ties, except only this, that doctors in divinity, and those not specialists, as we use to call them, i. e. such as have received that degree by the special indulgence and undeserved favour and grace of the university, shall have a place immediately above esquires that are not of noble families.
Upon which observation, if it be true, as I fear it is, I have reason to apprehend some disturbance in the country, among the ladies there; therefore I do present my most humble service to madam , wife to a very reverend divine, D. D. speciali gratiâ, who has of many years past, to my knowledge, in mistake of her husband's right, taken place at table of a certain justice of the peace's lady; and do advise her, that, in order to maintain her precedency, she would once more send her spouse up to a commencement, and engage him to perform his acts, and be readmitted, and take up his large cautionary bonds, for her own and her children's advantage.
And I would farther observe, for the use of men who love place, without a title to it either by law or heraldry; as some have a strange oiliness of spirit, which carries them upward, and mounts them to the top of all company (company being often like bottled liquors, where the light and windy parts hurry to the head, and fix in froth) I would observe, I say, that there is a secret way of taking place without sensible precedence, and consequently without offence. This is a useful secret; and I will publish it here, from my own practice, for the benefit of my countrymen, and the universal improvement of mankind.
It is this. I generally fix a sort of first meridian in
