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So that all the things that I faid, I think, are true : but the point I own which grieves me the most is, that fo excellent a turn of mind, as I know to be in you, fhould be rendered of no effect, by fuch pitiful means. I have just been computing, what a vaft deal of good. you might have done, the year laft paft; all which you have let flip out of your hands, without adding any thing, either to your character, or your happiness. I will just tranfcribe the account I have been making, and then be your very humble fervant.

An Account of what might have been done by Sir CHARLES EASY, for the Benefit and Happiness of Mankind, in the year 1743

To 'prenticing out the two fons of a foldier, that fought bravely, and loft his life in the battle of L. Dettingen.

To a poor clergyman, that had bred up a large family, on a living of 15 7. a year.

To portions for five young maids, on the day of
their marriage with honeft tradesmen.

To cloathing and schooling of ten boys.
To 'prenticing out fourteen boys, and fix girls.
To fetting up four young men, just out of their
time, in their proper trades.

Loan to poor tradeímen, without intereft, for 3
years each.

To officers children, left in diftrefs.

40

105

100

100

200

150

200

250

To a gentleman of birth and merit, that was fallen in the world.

300

To a gentlewoman whofe father being a gamefter left her without any fortune; to buy her 30 l. a year in annuities for her life.

300

To occafional charities; to perfons known to be in want, and to deferve help.

255

Sum total 2000

Inftead of this, as I apprehend, in your prefent account it must stand all under one article; thus:

To cards and dice.

For the YEAR 1743.

£.

2000

Ah! Sir Charles, let me intreat you to compare these two very different accounts together; and to weigh the one against the other!-Had you had the happiness to follow the former, what a pleafure muft it have given you, every time you looked it over, to confider how far you had gone in one year, toward making fo many worthy diftreffed perfons happy for their whole life? What have you in the ftead of this, but the mortification--I will fay no more, but leave you to fill it up yourfelf-Think of it a little, if it is poffible for you. to fit down and think, good Sir Charles! I have always loved you, as if you were my own fon. You gave me my living, and have been ever good to me; and I could, methinks, give it all up again, to have the world fpeak well of you all round, as they do in most things already. When I hear any thing good of you, it is the comfort of my grey hairs; and when I hear any thing ill, I feel it here, at my heart! If you fhould happen to fend me word, this time twelve-months, that you had difpofed of only. the half of the overplus of your income, in doing good, instead of facrificing it all in this wretched way, I verily believe it would comfort me fo much, that it might add two or three years to the declining life of,

Dear Sir CHARLES,

Your most faithful, and moft obliged
bumble Servant to command,

PHILIP DE COVERLEY.

On Female Gamefters.

[Guardian, No. 120.]

SHOULD ill deferve the name of Guardian, did I not caution all my fair wards against a practice which when it runs to excefs, is the most fhameful, but one, that the female world can fall into. The ill confequences of it are more than can be contained in this paper. However, that I may proceed in method, I

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hall confider them; First, as they relate to the mind Secondly, as they relate to the body.

Could we look into the mind of a female gamefter, we should fee it full of nothing but trumps and mattadores. Her flumbers are haunted with kings, queens, and knaves. The day lies heavy upon her till the play feafon returns, when for half a dozen hours together all her faculties are employed in fhuffling, cutting, dealing, and forting out a pack of cards, and no ideas to be difcovered in a foul which calls itfelf rational, excepting. little fquare figures of painted and fpotted paper. Was the understanding, that divine part in our compofition, given for fuch an ufe? Is it thus that we improve the greatest talent human nature is endowed with? What would a fuperior being think, were he fhewn this intellectual faculty in a female gamefter, and at the fame time told, that it was by this fhe was distinguished from brutes, and allied to angels.

When our women thus fill their imaginations with pips and counters, I cannot wonder at the story I have lately heard of a new-born child that was marked with the five of clubs.

