Brutes, i. e. Mafculine, Robuft Creatures with unfoftened Manners. The latter will infallibly be the Cafe, if an effectual Stop be not put to that licentious Raillery, which would laugh out of Countenance the generous Endeavours of a Race of virtuous Youths, to polifh our Afperity, mollify us into gentle Obfequioufnels, and give us a true Relifh of all the dulcet Elegancies of Life; I will speak without Referve: Should not the Theatres be abfolutely demolished? We have already in vain tried the lenient Meafures of Restriction. Why then should we not now have Recourse to the last Remedy, and cut down the Tree, which, after all our Pruning and Culture, ftill continues to produce poisonous Fruit?

The indulgent Reader, I dare fay, will approve the Method I prescribe. But perhaps so many Difficulties may arife to his Imagination, that he will conclude it impracticable,

Difficulties there are, no doubt; but One there is, which, if He can furmount, I myself will undertake to remove all the reft,

Here lies the grand Impediment! How can we expect the Favour of the Learned, or the Protection of the State, to cherish and fupport This Refinement, when its most inveterate Enemy is the very Man, who has always been the Standard of Tafte with the former; and is now raised to a Poft, which gives him fuch an happy Influence in the latter? Unhappy indeed for the Sons of Elegance! For what can the moft Sanguine expect from one, who has made it the

Bufinefs

Bufinefs of his Life, to bring into Repute the falfe Refinements of ancient Greece and Rome? Will a Perfon of his Mafculine Talents become the Patron of foft and dulcified Elegance? Will He give up that Attic Wit, which has gained him fuch high Applause, and made him the Delight of a mif-judging World, to cultivate Qualities, in which he is not formed to excel?

What then remains, but that the Sons of Elegance wait with Patience (for they are too gentle to ufe any violent Methods) till the Kind Fates fhall remove this implacable Adverfary out of the World. And then, my foreboding Heart affures me, true Politenefs will thrive and profper, and fpread her fweet mollifying Influences over the Land, till nothing fhall be heard of or feen, but Softnefs and Complaifance, Prettiness and Elegance, Infantine Prattle, Lullaby Converfation, and gentle Love; and every well-educated Male among us fhall become

Mollis & parum Vir;
that is,

A PRETTY GENTLEMAN.

THE

7

THE

POLITE PHILOSOPHER:

OR,

An ESSAY on that, ART which makes a Man happy in himself and agreeable to others.

He who intendst advife the young and gay,
Muft quit the common Road· -the formal Way.
Which bum drum Pendants take to make Folks wife,
By praifing Virtue, and decrying Vice.

Let Parfons tell what dreadful Ills will fall
On fuch as liften when their Paffions call:
We from fuch Things our Pupils to affright,
Say not they're Sins, but that they're unpolite.
To fhew their Courage' Beaus wou'd often dare,
By blackeft Crimes, to brave old Lucifer:
But who, of Breeding nice, of Carriage civil,
Would trefpafs on goid Manners for the Devil;
Or, merely to display his Want of Fear,
Be damn'd hereafter, to be laugh'd at here?

Firft Printed in the Year 1734.