Love is mentioned in above fifteen Letters; Sophonisba, ör Hannibal's Overthrow, in a Dozen; the Innocent Adultery is likewife highly approved of: Mithridates King of Pontus has many Friends; Alexander the Great and Aurengzebe have the fame Number of Voices; but Theodofius, or the Force of Love, carries it from all the rest.

I fhould, in the laft Place, mention fuch Books as have been propofed by Men of Learning, and thofe who appear competent Judges of this Matter, and muft here take Oc cafion to thank 4, B. whoever it is that conceals himself under thofe two Letters, for his Advice upon this Subject: But as I find the Work I have undertaken to be very difficult, I fhall defer the executing of it till I am further acquainted with the Thoughts of my judicious Contemporaries, and have time to examine the feveral Books they offer to me; being refolved, in an Affair of this Moment, to proceed with the greateft Caution.

IN the mean while, as I have taken the Ladies under my particular Care, I fhall make it my Bufinefs to find out in the best Authors ancient and modern fuch Paffages as may be for their ufe, and endeavour to accommodate them as well as I can to their Tafte; not questioning but the valuable Part of the Sex will eafily pardon me, if from Time to Time I laugh at thofe little Vanities and Follies which appear in the Behaviour of fome of them, and which are more proper for Ridicule than a ferious Cenfure. Moft Books being calculated for Male Readers, and generally written with an Eye to Men of Learning, makes a Work of this Nature the more neceffary; befides, I am the more encouraged, because I flatter my felf that I fee the Sex daily improving by thefe my Speculations. My fair Readers are already deeper Scholars than the Beaus: I could name fome of them who talk much better than feveral Gentlemen that make a Figure at Will's, and as I frequently receive Letters from the fine Ladies and pretty Fellows, I cannot but obferve that the former are fuperior to the others not only in the Senfe but in the Spelling. This cannot but have a good Effect upon the female World, and keep them from being charmed by thofe empty Coxcombs that have hitherto been admired among the Women, tho' laughed at among

the Men.

VOL. II.

I am credibly informed that Tom Tattle paffes for an impertinent Fellow, that Will Trippet begins to be fmoaked, and that Frank Smoothly himfelf is within a Month of a Coxcomb, in cafe I think fit to continue this Paper. For my Part, as it is my Pufinefs in fome measure to detect fuch as would lead aftray weak Minds by their falfe Pretences to Wit and Judgment, Humour and Gallantry, I shall not fail to lend the beft Lights I am able to the fair Sex for the Continuation of thefe their Difcoveries. L

N93.

Saturday, June 16.

Spatio brevi

Spem longam refeces: dum loquimur, fugeret Invida Atas: arpe Diem, quam minimum credula poftero. Hor.

W

E all of us complain of the Shortness of Time, faith Seneca, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our Lives, fays he, are fpent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the Purpofe, or in doing nothing that we ought to do: We are always complaining our Days are few, and acting as though there would be no End of them. That noble Philofopher has defcribed our Inconfiftency with our felves in this Particular, by all those various Turns of Expreffion and Thought which are peculiar to his Writings,

I often confider Mankind as wholly inconfiftent with itself in a Point that bears fome Affinity to the former. Though we feem grieved at the Shortnefs of Life in general, we are wifhing every Period of it at an End. The Minor longs to be at Age, then to be a Man of Business, then to make up an Effate, then to arrive at Honours, then to retire, Thus although the whole Life is allowed by every one to be fhort, the feveral Divifions of it appear long and tedious. We are for lengthening our Span in general, but would fain contract the Parts of which it is compofed, The Ufurer would be very well

fatisfied to have all the Time annihilated that lies between the prefent Moment and next Quarter-day. The Politician would be contented to lofe three Years in his Life, could he place things in the Pofture which he fancies they will ftand in after fuch a Revolution of Time. The Lover would be glad to ftrike out of his Existence all the Moments that are to pafs away before the happy Meeting. Thus, as faft as our Time runs, we fhould be very glad in moft Parts of our Lives that it ran much fafter than it does. Several Hours of the Day hang upon our Hands, nay we wish away whole Years; and travel through Time as through a Country filled with many wild and empty Waftes, which we would fain hurry over, that we may arrive at thofe feveral little Settlements or imaginary Points of Reft which are difperfed up and down in it.

IF we divide the Life of moft Men into twenty Parts, we fhall find that at least nineteen of them are meer Gaps and Chafms, which are neither filled with Pleafure nor Bufinefs. I do not however include in this Calculation the Life of thofe Men who are in a perpetual Hurry of Affairs, but of thofe only who are not always engaged in Scenes of Action; and I hope I fhall not do an unacceptable Piece of Service to thefe Perfons if I point out to them certain Methods for the filling up their empty Spaces of Life. The Methods I fhall propofe to them are as follow.

