nefs? or who knows whether he is guilty of it or not? The best Way to get clear of fuch a light Fondness for Applaufe, is, to take all poffible Care to throw off the Love of it upon Occafions that are not in themselves laudable; but, as it appears, we hope for no Praise from them. Of this nature Jare all Graces in Mens Perfons, Dress, and bodily Deportment; which will naturally be winning and attractive if we think not of them, but lofe their Force in proportion to our Endeavour to make them fuch.

WHEN

our Consciousness turns upon the main Defign of Life, and our Thoughts are employed upon the chief Purpose either in Bufinefs or Pleasure, we shall never betray an Affectation, for we cannot be guilty of it: But when we give the Pallion 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 Speeches 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 VOL. I.

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they

they fhould do or fay; and by that Means bury a Capacity for great things, by their fear of failing in indifferent things. This, perhaps, cannot be called Affectation, but it has fome Tincture of it, at least 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 Difregard to himself in fuch Particulars, that a Man can act with a laudable Sufficiency: 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 Havock Affectation makes in that Part of the World which fhould be moft polite, is vifible whereever we turn our Eyes: It pushes Men not only into Impertinencies inConverfation, but also in their premeditated Speeches. At the Bar it torments the Bench, whose Business it is to cut off all Superfluities in what is fpoken before it by the Practitioner; as well as feveral little Pieces of Injuftice which arife from the Law it felf. I have seen it make a Man run from the Purpose before a Judge, who was, when at the

Bar

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 born even here, but it often afcends the Pulpit it felf; and the Declaimer, in that facred Place, is fre-quently fo impertinently witty, fpeaks of the laft Day it felf with fo many quaint Phrafes, that there is no Man' who understands Rallery, but must refolve to fin no more: Nay, you may behold him fometimes in Prayer, for a proper Delivery of the great Truths he is to utter, humble himfelf with fo ve-ry well turned Phrafe, and mention his own Unworthiness in a Way fo very becoming, that the Air of the pretty, Gentleman is preserved, under the Low-linefs of the Preacher.

I fhall end this with a fhort Letter I writ the other Day to a very witty Man, over-run with the Fault I am speaking of.

'I

Dear Sir,

"I Spent some time with you the other Day, and must take the Liberty "of a Friend to tell you of the unfufferable Affectation you are guilty of

in all you fay and do.

When I gave you an Hint of it, you asked me whe"ther a Man is to be cold to what his 'Friends think of him? No; but Praise ' is not to be the Entertainment of every Moment: He that hopes for it 'must be able to fufpend the Poffeffion of it till proper Periods of Life, or "Death it felf. If you would not ra"ther be commended than be Praise'worthy, contemn little Merits; and "allow no Man to be fo free with you, "as to praise you to your Face. Your Vanity by this Means will want its 'Food. At the fame time your Paffion "for Efteem will be more fully gratified; Men will praife you in their A"ctions: Where you now receive one • Compliment, you will then receive twenty Civilities. Till then you will "never have of either, further than,

SIR,

Your humble Servant.

My

INDE X.

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A.

CT of Deformity, for the Ufe of the Ugly
Club, Numb. 17.

Advertisements, of an Italian Chirurgeon, N. 22. From St. James's Coffee-house, 24. From a Gentlewoman that teaches Birds to speak, 36.

Advice; no Order of Persons too confiderable to be Advised, N. 34.

Affectation, a greater Enemy to a fine Face than the Small-Pox, N. 33. It deforms Beauty, and turns Wit into Abfurdity, 38. The Original of it, ibid; found in the Wife Man as well as the Coxcomb, ibid. The way to get clear of it, ibid.

S.

Age, rendred ridiculous, N. 6; how contemned by the Athenians, and refpected by the Spartans, ibid. Alexander the Great, wry-neck'd, N. 32.

Ambition never fatisfied, N. 27.

Ample, (Lady) her Uneafiness, and the Reafon of it, N. 32.

Aretine made all the Princes of Europe his Tributaries, No 23

Arietta, her Character, N. 11; her Fable of the Lion and the Man, in anfwer to the Story of the Ephefian Matron, ibid. her Story of Inkle and Tarico, ibid. Arsinoe, the firft mufical Opera on the English Stage, N. 18.

Audiences at prefent void of Common Senfe, N. 13. Aurelia, her Character, N. 15.

Author, the Neceffity of his Readers being acquainted with his Size, Complexion, and Temper, in order to read his Works with Pleasure, N. 1. his Opinion of his own Performances, 4.

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