| [No. 552] | Wednesday, December 3, 1712 | Steele |
—Quæ prægravat artes
Infra se positas extinctus amabitur idem.
Hor.
As I was tumbling about the Town the other Day in an Hackney-Coach, and delighting my self with busy Scenes in the Shops of each Side of me, it came into my Head, with no small Remorse, that I had not been frequent enough in the Mention and Recommendation of the industrious Part of Mankind. It very
, upon this Occasion, touched my Conscience in particular, that I had not acquitted my self to my Friend Mr.
Peter Motteux
. That industrious Man of Trade, and formerly Brother of the Quill, has dedicated to me a Poem upon Tea. It would injure him, as a Man of Business, if I did not let the World know that the Author of so good Verses writ them before he was concern'd in Traffick. In order to expiate my Negligence towards him, I immediately resolv'd to make him a Visit. I found his spacious Warehouses fill'd and adorn'd with Tea,
China