20 The pois'nous phial, by distraction drain'd, THE REFLECTOR. He accepts the Offices of a FRIEND. Sinm after intimber of your predeceffors who OON after you intimated your defign, I ran over have lived and died in the fame walk of literature. It afforded me fmall confolation for the accidents to which you will be liable, that you poffefs tafte fufficient to difcern, and fortitude enough to reject the pieces of bare merit, with which you will be deluged by friends. Do not think, for a moment, I mean to compliment you here; you fhould affume, without hefitation, the fuperiority it is allowed you poffefs; for I am perfuaded a tall man has little occafion to fear being hid in a crowd. With fome Effay-writers, as they are humbly called, I had the honour, in younger life, to be perfonally acquainted; from them I learnt the means whereby they exifted to good old age; or the accidents that accelerated their exit. All I have acquired, on these points, is perfectly at your service. Many a good differtation have I perused with rapture, which had been thrown afide to make room for the production of Jack Such-a-one, or a fellow-collegian; and I actually met with a piece, rather long, it is true, but stored with arguments fo pithy as would have completely overturned the Leibnitzian philofophy, which gave place to an unmeaning thing, because written by a friend, and sprinkled over with scraps of La tin, like a Gothic edifice with monsters' faces. I reft confidence in your promife to avoid fuch pedantic quotations; and I feel more fecure in it, fince we frequently notice your attachment to genuine English, at the monthly meetings. One of my old acquaintance was equally unfortunate on the other hand: he was neceffitated to write and re-write all his correfpondence,, in imitation of the Spectator; but he erred (as I am a proof you have not done) in publishing too privately his ardent defire to be favoured with the lucubrations of contemporary wits. Another clafs of thofe writers, including all I have read, or heard of, from Aulus Gellius to Mr. Cumber land, obtruded themselves upon the world, neither afking "with your leave, or by your leave," which I take rather impertinent; they pushed themselves into notice, fometimes deservedly into favour, like an unbidden guest, without invitation or introduction. I know, and have felt, the awkwardness of a first interview; it is to the bashfulness which ever attends real merit, that we are to attribute the difcouragements often put upon men of letters. With refpect to minifters of religion, this is more peculiarly the cafe, fo many of the ftudents in divinity are fhame-faced, that where one ftarts forth fuperior to learning and to blushes, he is fure to arrive within a move of the lawn fleeves. You have now an opportunity of avoiding the irk. fomeness of felf-introduction; it is equally in your power to punish the temerity of one who fits filent while you inftruct and charm our little affembly, by putting your future papers in ambuth behind this feet; and if your undertaking be condemned by those who arrogate the right of damning, though they cannot fave, 1 fhall only experience again the mortification of being laughed at, as was once the cafe when I attempted to vindicate the actions of a venal administration-for I had not fortitude enough to ftarve at three-and-twenty. I thought proper thus to acquaint your readers, that I poffefs I poffefs the neceffary qualifications of him who undertakes to introduce another, viz. that I have been myfelf introduced to the notice of the public under a variety of fignatures, and on a variety of fubjects, befides politics and revelation; and though but modeftly dreffed for fo courtier like an office, ample compenfation will be made at your debut, for the poverty of the foil near which your future gems are intended to glitter. The world, Sir, fhould next be informed of your claim upon its fufferance, and of your pretenfions to its favour. It was in this manner the old Effayifts wriggled themselves into our good graces: they appeared diffident, yet affumed applaufe; they confeffed weaknefs, while evincing their ftrength; they fimpered about Ladies, and Friends, and Clubs, et cætera, ere they prefumed to disclose their intentions, but not until their readers were heartily tired of the first number. You are too diffident to proclaim aloud the coterie, of which you are an ornament: you cannot fummon affurance enough to publish in what manner you have laboured to excite talents, which you bring to a focus, as it were, at our