Gent. I dare say you will be very much diverted. And, if you will give me Leave, I will wait on you. I am particularly acquainted with him.

2 Lady. What say you, Madam, shall we go?

1 Lady. I cannot help thinking he is a Coxcomb; however, to-satisfy my curiosity, I do not care if I do. Gent. I believe the Coach is at the Door.

2 Lady. I hope he will not affront us.

Gent. He will not designedly I am sure, Madam.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. THE TOY-SHOP.

The MASTER is discovered standing behind the
Counter looking over his Books.

Mast. Methinks I have had a tolerable good Day of it To-day. A Gold Watch, Five and Thirty GuineasLet me see- -What did that Watch stand me in?Turning to another Book backwards and forwards.) -Where is it? O here- -Lent to Lady Basset Eighteen Guineas upon her Gold Watch. Ay, she died and never redeemed it. A Set of old China, Five Pounds

-Bought of an old Cloths-Man for Five Shillings. Right. A curious Shell for a Snuff-box, Two Guineas

-Bought of a poor Fisher-boy for a Half-penny. Now, if I had offered shat Shell for Six-pence, Nobody would have bought it. Well, Thanks to the whimsical Extravagance and Folly of Mankind. I believe, from these childish Toys, and gilded Baubles, I shall pick up a comfortable maintenance. For, really, as it is a trifling Age, so Trifles are chiefly valued in it. Men read trifling Authors, pursue trifling Amusements, and contend for trifling Opinions. A trifling Fellow is preferr'd; a trifling Woman admir'd. Nay, as if there were not real Trifles enough, they now make trifles of the most serious and valuable Things. Their Time, their Health, their Money, their Reputation, are trifled away. Honesty is become a Trifle, Conscience a Trifle, Honour a mere Trifle, and Religion the greatest Trifle of all.

Enter the GENTLEMAN and two LADIES.

Mast. Sir, your humble Servant; I am very glad to see you.

Gent. Sir, I am yours. I have brought you some Customers here.

Mast. You are very good, Sir. What do you please to want, Ladies ?

1 Lady. Please to want! People seldom please to want any thing, Sir.

Mast. O dear, Madam, yes; I always imagine when People come into a Toy-Shop, it must be for something they please to want.

2 Lady. Here is a mighty pretty LOOKING-GLASS : Pray, Sir, what is the Price of it?

Mast. This Looking-glass, Madam, is the finest in all England. In this Glass a Coquet may see her Vanity, and a Prude her hypocrisy. Some Ladies may see more Beauty than Modesty, more Airs than Graces, and more Wit than Good-nature.

1 Lady, [Aside.] He begins already.

Mast. If a Beau was to buy this Glass, and look earnestly in it, he might see his Folly almost as soon as his Finery. 'Tis true some People may not see their Generosity in it, nor others their Charity, yet it is a very clear glass. Some fine Gentlemen may not see their Good-manners in it, perhaps, nor some Parsons their Religion, yet it is a very clear Glass. In short, though every one that passes for a maid should not happen to see a Virgin in it, yet it may be a very clear Glass, you know, for all that.

2 Lady. Yes, Sir: but I did not ask you the Virtues of it; I asked you the Price.

Mast. It was necessary to tell you the Virtues, Madam, in order to prevent your scrupling the Price, which is Five Guineas; and for so extraordinary a Glass, in my Opinion, it is but a Trifle.*

*Some of these subjects having been treated also by Bishop Hall and other authors, I shall subjoin their Reflections in the form of Notes.

"On the sight of a looking-glass, When I look in another man's "face, I see that man; and that man sees me as I do him: but, "when I look in my glass, I do not see myself; I see only an "image or representation of myself; howsoever it is like me, yet it "is not I. It is for an ignorant child to look behind the glass; to "find out the babe that he seeth: I know it is not there; and that "the resemblance varies, according to the dimness or different fashion of the glass.

"At our best, we do but thus see God, here below. One sees "him more clearly; another, more obscurely: but all, in a glass. "Hereafter, we shall see him, not as he appears, but as he is: so

shall we see him in the face, as he sees us the face of our glorified

2 Lady. I am afraid to look in it, methinks, lest it should shew me more of my Faults than I care to see. 1 Lady. Pray, Sir, what can be the Use of this very diminutive Piece of Goods here?

Mast. This Box, Madam? In the first Place, it is a very great Curiosity, being the least Box that ever was seen in England.

