[Footnote 80:  “A Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., against what is objected to him by Mr. Partridge in his Almanack for the present year 1709.  By the said Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., London, printed in the year 1709.” (Advertisement in folio issue.) In a pamphlet called “Predictions for the Year 1712.  By Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.; in a Letter to the author of the Oxford Almanack.  Printed in the year 1712,” this “Vindication” is thus noticed:  “I can’t but express my resentment against a gentleman who personated me in a paper called ‘Mr. Bickerstaff’s Vindication.’  I’m grieved to find the times should be so very wicked, that one impostor should set up to reform another, and that a false Bickerstaff should write against an imaginary Partridge.  And I am heartily concerned that one who shows so much wit, such extreme civility, and writes such a gentlemanlike style, should prefix my name to writings in which there appears so little solidity and no knowledge of the Arabian philosophy.  If this paper should be transmitted to posterity (as, perhaps, it might have been by the authority of the name it wears in the front) it might have been a lasting reflection upon me to the end of the world....  Till seeing four volumes of writings—­the collected edition of the Tatler—­pretended to be mine, and a serious philosopher’s name prefixed to papers as free from my solidity as they are full of wit, I thought it high time to vindicate myself, and give the world a taste of my writings; for I am now persuaded ’twill be more for my reputation to convince than to despise mankind.”]

No. 2. [STEELE.

From Tuesday, April 12, to Thursday, April 14, 1709.

* * * * *

Will’s Coffee-house, April 13.

There has lain all this evening, on the table, the following poem.  The subject of it being matter very useful for families, I thought it deserved to be considered, and made more public.  The turn the poet[81] gives it is very happy; but the foundation is from a real accident which happened among my acquaintance.[82] A young gentleman of a great estate fell desperately in love with a great beauty of very high quality, but as ill-natured as long flattery and an habitual self-will could make her.  However, my young spark ventures upon her, like a man of quality, without being acquainted with her, or having ever saluted her, till it was a crime to kiss any woman else.  Beauty is a thing which palls with possession; and the charms of this lady soon wanted the support of good humour and complaisancy of manners.  Upon this my spark flies to the bottle for relief from his satiety.  She disdains him for being tired with that for which all men envied him; and he never came home, but it was:  “Was there no sot that would stay longer?  Would any man living but you?  Did I leave all the world for this usage?” To which he:  “Madam, split me, you are very impertinent!” In a word, this match was wedlock in its most terrible