< 'Mr. SPECTATOR, • WE are glad to find that you approve the establish ment which we have here made for the retrieving of good manners and agreeable converfation, and fhall use our beft endeavours fo to improve ourselves in this our fummer retirement, that we may next winter serve as patterns to the town. But to the end that this our inftitution may be no lefs advantageous to ⚫ the public than to ourselves, we shall communicate to you one week of our proceedings, defiring you at the fame time, if you fee any thing faulty in them, to favour us with your admonitions. For you must know, fir, that it has been propofed amongst us to choose • you for our vifitor; to which I muft further add, that one of the college having declared last week, he did not like the Spectator of the day, and not being able to affign any just reafons for fuch a diflike, he was fent to the infirmary, nemine contradicente. · On Monday the affembly was in very good humour, having received fome recruits of French claret that morning when unluckily, towards the middle of the dinner, one of the company fwore at his fervant in a very rough manner, for having put too much water in his wine. Upon which the prefident of the day, who is always the mouth of the company, after having convinced him of the impertinence of his paffion, and the infult he had made upon the company, ordered his man to take him from the table and convey him to the infirmary. There was but one more fent away that day; this was a gentleman who is reckoned by ⚫ fome perfons, one of the greatest wits, and by others one of the greatest boobies about town. This you will fay is a ftrange character, but what makes it ftranger yet, it is a very true one, for he is perpetually "the reverse of himfelf, being always merry or dull to 'excess. We brought him hither to divert us, which he did very well upon the road, having lavished away as much wit and laughter upon the hackney-coachman as might have ferved him during his whole ftay here, had it been duly managed. He had been lumpifh ⚫ for two or three days, but was fo far connived at, in 'hopes of recovery, that we difpatched one of the briskeft fellows among the brotherhood into the infirmary, for having told him at table he was not merry. But our prefident obferving that he indulged himself in this long fit of ftupidity, and conftruing it as a contempt of the college, ordered him to retire into the place prepared for fuch companions. He was no fooner got into it, but his wit and mirth returned upon him in fo violent a manner, that he fhook the whole infirmary with the noise of it, and had fo good an effect upon the rest of the patients, that he brought them all out to dinner with him the next day. ་ 'On Tuesday we were no fooner sat down, but one of the company complained that his head aked; upon which another asked him in an infolent manner, what ⚫ he did there then: this infenfibly grew into fome warm ' words; fo that the prefident, in order to keep the peace, gave directions to take them both from the table, and lodge them in the infirmary. Not long after, another of the company telling, us he knew by a pain in his fhoulder that we should have fome rain, the prefident ⚫ ordered him to be removed, and placed as a weatherglafs in the apartment above mentioned. On Wednesday a gentleman having received a letter written in a woman's hand and changing colur twice or thrice as he read it, defired leave to retire into the infirmary. The prefident confented, but denied him the ufe of pen, ink, and paper, till fuch time as he had flept upon it. One of the company being feated at the lower end of the table, and discovering his fecret difcontent by finding fault with every dish 'that was ferved up, and refufing to laugh at any thing that was faid, the prefident told him, that he found he 'was in an uneafy feat, and defired him to accommodate ⚫ himself better in the infirmary. After dinner a very ⚫ honeft fellow chancing to let a pun fall from him, his neighbour cried out, "To the infirmary;" at the fame time pretending to be fick at it, as having the *fame natural antipathy to a pun, which some have to a cat. This produced a long debate. Upon the whole the punfter was acquitted, and his neighbour fent · off. 