• Size. He has entertained fo great a Respect for Statius' ⚫ on the fcore of that Line,

Major in exiguo regnabat corpore virtus,

'that he once defigned to tranflate the whole Thebaid for the fake of little Tydeus.

TOM. TIPTOE, a dapper black Fellow, is the 'moft gallant Lover of the Age. He is particularly nice in his Habiliments; and to the end Juftice may be done ⚫ him that way, conftantly employs the fame Artift who 'makes Attire for the neighb'ring Princes and Ladies of Quality at Mr. Pawel's. The Vivacity of his Temper 'inclines him fometimes to boast of the Favours of the 'Fair. He was, t'other Night, excufing his Abfence from ⚫ the Club on Account of an Affignation with a Lady, (and, as he had the Vanity to tell us, a Tall one too) 'who had confented to the full Accomplishment of his • Defires that Evening. But one of the Company, who was his Confident, affured us fhe was a Woman of Humour, and made the Agreement on this Condition, 'That his Toe should be tied to hers.

OUR Politician is a Perfon of real Gravity, and pro'feed Wisdom. Gravity in a Man of this Size, compared ⚫with that of one of ordinary Bulk, appears like the Gra'vity of a Cat compared with that of a Lion. This 'Gentleman is accustomed to talk to himself, and was once over-heard to compare his own Perfon to a little Cabinet, wherein are lock'd up all the Secrets of State, ⚫ and refined Schemes of Princes. His Face is pale and meagre, which proceeds from much watching and fludying for the Welfare of Europe, which is also thought Ito have ftinted his Growth: For he hath deftroy'd his own Conftitution with taking care of that of the Na⚫tion. He is what Monf Balzac calls a great Diftiller of the Maxims of Tacitus: When he speaks, it is flowly and Word by Word, as one that is loth to enrich you too faft with his Obfervations; like a Limbeck that gives you, Drop by Drop, an Extract of the Simples in it. THElaft I fhall mention is Tim. Tuck, the Hero. He is particularly remarkable for the Length of his Sword, which interfects his Perfon in a cross Line, and makes him appear not unlike a Fly, that the Boys have run a

• Pin

6.

Pin thro' and fet a walking. He once challenged a tall Fellow, for giving him a blow on the Pate with his Elbow as he paffed along the Street. But what he especially values himfelf upon is, that in all the Campaigns he has made, he never once Duck'd at the whiz of a Cannon-Ball. Tim. was full as large at fourteen. Years old as he is now. This we are tender of mentioning, your little Heroes being generally Cholerick.

THESE are the Gentlemen that most enliven our Converfation: The Difcourfe generally turns upon fuch Accidents, whether Fortunate or Unfortunate, as are daily occafioned by our Size: Thefe we faithfully communicate, either as Matter of Mirth, or of Confolation to each other. The Prefident had lately an unlucky Fall, being unable to keep his Legs on a Stormy Day, whereupan he informed us it was no new Difafter, but the fame a certain Ancient Poet had been subject to; who is recorded to have been fo light, that he was obliged to poise himself against the Wind with Lead on one fide and his own Works on the other. The Lover confeft the other Night that he had been cured of Love to a ⚫tall Woman by reading over the Legend of Ragotine in Scaron, with his Tea, three Mornings fucceffively. Our Hero rarely acquaints us with any of his unsuccessful •Adventures: And as for the Politician, he declares himfelf an utter Enemy to all kind of Burlesque, fo will never difcompose the Aufterity of his Afpect by laughing at our Adventures, much lefs difcover any of his own ⚫ in this ludicrous Light. Whatever he tells of any Ac ⚫cidents that befal him is by way of Complaint, nor is he ever laughed at but in his Absence.

WE are likewife particularly careful to communicate in the Club all fuch Paffages of Hiftory, or Characters of Illuftrious Perfonages, as any way reflect Honour on little Men. Tim. Tuck having but just Reading enough for a Military Man, perpetually entertains us with the fame Stories, of little David that conquered the mighty Goliath, and little Luxembourg that made Lewis • XIV. a Grand Monarque, never forgetting Little Alexander the Great. Dick Diftick celebrates the exceeding Humanity of Auguftus, who called Horace Lepidifhmum Homunciolum; and is wonderfully pleafed

with Voiture and Scaron, for having fo well described ⚫ their Diminutive Forins to all Pofterity. He is peremptorily of Opinion, against a great Reader, and all his Adherents, that fop was not a jot properer or handfomer than he is reprefented by the common Pictures. 'But the Soldier believes with the Learned Perfon above' mentioned; for he thinks none but an impudent Tall Author could be guilty of fuch an unmannerly Piece of 'Satire on little Warriors, as his Battle of the Moufe and the Frog. The Politician is very proud of a certain King of Egypt, called Bocchor, who, as Diodorus af'fures us, was a Perfon of very low Stature, but far ex'ceeded all that went before him in Difcretion and Po•liticks.

