shy or too civil to decline the lady's company, and John valued himself on having procured him so agreeable a companion. His master complained to me, since he came to town, of the oppression of this landlady's company, and declared his resolution of not stopping at the George on his way home.

The morning after his arrival at my house, while we were sitting together, talking of old stories, and old friends, with all the finer feelings afloat about us, John entered with a look of much satisfaction, announcing the name of Mr. Bearskin. This gentleman is a first cousin of Umphraville's, who resides in town, and whom he had not seen these six years. He was bred a mercer, but afterwards extended his dealings with his capital, and has been concerned in several great mercantile transactions. While Umphraville, with all his genius, and all his accomplishments, was barely preserving his estate from ruin at home, this man, by dint of industry and application, and partly from the want of genius and accomplishments, has amassed a fortune greater than the richest of his cousin's ancestors was ever possessed of. He holds Umphraville in some respect, however, as the representative of his mother's family, from which he derives all his gentility; his father having sprung nobody knows whence, and lived nobody knows how, till he appeared behind the counter of a woollen-draper, to whose shop and business he succeeded.

My friend, though he could have excused his visit at this time, received him with politeness. He introduced him to me as his near relation ; on which the other, who mixes the flippant civility of his former profession with somewhat of the monied confidence of his present one, made me a handsome compliment, and congratulated Mr. Umphraville on the possession of such a friend. He concluded, however, with a distant insinuation of his houses being a more natural

home for his cousin when in town than that of any other person. This led to a description of that house, its rooms, and its furniture, in which he made no inconsiderable eulogium on his own taste, the taste of his wife, and the taste of the times. Umphraville blushed, bit his lips, complained of the heat of the room, changed his seat, in short suffered torture all the way from the cellar to the garret.

Mr. Bearskin closed this description of his house with an expression of his and his wife's earnest desire to see their cousin there. Umphraville declared his intention of calling to inquire after Mrs. Bearskin and the young folks, mentioning, at the same time, the shortness of his proposed stay in town, and the hurry his business would necessarily keep him in while he remained. But this declaration by no means satisfied his kinsman; he insisted on his spending a day with them so warmly, that the other was at last overcome, and the third day after was fixed on for that purpose, which Mr. Bearskin informed us would be the more agreeable to all parties, as he should then have an opportunity of introducing us to his London correspondent, a man of great fortune, who had just arrived here on a jaunt to see the country, and had promised him the favour of eating a bit of mutton with him on that day. I would have excused myself from being of the party; but not having, any more than Umphraville, a talent at refusal, was, like him, overpowered by the solicitations of his cousin.

The history of that dinner I may possibly give my readers hereafter in a separate paper, a dinner, nowa-days, being a matter of consequence, and not to be managed in an episode. The time between was devoted by Mr. Umphraville to business, in which he was pleased commonly to ask my advice, and to communicate his opinions. The last I found generally

unfavourable both of men and things; my friend carries the 'prisca fides' too much about with him to be perfectly pleased in his dealings with people of business. When we returned home in the evening, he seemed to feel a relief in having got out of the reach of the world, and muttered expressions, not to mention the inflections of his countenance, which, if fairly set down on paper, would almost amount to calling his banker a Jew, his lawyer not a gentleman, and his agent a pettifogger. He was, however, very ready to clap up a truce with his ideas when in conipany with these several personages; and though he thought he saw them taking advantages, of which I am persuaded they were perfectly innocent, he was contented to turn his face another way, and pass on. A man of Umphraville's disposition is willing to suffer all the penalties of silliness but that of being thought silly.

I.

No. 33. TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1779.

AMONG the many advantages arising from cultivated sentiment, one of the first and most truly valuable is that delicate complacency of mind which leads us to consult the feelings of those with whom we live, by showing a disposition to gratify them as far as in our power, and by avoiding whatever has a contrary tendency.

They must, indeed, have attended little to what passes in the world who do not know the importance of this disposition; who have not observed, that the

want of it often poisons the domestic happiness of families, whose felicity every other circumstance concurs to promote.

Among the letters lately received from my correspondents, are two, which, as they afford a lively picture of the bad consequences resulting from the neglect of this complacency, I shall here lay before my readers. The first is from a lady, who writes as

follows:

SIR,

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE MIRROR.

My father was a merchant of some eminence, who gave me a good education, and a fortune of several thousand pounds. With these advantages, a tolerable person, and I think not an unamiable temper, I was not long arrived at womanhood before I found myself possessed of many admirers. Among others was Mr. Gold, a gentleman of a very respectable character, who had some connexions in trade with my father: to him, being a young man of good figure, and of very open and obliging manners, I soon gave the preference, and we were accordingly married with the universal approbation of my friends.

We have now lived together above three years, and I have brought him two boys and a girl, all very fine children. I go little abroad, attend to nothing so much as the economy of our family, am as obliging as possible to all my husband's friends, and study in every particular to be a kind and dutiful wife. Mr. Gold's reputation and success in business daily increase, and he is, in the main, a kind and attentive husband; yet I find him so particular in his temper, and so often out of humour about trifles, that, in spite

VOL. I.

Q

of all those comfortable circumstances, I am perfectly unhappy.

At one time he finds fault with the dishes at table; at another with the choice of my maid-servants; sometimes he is displeased with the trimming of my gown, sometimes with the shape of my cloak, or the figure of my head-dress; and should I chance to give an opinion on any subject which is not perfectly to his mind, he probably looks out of humour at the time, and he is sure to chide me about it when we are by ourselves.

It is of no consequence whether I have been right or wrong in any of those particulars. If I say a word in defence of my choice or opinion it is sure to make matters worse, and I am only called a fool for my pains; or, if I express my wonder that he should give himself uneasiness about such trifles, he answers sullenly, that, to be sure, every thing is trifle in which I choose to disoblige him.

It was but the other day, as we were just going out to dine at a friend's house, he told me my gown was extremely ugly. I answered, his observation surprised me, for it was garnet, and I had taken it off on hearing him say he wondered I never chose one of that colour. Upon this he got into a passion, said it was very odd I should charge my bad taste upon him; he had never made any such observation, for the colour was his aversion. The dispute at last grew so warm, that I threw myself down on a settee, unable to continue it, while he flung out of the room, ordered away the coach from the door, and wrote an apology to his friend for our not waiting upon him.

We dined in our different apartments: and though I believe we were equally sorry for what had passed, and Mr. Gold, when we met at supper, asked my pardon for having contradicted me so roughly; yet