biguous Condition be
any thing) _SIR_,

_Your humble Servant_.

_Mr_. SPECTATOR,

'Give me Leave to make you a Present of a Character not yet described
in your Papers, which is that of a Man who treats his Friend with the
same odd Variety which a Fantastical Female Tyrant practises towards
her Lover. I have for some time had a Friendship with one of these
Mercurial Persons: The Rogue I know loves me, yet takes Advantage of
my Fondness for him to use me as he pleases. We are by Turns the best
Friends and the greatest Strangers imaginable; Sometimes you would
think us inseparable; at other Times he avoids me for a long Time, yet
neither he nor I know why. When we meet next by Chance, he is amazed
he has not seen me, is impatient for an Appointment the same Evening:
and when I expect he should have kept it, I have known him slip away
to another Place; where he has sat reading the News, when there is no
Post; smoaking his Pipe, which he seldom cares for; and staring about
him in Company with whom he has had nothing to do, as if he wondered
how he came there.

That I may state my Case to you the more fully, I shall transcribe
some short Minutes I have taken of him in my Almanack since last
Spring; for you must know there are certain Seasons of the Year,
according to which, I will not say our Friendship, but the Enjoyment
of it rises or falls. In _March_ and _April_ he was as various as the
Weather; In _May_ and part of _June_ I found him the sprightliest
best-humoured Fellow in the World; In the Dog-Days he was much upon
the Indolent; In _September_ very agreeable but very busy; and since
the Glass fell last to changeable, he has made three Appointments with
me, and broke them every one. However I have good Hopes of him this
Winter, especially if you will lend me your Assistance to reform him,
which will be a great Ease and Pleasure to,

_SIR_,
_Your most humble Servant_.
_October_ 9, 1711.

T.

* * * * *

No. 195. Saturday, October 13, 1711. Addison.

[Greek: Naepioi oud' isasin hos_o pleon haemisu pantos,
Oud' hoson en malachaete de asphodel_o meg honeiar.].--Hes.

There is a Story in the 'Arabian Nights Tales' [1] of a King who had
long languished under an ill Habit of Body, and had taken abundance of
Remedies to no purpose. At length, says the Fable, a Physici