The acceptance, or offer of a vifit, he lays before a committee of the whole honfe;' and for the killing of the fat ox this Christmas, he called the gentlemen three fucceffive mornings to a grand council of war.'

It were well if all this were only matter of amufement; but fome of us find it a fource of very serious diftrefs. Your managing men are commonly plagues; but Mr. R manages fo much to a hair's breadth, that he is a downright torment to the other members of his family. It was but yesterday we had the honour of a ceremonious vifit from fome great folks, as we think them, who came lately from your town to eat their mince-pies in the country. After a wonderful ringing of bells, calling of fervants, and trampling upon the ftairs all morning, Mr. Rcame down to the drawing-room at a quarter before three, with all his ufual fiddle faddleation; but, as I thought, in very good huHe had on his great-company wig, and his round fet fhoe-buckles. The fervants had their liveries new white-balled, and the best china was fet out, with the large filver falvers, and she emboffed porter-cups on the fide-board. The covers were stripped from the worked chair bottoms, and his grandmother's little diced carpet was taken off the roller, and laid, like a patch, on the middle of the floor, the naked part of which was all fhining with bees-wax. The company came at their hour; the beef was roasted to a turn; dinner went on with all imaginable good order and ftupidity; fupper was equally regular and sleepy; in fhort, every thing feemed quite as it fhould be: yet, next morning, I per

mour.

ceived foul weather in all the faces of the family; Mr. Rand his fifter fcarce spoke to one another; and he talked, all the time of breakfast, of female carelessness and inattention. Mifs Sophia explained it to me when we were left alone. Oh! do you know (faid fhe) a fad affair happened laft night: my brother and fifter had fuch a tiff! You must understand, before the company arrived yesterday, he had, as usual, adjusted the ceremonial of their different apartments; but he discovered, on attending them to their rooms at night, that my fifter had put the gilt china bottle and bafon into the callico bed-chamber, and the ordinary blue and white into the pink damask.'—It is lucky this man is no guardian of mine; were he to watch me as he does his fifters, I would-But what has he to do to be a guardian? Yet Nature, perhaps, meant him for fomething, if Fortune had allowed it; he might have been excellently employed in a pin-fhop, in fticking the rows a pin paper.

I fancy you have got quite enough of my landlord. You used to say I was the best of your philofophers, your Democritus in petticoats. If I have any philofophy about me, it is without my knowledge, I affure you; you are welcome to it, however, fuch as it is. Other folks may give you what I have heard you call the great views of nature and life; it is enough for me if I can furnish you with a description of infects.

Your's most truly,

G. F."

TO A YOUNG LADY, WITH A GOLD THIMBLE.

BELIEVE me, my little friend, when I tell you that the present I now make you, may be of much service to you in the course of your life, and that I deserve your thanks as much as if I had given you the cap of Fortunatus. But tell me, [you fay, how this thimble can be of fuch fervice.

At your age, my little friend, employment is of the utmoft ufe; to be busy, if it be not learning to be virtuous, will at least protect you from the contrary impreffions: whilft your imagination is employed how to fhade a rofe, or your fancy determines the colours of the various parts of your work, vanity will scarce have time to whisper in your ear, that you have more beauty than another, or inspire you with too early a love of gaiety and pleasure.

When you have lived to that age in which your reafon fhall be ripened, you will, perhaps, perceive that thofe little follies which your fex are guilty of, proceed from a fault in their education, and that idleness is the parent of vice. Thus then, in the early years of life, whilft you place the thimble on your finger, you are guarding your bofom against the approach of foibles

which might banish from your mind every virtuous idea, and interrupt your true felicity. Another of its virtues, is, that if properly applied, it continues a charm against the calamities of poverty. I have known many a female, who, by its affiftance, has fupported herself with decency, and felt the pleasure of living without depending on the beneficence of others. Let me intreat you then, to be frequently in the use of it; to wear it out for the fake of him who is, with the trueft affection,

Yours fincerely,

B. C.

TO A YOUNG

YOUNG LADY,

WITH A PRESENT OF BOOKS.

IF I imagined that your thoughts were employed on. ly on the improvement of your external charms, I muft indeed confess, that my present would have been extremely ill chofen, and fhould perhaps have deferved your pity for knowing fo little of the human breaft: but from what I have seen of you, I have conceived a much better opinion of your merit. I flatter myself on my kill in phyfiognomy, and think I have discovered in that pretty face of yours a mixture of great understanding and good-nature; from this motive I was led to make

you

you a prefent, by which you might improve your na tural talents, and render yourfelf as amiable as I wish you to be.

As I am too well acquainted with your mother to imagine fhe has any of that ridiculous tenderness which fhall condemn pretty mifs to univerfal ignorance through fear of fpoiling her eyes, I muft infift on your reading the authors I have fent, but I am almoft affured that every perfuafion is needlefs, and that your own defire of improvement will fufficiently incite your attention.

You do not, however, I hope resemble fome of your fex, who, if on opening a book, the title should prefent them with the pleafing term of adventures, can fit down with the utmost fatisfaction, and attend to a fet of incidents which fome diftorted imagination has thrown. together, and from whence probability is for ever banished for the marvellous.

'Tis from pages of this character that the tender maid has her head filled with romantic ideas. To her every handsome young coxcomb becomes a lover, and the tender confinement of her parents the durance of an enchanted caftle, from whofe battlements fhe is ready to leap into the arms of fome knight-errant, who has difcovered the ftrength of her fortune and the weakness of her understanding.

As it would be taking up too much of your time to speak of all the authors I have sent you, I fhall only mention the Spectacle de la Nature, by l'Abbé de la Pluche, and the Phyfico-Theology of Derham, which the Guardian has fo favourable spoken of. When you Ι

have