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tious, and the mifer, are followed thither by a worfe crowd than any they can withdraw from. To be exempt from the paflions with which others are tormented, is the only pleafing folitude. I can very juftly fay with the ancient fage, "I am never lefs alone than when alone."

As I am infignificant to the company in public places, and as it is vifible I do not come thither as moft do, to fhew myself, I gratify the vanity of all who pretend to make an appearance, and have often as kind looks from welldreffed gentlemen and ladies, as a poet would beftow upon one of his audience. There are fo many gratifications attend this public fort of obfcurity, that, fome little diftastes I daily receive have loft their anguish; and I did the other day, without the leaft difpleasure, overhear one fay of me, that ftrange fellow; and another answer, I have known the fellow's face thefe twelve years, and fo muft you; but I believe you are the first ever asked who he was. There are I must confefs, many to whom my perfon is as well known as that of their nearest relations, who give themselves no farther trouble about calling me by my name or quality, but fpeak of me very currently by the appellation of Mr. What d'ye call him.

To make up for thefe trivial difadvantages, I have the highest fatisfaction of beholding all nature with an unprejudiced eye; and having nothing to do with men's paffions or interests, I can with the greater fagacity confider their talents, manners, failings, and merits.

It is remarkable, that those who want any one fenfe, poffefs the others with greater force and vivacity. Thus my want of, or rather refignation of speech, gives me all the advantages of a dumb man. I have, methinks a more than ordinary penetration in feeing; and flatter myself that I have looked into the highest and lowest of mankind, and make fhrewd gueffes, without being admitted to their converfation, at the inmoft thoughts and reflections of all whom I behold. It is from hence that good or ill fortune has no manner of force towards affecting my judgment. I fee men flourishing in courts, and languishing in jails, without being prejudiced from their circumftances to their favour or disadvantage; but from their inward manner of bearing their condition, often pity the profperous, and admire the unhappy,

Those who converfe with the dumb, know from the turn of their eyes, and the changes of their countenance, their fentiments of the objects before them. I have indulged my filence to fuch an extravagance, that the few who are intimate with me, anfwer my fmiles with concurrent fentences, and argue to the very point I shaked my head at, without my fpeaking. WILL HONEYCOMB was very entertaining the other night at a play, to a gentleman who fat on his right hand, while I was at his left. The gentleman believed WILL was talking to himfelf, when upon my looking with great approbation at a young thing in a box before us, he faid I am quite of another opinion. She has,

'I will

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I will allow, a very pleafing afpect, but methinks, that fimplicity in her countenance is • rather childish than innocent.' When I obferved her a fecond time, he faid, I grant her drefs is very becoming, but perhaps the merit of that choice is owing to her mother; for though, continued he, I allow a beauty to be as much to be commended for the elegance of •her drefs, as a wit for that of his language; · yet if she has stolen the colour of her ribbands • from another, or had advice about her trimmings, I fhall not allow her the praise of dress, any more than I would call a plagiary an au'thor.' When I threw my eye towards the next woman to her, WILL fpoke what I looked, according to his romantic imagination in the following manner.

'Behold you who dare, that charming virgin; behold the beauty of her perfon chastised by ⚫ the innocence of her thoughts. Chastity, goodnature, and affability, are the graces that play ' in her countenance; fhe knows fhe is handfome, but fhe knows fhe is good. Confcious beauty adorned with confcious virtue! What a fpirit is there in thofe eyes! What a bloom in that perfon! How is the whole woman expreffed in her appearance! Her air has the beauty of motion, and her look the force of language.'

It was prudence to turn away my eyes from this object, and therefore I turned them to the thoughtless creatures who make up the lump of that sex, and move a knowing eye no more than

the

my

the portraiture of infignificant people by ordinary painters, which are but pictures of pictures. Thus the working of my own mind is the general entertainment of my life; I never enter into the commerce of discourse with any but particular friends, and not in public even with them.. Such an habit has perhaps raised in me uncommon reflections; but this effect I cannot communicate but by my writings. As my pleafures are almost wholly confined to thofe of the fight, I take it for a peculiar happiness that I have always had an eafy and familiar admittance to the fair fex. If I never praised or flattered, I never belied or contradicted them. As thefe compofe half the world, and are, by the juft complaifance and gallantry of our nation, the more powerful part of our people, I shall dedicate a confiderable share of thefe my SPECULATIONS to their fervice, and fhall lead the young through all the becoming duties of virginity, marriage, and widowhood. When it is a woman's day, in my works, I fhall endeavour at a ftile and air fuitable to their understanding. When I say this, I must be understood to mean, that I fhall not lower but exalt the fubjects I treat upon. Difcourfe for their entertainment, is not to be debafed, but refined. A man may appear learned without talking fentences, as in his ordinary gefture he discovers he can dance, though he does not cut capers. In a word, I shall take it for the greatest glory of my work, if among reasonable women this Paper may furnish TEA-TABLE-TALK. In order to it, I

fhall

shall treat on matters which relate to females, as they are concerned to approach or fly from the other fex, or as they are tied to them by blood, intereft, or affection. Upon this occafion I think it but reasonable to declare, that whatever skill I may have in Speculation, I fhall never betray what the eyes of lovers fay to each other in my presence. At the fame time I shall not think myself obliged, by this promise to conceal any falfe proteftations which I observe made by glances in public affemblies; but endeavour to make both fexes appear in their conduct what they are in their hearts. By this means, love, during the time of my Speculations, fhall be carried on with the fame fincerity as any other affair of less consideration. As this is the greatest concern, men fhall be from henceforth liable to the greateft reproach for misbehaviour in it. Falfhood in love fhall hereafter bear a blacker afpect than infidelity in friendship, or villany in bufinefs. For this great and good end all breaches against that noble paffion, the cement of fociety, fhall be feverely examined. But this, and all other matters loosely hinted at now, and in my former Papers, shall have their proper place in my following Difcourfes. The prefent writing is only to admonish the world, that they shall not find me an idle, but a busy SPECTATOR. R*.

By STEELE. Sir R. STEELE, about the years 1715 and 1716, wrote the Paper entitled "The Town Talk," and another called "The Tea Table."

It is not certainly known to what numbers thefe Papers extended, as they were not reprinted, after their first appear

ance in a folio form.

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