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times produce very dangerous confequences; and I have often thought that few ladies hearts are fo obdurate as not to be melted by the charms of mufic, the force of motion, and an handfome young fellow, who is continually playing before their eyes, and convincing them that he has the perfect use of all his limbs.

But as this kind of Dance is the particular invention of our own country, and as every one is more or less a proficient in it, I would not difcountenance it; but rather fuppofe it may be practifed innocently by others, as well as myfelf, who am often partner to my landlady's eldest daughter.

POSTSCRIPT.

Having heard a good character of the collection of pictures which is to be expofed to fale on Friday next; and concluding from the following letter that the perfon who collected them is a man of no unelegant tafte, I will be fo much his friend as to publish it, provided the reader will only look upon it as filling up the place

of an advertisement.

From the three Chairs in the Piazza, CoventGarden.

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SIR,

A

May 16, 1711.

S you are SPECTATOR, I think we who make it our bufinefs to exhibit any thing to public view, ought to apply ourselves • to you for your approbation. I have travelled Europe to furnish out a fhow for you, and have brought with me what has been admired

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⚫ in every country through which I paffed. You have declared in many Papers, that your great'eft delights are thofe of the eye, which I do 'not doubt but I fhall gratify with as beautiful objects as yours ever beheld. If caftles, forests, ruins, fine women, and graceful men, can please you, I dare promife you I dare promife you much fatisfac'tion, if you will appear at my auction on Friday next. A fight is I fuppofe, as grateful to a SPECTATOR, as a treat to another perfon, and therefore I hope you will pardon this in⚫vitation from,

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'Sir, your most obedient humble fervant, X*. 'J. GRAHAM.' * By Mr. E. BUDGELL. See SPECT. Vol. VII. N° 555.

ADVERTISEMENT.

*Mr. PINKETHMAN's Pantheon, or the Temple of Heathen Gods, the work of feveral years, confifting of five pictures, the contrivance and painting of which is beyond expreffion admirable. The figures, above one hundred, move their heads, legs, arms, and fingers fo exactly in what they perform, fetting one foot before another like living creatures, that it deferves to be efteemed the greatest wonder of the age. In the Little Piazza, Covent-Garden. Price Is. 6d.; Is. and the lowest 6d. See N° 31, where the visitation of Mr. PINKETHMAN'S "Heathen Gods" is mentioned among the diverfions then in vogue. See alfo TAT. N° 129, N° 167, N° 171, Notes and Adv. concerning Moving PICTURES, &c.

* At Drury-Lane, this evening, "The Scornful Lady." The S. Lady by Mrs. Oldfield; Lovelefs, Mr. Wilks; Younglefs, Mr. Mills; Welford, Mr. Bickerstaff; Morecraft, Mr. Bullock; Rover, Mr. Cibber; Poet, Mr. Norris; Martha, Mrs. Bicknell; Abigail, Mrs. Willis; and Saville by Mr. Dogget. The farce, "A. Bickerftaff's Burial; or, Work for the Upholders." SPECT, in folio.

N° 68.

N° 68. Friday, May 18, 1711.

Nos duo turba fumus·

We two are a multitude.

OVID. Met. i. 355.

NE would think that the larger the company is in which we are engaged, the greater variety of thoughts and fubjects would be ftarted in difcourfe; but instead of this, we find that converfation is never fo much straitened and confined as in numerous affemblies. When a multitude meet together on any fubject of difcourfe, their debates are taken up chiefly with forms and general pofitions; nay, if we come into a more contracted affembly of men and women, the talk generally runs upon the weather, fashions, news, and the like public topics. In proportion as converfation gets into clubs and knots of friends, it defcends into particulars, and grows more free and communicative: but the moft open, inftructive, and unreferved difcourfe, is that which paffes between two perfons who are familiar and intimate FRIENDS. On thefe occafions, a man gives a loose to every paffion and every thought that is uppermoft, difcovers his most retired opinions of perfons and things, tries the beauty and strength of his fentiments, and expofes his whole foul to the examination of his friend.

ONE would the

Tully was the first who obferved, that FRIENDSHIP improves happiness and abates mifery, by the doubling of our joy, and dividing of our grief; a

thought

thought in which he hath been followed by all the effayers upon FRIENDSHIP, that have written fince his time. Sir Francis Bacon has finely defcribed other advantages, or, as he calls them, fruits of Friendship; and, indeed, there is no fubject of morality which has been better handled and more exhaufted than this. Among the feveral fine things which have been spoken of it, I fhall beg leave to quote fome out of a very ancient author, whofe book would be regarded by our modern wits as one of the most fhining tracts of morality that is extant, if it appeared under the name of a Confucius, or of any celebrated Grecian philofopher: I mean the little apocryphal treatife, intitled The wisdom of the Son of Sirach. How finely has he defcribed the Art of making FRIENDS, by an obliging and affable behaviour! And laid down that precept, which a late excellent author has delivered as his own, That we should have many well-wishers, but 'few FRIENDS.'"Sweet language will multiply "FRIENDS; and a fair fpeaking tongue will in"crease kind greetings. Be in Be in peace with

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many, nevertheless have but one Counsellor " of a thousand*." With what prudence does he caution us in the choice of our Friends! And with what ftrokes of nature (I could almoft fay of humour) has he described the behaviour of a treacherous and self-interested Friend!“ If "thou wouldest get a Friend, prove him first, "and be not hafty to credit him: for fome man "is a Friend for his own occafion, and will Ecclus vii. 5. 6.

“not

"not abide in the day of thy trouble. And "there is a Friend, who being turned to enmity "and ftrife, will discover thy reproach." Again, "Some Friend is a companion at the table, and "will not continue in the day of thy affliction: "but in thy profperity he will be as thyself, and "will be bold over thy fervants. If thou be brought low he will be against thee, and hide "himself from thy face*." What can be more ftrong and pointed than the following verfe?

66

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Separate thyfelf from thine enemies, and take "heed of thy Friends." In the next words he particularifes one of thofe fruits of Friendship which is described at length by the two famous authors above-mentioned, and falls into a general elogium of Friendship, which is very just as well as very fublime. "A faithful Friend is a ftrong defence; and he that hath found such "an one, hath found a treasure. Nothing doth "countervail a faithful Friend, and his excel

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lency is unvaluable. A faithful Friend is the "medicine of life; and they that fear the Lord "thall find him. Whofo feareth the Lord fhall "direct his Friendship aright; for as he is, fo "fhall his neighbour (that is his Friend) be 66 alfot." I do not remember to have met with any faying that has pleafed me more than that of a Friend's being the medicine of life, to exprefs the efficacy of Friendship in healing the pains and anguish which naturally cleave to our existence in this world; and am wonderfully pleased with the turn in the last sentence, that a * Ecclus vi. 7 & feqq. + Ibid. 15-18.

virtuous

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