my Eye towards the next Woman to her, WILL. fpoke what I looked, according to his Romantick Imagination, in the following manner:

'BEHOLD, you who dare, that 'charming Virgin; Behold the Beauty of her Perfon chaftifed by the Innocence of her Thoughts. Chastity, "Good-Nature, and Affability, are the Graces that play in her Gountenance; fhe knows the is handsome, but the knows fhe is good; Confcious Beauty adorn'd with confcious Virtue ! What a Spirit is there in those Eyes! What a Bloom in that Perfon! How is the whole Woman expressed in her Appearance! Her Air has the Beauty of Motion, and her Look the Force • of Language.

IT was Prudence to turn away my Eyes from this Object, and therefore I turned them to the thoughtless Creatures who make up the Lump of that Sex, and move a knowing Eye no more than the Portraiture of infignificant People by ordinary Painters, which are but Pictures of Pictures.

THUS the working of my own Mind is the general Entertainment of my Life; I never enter into the Commerce of Discourse with any but my

par

tr

particular Friends, and not in Publick even with them. Such an Habit has perhaps raised in me uncommon ReAlections; but this Effect I cannot communicate but by my Writings. As my Pleasures are almost wholly confined to thofe of the Sight, I take it for a peculiar Happiness that I have always had an eafie and familiar Admittance to the fair Sex. If I never praised or flattered, I never belyed or contradicted them. As these compofe half the World, and are by the juff Complaifance and Gallantry of our Nation the more powerful Part of our People, I fhall dedicate a confiderable Share of these my Speculations to their Service, and fhall lead the Young through all the becoming Duties of Virginity, Marriage, and Widowhood. When it is a Woman's Day, in my Works, I fhall endeavour at a Stile and Air fuitable to their Understanding. When I faw this, I must be understood to mean, that I shall not lower but exalt the Subjects I treat upon. Discourse for their Entertainment, is not to be debafed, but refined. A Man may appear learned, without talking Sentences; as in his ordinary Gefture he discovers he can Dance, though

he

he does not cut Capers. In a Word, I fhall take it for the greatest Glory of my Work, if among reasonable Women this Paper may furnish Tea-Table Talk. In order to it, I fhall treat on Matters which relate to Females, as they are concerned to approach or fly from the other Sex, or as they are tyed to them by Blood, Intereft, or Affection. Upon this Occafion I think it but reasonable to declare, that whatever Skill I may have in Speculation, I fhall never betray what the Eyes of Lovers fay to each other in my Prefence. At the fame time I fhall not think my felf obliged, by this Promife, to conceal any falfe Proteftations, which I obferve made by Glances in publick Affemblies; but endeavour to make both Sexes appear in their Conduct what they are in their Hearts. By this means Love, during the Time of my Speculations, fhall be carried on with the fame Sincerity as any other Affair of lefs Confideration. As this is the greatest Concern, Men fhall be from henceforth liable to the greatest Reproach for Misbehaviour in it. Falfhood in Love fhall hereafter bear a blacker Afpect, than Infidelity in Friendship, or Villany in Bufinefs. For

this great and good End, all Breaches against that noble Paffion, the Cement of Society, fhall be feverely examined. But this, and all other Matters loofely hinted at now, and in my former Papers, fhall have their proper Place in my following Difcourfes: The present Writing is only to admonifh the World, that they fhall not find me an idle, but a bufie Špectator.

A

R

Hor.

N Opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lavish in its Decorations, as its only Defign is to gratifie the Senfes, and keep up an indolent Attention in the Audience. Common Senfe however requires, that there fhould be nothing in the Scenes and Machines which may appear Childish and Abfurd. How would the Wits of King Charles's Time have laughed to have feen Nicolini expofed to a Tempest

in

in Robes of Ermin, and failing in an open Boat upon a Sea of Pafte-board? What a Field of Raillery would they have been let into, had they been entertained with painted Draggons fpitting Wild-fire, enchanted Chariots drawn by Flanders Mares, and real Cafcades in artificial Land-skips? A little Skill in Criticifm would inform us, that Shadows and Realities ought not to be mixed together in the fame Piece; and that the Scenes which are defigned as the Representations of Nature, fhould be filled with Refemblances, and not with the Things themselves. If one would reprefent a wide Champian Country filled with Herds and Flocks, it would be ridiculous to draw the Country only upon the Scenes, and to crowd feveral Parts of the Stage with Sheep and Oxen. This is joining together Inconsistencies, and making the Decoration partly real and partly imagi nary. I would recommend what I have here faid, to the Directors, as well as to the Admirers, of our Modern Opera.

AS I was walking in the Streets about a Fortnight ago, I faw an ordinary Fellow carrying a Cage full of little