thefe with too deep an attention, but took to each of them enough never to appear ungraceful or ignorant. This general inclination makes him the more agreeable, and faves him from the imputation of pedantry. His carriage is fo eafy, that he is acceptable to all with whom he converfes; he generally falls in with the inclination of his company, is never affuming, or prefers himself to others. Thus he always gains favour without envy, and has every man's good wifhes. It is remarkable, that from his birth to this day, though he is now four and twenty, I do not remember that he has ever had a debate with any of his playfellows or friends.

His thoughts, and prefent applications, are to get into a court-life; for which, indeed, I cannot but think him peculiarly formed. For he has joined to this complacency of manners a great natural fagacity, and can very well diftinguish between things and appearances. That way of life, wherein all men are rivals, demands great circumfpection to avoid controverfies arifing from different interefts; but he who is by nature of a flexible temper, has his work half done. I have been particularly pleased with his behaviour towards women; he has the fkill, in their converfation, to converfe with them as a man would with thofe from whom he might have expectations, but without making requests. I do not know that I ever heard him make what they call a compliment, or be particular in his addrefs to any lady; and yet I never heard any woman fpeak of him but with a peculiar regard. I believe he has been often beloved, but know not that he was ever yet a lover. The great fecret among them is to be amiable without defign. He has a voluble fpeech, a vacant countenance, and eafy action, which reprefents the fact which he is relating with greater delight than it would have been to have been prefent at the tranfaction he recounts: for you fee it not only your own way by the bare narration, but have the additional pleafure of his fenfe of it by this manner of reprefenting it. There are mixed in his talk fo many pleasant ironies, that things which deferve the fevereft language are made ridiculous inftead of odious, and you fee every thing in the most goodnatured afpect it can bear. It is wonderfully entertaining to me to hear him fo ex quifitely pleafant, and never fay an

ill-natured thing. He is with all his acquaintance the perfon generally chofen to reconcile any difference; and if it be capable of accommodation, Tom Lizard is an unexceptionable referée. It has happened to him more than once, that he has been employed, by each oppofite in a private manner, to feel the pulse of the adverfary; and when each has propofed the decision of the matter by any whom the other fhould name, he has taken hold of the occation, and put on the authority affigned by them both, fo feasonably, that they have begun a new correfpondence with each other, fortified by his friendship to whom they both owe the value they have for one another, and confequently confer a greater meafure of their good-will upon the interpofer. I must repeat, that, above all, my young man is excellent at raining the fubject on which he speaks, and cafting a light upon it more agreeable to his company, than they thought the subject was capable of. He avoids all emotion and violence, and never is warm but on an affectionate occafion. Gentlenefs is what peculiarly distinguishes him from other men, and it runs through all his words and actions.

Mr. William, the next brother, is not of this fmooth make, nor fo ready to accommodate himself to the humours and inclinations of other men, but to weigh what paffes with fome severity. He is ever fearching into the firft fprings and caufes of any action or circumftance, infomuch that if it were not to be expected that experience and converfation would allay that humour, it must inevitably turn him to ridicule. But it is not proper to break in upon an inquifitive temper, that is of use to him in the way of life which he propofes to himself, to wit, the study of the law, and the endeavour to arrive at a faculty in pleading. I have been very careful to kill in him any pretenfions to follow men already eminent, any farther than as their fuccefs is an encouragement; but make it my endeavour to cherish, in the principal and first place, his eager purfuit of folid knowledge in his profeffion: for I think that clear conception will produce clear expreffion, and clear expreffion proper action: I never faw a man fpeak very well, where I could not apparently obferve this, and it shall be a maxim with me, till I fee an inftance to the contrary. When young and unexperienced

experienced men take any particular perfon for their pattern, they are apt to imitate them in fuch things, to which their want of knowledge makes them attribute fuccefs, and not to the real caufes of it. Thus one may have an air, which proceeds from a juft fufficiency and knowledge of the matter before him, which may naturally produce fome motion of his head and body, which might become the bench better than the bar. How painfully wrong would this be in a youth at his first appearance, when it is not well even for the serjeant of the greatest weight and dignity. But I will, at this time, with an hint only of his way of life, leave Mr. William at his study in the Temple.

