ich is proper for
great expressions." There is an "Address to the Cock-killers" in
Lillie's "Letters sent to the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_," i. 25-29.]

[Footnote 103: Samuel Sandford seems to have left the stage about 1700.
He had a low and crooked person, and Cibber describes him as "an
excellent actor in disagreeable parts." Charles II. called him the best
villain in the world. There is a story of a new play being damned
because Sandford played the part of an honest statesman, and the pit was
therefore disappointed at not seeing the usual Iago-like or Machiavelian
character.]

No. 135. [STEELE.

From _Thursday, Feb. 16_, to _Saturday, Feb. 18, 1709-10_.

Quod si in hoc erro, quod animos hominum immortales esse credam,
libenter erro: nec mihi hunc errorem, quo delector, dum vivo,
extorqueri volo: sin mortuus (ut quidam minuti philosophi censent)
nihil sentiam; non vereor, ne hunc errorem meum mortui philosophi
irrideant.--CICERO, De Sen., cap. ult.

* * * * *

_Sheer Lane, February 17._

Several letters which I have lately received give me information, that
some well-disposed persons have taken offence at my using the word
"freethinker" as a term of reproach. To set therefore this matter in a
clear light, I must declare, that no one can have a greater veneration
than myself for the freethinkers of antiquity, who acted the same part
in those times, as the great men of the Reformation did in several
nations of Europe, by exerting themselves against the idolatry and
superstition of the times in which they lived. It was by this noble
impulse that Socrates and his disciples, as well as all the
philosophers of note in Greece, and Cicero, Seneca, with all the learned
men of Rome, endeavoured to enlighten their contemporaries amidst the
darkness and ignorance in which the world was then sunk and buried. The
great points which these freethinkers endeavoured to establish and
inculcate into the minds of men, were, the formation of the universe,
the superintendency of Providence, the perfection of the divine nature,
the immortality of the soul, and the future state of rewards and
punishments. They all complied with the religion of their country, as
much as possible, in such particulars as did not contradict and pervert
these great and fundamental doctrines of mankind. On the contrary, the
persons who now set