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A fet of Elzevirs by the fame hand.

Clelia: which opened of itself in the place that de fcribes two lovers in a bower.

Baker's Chronicle.

Advice to a Daughter.

The New Atalantis, with a key to it.
Mr. Steele's Chriftian Hero.

A Prayer Book; with a bottle of Hungary water by the fide of it.

Dr. Sacheverell's Speech.
Fielding's Trial.

Seneca's Morals.

Taylor's Holy Living and Dying.

La Ferte's Inftructions for Country Dances.

I was taking a catalogue in my pocket-book of thefe, and feveral other authors, when Leonora entered, and upon my prefenting her with the letter from the knight, told me, with an unfpeakable grace, that the hoped Sir Roger was in good health: I anfwered yes, for I hate long fpeeches, and after a bow or two retired.

Leonora was formerly a celebrated beauty, and is still a very lovely woman. She has been a widow for two or three years, and, being unfortunate in her first mar riage, has taken a refolution never to venture upon a fecond. She has no childern to take care of, and leaves the management of her eftate to my good friend Sir Roger. But as the mind naturally finks into a kind of lethargy, and falls afleep, that is not agitated by fome favourite pleasures and purfuits, Leonora has turned all the paffions of her fex into a love of books and retirement. She converfes chiefly with men, as fhe has often faid herself, but it is only in their writings; and admits of very few male-vifitants, except my friend Sir Roger, whom the hears with great pleasure, and without fcandal. As her reading has lain very much among romances, it has given her very particular turn of thinking, and dif. covers itself even in her house, her gardens, and her furniture. Sir Roger has entertained me an hour together with a description of her country-feat, which is fituated

in a kind of wildernefs, about an hundred miles diftant from London, and looks like a little enchanted palace. The rocks about her are fhaped into artificial grottoes covered with wood-bines and jeffamines. The woods are cut into fhady walks, twifted into bowers, and filled with cages of turtles. The fprings are made to run among pebbles, and by that means taught to murmur very agreeably. They are likewife collected into a beautiful lake, that is inhabited by a couple of fwans, and empties itfelf by a little rivulet which runs through a green mcadow, and is known in the family by the name of the Purling Stream. The knight likewife tells me, that this lady preferves her game better than any of the gentlemen in the country, not, fays Sir Roger, that the fets fo great a value upon her partrides and pheafants, as upon her larks and nightingales. For fhe fays that every bird which is killed in her ground, will fpoil a concert, and that she shall certainly mifs him the next year.

When I think how oddly this lady is improved by learning, I look upon her with a mixture of admiration and pity. Amidft thefe innocent entertainments which fhe has formed to herself, how much more valuable does fhe appear than those of her fex, who employ themselves in diverfions that are lefs reafonable, though more in fashion? What improvements would a woman have made, who is fo fufceptible of impreffions from what the reads, had the been guided to fuch books as have a tendency to enlighten the understanding and rectify the paffions, as well as to those which are of little more ufe than to divert the imagination?

But the manner of a lady's employing herself usefully in reading fhall be the fubject of another paper, in which I defign to recommend fuch particular books as may be proper for the improvement of the fex. And as this is a fubject of a very nice nature, I shall defire my correfpondents to give me their thoughts upon it.

C.

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No. XXXVIII. FRIDAY, APRIL 13.

-Cupias non placuiffe nimis.

One wou'd not please too much.

MART,

LATE conversation which I fell into, gave me an opportunity of observing a great deal of beauty in a very handfome woman, and as much wit in an ingenious man, turned into deformity in the one, and abfurdity in the other, by the mere force of affectation. The fair one had fomething in her perfon upon which her thoughts were fixed, that the attempted to fhew to advantage in every look, word, and gefture. The gentleman was as diligent to do juftice to his fine parts, as the lady to her beauteous form: you might fee his imagination on the ftretch to find out fomething uncommon, and what they call bright, to entertain her, while the writhed her. felf into as many different poftures to engage him. When the laughed, her lips were to fever at a greater diftance than ordinary, to fhew her teeth; her fan was to point to fomewhat at a distance, that in the reach the may dif cover the roundness of her arm; then the is utterly miftaken in what the faw, falls back, fmiles at her own folly, and is fo wholly difcompofed, that her tucker is to be adjusted, her bofom expofed, and the whole woman put into new airs and graces. While the was doing all this, the gallant had time to think of fomething very pleasant to fay next to her, or make fome unkind obfer vation on fome other lady to feed her vanity. These unhappy effects of affectation, naturally led me to look into that frange state of mind which so generally difcolours the behaviour of moft people we meet with.

