N° 37 Wilderness, about an hundred Miles diftant from London, and looks like a little Enchanted Palace. The Rocks about her are shaped into Artificial Grottoes covered with Wood-Bines and Jeffamines. The Woods are cut into fhady Walks, twifted 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 likewife 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 likewife tells me, that this Lady preferves her Game better than any of the Gentlemen in the Country, not (fays Sir ROGER) that she sets fo great a Value upon her Partridges and Pheasants, as upon her Larks and Nightingales. For fhe fays that every Bird which is killed in her Ground, will fpoil a Confort, and that she shall certainly miss him the next Year.

WHEN I think how odly this Lady is improved by Learning, I look upon her with a Mixture of Admi ration and Pity. Amidst thefe Innocent Entertainments which fhe has formed to herfelf, how much more Valuable does the appear than thofe of her Sex, who employ themselves in Diverfions that are less Reasonable, tho' more in Fashion? What Improvements would a Woman have made, who is fo fufceptible of Impreffions from what the reads, had the been guided to fuch Books as have a Tendency to enlighten the Understanding and rectify the Paffions, as well as to thofe which are of little more ufe than to divert the Imagination ?

BUT the manner of a Lady's Employing herself usefully in Reading shall be the Subject of another Paper, in which I defign to recommend fuch 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 defire my Correfpondents to give me their Thoughts upon it.

N° 38

Friday, April 13

Cupias non placuiffe nimisə arx

One wou'd not pleafe too much.

Mart."

Late Converfation, which I fell into, gave me an

AOpportunity of obferving a great deal of Beauty.

in a very handfom Woman, and as much Wit in an ingenious Man, turned into Deformity, in the one, and Abfurdity in the other, by the meer Force of Affectation, The Fair One had fomething in her Perfon upon which her Thoughts were fixed, that the attempted to fhew to Advantage in every Look, Word, and Gefture. The Gentleman was as diligent to do Juftice to his fine Parts, as the Lady to her beauteous Form: You might fee his Imagination on the Stretch to find out fomething uncommon, and what they call bright, to entertain her while fhe writhed herself into as many different Poftures to engage him. When he laughed, her Lips were to fever at a greater Distance than ordinary to fhew her Teeth; her Fan was to point to fomewhat at a Distance, that in the Reach the may difcover the Roundness of her Arm, then fhe is utterly mistaken in what the faw, falls back, fmiles at her own Folly, and is fo wholly difcompofed, that her Tucker is to be, adjufted, her Bofom expofed, and the whole Woman put into new Airs and Graces. While fhe was doing all this, the Ga lant had time to think of fomething very pleafant to fay next to her, or make fome unkind Obfervation on fome other Lady to feed her Vanity. These unhappy Effects of Affectation, naturally led me to look into that strange State of Mind which fo generally difcolours the Behaviour of most People we meet with.

W

THE learned Dr. Burnet, in his Theory of the Earth, takes the Occafion to obferve, That every Thought is attended with Confcioufnefs and Reprefentativeness; the Mind has nothing prefented to it but what is immet

G5

diately

diately follow'd by a Reflexion or Confcience, which tells you whether that which was fo prefented is graceful or unbecoming. This A&t of the Mind discovers it felf in the Gefture, by a proper Behaviour in those whofe Confcioufnefs goes no further than to'direct them in the juft Progrefs of their prefent Thought or Action but betrays an Interruption in every fecond Thought, when the Conscioufnefs is employed in too fondly approving a Man's own Conceptions; which fort of Confcioufnefs is what we call Affectation.

AS the Love of Praife is implanted in our Bofors as a strong Incentive to worthy Actions, it is a very difficult Tafk to get above a Defire of it for things that should be wholly indifferent. Women, whofe Hearts are fixed upon the Pleasure they have in the Consciousness that they are the Objects of Love and Admis ration, are ever changing the Air of their Countenances, and altering the Attitude of their Bodies, to ftrike the Hearts of their Beholders with new Senfe of their Beauty. The dreffing Part of our Sex, whofe Minds are the fame with the fillier Part of the other, are exactly in the like uneafy Condition to be regarded for a well-tied Cravat, an Hat cocked with an unusual Brifknefs, a very well-chofen Coat, or other Inftances of Merit, which they are impatient to fee unobserved. **

BUT this apparent Affectation, arifing from an illgoverned Confcioufnefs, is not fo much to be wonder'd at in fuch loofe and trivial Minds as thefe: But when you fee it reign in Characters of Worth and Diftincton, it is what you cannot but lament, not without fome Indignation. It creeps into the Heart of the wife Man as well as that of the Coxcomb. When you fee a Man of Senfelook about for Applaufe, and difcover an itching Inclination to be commended; lay Traps for a little Incense, even from those whose Opinion he values in nothing but his own Favour; Who is fafe againft this Weaknefs? or who knows whether he is guilty of it or not? The beft way to get clear of fuch a light Fondnefs for Applause, 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 Praife from them. Of this Nature are all Graces in Mens Perfons, Dress and bodily Deport

7

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 Confcioufnefs turns upon the main Defign of Life, and our Thoughts are employed upon the chief Purpose either in Bufiness or Pleasure, we fhall never betray an Affectation, for we cannot be guilty of it: But when we give the Paffion for Praise an unbridled Liberty, our Pleasure 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 speaking and acting, inftead of having their Thoughts bent upon what 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 some Tincture of it, at least so far, as that their Fear of erring in a thing of no Confequence, argues they would be too much pleafed 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 visible where-ever we turn our Eyes: It pufhes Men not only into Impertinencies in Converfation, but also in their premeditated Speeches. At the Bar it torments the Bench, whofe Bufinefs it is to cut off all Superfluities in what is fpoken before it by the Practitioner; as well as feveral little Pieces of Injustice which arise from the Law itself. I have feen it make a Man run from the Purpose before a Judge, who was, when at the Bar himfelf, so 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 itfelf; and the Declaimer, in that facred Place, is frequently fo impertinently witty, fpeaks of

the

the last Day itself with fo many quaint Phrafes, that there is no Man who understands Rallery, but muft 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 himself with fo very wellturned Phrafe, and mention his own Unworthiness in a Way fo very becoming, that the Air of the pretty Gentleman is preserved, under the Lowlinefs 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 fpeaking of.

Dear SIR,

• Spent fome and muft 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 whether 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 itfelf. If you would not rather be commended than be Praifeworthy, contemn little Merits; and allow no Man to be fo free with you, as to praife 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 Actions: where you now receive one Compliment, you will then receive twenty Civilities. Till then you will never have of either, further than,

SIR,

Your bumble Servant.

Saturday,