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"B," (faid the Dean, in a grievous paffion) why then did you not provide better ?"

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Difcerning Readers may the more reasonably be led to suspect our Author's cafe and that of the Lady just mentioned, to be nearly the fame; the entertainment to which he fo coldly invites us, being far from a defpicable one: for though it confiits only of light dishes, (tarts for the most part) there are some high fea foned petits-plats, that may please the niceft literary epicure in the kingdom: here follows the bill of fare.

1. Of Language. 2. Of Genius. 3. Of Tafte. 4. Of Turgid Writing. 5. Of Affectation of Wit, and Florid Writing. 6. Of Obfcure Writing. 7. Of the Modern Art of Spelling. 8. Of New Words. 9. Of Superannuated Words. 10. Of Mufic. 11. Of English Verfe. 12. Of the Verfification 14. Of Writing to of English Tragedy. 13. Of Imitation. the Taste of the Age. 15. Of Phyfiognomy, or the Similitude between the Perfon and the Mind. 16. Of Prejudices, political, religious, or national. 17. Of Moral Attraction or Repulfion. 18. Sentences.

We fhall give, entire, the Effay on Affectation of Wit, and Florid Writing, as a fpecimen of our Author's manner of sketching.

It is not always fo eafy to get rid of an impertinent companion, as of a filly book; otherwife to be for ever aiming at wit, would be as teazing and intolerable in writing as in converfation. Too much even of genuine Wit is cloying, and the vanity of difplaying it inceffantly, will fatigue and disguft Reader whofe tafte is true. Olives, caveare, anchovies, ⚫ and Dutch herrings, do very well in their place; but, in the name of all the hofpitable powers! * do not oblige us to dine • upon

every

This rhetorical kind of fwearing feems a darling cuftom with our Author: as the Reader may perceive from the following pretty collection of flowers, all of the fame fpecies.-In his Effay on Superannuated words, is this curious paffage:- But this Subject matter!-In the name of every thing that's difgufting and detefiable, what is it? Is it one or two ugly words? What's the meaning of it? Confound me if I ever could guefs! Yet one dares hardly ever peep into a Preface, for fear of being ftared in the face with this nafty Subject

' matter.'

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In the fame chapter he fwears By Heav'ns ! with all the emphafis of a tragedy-hero. In another (On Prejudice) he exclaims 'Good God!' about being born in Ireland; and prefently after demands, For • Heav'n's fake! what country is it the moft honourable to have been born in? Again, In the name of every thing that is whimsical, - God preferve what does it fignify where a man was born?'

us,

upon them. Let us firft lay a foundation of good plain beef or mutton, if you please: for there is no living upon pickles or fweetmeats alone.

The ground-work of every performance, even of those ⚫ which admit or require the greatest profufion of ornament, • ought to be plain and fimple. Obferve nature: in the meadow, the sweet green, which never dazzles the fight, is the predominant colour; while the gaudy flowers, red, white, yellow, blue, and purple, are carelefly interfperfed. This is infinitely more pleafing and beautiful than that infipid, childish, uncomfortable bawble, called a flower-knot; and the wild variety of the woods as far excells the richest plantation of floweringfhrubs. I would not be above taking a hint even from the mechanic arts: if a fuit of cloaths is over-charged with lace, it becomes tawdry and ungenteel. In every work, the 'true tafte is to difpofe the ornaments with eafe and propriety, and not to be affectedly and too oftentatiously prodigal of them. By this means you bestow upon your performance an elegant richness, and fuch a modeft dignity, as will please every true eye; though it might quite efcape the notice of the vulgar, and falfe critics of all ranks, who delight in nothing but what is glaring, tawdry, and oftentatious.-No, I beg their pardon: for they are fometimes in raptures, or feem to be fo, with what is altogether infipid.

