tionary rehearsal before he performs in public: I am perfuaded it will not be amifs if he first runs over a few of his airs and graces by himfelf in his own clofet: Let him examine himfelf from head to foot in his glafs, and if he finds himfelf no handfomer, no ftronger, no taller than all the rest of his fellow-creatures, he may venture without rifque to conclude that he like them is a man, and nothing more: Having fettled this point, and taken place in the human creation, he may next proceed to confider what that place ought to be; for this purpofe he may confult his pedigree and his rent-roll, and if upon a careful perufal of thefe documents he fhall find, (as most likely he will) that he is not decidedly the nobleft and the richest man in the world, perhaps he will fee no good caufe, why he fhould ftrut over the face of it, as if it was his own: I would then have him go back to his glafs, and fet his features in order for the very proudest and moft arrogant look he can put on; let him knit his brow, ftretch his noftrils and bite his lips with all the dignity he can fummon, and after this, when he has reverfed the experiment by foftening them into a mild complacent look, with as much benignity as he can find in his heart to beftow upon them, let him afk himfelf honeftly and fairly, which character beft.

becomes

45 becomes him, and whether he does not look more like a man with fome humanity than without it: I would in the next place have him call his understanding to a fhort audit, and upon cafting up the fum total of his wit, learning, talents and accomplishments, compute the balance between others and himself, and if it fhall turn out that his ftock of all thefe is not the prodigious thing it ought to be, and even greater than all other men's, he will do well to hufband it with a little frugal humility: The last thing he must do, (and if he does nothing else I should hope it would be fufficient) is to take down his bible from the fhelf, and look out for the parable of the Pharifee and Publican; it is a short story and foon read, but the moral is fo much to his purpose, that he may depend upon it, if that does. not correct his pride, his pride is incorrigible, and all the Obfervers in the world will be but wafte paper in his fervice.

N° XCVIII.

TH

N° XCVIII.

Non erat his locus.

HERE is a certain delicacy in fome men's nature, which though not absolutely to be termed a moral attribute, is nevertheless so grateful to fociety at large and fo recommendatory of those who poffefs it, that even the best and worthieft characters cannot be truly pleafing without it: I know not how to describe it better than by saying it consists in a happy discernment of times and seasons.

Though this engaging talent cannot pofitively be called a virtue, yet it seems to be the result of many virtuous and refined endowments of the mind, which produces it; for when we see any man fo tenderly confiderate of our feelings, as to, put afide his own for our accommodation and repose, and to confult opportunities with a respectful attention to our eafe and leifure, it is natural to us to think favorably of fuch a difpofition, and although much of his discernment may be the effect of a good judgment and proper knowledge of the world, yet there must be a great proportion of fenfibility, candor, diffi

dence and natural modefty in the compofition of a faculty fo conciliating and fo graceful. A man may have many good qualities, and yet if he is unacquainted with the world, he will rarely be found to understand those apt and happy moments, of which I am now speaking; for it is a knowledge not to be gained without a nice and accurate obfervation of mankind, and even when that obfervation has given it, men, who are wanting in the natural good qualities above defcribed, may indeed avail themselves of fuch occafions to serve a purpose of their own, but without a good heart no man will apply his experience to general practice.

But as it is not upon theories that I wish to employ these papers, I fhall now devote the remainder of my attention to fuch rules and observations as occur to me upon the subject of the times and feafons.

Men, who in the fashionable phrase live out of the world, have a certain awkwardnefs about them, which is for ever putting them out of their place in fociety, whenever they are occafionally drawn into it. If it is their ftudies which have fequeftered them from the world, they contract an air of pedantry, which can hardly be endured in any mixed company without expofing the object of it to ridicule; for the

very effence of this contracted habit confifts in an utter ignorance of times and seasons. Most of that clafs of men who are occupied in the education of youth, and not a few of the young men themselves, who are educated by them, are of this description: We meet with many of Jack Lizard's caft in the Spectator, who will learnedly maintain there is no heat in fire. There is a difputatious precifion in these people, which lets nothing pafs in free conversation, that is not mathematically true; they will confute a jeft by fyllogifm, canvass a merry tale by cross-examination and dates, work every common calculation by X the unknown quantity, and in the festive fallies of imagination convict the witty fpeaker of falfe grammar, and nonfuit all the merriment of the table.

The man of form and ceremony, who has shaped his manners to the model of what is commonly called The Old Court, is another grand defaulter against times and seasons: His entrances and exits are to be performed with a stated regularity; he measures his devoirs with an exactitude that bespeaks him a correct interpreter of The Red Book; pays his compliments with a minuteness, that leaves no one of your family unnamed, enquires after the health of your child who is dead, and defires to be kindly remem

bered