The youngest fon, Mr. John, is now in the twentieth year of his age, and has had the good fortune and honour to be chofen laft election fellow of All-Souls college in Oxford. He is very graceful in his perfon; has height, ftrength, vigour, and a certain chearfulness and ferenity that creates a fort of love, which people at first fight obferve is ripening

into esteem. He has a fublime vein in poetry, and a warm manner in recommending, either in speech or writing,

SIR,

whatever he has earnestly at heart. This excellent young man has devoted himfelf to the fervice of his Creator; and with an aptitude to every agreeable quality, and every happy talent that could make a man fhine in a court, or com mand in a camp, he is refolved to go into holy orders. He is infpired with a true fenfe of that function, when chofen from a regard to the interefts of piety and virtue, and a fcorn of whatever men call great in a tranfitory being, when it comes in competition with what is unchangeable and eternal. Whatever men would undertake from a paffion to glory, whatever they would do for the fervice of their country, this youth has a mind prepared to atchieve for the falvation of fouls. What gives me great hopes that he will one day make an extraordinary figure in the Christian world, is, that his invention, his memory, judgment, and imagination, are always employed in this one view; and I do not doubt but in my future Precautions to present the youth of this age with more agreeable narrations, compiled by this young man on the fubject of heroic piety, than any they can meet with in the legends of love and honour.

NOR DID HE KNOW

⚫OVID. MET. L. 2. V. 170.

TO THE GUARDIAN.

OU having, in your firft paper,

you will publish whatever you think may conduce to the advancement of the converfation of gentlemen, I cannot but hope you will give my young mafters, when I have told you their age, condition, and how they lead their lives; and who, though I fay it, are as docile as any youths in Europe; a leffon which they very much want, to reftrain them from the infection of bad company, and fquandering away their time in idle and unworthy purfuits. A word from you, I am very well affured, will prevail more with them than any remonftrance they will meet with at home. The eldest is

ADDISON.

feldom (except against their wills), inthe fight of any of them. That which I obferve they have mott relifh to is, horfes and cock-fighting, which they too well understand, being almoft pofitive at firft fight to tell you which horfe will win the match, and which cock the battle; and if you are of another opinion, will lay you what you pleafe on their own, and it is odds but you lofe. What I fear to be the greatest prejudice to them, is their keeping much closer to their horfes heels than their books, and converfing more with their ftablemen and lacqueys than with their relations

E 2

and

and gentlemen: and, I apprehend, are at this time better skilled how to hold the reins, and drive a coach, than to tranflate a verfe in Virgil or Horace. For the other day, taking a walk abroad, they met accidentally in the fields with two young ladies, whofe converfation they were very much pleased with; and being defirous to ingratiate themfelves further into their favour, prevailed with them, though they had never feen then before in their lives, to take the air in a coach of their father's, which waited for them at the end of Grays-Inn-Lane. The youths ran with the wings of love, and ordered the coachman to wait at the town's end till they came back. One of our young gentlemen got up before, and the other behind, to act the parts they had long, by the direction and example of their comrades, taken much pains to qualify themfelves for, and so galloped off. What thefe mean entertainments will end in, it is impoffible to forefee; but a Precaution upon that fubject might prevent very great calamities in a very worthy family, who take in your papers, and might, perhaps, be alarmed at what you lay before them upon this fubject. I am, Sir,

SIR,

Your most humble fervant,

TO THE GUARDIAN.

T. S.

Writ to you on the 21ft of this month, which you did not think fit to take notice of: it gives me the greater trouble that you did not, because I am confident the father of the young lads whom I mentioned, would have confidered how far what was faid in my letter concerned himfelf; upon which it is now too late to refle&t. His ingenious fon, the coachman, aged feventeen years, has fince that time ran away with and married one of the girls I spoke of in my laft. The manner of carrying on the intrigue, as I have picked it out of the younger brother, who is almoft fixteen, ftill a batchelor, was as follows: one of the young women, whom they met in the fields, feemed very much taken with my mafter the elder fon, and was prevailed with to go into a cake-houfe not far off the town. The girl, it feems, acted her part fo well, as to enamour the boy, and make him inquifitive into her place of abode, with all other queftions which were necellary toward further intimacy. The

