ider, whether
it is not better for him to be half a Year behind-hand with the
fashionable and polite part of the World, than to strain himself beyond
his Circumstances. My Bookseller has now about Ten Thousand of the Third
and Fourth Volumes, which he is ready to publish, having already
disposed of as large an Edition both of the First and Second Volume. As
he is a Person whose Head is very well turned to his Business, he thinks
they would be a very proper Present to be made to Persons at
Christenings, Marriages, Visiting-Days, and the like joyful Solemnities,
as several other Books are frequently given at Funerals. He has printed
them in such a little portable Volume, that many of them may be ranged
together upon a single Plate; and is of Opinion, that a Salver of
_Spectators_ would be as acceptable an Entertainment to the Ladies, as a
Salver of Sweetmeats.

I shall conclude this Paper with an Epigram lately sent to the Writer of
the _Spectator_, after having returned my Thanks to the ingenious Author
of it.

_SIR,_

'Having heard the following Epigram very much commended, I wonder that
it has not yet had a place in any of your Papers: I think the Suffrage
of our Poet Laureat should not be overlooked, which shews the Opinion
he entertains of your Paper, whether the Notion he proceeds upon be
true or false. I make bold to convey it to you, not knowing if it has
yet come to your Hands.

_On the_ SPECTATOR.

By Mr. _TATE_. [1]

--Aliusque et idem
Nasceris--

Hor.

'When first the_ Tatler _to a Mute was turn'd_,
Great Britain _for her Censor's Silence mourn'd.
Robb'd of his sprightly Beams, she wept the Night,
'Till the _Spectator_ rose, and blaz'd as bright.
So the first Man the Sun's first Setting view'd,
And sigh'd, till circling Day his Joys renew'd;
Yet doubtful how that second Sun to name,
Whether a bright Successor, or the same.
So we: but now from this Suspense are freed,
Since all agree, who both with Judgment read,
'Tis the same Sun, and does himself succeed.'

O.

[Footnote 1: Nahum Tate, born and educated at Dublin, and befriended in
his youth by Dryden and Dorset, was at this time 60 years old, and
poet-laureate, having in 1692 succeeded in that office Thomas Shadwell,
the Whig substitute for Dryden. Besides his version of the Psalms
produced in concert with his friend Dr. Nicholas Brady, T