rs. This wishing a good tide had
its effect upon us, and he was commended for his salutation, as showing
as well the capacity of a bellman as an historian. My distempered old
acquaintance read in the next place the account of the affairs abroad in
the _Courant_;[292] but the matter was told so distinctly, that these
wanderers thought there was no news in it; this paper differing from the
rest as a history from a romance. The tautology, the contradictions, the
doubts, and wants of confirmations, are what keep up imaginary
entertainments in empty heads, and produce neglect of their own affairs,
poverty, and bankruptcy, in many of the shop-statesmen; but turn the
imaginations of those of a little higher orb into deliriums of
dissatisfaction, which is seen in a continual fret upon all that touches
their brains, but more particularly upon any advantage obtained by their
country, where they are considered as lunatics, and therefore tolerated
in their ravings.

What I am now warning the people of is, that the newspapers of this
island are as pernicious to weak heads in England as ever books of
chivalry to Spain; and therefore shall do all that in me lies, with the
utmost care and vigilance imaginable, to prevent these growing evils. A
flaming instance of this malady appeared in my old acquaintance at this
time, who, after he had done reading all his papers, ended with a
thoughtful air, "If we should have a peace, we should then know for
certain whether it was the King of Sweden that lately came to Dunkirk."
I whispered him, and desired him to step aside a little with me. When I
had opportunity, I decoyed him into a coach, in order for his more easy
conveyance to Moorfields. The man went very quietly with me; and by that
time he had brought the Swede from the defeat by the Czar to the
Boristhenes, we were passing by Will's Coffeehouse, where the man of the
house beckoned to us. We made a full stop, and could hear from above a
very loud voice swearing, with some expressions towards treason, that
the subject in France was as free as in England. His distemper would not
let him reflect, that his own discourse was an argument of the contrary.
They told him, one would speak with him below. He came immediately to
our coach-side. I whispered him, that I had an order to carry him to the
Bastile. He immediately obeyed with great resignation: for to this sort
of lunatic, whose brain is touched for the French, the name of a gaol in
that ki