Difpleasure, overhear one fay of me, That ftrange Fellow; and another anfwer, I have known the Fellow's Face thefe twelve Years, and fo muft you; but I believe you are the first ever asked who he was. There are, I muft confefs, many to whom my Perfon is as well known as that of their neareft Relations, who give themselves no farther Trouble about calling me by my Name or Quality, but fpeak of me very currently by Mr. What d'ye call him.

To make up for thefe trivial Difadvantages, Í have the high Satisfaction of beholding all Nature with an unprejudiced Eye; and having nothing to do with Mens Paffions or Interefts, I can with the greater Sagacity confider their Talents, Manners, Failings, and Merits.

IT is remarkable, that those who want any one Senfe, poffefs the others with greater Force and Vivacity. Thus my Want of, or rather Refignation of Speech, gives me all the Advantages of a dumb Man. I have, methinks, a more than ordinary Penetration in Seeing; and flatter my self that I have looked into the Highest and Loweft of Mankind, and make fhrewd Gueffes, without being admitted to their Converfation, at the inmoft Thoughts and Reflexions of all whom I behold. It is from hence that good or ill Fortune has no manner of Force towards affecting my Judgment. I fee Men flourishing in Courts, and languifhing in Jails, without being prejudiced from their Circumftances to their Favour or Difadvantage; but from their inward manner of bearing their Condition, often pity the Profperous, and admire the Unhappy.

THOSE who converfe with the Dumb, know from the Turn of their Eyes, and the Changes of their Countenance, their Sentiments of the Objects before them. I have indulged my Silence to fuch an Extravagance, that the few who are intimate with me, anfwer my Smiles with concurrent Sentences, and argue to the very Point I fhaked my Head at, without my fpeaking. WILL HONEYCOMB was very entertaining the other Night at a Play, to a Gentleman who fat on his right Hand, while I was at his Left. The Gentleman believed WILL was talking to himself, when upon my looking with great Approbation at a young thing in a Box before us, he faid,

• I am

I am quite of another Opinion. She has, I will allow, a very pleasing Afpect, but methinks that Simplicity in he Countenance is rather childish than innocent. When I obferved her a fecond time, he faid, I grant her Dress is very becoming, but perhaps the Merit of that Choice is owing to her Mother; for though, continued he, I allow a Beauty to be as much to be commended for the Elegance of her Dress, as a Wit for that of his Language; yet if he has ftolen the Colour of her Ribbands from another, or had Advice about her Trimmings, I fhall not allow her the Praise of Dress, any more than I would call a Plagiary an Author.' When I threw my Eye towards the next Woman to her, WILL fpoke what I looked, according to his Romantick Imagination, in the following manner.

BEHOLD, you who dare, that charming Virgin; • Behold the Beauty of her Person chaftifed by the Innocence of her Thoughts. Chastity, Good-nature, and Affability, are the Graces that play in her Countenance; 'fhe knows she is handfom, but he knows fhe is good. • Confcious Beauty adorned with confcious Virtue ! what a Spirit is there in thofe Eyes! What a Bloom in that Perfon! How is the whole Woman expreffed in her Appearance! Her Air has the Beauty of Motion, and her Look the Force of Language.

IT was Prudence to turn away my Eyes from this Object, and therefore I turned them to the thoughtless Creatures who make up the Lump of that Sex, and move a knowing Eye no more than the Portraitures of infignificant People by ordinary Painters, which are but Pictures of Pictures.

;

THUS the Working of my own Mind is the general Entertainment of my Life; I never enter into the Commerce of Difcourfe with any but my particular Friends, and not in Publick even with them. Such an Habit has perhaps raised in me uncommon Reflexions but this Effect I cannot communicate but by my Writings. As my Pleasures are almost wholly confined to those of the Sight, I take it for a peculiar Happinefs that I have always had an easy and familiar Admittance to the fair Sex. If I never praised or flattered, I never belyed or contradicted them. As thefe compofe half the World, VOL. I. B

