What a Fund is here for Study! And what a Vaš riety of eafy Delights! Or, if the Mind is bent upon Manual Exercife, the Knotting-Bag is ready at hand; and their fkilful Fingers play their Part. Notwithstanding the Ridicule, which is thrown upon this Part of the Character, it appears to me, rather to merit our Applaufe, than to provoke our Laughter. With what Satisfaction have I beheld five or fix of thefe elegant Youths interfperf ed with an equal Number of Ladies, almost as delicate as themfelves, and vying with them in their own Accomplishments! Rouzed by the Ardor of Emulation, they work for Glory, and affert the Prize of Feminine Merit.

With equal Skill their practifed Fingers apply the Needle, and rejoin the Lace: With equal Facility they convey the gliding Shuttle through the opening Thread, and form the various Knots.. Pretty Innocents! How virtuously, how ufefully are their Hours employed! Not in the wrangling. Squabbles of the Bar, or the unmannerly Contentions of the Senate; not in the robuft Sports of the Field, or in a toilfome Application to ungentleman-like Science; but in the pretty Fancies. of Drefs, in Criticisms upon Fafhions, in the artful Difpofition of China Jars, and other Foreign Trinkets; in fowing, in knitting Garters, in knotting of Fringe, and every gentle Exercife of Feminine Oeconomy.

If from their Studies we turn our Attention to their Converfation, we must be convinced, that in this Refpect likewife they are fo far from meriting.

I 4

riting Contempt, that nothing in the World can be more refined, or more engaging.

It is an established Maxim in this School of Manners, never to oppofe the Sentiments of the Company. Every Gentleman affents to every thing that is faid. Sometimes indeed, you may hear what appears, at first, like a Difference of Judgment: But have a little Patience, and you will find it is only the genteel Interchange of Sentiments: For Sippius will go over to the Opinion of Fannius, rather than be fo rude to contradi& him; and Fannius will allow his Friend to be in the right, rather than be thought fo ill-bred as not to give up fuch a Trifle as his own Judgment. Whereas your unrectified Spirits are eternally infifting upon the natural Right of maintaining their Opinions, and the Liberty of speaking their

Minds.

The Liberty of Speaking your Mind! A pretty Affertion truly! I know not what Arguments may be drawn in favour of it, from the mufty Precepts of antiquated Sages, but I am certain, that Good-breeding abfolutely difallows it: Neither indeed is it reconcileable with common Senfe and Difcretion; for he who difapproves my Sentiments, does, in effect, tell me I am a Fool. Confequently, let him talk ever fo well, and reason. (as you call it) ever so justly, he is fure to give Offence: Whilft the yielding Companion, the well-bred Affenter, never fails to conciliate Favour; for there is not a more engaging Compliment to the Understanding, than to facrifice your own Vanity to That of another,

A

A Pretty Gentleman therefore fcarce ever diffents. He will indeed sometimes fay, Ob! pard'n me, mi Dear! I ke'n't poffibly be of that Apinion ! But then this is only a polite Artifice, that he may flatter your Judgment with a finer Addrefs, when he afterwards fuffers himfelf to be convinced by your fuperior Reafoning. To give him his Due, he has no Attachment to any one Opinion in the World, but that of preferving the Rules of Good-breeding. In all other Cafes, he has an Affent entirely at your Service; and you cannot change Sides oftener, than this most obfequious humble Servant will follow you. A Trapfgreffion of Decorum is indeed fo fhocking to his Nature, that he cannot let it pafs without Correction; but then it is always inflicted with a gentle Hand. The feverest Animadverfion never rifes beyond this,

!fieye filthy Creter

The Epithet filthy, as it appears upon Paper, may seem somewhat coarse and unclean: But were you to hear how he liquidates the Harfhnefs of the Sound, and conceals the Impurity of the Idea by a fweetened Accent, you would grow ena moured of his Addrefs, and admire the enchanting Beauties of refined Elocution. Ob! fie!' ye filt-by Creter! How eafy, how gentle, how humane a Chastisement. for the highest Offence !

It has been obferved (but I don't remember by what Author) that there are two Kinds of Con-verfation: The one, close and continued; the other, loose and unconnected. The First was practifed amongst us whilft the Enemies of Ele

gance

gance prevailed: But now the Letter bas defervedly gained the Afcendant; as it is perfe&ly fuited to the Turn and Caft of our polite Affemblies of every Denomination [b]. The Gravity of dull Knowledge is at last happily exploded: Mafculine Senfe and Wit are rejected as obfolete and unfashionable Talents; and better: fupplied by the more engaging Charms of the contrary Qualitities Nothing is now heard, but fweat Chit-chat and tender Prittle-Prattle, Shreds of Sentiments, and Cuttings of Sentences, all foft and charming, elegant and polite.

By this fhort Abstract of the prevailing Turn in polite Converfation, the Reader fees, that the Pretty Gentleman muft neceffarily be the best Company; because he will neither offend by the abominable Coarfenefs of manly Reafen, nor the ungrateful Poignancy of keen Repartee: But though he is not fach a Fool, or fo ill-bred as to be down-right, Witty, he will now and then indulge himfelf in what he calls, The little Efcapes of Fancy, which I will not injure so much as to rank them under the Denomination of Wit. IE the Company happens to grow languid, Fannius has an admirable Talent at reviving their Spirits by fome pretty familiar Remark or other; which, obvious as it is, would never have entered into the Head of an unrefined Mortal. On fuch an Occafion this little Wag will pat a Lady over the

fb Drums, Kettle Drunis, Drum-Majors, Routs, Hurries, Riots, Tumults, and Helter Skelters, the several Appellations by which the modern Affemblies are, aptly characterized and diitinguished. Shoulder,

Shoulder, and tell her, with the most facetious Leer, I vew, Me'me, yur1e immoderately enter taining

And though this is all he fays, yet there is fomething in the Manner, in the Accent, and in the-I don't know what; that the Company inftantly revive, and begin again to exchange their Words. Nor let any Man imagine that this is a trifling Talent, which can raise Something out of -Nothing, and restore a Society to Chearfulness. and Pleasantry; for good Manners require that Converfation fhould be kept up at any Rate.

But when I told you that their Raillery was the most inoffenfive thing in Nature, and operated fo finely, that it could fcarce be felt; yet as there are no general Maximas but what have some Ex-ceptions, I confefs that Lepidulus now and then steps beyond the Rules of the Community, and like a little. Wasp as he is, leaves his Sting in the Wound he inflicts.. A certain Lady, who affects a masculine Sense and Spirit of Jocularity, gave herfelf the Liberty to rally the modern Refinement, and in the Ardor of her Zeal was tranfported somewhat beyond the Limits of Decorum. Upon this, Lepidulus was fo exafperated, that he: could not, for the Soul of him, contain any longer, but fteps towards her with a nettled Air, looks her full in the Face, and with a rebuking Countenance, mixed with Fear, gave vent to his Spleen. "I vew, Me'me! it-it-it's not "without infinite Pains-that yu're able-to "make yurefelf less amʼable.”