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Ufe all your skill to please with ftudious care,
Obferve the eyes and actions of the fair.
Till fome unguarded minute does appear;
Then prefs your fuit, that happy time improve,
And leave the care of your fuccefs to love.
Q. Ye fons of Apollo,
Whofe dictates I'll follow,
Believing you'll friendly advife me
Which way I must walk,

That for actions and talk
The world may never despise me?
A. That your words and your ways
May merit true praise,

Keep innocence, Sir, we advise you;
For if that appears,

You may fhake off

your fears,

The world can never defpife you.

Q. Me bred amidst the noise, the conftant cares
And gainful pains of mercantile concerns
Love hath at last o'ertaken, now no more
My thoughts on floating wealth expected home,
On tardy payments, or too hafty claims,
But on Clarinda's bright perfections dwell:
Now with a fullen dulness I receive
Once grateful tidings of arriving fhips.
Now I neglect what's owing to demand,
Nor think what I must pay when duns appear,
All thofe affairs forgotten, in my mind
Clarinda's fix'd; whom if I gain not foon,
To lofs of her I poverty fhall joyn.

Perplexed thus, till pointed out by you,

I wait to know what course I must pursue.

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4. Since Me's concerns are left at fix and sev'ns,

His mercantile imploy runs retrograde,

Clarinda flies, and poverty purfues,

And love ne'er fmiles upon departing wealth;
In vain your prefent hopes do all appear,
Yet to proceed, and make all fly, we judge
Your wifeft courfe, until you're quite reduc'd;
Your wits (your hopes all vanish'd) may return
To foreign coafts urg'd by acceffity,

You

You then may quite forget Clarinda's charms,
Or by retrieving wealth retrieve her heart,
Whilft more aufpicious ftars finile on your fate,
And you recover what feems now too late.

Q. I was lately in company with two fifters of equal and eminent beauty and fenfe; both receive my addreffes very refpectfully, and have an equal share in my heart. It is certain I can't have them both, therefore defire your advice, what I ought to do in this cafe?

A. Since your heart is equally divided between the two fifters, you cannot with juftice pretend toReither, for we prefume you expect a whole heart in exchange for your half of one.

Q. By what marks fhall I know a true friend ? And how may I diftinguish him from a false one?

A. You will know your true friend by his appearing, left your friend, we mean, by not ufing thofe proteftations of friendship, which the falfe one abounds in. He will affift you, where it is effentially for your good, and fometimes beft affifts you, where he declines his affiftance, that is, when he forefees the confequences are to your detriment, whereas the falfe one feeks to please your appetites, without regard to the conclufion. But where great fubtility affifts falfhood, vice will fo exactly ape virtue, that the diftinction will be difficult. The most certain opportunity you can have for difcovering the real from the impoftor, is in neceffity; but even then you must be cautious how you make a judgment thereof: For the feeming friend may act for oftentation, from future profpect of retaliation, or fome other self interested design: But he that then affifts you privately, even without your own knowledge of the author of the benefit, who lets not his righthand know what his left-hand does, him you may fafely conclude your true friend.

Q. Could a man marry the twins, and not be guilty of polygamy ?

A. If the meaning of polygamy is to have more wives than one, and twins fignifie more women than one, certainly it is polygamy to marry the twins.

Q. I having a very infirm conftitution, foul fcorbutick blood, frequent bilious cholicks and weak nerves, ask your opinion, is green tea with milk good for me?

A. 'Tis doubtlefs very proper in fuch cafes, and efpecially by the addition of the milk, which renders it more powerful, in blunting the acid points of the bile, whofe irregularity, (perhaps) may occafion the reft of your diforders.

Q. A certain Gentleman put fome spiders into a viol, which having stopt with a cork, and tied over with a bladder, fealed down; in fome time after he observed maggots to breed from the putrifaction of the Spiders, I beg your help to fhew how the privation of air, which caufed the death of the spiders, should suffer the production of those infects?

