* * * * *
"From Papists on one hand, and Phanatick on th' other,
From Presbyter Jack, the Pope's younger brother,
And Congregational Daughters, far worse than their Mother,
Libera Nos."
In the same year appeared "Hippocrates Ridens," directed against quacks
and pretenders to physic, who seem then to have been numerous. The
contents of these papers were mostly in dialogue--a form which seems to
have been approved, as it was afterwards adopted in similar
publications. These papers do not seem to have been written by
contributors from the public, but by one or two persons, and this, I
believe, was the case with all the periodicals of this time, and one
cause of their want of permanence--the periodical was not carried on by
an editor, but by its author.
The "London Spy" appeared in 1699, and went through eighteen monthly
parts. Any one who wishes to find a merry description of London manners
at the end of the seventeenth century, cannot look in a better place. It
was written by Edward (Ned) Ward, author of an indifferent narrative
entitled "A Trip to Jamaica;" but he must have possessed considerable
observation and talent. A man who proposes to visit and unmask all the
places of resort, high and low in the metropolis, could not have much
refinement in his nature, but at the present day we cannot help
wondering how a work should have been published and bought, containing
so much gross language.
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