e of reason is her best defence against age,
sorrow, poverty, and sickness. I dwell upon this account so distinctly,
in obedience to a certain great spirit[254] who hides her name, and has
by letter applied to me to recommend to her some object of compassion,
from whom she may be concealed.

This, I think, is a proper occasion for exerting such heroic generosity;
and as there is an ingenuous shame in those who have known better
fortune to be reduced to receive obligations, as well as a becoming pain
in the truly generous to receive thanks in this case, both those
delicacies are preserved; for the person obliged is as incapable of
knowing her benefactress, as her benefactress is unwilling to be known
by her.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Whereas it has been signified to the Censor, that under the pretence
that he has encouraged the Moving Picture,[255] and particularly admired
the Walking Statue, some persons within the Liberties of Westminster
have vended Walking Pictures, insomuch that the said pictures have
within few days after sales by auction returned to the habitation of
their first proprietors; that matter has been narrowly looked into, and
orders are given to Pacolet to take notice of all who are concerned in
such frauds, with directions to draw their pictures, that they may be
hanged in effigy, _in terrorem_ of all auctions for the future.

[Footnote 250: See Nos. 1, 71, 157. On the 25th of April 1710, there was
given for Betterton's benefit, "The Maid's Tragedy" of Beaumont and
Fletcher, in which he himself performed his celebrated part of
Melantius. This, however, was the last time he was to appear on the
stage, for, having been suddenly seized with the gout, and being
impatient at the thought of disappointing his friends, he made use of
outward applications to reduce the swellings of his feet, which enabled
him to walk on the stage, though obliged to have his foot in a slipper.
But the fomentations he had used occasioning a revulsion of the gouty
humour to the nobler parts, threw the distemper up into his head, and
terminated his life on the 28th of April. On the 2nd of May his body was
interred with much ceremony in the cloister of Westminster.--"This day
is published, 'The Life of Mr. Thomas Betterton'" (_Postboy_, Sept. 16
to 19, 1710). This book, attributed to Gildon, is dedicated to Richard
Steele, Esq. "I have chosen," says the author, "to address this
discourse to you, because the Art of which it treats is