'On Thursday there was but one delinquent. This was a gentleman of ftrong voice, but weak underftanding. He had unluckily engaged himself in a difpute with a man of excellent fenfe, but of a modeft elocution. The man of heat replied to every answer of his antagonist, with a louder note than ordinary, < and only raised his voice when he should have enforced his argument. Finding himself at length driven to an abfurdity, he ftill reafoned in a more clamorous and confused manner, and to make the greater impreffion upon his hearers, concluded with a loud thump upon the table. The prefident immediately ordered him to be carried off, and dieted with water-gruel, till fuch time as he should be fufficiently weakened for converfation. On Friday there paffed very little remarkable, faving only, that feveral petitions were read of the per fons in cuftody, defiring to be released from their confinement, and vouching for one another's good bẹ• haviour for the future. ⚫ On Saturday we received many excufes from perfons who had found themselves in an unfociable temper, and had voluntarily fhut themfelves up. The infirmary was indeed never fo full as on this day, which I was at fome lofs to account for, till upon my going. ⚫ abroad I obferved that it was an easterly wind. The ⚫ retirement of moft my friends has given me opportunity and leisure of writing you this letter, which I must not conclude without affuring you, that all the members of our college, as well those who are under 'confinement, as thofe who are at liberty, are your very humble fervants, though none more than, C. • &c.' N° 441. Saturday, July. 26. Impavidum ferient ruinæ. HOR. Od. 3. 1. 3. v. 7. Si fra&us illabatur orbis, Should the whole frame of nature round him break, He, unconcern'd, would hear the mighty crack, ANON. MAN, confidered in himself, is a very helpless and a very wretched being. He is fubject every moment to the greateft calamities and misfortunes. He is befet with dangers on all fides, and may become unhappy by numberless cafualties, which he could not foresee, ur have prevented had he foreseen them. It is our comfort, while we are obnoxious to fo many accidents, that we are under the care of one, who directs contingencies, and has in his hands the management of every thing that is capable of annoying or offending us; who knows the affiftance we ftard in need of, and is always ready to beftow it on those who ask it of him. The natural homage which fuch a creature bears to fo infinitely wife and good a Being, is a firm reliance on him for the bleffings and conveniencies of life, and an habitual truft in him for deliverance out of all fuch dangers and difficulties as may befall us. The man who always lives in this difpofition of mind, has not the fame dark and melancholy views of human nature, as he who confiders himself abstractedly from this relation to the Supreme Being. At the fame time that he reflects upon his own weakness and imperfection, he comforts himself with the contemplation of thofe divine attributes, which are employed for his fafety and his welfare. He finds his want of forefight made up by the omnifcience of him who is his fupport. 177 He is not fenfible of his own want of ftrength, when he knows that his helper is Almighty. In fhort, the perfon who has a firm truft on the Supreme Being is powerful in His power, wife by His wifdom, happy by His happinefs. He reaps the benefit of every divine attribute, and lofes his own infufficiency in the fulness of infinite perfection. To make our lives more eafy to us, we are commanded to put our truft in him, who is thus able to relieve and fuccour us; the divine goodnefs having made fuch a reliance a duty, notwithstanding we should have been miferable had it been forbidden us. Among feveral motives, which might be made use of to recommend this duty to us, I fhall only take notice of those that follow. The first and strongest is, that we are promifed he will not fail thofe who put their truft in him. But without confidering the fupernatural bleffing which accompanies this duty, we may obferve that it has a natural tendency to its own reward, or in other words, that this firm truft and confidence in the great Difpofer of all things contributes very much to the getting clear of any affliction, or to the bearing it manfully. A perfon who believes he has his fuccour at hard, and that he acts in the fight of his friend, often exerts himself beyond his abilities, and does wonders that are not to be matched by one who is not animated with fuch a confidence of fuccefs. I could produce inftarces, from history, of generals, who, out of a belief that they were under the protection of fome invifible affiftant, did not only encourage their foldiers to do their utmott, but have acted themfelves beyond what they would have done, had they not been infpired by fuch a belief. I might in the fame manner fhew how fuch a truft in the affitance of an Almighty Being, naturally produces patience, hope, chearfulness, and all other difpofitions of mind that alleviate thofe calamities which we are not able to remove. The practice of this virtue adininifters great comfort to the mind of man in times of poverty and affliction, but most of all in the hour of death. When the foul is hovering in the laft moments of its feparation, when it |