the Ruftick part of the Species (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 Constraint in them, and have therefore thrown moft of them afide. Conversation, like the Romish Religion, was fo encumbered with Show and Ceremony, that it ftood in need of a Reformation to retrench its Superfluities, and restore it to its natural good Senfe and Beauty. At present therefore an unconftrained Carriage, and a certain Openness of Behaviour, are the height of Good-Breeding. The Fashionable World is grown free and eafie; our Manners fit more loose upon us: Nothing is fo modifh as an agreeable Negligence. In a Word, Good-Breeding fhews it felf 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 last Age: They have no fooner fetched themselves up to the Fashion of the polite World, but the Town has dropped them, and

are

are nearer to the firft State of Nature than to thofe Refinements which formerly reigned in the Court, and ftill prevail in the Country. One may now know a Man that never converfed in the World by his Excefs of good Breeding. A Polite Country Squire fhall make you as many Bows in half an Hour, as would ferve a Courtier for a Week. There is infinitely more to do about Place and Precedency in a Meeting of Juftices Wives, than in an Assembly of Dutcheffes.

THIS Rural Politeness is very troublesome to a Man of my Temper, who generally take the Chair that is next me, and walk firft or laft, in the Front or in the Rear, as Chance directs. I have known my Friend Sir ROGER'S Dinner almost 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 refpe&tive Ranks and Qualities. Honeft Will. Wimble, who I fhould have thought had been altogether uninfected with Čeremony,

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remony, gives me abundance of Trou 'ble 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 laft Night, as we were walking in the Fields, stopped fhort at a Stile 'till I came up to it, and upon my making Signs to him to get over, told me, with a ferious Smile, 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 Distinctions of a well-bred Man, to exprefs every thing that had the most remote Appearances of being obfcene, in modest Terms and diftant Phrafes; whilft the Clown, who had no fuch Delicacy of Conception and Expreffion, cloathed his Ideas in thofe plain homely Terms that are the most obvious and natural. This kind of Good-Manners was perhaps carried to an Excefs, fo as to make Converfation too ftiff, formal and precife: for which Reafon (as Hypocrify

1

in one Age is generally fucceeded by Atheism in another) Converfation is in a great measure relapfed into the first Extream; So that at prefent feveral of our Men of the Town, and particularly those who have been polished in France, make ufe of the most coarse uncivilized Words in our Language, and utter themfelves often in fuch a manner as a Clown would blush to hear.

. THIS infamous Piece of GoodBreeding, which reigns among the Coxcombs of the Town, has not yet made its way into the Country; and as it is impoffible for fuch an irrational way of Converfation to laft long among a People that makes any Profeffion of Religion, or Show of Modefty, if the Country Gentlemen get into it they will certainly be left in the Lurch. Their Good-Breeding will come too late to them, and they will be thought a Parcel of lewd Clowns, while they fancy themselves talking together like Men of Wit and Pleasure.

AS the two Points of Good-Breeding, which I have hitherto infifted upon, regard Behaviour and Converfation, B 4

there

there is a third which turns upon Drefs. In this too the Country are very much behind-hand. The Rural Beaus are not yet got out of the Fafhion that took place at the time of the Revolution, but ride about the Country in red Coats and laced Hats, while the Women in many Parts are ftill trying to outvie one another in the Height of their Head-dreffes.

BUT a Friend of mine, who is now upon the Western Circuit, having promised to give me an Account of the feveral Modes and Fafhions that prevail in the different Parts of the Nation through which he paffes, I fhall defer the enlarging upon this laft Topick 'till I have received a Letter from him, which I expect every Poft.. L

Wednesday,