·

AS I am Secretary to the Club, 'tis my Bufinefs whenever they meet to take Minutes of the Transactions : • This has enabled me to fend you the foregoing Parti culars, as I may hereafter other Memoirs. We have Spies appointed in every Quarter of the Town, to give 6. us Informations of the Misbehaviour of fuch refractory • Perfons as refuse to be subject to our Statutes. Whatfoever afpiring Practices any of thefe our People shall be guilty of in their Amours, fingle Combats, or any indirect means to Manhood, we fhall certainly be acquainted with, and publish to the World for their Punifhment and Reformation. For the Prefident has granted, me the fole Propriety of expofing and fhowing to the Town all fuch intractable Dwarfs, whofe Circumftances exempt them from being carried about in • Boxes Referving only to himself, as the Right of a Poet, thofe Smart Characters that will fhine in Epi-. grams. Venerable Neftor, I falute you in the Name of the Club.

BOB. SHORT, Secretar

Saturday,,

N° 93.

Saturday, June 27.

Eft animus Lucis contemptor.

Virg.

THE following Letters are curious and inftructive and fhall make up the Business of the Day.

SIR,

To the Author of the GUARDIAN.

June 25, 1713.

THE inclofed is a faithful Tranflation from an old

Author, which if it deferves your Notice, let the Readers guess whether he was a Heathen or a Chriftian. I am,

Your most humble Servant.

I cannot, my Friends, forbear letting you know what I think of Death; for methinks I view and understand it much better, the nearer I approach to it. I am convinced that your Fathers, thofe Illuftrious Perfons whom I fo much loved and honoured, do not cease to live, tho' they have paffed through what we call Death; they are undoubtedly ftill Living, but 'tis that fort of Life which alone deferves truly to be called Life. In effect, while we are confined to Bodies we ought to esteem. our felves no other than a fort of Gally-Slaves at the 'Chain, fince the Soul, which is fomewhat Divine, and ⚫ defcends from Heaven as the Place of its Original, feems ⚫ debased and dishonoured by this Mixture with Flesh and • Blood, and to be in a State of Banishment from its Celeftial Country. I cannot help thinking too, that one main Reason of uniting Souls to Bodies was, that the great Work of the Universe might have Spectators to ⚫ admire the beautiful Order of Nature, the regular Motion of heavenly Bodies, who fhould ftrive to exprefs that Regularity in the Uniformity of their Lives. When I ⚫ confider the boundless Activity of our Minds, the Re

⚫ mem

'membrance we have of Things paft, our Forefight of 'what is to come: When I reflect on the noble Discoveries, and vaft Improvements, by which thefe Minds have advanced Arts and Sciences; I am entirely per'fuaded, and out of all doubt, that a Nature which has ⚫ in it felf a Fund of fe many excellent Things cannot poffibly be Mortal. I obferve further, that my Mind is altogether fimple, without the mixture of any Subftance or Nature different from its own; I conclude 'from thence that 'tis indivifible, and confequently cannot perish.

BY no means think therefore, my dear Friends, when • I fhall have quitted you, that I cease to be, or fhall fubfift no where. I Remember that while we live together ⚫ you do not fee my Mind, and yet are fure that have One actuating and moving my Body; doubt not then ⚫ but that this fame Mind will have a Being when 'tis feparated, tho' you cannot then perceive its A&tions. • What Nonfenfe would it be to pay thofe Honours to great Men after their Deaths, which we conftantly do, • if their Souls did not then fubfift? For my own part, I ⚫ could never imagine that our Minds live only when * united to Bodies,. and die when they leave them; or that they fhall ceafe to think and understand, when difengaged from Bodies, which without them have 'neither Senfe nor Reafon; on the contrary, I believe "the Soul, when feparated from Matter, to enjoy the. 'greatest Purity and Simplicity of its Nature, and to have much more Wisdom and Light than while it was ⚫ united. We fee when the Body dies what becomes of all the Parts which composed it; but we do not fee the Mind, either in the Body, or when it leaves it. Nothing more resembles Death than Sleep, and 'tis in that State that the Soul chiefly fhews it has fomething Divine in its Nature. How much more then muft it fhew it, when entirely difengaged?

6

SIR,

S

To the Author of the GUARDIAN.

you

INCE have not refused to infert Matters of a Theological Nature in those excellent Papers, with which you daily both instruct and divert us, I earnestly

• defire