of Families should be hugely obliged to you.  I need not tell you that I would have these Sports and Pastimes not only merry but innocent, for which Reason I have not mentioned either Whisk or Lanterloo, nor indeed so much as One and Thirty.  After having communicated to you my Request upon this Subject, I will be so free as to tell you how my Wife and I pass away these tedious Winter Evenings with a great deal of Pleasure.  Tho she be young and handsome, and good-humoured to a Miracle, she does not care for gadding abroad like others of her Sex.  There is a very friendly Man, a Colonel in the Army, whom I am mightily obliged to for his Civilities, that comes to see me almost every Night; for he is not one of those giddy young Fellows that cannot live out of a Play-house.  When we are together, we very often make a Party at Blind-Man’s Buff, which is a Sport that I like the better, because there is a good deal of Exercise in it.  The Colonel and I are blinded by Turns, and you would laugh your Heart out to see what Pains my Dear takes to hoodwink us, so that it is impossible for us to see the least Glimpse of Light.  The poor Colonel sometimes hits his Nose against a Post, and makes us die with laughing.  I have generally the good Luck not to hurt myself, but am very often above half an Hour before I can catch either of them; for you must know we hide ourselves up and down in Corners, that we may have the more Sport.  I only give you this Hint as a Sample of such Innocent Diversions as I would have you recommend; and am, Most esteemed SIR, your ever loving Friend, Timothy Doodle.

The following Letter was occasioned by my last Thursdays Paper upon the Absence of Lovers, and the Methods therein mentioned of making such Absence supportable.

  SIR,

Among the several Ways of Consolation which absent Lovers make use of while their Souls are in that State of Departure, which you say is Death in Love, there are some very material ones that have escaped your Notice.  Among these, the first and most received is a crooked Shilling, which has administered great Comfort to our Forefathers, and is still made use of on this Occasion with very good Effect in most Parts of Her Majesty’s Dominions.  There are some, I know, who think a Crown-Piece cut into two equal Parts, and preserved by the distant Lovers, is of more sovereign Virtue than the former.  But since Opinions are divided in this Particular, why may not the same Persons make use of both?  The Figure of a Heart, whether cut in Stone or cast in Metal, whether bleeding upon an Altar, stuck with Darts, or held in the Hand of a Cupid, has always been looked upon as Talismanick in Distresses of this Nature.  I am acquainted with many a brave Fellow, who carries his Mistress in the Lid of his Snuff-box, and by that Expedient has supported himself under the Absence of a whole Campaign.  For my own Part, I have tried all these Remedies, but never