times hazarded with fatal fuccefs under this unfufpected mask. And an innocent, quiet, indolent, art-lefs manner, has been adopted as the moft refined and fuccefsful accompaniment of fentiments, ideas, and de-figns, neither artless, quiet, nor innocent.

CHAP. XVII.

On Diffipation, and the Modern Habits of Fashionable Lifes. PERHAPS the interefts of true friendship, elegant: converfation, mental improvement, focial pleasure, ma-ternal duty, and conjugal comfort, never received fuch · a blow as when Fashion iffued out that arbitrary and univerfal decree, that every body must be acquainted with every body; together with that confequent, authoritative, but rather inconvenient claufe, that every body muft also go every where every night. The implicit and devout obedience paid to this law is incompatible with the very being of friendfhip; for as the circle of acquaintance expands, and it will be continually expanding,. the affections will be beaten out into fuch thin lamina as to leave little folidity remaining. The heart which is continually exhaufting itself in profeffions, grows cold and hard. The feelings of kindness diminish in proportion as the expreffion of it becomes more diffuse and indifcriminate. The very traces of "fimplicity: " and godly fincerity," in a delicate female, wear away imperceptibly by conftant collifion with the world at large. And perhaps And perhaps no woman takes fo little intereft in the happiness of her real friends, as she whofe affections are inceffantly evaporating in univerfal civili- ties; as the who is faying fond and flattering things at random to a circle of five hundred people every night.

The decline and fall of animated and inftructive: converfation has been in a good measure effected by; this barbarous project of affembling en masse. An ex-cellent prelate, with whofe friendship the author was: long honoured, and who himself excelled in the art off

*The late Bishop Hornes

converfation, ufed to remark, that a few years had brought about a great revolution in the manners of fociety; that it ufed to be the cuftom, previoufly to going into company, to think that fomething was to be communicated or received, taught or learnt; that the powers of the understanding were expected to be brought into exercife, and that it was therefore neceffary to quicken the mind, by reading and thinking, for the fhare the individual might be expected to take in the general difcourfe; but that now, knowledge, and tafte, and wit, and erudition, feemed to be scarcely confidered as neceffary materials to be brought into the pleasurable commerce of the world; because now there was little chance of turning them to much account; and therefore, he who poffeffed them, and he who poffeffed them not, were nearly on a footing.

It is obvious alfo that multitudinous affemblies are fo little favourable to that cheerfulness which it fhould feem to be their very end to promote, that if there were any chymical procefs by which the quantum of fpirits animal or intellectual could be ascertained, the diminution would be found to have been inconceivably great, fince the transformation of man and woman from a focial to a gregarious animal.

But if it be true, that friendship, fociety, and cheerfulness, have fuftained fo much injury by this change of manners, how much more pointedly does the remark apply to family happiness.

Notwithstanding the known fluctuation of manners and the mutability of language, could it be foreseen, when the Apostle Paul exhorted "married women to "be keepers at home," that the time would arrive when that very phrafe would be felected to defignate "one of the most decided acts of diffipation? Could it be forefeen that when a fine lady fhould fend out a notification that on fuch a night the fhall be AT HOME, thefe two fignificant words (befides intimating the rarity of the thing) would prefent to the mind an image the moft undomeftic which language can convey? Could it be anticipated that the event of one lady's being at home could only be effected by the univerfal concurrence of all her acquaintance to be abroad? That

fo fimple an act fhould require fuch complicated cooperation? And that the report that one perfon would be found in her own house fhould operate with fuch an electric force as to empty the houses of all her friends? My country readers, who may require to have it explained that these two magnetic words at home, now poffefs the powerful influence of drawing together every thing fine within the fphere of their attraction, may need alfo to be apprized, that the guests afterwards are not afked what was faid by the company, but whether the crowd was prodigious; the rule for deciding on the merit of a fashionable fociety not be ing by the taste or the fpirit, but by the core and the bundred. The question of pleasure, like a parliamentary queftion, is now carried by numbers. And when two parties modifh, like two parties political, are run one against another on the fame night, the fame kind of mortification attends the leader of a defeated minority, the fame triumph attends the exulting carrier of fuperior numbers, in the one cafe as in the other. The fcale of enjoyment is rated by the measure of fa tigue, and the quantity of inconvenience furnishes the ftandard of gratification: the fmalinefs of the dimen frons to which each perfon is limited on account of the multitudes which must divide among them a certain given space, adds to the fum total of general delight; the aggregate pleasure is produced by the proportion of individual fuffering; and not till every guest feels herself in the state of a cat in an exhaufted receiver, does the delighted hostess attain the confummation of that renown which is derived from fuch overflowing rooms as fhall throw all her competitors at a difgraceful distance.

