came to me, I had an opportunity of turning over a great many of her books, which were ranged together in a very beautiful order. At the end of the folios (which were finely bound and gilt) were great jars of China placed one above another in a very noble piece of architecture. The quartos were separated from the octavos by a pile of smaller vessels, which rose in a delightful pyramid. The octavos were bounded by tea-dishes of all shapes, colours, and sizes, which were so disposed on a wooden frame, that they looked like one continued pillar indented with the finest strokes of sculpture, and stained with the greatest variety of dyes. That part of the library which was designed for the reception of plays and pamphlets, and other loose papers, was inclosed in a kind of square, consisting of one of the prettiest grotesque works that I ever saw, and made up of scaramouches, lions, monkies, mandarines, trees, shells, and a thousand other odd figures in China ware. In the midst of the room was a little japan table, with a quire of gilt paper upon it, and on the paper a silver snuff box made in the shape of a little book. I found there were several other counterfeit books upon the upper shelves, which were carved in wood, and served only to fill up the numbers, like fagots in the muster of a regiment. I was wonderfully pleased with such a mixt kind of furniture, as seemed very suitable both to the lady and the scholar, and did not know at first whether I should fancy myself in a grotto, or in a library.

Upon my looking into the books, I found there were few which the lady had bought for her own use, but that most of them had been got together, either because she had heard them praised, or because she had seen the authors of them. Among several that I examined, I very well remember these that follow:

OGLEBY'S Virgil.

DRYDEN'S Juvenal.
CASSANDRA.

C 2

CLEO

CLEOPATRA.

ASTREA.

Sir ISAAC NEWTON'S Works.

The GRAND CYRUS; with a pin stuck in one of the

middle leaves.

PEMBROKE'S Arcadia.

LOCKE of Human Understanding; with a paper of

patches in it.

A Spelling Book.

A Dictionary for the explanation of hard words.

SHERLOCK upon Death.

The Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony.

Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE'S Essays.

Father MALEBRANCHE's Search after Truth, translated

into English.

A book of Novels.

The Academy of Compliments.

CULPEPPER'S Midwifery.

The Ladies Calling.

Tales in Verse by Mr. DURFEY: bound in red lea

ther, gilt on the back, and doubled down in se

veral places.

All the Classic Authors in Wood.

A set of Elzevirs by the same Hand.

CLELIA: which opened of itself in the place that de

scribes two lovers in a bower.

BAKER'S Chronicle.

Advice to a Daughter.

The New Atalantis, with a Key to it.

Mr. STEELE's Christian Hero.

A Prayer Book: with a bottle of Hungary-Water

by the side of it.

Dr. SACHEVERELL'S Speech.

FIELDING'S Trial.

SENECA'S Morals.

TAYLOR'S Holy Living and Dying.

LA FERTE'S Instructions for County Dances.

I was taking a catalogue in my pocket-book of these and several other authors, when LEONORA entered, and upon my presenting her with a letter from the Knight, told me, with an unspeakable grace, that she hoped Sir ROGER was in good health: I answered Yes, for i hate long speeches, 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 marriage, has taken a resolution never to venture upon a second. She has no children to take care of, and leaves the management of her estate to my good friend Sir ROGER. But as the mind naturally sinks into a kind of lethargy, and falls asleep, that is not agitated by some favourite pleasures and pursuits, LEONORA has turned all the passion of her sex into a love of books and retirement. She converses chiefly with men, (as she has often said herself) but it is only in their writings; and admits of very few male-visitants, except my friend Sir ROGER, whom she hears with great pleasure, and without scandal. As her reading has lain very much among romances, it has given her a very particular turn of thinking, and discovers itself even in her house, her gardens, and her furniture. Sir ROGER has entertained me an hour together with a description of her countryseat, which is situated in a kind of wilderness, about an hundred miles distant from London, and looks like a little enchanted palace. The rocks about her are shaped into artificial grottos covered with woodbines and jessamines. The woods are cut into shady walks, twisted into bowers, and filled with cages of turtles. The springs are made to run among pebbles, and by that means taught to murmur very agreeably. They are likewise collected into a beautiful lake that is inhabited by a couple of swans, and empties itself by a little rivulet which runs through a green meadow, and is known in the family by the name of The Purling Stream. The Knight likewise tells me, that this lady preserves her game better than any

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any of the gentlemen in the country; not (says Sir ROGER) that she sets so great a value upon her partridges and pheasants, as upon her larks and nightingales. For she says, that every bird which is killed in her ground, will spoil a concert, and that she shall certainly miss 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. Amidst these innocent entertainments which she has formed to herself, how much more valuable does she appear than those of her sex, who employ themselves in diversions that are less reasonable, though more in fashion? What improvements would a woman have made, who is so susceptible of impressions from what she reads, had she been guided to such books as have a tendency to enlighten the understanding and rectify the passions, as well as to those which are of little more use than to divert the imagination?

But the manner of a lady's employing herself usually in reading, shall be the subject of another paper, in which I design to recommend such particular books as may be proper for the improvement of the sex. And as this is a subject of a very nice nature, I shall desire my correspondents to give me their thoughts upon it.

C.

NO.

A LATE conversation which I fell into, give me an opportunity of observing a great deal of beauty in a very handsome woman, and as much wit in an ingenious man, turned into deformity in the one, and absurdity in the other, by the mere force of affectation. The fair one had something in her person upon which her thoughts were fixed, that she attempted to shev to advantage in every look, word, and gesture. The gentie man was as diligent to do justice to his fine parts, as the lady to her beauteous form. You might see his imagination on the stretch to find out something uncommon, and what they call bright, to entertain her; while she writhed herself into as many different postures to engage him. When she laughed, her lips were to sever at a greater distance than ordinary, to shew her teeth; her fan was to point to somewhat at a distance, that in the reach she may discover the roundness of her arm; then she is utterly mistaken in what she saw, falls back, smiles at her own folly, and is so wholly discomposed, that her tucker is to be adjusted, her bosom exposed, and the whole woman put into new airs and graces. While she was doing all this, the gallant had time to think of something very pleasant to say next to her, or make some unkind observation on some other lady, to feed her va