The Compleat Fockey. A third obferving the Curiofity and Defire of prying into Secrets, which he tells me is natural to the fair Sex, is of Opinion this female Inclination, if well directed, might turn very much to their Advantage, and therefore recommends to me Mr. Mede upon the Revelations. A fourth lays it down as an unqueftioned Truth, that a Lady cannot be thoroughly accomplished who has not read The fecret Treaties and Negociations of the Marshal D'Eftrades. Mr. Jacob Tonfon Jun. is of Opinion, that Bayle's Dictionary might be of very great ufe to the Ladies, in order to make them general Scholars. Another, whofe Name I have forgotten, thinks it highly proper that every Woman with Child fhould read Mr. Wall's Hiftory of Infant Baptifm;. as another is very importunate with me to recommend to all my female Readers The finishing Stroke; being a Vindication of the Patriarchal Scheme, &c.

IN the fecond Clafs I fhall mention Books which are recommended by Husbands, if I may believe the Writers' of them. Whether or no they are real Husbands or perfonated ones I cannot tell, but the Books they recommend are as follow. A Paraparafe on the Hiftory of Sufanna. Rules to keep Lent. The Chriftian's Overthrow prevented. A Diffuafive from the Play-boufe. The Virtues of Camphire, with Directions to make Camphire Tea. The Plea fures of a Country Life. The Government of the Tongue. A Letter dated from Cheapfide defires me that I would advife all young Wives to make themselves Mistresses of Wingate's Arithmetick, and concludes with a Poftfcript, that he hopes I will not forget The Countess of Kent's Receipts.

I may reckon the Ladies themfelves as a third Clafs among these my Correfpondents and Privy-Counsellors. In a Letter from one of them, I am advised to place Pharamond at the Head of my Catalogue, and, if I think proper, to give the fecond Place to Caffandra. Coquetilla begs me not to think of nailing Women upon their Knees with Manuals of Devotion, nor of fcorching their Faces with Books of Housewifry. Florella defires to know if there are any Books written against Prudes, and intreats me, if there are, to give them a Place in my Library. Plays of all Sorts have their feveral Advocates: All for

Love is mentioned in above fifteen Letters; Sophonisba, Or 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 Aurenzebe have the fame Number of Voices; but Theodofius, or the Force of Love, carries it from all the reft.

I fhould, in the laft Place, mention fuch Books as have been propofed by Men of Learning, and those who appear competent Judges of this Matter, and must here take Occafion to thank A.B. whoever it is that conceals himself under those 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 greatest 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 use, and endeavour to accommodate them as well as I can to their Tafte; not queftioning. but the valuable Part of the Sex will eafily pardon me, if from Time to Time I laugh at those 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 feel the Sex daily improving by these 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.

4

I am credibly informed that Tom Tattle paffes for an impertinent Fellow, that Will. Trippit begins to be fmoaked, and that Frank Smoothly himself is within a Month of a Coxcomb, in cafe I think fit to continue this Paper. For my Part, as it is my Bufinefs in fome Measure to detect fuch as would lead aftray weak Minds by their false Pretences to Wit and Judgment, Humour and Gallantry, I fhall not fail to lend the best Lights I am able to the fair Sex for the Continuation of thefe Discoveries,

L

N 93.

Saturday, June 16.

Spatio brevi

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

WE

Hor.

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 spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the Purpose, or in doing rothing 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 thofe various Turns of Expreffion and Thought which are peculiar to his Writings,

I often confider Mankind as wholly inconfiftent with it felf in a Point that bears fome Affinity to the former. Though we feem grieved at the Shortness of Life in ge neral, 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 Eftate, 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 composed. The Ufurer would be very well

fatisfied

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 most Men into twenty Parts, we fhall find that at leaft 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 Employment to the most induftrious Temper, and find a Man in Bufinefs more than the most active Station of Life. To advise the Ignorant, relieve the Needy, comfort the Afflicted, are Duties that fall in our way almost every Day in our Lives. A Man has frequent Opportunities of mitigating the Fiercenefs of a Party; of doing Juftice 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 reasonable Nature, and bring great Satisfacti on to the Perfon who can bufy himfelt in them with Difcretion. THERE

THERE is another kind of Virtue that may find Employment for those 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 beft of Friends. The Time never lies heavy upon him: It is impoffible for him to be alone. His Thoughts and Paffions are the moft 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 Consciousness 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 Neceffity 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 only an Amusement for the time it lafts, but that its Influence extends to thofe 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 in 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 ftrained up to a Pitch of Virtue, it is neceffary to find out proper Employments for it in its Relaxations.

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