"At regina dolos "Quid non fentit amor?" HE had obferved his mistress go more frequently to her confeffor, a young and blooming ecclefiaftic, than was, perhaps, neceffary for fo much apparent purity, or, as he thought, confiftent with it. It was enough to put a lover on the rack, and it had this effe&t upon Leander. His fufpicions were by no means leffened, when he found the convent to which Clelia had given the preference before all others, was one where this young friar fupplied a confeffional chair.. IT happened that Leander was brought to the abbess in the capacity of a phyfician, and he had one more opportunity offered him of beholding Clelia through the grate. SHE, quite fhocked at his appearance, burit out into a fudden rage, inveighing bitterly against his prefumption, and calling loudly on the name of the bleffed virgin and the holy friar. The convent was, in fhort, alarmed; nor was Clelia capable of being pacified till the good man was called, in order to allay, by fuitable applications, the emotions raifed by this unexpected inter view. LEANDER grew daily more convinced, that it was not only verbal communications which paffed between Clelia and the friar. This, however, he did not think himself fully warranted to difclofe, till an accident, of a fingular nature, gave him an opportunity of receiving more ample testimony. THE Confeffor had a favourite spaniel, which he had loft for fome time, and was informed at length that he was killed, at a village in the neighbourhood, being evidently mad. The friar was at at first not much concerned; but in a little time recollected that the dog had fnapped his fingers the very day before his elopement. A phyfician's advice was thought expedient on the occafion, and Leander was the next physician. He told him with great franknefs, that no prescription he could write, had the fanction of fo much experience as immersion in fea-water. The friar, therefore, the next day set forward upon his journey, while Leander, not without a mifchievous kind of fatisfaction, conveys the following lines to Clelia. "My charming CLELIA. "THOUGH I yet love you to distraction, I cannot but fufpect that you have granted favours to your confeffor, which you might with grea❝ter innocence, have granted to Leander. All I "have to add is this, that amorous intercourfes "of this nature, which you have enjoyed with "friar Laurence, put you under the like neceffity with him of feeking a remedy in the ocean. "Adieu! LEANDER !": IMAGINE Clelia guilty, and then imagine her confufion. To rail was infignificant, and to blame her physician was abfurd, when the found herself under a neceffity of purfuing his advice. The whole fociety was made acquainted with the journey he was undertaking, and the caufes of it. It were uncharitable to fuppofe the whole community under the fame constraint with the unhappy Clelia. However, the greater part thought it decent to attend her. Some went as her companions, fome for exercife, fome for amusement, and the abbefs herfelf as guardian of her train, and concerned in her fociety's miffortunes. WHAT ufe Leander made of his difcovery is not known. Perhaps when he had been fuccefsful in banishing the hypocrite, he did not fhew himself very follicitous in his endeavours to reform the finner. N. B. Written when I went to be dipped in the falt-water. ON VANITY. ISTORY preferves the memory of empires and of states, with which it neceffarily interweaves that of heroes, kings, and statesmen. Biography affords a place to the remarkable characters of private men. There are likewise other fubordinate teftimonies, which ferve to perpetuate, at leaft prolong, the memories of men, whofe characters and ftations give them no claim to a place in story. For inftance, when a perfon fails of making that figure in the world, which he makes in the eyes of his own relations or himfelf, he is rarely dignified any farther than with his picture whilft he is living, or with an infcription upon his monument after his deceafe. Inscriptions have been fo fallacious, that we begin to expect little from them befide elegance of style. To inveigh against the writers, for their manifest want of truth, were as abfurd as to cenfure Homer for the beauties of an imaginary characterBut even paintings, in order to gratify the vanity of the perfon who befpeaks them, are taught now-a-days, to flatter like epitaphs. FALSEHOODS upon a tomb or monument may be intitled to fome excufe in the affection, the gratitude, and piety, of furviving friends. Even grief itself difpofes us to magnify the virtues of a rela a relation, as visible objects also appear larger through tears. But the man who through an idle vanity fuffers his features to be bely'd or exchanged for others of a more agreeable make, may with great truth be faid to lofe his property in the portrait. In like manner, if he encourage the painter to bely his dress, he seems to transfer his claim to the man with whose station his affumed trappings are connected. I REMEMBER a bag-piper, whofe phyfiognomy was fo remarkable and familiar to a club he attended, that it was agreed to have his picture placed over their chimney-piece. There was this remarkable in the fellow, that he chose always to go barefoot, though he was daily offered a pair of fhoes. However, when the painter had been fo exact as to omit this little piece of drefs, the fellow offered all he had in the world, the whole produce of three night's harmony, to have those feet covered in the effigie, which he fo much scorned to cover in the original. Perhaps he thought it a difgrace to his inftrument to be eternized in the hands of fo much apparent povetty. Hovever, when a person of low station adorns himself with trophies to which he has no pretenfions to afpire, he fhould confider the picture as actually telling a lye to posterity. THE abfurdity of this is evident, if a person affume to himself a mitre, a blue garter, or a coronet, improperly; but ftation may be falfified by other decorations, as well as these. BUT I am driven into this grave discourse, on a fubject, perhaps, not very important, by a real fit of spleen. I this morning faw a fellow drawn in a night-gown of fo rich a stuff, that the expence, had he purchased such a one, would more than half have ruined him; and another coxcomb, feated by his painter in a velvet chair, who would D 3 have have been furprized at the deference paid him, had he been offered a cushion. -Gaudent prænomine molles It is a very convenient piece of knowledge for a perfon upon a journey, to know the compellations with which it is proper to address those he happens to meet by his way. Some accuracy there may be of ufe to him who would be well directed either in the length or the tendency of his road; or be freed from any itinerary difficulties incident to thofe who do not know the country. It may not be indeed imprudent to accoft a paffenger with a title fuperior to what he may appear to claim. This will feldom fail to diffufe a wonderful alacrity in his countenance; and be, perhaps, a method of fecuring you from any mistake of greater importance. I WAS led into thefe obfervations by fome follicitudes I lately. underwent, on account of my ignorance in thefe peculiarities. Being fomewhat more verfed in books, than I can pretend to be in the orders of men, it was my fortune to undertake a journey, which I was to perform by means of enquiries. I had paffed a number of miles. without any fort of difficulty, by help of the manifold inftructions that had been given me on my setting out. At length being fomething dubious concerning my way, I met a perfon, whom, from his nightcap and feveral domeftic parts of drefs, I deemed to be of the neighbourhood. His ftation of life appeared to me, to be what we call a gentleman-farmer; a fort of fubaltern character; in refpect of which, the world feems not invariably determined. It is in fhort what King Charles the Second esteemed the happiest of all ftations; fuperior to the toilfom task and ridiculous. dignity |