advantage, to whom his predictions were very entertaining, when they came to pass in their favour, the relation whereof will consequently be agreeable to all readers who have within them a mixture of happy curiosity and good-nature.

them, the dress and comportment of each making them appear to be persons of figure and breeding, and after three or four modish curtsies, down they sat, without so much as once opening their lips, or intending so to do. The silence between them was very formal and profound for near half an hour, and nothing was heard but the snapping of fans, which they both did very tuneably, and with great harmony, and played, as it were, in concert.

At last one of the civil, well-bred mutes happening to sneeze, the other very gracefully bowed, and before she was well aware out popped the words, "Bless you, madam ;' "the fair sneezer returned the bow with an "I thank you, madam." They found they did not know one another's voices, and they began to talk very merrily together, with pretty great confidence, and they taking a mutual liking from conversation, so much familiarity grew thereupon instantly between them, that they began not only to unmask, but to unbosom themselves to one another, and confess alternately all their secrets. Christallina owned who she was, and told Urbana the beau and courtier that had her heart. Urbana as frankly declared that she was a widow, that she would not become the lady's rival, that she had pitched upon a second husband, an alderman of the city. Just by that time they had had their chat out, and wished one another the pleasure of a successful prediction, it came to Christallina's turn to visit the dumb gentleman, and receive from his pen oracular answers to all the questions she had to propose. Well, he accordingly satisfied her in every point she asked him about; but while she was about this, one of Mr Campbell's family going with Urbana to divert her a little, the widow railed at the virgin as a fool, to imagine that she should ever make a conquest of the brightest spark about the court, and then let fly some random bolts of malice to wound her reputation for chastity. Now it became the widow's turn to go and consult, and the same person of Mr Campbell's family in the mean time entertained Christallina. The maid was not behind. hand with the widow; she railed against the widow, represented her as sometimes a coquette, sometimes a lady of pleasure, sometimes a jilt, and lifted up her hands in wonder and amaze. ment that Urbana should imagine so rich a man as an alderman such-a-one should fall to her lot. Thus Urbana swore and protested that Christallina could never arrive at the honour of being the wife to the courtly Secretarius, let Mr Campbell flatter her as he would; and Christallina vowed that Campbell must be a downright wizard if he foretold that such a one as Urbana would get Alderman Stiffrump for a husband, provided a thing so improbable should come to pass.

Two ladies, who were the most remarkable beauties in London, and the most courted, turned at the same time their thoughts to matrimony, and being satiated, I may say wearied, with the pleasure of having continually after them a great number and variety of adorers, resolved each, about the same time, to make a choice of their several men, to whom they thought they could give most happiness, and from whom they might receive most. Their names (for they are both persons of distinction) shall be Christallina and Urbana. Christallina was a virgin, and Urbana a young widow. Christallina engrossed the eyes, the hearts, and the sighs of the whole court, and wherever she appeared put any court lady out of her place that had one before in the heart of any youth, and was the celebrated toast among the beau monde. Urbana's beauty made as terrible a havoc in the city; all the citizens' daughters that had many admirers, and were in fair hopes of having husbands when they pleased themselves, as soon as Urbana had lost her old husband, found that they every day lost their lovers, and it was a great fear among the prettiest maids that they should remain maids still, as long as Urbana remained a widow. She was the monopolizer of city affection, and made many girls that had large stocks of suitors bankrupts in the trade of courtship, and broke some of their hearts when her charms broke off their amours. Well, but the day was near at hand when both the belles of the court and the city damsels were to be freed from the ravages which these two tyrants, triumphant in beauty and insolent in charms, made among the harvest of love. Each had seen her proper man, to whom the enjoyment of her person was to be dedicated for life. But it being an affair of so lasting importance, each had a mind to be let into the knowledge of the consequences of such a choice, as far as possible, before they stepped into the irrevocable state of matrimony. Both of them happened to take it into their heads that the best way to be entirely satisfied in their curiosity was to have recourse to the great predictor of future occurrences, Mr Duncan Campbell, whose fame was at that time spread pretty largely about the town. Christallina and Urbana were not acquainted with each other, only by the report which fame had made of beauty. They came to Mr Campbell's on the same day, and both with the same resolution of keeping themselves concealed, and under masks, that none of the company of consulters who happened to be there might know who they were. It happened that on that very day, just when they came, Mr Campbell's rooms were more than ordinarily crowded with curious clients of the fair sex, so that he was obliged to desire these two ladies, who expressed so much precaution against and fear of having their persons discovered, to be They went away each satisfied that she should contented with only one room between them, have her own lover, but Christallina laughed at and with much ado they complied with the re- Mr Campbell for assigning the alderman to quest, and condescended to sit together incog. | Urbana, and Urbana laughed at him for promisDistant compliments of gesture passed between ||ing the courtier to the arms of Christallina.

