cies by the persuasion of a voice which had so much power over him as hers ever had. When this beloved young woman began to take off the binding of his eyes, she talked to him as follows: 'Mr. William, I am now taking the binding off, though when I consider what I am doing, I tremble with the apprehension, that, though I have from my very childhood loved you, dark as you were, and though you had conceived so strong a love for me, you will find there is such a thing as beauty, which may ensnare you into a thousand passions of which you are now innocent, and take you from me for ever. But, before I put myself to that hazard, tell me in what manner that love, you always professed to me, entered into your heart; for its usual admission is at the eyes.' The young man answered, Dear Lydia, If I am to lose by sight the soft pantings which I have always felt when I heard your voice; if I am no more to distinguish the step of her I love when she approaches me, but to change that sweet and frequent pleasure for such an amazement as I know the little e time I lately saw or if I am to have any thing besides which may take from me the sense I have of what appeared most pleasing to me at that time, which apparition it seems was you; pull out these eyes, before they lead me to be ungrateful to you, or undo myself. I wished for them but to see you; pull them out, if they are to make me forget you.' Lydia was extremely satisfied with these assurances; and pleased herself with playing with his perplexities. In all his talk to her, he showed but very faint ideas of any thing which had not been received at the ears; and closed his protestation to her, by saying, that if he were to see Valentia and Barcelona, whom he supposed the most esteemed of all women, by the quarrel there was about them, he would never like any but Lydia St. James's Coffee-house, August 15. We have repeated advices of the entire defeat of the Swedish army near Pultowa, on the twentyseventh of June, O. S. and letters from Berlin gave the following account of the remains of the Swedish army since the battle; Prince Menzikoff, being ordered to pursue the victory, came up with the Swedish army, which was left to the command of General Lewenhaupt, on the thirtieth of June, O. S. on the banks of the Boristhenes; whereupon he sent General Lewenhaupt a summons to submit himself to his present fortune; Lewenhaupt immediately dispatched three general officers to that prince, to treat about a capitulation; but the Swedes, though they consisted of fifteen thousand men, were in so great want of provision and ammunition, that they were obliged to surrender themselves at discretion. His Czarish Majesty dispatched an express to General Goltz, with an account of these particulars, and also with instructions to send out detachments of his cavalry, to prevent the King of Sweden's joining his army in Poland. That prince made his escape with a small party by swimming over the Boristhenes; and it was thought he designed to retire into Poland by the way of Volhinia Advices from Bern of the eleventh instant say, that the general diet of the Helvetic body held at Baden concluded on the sixth; but the deputies of six cantons, who are deputed to determine the affair of Tockenburg, continue their application to that business, notwithstanding some new difficulties started by the Abbot of St. Gall. Letters from Genever, of the ninth, say that the Duke of Savoy's caval ry had joined Count Thaun, as had also two imperial regiments of hussars; and that his royal highness's army was disposed in the following manner: the troops under the command of Count Thaun are extended from Conflans to St. Peter D'Albigni. Small parties are left in several posts from thence to Little St. Bernard, to preserve the communication with Piedmont by the valley of Aosta. Some forces are also posted at Taloir, and in the castle of Doin, on each side of the lake of Anneci. General Rhebinder is encamped in the valley of Oulx with ten thousand foot, and some detachments of horse: his troops are extended from Exilles to Mount Genevre, so that he may easily penetrate into Dauphine on the least motion of the enemy; but the Duke of Berwick takes all necessary precautions to prevent such an enterprize. That General's head quarters are at Francin; and he hath disposed his army in several parties, to preserve a communication with the Maurienne and Briancon. He hath no provisions for his army but from Savoy ; Provence and Dauphine being unable to supply him with necessaries. He left two regiments of dragoons at Annen, who suffered very much in the late action at Tessons, where they lost fifteen hundred, who were killed on the spot, four standards and three hundred prisoners, among whom were forty officers. The last letters from the Duke of Marlborough's camp at Orchies, of the nineteenth instant, advise that Monsieur Ravignon being returned from the French court with an account that the King of France had refused to ratify the capitulation for the surrender of the citadel of Tournay, the approaches have been carried on with great vigour and success. Our miners have discovered several of the enemy's mines, who have sprung divers others, which did little execution; but, for the better security of the troops, both assaults are carried on by the cautious way of sapping. On the eighteenth, the confederate army made a general forage without any loss. Marshal Villars continues in his former camp, and applies himself with great diligence in casting up new lines behind the old on the Scarp. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene designed to begin a general review of the army on the twentieth. 1 No 56 THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1709. Quicquid agunt homines nostri est farrago libelli. Juv. Sat. i. 85, 86. Whatever good is done, whatever ill—— White's Chocolate-house, August 17. THERE is a young foreigner committed to my care, who puzzles me extremely in the questions he asks about the persons of figure we meet in public places. He knows but very little of our language, and therefore I am mightily at a loss to express to him things for which they have no word in that tongue to which he was born. It has been often my answer upon his asking who such a fine gentleman is, That he is what we call a sharper; and he wants my explication. I thought it would be very unjust to tell him, he is the same the French call Coquin; the Latins Nebulo; or the Greeks, Paσxxλ*: for, as custom is the most powerful of all laws, and that the order of men we call sharpers are received amongst us, not only with permission, but favour, I thought it unjust to use them like persons upon no establishment; besides that it would be an unpardonable dishonour to our country, to let him leave us with an opinion, that our nobility and gentry keep company with common thieves and cheats: I told him, they were a sort of tame hussars, that were allowed in our cities, like the wild ones in our camp; * The word 'rascal,' printed in Greek characters. 1 who had all the privileges belonging to us, but at the same time were not tied to our discipline or laws.' Aletheus, who is a gentleman of too much virtue for the age he lives in, would not let this matter be thus palliated; but told my pupil, that he was to understand that distinction, quality, merit, and industry, were laid aside among us by the incursions of these civil hussars; who had got so much countenance, that the breeding and fashion of the age turned their way, to the ruin of order and economy in all places where they are admitted.' But Suphronius, who never falls into heat upon any subject, but applies proper language, temper, and skill, with which the thing in debate is to be treated, told the youth, that gentleman had spoken nothing but what was literally true; but fell upon it with too much earnestness to give a true idea of that sort of people he was declaiming against, or to remedy the evil which he bewailed; for the acceptance of these men being an ill which had crept into the conversation-part of our lives, and not into our constitution itself, it must be corrected where it began: and consequently is to be amended only by bringing raillery and derision upon the persons who are guilty, or those who converse with them. For the sharpers,' continued he, at present are not as formerly under the acceptation of pick-pockets; but are by custom erected into a real and venerable body of men, and have subdued us to so very particular a deference to them, that though they are known to be men without honour or conscience, no demand is called a debt of honour so indisputably as theirs. You may lose your honour to them, but they lay none against you; as the priesthood in Roman Catholic countries can purchase what they please for the church, but they can alienate nothing from it. It is from this toleration, that sharpers are to be found among all sorts of assemblies and companies; and every |