of the Lovers; what I hope from this Remonstrance,
is only that we plain People may not be served as
if we were Idolaters; but that from the time of publishing
this in your Paper, the Idols would mix Ratsbane
only for their Admirers, and take more care of us
who don’t love them. I am, SIR,
Yours, T.T. [2]
[Footnote 1: just before]
[Footnote 2: This letter is ascribed to Laurence
Eusden.]
* * * *
*
ADVERTISEMENT.
This to give
Notice,
That the three Criticks
who last Sunday settled the Characters
of my Lord Rochester and
Boileau,
in the Yard of a Coffee House in Fuller’s
Rents,
will meet this next Sunday at the same
Time and Place,
to finish the Merits of several Dramatick
Writers:
And will also make an End of the Nature
of True Sublime.
* * * *
*
No. 88. Monday, June 11, 1711.
Steele.
‘Quid Domini
facient, audent cum tulia Fures?’
Virg.
May 30, 1711.
Mr. SPECTATOR,
I have no small Value for your Endeavours
to lay before the World what may escape their Observation,
and yet highly conduces to their Service. You
have, I think, succeeded very well on many Subjects;
and seem to have been conversant in very different
Scenes of Life. But in the Considerations of
Mankind, as a SPECTATOR, you should not omit Circumstances
which relate to the inferior Part of the World, any
more than those which concern the greater.
There is one thing in particular which I wonder
you have not touched upon, and that is the general
Corruption of Manners in the Servants of Great
Britain. I am a Man that have travelled
and seen many Nations, but have for seven Years last
past resided constantly in London, or within
twenty Miles of it: In this Time I have contracted
a numerous Acquaintance among the best Sort of People,
and have hardly found one of them happy in their Servants.
This is matter of great Astonishment to Foreigners,
and all such as have visited Foreign Countries;
especially since we cannot but observe, That there
is no Part of the World where Servants have those
Privileges and Advantages as in England: They
have no where else such plentiful Diet, large Wages,
or indulgent Liberty: There is no Place wherein
they labour less, and yet where they are so little
respectful, more wasteful, more negligent, or where
they so frequently change their Masters. To
this I attribute, in a great measure, the frequent
Robberies and Losses which we suffer on the high Road
and in our own Houses. That indeed which gives
me the present Thought of this kind, is, that a
careless Groom of mine has spoiled me the prettiest
Pad in the World with only riding him ten Miles,
