volumes in
sheets twenty shillings more, are desired to make their first payment to
the said Mr. Barnes, now lodging at the printing house at Cambridge,
before the end of March; after which time no more single subscriptions
to be admitted'" (_Tatler_, orig. folio, No. 139). Joshua Barnes
(1654-1712), Greek scholar and antiquary, was educated at Christ's
Hospital and Emanuel College, Cambridge. He was appointed professor of
Greek at Cambridge in 1695. The expenses incurred in the production of
his "Homer" involved him in considerable difficulties. Bentley paid a
doubtful compliment to Barnes when he said that Barnes knew as much
Greek as a Greek cobbler. See the _Spectator_, No. 245.]

[Footnote 149: Mr. Joshua Barnes' new and accurate edition of all
Homer's Works, &c. (Steele).]

[Footnote 150: Horace, "Ars Poet." 359 ("Quandoque bonus," &c.).]

No. 144. [STEELE.

From _Thursday, March 9_, to _Saturday, March 11, 1709-10_.

* * * * *

_Sheer Lane, March 10._

In a nation of liberty, there is hardly a person in the whole mass of
the people more absolutely necessary than a censor. It is allowed, that
I have no authority for assuming this important appellation, and that I
am censor of these nations, just as one is chosen king at the game of
questions and commands:[151] but if, in the execution of this
fantastical dignity, I observe upon things which do not fall within the
cognisance of real authority, I hope it will be granted, that an idle
man could not be more usefully employed. Among all the irregularities of
which I have taken notice, I know none so proper to be presented to the
world by a censor, as that of the general expense and affectation in
equipage. I have lately hinted, that this extravagance must necessarily
get footing where we have no sumptuary laws, and where every man may be
dressed, attended, and carried, in what manner he pleases. But my
tenderness to my fellow subjects will not permit me to let this enormity
go unobserved.

As the matter now stands, every man takes it in his head, that he has a
liberty to spend his money as he pleases. Thus, in spite of all order,
justice, and decorum, we the greater number of the Queen's loyal
subjects, for no reason in the world but because we want money, do not
share alike in the division of her Majesty's high-road. The horses and
slaves of the rich take up the whole s