A. How clofe foever the viol were ftopt, there was not an entire privation of air: And a lefs quantity might be fufficient to permit the maggots to advance into living creatures, than was fufficient to continue the grown fpiders in life. And this appears from the fmall portion of air in humane, as well as other fœtus's, enjoys in the womb.

Q. Whence proceeds the diabetes?

A. The diabetes proceeds from a loose contexture of the blood, whence there is a perfpiration of the ferous particles from the grumous ones, fo that their embraces thus broken, the former flow plentifully through the moft open paffages of the reins: Nor may we improbably derive this diftemper from the ill conformation of the reins, the lymphatick veffels being too wide and open, eafily receiving, and swiftly tranfmitting the ferous liquor, without obftruction. Q. I hope you'll be kind,

As to others I find

You have been, and counsel will give

To a tim❜rous maid,

Who's fluggish, not faid,

That with comfort henceforth fhe may live.

One offers, indeed,

Whofe years mine exceed

Much

Much his love: He makes me believe,
He cannot fubfift,
Unless he be kiss'd

By me, and none else will receive;
Befides, he's wealthy,

Strong, hail, and healthy,
And coffers replete he may leave,

But a num'rous knot

of children he's got,

Which I fear will caufe diftaste and grief.
Shall I endure the curfe,
For better for worse,
To cloifter my felf in a cell,
Or fhall I be brisk,
Still running the rifque,
Of leading old apes in kell?

4. Some rifque must be run,
Whatever is done,

For nothing on earth is fecure,
Nor is there a state,

But early or late,

You nothing will need to endure.

If

your fortune be small,

Or nothing at all,

And he does in riches abound,

Tho' the children may grieve ye

His wealth will relieve ye,

And therein the comfort be found.

But if you have plenty,

And not above twenty,
We think it much wifer to tarry ;
And hold your felf brisk,

To run t'other risque,

Nor fear but you'll happily marry.

Q. I entreat your advice to a poor unhappy foul, that is reduc'd to very unhappy circumstances, thro' loffes and compaffionate kindness to others; and is now in defpair. The Almighty's hand has been long heavy upon me, infomuch that I am now at a loss what course to take, other wife than the only remedy of deftroying life. 'Tis much

my

my grief, fearing the Lord hath caft me out of his fai Likewife I can't bear, that any one shou'd fuffer by me; and yet I cannot avoid it.

A. Since you are tortur'd with the bare fufpicion of having loft that favour, which is better than life it felf, we wonder, that it fhou'd enter into your thoughts, by fo heinous a tranfgreffion, as that of felf murder, to bring inevitably upon your felf the very object of your fears. Are you fearful of an Almighty hand, and yet can think of daring the divine difpleasure ? Do you dread an exclufion from the beatifick vifion, and yet are willing to exclude your felf? Are you in a kind of agony, left the pains of hell fhou'd take hold upon you, and yet are defirous to be tormented before the time? To tremble at the terrors of the Lord, and yet to call a rushing headlong into eternal flames the only remedy, are inconfiftences.

Has your contemplation upon a future ftate occafion'd your despair, difmifs your over follicitous concern, banish your unreasonable fears, fince it is within your power to make provifion against the evil day; fince he, with whom you have to do, is a merciful, a gracious God, a God not fo strict to mark what is done amifs, as that frail mortality fhall not be able to abide it: Affront not him, who died for you; who is ever ready with extended arms to receive, to embrace the returning finner. Affront him not by an under-ratement of his merits, by a defpondence of his mercy: Sure a rigid Saviour, a fevere Redeemer, are inconfiftent terms.

But why does your temporal unhappiness so much aggravate your forrow? Do you think, that God diftinguishes his favourites by temporal enjoyments? Where then are thofe, who were ftoned, were fawn asunder, were tempted, were flain with the fword? Where are thofe, who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, afflicted, tormented? And yet obferve the character the mouth of truth has given them; of whom the world was not worthy.

But

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