* When, with juft Malice, be defign'd to show And fee the Face of Sin without a Veil. Exbort our erring Youth—to mend in Time, THE THE PLAN of an ESSAY O N DELICACY. WITH A SPECIMEN of the WORK. In TWO DIALOGUES. By NATHANAEL LANCASTER, LL.D. Aggrediar, non tam perficiundi fpe, quam experiundi vo luntate. CICERO First Printed in the Year 1748. VOL. I. M TO The Right Honourable The EARL of CHOLMONDELEY. My LORD, HE Men of LETTERS feem to have well confulted their own Reputation and Intereft, when they threw off the illiberal Reserve, which had long kept them at a Distance from the converfible Part of Mankind, and fecluded them from the high Advantages of that excellent School, which we call the Polite World. For it is a free and open Commerce with People of Distinction and cultivated Abilities which gives the true Embellishment to Sense, and renders the Attainments of the Scholar, conducive to the Purposes of Elegance and Delight. That Freedom Debate, and Diversity of Topics, which adorn the Converfations of Men of Rank and polite Literature, will give his Mind a generous Enlargement, and open to him delightful Scenes of Knowledge, at once awakening the Imagination and informing the Understanding. From their Difquifitions he will learn what is beautiful in the Productions of Art; from their Demeanor, M 2 what 4 what is comely in Manners. For where the Ad vantages of Birth and Station are united with liberal Accomplishments, there is the Seat of Elegance, and the Standard of Politenefs. Though the Quickness of familiar Discourse admit not of an Attention to that Accuracy, which is required in Writing; yet there is in thefe exalted Intercourses, a certain fuperior Spirit and genuine Eloquence; which is, perhaps, a better Help to the Improvement of Style, and a more enlivening Model for Imitation, than the cold Efforts of the Closet were ever able to produce. Those happy Turns, and emphatical sprightly Phrases, which are struck out by the Heat of animated Converfation, and that genteel graceful Dignity of Expreffion, which is peculiar to those who move in the higher Spheres of Life, will catch the Ear of him who is familiarly accustomed to them, and steal, in fome Degree, into his own Diction. For as our Senfes naturally retain the Print of the Images, which are commonly prefented to them; fo our Language almoft unavoidably takes a Tin&ture from thofe, with whom we ufually converse. These Effects are fo conftant, that we seldom fail to difcover by a Man's Writings, with what kind of Society he has generally mixed. I must add; that in thefe high Scenes of Observation, there are frequently fuch lucky Hints thrown out, as prove a fruitful Source of Thoughts and Imagination, which would never have occurred to him in the ftudious Hour, or in the Company of meaner Spirits. These, |