occafional or ftated meetings, and can call to your aid upon any emergency. It is left to others to spread far and wide the fame you have already acquired on "Parnaffus' fteep afcent, and down the dingling dell, where gentle profe begins her equal courfe.' If you do not make the use of this Letter alluded to above, I foresee you will erect your pillar without regard to the objects around you, without refpect to the cry of opponents; unconscious of the effects of malevolence, you will be careful only, that THE REFLECTOR pays his refpects in form, meets with the approbation of the unbiaffed, and is admitted into genteel company; where his beauties may be recognised, and his real defects (if fuch there be) receive their reward-indifference and neglect. Fanuary 18, 1797 EUGENIUS. Though Though THE REFLECTOR is uncertain which of his friends has fo kindly relieved the embarraffment of a First Introduction, he conjectures, that the filent Gentleman, who only nodded his affent to our propofed expedition, with the addition of a fmile, when his affiftance was requested, may be fomewhat concerned in this paper. If fo, I earnestly entreat that he will call at my lodgings, where his latent genius may perchance fparkle in the convivial glass. THE REFLECTOR. A ON BASHFULNESS. MODEST, becoming diffidence, feldom fails to form a prepoffeffion in favour of the person on whom it is an attendant. We fee, with pleasure, a youth of real merit, who, though we are confcious of a fuperiority on his part, feems willing to grant it on our's; we liften with attention to what he advances, and though it may not happen to accord with our own ideas, the manner in which it is adduced prevents our being offended. Eugenio's education has not been confined to a fingle branch, but his enlarged mind has encompaffed the whole tree of fcience; well fkilled in ancient and modern literature, a proficient in mufic, and an amateur in every polite art; yet mild, affable, and unaffuming; apparently unconfcious of his merits, they beam forth with redoubled luftre. If he ventures an opinion, he fupports it with a manlinefs of argument, yet always appears open to conviction, and liftens with calmnefs and attention to the proofs of his antagonist. If he commits an error, or makes a wrong affertion, it is with pleasure he confeffes the one, or retracts the other; nor ever appears above receiving inftruction, or hearing reproof. How different this from an awkward bathfulnefs, which, if not a crime, is a folly of fo unpleafant an an afpect, that we rarely view it without being dif gufted. Bashfulness, and impudence, form the moft ftriking contraft imaginable; and the effects which they produce, are as oppofite as the caufes from which they fpring; for the one we are neglected, for the other we are hated and despised; and yet, ftrange as it may appear, they frequently center in the fame perfon.Crito is bashful, and I had almost said impudent in the extreme when he enters a strange company, he seems quite loft, knows not which way to turn himself, and fcarcely opens his lips; or, if he ventures to fpeak, it is with the utmost deference, apparent modefty, and precifion; nor would he contradict the most unwarrantable affertion, nor venture his own opinion where the cafe appeared in the leaft doubtful.-Yet, this fame Crito, poffeffed of a very fuperficial knowledge of the fciences, literature, and the polite accomplishments, with half an hour's acquaintance, becomes affuming, authoritative, and dogmatical, and treats his opponents with a contemptuous arrogance: in his converfation he is boisterous and declamatory, in his opinion obftinate and felf-confident. In the company of ladies, he is at first sheepish and stupid; but upon receiving the smalleft encouragement, or on the exhiliration of his fpirits by an extraordinary glass, he becomes grofsly familiar, and rude: Thus, while Eugenio is univerfally esteemed, beloved and admired, Crito is universally despised, ridiculed, and laughed at; and, while the becoming modefty of the one endears him to the whole circle of his acquaintance, the awkward bafhfulness, and pedantic impudence of the other, eftranges him from all society but that of knaves and fools; over whom, like the Devil in Milton, he conceives it better to reign, than to ferve amongst wife men and philofophers. Bathfulness, confidered abstractedly, is a crime or folly of fo girlish a nature, that every perfon who feels himfelf in the leaft affected with it, ought to ufe every endeavour to thake it off. A bashful perfon, when he is |