My Readers, who have, perhaps, been, many of them, accuftomed to think Politeness rather an ornamental Accomplishment, than a Thing neceffary to be acquired in order to an easy and hap py Life, may, from thence, pay less Attention than my Instructions require, unlefs I can con-vince them they are in the wrong. In order to which, I must put them in mind, that the Tranquillity, and even Felicity of our Days, depends asArongly on fmall things, as on grear; of which Men may be easily convinced, if they but reflect how great Uneafinefs they have experienced from cross Accidents, although they related but to Trifles; and at the fame time remember, than Difquiet is, of all others, the greatest Evil, let it arife from what it will.

Now, in the Concerns of Life, as in thofe of Fortune, Numbers are brought into what are called bad Circumftances from fmall. Neglect, rather than from any great Enrors in material Af fairs. People are too apt to think lightly of Shil lings and Pence, forgetting that they are the confituent Parts of Pounds; until the Deficiency in the greater Article fhew them their Mistake, and convince them, by fatal Experience, of a Truth,, which they might have learned from a little At-tention,, viz. that great Sums are made up of. fmall.

Exactly parallel to this, is that wrong Notion,, which many have, that nothing more is due from them. to their Neighbours, than what refults from a Principle of Honefty; which commands us

to

to pay our Debts, and forbids us to do Injuries: Whereas a thousand little Civilities, Complacencies, and Endeavours to give others Pleasure, are requifite to keep up the Relifh of Life, and procure us that Affection and Esteem, which every Man, who has a Sense of it, muft defire. And in the right timing, and discreet Management of thefe Punctilios, confifts the Effence of what we call Politeness.

How many know the general Rules of Art,

Which, unto Tablets, human Form impart ?
How many can depict the rifing Brow,
The Nofe, the Mouth, and ev'ry Feature few ?
Can in their Colours imitate the Skin,

And, by the Force of Fire, can fix them in ?
Yet, when'tis done, unpleafing to the Sight ;.
Tho' like the Picture, ftrikes not with Delight:
'Tis Zink alone gives the enamel'd Face

A polish'd Sweetness, and a gloffy Grace..

Examples have, generally fpeaking, greater Force than Precepts; I will therefore delineate the Characters of Honorius and Garcia, two Gentlemen of my Acquaintance, whofe Humours I have perfectly confidered, and fhall present them. without the least Exaggeration..

Honorius is a Perfon equally diftinguished by his Birth and Fortune. He has naturally good Sense; and that too hath been improved by a regular Education.. His wit is lively, and his Morals without a. Stain.-Is not this an amiable Character? Yet Honorius is not beloved. He has, fome way or other, contracted a Notion, that it

is

is beneath a Man of honour to fall below the Height of Truth in any Degree, or on any Occafion whatsoever. From this Principle, he speaks bluntly what he thinks, without regarding the Company who are by. Some Weeks ago, he read a Lecture on female Hypocrify before a married Couple, though the Lady was much fufpected on that head. Two Hours after, he fell into a warm Declamation against Simony and Priestcraft, before two Dignitaries, of the Church: And, from a continued Courfe of this Sort of Behaviour, hath rendered himself dreaded as a Mo-. nitor, instead of being esteemed as a Friend.

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Garcia, on the contrary, came into the World under the greatest Disadvantages. His Birth was mean, and his Fortune not to be mentioned; yet, though he is scarce forty, he has acquired a handfome Estate in the Country, and lives on it withi more Reputation than most of his Neighbours While a Servitor at the Univerfity, he, by his ASfiduities, recommended himself to a Noble Lord. and thereby procured a Place of Fifty Pounds a Year in a public Office. His Behaviour there, made him as many Friends as there were Perfons belonging to that Board. His Readiness in doing Favours gained him the Hearts of his inferiors; his Deference for thofe in the highest Characters. in the Office, procured him their Good-will; and: the Complacency he expreffed towards his Equals,, and those immediately above him, made them espouse his Intereft with almost as much Warmth as they did their own. By this Management, in ten Year's Time, he rofe to the Poffeffion of an Office,,

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Office, which brought him. in a thoufand Pounds a Year falary, and near double as much in Perquifites. Affluence hath made no Alteration in his Manners. The fame Eafinefs of Difpofition attends him in that Fortune to which it has raised hìm; and he is at this Day the Delight of all who know him, from an Art he has of perfuading them, that their Pleasures and their Interefts are equally dear to him with his own.. Who, if it were in his Power, would refufe what Honarius poffeffes? and who would not wifh that Poffeffion accompanied with Garcia's Difpofition ?

I flatter myself, that, by this Time, most of my Readers have acquired a tolerable Idea of Politeness, and a juft Notion of its Ufe, in our Paf-fage through Life. I muft, however, caution them of one thing, that, under Pretence of Politeness, they fall neither into a Contempt cr Care-lefinefs of Science:

A Man may have much Learning without be-ing a Pedant; nay, it is neceflary that he fhould! have a confiderable Stock of Knowledge before he can be polite. The Glofs is never given till the Work is finished; without it the best-wrought Piece looks clumfy; but Varnifh over a rough: Board, is a prepofterous Daub. In a Word, that: Rule of Horace, Mifcere utile dulci, fo often quoted, can never be better applied than in the prefent Cafe, where neither of the Qualities can fubfift without the other:

With Dress, for once, the Rule of Life we'll place ;;
Cloth is plain Senfe, and polish'd Breeding, Lâce.

Men's

Men may in both mistake the true Design:
Fools oft are tawdry, when they would be fine.
An equal Mixture, both of Ufe and Show,
From giddy Fops, points out th' accomplish'd Beau.

Having now gone through the præcognita of Polite Philofophy, it is requifite we fhould defcend with greater Particularity into its feveral Branches.

For though Exactnefs would not be of a Piece, either with the Nature or Intent of this Work ; yet fome Order is abfolutely neceffary, becaufe nothing is more unpolite than to be obscure. Some Philofophers have, indeed, prided themselves in a myfterious way of fpeaking; wrapping their Maxims in fo tough a Coat, that the Kernel, when found, feldom atoned for the Pains of the finder.

The Polite Sage thinks in quite a different Way. Perfpicuity is the Garment in which his Conceptions appear; and his Sentiments, if they are of any Ufe, carry this additional Advantage with them, that scarce any Labour is required in attaining them. Graver Difcourfes, like galenical Medicines, are often formidable in their Figure, and naufeous in their Tafte. Lectures from a Doctor in our Science, like a chymical Extraction, convey Knowledge, as it were, by Drops and reftore Sense, as the other does Health, without the Apparatus of Phyfic.

Harf to the Heart, and grating to the Ear,

Who can Reproof, without Reluctance, bear?
Why against Priefts the genral Hate so strong,
But that they fheru us all we do is wrong ?