Thus am I doubly arm'd; my Death and Life, Unhurt amidst the War of Elements, The Wrecks of Matter and the Crush of Worlds. No.629. Monday, December 6. Experiar quid concedatur in illos. Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis atque Latina. N Juv. EXT to the People who want a Place, there are none to be pitied more than those who are folicited for one. A plain Anfwer with a Denial in it, is looked upon as Pride, and a civil Answer as a Promife. NOTHING is more ridiculous than the Pretenfions of People upon thefe Occafions. Every Thing a Man hath fuffered whilft his Enemies were in play, was certainly brought about by the Malice of the oppofite Party. A bad Caufe would not have been loft, if fuch an one had not been upon the Bench; nor a profligate Youth difinherited, if he had not got drunk every Night by toafting an outed Miniftry. I remember a Tory, who having been fined in a Court of Juftice for a Prank that deferved the Pillory, defir'd upon the Merit of it to be made a Juftice of Peace when his Friends came into Power; and shall never forget a Whig Criminal, who, upon being indicted for a Rape, told his Friends, You fee what a Man fuffers for flicking to his Principles. THE Truth of it is, the Sufferings of a Man in a Party are of a very doubtful Nature. When they are fuch as have promoted a good Caufe, and fallen upon a Man undefervedly, they have a Right to be heard and recompenced beyond any other Pretenfions. But when they rife out of Rafhnefs or Indifcretion, and the Purfuit of fuch Measures as have rather ruined, than promoted the Interest they aim at, (which hath always been the Cafe of a great many Sufferers,) they only ferve to recemmend them to the Children of Violence or Folly. I have I have by me a Bundle of Memorials prefented by feveral Cavaliers upon the Reftoration of K. Charles II. which may ferve as fo many Inftances, to our present Purpose. AMONG feveral Perfons and Pretenfions recorded by my Author, he mentions one of a very great Eftate, who, for having roafted an Ox whole, and diftributed a Hogfhead upon K. Charles's Birth-Day, defired to be provided for, as his Majefty in his great Wisdom shall think fit. ANOTHER put in to be Prince Henry's Governor, for having dared to drink his Health in the worst of Times. A third petitioned for a Colonel's Commiffion, for having curfed Oliver Cromwell, the Day before his Death, on a publick Bowling Green. BUT the moft whimsical Petition I have met with is that of B. B. Efq; who defir'd the Honour of Knight hood, for having cuckolded Sir T. W. a notorious Roundhead. THERE is likewife the Petition of one, who having let his Beard grow from the Martyrdom of K. Charles the firft, till the Restoration of K. Charles the fecond; defired, in Confideration thereof, to be made a Privy Councellor. I must not omit a Memorial fetting forth, that the Memorialist had, with great Difpatch, carried a Letter from a certain Lord to a certain Lord, wherein, as it afterwards appeared, Measures were concerted for the Reftauration, and without which he verily believes that happy Revolution had never been effected; who there upon humbly prays to be made Poft-Mafter-General. A certain Gentleman, who feems to write with a great deal of Spirit, and ufes the Words Gallantry and Gentleman-like very often in his Petition, begs that (in Confideration of his having worn his Hat for ten Years paft in the loyal Cavalie Cock, to his great Danger and Detriment) he may be made a Captain of the Guards. I fhall close my Account of this Collection of Memorials, with the Copy of one Petition at length, which I recommend to my Reader as a very valuable Piece. M 5 The The Petition of E. H. Efq; bumbly fheweth, T HAT your Petitioner's Father's Brother's Uncle, Colonel W. H. loft the third Finger of his left Hand at Edge-hill Fight. THAT your Petitioner, notwithstanding the Smallnefs of his Fortune, (he being a younger Brother) always kept Hofpitality, and drank Confufion to the • Roundheads in half a Score Bumpers every Sunday • in the Year, as several honeft Gentlemen (whose • Names are underwritten) are ready to testify. THAT your Petitioner is remarkable in his Country for having dared to treat Sir P. P. a curfed Sequeftrator, and three Members of the Affembly of Divines, with Brawn and Minced Pies upon New Year's • Day.. 6 6 THAT your faid humble Petitioner hath been five Times imprisoned in five feveral County-Goals, for . having been a Ring-leader in five different Riots; into which his Zeal for the royal Cause hurried him, when Men of greater Eftates had not the Courage to rise. THAT, he, the faid E. H. hath had fix Duels and four and twenty. Boxing-Matches in Defence of his Majefty's Title; and that he received fuch a Blow upon the Head at a Bonfire in Stratford upon Avon, as he hath been never the better for from that Day to this.. THAT your Petitioner hath been fo far from improving his Fortune in the late damnable Times, that he verily believes, and hath good Reason to imagine, that if he had been Master of an Estate, he had infallibly been plundered and fequeftred. YOUR Petitioner, in Confideration of his faid Merits and Sufferings, humbly requests that he may have the Place of Receiver of the Taxes, Collector of the Cuftoms, Clerk of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant, or whatsoever else he fhall be thought qualified for. And your Petitioner fhall ever pray, &c. Wednesday, No.630. Wednesday, December 8. H ters. Favete linguis Hor. AVING no fpare Time to write any Thing of my own, or to correct what is fent me by others, I have thought fit to publish the following Let SIR, Oxford, Novemb. 22. 6 Satisfaction, which the learned World must receive in reading one of your Speculations, by publishing this Endeavour, you will very much oblige and improve one, who has the Foldnefs to hope, that he may be admitted into the Number of your Correfpondents. 6 I have often wondered to hear Men of good Sense and good Nature profefs a Diflike to Mufick, when, at the fame Time, they do not fcruple to own, that it has the most agreeable and improving Influences over their Minds: It feems to me an unhappy Contradiction, that thofe Perfons fhould have an Indifference for an Art, which raises in them such a Variety of sublime Pleafures. HOWEVER, though fome few, by their own or ⚫ the unreasonable Prejudices of others, may be led into a Diftafte of thofe mufical Societies which are erected merely for Entertainment, yet fure I may venture to fay, that no one can have the leaft Reafon for Difaffection to that folemn kind of Melody which confifts of the Praifes of our Creator. You have, I prefume, already prevented me in an Argument upon this Occafion (which fome Divines have fuccefsfully advanced upon a much greater) that |