The learned Dr. Burnet, in his theory of the earth, takes occafion to obferve, that every thought is attended with consciousness and reprefentativenefs; the mind has nothing prefented to it but what is immediately followed by a reflection or confcience, which tells you whether that which was fo prefented is graceful or unbecoming.This act of the mind discovers itself in the gefture, by a proper behaviour

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behaviour in those whofe confcioufnefs goes no further than to direct them in the juft progrefs of their present thought or action; but betrays an interruption in every fecond thought, when the confciousness is employed in too fondly approving a man's own conceptions; which fort of confcioufnefs is what we call affectation.

As the love of praise is implanted in our bofoms as a ftrong incentive to worthy actions, it is a very difficult tafk to get above a defire of it for things that fhould be wholly indifferent. Women, whose hearts are fixed upon the pleasure they have in the confcioufnefs that they are the objects of love and admiration, are ever changing the air of their countenance, and altering the attitude of their bodies, to ftrike the hearts of the beholders with new sense of their beauty. The dreffing part of our sex, whose minds are the fame with the fillier part of the other, are exactly in the like uneafy condition to be regarded for a well-tied cravat, an hat cocked with an unufual brifknefs, a very well-chofen coat, or other instances of merit, which they are impatient to see un, obferved.

But this apparent affectation, arifing from an ill governed confcioufnefs, is not fo much to be wondered at in fuch loofe and trivial minds as thefe; but when you fee it reign in characters of worth and distinction, it is what you cannot but lament, not without fome indigna, tion. It creeps into the heart of the wife man as well as that of the coxcomb. When you fee a man of fenfe look about for applaufe, and discover an itching inclination to be commended; lays traps for a little incense, even from those whose opinion he values in nothing but his own favour; who is safe against this weakness? or who knows whether he is guilty of it or not? The best way to get clear of fuch a light fondness for applause, is to take all poffible care to throw off the love of it upon occafions that are not in themfelves laudable, but, as it appears, we hope for no praife from them. Of this nature are all graces in men's perfons, drefs and bodily deport. zent; which will naturally be winning attractive if we

think not of them, but loose their force in proportion to our endeavour to make them fuch.

When our confcioufnefs turns upon the main defign of life, and our thoughts are employed upon the chief purpofe either in bufinefs or pleasure, we shall never betray an affectation, for we cannot be guilty of it; but when we give the paffion for praise an unbridled liberty, our pleafure in little perfections robs us of what is due to us for great virtues and worthy qualities. How many excellent fpeeches and honeft actions are loft, for want of being indifferent where we ought? Men are oppreffed with regard to their way of fpeaking and acting, instead of having their thoughts bent upon what they fhould do or fay; and by that means bury a capacity for great things by their fear of failing in indifferent things. This, prehaps, cannot be called affectation: but it has fome tincture of it, at leaft fo far, as that their fear of erring in a thing of no confequence, argues they would be too much pleased in performing it.

It is only from a thorough difregarded to himfelf in fuch particulars, that a man can act with a laudable fufficiency; his heart is fixed upon one point in view; and he commits no errors, because he thinks nothing an error but what deviates from that intention.

The wild havoc affectation makes in that part of the world which should be most polite, is vifible where-ever we turn our eyes: it pushes men not only into impertinencies in converfation, but also in their premeditated fpeeches. At the bar it torments the bench, whose businefs it is to cut off all fuperfluities in what is fpoken before it by the practitioner; as well as feveral little pieces of injuftice which arifes from the law itfelf. I have feen it make a man run from the purpofe before a Judge, who was when, at the bar himself, fo close and logical a pleader, that with all the pomp of eloquence in his power, he never spoke a word too much.

It might be borne even here, but it often afcends the pulpit itfelf: and the declaimer, in that facred place, is frequently fo impertinently witty, fpeaks of the last day itself with fo many quaint phrafes, that there is no man

who

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