character; and as he has just sense enough to know that his qualifications will never recommend him to the esteem of men of sense, or the favour of women of virtue, he has thence contracted an antipathy to both; and by giving a boundless loose to universal malice, makes continual war against honour and reputation, wherever he finds them.

Hecatilla is a female fire-brand, more dangerous, and more artfully vindictive, than Draco himself. Birth, wit, and fortune, combine to render her conspicuous; while a splenetic envy sours her otherwise amiable qualities, and makes her dreaded as a poison doubly dangerous, grateful to the taste, yet mortal in the effect. All who see Hecatilla at a visit, where the brilliancy of her wit heightens the lustre of her charms, are imperceptibly deluded into a concurrence with her in opinion; and suspect not dissimulation under the air of frankness, nor a studied design of doing mischief under a seemingly casual stroke of wit. The most sacred character, the most exalted station, the fairest reputation, defend not from the infectious blast of sprightly raillery : borne on the wings of wit, and supported by a blaze of beauty, the fiery vapour withers the sweetest blossoms, and communicates to all who hear her an involuntary dislike to those at whose merit she points her satire.

At ev'ning thus the unsuspecting swain,
Returning homeward o'er a marshy plain,
Pleas'd, at a distance sees the lambent light,
And, hasty follows the mischievous sprite,
Through brakes and puddles, over hedge and style,
Rambles, misguided, many a weary mile.
Coufus'd, and wond'ring at the space he's gone,

Doubts, then believes, and hurries faster on:

The cheat detected, when the vapour's spent,
Scarce he's convinced, and hardly can repent.

Next to these cautions with respect to raillery, which, if we examine strictly, we shall find no bet. ter than a well-bred phrase for speaking ill of folks, it may not be amiss to warn our readers of a certain vehemence exceedingly shocking to others, at the same time that it not a little exhausts themselves.

If we trace this error to its source, we shall find that the spring of it is an impatience at finding others differ from us in opinion. And can there be any thing more unrcasonable than to blame that disposition in them which we cherish in ourselves.

If submission be a thing so disagreeable to us, why should we expect it from them? Truth can only justify tenaciousness in opinion. Let us calmly lay down what convinces us; and, if it is reasonable, it will hardly fail persuading those to whom we speak. Heat begets heat; and the clashing of opinions seldom fails to strike out the fire of dissention.

As this is a foible more especially indecent in the fair sex, I think it will be highly necessary to offer another, and perhaps a more cogent argument, to their consideration. Passion is a prodigious enemy to beauty; it ruffles the sweetest features, discolours the finest complexion, and, in a word, gives the air of a fury to the face of an angel. Far be it from me to lay restraints upon the ladies; but in dissuading them from this method of enforcing their sentiments, I put them upon an easier way of effecting what they desire; for what can be denied to beauty, when speaking with an air of satisfaction? Comstanding I consider conversation in this light, I

placence does all that vehemence would extort; as anger can alone abate the influence of her charms.

Serene and mild we view the evening air,

The pleading picture of the smiling fair;
A thousand charms our several senses meet,
Cooling the breeze with fragrant odours sweet.
But sudden, if the sable clouds deform

The azure sky, and threat the coming storm,
Hasty we flee-ere yet the thunders roar,
And dread what we so much admired before.

To vehemence in discourse, let me join redundancy in it also; a fault flowing rather from carelessness than design, and which is more dangerous from its being more neglected. Passion, as I have hinted, excites opposition; and that very opposition, to a man of tolerable sense, will be the strongest reproof for his inadvertency; whereas a person of loquacious disposition may often escape open censure from the respect due to his quality; or from an apprehension in those with whom he converses, that a check would but increase the evil, and, like curbing a hard-mouthed horse, serve only to make him run the faster; from whence the person in fault is often riveted in his error, by mistaking a si. lent contempt for profound attention.

Perhaps this short description may set many of my readers right; which, whatever they may think of it, I assure them is of no small importance. Conversation is a sort of bank, in which all who compose it have their respective shares. The man, therefore, who attempts to engross it, trespasses upon the right of his companions; and, whether they think fit to tell him so or no, will of consequence be regarded as no fair dealer. Notwith

standing I consider conversation in this light, I think it necessary to observe, that it differs from other copartnerships in one very material point, which is this, that it is worse taken if a man pays in more than his proportion, than if he had not contributed his full quota, provided he be not too far deficient; for the prevention of which, let us have Horace's caution continually in our eye.

The indiscreet with blind aversion run

Into one fault, where they another shun.

It is the peculiar privilege of the fair, that speaking or silent they never offend. Who can be weary of hearing the softest harmony? or who, without pleasure, can behold beauty, when his attention is not diverted from her charms by listening to her words? I would have stopped here, but that my deference for the ladies obliges me to take notice, that some of their own sex, when past the noon of life, or in their wane of power from some other reason, are apt to place an inclination of obliging their hearers amongst those topics of detraction, by which they would reduce the lustre of those stars that now gild the hemisphere where they once shone.

From this cause only, I would advise the reigning toasts, by an equality of behaviour, to avoid the censure of these ill-natured tattlers.

Such hapless fate attends the young and fair,
Expos'd to open force and secret snare ;
Pursu'd by men warm with destructive fire
Against their peace, while female frauds conspire
Escap'd from those, in vain they hope for rest;
What fame s secure from an invidious jest?
By flight the deer, no more of dogs afraid,
Falls by a shot from some dark covert made:

Se envious tongues their foul intention hide;
Wound though unseen, and kill ere they're descry'd.

Of all the follies which men are apt to fall into, to the disturbance of others and lessening of themselves, there is none more intolerable than continual egotism, and a perpetual inclination to self-panegyric. The mention of this weakness is sufficient to expose it; since, I think, no man was ever possessed of so warm an affection for his own person, as deliberately to assert that it and its concerns are proper topics to entertain company. Yet there are many who, through want of attention, fall into this vein, as soon as the conversation begins to acquire life; they lay hold of every opportunity of introdu cing themselves, of describing themselves, and, if people are so dull as not to take the hint, of commending themselves; nay, what is more surprising than all this, they are amazed at the coldness of their auditor, forgetting that the same passion inspires almost every body; and that there is scarce a man in the room who has not a better opinion of himself than of any body else.

Disquisitions of this sort into human nature belong properly unto sages in Polite Philosophy; for the first principle of true politeness is not to offend against such dispositions of the mind as are almost inseparable from our species. To find out and methodize these requires no small labour and application. The fruits of my researches on this subject, I communicate freely to the public; but must, at the same time, exhort my readers to spare now and then a few minutes to such reflections; which will at least be attended with this good consequence,