matter should make so much noise; but since I am engaged, I take myself obliged in honour to go on in my lucubrations, and by the help of these arts of which I am master, as well as my skill in astrological speculations, I shall, as I see occasion, proceed to confute other dead men, who pretend to be in being, that they are actually deceased.  I therefore give all men fair warning to mend their manners, for I shall from time to time print bills of mortality; and I beg the pardon of all such who shall be named therein, if they who are good for nothing shall find themselves in the number of the deceased.[80]

[Footnote 55:  This motto was repeated at the head of each of the first 40 numbers in the folio issue.]

[Footnote 56:  These were the days on which the post left London for the different parts of the country.]

[Footnote 57:  White’s Chocolate-house, five doors from the bottom of the west side of St. James’s Street, was established in 1698.  It was burnt on April 28, 1733, while kept by Mr. Arthur.  Plate VI. of Hogarth’s “Rake’s Progress” depicts gamblers engrossed in play in a room in this house during the fire; see also Plate IV.  Swift gives it a bad character in his “Essay on Modern Education;” it had a strong character for gambling (Timbs’s “Clubs and Club Life in London,” where, at p. 48, there is a sketch of White’s from an old drawing).  The house became a private club, as we now have it, about 1736.]

[Footnote 58:  Will’s Coffee-house, named after Will Urwin, its proprietor, was the corner house on the north side of Russell Street, Covent Garden, at the end of Bow Street.  The present house, 21 Russell Street, is probably part of the old building.  Will’s was ceasing to be the resort of the wits in 1709; it was in its glory at the close of the seventeenth century.  The wits’ room, where Dryden presided, was on the first floor.]

[Footnote 59:  The Grecian, in Devereux Court in the Strand, was probably the most ancient coffee-house in or about London.  In 1652 an English Turkey merchant brought home with him a Greek servant, who first opened a house for making and selling coffee.  This man’s name was Constantine, and his house was much resorted to by lawyers, Greek scholars, and Members of the Royal Society. (See Thoresby’s Diary, i. 111, 117.) Foote and Goldsmith afterwards frequented it.  In Dr. King’s “Anecdotes” there is a story of two gentlemen friends who disputed at the Grecian Coffee-house about the accent of a Greek word to such a length that they went out into Devereux Court and drew swords, when one of them was killed on the spot.]

[Footnote 60:  The St. James’s Coffee-house was the last house but one on the S.W. corner of St. James’s Street.  It was frequented by Whig statesmen, and was closed about 1806.  Swift and Steele were at a supper given by the keeper on the 19th November, 1710.]

[Footnote 61:  Cf. the Spectator, No. 31:  “Laying down my penny upon the bar.”]