forced me up to Town, where a Profession of the politer sort has protected me against Infamy and Want.  I am now Clerk to a Lawyer, and, in times of Vacancy and Recess from Business, have made my self Master of Italian and French; and tho’ the Progress I have made in my Business has gain’d me Reputation enough for one of my standing, yet my Mind suggests to me every day, that it is not upon that Foundation I am to build my Fortune.

’The Person I have my present Dependance upon, has it in his Nature, as well as in his Power, to advance me, by recommending me to a Gentleman that is going beyond Sea in a publick Employment.  I know the printing this Letter would point me out to those I want Confidence to speak to, and I hope it is not in your Power to refuse making any Body happy.

  September 9, 1712.
  Yours, &c.

  M. D. [2]

T.

[Footnote 1:  See Nos. 76, 84, 97.]

[Footnote 2:  Mr. Robert Harper, who died an eminent conveyancer of Lincoln’s Inn.  He sent his letter on the 9th of August, and it appeared September the 10th with omissions and alterations by Steele.]

* * * * *

No. 481.  Thursday, September 11, 1712.  Addison.

  ’—­Uti non
  Compositus melius cum Bitho Bacchius, in jus
  Acres procurrunt—­’

  Hor.

It is [something [1]] pleasant enough to consider the different Notions, which different Persons have of the same thing.  If Men of low Condition very often set a Value on Things, which are not prized by those who are in an higher Station of Life, there are many things these esteem which are in no Value among Persons of an inferior Rank.  Common People are, in particular, very much astonished, when they hear of those solemn Contests and Debates, which are made among the Great upon the Punctilio’s of a publick Ceremony, and wonder to hear that any Business of Consequence should be retarded by those little Circumstances, which they represent to themselves as trifling and insignificant.  I am mightily pleased with a Porter’s Decision in one of Mr. Southern’s Plays, [2] which is founded upon that fine Distress of a Virtuous Woman’s marrying a second Husband, while her first was yet living.  The first Husband, who was suppos’d to have been dead, returning to his House after a long Absence, raises a noble Perplexity for the Tragick Part of the Play.  In the mean while, the Nurse and the Porter conferring upon the Difficulties that would ensue in such a Case, honest Sampson thinks the matter may be easily decided, and solves it very judiciously, by the old Proverb, that if his first Master be still living, The Man must have his Mare again.  There is nothing in my time which has so much surprized and confounded the greatest part of my honest Countrymen, as the present Controversy between Count Rechteren and Monsieur Mesnager, which employs the wise Heads of so many Nations, and holds all the Affairs of Europe in suspence. [3]