Great Britain. At the first entrance the Lady revived, the bags fwelled to their former bulk, the piles of faggots and heaps of paper changed into pyramids of guineas: and, for my own part, I was fo tranfported with joy, that I awaked, though I muft confefs, I would fain have fallen afleep again to have clofed my vifion, if I could have done it. C

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No. 4.

MONDAY, MARCH 5.

-Egregii mortalem altique filenti?

HOR. Sat. vi. 1. 2. ver. 58.

One of uncommon filence and reserve.

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N author, when he first appears in the world, is very apt to believe it has nothing to think of but his performances. With a good share of this vanity in my heart, I made it my business these three days to liften after my own fame'; and, as I have fometimes met with circumftances which did not displease me, I have been encountered by others which gave me as much mortification. It is incredible to think how empty I have in this time obferved fome part of the fpecies to be, what mere blanks they are when they firft come abroad in the morning, how utterly they are at a stand until they are fet a going by fome paragraph in a news-paper: Such perfons are very acceptable to a young author, for they defire no more in any thing but to be new to be agreeable. If I found confolation among fuch, I was as much difquieted by the incapacity of others. These are mortals who have a certain curiofity without power of reflection, and perused my papers like fpectators rather than readers. But there is fo little pleasure in inquiries that fo nearly concern ourselves, (it being the worft way in the world to fame, to be too anxious about it) that,

upon

upon the whole, I refolved for the future to go on in my ordinary way; and without too much fear or hope about the business of reputation, to be very careful of the defign of my actions, but very negligent of the confequences of them.

It is an endless and frivolous purfuit to act by any other rule than the care of fatisfying our own. minds in what we do. One would think a filent man, who concerned himself. with no one breathing, fhould be very little liable to misinterpretations; and yet I remember I was once taken up for a Je-fuit, for no other reafon but my profound taciturnity. It is from this misfortune that to be out of harm's way, I have ever. fince affected crowds. He who comes into affemblies only to gratify his curiofity, and not to make a figure, enjoys the pleasures of retirement in a more exquifite degree, than he poffibly. could in his clofet; the lover, the ambitious, and the mifer, are followed thither by a worse crowd ́thanany they can withdraw. from. To be exempt from the paffions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing folitude. I can very juftly fay with the ancient fage, I am never lefs alone than when alone. As I am infignificant to the company in public places, and as it is visible I do not come thither as moft do, to fhew myfelf; I gratify the vanity of all who pretend to make an appearance, and have often as kind looks from well-dreffedGentlemen and Ladies, as a poet would bestow. upon one of his audience. There are fo many gratifications attend this public fort of obfcurity, that fome little diftaftes I daily receive have loft their anguish; and I did the other day, without the leaft difpleafure, overhear one fay of me,. That frange fellow; and another anfwer, I have known the fellow's face these twelve years, and fo must you s but I believe you are the first that ever asked who he was. There are, I must confefs, many to whom my perfon is as well known as that of their nearest relations,

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relations, who give themselves no farther trouble about calling me by my name or quality, but speak of me very currently by Mr. What-d'ye-call-him.

To make up for thefe trivial difadvantages, I have the high fatisfaction of beholding all nature with an unprejudiced eye; and, having nothing to do with men's paffions or interefts, I can with the greater fagacity confider their talents, manners, failings, and

merits.

It is remarkable, that those who want any one fense, poffefs the others with greater force and vivacity. Thus my want of, or rather refignation of fpeech, gives me all the advantages of a dumb man. I have, methinks, a more than ordinary penetration in feeing; and flatter myself that I have looked into the higheft and loweft of mankind, and make fhrewd gueffes, without being admitted to their converfation, at the inmoft thoughts and reflections of all whom I behold. It is from hence that good or: ill fortune has no manner of force towards affecting my judgment. I fee men flourishing in courts, and languishing in jails, without being prejudiced from their circumftances to their favour or difadvantage but, from their inward manner of bearing their condition, often pity the prosperous, and admire the unhappy.

