-For this reason, no style of converfation is more extensively acceptable than the narrative. He who has ftored his memory with flight anecdotes, private incidents, and perfonal peculiarities, feldom fails to find his audience favourable. Almost every man liftens with eagerness to contemporary hiftory; for alimoft every man has fome real or imaginary connection with a celebrated character; fome defire to advance or oppofe a rifing name, Vanity often cooperates with curiofity. He that is a hearer in one place, qualifies himself to become a speaker in another; for though he cannot comprehend a feries of argument, or tranfport the volatile fpirit of wit without evaporation, he yet thinks himself able to treasure up the various incidents of a story, and pleases his hopes with the information which he shall give to fome inferior fociety.

Narratives are for the most part heard without envy, because they are not fuppofed to imply any intellectual qualities above the common rate. To be acquainted with facts not yet echoed by plebeian mouths, may happen to one man as well as to another; and to relate them when they are known, has in appearance fo little difficulty, that every one concludes himself equal to the task.

But it is not eafy, and in fome fituations of life not poffible, to accumulate fuch a stock of materials as may fupport the expence of continual narration; and it frequently happens, that they who at tempt this method of ingratiating themfelves, please only at the first interview; and, for want of new fupplies of intelligence, wear out their stories by continual repetition.

There would be, therefore, little hope of obtaining the praife of a good companion, were it not to be gained by more compendious methods; but fuch is the kindness of mankind to all, except thofe who afpire to real merit and rational dignity, that every understanding may find fome way to excite benevolence; and whoever is not envied may learn the art of procuring love. We are willing to be pleafed, but are not willing to admire; we favour the mirth or officioufnefs that Solicits our regard, but oppose the worth or fpirit that enforces it.

The first place among thofe that please, because they defire only to please, is due to the merry fellow, whofe laugh is loud,

and whofe voice is ftrong; who is ready to echo every jeft with obftreperous approbation, and countenance every frolick with vociferations of applause. "It is not neceffary to a merry fellow to have in himself any fund of jocularity, or force of conception; it is fufficient that he always appears in the highest exaltation of gladness, for the greater part of mankind are gay or ferious by infection, and follow without resistance the attrac tion of example.

Next to the merry fellow is the goodnatured man, a being generally without benevolence, or any other virtue, than fuch as indolence and infenfibility confer. The characteristick of a goodnatured man is to bear a joke; to fit unmoved and unaffected amidst noife and turbulence, profaneness and obfcenity; to hear every tale without contradiction; to endure infult without reply; and to follow the ftream of folly, whatever courfe it fhall happen to take. The good-natured man is commonly the darling of the petty wits, with whom they exercise themselves in the rudiments of raillery; for he never takes advantage of failings, nor difconcerts a puny fatirift with unexpected farcafms; but while the glafs continues to circulate, contentedly bears the expence of uninterrupted laughter, and retires rejoicing at his own importance.

The modeft man is a companion of a yet Tower rank, whofe only power of giving pleasure is not to interrupt it. The modeft man fatisfies himself with peaceful filence, which all his companions are candid enough to confider as proceeding not from inability to speak, but willingness to hear.

Many, without being able to attain any general character of excellence have fome fingle art of entertainment which ferves them as a paffport through the world. One I have known for fifteen years the darling of a weekly club, because every night, precisely at eleven, he begins his favourite fong, and during the vocal performance, by correfponding motions of his hand, chalks out a giant upon the wall. Another has endeared himself to a long fucceffion of acquaintances by fitting among them with his wig reverfed; another by contriving to fmut the nofe of any ftranger who was to be initiated in the club; another by purring like a car, and

eftablished; arts, which those who defpife them should not rigorously blame, except when they are practifed at the neceffary to be loved, but not always expence of innocence; for it is always neceffary to be reverenced.

notice of mankind.

The artful and fraudulent ufurpers of diftinction deserve greater feverities than ridicule and contempt, fince they are feldom content with empty praise, but are inftigated by paffions more pernicious than vanity. They confider the reputation which they endeavour to establish as neceffary to the accomplishment of fome subsequent defign, and value praife only as it may conduce to the success of avarice or ambition.

The commercial world is very frequently put into confufion by the bankruptcy of merchants, that affumed the fplendour of wealth only to obtain the privilege of trading with the stock of other men, and of contracting debts which nothing but lucky cafualties could enable them to pay; till after having supported their appearance a while by tumultuous magnificence of boundless traffick, they fink at once, and drag

MART.

