e of the most Wit) that were offended at the Liberties I had taken
with the Opera and the Puppet-Show: That some of them were likewise
very much surprised, that I should think such serious Points as the
Dress and Equipage of Persons of Quality, proper Subjects for
Raillery.

He was going on, when Sir ANDREW FREEPORT took him up short, and told
him, that the Papers he hinted at had done great Good in the City, and
that all their Wives and Daughters were the better for them: And
further added, that the whole City thought themselves very much
obliged to me for declaring my generous Intentions to scourge Vice and
Folly as they appear in a Multitude, without condescending to be a
Publisher of particular Intreagues and Cuckoldoms. In short, says Sir
Andrew, if you avoid that foolish beaten Road of falling upon Aldermen
and Citizens, and employ your Pen upon the Vanity and Luxury of
Courts, your Paper must needs be of general Use.

Upon this my Friend the TEMPLER told Sir Andrew, That he wondered to
hear a Man of his Sense talk after that manner; that the City had
always been the Province for Satyr; and that the Wits of King
_Charles's_ Time jested upon nothing else during his whole Reign. He
then shewed, by the Examples of _Horace_, _Juvenal_, _Boileau_, and
the best Writers of every age, that the Follies of the Stage and Court
had never been accounted too sacred for Ridicule, how great soever the
Persons might be that patroniz'd them. But after all, says he, I think
your Raillery has made too great an Excursion, in attacking several
Persons of the Inns of Court; and I do not believe you can shew me any
Precedent for your Behaviour in that Particular.

My good friend Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY, who had said nothing all this
while, began his Speech with a Pish! and told us, That he wondered to
see so many Men of Sense so very serious upon Fooleries. Let our good
Friend, says he, attack every one that deserves it: I would only
advise you, Mr. SPECTATOR, applying himself to me, to take care how
you meddle with Country Squires: they are the Ornaments of the
_English_ Nation; Men of Good Heads and sound Bodies! and let me tell
you, some of them take it ill of you, that you mention Fox-hunters
with so little Respect.

Captain Sentry spoke very sparingly on this Occasion. What he said was
only to commend my Prudence in not touching upon the Army, and advised
me to continue to act discreetly in that Point.

By this time I found ever