quious, you would think he had no will of his own, and was born for the uses and occafions of others: Follow Palpatius to his houfe, fee him with his wife and children, hear him dictate to his fervants and the needy dependants, who make fuit through him to his principal, you will find all things reverfed; the fycophant turns out a tyrant, and he is only indebted to his hypocrify for keeping his info-" lence out of fight. Procax is one of the most diffolute men living; he is handfome, impudent, and infinuating, qualifications that enfure his fuccefs with the ladies: He profeft the most vehement paffion for Fulvia; but Fulvia was on the point of marrying Vetulus, a rich old man, who wanted an heir, and till that event took place fhe held out against Procax upon motives of convenience only: Fulvia foon became the. wife of Vetulus; fhe had no longer any repugnance to be the mistress of Procax; but the fame man, who had pleaded the irrefiftible violence of his defires before marriage, now pretended confcience, and drew back from her advances; nay he did more, he put Vetulus upon his guard, and Fulvia's virtue was too closely watched to be in any future danger: What fudden change was this in Procax? Vetulus had had no heirs, and Procax had a contingent intereft in the entail of his eftate. Splendida, in one of her morning airings, was folicited for charity by a poor woman with an infant in her arms. It is not for myself, madam, faid the wretched creature, it is for my husband, who lies under that hedge tormented with a fever, and dying for want of relief.—Splendida directed her eyes towards the spot, and faw a fickly object ftretched upon the ground, clad in the tattered regimental of a foot foldier: Her heart was touched, and fhe drew out her purse, which was full of guineas: The blood rushed into the beggar's meagre vifage at the fight; Splendida turned over the gold; her hand delayed for a moment, and the impulse was loft; unhappily for the fuppliant, Splendida was alone and without a witness: She put her hand once more into her pocket, and, taking out a folitary fhilling, dropt it into the fhrivelled palm that was ftreched out to receive it, and drove on. Splendida returned home, drest herself, and went to a certain great lady's affembly; a fubfcription was put about for the benefit of a celebrated actress; the lady condescended to receive fubfcriptions in perfon, and delivered a ticket to each contributor: Splendida drew forth the fame purse, and wrapping twenty guineas in a paper, put put them into the hand of the noble beggar: The room rang with applauses of her charityI give it, fays fhe, to her virtues, rather than to her talents; I beflow it on the wife and mother, nat upon the actrefs. Splendida on her return. home took out her accompt-book, and fet down twenty-one pounds one fhilling to the article of charity; the fhilling indeed Heaven audited on the fcore of alms, the pounds were pofted to the account of vanity. A N° LXIX. Favete linguis! (HORAT.) N ingenious author, who fome years ago published a volume under the title of Maxims, Characters, and Reflections, has the following remark:— -You would know how a man talks to judge of his understanding, and yet poffibly (however great the paradox) the very contrary method might be lefs fallible; the knowing how he hears might fhew it you much better. As I had not feen this book when I gave my account of Mr. Jedediah Fish's Academy for Hearing, it gave me great pleasure to fall in with the fentiment of a contemporary, who whilft he mixes with the world as a man of fashion, reviews the living manners with the fagacity of a philofopher. I transcribed the whole article, from which the above passage is extracted, and fent it to Mr. Fifh: It will be found in the author's volume, No LXXI. and is aptly illuftrated by two sketches of character; one of which, called Cleon, is a talker, and Theocles, the other, is a hearer. I have been favoured with the following anfwer from Mr. Fish. SIR, Your's is received: I approve of the extract, and like the author's manner well: He deals in ideas rather than in words; fome men talk more than they hear; others write more than they read: As benevolence fhould act without difplay, fo good advice fhould be given in few words. I fend you the following cafes according to defire. A young man, known to his familiars by the name of Jack Chatter, came under my hands: The fymptoms of his disorder may be thus defcribed-Garrulitas vix intermiffa cum cachinno tantùm non continuo.-Garrulity, attended with immoderate fits of laughing, is no uncommon cafe, cafe, when the provocation thereunto springs from jokes of a man's own making; but there was this peculiarity in Mr. Chatter's disease, that he would laugh where no jeft was, or even at the jefts of other people, rather than not laugh at all. I foon perceived this to be occafioned by exceedingly weak intellects, and an even row of very white teeth. As his malady would not yield to the ordinary prescriptions, I was forced to throw him into a regimen of fkating, for which the season was then favourable: The operation fucceeded to my warmest wishes, and the patient was effectually filenced by a happy dislocation of two of his fore-teeth from a fall on the ice. Mifs Kitty Scandal was put into my hands by her acquaintance in a very deplorable condition; it was the Cacoëthes defamationis fcabiofum: The common antidotes had no effect upon her; I administered detergents out of Mifs Carter's Epictetus and Mrs. Chapone's Letters, but the dose would not stay upon her stomach; I tried the Pythagorean pill, but with no better fuccefs. As the patient had a remarkable fwelling about the waift, which I conceived might arife from an overflowing of the fpleen, I called in my excellent friend Dr. Ford: The Doctor delivered her of her fwelling, and Mifs ΙΟ Kitty |
