THE SPECTATOR. I N° 1. Thursday, March 1, 1710-11*. Non fumum ex fulgore, fed ex fumo dare lucem One with a flash begins, and ends in smoke; ROSCOMMON. HAVE obferved, that a Reader seldom perufes a book with pleasure, till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a mild or choleric difpofition, mar * The laft paper of the genuine TATLER, N° 271, came ut Jan. 2, 1710-11, fo that the Cenforship of Great Britain had now been about two months, as STEELE expreffes it," in commiffion," i. e. in the state of the great feal of England entrusted to a keeper, or commiffioners, when the chancellor is abfent from the kingdom on public business, as the bishop of Bristol was in Q. Anne's reign, or in the intervals between the death or refignation of one chancellor, and the nomination of another. VOL. I. B ried ried or a bachelor, with other particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an author. To gratify this curiofity, which is fo natural to a reader, I defign this Paper and my next, as prefatory difcourfes to my following writings, and shall give fome account in them of the feveral perfons that are engaged in this work. As the chief trouble of compiling, digesting, and correcting will fall to my share, I must do myself the juftice to open the work with my own hiftory. I was born to a small hereditary eftate, which according to the tradition of the village where it lies, was bounded by the fame hedges and ditches in William the Conqueror's time that it is at prefent, and has been delivered down from father to fon, whole and entire, without the lofs or acquifition of a fingle field or meadow, during the space of fix hundred years*. There runs a ftory in the family, that when my mother was gone with child of me about three months, fhe dreamt that she was brought to bed of a judge. Whether this might proceed from a law-fuit which was then depending in the family, or my father's being a justice of the peace, I cannot determine; for I am not fo vain as to think it prefaged any dignity that I fhould arrive at in my future life, though that *It was ftrange, faid Charles II. on a fimilar declaration, • that there was not in all that time a wife man, or a fool, in • the family.' was was the interpretation which the neighbourhood put upon it. The gravity of my behaviour at my very first appearance in the world, and all the time that I fucked, feemed to favour my mother's dream: for, as fhe has often told me, I threw away my rattle before I was two months old, and would not make ufe of my coral until they had taken away the bells from it. As for the rest of my infancy, there being nothing in it remarkable, I fhall pass it over in filence. I find, that, during my nonage, I had the reputation of a very fullen youth, but was always a favourite of my fchoolmafter, who used to say, that my parts were folid, and would wear well.' I had not been long at the university, before I distinguished myself by a moft profound filence; for during the space of eight years, excepting in the public exercises of the college, I scarce uttered the quantity of an hundred words; and indeed do not remember that I ever spoke three fentences together in my whole life. whole life. Whilst I was in this learned body, I applied myself with fo much diligence to my studies, that there are very few celebrated books, either in the learned or the modern tongues, which I am not acquainted with. Upon the death of my father, I was refolved to travel into foreign countries, and therefore left the univerfity, with the chasacter of an odd unaccountable fellow, that had a great deal of learning, if I would but B 2 fhew shew it. An insatiable thirst after knowledge carried me into all the countries of Europe, in which there was any thing new or strange to be feen; nay, to fuch a degree was my curiofity raifed, that having read the controverfies of fome great men concerning the antiquities of Egypt, I made a voyage to Grand Cairo, on purpose to take the measure of a pyramid and as soon as I had fet myself right in that particular, returned to my native counwith great fatisfaction*. try I have paffed my latter years in this city, where I am frequently feen in most public places, though there are not above half a dozen of my felect friends that know me; of whom my next Paper shall give a more particular account. There is no place of general refort, wherein I do not often make my appearance; fometimes I am feen thrusting my head into a round of politicians at Will's, and listening with great attention to the narratives that are made in those little circular audiences. * A farcafm on Mr. Greaves and his book intitled Pyramidographia, no less reprehenfible than preceding farcaftic remarks on the Royal Society, the futility and invidiousness of which, have been fufficiently fhewn in various notes on the TATLER paffim.-See BIOGR. BRIT. Art. GREAVES; TATLER, N° 216, N° 221, and Notes.-The fituations of Will's, White's, and The Grecian Coffee-houses are afcertained likewife in the TATLER, No 1, Notes. Child's Coffee-houfe was in St. Paul's Church-yard, and the refort of the Clergy; St. James's ftood then, where it does now; Jonathan's was in Change-alley; and the Rose Tavern was on the outfide of Temple-bar. Sometimes : Sometimes I fmoke a pipe at Child's, and while I feem attentive to nothing but the Postman, overhear the converfation of every table in the room. I appear on Sunday nights at St. James's coffee-house, and sometimes join the little committee of politics in the innerroom, as one who comes there to hear and improve. My face is likewife very well known at the Grecian, the Cocoa-Tree, and in the theatres both of Drury-Lane and the Hay-Market. I have been taken for a merchant upon the Exchange for above these ten years, and fometimes pafs for a Jew in the affembly of stockjobbers at Jonathan's. In fhort, wherever I fee a cluster of people, I always mix with them, though I never open my lips but in my own club. Thus I live in the world rather as a SPECTATOR of mankind, than as one of the species, by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman, foldier, merchant, and artisan, without ever meddling with any practical part in life. I am very well verfed in the theory of a husband, or a father, and can difcern the errors in the œconomy, business, and diverfion of others, better than those who are engaged in them; as ftanders-by difcover blots, which are apt to escape those who are in the game. I never efpoufed any party with violence, and am refolved to obferve an exact neutrality between the Whigs and Tories, unless I fhall be forced to declare myself by the hoftilities of either fide. In fhort, I have acted in all the parts of my life |