[Footnote 2:  [or]]

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No. 553.  Thursday, December 4, 1712.  Addison.

  ‘Nec lusisse pudet, sed non incidere ludum.’

  Hor.

The Project which I published on Monday last has brought me in several Packets of Letters.  Among the rest I have receiv’d one from a certain Projector, wherein after having represented, that in all probability the Solemnity of opening my Mouth will draw together a great Confluence of Beholders, he proposes to me the hiring of Stationer’s-Hall for the more convenient exhibiting of that Publick Ceremony.  He undertakes to be at the Charge of it himself, provided he may have the erecting of Galleries on every side, and the letting of them out upon that Occasion.  I have a Letter also from a Bookseller, petitioning me in a very humble manner, that he may have the Printing of the Speech which I shall make to the Assembly upon the first opening of my Mouth.  I am informed from all Parts, that there are great Canvassings in the several Clubs about Town, upon the chusing of a proper Person to sit with me on those arduous Affairs, to which I have summoned them.  Three Clubs have already proceeded to Election, whereof one has made a double Return.  If I find that my Enemies shall take Advantage of my Silence to begin Hostilities upon me, or if any other Exigency of Affairs may so require, since I see Elections in so great a forwardness, we may possibly meet before the Day appointed; or if matters go on to my Satisfaction, I may perhaps put off the Meeting to a further Day; but of this Publick Notice shall be given.

In the mean time, I must confess that I am not a little gratify’d and oblig’d by that Concern which appears in this great City upon my present Design of laying down this Paper.  It is likewise with much Satisfaction, that I find some of the most outlying Parts of the Kingdom alarm’d upon this Occasion, having receiv’d Letters to expostulate with me about it, from several of my Readers of the remotest Boroughs of Great Britain.  Among these I am very well pleased with a Letter dated from Berwick upon Tweed, wherein my Correspondent compares the Office which I have for some time executed in these Realms to the Weeding of a great Garden; which, says he, it is not sufficient to weed once for all, and afterwards to give over, but that the Work must be continued daily, or the same Spots of Ground which are cleared for a while, will in a little time be over-run as much as ever.  Another Gentleman lays before me several Enormities that are already sprouting, and which he believes will discover themselves in their Growth immediately after my Disappearance.  There is no doubt, says he, but the Ladies Heads will shoot up as soon as they know they are no longer under the Spectator’s Eye; and I have already seen such monstrous broad-brimmed Hats under the Arms of Foreigners, that I question not but they will overshadow