peror, and as full of handsome women as his feraglio: they had no eunuchs among them, but there was one who fung upon the stage, and by the luxurious tenderness of his airs, feemed fitter to make them wanton than keep them chaste.

Inftead of the habit proper to fuch creatures, he wore a fuit of armour, and called himself Julius Cæfar.

I asked who Julius Cæfar was, and whether he had been famous for finging. They told me, he was a warrior that had conquered all the world, and debauched half the women in Rome.

I was going to express my admiration at feeing him fo properly reprefented, when I heard two ladies who fat nigh me, cry out as it were in an extafy O

that dear creature! I am dying for love of him.'

At the fame time I heard a gentleman fay aloud, that both the mufick and fingers were deteftable.

• You must not mind him,' faid my friend, he is of the other party, and ⚫ comes here only as a spy."

How,' faid I, have you parties in mufick?'-Yes,' replied he; it is a rule with us to judge of nothing by our fenfes and understanding, but to hear, and fee, and think, only as we chance to be differently engaged.'

I hope, faid I, that a ffranger may be neutral in thefe divifions; and, to fay the truth, your mufick is very far from inflaming me to a spirit of fac● tion; it is much more likely to lay mie afleep. Ours in Perfia fets us all a dancing, but I am quite unmoved with this.'

• Do but fancy it moving,' returned my friend, and you will foon be moved as much as others: it is a trick you may learn when you will, with a little pains; we have moft of us learnt it in our turns.'

Was this morning prefent at a diver

Ilons extremely diferent from the

opera, of which I have given thee a defcription, and they tell me it is peculiar to this country. The fpectators were placed in galleries of an open circus; below them was an area filled, not with eunuchs and musicians, but with bulls and bears, and dogs and fighting-men. The pleasure was to fee the animals worry and gore one another, and the men give and receive many wounds, which the delighted beholders rewarded with fhowers of money, greater or lefs in proportion as the combatants were more or lefs hurt. I had fome compaffion for the poor beafts, which were forcibly incenfed against each other; but the human brutes, who, unexcited by any rage or fenfe of injury, could fpill the blood of others, and lofe their own, feemed to me to deferve no pity. However, I looked upon it as a proof of the martial genius of this people, and imagined I could difcover in that ferocity a ipirit of freedom. A Frenchman who fat near me was much offended at the barbarity of the fight, and reproached my friend who brought me thither with the fanguinary difpofition of the English, in delighting in fuch spectacles. My

FROM LONDON.

friend agreed with him in general, and

allowed that it ought not to be encourag

ed in a civilized ftate: but a gentleman who was placed juft above them caft a very four look at both, and did not feem at all of their opinion. He was dressed in a fhort black wig, had his boots on, and held in his hand a long whip, which, when the fellow fought ftoutly, he would crack very loud by way of approbation. One would have thought by his afpect that he had fought fome prizes himself, or at least that he had received a good part of his education in this place. His difcourfe was as rough as his figure, but did not appear to me to want fenfe, I fuppofe, Sir,' faid he to my friend, that you have been bred at court, and therefore I am not furprized that you do not relish the Bear-garden: but let me tell you, that if more people came hither, and fewer loitered in the drawing room, it would not be worse for Old England: we are indeed a civilized fote, as you are pleased to call it; but I could with, upon certain ⚫ occafions, we were not quite fo civil, * This gentlentis and effeminacy in our ⚫ manners will foften us by degrees into * flaves, and we thall grow to hate fight

ing in earnest when we do not love to

fee it in jet. You fine gentlemen are

of, that acted much more barbarouf

of his fubjects out of downright wantonnels, and butchered his innocent neighbours without any cause of quarrel, only to have the glory of being elteeined the greatest prize-fighter in • Europe.'

