so peculiar, that he knew not
by what Name to call 'em; not by that of Men, for they performed
nothing that was manly; not by that of Citizens, for the City might
perish notwithstanding their Care; nor by that of _Romans_, for they
designed to extirpate the _Roman_ Name."

Then proceeding to shew his tender Care and hearty Affection for his
People, he further told them,

"That their Course of Life was of such pernicious Consequence to the
Glory and Grandeur of the _Roman_ Nation, that he could not chuse
but tell them, that all other Crimes put together could not equalize
theirs: For they were guilty of Murder, in not suffering those to be
born which should proceed from them; of Impiety, in causing the
Names and Honours of their Ancestors to cease; and of Sacrilege, in
destroying their Kind, which proceeded from the immortal Gods, and
Human Nature, the principal thing consecrated to 'em: Therefore in
this Respect they dissolved the Government, in disobeying its Laws;
betrayed their Country, by making it barren and waste; nay and
demolished their City, in depriving it of Inhabitants. And he was
sensible that all this proceeded not from any kind of Virtue or
Abstinence, but from a Looseness and Wantonness, which ought never
to be encouraged in any Civil Government."

There are no Particulars dwelt upon that let us into the Conduct of
these young Worthies, whom this great Emperor treated with so much
Justice and Indignation; but any one who observes what passes in this
Town, may very well frame to himself a Notion of their Riots and
Debaucheries all Night, and their apparent Preparations for them all
Day. It is not to be doubted but these _Romans_ never passed any of
their Time innocently but when they were asleep, and never slept but
when they were weary and heavy with Excesses, and slept only to
prepare themselves for the Repetition of them. If you did your Duty as
a SPECTATOR, you would carefully examine into the Number of Births,
Marriages, and Burials; and when you had deducted out of your Deaths
all such as went out of the World without marrying, then cast up the
number of both Sexes born within such a Term of Years last past, you
might from the single People departed make some useful Inferences or
Guesses how many there are left unmarried, and raise some useful
Scheme for the Amendment of the Age in that part