atter should make so much noise; but
since I am engaged, I take myself obliged in honour to go on in my
lucubrations, and by the help of these arts of which I am master, as
well as my skill in astrological speculations, I shall, as I see
occasion, proceed to confute other dead men, who pretend to be in being,
that they are actually deceased. I therefore give all men fair warning
to mend their manners, for I shall from time to time print bills of
mortality; and I beg the pardon of all such who shall be named therein,
if they who are good for nothing shall find themselves in the number of
the deceased.[80]

[Footnote 55: This motto was repeated at the head of each of the first
40 numbers in the folio issue.]

[Footnote 56: These were the days on which the post left London for the
different parts of the country.]

[Footnote 57: White's Chocolate-house, five doors from the bottom of the
west side of St. James's Street, was established in 1698. It was burnt
on April 28, 1733, while kept by Mr. Arthur. Plate VI. of Hogarth's
"Rake's Progress" depicts gamblers engrossed in play in a room in this
house during the fire; see also Plate IV. Swift gives it a bad character
in his "Essay on Modern Education;" it had a strong character for
gambling (Timbs's "Clubs and Club Life in London," where, at p. 48,
there is a sketch of White's from an old drawing). The house became a
private club, as we now have it, about 1736.]

[Footnote 58: Will's Coffee-house, named after Will Urwin, its
proprietor, was the corner house on the north side of Russell Street,
Covent Garden, at the end of Bow Street. The present house, 21 Russell
Street, is probably part of the old building. Will's was ceasing to be
the resort of the wits in 1709; it was in its glory at the close of the
seventeenth century. The wits' room, where Dryden presided, was on the
first floor.]

[Footnote 59: The Grecian, in Devereux Court in the Strand, was probably
the most ancient coffee-house in or about London. In 1652 an English
Turkey merchant brought home with him a Greek servant, who first opened
a house for making and selling coffee. This man's name was Constantine,
and his house was much resorted to by lawyers, Greek scholars, and
Members of the Royal Society. (See Thoresby's Diary, i. 111, 117.) Foote
and Goldsmith afterwards frequented it. In Dr. King's "Anecdotes" there
is a story of two gentlemen friends who disputed at the Grecian
Coffee-house about the accen