Hugh [Gobling, [2]] Praeses.’

The following Letter has not much in it, but as it is written in my own Praise I cannot for my Heart suppress it.

  SIR,

’You proposed, in your SPECTATOR of last Tuesday, Mr. Hobbs’s Hypothesis for solving that very odd Phaenomenon of Laughter.  You have made the Hypothesis valuable by espousing it your self; for had it continued Mr. Hobbs’s, no Body would have minded it.  Now here this perplexed Case arises.  A certain Company laughed very heartily upon the Reading of that very Paper of yours:  And the Truth on it is, he must be a Man of more than ordinary Constancy that could stand it out against so much Comedy, and not do as we did.  Now there are few Men in the World so far lost to all good Sense, as to look upon you to be a Man in a State of Folly inferior to himself.  Pray then how do you justify your Hypothesis of Laughter?

  Thursday, the 26th of
  the Month of Fools.

  Your most humble,

  Q. R.’

  SIR,

’In answer to your Letter, I must desire you to recollect yourself; and you will find, that when you did me the Honour to be so merry over my Paper, you laughed at the Idiot, the German Courtier, the Gaper, the Merry-Andrew, the Haberdasher, the Biter, the Butt, and not at

  Your humble Servant,

  The SPECTATOR.’

[Footnote 1:  could both]

[Footnote 2:  Goblin]

* * * * *

No. 53.  Tuesday, May 1, 1711.  Steele.

      ...  Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus.

      Hor.

My Correspondents grow so numerous, that I cannot avoid frequently inserting their Applications to me.

  Mr SPECTATOR,

’I am glad I can inform you, that your Endeavours to adorn that Sex, which is the fairest Part of the visible Creation, are well received, and like to prove not unsuccessful.  The Triumph of Daphne over her Sister Letitia has been the Subject of Conversation at Several Tea-Tables where I have been present; and I have observed the fair Circle not a little pleased to find you considering them as reasonable Creatures, and endeavouring to banish that Mahometan Custom which had too much prevailed even in this Island, of treating Women as if they had no Souls.  I must do them the Justice to say, that there seems to be nothing wanting to the finishing of these lovely Pieces of Human Nature, besides the turning and applying their Ambition properly, and the keeping them up to a Sense of what is their true Merit. Epictetus, that plain honest Philosopher, as little as he had of Gallantry, appears to have understood them, as well as the polite St. Evremont, and has hit this Point very luckily.[1] When young Women, says he, arrive at a certain Age, they hear themselves called Mistresses_,