that we may meet together, and be under such regulation as there may be no occasion for belief or confidence among us. If you think fit, we might be called the Historians, for liar is become a very harsh word. And that a member of the society may not hereafter be ill received by the rest of the world, I desire you would explain a little this sort of men, and not let us historians be ranked, as we are in the imaginations of ordinary people, among common liars, make-bates, impostors, and incendiaries.. For your instruction herein, you are to know that an bistorian in conversation is only a person of so pregnant a fancy, that he cannot be contented with ordinary occurrences. I know a man of quality of our order, who is of the wrong side of forty-three, and has been of that age, according to TULLY's jest, for some years since, whose vein is upon the romantic. Give him the least, occasion, and he will tell you something so very particular that happened in such a year, and in such company, where by the bye was present such a one, who was afterwards made such a thing. Out of all these circumstances, in the best language in the world, he will join together with such probable incidents an account that shews a person of the deepest penetration, the honestest mind, and withal something so humble when he speaks of himself, that you would admire. Dear Sir, why should this be lying! there is nothing so instructive. He has withal the gravest aspect; something so very venerable and great! Another of these historians is a young man whom we would take in, though he extremely wants parts; as people send children (before they can learn any thing) to school to keep them out of harm's way. He tells things which have nothing at all in them, and can neither please nor displease, but merely take up your time to no manner of purpose, no manner of delight; but he is good-natured, and does it because he loves to be saying something to you, and entertain you.

⚫ I could name you a soldier that hath done very great

things without slaughter; he is prodigiously dull and slow of head, but what he can say is for ever false, so that we must have him.

'Give me leave to tell you of one more who is a lover; he is the most afflicted creature in the world, lest what happened between him and a great beauty should ever be known. Yet again he comforts himself. "Hang the jade her woman. If money can keep the slut trusty I will do it, though I mortgage every acre; Anthony and Cleopatra for that; All for Love and the World well lost."

Then, Sir, there is my little merchant, honest INDIGO of the 'Change, there is my man for loss and gain ; there is tare and tret, there is lying all round the globe; he has a prodigious intelligence, he knows all the French are doing, and what we intend, or ought to intend, and has it from such hands.---But, alas, whither am I running! while I complain, while I remonstrate to you, even all this is a lie, and there is not one such person of quality, lover, soldier, or merchant as I have now described, in the whole world, that I know of. But I will catch myself once in my life, and in spight of nature speak one truth, to wit, that I am,

Your humble servant, &c.'

1

At hæc etiam servis semper libera fuerunt, timerent, gauderent,
dolerent, suo potius quam alterius arbitrio.

TULL. EPIST.

"Even slaves were always at liberty to fear, rejoice, and grieve,
at their own rather than another's pleasure."

ON SERVANTS.

IT is no small concern to me, that I find so many com-
plaints from that part of mankind whose portion it is to
live in servitude, that those whom they depend upon
will not allow them to be even as happy as their condi-
tion will admit of. There are, as these unhappy cor-
respondents inform me, masters who are offended at a
chearful countenance, and think a servant is broke loose
from them, if he does not preserve the utmost awe in
their presence. There is one who says, if he looks sa-
tisfied, his master asks him, What makes him so pert
this morning? If a little sour, Hark ye, sirrah, are not
you paid your wages? The poor creatures live in the
most extreme misery together; the master knows not
how to preserve respect, nor the servant how to give
it. It seems this person is of so sullen a nature, that
he knows but little satisfaction in the midst of a plentiful
fortune, and secretly frets to see any appearance of con-
tent in one that lives upon the hundredth part of his in-
come, while he is unhappy in the possession of the
whole. Uneasy persons, who cannot possess their own
minds, vent their spleen upon all who depend upon
them; which, I think, is expressed in a lively manner
in the following letters.

August 2, 1711.

SIR,

'I HAVE read your Spectator of the third of the last month, and wish I had the happiness of being preferred to serve so good a master as Sir ROGER. The character of my master is the very reverse of that good and gentle Knight's. All his directions are given, and his mind revealed by way of contraries: as when any thing is to be remembered, with a peculiar cast of face he cries, "Be sure to forget now." If I am to make haste back, "Do not come these two hours; be sure to call by the way upon some of your companions." Then another excellent way of his is, if he sets me any thing to do which he knows must necessarily take up half a day, he calls ten times in a quarter of an hour to know whether I have done yet. This is his manner; and the same perverseness runs through all his actions, according as the circumstances vary. Besides all this, he is so suspicious, that he submits himself to the drudgery of a spy. He is as unhappy himself as he makes his servants; he is constantly watching us, and we differ no more in pleasure and liberty than as a gaoler, and as a prisoner. He lay traps for faults, and no sooner makes a discovery, but falls into such language, as I am more ashamed of for coming from him, than for being directed to me. This, Sir, is a short sketch of a master I have served upwards of nine years; and though I have never wronged him, I confess my despair of pleasing him has very much abated my endeavour to do it. If you will give me leave to steal a sentence out of my master's Clarendon, I shall tell you my case in a word, “ Being used worse than I deserved, I cared less to deserve well than I had done."

I am,
SIR,

Your humble servant,

RALPH VALET.

DEAR

DEAR MR. SPECTER,

"I AM the next thing to a lady's woman, and am under both my lady and her woman. I am so used by them both, that I should be very glad to see them in the Specter. My lady herself is of no mind in the world, and for that reason her woman is of twenty minds in a moment. My lady is one that never knows what to do with herself; she pulls on and puts off every thing she wears, twenty times, before she resolves upon it for that day. I stand at one end of the room, and reach things to her woman. When my lady asks for a thing, I hear and have half brought it, when the woman meets me in the middle of the room to receive it, and at that instant she says, No she will not have it. Then I go back, and her woman comes up to her, and by this time she will have that, and two or three things more in an instant. The woman and I run to each other; I am loaded and deliver the things to her, when my lady says she wants none of all these things, and we are the dullest creatures in the world, and she the unhappiest woman living, for she shall not be dressed in any time. Thus we stand not knowing what to do, when our good lady with all the patience in the world tells us as plain as she can speak, that she will have temper because we have no manner of understanding; and begins again to dress, and see if we can find out of ourselves what we are to do. When she is dressed she goes to dinner, and after she has disliked every thing there, she calls for her coach, then commands it in again, and then she will not go out at all, and then will go too, and orders the chariot. Now, good Mr. SPECTER, I desire you would, in the behalf of all those who have fróward ladies, give out in your paper, that nothing can be done without allowing time for it, and that one cannot be back again with what one was sent for, if one is called back before one can go a step for that they want. And if you please, let them know that all mistresses are as like as all servants.

I am your loving friend,

PATIENCE GIDDY.

These