opinions of others, and to facrifice the report of our own hearts to the judgment of the world.

In the next place, that we may not deceive ourselves in a point of fo much importance, we should not lay too great a ftrefs on any fuppofed virtues we poffefs that are of a doubtful nature and fuch we may esteem all those in which multitudes of men diffent from us, who are as good and wife as ourselves. We fhould always act with great cautioufnefs and circumfpection in points, where it is not impoffible that we may be deceived. Intemperate zeal, bigotry and perfecution for any party or opinion, how praife-worthy foever they may appear to weak men of our own principles, produce infinite calainities among mankind, and are highly criminal in their own nature; and yet how many perfons eminent for piety fuffer fuch monftrous and abfurd principles of action to take root in their minds under the colour of virtues? For my own part, I muft own, I never yet knew any party fo juft and reafonable, that a man could follow it in its height and violence, and at the fame time be innocent.

We should likewife be very apprehenfive of thofe actions which proceed from natural conftitution, favourite paflions, particular education, or whatever promotes our worldly intereft or advantage. In thefe and the like cafes, a man's judgment is eafily perverted, and a wrong bias hung upon his mind. These are the inlets of prejudice, the unguarded avenues of the mind, by which a thousand errors and fecret faults find admiffion, without being obferved or taken notice of. A wife man will fufpect thofe actions to which he is directed by femething befides reafon, and always apprehend fome conccaled evil in every refolution that is of a difputable nature, when it is conformable to his particular temper, his age, or way of life, or when it favours his pleafure or his profit.

There is nothing of greater importance to us than thus diligently to fift our thoughts, and examine all these dark receffes of the mind, if we would eftablish our fouls in fuch a folid and fubftantial virtue as will turn to account in that great day, when it must ftand the test of infinite wisdom and justice.

I fhall conclude this effay with obferving that the two kinds of hypocrify I have here fpoken of, namely, that of deceiving the world, and that of impofing on ourselves, are touched with wonderful beauty in the hundred thirtyninth pfalm. The folly of the first kind of hypocrify is there fet forth by reflections on God's omnifcience and omniprefence, which are celebrated in as noble ftrains of poetry as any other I ever met with either facred or profane. The other kind of hypocrify, whereby a man deceives himself, is intimated in the two laft verfes where the pfalmift addreffes himself to the great Searcher of hearts in that emphatical petition; Try me, O God, and feek the ground of my heart; prove me, and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlafting.'

L.

IT fhould, methinks, preferve modefty and its interefts

in the world, that the tranfgreffion of it always creates
offence;
and the very purposes of wantonnefs are de-
feated by a carriage which has in it so much boldness,
as to intimate that fear and reluctance are quite extin-
guifhed in an object which would be otherwife defirable.
It was faid of a wit of the laft age,

Sedley has that prevailing gentle art,
Which can with a refiftlefs charm impart
The loofeft wishes to the chafteft heart;
Raife fuch a conflict, kindle fuch a fire,
Between declining virtue and defire,

That the poor vanquish'd maid diffolves away
In dreams all night, in fighs and tears all day.

This prevailing gentle art was made up of complaifance, courtship, and artful conformity to the modefty

of a woman's manners. Rufticity, broad expreflion, and forward obtrusion, offend thofe of education, and make the tranfgreffors odious to all who have inerit enough to attract regard. It is in this tafte that the fcenery is fo beautifully ordered in the defcription which Antony makes in the dialogue between him and Dolabella, of Cleopatra in her barge.

JA

1

Her galley down the filver Cidnos row'd;

The tackling filk, the ftreamers wav'd with gold;
The gentle winds were lodg'd in purple fails;
Her nymphs, like Nereids, round her couch were plac'd,
Where the, another fea-born Venus, lay;

She lay, and lean'd her cheek upon her hand,
Ard caft a look fo languifhingly fweet,

As if fecure of all beholders hearts,

Neglecting the could take them. Boys like Cupids
Stood fanning with their painted wings the winds
That play'd about her face: but if the finil'd,
A darting glory feem'd to blaze abroad,

That mens defiring eyes were never weary'd,
But hung upon the object, To foft flutes

The filver cars kept time: and while they play'd
The hearing gave new pleasure to the fight,
And both to thought-

Here the imagination is warmed with all the objects prefented, and yet there is nothing that is lufcious, or what raises any idea more loose than that of a beautiful woman fet off to advantage. The like, or more delicate and careful spirit of modefty, appears in the following paffage in one of Mr. Philips's pastorals.

