“BREAD, THE STAFF OF LIFE.”

[Footnote 262:  No. 21.]

[Footnote 263:  It would seem from the passage in the Examiner (vol. iii.  No. 48), that three men of distinction at that time, probably noblemen, were supposed to be denoted under the names of Hogshead, Culverin, and Musket, from Wapping; or, as they are named by the Examiner, “Tun, Gun, and Pistol, from Wapping.”  They are there mentioned among others, said to have been, “with at least fifty more, sufferers of figure under this author’s satire, in the days of his mirth,” &c.  In the Guardian (No. 53) Steele says, “Tun, Gun, and Pistol from Wapping, laughed at the representation which was made of them, and were observed to be more regular in their conduct afterwards.”]

[Footnote 264:  The kept mistress of a knight of the shire near Brentford, who squandered his estate on women, and in contested elections.  He has long since gone into the land of oblivion.  See No. 51.—­(Nichols.)]

[Footnote 265:  Several such verses, inscribed on the glasses of the Kit Cat Club, are given in Nichols’ “Select Collection of Poems,” v. 168-178.]

[Footnote 266:  Admiral Sir John Norris (died 1749) was sent in June 1709, with a small squadron, to stop the French supply of corn from the Baltic.]

No. 25. [STEELE.

From Saturday, June 4, to Tuesday, June 7, 1709.

* * * * *

White’s Chocolate-house, June 6.

A letter from a young lady, written in the most passionate terms (wherein she laments the misfortune of a gentleman, her lover, who was lately wounded in a duel), has turned my thoughts to that subject, and inclined me to examine into the causes which precipitate men into so fatal a folly.[267] And as it has been proposed to treat of subjects of gallantry in the article from hence, and no one point of nature is more proper to be considered by the company who frequent this place, than that of duels, it is worth our consideration to examine into this chimerical groundless humour, and to lay every other thought aside, till we have stripped it of all its false pretences to credit and reputation amongst men.  But I must confess, when I consider what I am going about, and run over in my imagination all the endless crowd of men of honour who will be offended at such a discourse, I am undertaking, methinks, a work worthy an invulnerable hero in romance, rather than a private gentleman with a single rapier; but as I am pretty well acquainted by great opportunities with the nature of man, and know of a truth, that all men fight against their will, the danger vanishes, and resolution rises upon this subject.  For this reason I shall talk very freely on a custom which all men wish exploded, though no man has courage enough to resist it.  But there is one unintelligible word which I fear will extremely perplex my dissertation, and I confess to you I find very hard to explain,