expected every where with Impatience, yet come sooner alwayes than they are welcome. They will walk a Mile, and spend an hour to tell any one how urgent their Business is, and what hast they are in to be gone. Their Expedition is their greatest Loss, For Time is the only thing that lies heavy upon their hands. They are walking _Gazetts_, that carry News from one Neighbour to another, and have their Stages about the Town as regular and certain, as a _Penny Postman_. Every Man is their acquaintance, but no Man their Friend. They drudge for every Body, and are paid by no Body, and tho’ their Lives be worn out in endeavours to oblige all Mankind, when they die no one regrets their Loss, or misses their Service. There are another sort of Impertinents, [Sidenote: _Character of a Vertuoso._] who, as they mind not the Business of other Men where it concerns ’em not, neglect it likewise where it does; and amuse themselves continually with the Contemplation of those things, which the rest of the World slight as useless, and below their regard. Of these the most Egregious is the _Virtuoso_, who is one that has sold an Estate in Land to purchase one in _Scallop_, _Conch_, _Muscle_, _Cockle Shells_, _Periwinkles_, _Sea Shrubs_, _Weeds_, _Mosses_, _Sponges_, _Coralls_, _Corallines_, _Sea Fans_, _Pebbles_, _Marchasites_ and _Flint stones_; and has abandon’d the Acquaintance and Society of Men for that of _Insects_, _Worms_, _Grubbs_, _Maggots_, _Flies_, _Moths_, _Locusts_, _Beetles_, _Spiders_, _Grashoppers_, _Snails_, _Lizards_ and _Tortoises_. His study is like _Noah_’s Ark, the general Rendezvous of all Creatures in the _Universe_, and the greatest part of his Moveables are the remainders of his Deluge. His Travels are not design’d as Visits to the Inhabitants of any Place, but to the Pits, Shores and Hills; from whence he fetches not the Treasure, but the Trumpery. He is ravish’d at finding an uncommon shell, or an odd shap’d Stone, and is desperately enamour’d at first sight of an unusual markt Butter-flie, which he will hunt a whole day to be Master of. He trafficks to all places, and has his Correspondents in e’ry part of the World; yet his Merchandizes serve not to promote our Luxury, nor encrease our Trade, and neither enrich the Nation, nor himself. A Box or two of _Pebbles_ or _Shells_, and a dozen of _Wasps_, _Spiders_ and _Caterpillars_ are his Cargoe, He values a _Camelion_ or _Salamanders_ Egg, above all the Sugars and Spices of the _West_ and _East-indies_, and wou’d give more for the Shell of a _Star-fish_, or _Sea Urchin_ entire, than for a whole _Dutch_ Herring Fleet. He visites Mines, Colepits, and Quarries frequently, but not for that sordid end that other Men usually do, _viz._ gain; but for the sake of the fossile Shells and Teeth that are sometimes found there. He is a smatterer at _Botany_, but for fear of being suspected of any useful design by it, he employs his curiosity only about _Mosses_, _Grasses_, _Brakes_, _Thistles_, &c.