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has given me and the Duke of Marlborough, and have thanked him heartily whenever he would please to do good.'

In another letter she says, 'I most heartily wish that in this park I had some of the breed of those charming creatures Swift speaks of, and calls the Houyhnhnms, which I understand to be horses, so extremely polite, and which had all manner of good conversation and good principles, and that never told a lie, and charmed him so that he could not endure his own country when he returned: he says there is a sort of creature there called yahoos, and of the same species with us, only a good deal uglier, but they are kept tied up, and by that glorious creature the horses, are not permitted to do any mischief. You will think that I am distracted with Dean Swift, but I really have not been pleased so much a long time as with what he writes, and therefore I will end with one of his sentences, that he mortally hates kings and ministers.'

Thus the duchess became distracted with Dean Swift; and, on account of his libel against human nature, graciously pardoned his libels against her own sacred person.'

6

But Dr. Swift knew not her favourable opinion of him; for he left in manuscript a severer invective against her than any that he had published in his lifetime. Pity that, for want of information, the misunderstanding should still have subsisted on his part! The good offices of a friend might easily have reconciled two persons so much connected with each other by the common ties of misanthropy.

I am,

&c.

ADELUS.

No. 22. SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 1779.

Sincerum cupimus vas incrustare.

HOR.

SIR,

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE MIRROR.

YOUR Mirror, it seems, possesses uncommon virtues, and you generously hold it out to the public, that we may dress our characters at it. I trust it is, at least, a faithful glass, and will give a just representation of those lurking imperfections or excellencies which we distinguish with difficulty, or sometimes altogether overlook. I struggle, therefore, to get forward in the crowd, and to set before your moral MIRROR a personage who has long embarrassed me.

The observation of character, when I first looked beyond a college for happiness, formed not only my amusement, but, for some years, my favourite study. I had been so fortunate as early to imbibe strict notions of morality and religion, and to arrive at manhood in perfect ignorance of vicious pleasure. My heart was, therefore, led to place its hopes of happiness in love and friendship: but books had taught me to dread misplacing my affections. On this account, anxious to gratify the soif d'aimer that engrossed me, I bent the whole of my little talents to discern the characters of my acquaintance; and, blending sentiments of religion with high notions of moral excellence, and the refined intercourse of cultivated

minds, I fondly hoped, that where I once formed an attachment, it would last for ever.

In this state of mind I became acquainted with Cleone. She was young and beautiful, but without that dimpling play of features which indicates, in some women, a mind of extreme sensibility. Her eye bespoke good sense, and was sometimes lighted up with vivacity, but never sparkled with the keenness of unrestrained joy, nor melted with the suffusion of indulged sorrow. Her manner and address had no tendency to familiarity; it was genteel rather than graceful. Her voice in conversation was suited to her manner; it possessed those level tones which never offend, but seldom give pleasure, and seldomer

emotion.

Her conversation was plain and sensible. Never attempting wit or humour, she contented herself with expressing, in correct and unaffected language, just sentiments on manners and on works of taste: and the genius she displayed in compositions becoming her sex, and the propriety of her own conduct, did honour to her criticisms. She sung with uncommon excellence. Her voice seemed to unfold itself in singing, to suit every musical expression, and to assume every tone of passion she wished to utter. I never felt the power of simple melody in agitating, affecting, and pleasing, more strongly than from her performance.

In company she was attentive, prevenante, but not insinuating; and though she seemed to court the society of men of letters and taste, and to profess having intimate friendships with some individuals among them, I never could perceive that she was subject to the common weakness of making a parade of this kind of intercourse.

Most people would suppose that I had found, in

Cleone, the friend I was seeking; for both of us knew we never could be nearer than friends to each other, and she treated me with some distinction. I found it, however, impossible to know her so well as to place in her the complete confidence essential to friendship. The minutest attention to every circumstance in her appearance and behaviour, and studying her for years in all the little varieties of situation that an intimate acquaintance gave access to observe, proved unequal to discover, with certainty, the genuine character of her disposition or temper. No caprice betrayed her: no predominant shade could be marked in her tears, in her laugh, or in her smiles. Sometimes, however, I have thought she breathed a softness of soul that tempted me to believe her generous: but, when I considered a little, the inner recesses of the heart appeared still shut against the observer; and I well knew that even poignant sensibility is not inconsistent with predominant selfish

ness.

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When contemplating Cleone, I have often thought of that beautiful trait in the description of Petrarch's Laura: Il lampeggiar dell' angelico riso*. These flashes of affection breaking from the soul alone display the truth, generosity, and tenderness, that deserve a friend. These gleams from the heart show us all its intricacies, its weakness, and its vigour, and expose it naked and undisguised to the spectator. A single minute will, in this way, give more knowledge of a character, and justly, therefore, attract more confidence, than twenty years experience of refinement of taste and propriety of conduct.

I am willing to believe it was some error in education which had wrapt up Cleone's character in so

* The lightning of her angel smile.

much obscurity, and not any natural defect that rendered it prudent to be invisible. If there is an error of this kind, I hope your Mirror will expose it, and prevent it from robbing superior minds of their best reward-the confidence of each other.

In the present state of society, we have few opportunities of exhibiting our true characters by our actions; and the habits of the world soon throw upon our manners a veil that is impenetrable to others, and nearly so to ourselves. Hence the only period when we can form friendships is a few years in youth; for there is a reserve in the deportment, and a certain selfishness in the occupations of manhood, unfavourable to the forming of warm attachments. It is, therefore, fatal to the very source of friendship, if, when yet children, we are to be prematurely bedaubed with the varnish of the world. And yet, I fear, this is the necessary effect of modern education.

In place of cherishing the amiable simplicity and frankness of children, every emanation of the heart is checked by the constant restraints, dissimulation, and frivolous forms of fashionable address, with which we harass them. Hence they are nearly the same at fourteen as at five-and-twenty, when, after a youth spent in joyless dissipation, they enter life, slaves to selfish appetites and reigning prejudices, and devoid of that virtuous energy of soul, which strong attachments, and the habits of deserved confidence, inspire. Even those who, like Cleone, possess minds superior to the common mould, though they cultivate their talents with success, and, in some measure, educate themselves anew, find it impossible to get rid entirely of that artificial manner, and those habits of restraint, with which they had been so early imbued.

Thus, like French tailors and dancing-masters, pretending to add grace and ornament to nature, we constrain, distort, and incumber her; whereas the edu

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