1 Lady. Then a very little Curiosity had been more proper.

Mast. Right, Madam. Yet, would you think it? I know a Courtier, who, in this same little Box, might deposit his Sincerity, a Lawyer who might screw up his Honesty, and a Poet who might-hoard his Money.

Gent. Ha ha! I will make a Present of it to Mr. Stanza for the very same Purpose.

2 Lady. Here's a fine PERSPECTIVE GLASS. Now, I think, madam, in the Country these are a very pretty Amusement.

Mast. Oh, Madam, the most useful and diverting Things imaginable, either in Town or Country. The Nature of this Glass, Madam, (pardon my Impertinence in pretending to tell you what to be sure you are as well acquainted with as myself) is this; If you look through it at this End, every Object is magnified, brought near, and discern'd with the greatest Plainness; but turn it the otherway, do you see, and they are all lessened, cast at a great Distance, and rendered almost imperceptible. Through this End it is that we commonly look at our own Faults; but when other People are to be examined, we are ready enough to turn the other. Through this End are usually viewed all the Benefits and Advantages we at any time receive from others; but if ever we happen to confer any, they are for the most part shewn in their

"spirits shall see the glorious face of him, who is the God of Spirits. "In the mean time, the proudest dame shalt not more ply her glass, "to look upon that face of hers, which she thinks beautiful; than I "shall gaze upon the clearest glass of my thoughts, to see that face "of God, which I know to be infinitely fair and glorious." Bp. Hall's Occasional Meditations. See his Works, Pratt's edition, in ten vols. 8vo, Vol. VI, p. 219.

greatest Magnitude through the other. Through this End we enviously darken and contract the Virtue, the Merit, the Beauty of all the World around us; but fondly compliment our own with the most agreeable and advantageous Light through the other.*

*This simile is a very happy one, and has accordingly been a great favourite with writers.

"Infidelity and Faith look both through the same Perspective "Glass: but at contrary ends. Infidelity looks through the wrong "end of the glass, and therefore sees those objects which are near, "afar off; and makes great things little, diminishing the greatest "spiritual blessings, and removing far from them threatened evils. "Faith looks at the right end, and brings the blessings that are far off "in time, close to our eye. That this dissolved body shall be raised. "out of the dust, and enlivened with this very soul, wherewith it is now animated, and both of them put in a condition eternally glorious, is as clearly represented to my soul in this glass, as if it were "already done. Faithful is he that hath promised, which will also "do it.' Bp. Hall's Select Thoughts, XXX. See bis Works, in folio, Vol. III. p. 712. quoted in Dr. Nott's Bampton Lectures, p. 54, Note. Vol. VI. p. 262, of Mr. Pratt's edition of Bishop Hall's Works.

86

66

"To One, so full of himself, as to see no need of Amendment, nor 66 any Perfection to which, in Imagination, he hath not already at"tained, all Discipline and Kindness must needs be lost: All Rea"sonings of his own mind must needs be ineffectual. For every thing "there, is seen through a false Light, and false Glasses. The most "slender appearances of Virtue are brought nearer and magnified, "the most deformed Blemishes are thrown off at a vast distance, and "lessened to the Eye. Delusion only reigns, and Truth is never re"ceived, till some awakening Dispensation does at last, perhaps too "late, discover the Man to himself." Stanhope on the Epistles and Gospels. Gospel for the x1th Sund, after Trinity. 8th edition, Vol. 11I. p. 373.

"As the naked eye, though very fit for directing our way on "earth, yet misrepresents, through its weakness, every celestial "object; shews the sun no bigger than a chariot-wheel, the moon "flat like a plate of silver, and the planets like lucid points. The 66 same eye strengthened by a telescope sees the sun, and moon, and "planets, large, and globular, as they really are. Revelation is "that to reason, which a telescope is to the eye; an advantage and "improvement. As he, who would see the wonders of the heavens, 66 arms his eye with a telescope, so does the judicious inquirer into "religious truth, apply to revelation for those informations, which "reason alone would never have given, though it judges of, and 66 approves them, when given. And as the astronomer does not "think of putting out his eye, in order to see better with a telescope; 66 so neither does the judicious advocate for revelation desire to op. 66 pose it to reason, but to examine it by reason, and to improve his "reason by it." Burgh on The Dignity of Human Nature. Edit. 1795. B. iv. Sect. 1. p. 417.