wn where we are; so that you must begin your
account from the end of Piccadilly; and if you do so, I'll lay any man
ten to one, it is not above three good miles off." Another, about
Minucio's level of understanding, began to take him up in this important
argument, and maintained, that considering the way from Pimlico at the
end of St. James's Park, and the crossing from Chelsea by Earl's Court,
he would stand to it, that it was full four miles. But Minucio replied
with great vehemence, and seemed so much to have the better of the
dispute, that this adversary quitted the field, as well as the other. I
sat till I saw the table almost all vanished, where, for want of
discourse, Minucio asked me, how I did? To which I answered, "Very
well." "That's very much," said he; "I assure you, you look paler than
ordinary." "Nay," thought I, "if he won't allow me to know whether I am
well or not, there is no staying for me neither." Upon which I took my
leave, pondering as I went home at this strange poverty of imagination,
which makes men run into the fault of giving contradiction. They want in
their minds entertainment for themselves or their company, and therefore
build all they speak upon what is started by others; and since they
cannot improve that foundation, they strive to destroy it. The only way
of dealing with these people is to answer in monosyllables, or by way of
question. When one of them tells you a thing that he thinks
extraordinary, I go no further than, "Say you so, sir? Indeed! Heyday!"
or "Is it come to that!" These little rules, which appear but silly in
the repetition, have brought me with great tranquillity to this age. And
I have made it an observation, that as assent is more agreeable than
flattery, so contradiction is more odious than culumny.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Mr. Bickerstaff's aerial messenger has brought him a report of what
passed at the auction of pictures which was in Somerset House Yard on
Monday last, and finds there were no "screens" present, but all
transacted with great justice.

N.B. All false buyers at auctions being employed only to hide others,
are from this day forward to be known in Mr. Bickerstaff's writings by
the word "screens."

[Footnote 261: The four kings were Iroquois chiefs who had been
persuaded by adjacent British colonists to come and pay their respects
to Queen Anne, and satisfy themselves of the untruth of the assertion
made by the Jesuits, that the English and all other