in our Coffee-houses, we shall certainly put them to Flight, and cut off the Rear.

THE third Refinement observable in the Letter I fend you, confifteth in the Choice of certain Words invented by fome pretty Fellows, fuch as Banter, Bambeuzle, Coun try Put, and Kidney, as it is there applied; fome of which are now ftruggling for the Vogue, and others are in Poffeffion of it. I have done my utmost for fome Years past, to stop the Progrefs of Mob and Banter; but have been plainly borne down by Numbers, and betrayed by those who promifed to affift me.

In the laft Place, you are to take Notice of certain choice Phrases scattered through the Letter; fome of them tolerable enough, until they were worn to Rags by fervile Imitators. You might easily find them, although they were not in a different Print; and thereføre I need not disturb them.

THESE are the false Refinements in our Style, which you ought to correct: Firft, by Arguments and fair Means; but if those fail, I think you are to make Use of your Authority as Cenfor, and by an annual Index Expurgatorius, expunge all Words and Phrases that are offenfive to good Senfe, and condemn those barbarous Mutilations of Vowels and Syllables. In this laft Point, the ufual Pretence is, that they fpell as they speak A noble Standard for Language! To depend upon the Caprice of every Coxcomb; who, because Words are the Cloathing of our Thoughts, cuts them out, and shapes them as he pleaseth, and changes them oftener than his Drefs. I believe, all reasonable People would be content, that fuch Refiners were more fparing of their Words, and liberal in their Syllables. On this Head, I fhould be glad you would beftow fome Advice upon feveral young Readers in our Churches; who coming up from the Univerfity, full fraught with Admiration of our Town Politenefs, will needs correct the Style of their Prayer-books. In reading the Abfolution, they are very careful to fay Pardons and Abfolves; and in the Prayer for the Royal Family, it must be endum, enrich'um, profper'um, and bring'um. Then, in

their

their Sermons they use all the modern Terms of Art; Sham, Banter, Mob, Bubble, Bully, Cutting, Shuffling, and Palming: All which, and many more of the like Stamp, as I have heard them often in the Pulpit from fome young Sophifters; so I have read them in fome of thofe Sermons that have made a great Noife of late. The Design it feemeth, is to avoid the dreadful Imputation of Pedantry; to fhew us, that they know the Town, underftand Men and Manners, and have not been poring upon old unfashionable Books in the University.

I fhould be glad to see you the Inftrument of introducing into our Style, that Simplicity which is the best and trueft Ornament of moft Things in human Life, which the politer Ages always aimed at in their Building and Drefs, (Simplex munditiis) as well as their Productions of Wit. It is manifeft, that all new affected Modes of Speech, whether borrowed from the Court, the Town, or the Theatre, are the first perishing Parts in any Language; and, as I could prove by many hundred Inftances, have been so in ours. The Writings of Hooker, who was a Country Clergyman, and of Parfons the Jefuit, both in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; are in a Style, that, with very few Allowances, would not offend any present Reader; much more clear and intelligible than those of Sir H. Wooton, Sir Robert Naunton, Ofburn, Daniel the Hiftorian, and feveral others who writ later; but being Men of the Court, and affecting the Phrases then in Fashion; they are often either not to be understood, or appear perfectdy ridiculous.

WHAT Remedies are to be applied to thefe Evils, I have not Room to confider; having, I fear, already taken up most of your Paper. Besides, I think it is our Office only to reprefent Abuses, and yours to redrefs them.

I am, with great Respect,

SIR,

Yours, &c.

THE

N. B. The two following TATLERS are not in the Volumes publifhed by Sir Richard Steele.

From Tuesday, Jan. 23, to Saturday, Jan. 27. 1710.