matter was fo managed, that the lad was made to believe there was no poffibility of converfing with her, by reafon of a very fevere mother, but with the utmoft caution. What, it feems, made the mother, forfooth, the more fufpicious was, that becaufe the men faid her daughter was pretty, fomebody or other would perfuade her to marry while she was too young to know how to govern a family. By what I can learn from pretences as fhallow as this, fhe appeared fo far from having a defign upon her lover, that it feemed impracticable to him to get her, except it were carried on with much fecrecy and kill. Many were the interviews thefe lovers had in four and twenty hours time: for it was managed by the mother, that he should run in and out as unobferved by her, and the girl be called in every other instant into the next room, and rated (that fhe could not itay in a place) in his hearing. The young gentleman was at laft fo much in love, as to be thought by the daughter engaged far enough to put it to the venture that he could not live without her. It was now time for the mother to appear, who furprized the lov ers together in private, and banished the youth her houfe. What is not in the power of love! the charioteer, attended by his faithful friend the younger brother, got out the other morning a little earlier than ordinary, and having made a fudden friendship with a lad of their own age by the force of ten fhillings, who drove an hackney-coach, the elder brother took his poft in the coachbox, where he could act with a great deal of skill and dexterity, and waited at the corner of the street where his miftrefs lived, in hopes of carrying her off under that difguife. The whole day was spent in expectation of an opportunity; but in many parts of it he had kind looks from a diftant window, which was anfwered by a brandish of his whip, and a

compaís taken to drive round and fhew his activity and readiness to convey her where the fhould command him. Upon the approach of the evening, a note was thrown into his coach by a porter, to acquaint him that his mistress and her mother fhould take coach exactly at feven o'clock; but that the mother was to be fet down, and the daughter to go further, and call again. The happy minute came at laft, when our hack had the happiness to take in his expected

fare,

images; but also nicenefs of judgment to cull out those, which, without the advantage of foreign art, will fhine by their own intrinfic beauty. By thefe means, whatsoever feems to demand labour being rejected, that only which appears to be eafy and natural will come in; and fo art will be hid by art, which is the perfection of eafy writing.

I will fuppofe an author to be really poffeffed with the paffion which he writes upon, and then we shall fee how he would acquit himself. This I take to be the fafelt way to form a judgment of him; fince, if he be not truly moved, he muft at least work up his imagination as near as poffible to refemble reality. I chufe to inftance in love, which is obferved to have produced the most finished performances in this kind. A lover will be full of fincerity, that he may be believed by his miftrefs; he will therefore think fimply; he will exprefs humfelf perfpicuoufly, that he may not perplex her; he will therefore write unaffectedly. Deep reflections are made by a head undisturbed; and points of wit and fancy are the work of an heart at ease: thefe two dangers then, into which poets are apt to run, are effectually removed out of the lover's way. The felecting proper circumstances, and placing them in agreeable lights, are the fineft fecrets of all poetry; but the recollection of little circumstances is the lover's fole meditation, and relating them pleasantly, the bufinefs of his life. Accordingly we find that the most celebrated authors of this rank excel in love verfes. Out of ten thousand instances I fhall name one, which I think the most delicate and tender I ever faw.

Tomyfelf I figh often, without knowing why; And when abfent from Phyllis, methinks I

could die.

Tw

A man who hath ever been in love will be touched at the reading of these lines; and every one who now feels that paffion, actually feels that they are true. From what I have advanced, it ap pears how difficult it is to write easily. But when eafy writings fall into the hand of an ordinary reader, they appear to him fo natural and unlaboured, that he immediately refolves to write, and fancies that all he hath to do is to take no pains. Thus he thinks, indeed, fimply; but the thoughts, not being chofen with judgment, are not beautiful; he, it is true, expresses himself plainly, but flatly withal. Again, if a man of vivacity takes it in his head to write this way, what felf-denial must he undergo, when bright points of wit occur to his fancy? How difficult will he find it to reject florid phrases, and pretty embellishments of style? So true it is, that fimplicity of all things is the hardeft to be copied, and cafe to be acquired with the greatest labour. Our family knows very well how ill Lady Flame looked, when the imitated Mrs. Jane in a plain black fuit. And I remember, when Frank Courtly was faying the other day, that any man might write eafy, I only asked him, if he thought it poffible that Squire Hawthorn fhould ever come into a room as he did; he made me a very handfome bow, and answered with a fmile- Mr. Ironfide, you have convinced me.'

I fhall conclude this paper by obferving, that Paftoral poetry, which is the moft confiderable kind of easy writing, has the ofteneft been attempted with ill fuccefs of any fort whatfoever. I fhall, therefore, in a little time, communicate my thoughts upon that subject to the public.

NE FORTE PUDORI

HOR. ARS POET. v. 406.

to love and gallantry. The figure of the man had fomething odd and grotefque in it, though his air and manner were genteel and easy, and his wit agreeable. The ladies, in complaifance to