BEFORE I Conclude, I cannot but take notice of those luscious love-fcenes, that have fo great a fhare in our modern plays; which are rendered ftill more fulfome by the officiousness of the player, who takes every opportunity of heightening the expreffion by kiffes and embraces. In a comedy, nothing is more relished by the audience than a loud fmack, which echoes through the whole house; and in the most paffionate scenes of a tragedy, the hero and heroine are continually flying into each others arms. For my part I am never present at a scene of this kind, which produces a conscious fimper from the boxes, and an hearty chuckle of applause from the pit and galleries, but I am ready to exclaim with old Renault- I like not thefe huggers."

I WOULD recommend it to all married people, but especially to the ladies, not to be so sweet upon their dears before company: but I would not be understood to countenance that coldness and indifference, which is fo fashionable in the polite world. Nothing is accounted more ungenteel, than for a husband and wife to be seen together in public places; and if they should ever accidentally meet, they take no more notice of each other, than if they were abfolute strangers. The gentleman may lavish as much gallantry as Ꭰ 6

he

he pleases on other women, and the lady give encouragement to twenty pretty fellows, without cenfure but they would either of them blush at being furprised, in fhewing the least marks of a regard for each other.

I

I am, Sir,

T

Your humble Servant, &c.

NUMB. VIII. Thursday, March 21, 1754.

O quanta fpecies cerebrum non habet!

PHÆDR.

In outward fhew fo fplendid and so vain,
'Tis but a gilded block without a brain.

MUST acknowledge the receipt of many letters, containing very lavish encomiums on my works. Among the reft a correspondent, whom I take to be a bookfeller, is pleased to compliment me on the goodness of my print and paper; but tells me, that he is very forry not to fee fomething expreffive of my undertaking, in the little cut that I in front. It is true, carry indeed, that my printer and publisher held fe

ral confultations on this fubject; and I am afhamed to confefs, that they had once prevailed on me to fuffer a profile of my face to be prefixed to each number. But when it was finifhed, I was quite mortified to see what a scurvy figure I made in wood: Nor could I fubmit to be hung out, like Broughton, at my own door, or let my face ferve like the canvas before a booth, to call people in to the fhew.

I HOPE it will not be imputed to envy or malevolence, that I here remark on this part of the productions of Mr. Fitz-Adam. When he gave his paper the title of The WORLD, I suppose he meant to intimate his defign of describing that part of it, who are known to account all other perfons Nobody, and are therefore emphatically called The WORLD. If this was to be pictured out in the head-piece, a lady at her toilette, a party at whift, or the jovial member of the Dilettanti tapping the World for Champagne, had been the most natural and obvious hieroglyphics. But when we see the pourtrait of a Philofopher poring on the globe, instead of observations on modern life we might more naturally expect a fyftem of geography, or an attempt towards a discovery of the longitude.

THE

THE reader will fmile perhaps at a criticifm of this kind; yet certainly even here propriety fhould be obferved, or at leaft all abfurdities avoided. But this matter being usually left to the printer or bookfeller, it is often attended with ftrange blunders and mifapplications. I have seen a Sermon ushered in with the reprefentation of a fhepherd and shepherdess sporting on a bank of flowers, with two little Cupids smiling over head; while perhaps an Epithalamium, or an Ode for a Birth-day, has been introduced with death's heads and croís-marrow-bones.

THE inhabitants of Grub-street are generally very studious of propriety in this point. Before the half-penny account of an horfe-race, we fee the jockeys whipping, fpurring, jostling, and the horses ftraining within fight of the post. The laft dying speech, character, and behaviour of the malefactors prefents us with a profpect of the place of execution; and the history of the London Prentice exhibits the figure of a lad ftanding between two lions, and ramming his hands down their throats. A due regard has been paid to this article, in the feveral elegies from that quarter on the death of Mr. Pelham. They are encompaffed with dismal black lines, and all the fable emblems of death: Nor can we doubt, but

that

that an author, who takes fuch care to exprefs a decent forrow on the outfide of his work, has infused a great deal of the pathetic into the piece itself.

THESE little embellishments were originally defigned to please the eye of the reader; as we tempt children to learn their letters by difpofing the alphabet into pictures. But, in our modern compofitions, they are not only ornamental, but ufeful. An angel or a flower-pot, at the beginning and end of every chapter or fection, enables the bookfeller to fpin out a novel, without plot or incident, to a great number of volumes; and by the help of these decorations, properly difpofed, I have known a little piece fwell into a duodecimo, which had fcarce matter enough for a fix-penny pamphlet.

In this place I might also take notice of the fe veral new improvements in the business of Typography. Though it is reckoned ungenteel to write a good hand, yet every one is proud of appearing in a beautiful print; and the productions of a man of quality come from the press in a very neat letter, though perhaps the manuscript is hardly legible. Indeed, our modern writers feem to be more follicitous about outward elegance, than