A

MONGST other Severities I have met

with from fome Criticks, the cruelleft for an old Man is, that they will not let me be quiet in my Bed, but purfue me to my very Dreams. I must not dream but when they please, nor upon long continued Subjects, however vifionary in their own Nature; because there is a manifeft Moral quite through them, which to produce as a Dream is improbable and unnatural. The Pain I might have had from this Objection, is prevented

VOL. I.

S

by

by confidering they have miffed another, against which I fhould have been at a Lofs to defend myself. They might have asked me, Whether the Dreams I publish can properly be called Lucubrations, which is the Name I have given to all my Papers, whether in Volumes or Half-fheets: So manifeft a Contradiction in Terminis, that I wonder no Sophifter ever thought of it: But the other is a Cavil. I remember when I was a Boy at School, I have often dreamed out the whole Paffages of a Day; that I rode a Journey, baited, fupped, went to Bed, and rofe the next Morning: And I have known young Ladies who could dream a whole Contexture of Adventures in one Night, large enough to make a Novel. In Youth the Imagination is ftrong, not mixed with Cares, nor tinged with those Paffions that most disturb and confound it; fuch as Avarice, Ambition, and many others. Now, as old Men are faid to grow Children again, fo, in this Article of Dreaming, I am returned to my Childhood. My Imagination is at full Ease, without Care, Avarice or Ambition, to clog it; by which, among many others, I have this Advantage, of doubling the fmall Remainder of my Time, and living-four and twenty Hours in the Day. However, the Dream I am going now to relate, is as wild as can well be imagined, and adapted to please these Refiners upon Sleep, without any Moral that I can discover.

IT happened that my Maid left on the Table in my Bed-chamber, one of her Story-books (as fhe calls them) which I took up, and found full of ftrange Impertinence, fitted to her Tafte and Condi⚫tion; of poor Servants who came to be Ladies, and "Serving-men of low Degree, who married Kings Daughters. Among other Things, I met this fage • Obfervation; That a Lion would never hurt a true Virgin. With this Medley of Nonsense in my Fancy I went to Bed, and dreamed that a Friend waked me in the Morning, and propofed for Paftime to fpend a few Hours in feeing the Parish-lions, which

he

he had not done fince he came to Town; and because they shewed but once a Week, he would not'mifs the Opportunity. I faid, I would humour him; although, to fpeak the Truth, I was not fond of thofe cruel Spectacles; and if it were not so antient a Custom, founded, as I had heard, upon the wifeft Maxims, I should be apt to cenfure the Inhumanity ' of those who introduced it. All this would be a 'Riddle to the waking Reader, until I discover the Scene my Imagination hath formed upon the Maxim; That a Lion would never hurt a true Virgin. I dreamed, that by a Law of immemorial Time, a He-lion was kept in every Parish at the common Charge, and in a Place provided, adjoining to the Church-yard: That, before any one of the Fair Sex was married, if fhe affirmed herself to be a Vir gin, fhe muft on her Wedding-day, and in her Wedding-cloaths, perform the Ceremony of going alone into the Den, and stay an Hour with the Lion ⚫ let loose, and kept fasting four and twenty Hours on purpose. At a proper Height, above the Den, were ⚫ convenient Galleries for the Relations and Friends of the young Couple, and open to all Spectators. No Maiden was forced to offer herself to the Lion; but • if the refused, it was a Difgrace to marry her, and every one might have Liberty of calling her aWhore: • And methought it was as ufual a Diversion to see the Parish-lions, as with us to go to an Opera: And it was reckoned convenient to be near the • Church, either for marrying the Virgin, if she esca'ped the Trial, or for burying her Bones when the • Lion had devoured the reft, as he constantly did.

To go on therefore with the Dream: We called firft (as I remember) to see St. Dunstan's Lion, but 'we were told they did not fhew to-day: From 'thence we went to Covent-Garden, which, to my great Surprize, we found as lean as a Skeleton, when I expected quite the contrary; but the Keeper faid, it was no Wonder at all, because the poor Beaft had not got an Ounce of Woman's Flesh fince ho