They take it, that there is something uncommon in you, and give you Credit for the rest.  You may be sure it is upon that I go, when sometimes, let it be to the Purpose or not, I keep a Latin Sentence in my Front; and I was not a little pleased when I observed one of my Readers say, casting his Eye on my twentieth Paper, More Latin still?  What a prodigious Scholar is this Man! But as I have here taken much Liberty with this learned Doctor, I must make up all I have said by repeating what he seems to be in Earnest in, and honestly promise to those who will not receive him as a great Man; to wit, That from Eight to Twelve, and from Two till Six, he attends for the good of the Publick to bleed for Three Pence.

T.

[Footnote 1:  [—­Dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu.—­Hor.]]

[Footnote 2:  In the first issue the whole bill was published.  Two-thirds of it, including its more infamous part, was omitted from the reprint, and the reader will, I hope, excuse me the citation of it in this place.

[Footnote 3:  both]

* * * * *

No. 445.  Thursday, July 31, 1712.  Addison.

  ‘Tanti non es ais.  Sapis, Luperce.’

  Mart.

This is the Day on which many eminent Authors will probably Publish their Last Words.  I am afraid that few of our Weekly Historians, who are Men that above all others delight in War, will be able to subsist under the Weight of a Stamp, and an approaching Peace.  A Sheet of Blank Paper that must have this new Imprimatur clapt upon it, before it is qualified to Communicate any thing to the Publick, will make its way in the World but very heavily.  In short, the Necessity of carrying a Stamp [1], and the Improbability of notifying a Bloody Battel, will, I am afraid, both concur to the sinking of those thin Folios, which have every other Day retailed to us the History of Europe for several Years last past.  A Facetious Friend of mine, who loves a Punn, calls this present Mortality among Authors, The Fall of the Leaf.

I remember, upon Mr. Baxter’s Death, there was Published a Sheet of very good Sayings, inscribed, The last Words of Mr. Baxter.  The Title sold so great a Number of these Papers, that about a Week after there came out a second Sheet, inscrib’d, More last Words of Mr. Baxter.  In the same manner, I have Reason to think, that several Ingenious Writers, who have taken their Leave of the Publick, in farewell Papers, will not give over so, but intend to appear again, tho’ perhaps under another Form, and with a different Title.  Be that as it will, it is my Business, in this place, to give an Account of my own Intentions, and to acquaint my Reader with the Motives by which I Act, in this great Crisis of the Republick of Letters.