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us, what fhabby Chriftians have had the honour to be born in the metropolis of Great Britain!' Out of the fame mouth proceedeth bleffing and curfing, faid the facred Penman; and here his obfervation is verified Bless your fat bead, quoth our Author, are you fure that you know wit when you hear it ?-Let me be curft if you do—?' But here comes a royal adjuration, viz. p. 74. You'll find a fublime • pleasure in the exercife of juft vengeance. By all that's imperial, it is a luxury almost too high for a fubject !'-The next is of a more tremendous and terrifying nature. You remember the shocking catastrophe of thofe great and good men the DE WITS.By all that's flern and horrible! by the black bung room! by the blood thir fy Juw duft! you're in the right.-The furest way to avoid ingratitude, is never to do one good thing while you live.'

As to his theatrical Immortal Gods! (p. 76) and the more ChriftianJike exclamation, Good God! which is twice repeated, befides the intance before produced, they come with fo foft a grace after the fern and borible, and the blood thirfty far-duft, --that we fhall pass them without farther animadverfion. It may not, however, be amifs feroudly to obferve, that if, like the truly pious Mr. Boyle, 'Squire Temple never mentions his Creator without a reverential paufe, to exprefs his awful regard for the facred name; and if this gentleanan's writings and converfation are of the fame caft, the latter muft prove not a little exemplary, and edifying, to those who have the happinels of his acquaintance.

Let

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• Let the ornaments be never fo well executed, if they are not eafily and naturally introduced, they will have an aukward • effect. The most beau iful woman may difguft you by often⚫tation and a declared intention to charm. As often as it is poffible to contrive it fe, the ornaments fhould be, or at least appear to be, of fome ufe towards the main defign of the work: but when they are bluntly produced, and with too barefaced a purpose to dazzle or entertain, instead of your admiration, they raise your contempt. A mafque, a coronation, or a proceffion upon our ftage, is, for the most part, an infipid, tawdry, tirefome fhew. But if it was really an ornament, to introduce it with propriety and grace, it ought to be contrived as an incident to help on the business of the piece as in the mafque in Romeo and Juliet; and the funeral proceffion, fuch as it is, in Richard the Third; which, notwithstanding fome want of decorum, as the Critics call it, and of probability in the fcene, has ftill fome kind of pretence to affift in the bufinefs of the fable.

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To conclude: the ornamental parts of a work cost the least trouble to a Writer who has any luxuriance of imagination. To fupport the plain parts with an eafy dignity, fo as they fhall neither become flat on the one hand, nor difguftingly stiff on the other, is a much more difficult tafk. And yet if you ́ fucceed never so well here, you'll receive little thanks from the generality of Readers, who will be apt to imagine they could eafily perform the fame kind of work themfelves, till they come to try it.'

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In his Effay, Of Writing to the Taste of the Age, we have obferved fomething to blame, and fomething to commend: let the Reader be judge.

It belongs to true genius,' fays he, to indulge its own humour: to give a loofe to its own fallies; and to be curbed, reftrained, and directed, by that found judgment alone which neceffarily attends it. It belongs to it to improve and correct' (correct and improve would have been more correct writing) the public tafte: not to humour or meanly proftitute itself to the grofs or low taste which it finds.'

So far our Author expreffes himself with justness, and becom ing fpirit; but behold what follows!-- You may depend upon it,' continues he, that whatever Author labours to accommodate himself to the tafte of his age,-fuppofe it, if you pleafe, this prefent age, the fickly wane, the impotent de

*What is this never fall? By the bland thirfy faw-lift, we are at a lofs to conceive how fo unmeaning a phrate ever crept into prin.!

PP 4

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cline of the eighteenth century; which from an hopeful boy became a moft infignificant man; and for any thing that appears at prefent, will die a very fat, drowfy, blockhead, and be damn'd to eternal infamy and contempt: every fuch Author, I fay, though he may thrive as far as an Author can in the present age, will by degrees languish into obfcurity in the next.'