T is the law of England, that when

IT

a debtor is infolvent, his creditors may thut him up in prifon, and keep him there if they pleafe for all his life, unless he pays the whole of what he owes. My curiofity led me the other day to one of thofe prifons: my heart is ftill heavy with the remembrance of the objects I faw there. Among the va-, rious causes of their undoing, fome are of fo extraordinary a kind, that I cannot help relating them to thee. One of the prifoners, who carried in his looks, the imot fettled melancholy, told me he had been matter of an ealy fortune, and lived very happily a good while, till he became acquainted with a lawyer, who in looking over fome old writings of his family, unluckily difcovered certain parchments that gave him a right to an eftate in the poffeffion of one of his neighbours: upon which he was perfuaded to go to law; and, after profecuting his fuit for twenty years with a vexation that had almoft turned his brain, he made the lawyer's fortune, reduced his neighbour to beggary, and had no fooner gained his cafe, but his creditors feized on both eftatis, and fent him to enjoy his victory in a gaol.

A fecond informed me that he was a citizen, and born to a confiderable eitate; but, being covetous to improve it, had married a very rich heirefs, who was fo vatly genteel in her expences, and found fo many ways of doing credit to Herfelf and her husband, that the quickly fent him from his new houfe near the court, to the lodgings in which I found him. Why did not you divorce her,' faid I to him, when you found that her extravagance would be your ruin ? Ah, Sir!' replied he, Ihould have been a happy man if I could have caught her with a gallant; I might

FROM LONDON.

then have got rid of her by law: but, to my forrow, he was virtuous as well as ugly; her only paffions were cquipage and gaming. I was infinitely furprized that a man should with to find his wife an adulterefs, or that he should be obliged to keep her to his undoing only because he was not one.

Another faid he was a gentleman of a good family, and having a mind to rife in the state, fpent fo much money to purchase a feat in parliament, that though he fucceeded pretty well in his views at court, the falary did not pay the debt; and being unable to get himfelf chofe again at the next election, he loft his place' and his liberty both together.

The next that I fpoke to was reputed the beft fcholar in Europe; he underftood the Oriental languages, and talked to me in very good Arabick.

I asked how it was poffible that fo learned a man fhould be in want, and whether all the books he had read could not keep him out of gaol. Sir,' faid he,

thofe books are the very things that brought me hither. Would to God I had been bred a cobler! I should

then have poffeffed fome useful knowJedge, and might have kept my fa mily from ftarving: but the world which I read of, and that I lived in, were fo very diferent, that I was undone by the force of ipeculation.'

There was another who had been bred to merchandize; but, being of too lively an imagination for the duinefs of trade, he appled himfelf to poetry, and neglecting his other bufinefs, was foon reduced to the Aare I faw him in: but he affured me he thould not be long there; for his lucky confinement having given him more leifure for study, he had quitred postry, and taken to the mathema

ticks,

ticks, by the means of which he had found out the longitude, and expected to obtain a great reward which the government promised to the discoverer. I perceived he was not in his perfect senses, and pitied such an odd sort of phrenzy; but my compaffion was infinitely greater for fome unhappy people who were fhut up in that miferable place, by having loft their fortunes in the publick funds, or in private projects, of which this age and country have been very fruitful, and which, under the fallacious notion of great advan. tage, drew in the unwary to their deftruction. I asked in what dungeon

they were confined, who had been the undoers of these wretched men? but, to my great furprize, was informed that the contrivers of fuch wicked projects had lefs reafon than most men in England to be afraid of a gaol. Good Heaven! faid I, can it be poffible that, in a country governed by laws, the innocent who are cheated out of all fhould be put in prison, and the villains who cheat them left at liberty! With this reflection I ended my enquiries, and wifhed myself fafe out of a land where fuch a mockery of juftice is carried on,

Was the other day in a houfe where I faw a fight very strange to a Perfian; there was a number of tables in the room, round which were placed feveral fetts of men and women: they seemed wonderfully intent upon fome bits of painted paper which they held in their hands. I imagined at first that they were performing fome magical ceremony, and that the figures I faw traced on the bits of paper were a myftical talifman or charin: what more confirmed me in this belief was the grimaces and distortions of their countenances, much like thofe of our magicians in the act of conjuring. But enquiring of the gentleman that introduced me, I was told they were at play, and that this was the favourite diverfion of both fexes.

FROM LONDON.

who is now a beggar, and has but just enough to furnish out one night's play, fhall be a man of quality.

