ated masters I have not eclipsed. Wherever I have afforded my
salutary presence, fevers have ceased to burn and agues to shake
the human fabric. When an eloquent fit has been upon me, an apt
gesture and a proper cadence has animated each sentence, and gazing
crowds have found their passions worked up into rage, or soothed
into a calm. I am short, and not very well made; yet upon sight of
a fine woman, I have stretched into proper stature, and killed with
a good air and mien. These are the gay phantoms that dance before
my waking eyes and compose my day-dreams. I should be the most
contented happy man alive, were the chimerical happiness which
springs from the paintings of Fancy less fleeting and transitory.
But alas! it is with grief of mind I tell you, the least breath of
wind has often demolished my magnificent edifices, swept away my
groves, and left me no more trace of them than if they had never
been. My exchequer has sunk and vanished by a rap on my door; the
salutation of a friend has cost me a whole continent, and in the
same moment I have been pulled by the sleeve, my crown has fallen
from my head. The ill consequences of these reveries is
inconceivably great, seeing the loss of imaginary possessions makes
impressions of real woe. Besides bad economy is visible and
apparent in the builders of imaginary mansions. My tenants'
advertisements of ruins and dilapidations often cast a damp over my
spirits, even in the instant when the sun, in all his splendour,
gilds my Eastern palaces."

In marking the differences between the humour at the time of "The
Spectator" and that of the present day, we feel happy that the tone of
society has so altered that such jests as the following would be quite
inadmissible.

"Mr. Spectator,--As you are spectator general, I apply myself to
you in the following case, viz.: I do not wear a sword, but I often
divert myself at the theatre, when I frequently see a set of
fellows pull plain people, by way of humour and frolic, by the
nose, upon frivolous or no occasion. A friend of mine the other
night applauding what a graceful exit Mr. Wilks made, one of those
wringers overhearing him, pinched him by the nose. I was in the pit
the other night (when it was very much crowded); a gentleman
leaning upon me, and very heavily, I very civi