fear of any ill confequence, or want of refpect, from their rage or defpair. She has that in her aspect, against which it is impoffible to offend. A man whofe thoughts are conftantly bent upon fo agreeable an object, must be excufed if the ordinary occurrences in conversation are below his attention. I call her indeed perverfe, but, alas! why do I call her fo? because her fuperior merit is fuch, that I cannot approach her without awe, that my heart is checked by too much efteem: I am angry that her charms are not more acceptable, that I am more inclined to worship than falute her: How often have I wifhed her unhappy that I might have an opportunity of ferving her? and how often troubled in that very imagination, at giving her the pain of being obliged? Well, I have led a miferable life in fecret upon her account; but fancy fhe would have condefcended to have fome regard for me, if it had not been for that watchful animal her confident.

Of all perfons under the fun (continued he, calling me by my name) be fure to fet a mark upon confidents: they are of all people the most impertinent. What is moft pleasant to obferve in them, is, that they aflume to themfelves the merit of the perfons whom they have in their cuftody. Oreftilla is a great fortune, and in wonderful danger of furprifes, therefore full of fufpicions of the leaft indifferent thing, particularly careful of new acquaintance, and of growing too familiar with the old. Themifta, her favourite woman, is every whit as careful of whom she speaks to, and what fhe fays. Let the ward be a beauty, her confident fhall treat you with an air of distance; let her be a fortune, and the affumes the fufpicious behaviour of her friend and patronefs. Thus it is that very many of our unmarried women of diftinction, are to all intents and purposes married, except the confideration of different fexes. They are directly under the conduct of their whifperer; and think they are in a state of freedom, while they can prate with one of these attendants of all men in general, and ftill avoid the man they most like. You do not fee one heirefs in a hundred whofe fate does not turn upon this circumftance of choofing a confident. Thus it is that the lady is addreffed to, prefented and flattered, only by proxy,

in her woman. In my cafe, how is it poffible thatSir ROGER was proceeding in his harangue, when we heard the voice of one speaking very importunately, and repeating these words, What, not one fmile?'

We

followed the found till we came to a close thicket, on the other fide of which we faw a young woman fitting as it were in a perfonated fullennefs juft over a transparent fountain. Oppofite to her stood Mr. William, Sir ROGER'S mafter of the game. The Knight whisper'd me, · Hift, thefe are lovers.' The huntfman looking earnestly at the fhadow of the young maiden in the ftream, Oh thou dear picture, if thou couldst remain there in the • abfence of that fair creature whom you represent in the water, how willingly could I ftand here fatisfied 'for ever, without troubling my dear Betty herself with any mention of her unfortunate William, whom she is angry with: But alas! when the pleases to be gone, thou wilt alfo vanifh- -yet let me talk to thee ⚫ while thou doft stay. Tell my dearest Betty thou doft not more depend upon her, than does her William : Her abfence will make away with me as well as thee. If the offers to remove thee, I'll jump into these waves to lay hold on thee; herself, her own dear perfon, 1 muft never embrace again.- -Still do

you hear me without one fmile-It is too much to bear' He had no fooner spoke these words, but he made an offer of throwing himself into the water: At which his mistress started up, and at the next instant he jumped a-cross the fountain and met her in an embrace. She half recovering from her fright, faid in the most charming voice imaginable, and with a tone of complaint, I thought how well you would drown yourfelf. "No, no, you won't drown yourself till you have taken your leave of Sufan Holiday." The huntfman, with a tenderness that spoke the most paffionate love, and with his cheek close to hers, whifper'd the fofteft vows of fidelity in her ear, and cried, Don't my dear, believe

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a word Kate Willow fays; he is fpiteful, and makes 'ftories becaufe fhe loves to hear me talk to herself for your fake.' Look you there, quoth Sir ROGER, do fee there, all mifchief comes from confidents! But let us not interrupt them; the maid is honeft, and the

you

man dares not be otherwise, for he knows I loved her father: I will interpose in this matter, and haften the wedding. Kate Willow is a witty mischievous wench in the neighbourhood, who was a beauty; and makes me hope I fhall fee the perverfe widow in her condition. She was fo flippant with her anfwers to all the honeft fellows that came near her, and fo very vain of her beauty, that he has valued herself upon her charms till they are ceafed. She therefore now makes it her business to prevent other young women from being more difcreet than fhe was herfelf: However, the faucy thing faid the other day well enough, Sir ROGER and I muft make a match, for we are both defpifed by those we loved: The huffy has a great deal of power whereever he comes, and has her fhare of cunning.

