within two yards of her; and with a third, because she could not bear the noise of the parrot.

Of milliners and mantua-makers fhe is the proverbial torment. She compels them to alter their work, then to unmake it, and contrive it after another fashion; then changes her mind, and likes it better as it was at firft; then will have a fmall improvement. Thus fhe proceeds till no profit can recompenfe the vexation; they at laft leave the clothes at her houfe, and refufe to ferve her. Her maid, the only being that can endure her tyranny, profeffes to take her own courfe, and hear her mistress talk. Such is the confequence of peevifhnefs; it can be borne only when it is despised.

It sometimes happens that too close an attention to minute exactnefs, or a too rigorous habit of examining every thing by the standard of perfection, vitiates the temper, rather than improves the underftanding, and teaches the mind to difcern faults with unhappy penetration. It is incident likewise to men of vigorous imagination to please themselves too much with futurities, and to fret because those expectations are disappointed, which should never have been formed. Knowledge and genius are often enemies to quiet, by suggesting ideas of excellence, which men and the performances of men cannot attain. But let no man rafhly determine, that his unwillingnefs to be pleafed is a proof of understanding, unless his fuperiority appears from lefs doubtful evidence; for though peevithness may fometimes juftly boast its descent from learning or from wit, it is much oftener of a base extraction, the child of vanity and nurfling of ignorance.

NUMB. 75. TUESDAY, December 4, 1750.

Diligitur nemo, nifi cui Fortuna fecunda eft,
Quæ, fimul intonuit, proxima quæque fugat.

When fmiling Fortune spreads her golden ray,
All crowd around to flatter and obey :
But when the thunders from an angry ský,
Our friends, our flatterers, our lovers fly.

SIR,

TH

To the RAMBLER.

OVID.

Mifs A. W.

'HE diligence with which you endeavour to cultivate the knowledge of nature, manners, and life, will perhaps incline you to pay fome regard to the observations of one who has been taught to know mankind by unwelcome information, and whose opinions are the refult, not of folitary conjectures, but of practice and experience.

I was born to a large fortune, and bred to the knowledge of those arts which are fuppofed to accomplish the mind, and adorn the person of a woman. To these attainments, which custom and education almost forced upon me, I added fome voluntary acquifitions by the ufe of books, and the converfation of that fpecies of men whom the ladies generally mention with terror and averfion under the name of scholars, but whom I have found a harmlefs and inoffenfive order of beings, not fo much wifer than ourselves, but that they may receive as well as communicate knowledge, and more inclined

to

to degrade their own character by cowardly fubmiffion, than to overbear or opprefs us with their learning or their wit,

From these men, however, if they are by kind treatment encouraged to talk, fomething may be gained, which, embellished with elegancy, and foftened by modefty, will always add dignity and value to female converfation; and from my acquaintance with the bookish part of the world I derived many principles of judgment and maxims of prudence, by which I was enabled to draw upon myself the general regard in every place of concourse or pleasure. My opinion was the great rule of approbation, my remarks were remembered by those who defired the fecond degree of fame, my mien was studied, my drefs was imitated, my letters were handed from one family to another, and read by those who copied them as fent to themselves; my vifits were folicited as honours, and multitudes boasted of an intimacy with Melissa, who had only seen me by accident, and whose familiarity had never proceeded beyond the exchange of a compliment, or return of a courtesy.

I fhall make no fcruple of confeffing that I was pleased with this universal yeneration, because I always confidered it as paid to my intrinfick qualities and infeparable merit, and very easily perfuaded myfelf that fortune had no part in my fuperiority. When I looked upon my glass I saw youth and beauty, with health that might give me reason to hope their continuance; when I examined my mind, I found fome ftrength of judgment, and fertility of fancy;

and

and was told that every action was grace, and that every accent was perfuafion.

In this manner my life paffed like a continual triumph amidst acclamations, and envy, and courtfhip, and careffes: to please Meliffa was the general ambition, and every ftratagem of artful flattery was practifed upon me. To be flattered is grateful, even when we know that our praises are not believed by those who pronounce them; for they prove, at leaft, our power, and fhew that our favour is valued, fince it is purchased by the meannefs of falfehood. But, perhaps, the flatterer is not often detected, for an honeft mind is not apt to fufpect, and no one exerts the power of difcernment with much vigour when felf-love favours the deceit.

The number of adorers, and the perpetual diftraction of my thoughts by new schemes of pleasure, prevented me from liftening to any of those who crowd in multitudes to give girls advice, and kept me unmarried and unengaged to my twenty-feventh year, when, as I was towering in all the pride of uncontested excellency, with a face yet little impaired, and a mind hourly improving, the failure of a fund, in which my money was placed, reduced me to a frugal competency, which allowed little beyond neatnefs and independence.

I bore the diminution of my riches without any outrages of forrow, or pufillanimity of dejection. Indeed I did not know how much I had loft, for, having always heard and thought more of my wit and beauty, than of my fortune, it did not fuddenly enter my imagination, that Melissa could fink beneath her established

established rank, while her form and her mind continued the fame; that she could cease to raise admiration but by ceafing to deferve it, or feel any ftroke but from the hand of time.

It was in my power to have concealed the lofs, and to have married, by continuing the fame appearance, with all the credit of my original fortune; but I was not so far funk in my own esteem, as to submit to the bafenefs of fraud, or to defire any other recommendation than fenfe and virtue. I therefore difmiffed my equipage, fold thofe ornaments which were become unfuitable to my new condition, and appeared among those with whom I used to converfe with lefs glitter, but with equal spirit.

I found myself received at every vifit, with forrow beyond what is naturally felt for calamities in which we have no part, and was entertained with condolence and confolation fo frequently repeated, that my friends plainly confulted rather their own gratification, than my relief. Some from that time refused my acquaintance, and forbore, without any provocation, to repay my vifits; fome vifited me, but after a longer interval than ufual, and every return was still with more delay; nor did any of my female acquaintances fail to introduce the mention of my misfortunes, to compare my prefent and former condition, to tell me how much it muft trouble me to want the fplendor which I became fo well, to look at pleasures which I had formerly enjoyed, and to fink to a level with thofe by whom I had been confidered as moving in a higher sphere, and who had hitherto approached me with reverence and fubmiffion, which I was now no longer to expect.

Obferva