Is it not furprizing, that a Writer who has fuch juft pretenfions to the character of a man of difcernment and tafte, should fall into this vulgar ftrain of damning the times he lives in? This has ever been the practice of thofe fnarling gentry, the minor Poets and Critics; but it has been justly exploded by the greatest Writers of all ages; and was particularly condemned by the wifeft of men, above two thousand years ago. We dare affirm, and the hiftory of all nations will fupport us in the affirmation, there never was an age in which men of true genius, and good character, were more encouraged than they are in our own times-thefe very times, which our prophetic Author forefees will be damned to eternal infamy, and contempt. A Writer of a more benevolent temper, would, perhaps, have seen fufficient cause to say, with the good humoured Poet,

Prifca juvent alios: ego me nunc denique natum

Gratulor.

But tho' we have the misfortune to differ from Mr. Temple in fome things, there are many in which we moft heartily con-. cur with him; and particularly in what he says of Phyfiognomy.

• That the face is a falfe glafs, is a vulgar error, and seems to • have taken its rife from a few exceptions: for all mankind are fo much Phyfiognomifts, that whoever happens to find • himself mistaken, tho' but for once, joins the cry of the proverb. All are not alike fkilled in faces, any more than in un⚫ravelling of characters; even the most penetrating eye may be mistaken: yet I will prefume to say, that the face is feldom a falfe glafs; and when it proves fo, it is generally the fault of the beholder. Perhaps, indeed, Nature has made fome Cheats, fome to appear worse, many much better than they · are. This is of a piece with her ufual variety, and was perhaps partly intended to check the prefumption of mankind in judging too rafhly of one another. Yet ftill the face is not a falte glafs. On the contrary, where the qualities of the mind are eminent, it generally fhews them. For the features of the mind commonly follow thofe of the face; as the figure of moft animals, whofe characters are ftrong, is expreffive of their nature. Tho' you had never heard of a lion, a tyger, a ferpent, or an alligator, it is natural to think you would at the firft fight be afraid of them rather than of a hare. • The

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The mind is, for the moft part, vifible in the perfon. Thus, a bearifh figure is almoft certainly the rhind or hufk of a rude rough foul, never to be polifhed by any cultivation. If find any fweetnefs in the kernel of fuch a rugged fhell, it is more than you ought to expect; for a man is one thing, and a chefnut another. The voice too is in general harsh or ⚫ sweet conformably to the features; and where faces refemble one another, you will meet with a remarkable fimilitude in ⚫ the voice.

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• Sense and Virtue are often to be found under a plain face and clumfey figure; but elegance and delicacy of mind generally appear in the perfon, Where a falfe and fpecious elegance appears in the face, you may expect the fame in the mind; and the herd of mankind will admire them more than the true. • Sometimes you meet with a delicate and elegant mind under <a face that cannot properly be called handfome: but then you ⚫ will generally obferve a spirit and expreffion in fuch a face that pleases a true eye much more than mere regular beauty; for the best part of beauty is Air, Meaning, and Expreffion.'

We shall enrich this article with fome felect fentiments from the last divifion of this pamphlet, which the Author has entitled

SENTENCES.

The fententious manner of writing is apt to be dry, and to give difguft by its oracular air and a dogmatical over-bearing pretenfion to wisdom. Perhaps it would be better, if its feve ⚫rity was alleviated with a comfortable mixture of human nonfenfe. For to be perpetually wife, is forbidding, unfocial, and fomething that does not become human nature, as it does not belong to it. Why fhould. a School-mafter, a Parfon, or an Apothecary, affect to be as folemn and fublime the whole year round, as if he was a Seraph, or an Archangel 'come to dwell among ft us?

The world has been fhamefully impofed upon by many an important Fool: but no man of fenfe ever took any pains to appear wife; as no honeft man ever ufed any tricks to difplay his own integrity.

True fatire may be called the rage of probity, and even of good-nature. It is the indignation of Virtue and Wit against Vice, Ill-nature, and Affectation.

6 Vanity, befides the fecret pleasure it gives one's felf, is a very thriving quality; and it is not politic to be at any pains to difguife it, except amongst people of the best fenfe. For the generality of the world will have the fame opinion of you that you feem to have of yourself.

• Falle

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