The empty found which lulls mankind

With fawning titles, flattery, and deceit;
Had not, as yet, become a tool of state,
And rul'd the tyrant of the human kind.

GUARINI'S Paftor Fido.

When I fee worthless people reverenced merely for their dignity and fortune, it puts me in mind of the Egyptians deifying and worshipping monkeys: it was an artful and refined floke of policy in them, to fingle out fo ridiculous an animal, in order to fhew, that the most despicable perfon, was entitled to reverence, by the honours conferred on him.

Some illuftrious perfonages choose to screen themselves from public view, by pomp and pageantry this I think is very excufable, when it proceeds from modefty, and a confcioufnefs that the less they are known, the more they will be esteemed.If they poffeffed fhining talents, and intrinfic merit, they would be glad to lay afide the ufelefs incumbrance of ftate, and difplay thofe qualities which can alone render men great and amiable. Such was a Chesterfield's conduct when among us. To give another inftance at prefent, might be reckoned flattery.

--

Civility and complaifance, an external polish and refinement, have been adopted, as a fub

ftitute

To

ftitute for humanity and benevolence. difguife every fentiment of the human heart, is efteemed an effential point in modern politenefs, which has arrived to its utmost perfection in courts, where there is the greatest demand for diffimulation. Thus it ferves a double purpose-to varnish the outfide, and disguise the heart; like painting windows, which both beautifies and obfcures them,This has alfo given birth to the double entendre, .fo much the mode of modern conversation; for it is not the defign of this fyftem, to banish all indelicate ideas, but to gain them an easier admiffion, by aiming at the fancy, without offending the ear. By this means, the imagination is rendered "tremblingly alive all o'er," and ready to take fire at the moft diftant illufion; like phosphorus, which will blaze by the mere warmth of the hand: it also gives ladies a fpecious pretence of affecting ignorance, and fo liftening to fuch converfation, without any breach of the laws of decorum.

Certain loose phrases are alfo profcribed in good company, not on account of their immodefty, but because diftant hints have a better effect on the chaffed and apprehenfive fancy, without conveying precife ideas, which might restrain its agreeable wanderings.

A nice

A nice and faftidious ear diftinguishes the fashionable from the unpolished part of the fex; the latter are feldom offended by indecent words, because they do not pique themselves on appearing ignorant of their meaning;—but as fuch expreffions are too plain, not to be clearly intelligible, they are highly resented by the former, who are then forced to feem angry, to keep up a fhew of modesty.

When a blush vermilions the face of a wellbred woman, it is fuch a spurious one as Swift mentions, "They blush because they understand;" that is, from the pleasure they find in the fubject, and in their quickness of apprehenfion. This is very different from the genuine blush of modefty, the offspring of a delicate mind, alarmed at any ideas inconfiftent with its own purity, and wifely designed by nature as a check and guard against the soft and feducing allurements of fenfual paffion.

Diffidence, timidity, and a train of delicate apprehenfions, are the beft prefervatives of female virtue: modern manners have a direct tendency to deprive the ladies of thofe unfashionable qualities. This judicious mode of conquering the fair, was first introduced in France: the Beaux Efprits confider a woman

like

like an artichoke, which must be ftript of its leaves, to come at its bottom.

Y

NUMBER XVI.

Belial.

On th' other fide up

he feemed

For dignity composed and high exploit :

But all was falfe and hollow; though his tongue
Dropp'd manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reafon, to perplex and dash

Matureft counfels; for his thoughts were low;
To vice induftrious but to nobler deeds
Timorous and flothful: yet he pleased the ear.

I

To JEOFFRY WAGSTAFF, Efq.

SIR,

MILTON.

HAVE always been an admirer of Junius's

Attic eloquence. He is equally concise, clear, and nervous; and not more diftinguished by superior abilities, than by the peculiarity of ftyle, which has produced fo many vapid and weak imitations.—We have scarce a writer in our language, by whom we can form a comparative idea of his merit. Our witty countryman, Swift, has left us no fpecimens of that rapid and commanding eloquence, which seems

to

flow with fuch eafe from Junius's pen.

The

quick and fertile fancy of the one, always furnifhed him with ludicrous comparisons, ftinging farcafms, and apt allufions: his language was correct, expreffive, and intelligible to the meaneft capacity. The perfuafive energy of the other, attracts our attention, and as he proceeds, we ftill conceive an higher idea of his fubtle geeven when we fuppofe him exhausted, he astonishes us with new and furprising strokes of the most refined and bitter fatire.

nius;

festly superior.

Junius's letters, and Lord Bolingbroke's papers in the Craftsman, bear a clofe refemblance to each other; but the former are manifuperior. Bolingbroke is diffuse and verbofe; his periods are often tedious; the fenfe left ambiguous by a wrong arangement, and frequently broken by fuperfluous and encumbering parentheses. On the contrary, Junius condenfes his thoughts ;they acquire, like a phalanx, additional force from their compactness; the perfpicuity of his ftyle is remarkable, for it is impoffible to mistake his meaning. With all these advantages, Junius is but a fophift: his arguments, cloathed in a figurative and splendid diction, convey an infiduous addrefs to the paffions and prejudices of his readers, instead of a candid appeal to their understandings.

4

When