The laft,' faid I, is in the right; for he ventures nothing: but what excufe can be thought on for the former? Are the nobility in England fo 'indifferent to wealth and honour, to 'expose them without the least neceffity? • I must believe that they are generally fure of winning, and that thofe they play with bave the odds against them. *If the chance was only equal,' anfwered he, it would be tolerable; but their adverfaries engage them at great advantage, and are too wife to leave any thing to Fortune.',

This comes,' faid I, of your be⚫ing allowed the ufe of wine. If thefe gentlemen and ladies were not quite intoxicated with that curfed liquor, they could not poffibly act so abfurdly. But why does not the government take care of them when they are in that condition? Methinks the fellows that rob them in this manner fhould be ⚫ brought to juftice."

Alas, answered he, thefe cheats are an innocent fort of people; they only prey upon the vices and luxury of a few particulars: but there are others who raife eftates by the miferies and ruin of their country; who game not with their own money, but with that of the publick, and fecurely play. aray the substance of the orphan and

⚫ the

the widow, of the husbandman and the trader. Till justice is done upon thefe, the others have a right to impunity;

TH

and it is no fcandal to fee gamefiers live like gentlemen, where stock-job•bers live like princes.`

HOU would be aftonished to hear fome women in this country talk of love; their difcourfes about it are as refined as their notions of Paradife, and they exclude the pleasure of the fenfes out of both. But however fatisfied they may be in the world to come with fuch vifionary joys, it is my opinion, that the niceft of them all, if the were to enjoy her paradife here, would make it a Mahometan one, I had lately a converfation on this fubject with one of these Platonicks, for that is the title they affect: in anfwer to all her pretty reasonings, I told her the following tale of a fair lady who was a Platonick like herself.

THE LOVES OF LUDOVICO AND
HONORIA.

THE city of Genoa has been always famed above any town in Europe for the refinement of it's gallantry. It is common there for a gentleman to profefs himself the humble fervant of a handsome woman, and wait upon her to every publick place for twenty years together, without ever feeing her in private, or being entitled to any greater favours than a kind look or a touch of her fair hand. Of all this fighing tribe, the mott enamoured, the most conftant, and the moft refpectful, was Signor Ludovico.

His mistress, Honoria Grimaldi,only daughter to a fenator of that name, was the greatest beauty of the age in which he lived, and at the fame time the coyeft and most referved. So great was her nicety in the point of love, that although he could not be infenfible to the addreffes of Signor Ludovico, yet the could not bring herself to think of marrying her lover, which, fhe faid, was admitting him to freedoms entirely inconfiftent with the refpect that character requires. In vain did he tell her of the violence of his paffion for her: the answered, that her's for him was no lefs violent; but it was his mind the loved, and could enjoy that without

FROM LONDON.

going to bed to him. Ludovico was ready to defpair at these discourses of his miftrefs: he could not but admire tuch fine fentiments, yet he wished the had not been quite fo perfect. He writ her a very melancholy letter, and the returned him one in verfe full of fublime expreffions about love, but not a word that tended to fatisfy the poor man's impatience. At laft he applied himfelf to her father; and, to engage him to make use of his authority, offered to take Honoria without a portion. The father, who was a plain man, was mightily pleased with this propofal, and made no difficulty to promife him fuccefs. Accordingly he very roundly told his daughter, that the muft be married the next day, or go to a nunnery. This dilemma ftartled her very much. In fpite of all her repugnance to the marriage bed, he found fomething about her ftill more averfe to the idea of a cloifter. An abfolute feparation from Ludovico was what he could not bear: it was even worse than an abfolute conjunction. In this diftrefs she did not know what to do: fhe turned over above a hundred romances to fearch for precedents; and, after many struggles with herself, refolved to furrender upon terms. She therefore told her lover that the confented to be his wife, provided the might be fo by degrees; and that, after the ceremony was over, he would not pretend at once to all the rights and privileges of a husband, but allow her modelty leifure to make a gradual and decent retreat. Ludovico did not like fuch a capitulation; but, rather than not have her, he was content to pay this laft compliment to her caprice. They were married, and at the end of the first month he was very happy to find himself arrived at the full enjoyment of her lips.