Their paffions fuffer no lefs by this practice than their understandings and imaginations. What hope and fear, joy and anger, forrow and difcontent break out all at once in a fair affembly, upon fo noble an occafion as that of turning up a card? Who can confider without a fecret indignation that all thofe affections of the mind which should be confecrated to their children, husbands and parents, are thus vilely prostituted and thrown away upon a hand at Loo? For my own part, I cannot but be grieved when I fee a fine woman fretting and bleeding inwardly from fuch trivial motives: when I behold. the face of an angel agitated and discompofed by the heart of a fury.

Our minds are of fuch a make, that they naturally give themselves up to every diverfion which they are much accustomed to, and we always find that play, when followed with affiduity, engroffes the whole woman. She quickly grows uneafy in her own family, takes but little pleasure in all the domeftic innocent en-dearments

14

dearments of life, and grows more fond of Pam, than of her husband. My friend Theophraftus, the best of husbands and of fathers, has often complained to me, with tears in his eyes, of the late hours he is forced to keep if he would enjoy his wife's converfation. When the returns to me with joy in her face, it does not arise, fays he, from the fight of her husband, but from the good luck the has had at cards. On the contrary, fays he, if he has been a lofer, I am doubly a fufferer by it. She comes home out of humour, is angry with every body, difpleased with all I can do or fay, and in reality for no other reason, but because fhe has been throwing away my eftate. What charming bed-fellows and companions for life are men likely to meet with that choose their wives out of fuch women of vogue and fashion ? What a race of worthies, what patriots, what heroes, mult we expect from mothers of this make?

I come in the next place to confider the ill confequences which gaming has on the bodies of our female adventurers. It is fo ordered that almost every thing which corrupts the foul decays the body. The beauties of the face and mind are generally deftroyed by the fame means. This confideration fhould have a particular weight with the female world, who were defigned to pleafe the eye and attract the regards of the other half of the fpecies. Now there is nothing that wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card-table, and thofe cutting paffions which naturally attend them. Hollow eyes, haggard looks, and pale complexions, are the natural indications. of a female gamefter. Her morning fleeps are not able to repair her midnight watchings. I have known a woman carried off half dead from Baffette, and have many a time grieved to fee a perfon of quality gliding by me in her chair at two o'clock in the morning, and looking like a fpectre amidst a glare of flambeaux. In short, I never knew a thorough-paced female gamefter hold her beauty two winters together.

But there is fill another cafe in which the body is more endangered than in the former. All play-debts must be paid in fpecie, or by an equivalent. The man that plays beyond his income pawns his eftate: the

woman

woman must find out fomething elfe to mortgage, when her pin-money is gone; the hufband has his lands to difpofe of, the wife her perfon. Now when the female body is once dipped, if the creditor be very importunate, I leave my readers to confider the confequences.

Account of TIM. WILD GOOSE, by himself. [Advent. No. 98.1

To the ADVENTURER.

DEAR BROTHER,

TH

HE thirft of glory is I think allowed, even by the dull dogs who can fit ftill long enough to write books, to be a noble appetite.

My ambition is to be thought a man of life and spirit, who could conquer the world if he was to fet about it, but who has too much vivacity to give the neceffary attention to any fcheme of length.

I am, in fhort, one of thofe heroic Adventurers, who have thought proper to diftinguifh themfelves by the titles of BUCK, BLOOD, and NERVE. When I am in the country I am always on horseback, and I leap or break every hedge and gate that ftands in my way: when I am in town, I am conftantly to be feen at fome of the public places, at the proper times for making my appearance; as at Vaux-Hall, or Marybone, about ten, very drunk: for though I don't love wine, I am obliged. to be confumedly drunk five or fix nights in the week; nay fometimes five or fix days together, for the fake of my character. Wherever I come, I am fure to make all the confufion, and do all the mifchief I can; not for the fake of doing mifchief, but only out of frolic, you know, to fhew my vivacity. If there are women near me, I fwear like a devil to fhew my courage, and talk bawdy to fhew my wit. Under the rofe, I am a curfed favourite amongst them; and have had " bonne "fortune" let me tell you. I do love the little rogues hellishly but faith I make love for the good of the public; and the town is obliged to me for a dozen or

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