And what does your Majesty intend next?  Why truly, says the King, to conquer Carthage, and make myself Master of all Africa.  And what, Sir, says the Minister is to be the End of all your Expeditions?  Why then, says the King, for the rest of our Lives we’ll sit down to good Wine.  How, Sir, replied Cyneas, to better than we have now before us?  Have we not already as much as we can drink? [3]

  Riot and Excess are not the becoming Characters of Princes:  but if
  Pyrrhus and Lewis had debauched like Vitellius, they had been less
  hurtful to their People.’

  Your humble Servant,

  T. PHILARITHMUS.

[Footnote 1:  The letter is, with other contributions not now traceable to him, by Henry Martyn, son of Edward Martyn, Esq., of Melksham, Wilts.  He was bred to the bar, but his health did not suffer him to practise.  He has been identified with the Cottilus of No. 143 of the Spectator.  In 1713 Henry Martyn opposed the ratification of the Treaty of Commerce made with France at the Peace of Utrecht in a Paper called ’The British Merchant, or Commerce Preserved,’ which was a reply to Defoe’s ‘Mercator, or Commerce Retrieved.’  Martyn’s paper is said to have been a principal cause of the rejection of the Treaty, and to have procured him the post of Inspector-General of Imports and Exports.  He died at Blackheath, March 25, 1721, leaving one son, who became Secretary to the Commissioners of Excise.  As an intimate friend of Steele’s, it has been thought that Henry Martyn suggested a trait or two in the Sir Andrew Freeport of the Spectator’s Club.]

[Footnote 2:  Sept. 20, 1696.]

[Footnote 3:  These anecdotes are from Plutarch’s ’Life of Pyrrhus’.]

* * * * *

No. 181.  Thursday, September 27, 1711.  Addison.

      ‘His lacrymis vitam damus, et miserescimus ultro.’

      Virg.

I am more pleased with a Letter that is filled with Touches of Nature than of Wit.  The following one is of this Kind.

  SIR,

’Among all the Distresses which happen in Families, I do not remember that you have touched upon the Marriage of Children without the Consent of their Parents.  I am one of [these [1]] unfortunate Persons.  I was about Fifteen when I took the Liberty to choose for my self; and have ever since languished under the Displeasure of an inexorable Father, who, though he sees me happy in the best of Husbands, and blessed with very fine Children, can never be prevailed upon to forgive me.  He was so kind to me before this unhappy Accident, that indeed it makes my Breach of Duty, in some measure, inexcusable; and at the same Time creates in me such a Tenderness towards him, that I love him above all things, and would die to be reconciled to him.  I have thrown myself at his Feet, and besought him with Tears to pardon me; but he always pushes me away, and spurns me from