in conversation are below his attention. I call her indeed perverse; but, alas! why do I call her so? Because her superior merit is such that I cannot approach her without awe, that my heart is checked by too much esteem; I am angry that her charms are not more accessible, that 5 I am more inclined to worship than salute her. How often have I wished her unhappy that I might have an opportunity of serving her; and how often troubled in that very imagination, at giving her the pain of being obliged! Well, I have led a miserable life in secret upon 10 her account; but fancy she would have condescended to have some regard for me if it had not been for that watchful animal, her confidante. "Of all persons under the sun," continued he, calling me by name, "be sure to set a mark upon confidantes; 15 they are of all people the most impertinent. What is most pleasant to observe in them is that they assume to themselves the merit of the persons whom they have in their custody. Orestilla is a great fortune, and in wonderful danger of surprises; therefore full of suspicions of 20 the least indifferent thing, particularly careful of new acquaintance, and of growing too familiar with the old. Themista, her favorite woman, is every whit as careful of whom she speaks to, and what she says. Let the ward be a beauty, her confidante shall treat you with an air of dis- 25 tance; let her be a fortune, and she assumes the suspicious behavior of her friend and patroness. Thus it is that very many of our unmarried women of distinction are to all intents and purposes married, except the consideration of different sexes. They are directly under the conduct of 30 their whisperer, and think they are in a state of freedom while they can prate with one of these attendants of all men in general, and still avoid the man they most like. You do not see one heiress in a hundred whose fate does 5 not turn upon this circumstance of choosing a confidante. Thus it is that the lady is addressed to, presented, and flattered only by proxy, in her woman. In my case, how is it possible that—” Sir Roger was proceeding in his harangue, when we heard the voice of one speaking very importunately, and repeating these words: "What, not one smile?" We followed the sound till we came to a close thicket, on the other side of which we saw a young woman sitting as it 10 were in a personated sullenness just over a transparent fountain. Opposite to her stood Mr. William, Sir Roger's master of the game. The knight whispered me, "Hist, these are lovers!" The huntsman, looking earnestly at the shadow of the young maiden in the stream: “O 15 thou dear picture! if thou couldst remain there in the absence of that fair creature whom you represent in the water, how willingly could I stand here satisfied for ever, without troubling my dear Betty herself with any mention of her unfortunate William, whom she is angry with! 20 but alas! when she pleases to be gone, thou wilt also vanish;—yet let me talk to thee while thou dost stay. Tell my dearest Betty thou dost not more depend upon her than does her William; her absence will make away with me as well as thee. If she offers to remove 25 thee, I'll jump into these waves to lay hold on thee; her, herself, her own dear person, I must never embrace again. Still do you hear me without one smile?—it is too much to bear." He had no sooner spoke these words, but he made an offer of throwing himself into the 30 water; at which his mistress started up, and at the next instant he jumped across the fountain and met her in an embrace. She, half recovering from her fright, said in the most charming voice imaginable, and with a tone of complaint, "I thought how well you would drown your self. No, no, you won't drown yourself till you have taken your leave of Susan Holliday." The huntsman, with a tenderness that spoke the most passionate love, and with his cheek close to hers, whispered the softest vows of fidelity in her ear, and cried, "Don't, my dear, 5 believe a word Kate Willow says; she is spiteful and makes stories, because she loves to hear me talk to herself for your sake.” "Look you there," quoth Sir Roger, "do you see there, all mischief comes from confidantes! But let us 10 not interrupt them; the maid is honest, and the man dare not be otherwise, for he knows I loved her father; I will interpose in this matter, and hasten the wedding. Kate Willow is a witty, mischievous wench in the neighborhood, who was a beauty; and makes me hope I shall 15 see the perverse widow in her condition. She was so flippant with her answers to all the honest fellows that came near her and so very vain of her beauty that she has valued herself upon her charms till they are ceased. She therefore now makes it her business to prevent other 20 young women from being more discreet than she was herself. However, the saucy thing said the other day well enough, 'Sir Roger and I must make a match, for we are both despised by those we loved.' The hussy has a great deal of power wherever she comes, and has her 25 share of cunning. 66 However, when I reflect upon this woman, I do not know whether, in the main, I am the worse for having loved her; whenever she is recalled to my imagination, my youth returns, and I feel a forgotten warmth in my 30 veins. This affliction in my life has streaked all my conduct with a softness of which I should otherwise have been incapable. It is, perhaps, to this dear image in my heart owing, that I am apt to relent, that I easily forgive, and that many desirable things are grown into my temper which I should not have arrived at by better motives than the thought of being one day hers. I am pretty well satisfied such a passion as I have had is never 5 well cured; and between you and me, I am often apt to imagine it has had some whimsical effect upon my brain. For I frequently find that in my most serious discourse I let fall some comical familiarity of speech or odd phrase that makes the company laugh; however, I cannot but Io allow she is a most excellent woman. When she is in the country, I warrant she does not run into dairies, but reads upon the nature of plants; she has a glass hive, and comes into the garden out of books to see them work, and observe the policies of their commonwealth. She 15 understands everything. I'd give ten pounds to hear her argue with my friend Sir Andrew Freeport about trade. No, no; for all she looks so innocent, as it were, take my word for it, she is no fool." T. XVI. TOWN AND COUNTRY MANNERS [No. 119. Tuesday, July 17, 1771. ADDISON.] Urbem quam dicunt Romam, Meliboee, putavi VIRG. THE first and most obvious reflections which arise in a 20 man who changes the city for the country, are upon the different manners of the people whom he meets within those two different scenes of life. By manners I do not mean morals, but behavior and good breeding as they show themselves in the town and in the country. And here, in the first place, I must observe a very great revolution that has happened in this article of good breeding. Several obliging deferences, condescensions, and submissions, with many outward forms and ceremonies that accompany them, were first of all brought 5 up among the politer part of mankind, who lived in courts and cities, and distinguished themselves from the rustic part of the species-who on all occasions acted bluntly and naturally-by such a mutual complaisance and intercourse of civilities. These forms of conversa- 10 tion by degrees multiplied and grew troublesome; the modish world found too great a constraint in them, and have therefore thrown most of them aside. Conversation, like the Romish religion, was so encumbered with show and ceremony, that it stood in need of a reforma- 15 tion to retrench its superfluities, and restore it to its natural good sense and beauty. At present, therefore, an unconstrained carriage, and a certain openness of behavior are the height of good breeding. The fashionable world is grown free and easy; our manners sit more 20 loose upon us; nothing is so modish as an agreeable negligence. In a word, good breeding shows itself most where, to an ordinary eye, it appears the least. If after this we look on the people of mode in the country, we find in them the manners of the last age. 25 They have no sooner fetched themselves up to the fashion of the polite world but the town has dropped them, and are nearer to the first stage of nature than to those refinements which formerly reigned in the court and still prevail in the country. One may now know a man that never 30 conversed in the world by his excess of good breeding. A polite country squire shall make you as many bows in half an hour as would serve a courtier for a week. There is infinitely more to do about place and precedency |