impute it to them as a Blot in their Character, did not I believe it owing to the Meanness of their Fortune rather than of their Spirit. Cowley, who tells the Story of Agla¸s with so much Pleasure, was no Stranger to Courts, nor insensible of Praise.

    ’What shall I do to be for ever known,
    And make the Age to come my own?’

was the Result of a laudable Ambition.  It was not till after frequent Disappointments, that he termed himself the Melancholy Cowley; and he praised Solitude, when he despair’d of shining in a Court.  The Soul of Man is an active Principle.  He therefore, who withdraws himself from the Scene before he has play’d his Part, ought to be hissed off the Stage, and cannot be deemed Virtuous, because he refuses to answer his End.  I must own I am fired with an honest Ambition to imitate every illustrious Example.  The Battles of Blenheim and Ramillies have more than once made me wish my self a Soldier.  And when I have seen those Actions so nobly celebrated by our Poets, I have secretly aspir’d to be one of that distinguished Class.  But in vain I wish, in vain I pant with the Desire of Action.  I am chained down in Obscurity, and the only Pleasure I can take is in seeing so many brighter Genius’s join their friendly Lights, to add to the Splendor of the Throne.  Farewel then dear Spec, and believe me to be with great Emulation, and no Envy,’

  Your profess’d Admirer,

  Will.  Hopeless.

  Middle-Temple, October 26, 1714.

  SIR,

‘Tho’ you have formerly made Eloquence the Subject of one or more of your Papers, I do not remember that you ever consider’d it as possessed by a Set of People, who are so far from making Quintilian’s Rules their Practice, that, I dare say for them, they never heard of such an Author, and yet are no less Masters of it than Tully or Demosthenes among the Ancients, or whom you please amongst the Moderns.  The Persons I am speaking of are our common Beggars about this Town; and that what I say is true, I appeal to any Man who has a Heart one Degree softer than a Stone.  As for my part, who don’t pretend to more Humanity than my Neighbours, I have oftentimes gone from my Chambers with Money in my Pocket, and returned to them not only Pennyless, but destitute of a Farthing, without bestowing of it any other way than on these seeming Objects of Pity.  In short, I have seen more Eloquence in a Look from one of these despicable Creatures, than in the Eye of the fairest She I ever saw, yet no one is a greater Admirer of that Sex than my self.  What I have to desire of you is, to lay down some Directions in order to guard against these powerful Orators, or else I know nothing to the contrary but I must my self be forced to leave the Profession of the Law, and endeavour to get the Qualifications necessary to that more profitable one of Begging.  But in which soever of these two Capacities I shine, I shall always desire to be your constant Reader, and ever will be’

  Your most humble Servant,