shot
refused me. Something or other is always amiss when the Lover takes to
some new Wench: A Settlement is easily excepted against; and there is
very little Recourse to avoid the vicious Part of our Youth, but
throwing one's self away upon some lifeless Blockhead, who tho' he is
without Vice, is also without Virtue. Now-a-days we must be contented
if we can get Creatures which are not bad, good are not to be
expected. Mr. SPECTATOR, I sat near you the other Day, and think I did
not displease you Spectatorial Eyesight; which I shall be a better
Judge of when I see whether you take notice of these Evils your own
way, or print this Memorial dictated from the disdainful heavy Heart
of,

_SIR_,

_Your most obedient humble Servant_,

Rachael Welladay.

T.

* * * * *

No. 529. Thursday, November 6, 1712. Addison.

'Singula quaeque locum teneant sortita decenter.'

Hor.

Upon the hearing of several late Disputes concerning Rank and
Precedence, I could not forbear amusing my self with some Observations,
which I have made upon the Learned World, as to this great Particular.
By the Learned World I here mean at large, all those who are any way
concerned in Works of Literature, whether in the Writing, Printing or
Repeating Part. To begin with the Writers; I have observed that the
Author of a _Folio_, in all Companies and Conversations, sets himself
above the Author of a _Quarto_; the Author of a _Quarto_ above the
Author of an _Octavo_; and so on, by a gradual Descent and
Subordination, to an Author in _Twenty Fours_. This Distinction is so
well observed, that in an Assembly of the Learned, I have seen a _Folio_
Writer place himself in an Elbow-Chair, when the Author of a
_Duo-decimo_ has, out of a just Deference to his superior Quality,
seated himself upon a Squabb. In a word, Authors are usually ranged in
Company after the same manner as their Works are upon a Shelf.

The most minute Pocket-Author hath beneath him the Writers of all
Pamphlets, or Works that are only stitched. As for the Pamphleteer, he
takes place of none but of the Authors of single Sheets, and of that
Fraternity who publish their Labours on certain Days, or on every Day of
the Week. I do not find that the Precedency among the Individuals, in
this latter Class of Writers, is yet settled.

For my own part, I have had so strict a regar