ing me to a
Gentleman that is going beyond Sea in a publick Employment. I know the
printing this Letter would point me out to those I want Confidence to
speak to, and I hope it is not in your Power to refuse making any Body
happy.

_September_ 9, 1712.
_Yours_, &c.

M. D. [2]

T.

[Footnote 1: See Nos. 76, 84, 97.]

[Footnote 2: Mr. Robert Harper, who died an eminent conveyancer of
Lincoln's Inn. He sent his letter on the 9th of August, and it appeared
September the 10th with omissions and alterations by Steele.]

* * * * *

No. 481. Thursday, September 11, 1712. Addison.

'--Uti non
Compositus melius cum Bitho Bacchius, in jus
Acres procurrunt--'

Hor.

It is [something [1]] pleasant enough to consider the different Notions,
which different Persons have of the same thing. If Men of low Condition
very often set a Value on Things, which are not prized by those who are
in an higher Station of Life, there are many things these esteem which
are in no Value among Persons of an inferior Rank. Common People are, in
particular, very much astonished, when they hear of those solemn
Contests and Debates, which are made among the Great upon the
Punctilio's of a publick Ceremony, and wonder to hear that any Business
of Consequence should be retarded by those little Circumstances, which
they represent to themselves as trifling and insignificant. I am
mightily pleased with a Porter's Decision in one of Mr. _Southern's_
Plays, [2] which is founded upon that fine Distress of a Virtuous
Woman's marrying a second Husband, while her first was yet living. The
first Husband, who was suppos'd to have been dead, returning to his
House after a long Absence, raises a noble Perplexity for the Tragick
Part of the Play. In the mean while, the Nurse and the Porter conferring
upon the Difficulties that would ensue in such a Case, honest _Sampson_
thinks the matter may be easily decided, and solves it very judiciously,
by the old Proverb, that if his first Master be still living, _The Man
must have his Mare again_. There is nothing in my time which has so much
surprized and confounded the greatest part of my honest Countrymen, as
the present Controversy between Count _Rechteren_ and Monsieur
_Mesnager_, which employs the wise Heads of so many Nations, and holds
all the Affairs of _Europe_ in suspence. [3]

Upon my going into a C