Isaac Bickerstaff | Page 6

"I had never, that I know of, the honour of seeing you before."
"That," replied he, "is what I have often lamented; but, I assure you, I
have for many years done you good offices, without being observed by
you; or else, when you had any little glimpse of my being concerned in
an affair, you have fled from me, and shunned me like an enemy; but,
however, the part I am to act in the world is such that I am to go on in
doing good, though I meet with never so many repulses, even from
those I oblige." This, thought I, shows a great good nature, but little
judgment, in the persons upon whom he confers his favours. He
immediately took notice to me that he observed, by my countenance, I

thought him indiscreet in his beneficence, and proceeded to tell me his
quality in the following manner: "I know thee, Isaac, to be so well
versed in the occult sciences that I need not much preface, or make
long preparations, to gain your faith that there are airy beings who are
employed in the care and attendance of men, as nurses are to infants,
till they come to an age in which they can act of themselves. These
beings are usually called amongst men guardian angels; and, Mr.
Bickerstaff, I am to acquaint you that I am to be yours for some time to
come; it being our orders to vary our stations, and sometimes to have
one patient under our protection, and sometimes another, with a power
of assuming what shape we please, to ensnare our wards into their own
good. I have of late been upon such hard duty, and know you have so
much work for me, that I think fit to appear to you face to face, to
desire you will give me as little occasion for vigilance as you can."
"Sir," said I, "it will be a great instruction to me in my behaviour if you
please to give me some account of your late employments, and what
hardships or satisfactions you have had in them, that I may govern
myself accordingly." He answered, "To give you an example of the
drudgery we go through, I will entertain you only with my three last
stations. I was on the first of April last put to mortify a great beauty,
with whom I was a week; from her I went to a common swearer, and
have been last with a gamester. When I first came to my lady, I found
my great work was to guard well her eyes and ears; but her flatterers
were so numerous, and the house, after the modern way, so full of
looking-glasses, that I seldom had her safe but in her sleep. Whenever
we went abroad, we were surrounded by an army of enemies; when a
well-made man appeared, he was sure to have a side-glance of
observation; if a disagreeable fellow, he had a full face, out of more
inclination to conquests; but at the close of the evening, on the sixth of
the last month, my ward was sitting on a couch, reading Ovid's epistles;
and as she came to this line of Helen to Paris,
'She half consents who silently denies,'
entered Philander, who is the most skilful of all men in an address to
women. He is arrived at the perfection of that art which gains them;
which is, 'to talk like a very miserable man, but look like a very happy

one.' I saw Dictinna blush at his entrance, which gave me the alarm; but
he immediately said something so agreeable on her being at study, and
the novelty of finding a lady employed in so grave a manner, that he on
a sudden became very familiarly a man of no consequence, and in an
instant laid all her suspicions of his skill asleep, as he had almost done
mine, till I observed him very dangerously turn his discourse upon the
elegance of her dress, and her judgment in the choice of that very pretty
mourning. Having had women before under my care, I trembled at the
apprehension of a man of sense who could talk upon trifles, and
resolved to stick to my post with all the circumspection imaginable. In
short, I prepossessed her against all he could say to the advantage of
her dress and person; but he turned again the discourse, where I found I
had no power over her, on the abusing her friends and acquaintance. He
allowed, indeed, that Flora had a little beauty, and a great deal of wit;
but then she was so ungainly in her behaviour, and such a laughing
hoyden! Pastorella had with him the allowance of being blameless; but
what was that towards