I

but coming to a familiarity with their purses. have also long lists of persons of condition, who are certainly of the same regimen with these banditti, and instrumental to their cheats upon undiscerning men of their own rank. These add their good reputation to carry on the impostures of others, whose very names would else be defence enough against falling into their hands. But, for the honour of our nation, these shall be unmentioned; provided we hear no more of such practices, and that they shall not from henceforward suffer the society of such as they know to be the common enemies of order, discipline, and virtue. If it appear that they go on in encouraging them, they must be proceeded against according to the severest rules of history, where all is to be laid before the world with impartiality, and without respect to persons,

"So let the stricken deer go weep."

"SIR,

THE TATLER, No. LXX.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 20, 1709.

"To ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, Esq.

"I READ with great pleasure, in the Tatler of Saturday last, the conversation upon eloquence; permit me to hint to you one thing the great Roman orator observes upon this subject: Caput enim arbitrabatur oratoris, (he quotes Menedemus, an Athenian,) ut ipsis apud quos ageret talis qualem ipse optaret videretur; id fieri vita dignitate. (Tull, de

Oratore.) It is the first rule in oratory, that a man
must appear such as he would persuade others to
be; and that can be accomplished only by the force
of his life. I believe it might be of great service to
let our public orators know, that an unnatural gravity,
or an unbecoming levity, in their behaviour out of
the pulpit, will take very much from the force of
their eloquence in it. Excuse another scrap of
Latin; it is from one of the fathers; I think it will
appear a just observation to all, and it may have
authority with some: Qui autem docent tantum, nec
faciunt, ipsi præceptis suis detrahunt pondus; quis
enim obtemperet, cum ipsi præceptores doceant non
obtemperare? Those who teach, but do not act
agreeably to the instructions they give to others,
take away all weight from their doctrine; for who
will obey the precepts they inculcate, if they them-
selves teach us by their practice to disobey them?
"I am, Sir,

"Your most humble servant,
"JONATHAN ROSEHAT.

"P.S.-You were complaining in that paper, that the clergy of Great Britain had not yet learned to speak a very great defect indeed: and, therefore, I shall think myself a well-deserver of the church, in recommending all the dumb clergy to the famous speaking doctor at Kensington.* This ingenious gentleman, out of compassion to those of a bad utterance, has placed his whole study in the newmodelling the organs of voice; which art, he has so far advanced, as to be able even to make a good orator of a pair of bellows. He lately exhibited a

* Dr. James Ford, who professed to remove impediments in speech.

specimen of his skill in this way, of which I was informed by the worthy gentlemen then present; who were at once delighted and amazed to hear an instrument of so simple an organization, use an exact articulation of words, a just cadency in its sentences, and a wonderful pathos in its pronunciation: not that he designs to expatiate in this practice; because he cannot, as he says, apprehend what use it may be of to mankind, whose benefit he aims at in a more particular manner: and for the same reason, he will never more instruct the feathered kind, the parrot having been his last scholar in that way. He has a wonderful faculty in making and mending echoes; and this he will perform at any time for the use of the solitary in the country; being a man born for universal good, and for that reason recommended to your patronage by,

"Sir, yours," &c.

THE TATLER, No. LXXI.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 22, 1709.

"ESQUIRE BICKERSTAFF,

"FINDING your advice and censure to have a good effect, I desire your admonition to our vicar and schoolmaster, who, in his preaching to his auditors, stretches his jaws so wide, that, instead of instructing youth, it rather frightens them: likewise in reading prayers, he has such a careless loll, that people are justly offended at his irreverent posture; besides the extraordinary charge they are put to in sending their children to dance, to bring them off of those ill ges

tures. Another evil faculty he has, in making the bowling-green his daily residence, instead of his church, where his curate reads prayers every day. If the weather is fair, his time is spent in visiting; if cold or wet, in bed, or at least at home, though within a hundred yards of the church. These, out of many such irregular practices, I write for his reclamation: but two or three things more before I conclude; to wit, that generally when his curate preaches in the afternoon, he sleeps sotting in the desk on a hassock. With all this, he is so extremely proud, that he will go but once to the sick, except they return his visit."

THE TATLER, No. LXXIV.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 29, 1709.

Grecian Coffeehouse, Sept. 29. THIS evening I thought fit to notify to the literati of this house, and by that means to all the world, that on Saturday, the fifteenth of October next ensuing I design to fix my first Table of Fame; and desire. that such as are acquainted with the characters of the twelve most famous men that have ever appeared in the world, would send in their lists, or name any one man for that table, assigning also his place at it, before that time, upon pain of having such his man of fame postponed, or placed too high, for ever. shall not, upon any application whatever, alter the place which upon that day I shall give to any of these worthies. But whereas there are many who take upon them to admire this hero, or that author, upon second-hand, I expect each subscriber should

I

underwrite his reason for the place he allots his candidate.

The thing is of the last consequence; for we are about settling the greatest point that ever has been debated in any age; and I shall take precautions accordingly. Let every man who votes, consider that he is now going to give away that, for which the soldier gave up his rest, his pleasure, and his life; the scholar resigned his whole series of thought, his midnight repose, and his morning slumbers. In a word, he is, as I may say, to be judge of that afterlife, which noble spirits prefer to their very real beings. I hope I shall be forgiven, therefore, if I make some objections against their jury, as they shall occur to me. The whole of the number by whom they are to be tried, are to be scholars. I am persuaded, also, that Aristotle will be put up by all of that class of men. However, in behalf of others, such as wear the livery of Aristotle, the two famous universities are called upon on this occasion: but I except the men of Queen's, Exeter, and Jesus Colleges, in Oxford, who are not to be electors,* because he shall not be crowned from an implicit faith in his writings, but receive his honour from such judges as shall allow him to be censured. Upon this election, as I was just now going to say, I banish all who think and speak after others, to concern themseves in it. For which reason, all illiterate distant admirers are forbidden to corrupt the voices by sending, according to the new mode, any poor students coals and candlest for their votes

* The members of these three colleges were obliged, by their statutes, to keep to Aristotle for their texts.

†This mode of bribery had been recently practised, in the election of Sir Benjamin Green as alderman of the ward of Queenhithe.