An eminent divine has faid, that either "perfeverance in prayer will make a man leave off finning, or a continuance in fin will make him leave off prayer." This remark may be accommodated to thofe ladies. who, while they are devoted to the enjoyments of the world, yet retain confiderable folicitude for the inftruction of their daughters. But if they are really in earneft to give them a Chriftian education, they must themselves renounce a diffipated life. Or if they re

folve to pursue the chace of pleasure, they must re nounce this prime duty. Contraries cannot unite. The moral nurture of a tall daughter can no more be adminiftered by a mother whofe time is abforbed by crowds abroad, than the phyfical nurture of her infant offspring can be fupplied by her in a perpetual abfence from home. And is not that a prepofterous affection, which, after leading a mother to devote a few months to the inferior duty of furnishing aliment to the mere animal life, allows her to defert her poft when the more important moral and intellectual cravings require fuftenance? This great object is not to be effected with the fhreds and parings rounded off from the circle of a diffipated life; but in order to its adequate execution, the mother fhould carry it on with the fame fpirit and perfeverance at home, which the father thinks it neceffary to be exerting abroad in his public duty or profeffional engagements.

The ufual vindication (and in theory it has a plau-fible found) which has been offered for the large portion of time spent by women in acquiring ornamental talents is, that they are calculated to make the poffeffor love home, and that they innocently fill up the hours of leifure. The plea has indeed fo promifing an appearance, that it is worth inquiring whether it be in fact true.. Do we then, on fairly pursuing the inquiry, discover that those who have spent moft time in fuch light acquifitions, are really remarkable for loving home or ftaying quietly there? or that when there, they are fedulous in turning time to the beft account? I fpeak not of that rational and refpectable clafs of women, who, applying (as many of them do) these elegant talents to their true purpose, employ them to fill up the vacancies of better occupations, and to embellifh the leisure of a life actually good. But do we generally sfee that even the most valuable and fober part of the reigning female acquifitions leads their poffeffor to scenes moft favourable to the enjoyment of them? to scenes which we should naturally fuppofe fhe would feek, in order to the more effectual cultivation of fuch rational pleafures? To learn to endure, to enjoy, and to adorn folitude, feems to be one great end for beftowing ac-

complishments, instead of making them the motive for hurrying those who have acquired them into crouds, in order for their most effectual difplay.

Would not thofe delightful purfuits, Botany and Drawing, for inftance, feem likely to court the fields, the woods, and gardens of the paternal feat, as more congenial to their nature, and more appropriate to their exercise, than barren watering places, deftitute of a tree, or an herb, or a flower, and not affording an hour's interval from fucceffive pleafures, to profit by the scene, even if it abounded with the whole vegetable world, from the "Cedar of Lebanon to the Hyffop on "the wall."

From the mention of watering places, may the author be allowed to fuggeft a few remarks on the evils which have arisen from the general confpiracy of the gay to ufurp the regions of the fick; and from their converting the health-reftoring fountains, meant as a refuge for disease, into the reforts of vanity for those who have no disease but idleness?

This inability of staying at home, as it is one of the moft infallible, fo it is one of the most dangerous symptoms of the reigning mania. It would be more tolerable, did this epidemic malady only break out, as formerly, during the winter, or fome one feafon. Heretofore, the tenantry and the poor, the natural dependants on the rural mansions of the opulent, had fome definite period to which they might joyfully look forward for the approach of thofe patrons, part of whose bufinefs in life it is to influence by their prefence, to inftruct by their example, to foothe by their kindness, and to affift by their liberality, those whom Providence, in the diftribution of human lots, has placed under their more immediate protection. Though it would be far from truth to affert, that diffipated people are never charitable, yet I will venture to fay, that diffipation is inconfiftent with the fpirit of charity. That affecting precept followed by fo gracious a promife, "Never turn away thy face from any poor man, and "then the face of the Lord fhall never be turned away " from thee," cannot literally mean that we should give to all, as then we fhould foon have nothing left to