However, it seems Duncan had told them their own names and the names of their suitors, and told them further, how soon they were both to be married, and that, too, directly to their heart's content, as they said rejoicingly to themselves, and made their mutual gratulations.

It was, indeed, as the reader would guess, a worthy and a wealthy merchant, who was to run through these different circumstances of being. He came and visited our Mr Campbell in the year 1707; he found him amidst a crowd of consulters, and being very eager and solicitous to know his own fortune just at that critical juncture of time, he begged of him (if possible) to adjourn his other clients to the day following, and sacrifice that one wholly to his use, which, as it was probably more important than all the others together, so he wrote down that he would render the time spent about it more advantageous to Mr Campbell, and by way of previous encouragement, threw him down ten guineas as a retain-she had already, as of knowing when she should ing fee.

Mr Campbell, who held money in very little esteem, and valued it so much too little that he has often had my reprehensions on that head, paused a little, and after looking earnestly in the gentleman's face, and reading there, as I suppose, in that little space of time in general, according

language; she grew appeased, went away in quite a good humour, scuttled too airily down stairs for a woman in her clothes, and the reason was certainly that she knew the matter before, which we took notice of presently after; the Irishman went precipitately after her down stairs without taking his leave.

But neither were the two misers for their gold,|| the virgin for a first husband, nor the widow for a second, half so eager, as another married woman there, was for the death of her spouse. She had put the question in so expecting a manner for a lucky answer, and with so much keen desire appearing plainly in her looks; that no big-bellied woman was ever more eager for devouring fruit; no young hasty bridegroom, just married to a beauty, more impatient for night and enjoyment, than she was to know, what she thought a more happy moment, the moment of her husband's last agonizing gasp. As her expectation was the greatest, so was her disappointment too, and consequently her disorder, upon his going and leaving her unresolved. She was frantic, raging, and implacable; she was in such a fury at the delay of putting off her answer to the day following, that in her fury she acted as if she would have given herself an answer, which of the two should die first, by choking herself upon the spot, with the indignation that swelled in her stomach and rose into her throat on that occasion. It may look like a romance to say it, but indeed they were forced to cut her lace, and then she threw out of the room with great passion; but yet had so much of the enraged wife left (beyond the enraged woman) as to return instantly up stairs, and signify very calmly, she would be certain to be there next day, and beseeched earnestly that she might not meet with a second disappointment.

All this hurry and bustle created a stay a little too tedious for the merchant, who began to he impatient himself, especially when word was brought up that a fresh company was come in: but Mr Campbell was denied to them; and to put a stop to any more interruptions, the merchant and the dumb gentleman agreed to slip into a coach, drive to a tavern in the city, and settle matters of futurity over a bottle of French

claret.

The first thing done at the tavern was Mr Campbell's saluting him upon a piece of paper by his name, and drinking his health. The next paper held a discourse of condolence for a disaster that was past long since, namely, a great and considerable loss that happened to his family in the dreadful conflagration of the city of London. In the third little dialogue which they had together, he told the merchant that losses and advantages were general topics, which a person, unskilled in that art, might venture to assign to any man of his profession, it being next to impossible that persons who traffic should not sometimes gain, and sometimes lose." But," said Mr Campbell," I will sketch out particularly and specify to you some future misfortunes, with which you will unavoidably meet; 'tis in your stars, it is in destiny, that you should have some trials, and therefore, when you are forewarned, take a prudent care to be fore-armed with patience, and by longanimity, and meekly and