THE firft is the Exercife of Virtue, in the most general Acceptation of the Word. That particular Scheme which comprehends the Social Virtues, may give Einployment to the most induftrious Temper, and find a Man in Bufinefs more than the most active Station of Life. To advife the Ignorant, relieve the Needy, comfort the Afflicted, are Duties that fall in our way almoft every Day of our Lives. A Man has frequent Opportu nities of mitigating the Fiercenefs of a Party; of doingJuftice to the Character of a deferving Man; of foftning the Envious, quieting the Angry, and rectifying the Prejudiced; which are all of them Employments fuited to a reafonable Nature, and bring great Satisfaction to the Perfon who can bufy himself in them with Difcretion. THERE

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THERE is another kind of Virtue that may find Employment for thofe retired Hours in which we are altogether left to our felves, and deftitute of Company and Converfation; I mean that Intercourfe and Communication which every reasonable Creature ought to maintain with the great Author of his Being. The Man who lives under an habitual Senfe of the Divine Prefence keeps up a perpetual Chearfulness of Temper, and enjoys every Moment the Satisfaction of thinking himself in Company with his dearest and best of Friends. The Time never lies heavy upon him: It is impoffible for him to be alone. His Thoughts and Paffions are the most bufied at fuch Hours when thofe of other Men are the most unactive: He no fooner fteps out of the World but his Heart burns with Devotion, fwells with Hope, and triumphs in the Confciousness of that Prefence which every where furrounds him; or, on the contrary, pours out its Fears, its Sorrows, its Apprehenfions, to the great Supporter of its Existence.

I have here only confidered the Neceflity of a Man's being virtuous, that he may have fomething to do; but if we confider further, that the Exercise of Virtue is not onby an Amusement for the time it lafts, but that its Influ ence extends to those Parts of our Existence which lie beyond the Grave, and that our whole Eternity is to take its Colour from thofe Hours which we here employ in Virtue or in Vice, the Argument redoubles upon us for putting an Practice this Method of paffing away our Time.

WHEN a Man has but a little Stock to improve, and has Opportunities of turning it all to good Account, what fhall we think of him if he fuffers nineteen Parts of it to lie dead, and perhaps employs even the twentieth to his Ruin or Difadvantage? But because the Mind cannot be always in its Fervours, nor trained up to a Pitch of Virtue, it is neceffary to find out proper Employments for it in its Relaxations.

Ons.

THE next Method therefore that I would propose to fill up our Time, fhould be useful and innocent DiverfiI must confefs I think it is below reafonable Creatures to be altogether converfant in fuch Diverfions as are meerly innocent, and have nothing else to recommend them, but that there is no Hurt in them. Whether any kind of Gaming has even thus much to fay for.it

felf, I fhall not determine; but I think it is very wonderful to fee Perfons of the beft Senfe paffing away a dozen Hours together in fhuffling and dividing a Pack of Cards, with no other Converfation but what is made up of a few Game Phrafes, and no other Ideas but thofe of black or red Spots ranged together in different Figures. Would not a Man laugh to hear any one of this Species complaining that Life is fhort?

THE Stage might be made a perpetual Source of the moft noble and ufeful Entertainments, were it under proper Regulations.

BUT the Mind never unbends it felf fo agreeably as in the Converfation of a well-chofen Friend. There is indeed no Blefling of Life that is any way comparable to the Enjoyment of a difcreet and virtuous Friend. It eafes and unloads the Mind, clears and improves the Underftanding, engenders Thoughts and Knowledge, animates Virtue and good Refolutions, fooths and allays the Paffions, and finds Employment for moft of the vacant Hours of Life.

NEXT to fuch an Intimacy with a particular Perfon, one would endeavour after a more general Converfation with fuch as are able to entertain and improve thofe with whom they converfe, which are Qualifications that feldom go afunder

THERE are many other ufeful Amufements of Life, which one would endeavour to multiply, that one might on all Occafions have Recourfe to fomething, rather than fuffer the Mind to lie idle, or run adrift with any Paflion that chances to rife in it.

A Man that has a Taste of Mufick, Painting, or Architecture, is like one that has another Senfe, when compared with fuch as have no Relifh of thofe Arts. The Florist, the Planter, the Gardiner, the Husbandman, when they are only as Accomplishments to the Man of Fortune, are great Reliefs to a Country Life, and many ways useful to thofe who are poffeffed of them.

BUT of all the Diverfions of Life, there is none fo proper to fill up its empty Spaces as the reading of ufeful and entertaining Authors. But this I fhall only touch up.on, because it in fome ameafure interferes with the third Method, which I fhall propofe in another Paper, for the

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Employ