ndeavour to depreciate one another, and are
celebrated or traduced by different parties, will then have the same body
of admirers, and appear illustrious in the opinion of the whole British
nation. The deserving man, who can now recommend himself to the esteem
of but half his countrymen, will then receive the approbations and
applauses of a whole age.

Among the several persons that flourish in this glorious reign, there is
no question but such a future historian, as the person of whom I am
speaking, will make mention of the men of genius and learning who have
now any figure in the British nation. For my own part, I often flatter
myself with the honourable mention which will then be made of me; and
have drawn up a paragraph in my own imagination, that I fancy will not be
altogether unlike what will be found in some page or other of this
imaginary historian.

It was under this reign, says he, that the _Spectator_ published those
little diurnal essays which are still extant. We know very little of the
name or person of this author, except only that he was a man of a very
short face, extremely addicted to silence, and so great a lover of
knowledge, that he made a voyage to Grand Cairo for no other reason but
to take the measure of a pyramid. His chief friend was one Sir Roger De
Coverley, a whimsical country knight, and a Templar, whose name he has
not transmitted to us. He lived as a lodger at the house of a
widow-woman, and was a great humorist in all parts of his life. This is
all we can affirm with any certainty of his person and character. As for
his speculations, notwithstanding the several obsolete words and obscure
phrases of the age in which he lived, we still understand enough of them
to see the diversions and characters of the English nation in his time:
not but that we are to make allowance for the mirth and humour of the
author, who has doubtless strained many representations of things beyond
the truth. For if we interpret his words in their literal meaning, we
must suppose that women of the first quality used to pass away whole
mornings at a puppet-show; that they attested their principles by their
patches; that an audience would sit out an evening to hear a dramatical
performance written in a language which they did not understand; that
chairs and flower-pots were introduced as actors upon the British stage;
that a promiscuous assembly of men and women were allowed to meet at
midnight in masks withi