of serving the purposes of heaven or hell, according to the disposition of the possessor. The wealthy can torment or gratify all who are in their power, and choose to do one or other, as they are affected with love or hatred to mankind As for such who are insensible of the concerns of others, but merely as they affect themselves, these men are to be valued only for their mortality, and as we hope better things from their heirs. I could not but read with great delight a letter from an eminent citizen, who has failed, to one who was intimate with him in his better fortune, and able by his countenance to retrieve his lost condition. 6 SIR, It is in vain to multiply words and make apologies for what is never to be defended by the best advocate in the world, the guilt of being unfortunate. All that a man in my condition can do or say, will be received with prejudice by the generality of mankind, but I hope not with you: you have been a great instrument in helping me to get what I have lost; and I know, for that reason, as well as kindness to me, you cannot but be in pain to see me undone. To show you I am not a man incapable of bearing calamity, I will, though a poor man, lay aside the distinction between us, and talk with the frankness we did when we were nearer to an equality: as all I do will be received with prejudice, all you do will be looked upon with partiality. What I desire of you is, that you, who are courted by all, would smile upon me, who am shunned by all. Let that grace and favour which your fortune throws upon you, be turned to make up the coldness and indifference that is used towards me. All good and generous men will have an eye of kindness for me for my own sake, and the rest of the world will re me for yours. There is a happy contagion in s, as well as a destructive one in poverty: the can make rich without parting with any of their ; and the conversation of the poor makes men , though they borrow nothing of them. How is to be accounted for I know not; but men's nation follows us according to the company we . If you are what you were to me, you can go eat way towards my recovery; if you are not, good fortune, if ever it returns, will return by er approaches. 'I am, SIR, "Your affectionate friend, his was answered with a condescension that did by long impertinent professions of kindness, inhis distress, but was as follows: 6 DEAR TOM, I AM very glad to hear that you have heart gh to begin the world a second time. I assure I do not think your numerous family at all dished, in the gifts of nature, for which I have so much admired them, by what has so lately pened to you. I shall not only countenance your rs with my appearance for you, but shall accomate you with a considerable sum at common inst for three years. You know I could make e of it; but I have so great a love for you, that nwave opportunities of gain to help you; for I ot care whether they say of me after I am dead, I had a hundred or fifty thousand pounds more ■ I wanted when I was living. T "Your obliged humble servant.' Seeming promise something wondrous great. I small this day lay before my readers a letter written by the same hand with that of last Friday, which contained proposals for a printed newspaper that should take in the whole circle of the penny-post. < THE kind reception you gave my last Friday's letter, in which I broached my project of a newspaper, encourages me to lay before you two or three more; for, you must know, Sir, that we look upon you to be the Lowndes* of the learned world, and cannot think any scheme practicable or rational before you have approved of it, though all the money we raise by it is on our own funds, and for our pri vate use. “ I have often thought that a news-letter of whispers, written every post, and sent about the kingdom, after the same manner as that of Mr. Dyer, Mr. Dawkes, or any other epistolary historian, might be highly gratifying to the public, as well as beneficial to the author. By whispers I mean those pieces of news which are communicated as secrets, and which bring a double pleasure to the hearer; first, as they are private history; and, in the next place, as they have always in them a dash of scandal. These are the two chief qualifications in an article of news, which recommend it, in a more than ordinary manner, to the ears of the curious. Sickness of persons * Secretary, at this time, of the treasury, and director of the mint. gh posts, twilight visits paid and received by sters of state, clandestine courtships and mares, secret amours, losses at play, applications for es, with their respective successes or repulses, are materials in which I chiefly intend to deal. I two persons, that are each of them the repreative of a species, who are to furnish me with e whispers which I intend to convey to my corondents. The first of these is Peter Hush, deded from the ancient family of the Hushes. The r is the old Lady Blast, who has a very numertribe of daughters in the two great cities of Lonand Westminster. Peter Hush has a whisperingin most of the great coffee-houses about town. ou are alone with him in a wide room, he carries up into a corner of it, and speaks in your ear. I eseen Peter seat himself in a company of seven ight persons, whom he never saw before in his ; and, after having looked about to see there was ne that overheard him, has communicated to them low voice, and under the seal of secrecy, the death great man in the country, who was, perhaps, a hunting the very moment this account was given im. If upon your entering into a coffee-house see a circle of heads bending over the table, and g close to one another, it is ten to one but my nd Peter is among them. I have known Peter lishing the whisper of the day by eight o'clock in morning at Garraway's, by twelve at Will's, and ore two at the Smyrna. When Peter has thus ctually launched a secret, I have been very well ased to hear people whispering it to one another second-hand, and spreading it about as their own; you must know, Sir, the great incentive to whising is the ambition which every one has of being ught in the secret, and being looked upon as a n who has access to greater people than one would imagine. After having given you this account of Peter Hush, I proceed to that virtuous lady, the old Lady Blast, who is to communicate to me the private transactions of the crimp-table, with all the arcana of the fair-sex. The Lady Blast, you must understand, has such a particular malignity in her whisper, that it blights like an easterly wind, and withers every reputation that it breathes upon. She has a particular knack at making private weddings, and last winter married above five women of quality to their footmen. Her whisper can make an innocent young woman big with child, or fill an healthful young fellow with distempers that are not to be named. She can turn a visit into an intrigue, and a distant salute into an assignation. She can beggar the wealthy, and degrade the noble. In short, she can whisper men base or foolish, jealous or ill-natured: or, if occasion requires, can tell you the slips of their great grandmothers, and traduce the memory of honest coachmen that have been in their graves above these hundred years. By these and the like helps, I question not but I shall furnish out a very handsome news-letter. If you approve my project, I shall begin to whisper by the very next post, and question not but every one of my customers will be very well pleased with me, when he considers that every piece of news I send him is a word in his ear, and lets him into a secret. "Having given you a sketch of this project, I shall, in the next place, suggest to you another for a monthly pamphlet, which I shall likewise submit to your Spectatorial wisdom. I need not tell you, Sir, that there are several authors in France, Germany, and Holland, as well as in our own country*, who publish every month what they call, An Account * Mr. Michael de la Roche, 38 vols. 8vo, in Engl. under different titles, and in Fr. 8 tomes, 24to. |