66

But

resignedly, enduring your lot, render it more easy, since impatience cannot avert it, and will only render it more burthensome and heavy. He gave these words to the merchant, who pressed for his opinion that moment. 'By your leave," resuming the pen, said the dumb gentleman in writing, "we will have this bottle out first and tap a fresh one, that you may be warmed with courage enough to receive the first speculative onset of ill fortune that I shall predict to you, with a good grace, and that may perhaps enable you to meet it, when it comes to reduce itself into action, with a manful purpose and all becoming resolution." The merchant agreed to the proposal, and put on an air of the careless and indifferent as well as he could, to signify that he had no need to raise up an artificial courage from the auxiliary forces of the grape. nature, when hard pressed, will break through all disguises, and not only notwithstanding the air of pleasantry he gave himself, which appeared forced and constrained, but in spite of two or three sparkling and enlivening bumpers, a cloud of care would ever and anon gather and shoot heavily across his brow, though he laboured all he could to dispel it as quickly, and to keep fair weather in his countenance. Well, they had cracked the first bottle and the second succeeded upon the table, and they called to blow a pipe together. This pipe Mr Campbell found had a very ill effect: it is certainly a pensive kind of instrument, and fills a mind anything so disposed with disturbing thoughts, black fumes, and melancholy vapours, as certainly as it doth the mouth with smoke. It plainly took away even the little sparks of vivacity which the wine had given before; so he wrote for a truce of firing those sort of noxious guns any longer, and they laid down their arms by consent, and drank off the second bottle. A third immediately supplied its place, and at the first glass of the opening of the bottle Mr Campbell began to open to him his future case in the following words;-" Sir, you have now some ventures at sea from such and such a place, to such a value. Do not be discomforted at the news which you certainly will have within three months (but it will be false at last), that they are, by three different tempests, made the prey of the great ocean, and enrich the bottom of the sea, the palace of Neptune. worse storm than all these attends you at home, a wife who is and will be more the tempest of the house wherein she lives. The high and lofty winds of her vanity will blow down the pillars of your house and family; the high tide of her extravagance will roll on like a resistless torrent, and leave you at low water, and the ebb of all your fortunes. This is the highest and the most cutting disaster that is to befal you; your real shipwreck is not foreign but domestic; your bosom friend is to be your greatest foe, and even your powerful undoer for a time; mark what I say, and take courage; it shall be but for a time provided you take take courage; it will, upon that condition, be only a short and wholesome taste of adversity given to you, that you may relish returning prosperity with virtue, and with a greater return of thanks to him that dispenses it at pleasure to mankind. Remember, courage "and resignation is what I advise you to; use it,

Α

as becomes you, in your adversity, and believe that as I foretold that adversity, so I can foretel a prosperity will again be the consequence of those virtues; and the more you feel the one ought not to cast you down, but raise your hopes the more, that he who foretold you that so exactly could likewise foretel you the other." The merchant was by this put into a great suspense of mind, but somewhat easier, by the second prediction being annexed so kindly to the first fatal one. They crowned the night with a flask of Burgundy, and then parting, each went to their respective homes.

The reader may perchance wonder how I, who make no mention of my being there (as in truth I was not at the tavern), should be able to relate this as of my own knowledge; but if he pleases to have patience to the end of the story, he will have entire satisfaction in that point.

About half a year after the merchant came again, told him that his prediction was too far verified, to his very dear cost, and that he was now utterly undone and beyond any visible means of a future recovery, and doubting least the other fortunate part of the prediction was only told him by way of encouragement (for groundless doubts and fears always attend a mind implunged in melancholy), besought him very earnestly to tell him candidly and sincerely there was no real prospect of good, and rid him at once of the uneasiness of such a suspension of thought; "but pray do," said he, with all the vehemence of repeated expostulation, "satisfy me if there are any further hopes on this side the grave ?"

the foregoing and several other predictions of the
like kind, was become very large and extensive,
and had spread itself into the remotest corners
of this metropolis. The squares rung with it;
it was whispered from one house to another
through the more magnificent streets, where
persons of quality and distinction reside; it
catched every house in the city, like the news of
stock from Exchange alley; it run noisily through
the lanes and little thoroughfares where the poor
inhabit; it was the chat of the tea-table and the
babble of the streets, and the whole town, from
the top to the bottom, was full of it. Whenever
any reputation rises to a degree like this, let it
be for what art or accomplishment, or on what
account soever it will, malice, envy, and detrac-
tion are sure to be the immediate pursuers of it
with full mouth, and to hunt it down, if possible,
with full cry. Even the great Nostradamus,
though favoured by kings and queens (which al-
ways without any other reason creates enemies),
was not more pursued by envy and detraction for
his predictions in Paris and throughout France,
than our Duncan Campbell was in London, and
even throughout England, Various, different,
and many were the objections raised to blot his
character and extenuate his fame, that, when one
was confuted, another might not be wanting to
supply its place, and so to maintain a course and
series of backbiting according to the known
maxim-" Throw dirt, and if it does not stick,
throw dirt continually, and some will stick."

