ootnote 189: The Great or Platonic Year is the time in which the fixed
stars make their revolution. See Cicero, "De Natura Deorum," ii. 20.]

No. 155. [ADDISON.

From _Tuesday, April 4_, to _Thursday, April 6, 1710_.

----Aliena negotia curat,
Excussus propriis.--HOR., 2 Sat. iii. 19.

* * * * *

_From my own Apartment, April_ 5.

There lived some years since within my neighbourhood a very grave
person, an upholsterer,[190] who seemed a man of more than ordinary
application to business. He was a very early riser, and was often abroad
two or three hours before any of his neighbours. He had a particular
carefulness in the knitting of his brows, and a kind of impatience in
all his motions, that plainly discovered he was always intent on matters
of importance. Upon my inquiry into his life and conversation, I found
him to be the greatest newsmonger in our quarter; that he rose before
day to read the _Postman_; and that he would take two or three turns to
the other end of the town before his neighbours were up, to see if there
were any Dutch mails come in. He had a wife and several children; but
was much more inquisitive to know what passed in Poland than in his own
family, and was in greater pain and anxiety of mind for King Augustus'
welfare than that of his nearest relations. He looked extremely thin in
a dearth of news, and never enjoyed himself in a westerly wind. This
indefatigable kind of life was the ruin of his shop; for about the time
that his favourite prince left the crown of Poland, he broke and
disappeared.

This man and his affairs had been long out of my mind, till about three
days ago, as I was walking in St. James's Park, I heard somebody at a
distance hemming after me: and who should it be but my old neighbour the
upholsterer! I saw he was reduced to extreme poverty, by certain shabby
superfluities in his dress: for notwithstanding that it was a very
sultry day for the time of the year, he wore a loose great-coat and a
muff, with a long campaign-wig out of curl; to which he had added the
ornament of a pair of black garters buckled under the knee. Upon his
coming up to me, I was going to inquire into his present circumstances;
but was prevented by his asking me, with a whisper, whether the last
letters brought any accounts that one might rely upon from Bender? I
told him, none that I heard of; and asked