Thofe who converse with the dumb, know from the turn of their eyes, and the changes of their countenance, their fentiments of the objects before them. I have indulged my filence to fuch an extravagance, that the few who are intimate with me, anfwer my fmiles with concurrent fentences, and argue to the very point I fhaked my head at, without my fpeaking. WILL HONEYCOMB was very entertaining the other night at a play, to a gentle. man who fat on his right hand, while I was at his left. The gentleman believed WILL was talking to himself, when, upon my looking with great approbation at a young thing in a box before us, he

faid,

faid, I am quite of another opinion. She has, I will allow, a very pleafing afpect, but methinks, that fimplicity in her countenance is rather childish than innocent.' When I obferved her a fecond time, he faid, I grant her dress is very becoming, but perhaps the merit of that choice is owing to her mother: for though, continued he, I allow a beauty to be as much to be commended for the elegance of her drefs, as a wit for that of his language; yet if she has stolen the colour of her ribbands from another, or had advice about her trimmings, I fhall not allow her the praise of dress any more than I would call a plagiary an author.'' When I threw my eye towards the next woman to› her, WILL fpoke what I looked, according to his romantic imagination, in the following manner.:

Behold, you who dare,, that charming virgin; • behold the beauty of her person chaftifed by the ⚫ innocence of her thoughts. Chaftity, good-na

ture, and affability, are the graces that play in her • countenance; the knows she is handsome, but fhe knows fhe is good.. Conscious beauty adorned with: conscious virtue ! what. a fpirit is there in those eyes! what a bloom in that perfon! how is the 6. whole woman expreffed in her appearance! her air has the beauty of motion, and her look the . force of language.'

It was prudence to turn away my eyes from this object, and therefore I turned them to the thought. lefs creatures who make up the lump, of that fex, and move a knowing eye no more than the portrai-tures of infignificant people by ordinary painters, which are but pictures of pictures.

Thus the working of my own mind is the general entertainment of my life: I never enter into the commerce of difcourfe with any but my particular friends, and not in public even with them. Such an habit has perhaps raised in me uncommon reflections; but this effect I cannot communicate

but

but by my writings. As my pleasures are almost wholly confined to those of the fight, I take it for a peculiar happiness that I have always had an easy. and familiar admittance to the fair fex. If I never praised or flattered, I never belied or contradicted them. As thefe compofe half the world, and are, by the juft complaifance and gallantry of our nation, the more powerful part of our people, I fhall dedicate a confiderable part of these my fpeculations to their fervice, and fhall lead the young through all the becoming duties of virginity, mar-· riage, and widowhood. When it is a woman's day, in my works, I fhall endeavour at a ftyle and air. fuitable to their understanding. When I fay, this, I must be understood to mean, that I fhall not lower but exalt the fubjects I treat upon. Difcourse, for their entertainment, is not to be debafed but refined. A man may appear learned without talking fentences, as in his ordinary gefture he disco. vers he can dance, though he does not cut capers. In a word, I fhall take it for the greatest glory of my work, if among reasonable women this paper. may furnish tea-table-talk. In order to it, I fhall treat on matters which relate to females, as they are concerned to approach or fly from the other fex, or as they are tied to them by blood, interest, or affection. Upon this occafion I think it but reaa fonable to declare, that whatever fkill I may have in fpeculation, I fhall never betray what the eyes: of lovers fay to each other in my prefence. At. the fame time I fhall not think myfelf. obliged, by. this promife, to conceal any falfe proteftations which I obferve made by glances in public affem-blies; but endeavour to make both fexes appear in their conduct what they are in their hearts. By this means, love, during the time of my fpecula- tions, fhall be carried on with the fame fincerity as any other affairs of lefs confideration. As this is the greateft concern, men fhall be from henceforth

liable.

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