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 must confefs, I would fain have fallen afleep again to have clofed my vifion, if I could have done it.

N° 4.

MONDAY, MARCH 5.

Egregii mortalem altique filenti?

C

HOR. Sat. vi. 1. 2. ver. 58. One of uncommon filence and reserve.

A

N author, when he firft appears in the world, is very apt to believe it has nothing to think of but his performances. With a good fhare of this vanity in my heart, I made it my bufinefs thefe three days to liften after my own fame; and, as I have fometimes met with circumftances which did not difpleafe 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 ftand 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 perufed 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 bufinefs of reputation, to be very careful of the defign of my actions, but very negligent of the confequences of them.

It is an endlefs 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 himfelf with no one breathing, should be very little liable to mifinterpretations; and yet I remember I was once taken up for a Jefuit, 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 pleafures 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 worfe crowd than any they can withdraw from. To be exempt from the paffions with which others are tormented, is the only pleafing folitude. I can very juftly fay with the ancient fage, I am never less 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-dreffed Gentlemen and Ladies, as a poet would beftow 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 anguifh; and I did the other day, without the leaft difpleafure, overhear one fay of me, That Arange fellow; and another anfwer, I have knovan the fellow's face thefe twelve years, and fo muft you; but I believe you are the first ever asked who he was. There are, I muft confefs, many to whom my perfon is as well known as that of their nearest

B 3

relations,

relations, who give themfelves no farther trouble about calling me by my name or quality, but fpeak 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 mens paffions or interefts, I can with the greater fagacity confider their talents, manners, failings, and merits.

It is remarkable, that thofe who want any one fenfe, 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 myfelf 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 flourifhing 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 profperous, and admire the unhappy.

Thofe who converfe 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 extratravagance, 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, with out my fpeaking. WILL HONEYCOMB was very entertaining the other night at a play, to a gentleman 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, 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 drefs 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 he has ftolen the colour of her ribbands from another, or had advice about her ' trimmings, I fhall not allow her the praife of drefs 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 perfon chaftifed by the innocence of her thoughts, Chastity, goodnature, and affability, are the graces that play in her countenance; the knows the is handfome, 'but she knows the is good. Confcious beauty adorned with confcious virtue! what a fpirit is there in thofe eyes! what a bloom in that perfon! how is the whole woman expreffed in her appearance! her air has the beauty of motion, and her look the force of language.' nob

་

It was prudence to turn away my eyes from this object, and therefore I turned them to the thoughtlefs creatures who make up the lump of that fex, and move a knowing eye, no more than the portraitures 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 raifed in me uncommon reflections; but this effect I cannot communicate

but

but by my writings. As my pleasures are almost wholly confined to thofe of the fight, I take it for a peculiar happinefs that I have always had an eafy 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 just complaifance and gallantry of our nation, the more powerful part of our people, I fhall dedicate a confiderable part of thefe my fpeculations to their fervice, and fhall lead the young through all the becoming duties of virginity, marriage, and widowhood. When it is a woman's day, in my works, I fhall endeavour at a ftyle and air fuitable to their underftanding. When I fay this, I must be understood to mean, that I fhall not lower but exalt the fubjects I treat upon. Difcourfe, for their entertainment, is not to be debased but refined. A man may appear learned without talking fentences, as in his ordinary gefture he difcovers 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 reafonable women this paper may furnifh 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, intereft, or affection. Upon this occasion I think it but reafonable to declare, that whatever skill 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 affemblies; 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 fpeculations, fhall be carried on with the fame fincerity as any other affairs of lefs confideration. As this is the greatest concern, men fhall be from henceforth