be soon enough.' I was reflecting with myself on the odd3 of her fancy, and wondering that any body would establish s a rule to lose a day in every week. In the midst of these musings, she desired me to reach her a little salt upon the nt of my knife, which I did in such a trepidation and hurry of edience, that I let it drop by the way; at which she immetely startled, and said it fell towards her. Upon this I looked ry blank; and observing the concern of the whole table, began consider myself, with some confusion, as a person that had ought a disaster upon the family. The lady, however, recoving herself, after a little space, said to her husband, with a sigh, My dear, misfortunes never come single. My friend, I found, cted but an under part at his table, and being a man of more ood-nature than understanding, thinks himself obliged to fall in with all the passions and humours of his yoke-fellow. Do not ou remember, child,' says she, 'that the pigeon-house fell the ery afternoon that our careless wench spilt the salt upon the able?' 'Yes,' says he, 'My dear; and the next post brought is an account of the battle of Almanza. The reader may guess at the figure I made, after having done all this mischief. I dispatched my dinner as soon as I could, with my usual taciturmity; when, to my utter confusion, the lady seeing me quitting my knife and fork, and laying them across one another upon my plate, desired me that I would humour her so far as to take them out of that figure, and place them side by side. What the absurdity was which I had committed I did not know, but I suppose there was some traditionary superstition in it; and therefore, in obedience to the lady of the house, I disposed of my knife and fork, in two parallel lines, which is the figure I shall always 1 25 April, 1707-in which the allied armies were defeated by the Duke of Berwick with the loss of 12,000 men and all their artillery and baggage-a sad disaster in the eyes of an English Whig.-C. lay them in for the future, though I do not know any reason for it. turn the most in It is not difficult for a man to see that a person has conceived in aversion to him. For my own part, I quickly found, by the lady's looks, that she regarded me as a very odd kind of fellow, with an unfortunate aspect. For which reason I took my leave immediately after dinner, and withdrew to my own lodgings. Upon my return home, I fell into a profound contemplation of the evils that attend these superstitious follies of mankind; how they subject us to imaginary afflictions, and additional sorrows, that do not properly come within our lot. As if the natural calamities of life were not sufficient for it, we different circumstances into misfortunes, and suffer as much from trifling accidents, as from real evils. I have known the shooting of a star spoil a night's rest; and have seen a man in love, grow pale, and lose his appetite, upon the plucking of a merry-thought. A screech owl at midnight has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers: nay, the voice of a cricket hath struck more terror than the roaring of a lion. There is nothing so inconsiderable, which may not appear dreadful to an imagination that is filled with omens and prognostics. pin, shoot up into prodigies. A rusty nail, or a crooked I remember I was once in a mixt assembly, that was full of noise and mirth, when on a sudden an old woman unluckily observed there where thirteen of us in company. This remark struck a panic terror into several who were present, insomuch that one or two of the ladies were going to leave the room; but a friend of mine taking notice that one of our female companions was big with child, affirmed, there were fourteen in the room, and that, instead of portending one of the company should die, it plainly foretold one of them should be born. Had not my friend found this expedient to break the omen, I question not but half t. An old maid, that is troubled with the vapours, produces ine disturbances of this kind among her friends and neighbours. now a maiden aunt of a great family, who is one of these antited Sibyls, that forebodes and prophecies from one end of the r to the other. She is always seeing apparitions, and hearing th-watches; and was the other day almost frighted out of her s by the great house-dog, that howled in the stable at a time Len she lay ill of the tooth-ach. Such an extravagant cast of nd engages multitudes of people, not only in impertinent terTs, but in supernumerary duties of life; and arises from that ar and ignorance which are natural to the soul of man. orror with which we entertain the thoughts of death (or indeed f any future evil), and the uncertainty of its approach, fill a melncholy mind with innumerable apprehensions and suspicions, and consequently dispose it to the observation of such groundless prodigies and predictions. For as it is the chief concern of wise men to retrench the evils of life by the reasonings of philosophy, it is the employment of fools to multiply them by the sentiments of superstition. The For my own part, I should be very much troubled were I endowed with this divining quality, though it should inform me truly of every thing than can befal me. I would not anticipate the relish of any happiness, nor feel the weight of any misery, before it actually arrives. I know but one way of fortifying my soul against these gloomy presages and terrors of mind, and that is, by securing to myself the friendship and protection of that Being who disposes of events, and governs futurity. He sees at one view, the whole thread of my existence; not only that part of it which I have already passed through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of eternity. When I lay me down to sleep, I recommend myself to his care; when I awake, I give myself up to his direction. Amidst all the evils that threaten me, I will look up to him for help, and question not but he will either avert them, or turn them to my advantage. Though I know neither the time nor the manner of the death I am to die, I am not at all solicitous about it; because I am sure that he knows them both, and that he will not fail to comfort and support me under them. C. re committed in Berwick or Exeter, as what is done in my amily. In a word, sir, I have my correspondents in the ests parts of the nation, who send me up punctual accounts time to time, of all the little irregularities that fall under notice in their several districts and divisions. I am no less acquainted with the particular quarters and ns of this great town, than with the different parts and distions of the whole nation. I can describe every parish by mpieties, and can tell you in which of our streets lewdness ails, which gaming has taken the possession of, and where kenness has got the better of them both. When I am disd to raise a fine for the poor, I know the lanes and allies that inhabited by common swearers. When I would encourage hospital of Bridewell, and improve the hempen manufacture, m very well acquainted with all the haunts and resorts of ale night-walkers. 'After this short account of myself, I must let you know, that design of this paper is to give you information of a certain egular assembly which I think falls very properly under your ervation, especially since the persons it is composed of are minals too considerable for the animadversions of our society. mean, sir, the midnight mask, which has of late been very freently held in one of the most conspicuous parts of the town, 1 which I hear will be continued with additions and improveents. As all the persons who compose this lawless assembly e masqued, we dare not attack any of them in our way, lest we Duld send a woman of quality to Bridewell, or a peer of Great -itain to the Counter; besides, their numbers are so very great, at I am afraid they would be able to rout our whole fraternity, ough we were accompanied with all our guard of constables |