Mem. The Conjurer was within a Letter of Mr. Froth's • UPON looking back into this my Journal, I find ⚫ that I am at a lofs to know whether I pafs my Time ⚫ well or ill; and indeed never thought of confidering how I did it before I perufed your Speculation upon that Subject. I scarce find a fingle Action in thefe five • Days that I can thoroughly approve of, except the ⚫ working upon the Violet-Leaf, which I am refolved to finish the first Day I am at leifure. As for Mr. Froth • and Veny, I did not think they took up fo much of my • Time and Thoughts as I find they do upon my Journal. The latter of them I will turn off, if you infift upon it; and if Mr. Froth does not bring Matters to a • Conclufion very fuddenly, I will not let my Life run away in a Dream. Your bumble Servant, Clarinda. TO refume one of the Morals of my firft Paper, and to confirm Clarinda in her good Inclinations, I would have her confider what a pretty Figure fhe would make among Pofterity, were the Hiftory of her whole Life published like these five Days of it. I fhall conclude my Paper with an Epitaph written by an uncertain Author on Sir Philip Sidney's Sifter, a Lady who feems to have been of a Temper very much different from that of Clarinda. The laft Thought of it is fo very noble, that I dare fay my Reader will pardon me the Quotation. On the Countess Dowager of Pembroke. Underneath this Marble Hearfe L Wednesday, 味 324. Wednesday, March 12. N° 324• O curva in terris animæ, & cœleftium inanes. Perf. Mr. SPECTATOR, T HE Materials you have collected together towards a general History of Clubs, make fo bright a part of your Speculations, that I think it is but a Juftice we all owe the learned World to furnish you ⚫ with fuch Affiftances as may promote that useful Work. • For this Reason I could not forbear communicating to · you fome imperfect Informations of a Set of Men (if you ⚫ will allow them a place in that Species of Being) who ⚫ have lately erected themselves into a Nocturnal Fraternity under the Title of the Mohock Club, a Name borrowed it seems from a fort of Canibals in India, who • fubfift by plundering and devouring all the Nations about ⚫ them. The Prefident is ftiled Emperor of the Mobocks; ⚫ and his Arms are a Turkish Crefcent, which his Imperial Majefty bears at prefent in a very extraordinary manner engraven upon his Forehead. Agreeable to their Name, ⚫ the avowed defign of their Inftitution is Mischief; and upon this Foundation all their Rules and Orders are ⚫ framed. An outrageous Ambition of doing all poffible • hurt to their Fellow Creatures, is the great Cement of their Affembly, and the only Qualification required in ⚫ the Members. In order to exert this Principle in its ⚫ full Strength and Perfection, they take care to drink themselves to a pitch, that is, beyond the Poffibility of attending to any Motions of Reafon or Humanity; ⚫ then make a general Sally, and attack all that are fo ⚫ unfortunate as to walk the Streets through which they patrole. Some are knock'd down, others ftabb'd, others cut and carbonado'd. To put the Watch to a total Rout, and mortify fome of thofe inoffensive Militia, is reckon'd a Coup d'eclat. The particular Talents ⚫ by which thefe Mifanthropes are diftinguished from one 6 • another, 6 another, confist in the various kinds of Barbarities which they execute upon their Prisoners. Some are celebrated for a happy dexterity in tipping the Lion upon them; which is performed by fqueezing the Nofe flat to the Face, and boring out the Eyes with their Fingers Others are called the Dancing-Mafters, and 'teach their Scholars to cut Capers by running Swords thro' their Legs; a new Invention, whether origi6 nally French I cannot tell: A third fort are the Tumblers, whofe Office it is to fet Women on their Heads, and commit certain Indecencies, or rather Barbarities, on the Limbs which they expose. But these I forbear to mention, because they can't but be very shocking to the Reader as well as the SPECTATOR. In this manner they carry on a War against Mankind; and by the standing Maxims of their Policy, are to enter into no Alliances but one, and that is Offenfive and Defenfive with all Bawdy-Houfes in general, of which they have declared themfelves Protectors and Guarantees. I must own, Sir, thefe are only broken incoherent • Memoirs of this wonderful Society, but they are the best I have been yet able to procure; for being but of late • Eftablishment, it is not