in this practice, because he cannot (as he says) apprehend what use it may be of to mankind, whose benefit he aims at in a more particular manner:  and for the same reason, he will never more instruct the feathered kind, the parrot having been his last scholar in that way.  He has a wonderful faculty in making and mending echoes, and this he will perform at any time for the use of the solitary in the country, being a man born for universal good, and for that reason recommended to your patronage by, Sir, yours,

“PHILALETHES.”

[Footnote 1:  This letter appears under the heading:  “From my own Apartment, September 19.” [T.S.]]

[Footnote 2:  See “The Tatler,” No. 66, ante. [T.  S,]]

[Footnote 3:  An Athenian rhetorician who died in Rome about 100 B.C. [T.  S.]]

[Footnote 4:  The quotation is not quite correctly given.  It is taken from Cicero, De Oratore, i. 19 (87). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 5:  “But those who teach, and do not live in accordance with their own instructions, take away all the weight from their teaching; for who will comply with their precepts, when the teachers themselves teach us not to obey them?” [T.S.]]

[Footnote 6:  James Ford proposed to cure stammerers and even restore speech to mutes.  In the second volume of “The British Apollo” he is referred to as having “not only recovered several who stammered to a regular speech, but also brought the deaf and dumb to speak.” [T.S.]]

THE TATLER, NUMB. 71.

FROM TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 20.  TO THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22. 1709.

“’SQUIRE BICKERSTAFF,[1]

“Finding your advice and censure to have a good effect, I desire your admonition to our vicar and schoolmaster, who in his preaching to his auditors, stretches his jaws so wide, that instead of instructing youth, it rather frightens them:  likewise in reading prayers, he has such a careless loll, that people are justly offended at his irreverent posture; besides the extraordinary charge they are put to in sending their children to dance, to bring them off of those ill gestures.  Another evil faculty he has, in making the bowling-green his daily residence, instead of his church, where his curate reads prayers every day.  If the weather is fair, his time is spent in visiting; if cold or wet, in bed, or at least at home, though within 100 yards of the church.  These, out of many such irregular practices, I write for his reclamation:  but two or three things more before I conclude; to wit, that generally when his curate preaches in the afternoon, he sleeps sotting in the desk on a hassock.  With all this, he is so extremely proud, that he will go but once to the sick, except they return his visit.”

[Footnote 1:  This letter is dated as from Will’s Coffee-house, September 20. [T.S.]]

THE TATLER, NUMB. 230.