Breathe foft ye winds, ye waters gently flow,
Shield her ye trees, ye flow'rs around her grow;
Ye fwains, I beg you, pafs in filence by,
My love in yonder vale afleep does lie.

Defire is corrected when there is a tenderness or admiration expreffed which partakes the paffion. Licentious language has fomething brutal in it, which disgraces humanity, and leaves us in the condition of the favages in the field. But it may be asked, to what good ufe can tend a difcourfe of this kind at all? It is to alarm Vol. VI.

B

chafte ears against such as have what is above called the prevailing gentle art. Mafters of that talent are capable of clothing their thoughts in fo foft a drefs, and fomething fo diftant from the fecret purpose of their heart, that the imagination of the unguarded is touched with a fondnefs which grows too infenfibly to be refifted. Much care and concern for the lady's welfare, to feem afraid left the fhould be annoyed by the very air which furrounds her, and this uttered rather with kind looks, and expreffed by an interjection, an ah, or an oh, at fome little hazard in moving or making a ftep, than in any direct profeffion of love, are the methods of fkilful admirers: they are honeft arts when their purpofe is fuch, but infamous when mifapplied... It is certain that many a young woman in this town has had her heart irrecoverably won, by men who have not made one advance which ties their admirers, though the females languifh with the utmoft anxiety. I have often by way of admonition to my female readers, given them warning against agreeable company of the other fex, except they are well acquainted with their characters. Women may difguife it if they think fit, and the more to do it, they may be angry at me for faying it; but I fay it is natural to them, that they have no manner of approbation of men, without fome degree of love: for this reafon he is dangerous to be entertained as a friend or vifitant, who is capable of gaining any eminent efteem or obfervation, though it be never to remote from pretenfions as a lover. If a man's heart has not the abhorrence of any treacherous defign, he may eafily improve approbation into kindness, and kindness into paffion. There may poffibly be no manner of love between them in the eyes of all their acquaintance; no, it is all friendship; and yet they may be as fond as fhepherd and thepherdefs in a paftoral, but ftill the nymph and the fwain may be to each other no other, I warrant you, than Pylades and Oreftes.

When Lucy decks with flowers her fwelling breaft, And on her elbow leans, diffembling reft; Unable to refrain my madding mind,

Ner theep nor pafture worth my care I find.

Once Delia flept, on eafy mofs reclin'd,
Her lovely limbs half bare, and rude the wind:
I fmooth'd her coats, and ftole a filent kifs:
Condemn me, fhepherds, if I did amifs.

Such good offices as there, and fuch friendly thoughts and concerns for one another, are what make up the anity, as they call it, between man and woman.

It is the permillion of fuch intercourfe, that makes a young woman come to the arms of her husband, after the difappointment of four or five paffions which fhe has fucceffively had for different men, before fhe is prudentially given to him for whom fhe has neither love nor friendship. For what fhould a poor creature do, that has loft all her friends? There is Marinet the agreeable, has, to my knowledge, had a friendship for lord Welford, which had like to break her heart; then she had fo great a friendship for colonel Hardy, that he could not endure any woman elfe fhould do ary thing but rail at him. Many and fatal have been difafters between friends who have fallen out, and these refentments are more keen than ever those of other men can poffibly be: but in this it happens unfortunately, that as there ought to be nothing concealed from one friend to another, the friends of different fexes very often find fatal effects from their unanimity.

For my part, who ftudy to pafs life in as much innocence and tranquillity as I can, I fhun the company of agreeable women as much as poffible; and must confefs that I have, though a tolerable good philofopher, but a low opinion of Platonic love: for which reafon I thought it neceffary to give my fair readers a caution against it," having, to my great concern, obferved the waift of a Platonift lately fwell to a roundnefs which is inconfiftent with that philofophy.

T..