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THE

TATLER.

NUMBER V.

Laceratque, trabitque

Molle pecus

Virg.

From Tuesday Jan. 23, to Saturday Jan. 27, 1710.

A

MONGST other Severities I have met with from some Criticks, the cruellest for

an old Man is, that they will not let me be at quiet in my Bed, but pursue me to my very Dreams. I must not dream but when they please, nor upon long continued Subjects, however visionary in their own Natures; because there is a manifest Moral quite through them, which to produce as a Dream is improbable and unnatural. The Pain I might have had from this Objection is prevented, by confidering they have missed another, against which I should have been at a loss to defend myself. They might have asked me, whether the Dreams I

a N. B. The two following Tatlers are not in the Volumes

published by Sir Richard Steele. VOL: VII.

B

publish

publish can properly be called Lucubrations, which is the Name I have given to all my Papers, whether in Volumes or Half-sheets: So manifest a Contradiction in terminis, that I wonder no Sophifter ever thought of it. But the other is a Cavil. I remember when I was a Boy at School, I have often dreamed out the whole Passages of a Day; that I rode a Journey, baited, fupped, went to bed, and rose next Morning: And I have known young Ladies who could dream a whole Contexture of Adventures in one Night, large enough to make a Novel. In Youth the Imagination is strong, not mixed with Cares, nor tinged with those Passions that most disturb and confound it; such as Avarice, Ambition, and many others. Now, as old Men are said to grow Children again, so in this Article of Dreaming I am returned to my Childhood. My Imagination is at full Eafe, without Care, Avarice, or Ambition to clog it; by which, among many others, I have this Advantage of doubling the small Remainder of my Time, and living four and twenty Hours in the Day. However, the Dream I am going now to relate is as wild as can well be imagined, and adapted to please these Refiners upon Sleep, without any Moral that I can discover.

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"It happened that my Maid left on the Table in my Bed-chamber one of her Story-books (as she " calls them) which I took up, and found full of "strange Impertinence, fitted to her Taste and Con"dition; of poor Servants who came to be Ladies, " and Serving Men of low Degree who married Kings Daughters. Among other Things, I met this sage Obfervation, That a Lion would never hurt a true Virgin. With this Medley of Nonsense in my Fancy I went to bed, and dreamed that a Friend waked

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me in the Morning, and proposed for Paftime to

3

" spend

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