fecret Paffion of her own, by making Betty talk of James; and James is become a conftant Waiter near his Master's Apartment, in reading, as well as he can, Romances. I cannot learn who Molly is, who it seems walked Ten Mile the angry Meffage, which gave Occasion to what to carry follows. To ELIZABETH My Dear Betty, May 14, 1711. EMEMBER your bleeding Lover, who lies bleed R ing at the Wounds Cupid made with the Arrows he borrowed at the Eyes of Venus, which is your fweet • Perfon. 6 NAY more, with the Token you fent me for my • Love and Service offered to your fweet Perfon; which was your base Refpects to my ill Conditions; when alas! there is no ill Conditions in me, but quite contrary; all Love and Purity, especially to your fweet • Perfon; but all this I take as a Jeft. 6 BUT the fad and difmal News which Molly brought me ftruck me to the Heart, which was, it seems, and is " your ill Conditions for my Love and Refpects to you. FOR fhe told me, if I came Forty times to you, you would not speak with me, which Words I am fure is a great Grief to me. NOW, my Dear, if I may not be permitted to your fweet Company, and to have the Happiness of speaking with your sweet Perfon, I beg the Favour of you to accept of this my fecret Mind and Thoughts, which hath fo long lodged in my Breaft; the which if you do not accept, I believe will go nigh to break my Heart. FOR indeed, my Dear, I love you above all the Beauties I ever faw in all my Life. THE young Gentleman, and my Master's Daughter, the Londoner that is come down to inarry her, fat in the Arbour most part of laft Night. Oh! dear Betty, must the Nightingales fing to those who marry for Money, and not to us true Lovers! Oh my dear Betty, that we could 'meet this Night where we used to do in the Wood. NOW, my Dear, if I may not have the Bleffing of kiffing your sweet Lips, I beg I may have the Happiness ⚫ of kiffing your fair Hand, with a few Lines from your VOL. I. N • dear dear Self, prefented by whom you please or think fit. I believe, if Time would permit me, I could write all Day; but the Time being fhort, and Paper little, no 'more from your never-failing Lover till Death, 6 6 James POOR James! Since his Time and Paper were so fhort; I, that have more than I can ufe well of both, will put the Sentiments of his kind Letter (the Stile of which feems to be confufed with Scraps he had got in hearing and reading what he did not understand) into what he meant to express. Dear Creature, CA AN you then neglect him who has forgot all his Recreations and Enjoyments, to pine away his Life in thinking of You? When I do fo, you appear more amiable to me than Venus does in the most beautiful Defcription that ever was made of her. All this Kindness you return with an Accufation, that I do not love you: But the contrary is fo manifeft, that I cannot think you in earneft. But the Certainty given me in your Meffage by Molly, that you do not love me, is what robs me of all Comfort. She fays you will not fee me: If you can have fo much Cruelty, at leaft write to me, that I may kiss the Impreffion made by your fair Hand. I love you above all things, and, in my Condition, what you look upon with Indifference is to me the most exquifite Pleafure or Pain. Our young Lady, and a fine Gentleman from London, who are to marry for mercenary Ends, walk about our Gardens, and hear the Voice of Evening Nightingales, as if for Fashion fake they courted thofe Solitudes, because they have heard Lovers do fo. Oh Betty! could I hear thofe Rivulets murmure, and Birds fing while you ftood near me, how little fenfible fhould I be that we are both Servants, that there is any thing on Earth above us. Oh! I could write to you as long as I love you, till Death itself. JAMES. R N. B. By the Words Ill-Conditions, JAMES means in 3. Woman Coquetry, in a Man Inconftancy. Wednesday, Νο 72. Wednesday, May 23. Genus immortale manet, multofque per annos Virg. Georg. 4. v. 208. Th' immortal Line in fure Succeffion reigns, And Grandfires Grandfons the long Lift contains. H DRYDEN. AVING already given my Reader an Account of feveral extraordinary Clubs both ancient and modern, I did not design to have troubled him with any more Narratives of this Nature; but I have lately received Information of a Club which I can call neither ancient nor modern, that I dare fay will be no lefs furprifing to my Reader than it was to myfelf; for which Reafon I fhall communicate it to the Publick as one of the greatest Curiofities in its kind. A Friend of mine complaining of a Tradefman who is related to him, after having reprefented him as a very idle worthless Fellow, who neglected his Family, and spent moft of his Time over a Bottle, told me, to conclude his Character, that he was a Member of the Everlasting Club. So very odd a Title raifed my Curiofity to inquire into the Nature of a Club