ripe for a juft Hiftory! And to ⚫ be ferious, the chief Design of this Trouble is to hinder ⚫ it from ever being fo. You have been pleas'd, out of a concern for the good of your Countrymen, to act under the Character of SPECTATOR, not only the Part of a Looker-on, but an Overseer of their Actions; and whenever fuch Enormities as this infeft the Town, we immediately fly to you for Redress. I have reafon to believe, that fome thoughtless Youngsters, out of a falfe • Notion of Bravery, and an immoderate Fondness to be ⚫diftinguish'd for Fellows of Fire, are infenfibly hurry'd ⚫ into this fenfeless fcandalous Project: Such will probably ⚫ ftand corrected by your Reproofs, efpecially if you in form them that it is not Courage for alf a fcore Fel< lows, mad with Wine and Luft, to fet upon two or three foberer than themfelves; and that the Manners of In*dian Savages are no becoming Accomplishments to an English fine Gentleman. Such of them as have been • Bullies and Scowerers of a long ftanding, and are grown Veterans in this kind of Service, are, I fear, too hardned to receive any Impreffions from your Admonitions. But I beg you would recommend to their Perufal your ⚫ ninth Speculation: They may there be taught to take warning from the Club of Duelifts; and be put in mind, that the common Fate of thofe Men of Honour was to be hang'd. ་ I am, March the 10, 1711 SIR, Your most humble Servant, Philanthropos. THE following Letter is of a quite contrary nature; but I add it here, that the Reader may obferve at the fame View, how amiable Ignorance may be when it is fhewn in its Simplicities, and how detestable in Barbarities. It is written by an honeft Countryman to his Mistress, and came to the Hands of a Lady of good Senfe wrapped about a Thread-Paper, who has long kept it by her as an Image of artless Love. To her I very much refpe&t, Mrs. Margaret Clark. LOVELY, and oh that I could write loving Mrs. Margaret Clark, I pray you let Affection excufe Prefumption. Having been fo happy as to enjoy the Sight of your fweet Countenance and comely Body, ⚫ fometimes when I had occafion to buy Treacle or Li• quorish Powder at the Apothecary's Shop, I am fo en• amoured with you, that I can no more keep close my ⚫ flaming Defire to become your Servant. And I am the more bold now to write to your fweet felf, because I ' am now my own Man, and may match where I please; for my Father is taken away, and now I am come to my Living, which is Ten Yard Land, and a House; and 'there is never a Yard of Land in our Field but it is as well ⚫ worth ten Pound a Year, as a Thief is worth a Halter; and all my Brothers and Sifters are provided for: Befides I have good Houfhold-ftuff, though I fay it, both Brafs ' and Pewter, Linens and Woollens; and though my 'House be thatched, yet, if you and I match, it fhall go 6 • hard hard but I will have one half of it flated. If you think well of this Motion, I will wait upon you as foon as my new Clothes is made and Hay-Harveft is in. I could, though I fay it, have good The reft is torn off; and Pofterity must be contented to know, that Mrs. Margaret Clark was very pretty, but are left in the dark as to the Name of her Lover. T N° 325. Thursday, March 13. -Quid fruftra Simulachra fugacia captas? W Ovid. ILL. HONEY CO M B diverted us laft Night with an Account of a young Fellow's first difcovering his Paffion to his Miftrefs. The young Lady was one, it seems, who had long before conceived a favourable Opinion of him, and was ftiil in hopes that he would fome time or other make his Advances. As he was one day talking with her in Company of her two Sifters, the Converfation happening to turn upon Love, each of the young Ladies was, by way of Rallery, recommending a Wife to him; when to the no fmall Surprize of her who languifhed for him in fecret, he told them with a more than ordinary Serioufnefs, that his Heart had been long engaged to one whofe Name he thought himself obliged in Honour to conceal; but that he could fhew her Picture in the Lid of his Snuff-Box. The young Lady, who found herself the most fenfibly touched by this Confeffion, took the first Opportunity that offered of fnatching his Box out of his Hand. He feemed defirous of recovering it, but finding her refolved to look into the Lid, begged her, that if she should happen to know the Perfon, she would not reveal her Name. Upon carrying it to the Window, she was very agreeably furprized to find there was |