Neither is there any wonder; for a man, that has got applauders of all sorts and conditions, To this Duncan Campbell made a short but must expect condemners and detractors of all "May the sorts and conditions likewise. If a lady of high a very significant reply in writing. heaven's preserve you from a threatening danger degree, for example, should say, smiling (though of life. Take care only of yourself, great and really thinking absolutely what she says), for fear mighty care, and if you outlive Friday next, you of being thought over-credulous, "Well, I vow some things Mr Campbell does are surprising, will yet be great and more fortunate than ever you was in all the height of your former most after all; they would be apt to incline one to a flourishing space of life." He coloured inordi- belief that he is a wonder of a man, for one would nately when Duncan Campbell said Friday, and imagine the things he does impossible.' Why, conjured him to tell him as particularly as he then, a prude, with an assumed supercilious air, He told him and a scornful tihée, would, in order to seem more could what he meant by Friday. he could not particularise any further, but that wise than she was, reply, “Laud, madam, it is great danger threatened him that day; and that more a wonder to me that you can be imposed without extraordinary precaution it would prove upon so. I vow to Gad, madam, I would as soon fatal to him, even to death. He shook his head, consult an almanack-maker, and pin my faith and went away in a very sorrowful plight. Fri- upon what he pricks down; or believe, like my day past, Saturday came, and on that very creed, in the cross which I make upon the hand Saturday morning came likewise the joyful of a gipsy. Laud, madam, I assure your la'ship I assure he knows no more than I do of you. tidings that what ventures of his were given over He has it all for lost at sea were all come safe into the har- you so, and therefore believe me. bour. He came the moment he received those by hearsay." If the lady that believed it should despatches from his agent to Mr Duncan Camp-reply, that if he had notice of every stranger by bell's apartment, embraced him tenderly, and hearsay, he must be a greater man than she sussaluted him with much gladness of heart, before pected, and must keep more spies in pay than a The prude's answer would be, a great room full of ladies, where I happened to prime minister. be present at the time; crying out in a loud with a loud laugh and giggling out these words, "Laud, madam, I assure you nothing can be voice, before he knew what he said, that Mr Campbell had saved his life; that Friday was his more easy; and so take it for granted." Because birth-day, and he had intended with a pistol to she was inclined to say so, and had the act of shoot himself that very day. The ladies thought wisdom on her side, forsooth, that she appeared him mad; and he, recovered from his ecstasy,|| hard of belief (which some call hard to be put said no more, but sat down till Mr Campbell dis-upon), and the other lady credulous (which some missed all his clients; and then we three went to the tavern together, where he told me the whole little history or narrative just as is above related. The fame which Mr Duncan Campbell got by

though believing upon good grounds are called), and so thought foolish; the prude's answer would be thought sufficient and convincing.

Thus malice and folly, by dint of noise and

impudence, and strong though empty assertions, often run down modesty and good sense. Among the common people it is the same, but only done in a different manner. For example, an ordinary person that had consulted might say (as he walked along) "There goes the dumb gentleman, who writes down any name of a stranger at first sight;" up steps a blunt fellow, that takes stubbornness for sense, and says, "That is a confounded lie; he is a cheat and an imposter, and you are one of his accomplices. He'll tell me my name, I suppose, if you tell it him first. He is no more dumb than I am; he can speak and hear as well as us, I have been with those that say they have heard him, I wish I and two or three more had him in our stable, and I warrant you with our cart-whips we would lick some words out of his chops, as dumb as you I tell you it is all a lie and all a bite." If the other desires to be convinced for himself by his own experience, the rougher rogue, who perhaps has stronger sinews than the other, answers," If you lie any further I will knock you down;" and so he is the vulgar wit, and the mouth of the rabble-rout, and thus the detraction spreads below with very good success, as it does above in another kind.

call him.

