Sometimes I
smoke a pipe at Child's[8], and, whilst I seem attentive to nothing but
the _Postman_[9], overhear the conversation of every table in the room. I
appear on Sunday nights at St. James's[8] coffee-house, and sometimes
join the little committee of politics in the inner room, as one who comes
there to hear and improve. My face is likewise very well known at the
Grecian[8], the Cocoa-Tree, and in the theatres both of Drury Lane and
the Hay-Market. I have been taken for a merchant upon the Exchange for
above these ten years, and sometimes pass for a Jew in the assembly of
stock-jobbers at Jonathan's: in short, wherever I see a cluster of
people, I always mix with them, though I never open my lips but in my own
club.

Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind, than as one of
the species, by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman,
soldier, merchant, and artisan, without ever meddling with any practical
part in life. I am very well versed in the theory of a husband or a
father, and can discern the errors in the economy[10], business, and
diversion of others, better than those who are engaged in them, as
standers-by discover blots[11], which are apt to escape those who are in
the game. I never espoused any party with violence, and am resolved to
observe an exact neutrality between the Whigs and Tories, unless I shall
be forced to declare myself by the hostilities of either side. In short,
I have acted in all the parts of my life as a looker-on, which is the
character I intend to preserve in this paper.

I have given the reader just so much of my history and character, as to
let him see I am not altogether unqualified for the business I have
undertaken. As for other particulars in my life and adventures, I shall
insert them in following papers, as I shall see occasion. In the
meantime, when I consider how much I have seen, read, and heard, I begin
to blame my own taciturnity; and, since I have neither time nor
inclination to communicate the fulness of my heart in speech, I am
resolved to do it in writing, and to print myself out, if possible,
before I die. I have been often told by my friends, that it is pity so
many useful discoveries which I have made should be in the possession of
a silent man. For this reason, therefore, I shall publish a sheet-full of
thoughts every morning, for the benefit of my contemporaries; and if I
can any way contribute to the diversion or improvement of th