6

However, when I reflect upon this woman, I do not know whether in the main I am the worfe for having loved her: Whenever fhe is recalled to my imagination my youth returns, and I feel a forgotten warmth in my veins. This affliction in my life has ftreaked all my conduct with a foftness, of which I fhould otherwife have been incapable. It is, perhaps, to this dear image in my heart owing, that I am apt to relent, that I easily forgive, and that many defirable things are grown into my temper, which I fhould not have arrived at by better motives than the thought of being one day hers. I am pretty well fatisfied fuch a paffion as I have had is never well cured; and between you and me, I am often apt to imagine it has had fome whimsical effect upon my brain: For I frequently find, that in my moft ferious difcourfe I let fall fome comical familiarity of speech or odd phrafe that makes the company laugh; how ever, I cannot but allow fhe is a moft excellent woman. When he is in the country I warrant fhe does not run into dairies, but reads upon the nature of plants; but has a glafs-hive, and comes into the garden out of books to fee them work, and obferve the policies of their commonwealth. She understands every thing. I'd give ten pounds to hear her argue with my friend Sir ANDREW FREEPORT about trade. No, no, for all fhe looks fo innocent as it were, take my word for it The is no fool.

T

Tuesday,

Urbem quam dicunt Romam, Melibae, putavi
Stultus ego buic noftræ fimilem

Virg. Ecl. t. v. 20.

Fool that I was, I thought imperial Rome
Like Mantua.

T

DRYDEN.

HE firft and most obvious reflections which arise in a man who changes the city for the country, are upon the different manners of the people whom he meets with in thofe two different fcenes of life. By manners I do not mean morals, but beha viour and good-breeding, as they fhew themfelves in the town and in the country.

And here, in the first place, I muft obferve a very great revolution that has happen'd in this article of good-breeding. Several obliging deferences, condefcenfions and fubmiffions, with many outward forms and ceremonies that accompany them, were first of all brought up among the politer part of mankind, who lived in courts and cities, and diftinguished themselves from the ruftick part of the fpecies (who on all occafions acted bluntly and naturally) by fuch a mutual complaifance and intercourfe of civilities. Thefe forms of converfation by degrees multiplied and grew troublefome; the modish world found too great a conftraint in them, and have therefore thrown most of them afide. Converfation, like the Romish religion, was fo incumbered with how and ceremony, that it flood in need of a reformation to retrench its fuperfluities, and reftore it to its natural good fenfe and beauty. At prefent therefore an unconftrained carriage, and a certain openness of behaviour, are the height of good breeding. The fashionable world is grown free and easy; our manners fit more loofe upon us: Nothing is fo Modish as an agreeable negligence. In a word, goodbreeding

breeding fhews itself moft, where to an ordinary eye it appears the leaft.

If after this we look on the people of mode in the country, we find in them the manners of the laft age. They have no fooner fetched themselves up to the fashion of the polite world, but the town has dropped them, and are nearer to the firft ftate of nature than to those refinements which formerly reign'd in the court, and still prevail in the country. One may now know a man that never converfed in the world, by his excess of good-breeding. A polite country 'Squire fhall make you as many bows in half an hour, as would serve a courtier for a week. There is infinitely more to do about place and precedency in a meeting of juftices wives, than in an affembly of dutchesses.

This rural politeness is very troublesome to a man of my temper, who generally take the chair that is next me, and walk first or last, in the front or in the rear, as chance directs. I have known my friend Sir ROGER'S dinner almoft cold before the company could adjust the ceremonial, and be prevailed upon to fit down; and have heartily pitied my old friend, when I have feen him forced to pick and cull his guests, as they fat at the feveral parts of his table, that he might drink their healths according to their refpective ranks and qualities. Honest Will Wimble, who I should have thought had been altogether uninfected with ceremony, gives me abundance of trouble in this particular. Tho' he has been fishing all the morning, he will not help himself at dinner till I am ferved. When we are going out of the hall, he runs behind me; and last night, as we were walking in the fields, ftopped fhort at a file till I came up to it, and upon my making figns to him to get over, told me, with a serious fmile, that fure I believed they had no manners in the country.

There has happened another revolution in the point of good-breeding, which relates to the converfation among men of mode, and which I cannot but look upon as very extraordinary. It was certainly one of the firft diftinctions of a well-bred man, to exprefs every thing that had the most remote appearance of being obfcene, in modeft terms and diftant phrafes;

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whilft