As there are two comical adventures in his life which directly suit and correspond with the foregoing reflections, this seems the most proper place to insert them in. The first consists of a kind of mob-way of usage he met with from a fellow, who got to be an officer in the army, but || by the following behaviour will be found unworthy of the name and the commission.

In the year 1701 a lady of good quality came and addressed herself to him much after the following manner-She told him she had choice of lovers, but preferred one above the rest, but desired to know his name, and if she made him her choice what would be the subsequent fate of such a matrimony. Mr Duncan Campbell very readily gave her down in writing this plain and honest reply:-That of all her suitors she was most inclined to a captain, a distinguished officer and a great beau (naming his name), and one that had a great many outward engaging charms, sufficient to blind the eyes of any lady that was not thoroughly acquainted with his manner of living. He therefore assured her (and thought himself bound, being conjured so to do, having received his fee, though there was danger in such plain and open predictions) that he was a villain and a rogue in his heart, a profligate gamester, and that if she took him to her bed she would only embrace her own ruin. The lady's woman, who was present, being in fee with the captain, resolving to give intelligence for fear the officer, her so good friend, should be disappointed in the siege, slily shuffled the papers into her pocket, and made a present of them to the military spark. Fired with indignation at the contents, he vowed revenge, and in order to compass it conspires with his female spy about the means. In fine, for fear of losing the lady though he quarrelled with Duncan Campbell, a method was to be found out how to secure her by the very act of revenge. At last it was resolved to discover to her that he had found out what she had been told by Mr Campbell, but the way how he had been informed

was to remain a secret. He did do so, and ended
his discovery with these words :-" I desire, ma
dam, that if I prove him an impostor you would
not believe a word he says." The lady agreed
to so fair a proposal. Then the captain swore
that he himself would never eat a piece of bread
more till he had made Mr Campbell eat his
words; nay, he insisted upon it that he would
bring him to his tongue, and make him own by
word of mouth that what he had written before
was false and calumnious. To which the lady
answered again, that if he performed what he
This brave mili-
said she would be convinced.
tary man, however, not relying upon his own
single valour and prowess to bring about so
miraculous a thing as the making a person that
was dumb to speak, he took with him for this
end three lusty assistants to combine with him in
the assassination.

the Strand.

The ambuscade was settled

to be at the Five Bells tavern in Wych street in After the ambush was settled with so much false courage, the business of decoying Mr Campbell into it was not practicable any other way than by sending out false colours. The lady's woman, who was by her own interest tied fast to the interest of the beau, was to play the trick of Dalila, and betray this deaf and dumb Sampson (as he will appear to be a kind of one in the sequel of the story) into the hands of these Philistines. She smooths her face over with a complimenting lie from her mistress to Mr Campbell, and acted her part of deceit so well that he promised to follow her to the Five Bells with all haste, and so she skuttled back to prepare the captain, and to tell him how lucky she was in mischief, and how she drew him out by smiles into perdition. The short of the story is, when they got him in among them they endeavoured to assassinate him, but they missed of their aim, yet it is certain they left him in a very terrible and bloody condition, and the captain went away in as bad a plight as the person was left in whom he assaulted so cowardly with numbers, and to such disadvantage. I was sent for to him upon this disaster, and the story was delivered to me thus by one of the drawers of the tavern when I inquired into it :-They began to banter him, and speaking to him as if he heard, asked him if he knew his own fortune; they told him it was to be beaten to death. This was an odd way of addressing a deaf and dumb man. They added they would make him speak before they had done. The boy seeing he made no reply, but only smiled; thought what passed between them was a jest with an old acquaintance, and with. drew about his business. The door being fastened, however, before they began the honourable attack, they vouchsafed to write down their intent in the words above mentioned, which they had uttered before, to make sure that he should understand their meaning, and what this odd way of correction was for. All the while, the maid, who had brought him into it, was peeping through a hole, and watching the event, as appears afterwards. Mr Campbell wrote them the following answer, viz., that he hoped for fair play; that he understood bear-garden as well as they; but if a gentleman was amongst them he would expect gentlemanly usage.

The rejoinder they made to this consisted,