward resolution as I never felt before that time.

she wore a mantle, on which there was wrought a great confusion of figures. As it flew in the wind, I could not discern the particular design of them, but saw wounds in the bodies of some, and agonies in the faces of others; and over one part of it could read in letters of blood, 'The Ides of March.'

On the left hand of the goddess sat the genius of a commonwealth, with the cap of Liberty on I fancied myself among the Alps, and, as it her head, and, in her hand, a wand like that is natural in a dream, seemed every moment to with which a Roman citizen used to give his bound from one summit to another, until at last, slaves their freedom. There was something after having made this airy progress over the mean and vulgar, but at the same time exceedtops of several mountains, I arrived at the very ing bold and daring, in her air; her eyes were centre of those broken rocks and precipices. I full of fire; but had in them such casts of fiercehere, methought, saw a prodigious circuit of ness and cruelty, as made her appear to me rahills, that reached above the clouds, and encom-ther dreadful than amiable. On her shoulders passed a large space of ground, which I had a great curiosity to look into. I thereupon continued my former way of travelling through a great variety of winter scenes, until I had gained the top of these white mountains, which seemed another Alps of snow. I looked down from hence into a spacious plain, which was surrounded on all sides by this mound of hills, and On the right hand of the goddess was the which presented me with the most agreeable genius of monarchy. She was clothed in the prospect I had ever seen. There was a greater whitest ermine, and wore a crown of the purest variety of colours in the embroidery of the mea-gold upon her head. In her hand, she held a dows, a more lively green in the leaves and sceptre like that which is borne by the British grass, a brighter crystal in the streams, than monarchs. A couple of tame lions lay crouching what I ever met with in any other region. The at her feet. Her countenance had in it a very light itself had something more shining and glo- great majesty, without any mixture of terror. rious in it than that of which the day is made Her voice was like the voice of an angel, filled in other places. I was wonderfully astonished with so much sweetness," accompanied with at the discovery of such a paradise amidst the such an air of condescension, as tempered the wildness of those cold, hoary landscapes which awfulness of her appearance, and equally inlay about it; but found at length, that this hap-spired love and veneration into the hearts of all py region was inhabited by the goddess of Li- that beheld her. berty; whose presence softened the rigours of the climate, cnriched the barrenness of the soil,

*The lake of Geneva.

In the train of the goddess of Liberty were the several Arts and Sciences, who all of them flourished underneath her eye. One of them in particular made a greater figure than any of the rest, who held a thunderbolt in her hand, which had the power of melting, piercing, or breaking every thing that stood in its way. The name of this goddess was Eloquence.

There were two other dependant goddesses, who made a very conspicuous figure in this blissful region. The first of them was seated upon a hill, that had every plant growing out of it, which the soil was in its own nature capable of producing. The other was seated in a little island that was covered with groves of spices, olives, and orange-trees; and, in a word, with the products of every foreign clime. The name of the first was Plenty, of the second, Commerce. The first leaned her right arm upon a plough, and under her left held a huge horn, out of which she poured a whole autumn of fruits. The other wore a rostral crown upon her head,

and kept her eyes fixed upon a compass.

Before the other avenue I saw Liccntiousness, dressed in a garment not unlike the Polish cassock, and leading up a whole army of monsters, such as Clamour, with a hoarse voice and a hundred tongues; Confusion, with a misshapen body, and a thousand heads; Impudence, with a fore head of brass; and Rapine, with hands of iron. The tumult, noise, and uproar in this quarter, were so very great, that they disturbed my imagination more than is consistent with sleep, and by that means awaked me.

From my own Apartment, April 21. to get a place at court, and indeed continued my In my younger years I used many endeavours I was wonderfully pleased in ranging through pursuits until I arrived at my grand climacteric. this delightful place, and the more so, because But at length, altogether despairing of success, it was not encumbered with fences and enclo- whether it were for want of capacity, friends, or sures; until at length, methought I sprung from due application, I at last resolved to erect a new the ground, and pitched upon the top of a hill, office, and, for my encouragement, to place mythat presented several objects to my sight which self in it. For this reason I took upon me the I had not before taken notice of. The winds title and dignity of 'Censor of Great Britain,' that passed over this flowery plain, and through reserving to myself all such perquisites, profits, the tops of the trees, which were full of blos. and emoluments, as should arise out of the dissoms, blew upon me in such a continued breeze charge of the said office. These, in truth, have of sweets, that I was wonderfully charmed with not been inconsiderable; for, besides those weekly my situation. I here saw all the inner declivi- contributions which I receive from John Morties of that great circuit of mountains, whose phew,* and those annual subscriptions which I outside was covered with snow, overgrown with propose to myself from the most elegant part of huge forests of fir-trees, which indeed are very able affluence of wine, stale beer, Hungary wathis great island, I daily live in a very comfortfrequently found in other parts of the Alps. These trees were inhabited by storks, that came ter, beef, books, and marrow-bones, which I rethither in great flights from very distant quar-ceive from many well disposed citizens; not to ters of the world. Methoughts I was pleased in my dream to see what became of these birds, when, upon leaving the places to which they make an annual visit, they rise in great flocks so high until they are out of sight, and for that reason have been thought by some modern philosophers to take a flight to the moon. eyes were soon diverted from this prospect, when I observed two great gaps that led through this circuit of mountains, where guards and watches were posted day and night. Upon examination, I found that there were two formi. dable enemies encamped before each of these avenues, who kept the place in a perpetual alarm, and watched all opportunities of invading it.

But my

Tyranny was at the head of one of these armies, dressed in an Eastern habit, and grasping in her hand an iron sceptre. Behind her was Barbarity, with the garb and complexion of an Ethiopian; Ignorance, with a turban upon her head; and Persecution holding up a bloody flag,

embroidered with flower-de-luces. These were

followed by Oppression, Poverty, Famine, Torture, and a dreadful train of appearances that made me tremble to behold them. Among the baggage of this army, I could discover racks, wheels, chains, and gibbets, with all the instruments art could invent to make human nature miserable.

mention the forfeitures, which accrue to me from the several offenders that appear before me on court-days.

Having now enjoyed this office for the space of a twelvemonth, I shall do what all good officers ought to do, take a survey of my behaviour, and consider carefully, whether I have discharged my duty, and acted up to the character with which I am invested. For my direction in this particular, I have made a narrow search into the

nature of the old Roman censors, whom I must always regard, not only as my predecessors, but as my patterns in this great employment; and have several times asked my own heart with great impartiality, whether Cato will not bear a more venerable figure among posterity than Bickerstaff?

I find the duty of the Roman Censor was twofold. The first part of it consisted in making frequent reviews of the people, in casting up their numbers, ranging them under their several tribes, disposing them into proper classes, and subdividing them into their respective centuries.

* John Morphew, the printer, appears to have superintended the delivery, and received the prices of these papers on their first periodical publication, for which it seems he accounted to Steele weekly, and probably oft

ener.

The first paper of the Tatler is dated April 12, 1709.

me by the hand, 'every body knows you to be a judge of these things; and to tell you truly, I be-read over Roscommon's translation of Horace's Art of Poetry' three several times, before I sat down to write the sonnet which I have shown you. But you shall hear it again, and pray observe every line of it; for not one of them shall pass without your approbation.