familiars have a key to their heart, or to their garden. A RESERVED man is in continual conflict with the focial part of his nature; and even grudges himself the laugh into which he fometimes is betrayed. "Seldom he smiles. "And smiles in fuch a fort as he difdained "any "A FOOL and his words are foon parted;" for fo fhould the proverb run. COMMON understandings, like cits in gardening, allow no fhades to their picture. MODESTY often paffes for errant haughtiness; as what is deemed fpirit in an horse proceeds from fear. THE higher character a perfon fupports, the more he should regard his minutest actions. THE referved man fhould bring a certificate of his honefty, before he be admitted into company. RESERVE is no more effentially, connected with understanding, than a church organ with devotion, or wine with good-nature®. ON EXTERNAL FIGURE. TH HERE is a young gentleman in my parish, who, on account of his fuperior equipage, is esteemed univerfally more proud and more haughty than his neighbours. 'Tis frequently hinted, that he is by no means entitled to fo fplendid an an appearance, either by his birth, his ftation, or his fortune; and that it is, of confequence, * THESE were no other than a collection of hints when I proposed to write a poetical effay on Referve. me re mere pride that urges him to live beyond his rank, or renders him blind to the knowledge of it. With all this fondness for external splendor, he is a moft affable and ingenious man; and for this reafon I am inclined to vindicate him, when these things are mentioned to his difadvantage. IN the first place, it is by no means clear, that drefs and equipage are fure figns of pride. Where it is joined with a fupercilious behaviour, it becomes then a corroborative teftimony. But this is not always the cafe: The refinements of luxury in equipage or a table, are perhaps as often the gratifications of fancy, as the confequence of an ambition to surpass and eclipfe our equals. Whoever thinks that taste has nothing to do here, muk confine the expreffion to improper limits; affuredly imagination may find it's account in them, wholly independent of worldly homage and confiderations more invidious. IN the warmth of friendship for this gentleman, I am fometimes prompted to go further. I infist, it is not birth or fortune only that give a perfon claim to a splendid appearance; that it may be conferred by other qualifications in which my friend is acknowledged to have a share. I HAVE fometimes urged that remarkable ingenuity, any great degree of merit in learning, arts or sciences, are a more reasonable authority for a fplendid appearance than those which are commonly prefumed to be fo. That there is fomething more perfonal in this kind of advantages than in rank or fortune will not be denied; and furely there ought to be fome proportion obferved betwixt the cafe and the thing enclosed.. The propenfity of rich and worthless people to appear with a fplendour upon all occafions, puts one in mind of the country fhop-keeper who gilds his boxes in order to be the receptacle of pitch or tobacco tobacco. 'Tis not unlike the management at our theatres royal, where you fee a piece of candle honored with a crown. I HAVE generally confidered thofe as privileged people, who are able to fupport the character they affume. Those who are incapable of fhining, but by drefs, would do well to confider that the contrafte betwixt them and their cloathes turns out much to their disadvantage. 'Tis on this account I have fometimes obferved with pleasure fome noblemen of immense fortune to dress exceedingly plain. Ir drefs be only allowable to perfons of family, it may then be confidered as a fort of family-livery, and Jack the groom may with equal justice pride himself upon the gawdy wardrobe his mafter gives him. Nay more-For a gentleman, before he hire a fervant, will require fome teftimony of his merit; whereas the mafter challenges his own right to fplendour, tho' poffeffed of no merit at all. UPON my present scheme of drefs, it may seem to answer fome very good purposes. It is then established on the fame foundation, as the judge's robe and the prelate's lawn. If drefs were only authorized in men of ingenuity, we should find many aiming at the previous merit, in hopes of the fubfequent diftin&tion. The finery of an empty fellow would render him as ridiculous as a ftar and garter would one never knighted: And men would ufe as commendable a diligence to qualify themselves for a brocaded waiftecoat, or a gold fnuff-box, as they now do to procure themfelves a right of invefting their limbs in lawn or ermine. We should not esteem a man a coxcomb for his drefs, till, by frequent converfation, we difcovered a flaw in his title. If he was incapable of uttering a bon mot, the gold upon his coat would feem feem foreign to his circumstances. A man fhould not wear a French drefs, till he could give an account of the best French authors: and should be verfed in all the oriental languages before he should prefume to wear a diamond. It may be urged, that men of the greatest merit may not be able to fhew it in their drefs, on account of their flender income. But here it fhould be confidered that another part of the world would find their equipage fo much reduced by a fumptuary law of this nature, that a very moderate degree of fplendour would diftinguish them more than a greater does at prefent. WHAT I propose however upon the whole is, that men of merit fhould be allowed to dress in proportion to it; but this with the privilege of appearing plain whenever they found an expediency in fo doing: As a nobleman lays afide his garter, when he fees no valuable confequence in the discovery of his quality. A CHARACTER. "Animæ nil magnæ laudius egentes." HERE is an order of perfons in the world Those thoughts never deviate from the never common road; whatever events occur. Whatever objects present themselves, their obfervations are as uniform, as though they were the confequence of instinct. There is nothing places thefe men in a more infignificant point of light, than a comparison of their ideas with the refinements of fome great genius. I fhall only add, by way of reflexion, that it is people of this stamp, that, together with the foundeft health, often enjoy the greatest equanimity: their passions, like dull fteeds, being the leaft apt to endanger, or mifguide them yet fuch is the fatality! Men of genius are often expected to act with most dif cretion, on account of that very fancy which is their greatest impediment. I was taking a view of Westminster abby, with an old gentleman of exceeding honefty, but the fame degree of understanding, as that I have defcribed. THERE had nothing paffed in our way thither, befide the customary falutations, and an endeavour to decide with accuracy upon the present temperature of the weather. On paffing over the threshold, he obferved with an air of thoughtfulness, that it was a brave antient place. I TOLD him, I thought there was none more fuitable, to moralize upon the futility of all earthly glory, as there was none which contained the afhes of men that had acquired a greater fhare of it. On this he gave a nod of approbation, but did not seem to comprehend me. SILENCE enfued for many minutes; when having had time to reflect upon the monuments of men famous in their generations, he food collected in himself; affuring me "there was no "fort of excellence could exempt a man from "death." I APPLAUDED the juftice of his obfervation ; and faid, it was not only my prefent opinion, but had been fo for a number of years. "Right," fays he," and for my own part I feldom love to "publish my remarks upon a fubject, till I have "had them confirmed to me by a long courfe of "experience." THIS laft maxim, fomewhat beyond his ufual depth; occafioned a filence of fome few minutes. The fpring had been too much bent to recover immediately it's wonted vigour. We had taken fome few turns, up and down the left hand ayle when |