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their endeavours with the new patrons, the booksellers, it might accelerate the progress of virtue through this island. Every body knows the effect which a smile, a nod, a shake of the hand, or even a promise from a great man, has upon the inventive faculties of an author. In all probability he would sit with more serenity, and loll with more grace in a nobleman's chariot, than in his bookseller's easy chair: not to mention that three courses by a French cook, a dessert, and a bottle of champaigne, are more apt to exhilarate the spirits than one or two plain English dishes and prosaic port. Provided, as indeed it ought always to be provided, that the servants of this noble patron will condescend to hear him now-and-then, when he happens to be in want of any thing that is in the province of the sideboard.

"Who is there among us so ignorant as not to know, that the two favourite amusements of gaming and adultery would never have found such universal admission, if they had not been honoured with the patronage of people of fashion? The numbers of drest-up monkies and dancing dogs, which have lately contributed so much to our public entertainments, are another proof of what people of fashion may bring about, if they determine to be active. But as a certain great personage, well known in the polite world, was pleased of old time to observe of Job, though the accusation was a false one, that he did not serve God for nought; so may it be suggested that the great of this generation will expect to be paid either in pleasure or profit for their services to mankind. It is shrewdly suspected of the booksellers, that they have some interested views in their encouragement of learning; and it is my own opinion, that our nobility and people of fashion are only encouragers of vice and folly, as

they happen to be paid for it in pleasure. My design, therefore, in this letter, is to convince the said people of fashion, that they are losing a great deal of pleasure by shutting the doors against men of learning.

"In the article of eating, for instance, that noble pleasure! who is there so proper to advise with, as one who is acquainted with the kitchens of an Apicius or an Heliogabalus? For though I have a very high opinion of our present taste, I cannot help thinking that the ancients were our masters in expensive dinners. Their cooks had an art amongst them, which I do not find that any of ours are arrived at. Trimalchus's cook could make a turbot or an ortolan out of hog's flesh. Nicomedes, king of Bythinia, when he was three hundred miles from sea, longed for a john-dory, and was supplied with a fresh one by his cook the same hour. I dare say there are men learned enough in this kingdom, under proper encouragement, to restore to us this invaluable secret. In building and furniture, a man of learning might instruct our nobility in the Roman art of expense. Marcus Æmilius Scaurus, the coal-merchant, had eight hundred thousand pounds worth of furniture burnt in the left wing of his country-house. In the article of running in debt we are people of no spirit; a man of learning will tell us that Milo, a Roman of fashion, owed to his tradesmen and others half a million of money.

"The ladies will have equal benefit with the men from their encouragement of learning. It will be told them, that Lollia Paulina, a young lady of distinction at Rome, wore at a subscription masquerade four hundred thousand pounds worth of jewels. It is said of the same young lady, that she wore jewels to half that amount, if she went only in her night-gown to drink tea at her mantua-maker's.

Those ladies of fashion who have the clearest skins, and who of course are enemies to concealment, may be instructed by men of learning in the thin silk gauze worn by the ladies of Rome, called the naked drapery. Poppæa, the wife of Nero, who was fond of appearing in this naked drapery, preserved the beautiful polish of her skin by using a warm bath of asses' milk. In short, a man of learning, if properly encouraged, might instruct our people of fashion in all the pleasures of Roman luxury, which at present they are only imitating without abilities to equal.

"I have the pleasure of hearing that the gentlemen at White's are at this very time laying their heads together for the advancement of learning; and that they are likely to sit very late upon it for many nights. Their scheme, which is a very deep one, is to alienate their estates; by which alienation it is presumed that their next generation of people of fashion will of necessity be tradesmen ; and as the business of a bookseller is supposed to be of a genteeler and more lucrative nature than that of a haberdasher or a pastry-cook, it is imagined that the most honourable families will become booksellers, and of course patrons of learning.

"I know but one objection to this scheme, which is, that the children of people of fashion are apt to contract so early an aversion to books, that they will hardly be prevailed upon, even by necessity itself, to make them the business of their lives.

"I am, SIR,

"Your reader and most humble servant,

"H. M."

No. 21. THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1753.

I SHALL only observe upon the following letters, that the first relates chiefly to myself, that the second has a very serious meaning, and that the third contains a hint to the ladies, which I hope will not be thrown away upon them.

"SIR,

66 TO MR. FITZ-ADAM.

"As it is possible I may one time or other be a correspondent of yours, and may now-and then perhaps have a strong impulse to pay you a compliment, I am willing to know how far I may go without giving offence; and whether, by the adverstisement at the end of your first number, you mean to exclude all allusions to the expression, The World,' even though the turn of them should be such, as would be rather treating you with civility than otherwise! As for instance:

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"When a man is just upon the point of com. mitting a vicious action, may he check himself by this thought. What will The World say of me?' May a man be threatened, that if he does such a thing, The World shall know it?' May it be said, 'That The World esteems a man of merit?' In short, may the praise and censure of The World be made use of without offence, as arguments to promote virtue, and restrain vice?

"I am entirely unacquainted with your situation in life; but if you are a married man, I take the

liberty to give you one piece of advice. There are certain places of public entertainment, which, though they may chance to be tolerated by law, it were to be wished, for prudential reasons, were more discouraged, and less frequented. Example, Mr. Fitz-Adam, is very prevalent; and the advice I would give you is, that whenever you think proper to go to any such places for your own amusement, you would leave your lady at home; for there is nothing gives greater encouragement than to have it said, 'There was all the world and his wife;' from whence it is concluded that all the world and his wife will be there again the next time.

"I am, SIR,

"Your admirer and humble servant,

"COSMOPHILOS.”

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"I could wish with all my heart that you and I were a little acquainted, that I might invite you to come and take a Sunday's dinner with me. I name Sunday, because I want you to be witness of an evil on that day, which possibly, by a constant and sober residence in town, you may not be acquainted with.

"It is my misfortune to live in what is called a pleasant village upon one of the great roads within seven miles of London, where I am almost suffocated with dust every Sunday in the summer, occasioned by those crowds of 'prentice-boys who are whipping their hired hacks to death, or driving their crazy one-horse chairs against each other, to the great dismay of women with child, and the mortal havoc of young children. It is a plain case that neither the fathers nor masters of these young

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