F. LEWIS. down into poverty those whom their

piness in the favour of the great, of Among wretches that place their hapbeings whom only high titles or large eftates fet above themselves, nothing is more common than to boast of confidence which they do not enjoy ; to sell promises which they know then interest unable to perform; and to reimburse the tribute from the contributions of meaner dewhich they pay to an imperious master, pendants, whom they can amufe with tales of their influence, and hopes of their folicitation.

and volatile for avarice or ambition, Even among fome, too thoughtless may be found a fpecies of falsehood more deteftable than the levee or exchange can fhew. There are men that boast of debaucheries, of which they ne-、 ver had addrefs to be guilty; ruin, by lewd tales, the characters of women to whom they are scarcely known, or by whom they have been rejected; destroy in a drunken frolick the happiness of families; blaft the bloom of beauty, and intercept the reward of virtue.

Other artifices of falsehood, though utterly unworthy of an ingenuous mind, are not yet to be ranked with flagitious enormities, nor is it neceffary to incite fanguinary juftice against them, fince they may be adequately punished by detection and laughter. The traveller who defcribes cities which he has never London, tells of his intimacy with nofeen; the fquire who, at his return from bles to whom he has only bowed in the park, or coffee-house; the author who entertains his admirers with stories of the affiftance which he gives to wits of a higher rank; the city dame who

talks

talks of her vifits at great houses, where the happens to know the cook maid; are furely fuch harmiefs animals as truth herfelf may be content to defpife with out defiring to hurt them.

But of the multitudes who ftruggle in vain for distinction, and display their own merits only to feel more acutely the fting of neglect, à great part are wholly innocent of deceit, and are betrayed, by infatuation and credulity, to that icorn with which the univerfal love of praife incites us all to drive feeble competitors out of our way.

Few men furvey themselves with fo much severity, as not to admit prejudices in their own favour, which an artful flatterer may gradually ftrengthen, till wishes for a particular qualification are improved to hopes of attainment, and hopes of attainment to belief of poffeffion. Such flatterers every one will find, who has power to reward their affiduities. Wherever there is wealth, there will be dependance and expectation; and wherever there is dependance, there will be an emulation of fervility.

Many of the follies which provoke general cenfure, are the effects of fuch vanity as, however it might have wantoned in the imagination, would fcarcely have dared the publick eye, had it not been animated and emboldened by flattery. Whatever difficulty there may be in the knowledge of ourfelves, fcarcely any one fails to fufpect his own imperfections, till he is elevated by others to confidence. We are almost all naturally modeft and timorous; but fear and fhame are uneafy fenfations, and whofoever helps to remove them is received with kindness.

Turpicula was the heiress of a large eftate, and having loft her mother in her infancy, was committed to a governess whom misfortunes had reduced to fup

plenefs and humility. The fondness of Turpicula's father would not fuffer him to truit her at a publick school, but he hired domeftick teachers, and bestowed on her all the accomplishments that wealth could purchase. But how many things are neceffary to happiness which money cannot obtain? Thus fecluded from all with whom the might converse on terms of equality, he heard none of thofe intimations of her defects, which envy, petulance, or anger, produce among children, where they are not afraid of telling what they think.

Turpicula faw nothing but obfequioufnels, and heard nothing but commendations. None are so little acquainted with the heart, as not to know that a woman's first wifh is to be handsome, and that confequently the readieft method of obtaining her kindness is to praife her beauty. Turpicula had a diftorted shape and a dark complexion; yet when the impudence of adulation had ventured to tell her of the commanding dignity of her motion, and the foft enchantment of her fmile, she was easily convinced, that she was the delight or torment of every eye, and that all who gazed upon her felt the fire of envy or love. She therefore neglected the culture of an understanding which might have fupplied the defects of her form, and applied all her care to the decoration of her perfon; for the confidered that more could judge of beauty than of wit, and was, like the rest of human beings, in haste to be admired. The defire of conqueft naturally led her to the lifts in which beauty fignalizes her power. She glittered at court, fluttered in the park, and talked aloud in the front-box; but, after a thousand experiments of her charms, was at last con. vinced that she had been flattered, and that her glafs was honester than her maid.

N⚫ XCX,