and

and are, by the juft Complaifance and Gallantry of our Nation, the more powerful Part of our People, I shall dedicate a confiderable Share of thefe my Speculations to their Service, and fhall lead the Young through all the becoming Duties of Virginity, Marriage, and Widowhood. When it is a Woman's Day, in my Works, I fhall endeavour at a Stile and Air fuitable to their Underftanding. When I fay this, I must be understood to mean, that I fhall not lower but exalt the Subjects I treat upon. Difcourfe for their Entertainment, is not to be debased but refined. A Man may appear learned without talking Sentences, as in his ordinary Gefture he discovers he can dance, though he does not cut Capers. In a word, I fhall take it for the greateft Glory of my Work, if among reasonable Women this Paper may furnish TeaTable Talk. In order to it, I fhall treat on Matters which relate to Females, as they are concerned to approach' or fly from the other Sex, or as they are tied to them by Blood, Intereft, or Affection. Upon this Occasion I think it but reasonable to declare, that whatever Skill I may have in Speculation, I fhall never betray what the Eyes of Lovers fay to each other in my Prefence. At the fame time I shall not think my felf obliged, by this Promife, to conceal any falfe Proteftations which I obferve made by Glances in publick Affemblies; but endeavour to make both Sexes appear in their Conduct what they are in their Hearts. By this means, Love, during the Time of my Speculations, fhall be carried on with the fame Sincerity as any other Affairs of lefs Confideration. As this is the greatest Concern, Men fhall be from henceforth liable to the greateft Reproach for Misbehaviour in it. Falfhood in Love fhall hereafter bear a blacker Afpect, than Infidelity in Friendship, or Villany in Bufinefs. For this great and good End, all-Breaches against that noble Paffion, the Cement of Society, fhall be feverely examined. Ent this and all other Matters loosely hinted at now, and in my former Papers, fhall have their proper Place in my following Difcourfes: The prefent Writing is only to admonish the World, that they fhall not find me an idle but a busy Spectator.

R

Lurfday,

Να
N° 5•

Tuesday, March 6.

Spectatum admiffi rifum teneatis ?

Hor. Ars Poet. v. 5

Admitted to the Sight, wou'd you not laugh?

A

N Opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lavish in its Decorations, as its only Defign is to gratify the Senfes, and keep up an indolent Attention in the Audience. Common Senfe however requires, that there should be nothing in the Scenes and Machines which may appear Childish and Abfurd. How would the Wits of King Charles's Time have laughed to have feen Nicolini expofed to a Tempeft in Robes of Ermine, and failing in an open Boat upon a Sea of Pafteboard? What a Field of Rallery would they have been let into, had they been entertained with painted Dragons fpitting Wild-fire, enchanted Chariots drawn by Flanders Mares, and real Cafcades in artificial Landskips? A little Skill in Criticism would inform us, that Shadows and Realities ought not to be mixed together in the fame Piece; and that the Scenes which are defigned as the Reprefentations of Nature, fhould be filled with Refemblances, and not with the Things themselves. If one would reprefent a wide Champian Country filled with Herds and Flocks, it would be ridiculous to draw the Country only upon the Scenes, and to crowd feveral Parts of the Stage with Sheep and Oxen. This is joining together Inconfiftencies, and making the Decoration partly real and partly imaginary. I would recommend what I have faid here, to the Directors, as well as to the Admirers of our Modern Opera.

AS I was walking in the Streets about a Fortnight ago, I faw an ordinary Fellow carrying a Cage full of little Birds upon his Shoulder; and, as I was wondering with my felf what Ufe he would put them to, he was met very luckily by an Acquaintance, who had the fame

B 2

Curio

Curiofity. Upon his asking him what he had upon his Shoulder, he told him that he had been buying Sparrows for the Opera. Sparrows for the Opera, lays his Friend, licking his Lips, what, are they to be rofted? No, no, fays the other, they are to enter towards the End of the first Act, and to fly about the Stage.

THIS frange Dialogue awakened my Curiofity fo far, that I immediately bought the Opera, by which means I perceived that the Sparrows were to act the part of Singing Birds in a delightful Grove; though upon a nearer Inquiry I found the Sparrows put the fame Trick upon the Audience, that Sir Martin Mar-all practifed upon his Mistress; for though they flew in fight, the Mufick proceeded from a Confort of Flagelets and Bird-calls which were planted behind the Scenes. At the fame time I made this Discovery, I found by the Difcourfe of the Actors, that there were great Defigns on foot for the Improvement of the Opera; that it had been propofed to break down a part of the Wall, and to furprise the Audience with a Party of an hundred Horse, and that there was actually a Project of bringing the New-River into the House, to be employed in Jetteaus and Water-works, This Project, as I have fince heard, is poftponed till the Summer-Seafon ; when it is thought the Coolness that proceeds from Fountains and Cascades will be more acceptable and refreshing to People of Quality. In the mean time, to find out a more agreeable Entertainment for the Winter-Seafon, the Opera of Rinaldo is filled with Thunder and Lightning, Illuminations and Fireworks; which the Audience may look upon without catching Cold, and indeed without much Danger of being burnt; for there are feveral Engines filled with Water, and ready to play at a Minute's warning, in cafe any fuch Accident fhould happen. However, as I have a very great Friendship for the Owner of this Theatre, I hope that he has been wife enough to infure his Houfe before he would let this Opera be acted in it.

IT is no wonder, that thofe Scenes fhould be very furprifing, which were contrived by two Poets of different Nations, and raised by two Magicians of different Sexes. Armida (as we are told in the Argu

m.ent)