that had fuch a founding Name; upon which my Friend gave me the following Account. T HE Everlasting Club confifts of a hundred Members, who divide the whole twenty four Hours among them in fuch a manner, that the Club fits Day and Night from one end of the Year to another; no Party prefuming to rife till they are relieved by thofe who are in courfe to fucceed them. By this means a Member of the Everlafting Club never wants Company; for tho' he is not upon Duty himself, he is fure to find fome who are; fo that if he be difpofed to take a Whet, a Nooning, an Evening's Draught, or a Bottle after Midnight, he goes to the Club, and finds a Knot of Friends to his Mind. IT is a Maxim in this Club, That the Steward never dies; for as they fucceed one another by way of Rotation, no Man is to quit the great Elbow-chair which stands at the upper End of the Table, 'till his Succeffor is in a Readinefs to fill it; infomuch that there has not been a Sede vacante in the Memory of Man. THIS Club was inftituted towards the End (or, as fome of them fay, about the Middle) of the Civil Wars, and continued without Interruption till the Time of the Great Fire, which burnt them out, and dispersed them for feveral Weeks. The Steward at that time maintained his Poft till he had like to have been blown up with a neighbouring House, (which was demolished in order to ftop the Fire;) and would not leave the Chair at laft, till he had emptied all the Bottles upon the Table, and received repeated Directions from the Club to withdraw himself. This Steward is frequently talked of in the Club, and looked upon by every Member of it as a greater Man, than the famous Captain mentioned in my Lord Clarendon, who was burnt in his Ship because he would not quit it without Orders. It is faid that towards the clofe of 1700, being the great Year of Jubilee, the Club had it under Confideration whether they should break up or continue their Seffion; but after many Speeches and Debates, it was at length agreed to fit out the other Century. This Refolution paffed in a general Club Nemine Contradicente. HAVING given this short Account of the Inftitution and Continuation of the Everlasting Club, I fhould here endeavour to fay fomething of the Manners and Characters of its several Members, which I fhall do according to the best Lights I have received in this Matter. IT appears by their Books in general, that, fince their firft Inftitution, they have fmoked Fifty Tun of Tobacco, drank thirty thousand Butts of Ale, one thoufand Hogfheads of Red Port, two hundred Barrels of Brandy, and a Kilderkin of Small-beer. There has been likewife a great Confumption of Cards. It is alfo faid, that they obferve the Law in Ben Johnson's Club, which orders the Fire to be always kept in (focus perennis efto) as well for the Convenience of lighting their Pipes, as to cure the Dampness of the Club-Room. They have an old Woman in the nature of a Veftal, whose Business it is to cherish and perpetuate the Fire which burns from Genera tion to Generation, and has seen the Glass-house Fires in and out above an hundred times. THE Everlafting Club treats all other Clubs with an Eye of Contempt, and talks even of the Kit-Cat and October as of a couple of Upftarts. Their ordinary Discourse (as much as I have been able to learn of it) turns altogether upon fuch Adventures as have paffed in their own Affembly; of Members who have taken the Glass in their Turns for a Week together, without ftirring out of the Club; of others who have smoked an hundred Pipes at a Sitting; of others who have not miffed their Morning's Draught for twenty Years together: Sometimes they speak in Raptures of a Run of Ale in King Charles's Reign; and fometimes reflect with Astonishment upon Games at Whisk, which have been miraculously recovered by Members of the Society, when in all human Probability the Cafe was defperate. THEY delight in feveral old Catches, which they fing at all Hours to encourage one another to moisten their Clay, and grow immortal by drinking; with many other edifying Exhortations of the like nature. THERE are four general Clubs held in a Year, at which Times they fill up Vacancies, appoint Waiters, confirm the old Fire-Maker, or elect a new one, fettle Contributions for Coals, Pipes, Tobacco, and other Neceffaries. THE Senior Member has out-lived the whole Club twice over, and has been drunk with the Grandfathers of fome of the present fitting Members. Thursday, May 24. N° 73. O Dea certè! I O Goddess! for no less you seem. C Virg. Æn. I. v. 332. T is very ftrange to confider, that a Creature like Man, who is fenfible of fo many Weakneffes and Imperfections, fhould be actuated by a Love of Fame: That Vice and Ignorance, Imperfection and Mifery, fhould contend for Praife, and endeavour as much as poffible to make themselves Objects of Admiration. N 3 BUT |