While he was thus gaining ground inch by inch, his father died, and left him a great eftate in the island of Corfica. His prefence was neceflary there; but he could not think of parting from Honoria.

They

They embarked together; and Ludovico had good hopes, that he fhould not only take poffeffion of his eitate, but of his wife, too, at his arrival. Whether it was, that Venus, who is fail to be born out of the fea, was more powerful there than at land, or from the freedom which is ufual aboard a fhip, it is fure, that, during the voyage, he was indulged in greater liberties than ever he had prefumed to take before: nay, it is confidently afferted, that they were fuch liberties as have a natural and irrefit ible tendency to overcome all fcruples whatfoever. But, while he was failing on with a fair wind, and almott in the port, Fortune, who took a pleature to perfecute him, brought an African corfair in their way, that quickly put an end to their dalliance, by making them his flaves.

Who can exprefs the affliction and defpair of this loving couple, at fo fudden and ill-timed a captivity! Ludovico faw himself deprived of his virginbride, on the very point of obtaining all his wishes; and Honoria had reafon to apprehend, that he was fallen into rougher hands than his, and fuch as no confiderations could reftrain. But the martyrdom fhe looked for in that inftant was unexpectedly deferred till they came to Tunis. The corfair, fecing her fo beautiful, thought her a miftrefs worthy of his prince; and to him he prefented her at their landing, in fpite of her own and her husband's tears. O unfortunate end of all her pure and heroical fentiments! Was it for this that her favours were fo Jong and fo obftinately denied to the tender Ludivoco, to have them ravifhed in a moment by a rude barbarian, who did not fo much as thank her for them? But let us leave her in the feraglio of the Dey, and fee what became of Ludovico after this cruel feparation.

The corfair finding him unfit for any labour, made ufe of him to teach his children mufick, in which he was perfectly well killed. This fervice would not have been very painful, if it had not been for the remembrance of Honoria, and the thought of the brutalities fhe was expofed to: thefe were always in his head night and day, and he imagined that the had by this time killed herielf rather than fuhmit to to groís a violation. But while he was thus tormenting himfelf for one woman, he

No

gave equal uneasiness to another. His mafter's wife faw him often from her window, and fell violently in dove with him. The African ladies are utter frangers to delicacy and refinement. She made no fcruple to acquaint him with her defnes, and fent her favourite flave to introduce him by night into her chamber. Ludovico would fain have been excufed, being afhamed to commit fuch an infidelity to his dear Honoria; but the flave informed him, that if he hoped to live an hour, he must comply with her lady's inclinations; for that in Africk refufals of that kind were always revenged with fword or poison. conftancy, could be strong enough to refift to terrible a menace: he therefore went to the rendezvous at the time appointed, where he found a mistress infinitely more complying than his fantastical Italian. But in the midft of their endearments they heard the corfair at the door of his wife's apartment. Upon the alarm of his coming, the frighted lover made the best of his way out of the window; which, not being very high, he had the good fortune to get off unhurt. The corfair did not fee him; but, by the confulion his wife was in, he suspected that fomebody had been with her. His jealoufy directed him to Ludovico; and though he had no other proof than bare fufpicion, he was determined to punish him feverely, and at the same time fecure himself for the future. He therefore gave orders to his eunuchs to put him in the fame condition with themfelves, which inhuman command was performed with a Turkish rigour far more defperate and compleat than any fuch thing had been ever practifed in Italy. But the change this operation wrought upon him fo improved his voice, that he became the finest finger in all Africk. His reputation was fo great, that the Dey of Tunis fent to beg him of his master, and preferred him to a place in his own feraglio. He had now a free accefs to his Honoria, and an opportunity of contriving her escape: to that end he fecretly hired a fhip to be ready to carry them off, and did not doubt but he should find her very willing to accompany his flight. It was not long before he faw her, and you may imagine the excefs of her joy, at fo ftrange and agreeable a furprize.

• Can it be poffible,' cried the, can it be poffible that I fce you in this place!

O my