ПIEρinéтεia, the two great beauties of a perfect drama; the 'Ayvúpious, the providential discovery of Maredant's Drops; the Пɛpiréтɛia, the change of situation from pimples and scales to a blooming complexion; from blotches and ulcers, to smoothness of skin and soundness of flesh; from extreme debility and languor, to being the father of healthy children.

Nor is this class of writers less remarkable for adaptation of style than for correctness of composition. The advertisement above recited, of Dr. Dominiceti, and the daily performances of Messrs. Christie and Ansell, show to what elevation they can raise it, when the subject requires elevation. On the other hand, where shall we find more truly characteristic simplicity than in the following notice from a gentleman tailor? "Wanted, by a single gentleman tailor, a servant-maid, to act as housekeeper and cook, where a girl is kept to attend and wait upon the master. None need apply who will pretend to manage the kitchen fire without his directions, as he understands the management of coal fires, which few servants in this town do. As he commonly dines out of a Sunday, he expects his servants to go to church, instead of cooking dainties to themselves, such as shoulders of veal stuffed, &c., as, though he is a single man, he is very well instructed by a neighbour how to manage his family.

Apply next door to the steps, Panton Square." Other writers, often equally poor and proud, may perhaps object to the class of authors whom I commemorate, that they write not from the love of science, or the desire of fame, but from motives merely interested and selfish. But a little acquaintance with many of their productions will effectually remove this reproach. Is it not benevolence alone that forces Mr. Speediman, in spite of his natural

modesty, to address the public in an advertisement? "Mr. Speediman would be unjust to the public if he any longer delayed acquainting them of the virtues of his Stomach Pills." Are there not daily advertisements of sales "far below prime cost,' which continue for several years, to the evident advantage of the public, and loss of the advertiser? and does not Mr. Molesworth press adventurers in the lottery to purchase his tickets and shares, though he knows, by certain calculation, that they are to be drawn prizes?

To such men, may not the above-quoted motto of the illustrious Dr. Dominiceti be most deservedly applied?

Non sibi, sed toto genitum se credere mundo;

which, however, as malice is always ready to detract from merit, I heard a wicked wag of my acquaintance translate t'other day to a company of ladies That the doctor's fumigations 66 were to make himself live, and to kill all the world beside."

No. 81. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1780.

"TO THE AUTHOR OF THE MIRROR.

66 SIR,

"SOME time ago, you inserted in your paper a letter from a lady who subscribed herself S. M., giving an account of the hardships she has suffered as

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the daughter of a man of fortune, educated in the midst of affluence, and then left to the support of a very slender provision. I own the situation to be a hard one; but it may, perhaps, afford her some consolation to be told, that there are others, seemingly enviable, which are yet as distressful, that derive their distresses from circumstances exactly the reverse of those in which Miss S. M. is placed.

"I lost my father, a gentleman of considerable fortune, at an age so early, that his death has scarce left any traces on my mind. I can only recollect that there was something of bustle, as well as of sorrow all over the house; that my coloured sash was changed for a black one; and that I was not allowed to drink papa's health after dinner, which, before, I had been taught regularly to do. Soon after, I can remember my mamma being sick, and that there was a little brother born who was much more attended to than I. As we grew up, I can remember his getting finer playthings, and being oftener the subject of discourse among our visitors; and that sometimes, when there were little quarrels in the nursery, Billy's maid would tell mine, that Miss must wait till her betters were served.

"A superiority to which I was so early accustomed, it gave me little uneasiness to bear. The vivacity natural to children, which in me was supported by uninterrupted good health, left me no leisure to complain of a preference, by which, though my brother was distinguished, he was seldom or never made happier. The notice, indeed, to which his birthright entitled him, was often more a hardship than a privilege. He was frequently kept in the drawing-room with mamma, when he would have much rather been with me in the garden; he was made to repeat his lesson to the company, that

they might admire his parts and his progress, while I was suffered to be playing blindman's-buff below stairs; he was set at dinner with the old folks, helped to light things that would not hurt him, obliged to drink toast and water, and to behave himself like a gentleman, while I was allowed to devour apple-dumplin, gulp down small-beer, and play monkey-tricks at the side-table.

"That care, however, which watched his health, was not repaid with success; he was always more delicate, and more subject to little disorders, than I; and, at last, after completing his seventh year, was seized with a fever, which, in a few days, put an end to his life, and transferred to me the inheritance of my ancestors.

"After the first transports of my mother's grief were subsided, she began to apply herself to the care of her surviving child. I was now become inheritress of her anxiety, as well as of my father's fortune; a remarkable change was made in every department of my education, my company, and my amusements. Instead of going along with a set of other girls of my own age to a class for learning French, and a public writing-school, teachers were brought into the house to instruct me privately; and though I still went to a dancing-school three days in the week to practise the lessons which I received from an eminent master at home, yet I was always attended by my mother, my governess, or somebody, by whose side I was stuck up before and after the dance, to the great vexation of myself and the ridicule of my former companions. Of companions, indeed, I was now altogether deprived. I was too considerable a person to associate with those in whose sports and amusements I had formerly been so happy to share; if at any time I ventured to

mention a wish for their society, I was immediately checked by an observation of my mamma, that she believed they were very good girls, but not fit company for me.

"To prevent the solitude in which my superiority would have thus placed me, a little girl, an orphan niece of my mother's maid, was taken into the house, whose office it was to attend me during all my hours of study and amusement, to hold the pincushion while my maid was dressing me, to get lessons along with me, and be chid if I neglected them; to play games at draughts, which she was never to win, and to lift the shuttlecock, which I commonly let fall; in short, she was to serve me for the practice of all that insolence which the precepts of others had taught me I had a right to assume. I feel, at this moment, Mr. Mirror, the most sincere compunction for the hardships which this poor girl suffered while she was with me; hardships from which, at last, she freed herself, by running off with a recruiting sergeant; yet I was taught, at the time, to call her subsistence a bounty, and to account myself generous when I bestowed any trifle beyond it.

"While my mind was thus encouraged in perversion, the culture of my body was little less preposterous. The freedom and exercise which formerly bestowed health and vigour, I now exchanged for the constraints of fashion, and the laziness of pride. Every shackle of dress which the daughters of any great man were understood to wear, I was immediately provided with, because I could afford it as well as they. I was never allowed the use of my limbs, because I could afford a coach; and, when attacked with the slightest disorder, immediate recourse was bad to the physician, because I could afford a fee. The consequence was natural; I lost all