"Divine Affembly of exalted Spirits! "When I shall go not only to those great Perfons I have named, but to

my Cato, my Son, than whom a bet"ter Man was never born, and whofe "Funeral Rites I my felf performed, "whereas he ought rather to have at"tended mine. Yet has not his Soul"deferted me, but feeming to caft "back a Look on me, is gone before ❝ to thofe Habitations to which it was "fenfible I fhould follow him. And "though I might appear to have borne 66 Lofs with Courage, I was not unmy "affected with it, but I comforted my "felf in the Affurance that it would 6c not be long before we fhould meet "again, and be divorced no more.

I am, SIR, &c.

I queftion not but my Reader will be very much pleased to hear, that the Gentleman who has obliged the World with the foregoing Letter, and was the Author of the 210th Speculation on the Immortality of the Soul, the 375th on Virtue in Diftrefs, the 25th on Conjugal Love, and two or three other very fine ones among thofe which are not lettered at the end, will foon publish a noble Poem, Intitled,

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titled, An Ode to the Creator of the World, occafion'd by the Fragments of Orpheus.

N° 538. Monday, November 17.

S

Ultra

Finem tendere opus.

Hor.

URPRIZE is fo much the Life of Stories, that every one aims at it, who endeavours to please by telling them. Smooth Delivery, an

elegant Choice of Words, and a sweet Arrangement, are all beautifying Graces; but not the Particulars in this Point of Converfation which either long command the Attention, or ftrike with the Violence of a fudden Paffion, or occafion the burst of Laughter which accompanies Humour. I have sometimes fancied that the Mind is in this cafe like a Traveller who fees a fine Seat in hafte; he acknowledges the Delightfulnefs of a Walk fet with Regularity, but would be uneafy if he were obliged to pace it over, when the firft View had

let

let him into all its Beauties from one end to the other.

HOWEVER, a Knowledge of the Success which Stories will have when they are attended with a Turn of Surprize, as it has happily made the Characters of fome, fo has it also been the Ruin of the Characters of others. There is a Set of Men who outrage Truth, inftead of affecting us with a manner in telling it; who over-leap the Line of Probability, that they may be feen to move out of the common Road; and endeavour only to make their Hearers ftare, by impofing upon them with a kind of Nonfenfe against the Philofophy of Nature, or fuch a heap of Wonders. told upon their own Knowledge, as it is not likely one Man fhould ever have met with.

I have been led to this Obfervation by a Company into which I fell accidentally. The Subject of Antipathies was a proper Field wherein fuch falfe Surprizers might expatiate, and there were those prefent who appeared very fond to fhew it in its full Extent of traditional History. Some of them, in a learned manner, offered to our Confideration the miraculous Powers which the Ef Is Alu

Aluviums of Cheefe have over Bodies whose Pores are difpos'd to receive them in a noxious manner: others gave an Account of fuch who could indeed bear the Sight of Cheefe, but not the Taste; for which they brought a Reason from the Milk of their Nurfes. Others again difcours'd, without endeavouring at Reasons, concerning an unconquerable Averfion which fome Stomachs have against a Joint of Meat when it is whole, and the eager Inclination they have for it, when, by its being cut up, the Shape which had affected them is altered. From hence they paffed to Eels, then to Parsnips, and fo from one Averfion to another, till we had work'd up our felves to fuch a Pitch of Complaifance, that when the Dinner was to come in, we enquired the Name of every Dish, and hop'd it would be no Offence to any in Company, before it was admitted.. When we had fat down, this Civility amongst us turn'd the Difcourfe from Eatables to other forts of Aversions; and the eternal Cat, which plagues every Converfation of this nature, began. then to engross the Subject. One had fweated at the Sight of it, another had fmelled it out as it lay concealed in a

very

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very diftant Cupboard; and he who crowned the whole Set of thefe Stories, reckon'd up the Number of Times in which it had occafion'd him to fwoon away. At laft, fays he, that you may all be fatisfy'd of my invincible Averfion to a Cat, I fhall give an unanswerable Inftance: As I was going through a Street of London, where I never had been till then, I felt a general Damp and a Faintness all over me, which I could not tell how to account for, till I chanced to caft my Eyes upwards, and found that I was paffing under a SignPoft on which the Picture of a Cat was hung.

THE Extravagance of this Turn in the way of Surprize, gave a stop to the Talk we had been carrying on: Some were filent because they doubted, and others because they were conquered in their own Way; fo that the Gentleman had Opportunity to prefs the Belief of it upon us, and let us fee that he was rather expofing himself than ridiculing others.

I must freely own that I did not all this while disbelieve every thing that was faid; but yet I thought fome in the Company had been endeavouring who

fhould