ADVERTISEMENT.

"NICHOLAS HART, * who slept last year in St. Bartholomew's hospital, intends to sleep this year at the Cock and Bottle, in Little Britain."

Having since inquired into the matter of fact, I find that the above mentioned NICHOLAS HART is every year seized with a periodical fit of sleeping, which begins. upon the fifth of August, and ends on the eleventh of the same month: That

On the first of that month he grew dull;
On the second, appeared drowsy;

On the third, fell a yawning;

On the fourth, began to nod;

On the fifth, dropped asleep;

On the sixth, was heard to snore;

On the seventh, turned himself in his bed;

On the eighth, recovered his former posture; /
On the ninth, fell a stretching;

On the tenth, about midnight, awaked;

On the eleventh, in the morning, called for a little small beer.

This account I have extracted out of the journal of this sleeping worthy, as it has been faithfully kept by a gentleman of Lincoln's-Inn, who has undertaken to be his historiographer. I have sent it to you, not only as it represents the actions of NICHOLAS HART, but as it seems a very natural picture of the life of many an honest English gentleman, whose whole history very often consists of yawning, nodding, stretching, turning, sleeping, drinking, and the like extraordinary particulars. I do not question, Sir, that, if you pleased, you could

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*There are accounts signed by a respectable witness, and by Mr. HART himself, in the British Museum, which testify the fact here stated.

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could put out an advertisement not unlike the abovementioned, of several men of figure; that Mr. JOHN SUCHA-ONE, Gentleman, or THOMAS SUCH-A-ONE, Esquire, who slept in the country last summer, intends to sleep in town this winter. The worst of it is, that the drowsy part of our species is chiefly made up of very honest gentlemen, who live quietly among their neighbours, without ever disturbing the public peace. They are drones without stings. I could heartily wish that several turbulent, restless, ambitious spirits, would for a while change places with these good men, and enter themselves into NICHOLAS HART's fraternity. Could one but lay asleep a few busy heads which I could name, from the first of November next to the first of May ensuing, I question not but it would very much redound to the quiet of particular persons, as well as to the benefit of the public.

'But to return to NICHOLAS HART: I believe, Sir, you will think it a very extraordinary circumstance for a man to gain his livelihood by sleeping, and that rest should procure a man sustenance as well as industry; yet so it is, that NICHOLAS got last year enough to support himself for a twelvemonth. I am likewise informed that he has this year had a very comfortable nap. The poets value themselves very much for sleeping on Parnassus, but I never heard they got a groat by it. On the contrary, our friend NICHOLAS gets more by sleeping than he could by working, and may be more properly said, than ever HOMER was, to have had golden. dreams. JUVENAL indeed mentions a drowsy husband who raised an estate by snoring, but then he is represented to have slept what the common people call a dog's sleep; or if his sleep was real, his wife was awake, and about her business. Your pen, which loves to moralize upon all subjects, may raise something, methinks, on this circumstance also, and point out to us those sets of men, who, instead of growing rich by an honest industry, recommend themselves to the favours

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of the great, by making themselves agreeable companions in the participations of luxury and pleasure.

'I must further acquaint you, Sir, that one of the most eminent pens in Grub-street is now employed in writing the dream of this miraculous sleeper, which I hear will be of more than ordinary length, as it must contain all the particulars that are supposed to have passed in his imagination during so long a sleep. He is said to have gone already through three days and three nights of it, and to have comprised in them the most remarkable passages of the four first empires of the world. If he can keep free from party strokes, his work may be of use; but this I much doubt, having been informed by one of his friends and confidants, that he has spoken some things of NIMROD with too great freedom.*

L.

I am ever, SIR, &c.'

During the Tory Ministry of Queen ANNE, attacks on the character of any King were frequently construed to be directed against the Queen and her Ministers.

THERE is nothing in which men more deceive them. selves than in what the world calls Zeal. There are so many passions which hide themselves under it, and so many mischiefs arising from it, that some have gone so far as to say it would have been for the benefit of mankind if it had never been reckoned in the catalogue of virtues. It is certain, where it is once laudable and prudential, it is an hundred times criminal and erroneous; nor can it be otherwise, if we consider that it operates with equal violence in all religions, however opposite they may be to one another, and in all the subdivisions of each religion in particular.

We are told by some of the Jewish Rabbins, that the first murder was occasioned by a religious controversy; and if we had the whole history of Zeal from the days of CAIN to our own times, we should see it filled with so many scenes of slaugher and bloodshed, as would make a wise man very careful how he suffers himself to be actuated by such a principle, when it only regards matters of opinion and speculation.

I would have every zealous man examine his heart thoroughly, and, I believe, he will often find, that what he calls a zeal for his religion, is either pride, interest, or ill-nature. A man who differs from another in opinion, sets himself above him in his own judgment, and in se

veral particulars pretends to be the wiser person. This is a great provocation to the proud man, and gives a very keen edge to what he calls his Zeal. And that this is the case very often, we may observe from the behaviour of some of the most zealous for Orthodoxy,* who have often great friendships and intimacies with vicious immoral men, provided they do but agree with them in the same scheme of belief. The reason is, because the vicious believer gives the precedency to the virtuous man, and allows the good Christian to be the worthier person, at the same time that he cannot come up to his perfections. This we find exemplified in that trite passage which we see quoted in almost every system of ethics, though upon another occasion,

Video meliora proboque,

Deteriora sequor

OVID. MET. vii. 20.

"I see the right, and I approve

it too;

"Condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue."

TATE.

On the contrary, it is certain, if our zeal were true and genuine, we should be much more angry with a sinner than a heretic; since there are several cases which may excuse the latter before his great Judge, but none which can excuse the former.

Interest is likewise a great inflamer, and sets a man on persecution under the colour of Zeal. For this reason we find none are so forward to promote the true worship by fire and sword, as those who find their present account in it. But I shall extend the word Interest to a larger meaning than what is generally given it, as it relates

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*The flaming zeal which prevailed among High-Churchmen in the days of ADDISON, and which shewed itself in virulent abuse of the Dissenters, probably, in part contributed to the production of these strictures. ADDISON, as we observed in his Life, estimated men by their piety, wisdom, and virtue; not by their speculative opinions.