leap over eleven days together, the months of restraint will foon be at an end. It is ftrange, that with all the plots that have been laid against time, they could never kill it by act of parliament before. Dear Sir, if you have any vote or intereft, get them but for once to destroy eleven months, and then I fhall be as old as fome married ladies. But this is defired only if you think they will not comply with Mr. Starlight's fcheme; for nothing furely could please me like a year of confufion, when I shall no longer be fixed this hour to my pen and the next to my needle, or wait at home for the dancing-mafter one day, and the next for the mufick-mafter, but run from ball to ball, and from drum to drum; and spend all my time without tasks, and without account, and go out without telling whither, and come home with. out regard to prescribed hours, or family-rules.

I am, SIR,

Your humble Servant,

PROPERANTIA.

Mr. RAMBLER,

I WAS feized this morning with an unusual pen

fiveness, and finding that books only ferved to heighten it, took a ramble into the fields, in hopes of relief and invigoration from the keennefs of the air and brightness of the fun.

As I wandered wrapped up in thought, my eyes were ftruck with the hospital for the reception of deserted infants, which I furveyed with pleasure, till by a natural train of fentiment, I began to reflect on the fate of the mothers. For to what shelter can

they

they fly? Only to the arms of their betrayer, which perhaps are now no longer open to receive them; and then how quick must be the tranfition from deluded virtue to fhameless guilt, and from fhameless guilt to hopeless wretchedness?

The anguish that I felt, left me no reft till I had, by your means, addreffed myfelf to the publick on behalf of thofe forlorn creatures, the women of the town; whofe mifery here might fatisfy the most rigorous cenfor, and whofe participation of our common nature might furely induce us to endeavour, at least, their preservation from eternal punishment.

These were all once, if not virtuous, at least innocent; and might still have continued blameless and eafy, but for the arts and infinuations of thofe whose rank, fortune, or education, furnished them with means to corrupt or to delude them. Let the libertine reflect a moment on the fituation of that woman, who, being forfaken by her betrayer, is reduced to the neceffity of turning prostitute for bread, and judge of the enormity of his guilt by the evils which it produces.

It cannot be doubted but that numbers follow this dreadful courfe of life, with fhame, horrour, and regret; but where can they hope for refuge?" The world is not their friend, nor the world's law." Their fighs and tears, and groans, are criminal in the eye of their tyrants, the bully and the bawd, who fatten on their mifery, and threaten them with want or a gaol, if they fhew the least defign of efcaping from their bondage.

"To wipe all tears from off all faces," is a tafk too hard for mortals; but to alleviate misfortunes is often within the most limited power: yet the oppor

tunities which every day affords of relieving the most wretched of human beings are overlooked and neglected, with equal disregard of policy and goodness.

There are places, indeed, fet apart, to which these unhappy creatures may refort, when the diseases of incontinence feize upon them; but if they obtain a cure, to what are they reduced? Either to return with the fmall remains of beauty to their former guilt, or pe rifh in the streets with nakedness and hunger,

How frequently have the gay and thoughtless, in their evening frolicks, feen a band of thefe miferable females, covered with rags, fhivering with cold, and pining with hunger; and, without either pitying their calamities, or reflecting upon the cruelty of those who perhaps first feduced them by careffes of fondnefs, or magnificence of promises, go on to reduce others to the fame wretchedness by the fame means?

To ftop the increase of this deplorable multitude, is undoubtedly the first and most preffing confideration. To prevent evil is the great end of government, the end for which vigilance and feverity are properly employed. But furely those whom paffion or interest have already depraved, have fome claim to compaffion, from beings equally frail and fallible with themselves. Nor will they long groan in their prefent afflictions, if none were to refuse them relief, but thofe that owe their exemption from the same distress only to their wisdom and their virtue.

I am, &c.

AMICUS.

NUMB. 108. SATURDAY, March 30, 1751.

Sapere aude,

Incipe. Vivendi re&è qui prorogat horam,
Ruflicus expectat dum defluat amnis: at ille
Labitur, & labetur in omne volubilis ævum.

Begin, be bold, and venture to be wife ;
He who defers his work from day to day,
Does on a river's bank expecting stay,

HOR.

Till the whole ftream, which ftopp'd him, fhould be gone,
That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on.

COWLEY.

ΑΝ

N ancient poet, unreasonably discontented at the present state of things, which his system of opinions obliged him to reprefent in its worst form, has obferved of the earth," that its greater part is "covered by the uninhabitable ocean; that of the "reft fome is encumbered with naked mountains, "and fome loft under barren fands; fome fcorched " with unintermitted heat, and fome petrified with "perpetual froft; fo that only a few regions remain "for the production of fruits, the pasture of cattle, " and the accommodation of man."

The fame obfervation may be transferred to the time allotted us in our present state. When we have deducted all that is abforbed in fleep, all that is inevitably appropriated to the demands of nature, or irresistibly engroffed by the tyranny of custom; all that paffes in regulating the fuperficial decorations of life, or is given up in the reciprocations of civi

lity to the disposal of others; all that is torn from us by the violence of disease, or ftolen imperceptibly away by laffitude and languor; we fhall find that part of our duration very fmall of which we can truly call ourselves mafters, or which we can spend wholly at our own choice. Many of our hours are loft in a rotation of petty cares, in a conftant recurrence of the fame employments; many of our provifions for ease or happiness are always exhausted by the present day; and a great part of our existence ferves no other purpose, than that of enabling us to enjoy the reft.

Of the few moments which are left in our dif pofal, it may reasonably be expected, that we should be fo frugal, as to let none of them flip from us without fome equivalent; and perhaps it might be found, that as the earth, however straitened by rocks and waters, is capable of producing more than all its inhabitants are able to confume, our lives, though much contracted by incidental distraction, would yet afford us a large space vacant to the exercise of reafon and virtue; that we want not time, but diligence, for great performances; and that we fquander much of our allowance, even while we think it sparing and infufficient.

This natural and neceffary comminution of our lives, perhaps, often makes us infenfible of the ne、 gligence with which we fuffer them to flide away. We never confider ourselves as poffeffed at once of time fufficient for any great defign, and therefore indulge ourselves in fortuitous amusements. We think it unneceffary to take an account of a few fu pernumerary moments, which, however employed,

could