tures. They may, it is true, procure us the Efteem, but will not be able to gain us the Love of Mankind, without an Happiness of Manner.

It is with great Juftice Sophronius fets fo high a Value on the generous Affections: but valuable as they undoubtedly are, yet, if they be not accompanied with a certain Grace, they will neither have the Merit nor Efficacy of Benevolence attended by Delicacy.

It is your Humour to run down every thing, that tends to Refinement. Yet, from many Inftances, you must allow me to fay, that you are not, in Reality, fo great an Enemy to it, as you affect to appear. No Man confers a Favour with a better Grace. Extend your Refinement farther, and you will find it no lefs useful in the momentous Affairs of Life. Truth and Virtue are, in thefe Cafes, what Foundation and Strength are to an Edifice they give Solidity and Support. But, if Symmetry, Proportion, and fuitable Decorations, be not added, you cannot boaft of a complete Structure.

In every View, Sophronius, it is evident, I think, that the Refinements and Elegancies of Life not only render Men more agreeable and amiable to one another, but are alfo conducive to the greatest and higheft Purposes. For this Reafon, perhaps, the Author of out Frame has made us susceptible of the Pleasures of Imagination; that we might be the more readily gain. ed over to the Interefts of Virtue; when we thus find, that the Way to her lies through the Paths of Pleasure. This seems to be the excellent Design, and this is ever found to be the conflant Effect of genuine Deli

cacy.

cacy. When it confpires with Virtue, its Influence is as furely felt, as its Loveliness is readily acknowledged like mingled Streams, they become more forcible by being united.

Thus it is, that thefe mutual Friends confirm and strengthen each other's Interest. Delicacy allures Men to Virtue; and Virtue ascertains and fupports Delicacy. The Connexion between them is ftrong; the Harmony perfect; and the Effects answerable.

But do we not see many, returned Sophronius, diftinguished for the Elegance of their Tafte, both in Arts and Manners, who, at the fame Time, are infenfible of moral Beauty, and utter Strangers to the Senfations of inward Harmony and Proportion?

It is no uncommon Thing, anfwered Philocles, for Men to live at Variance with themselves, and in Contradiction to their own Principles. This must be the Cafe of thofe, who cultivate the exterior Embellishments of Life, whilft their Minds lie waste and neglected; For what is that Principle, on which they ground their Entertainment and Pleafure of refined Tafte, but a Senfe of Symmetry, Order, and Proportion in Nature? They cannot then but be sensible, that there is such a Thing as Beauty in the Mind, as well as in the outward Forms, and the latter, however valuable in itself, yet, when compared with the former, is but of a fubordinare and lower Degree. It is poffible that the Elegance of their Fancy in the inferior Kind may have engroffed their Attention, and made them overlook the fuperior Worth of the other; especially where fome unfubdued Paffions concur to help on the Mistake; or the Force of inveterate Habit

has

has taught them to stop at the low Attainment of fubaltern Beauty. But when Fancy is fatiated, and Reason has Leisure to operate, they muft, in the philofophic Hour, perceive the Abfurdity of admiring Exterior Symmetry, without recurring to the Interior, the more effential Beauty. Whilft therefore they act in Oppofition to these Suggestions of the Mind, they muft unavoidably be unhappy.

Your Obfervation, faid Sophronius, brings to my Mind an Affertion, which I find maintained by many of the celebrated Ancients and Moderns; "that the "high and genuine Tafte (as they call it) of the po"lite Arts never refided in the Breast of an immoral "Man." They imagined it impoffible for one, who was impure in his Actions, to be refined in his Senfations fince, in their Eftimation, the fame Faculties and Difpofitions, which would lead a Man to discern and relish the Charms of Arts, would neceffarily incline him to tafte and admire the Delights of a regular Conduct; betwixt which, they thought, there was an infeparable Connexion. But this is one of the fanciful Maxims of enthufiaftic Genius; and Inftances might be produced, which inconteftably demonftrate the Falfhood of the Affertion.

When you confider, replied Philocles, what a ftrong Difpofition there is in Mankind, to vilify thofe, whofe extraordinary Talents lift them up to the Notice and Admiration of the World, you will be very tender in giving a decifive Sentence in the Cafe. But if we take the Objection in its strongest Light, will a few Inftances of Deviation overthrow a general Maxim?

Dial. II. Still it may be true, that the Study of the fine Arts naturally leads to the Love of Virtue. When a Man has given himself up to these engaging Speculations; they take such full Poffeffion of the Heart, that he is not at Leisure to lend an Ear to the Calls of Ambition, or the Demands of inordinate Self-paffions. And as these grand Inciters of Vice are thus happily filenced, he is more likely to hearken to the Suggestions of Virtue, and incline more readily to every Duty of Benevolence and focial Regard,

Upon the whole, from the beft and cooleft Judgment I have been able to make, I cannot but be of Opinion, it very rarely happens, that a Man of a true refined Tafte in Arts and Literature, is not, at leaft, an honest Man. He may now and then, perhaps, be betrayed into fome little Slips and Miftakes in his Conduct; but thefe Unwarineffes do not darken the whole Character, nor give. any just Grounds to fix upon him the Imputation of Immorality. "Such "fmall Stains and Blemishes (as the inimitable Mr. "Addison obferves) die away, and disappear, amidst "the Brightness which furrounds him."

But the Bell has rung for Breakfast.-Come, good Sophronius, -the Ladies will grow impatient.

The END of the FIRST VOLUME.