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fay a Word of themselves till the Meeting breaks up. is not here pretended, that we should be always fitting with Chaplets of Flowers round our Heads, or be crowned with Rofes in order to make our Entertainment agreeable to us; but if (as it is ufually obferved) they who refolve to be merry, feldom are fo; it will be much more unlikely for us to be well pleafed, if they are admitted who are always complaining they are fad. Whatever we do we should keep up the Chearfulness of our Spirits, and never let them fink below an Inclination at least to be well pleased: The Way to this, is to keep our Bodies in Exercife, our Minds at Eale. That infipid State wherein neither are in Vigour, is not to be accounted any Part of our Portion of Being. When we are in the Satisfaction of fome innocent Pleafure, or Purfuit of fome laudable Defign, we are in the Poffeffion of Life, of Human Life. Fortune will give us Difappointments enough, and Nature is attended with Infirmities enough, without our adding to the unhappy Side of our Account by our Spleen or ill Humour. Poor CottiLus, among fo many real Evils, a chronical Diftemper and a narrow Fortune, is never heard to complain : That equal Spirit of his, which any Man may have, that, like him, will conquer Pride, Vanity and Affectation, and follow Nature, is not to be broken, because it has no Points to contend for. To be anxious for nothing but what Nature demands as neceffary, if it is not the Way to an Estate, is the Way to what Men aim at by getting an Eftate. This Temper will preferve Health in the Body, as well as Tranquility in the Mind. Cottilus fees the World in an Hurry, with the fame Scorn that a fober Perfon fees a Man drunk, Had he been contented with what he ought to have been, how could, fays he, fuch a one have met with fuch a Dif appointment? If another had valued his Mistress for what he ought to have loved her, he had not been in her Power: If her Virtue had had a Part of his Paffion, her Levity had been his Cure; fhe could not then have been falfe and amiable at the fame Time.

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SINCE we cannot promife our felves conftant Health let us endeavour at fuch a Temper as may be our beft Support in the Decay of it. Uranius has arrived at that Compofure of Soul, and wrought himself up to fuch a Neglect of every thing with which the Generality of Mankind is

enchanted,

enchanted, that nothing but acute Pains can give him Difturbance, and against thofe too he will tell his intimate Friends he has a Secret which gives him prefent Eafe. Uranius is fo thoroughly perfuaded of another Life, and endeavours fo fincerely to fecure an Intereft in it, that he looks upon Pain but as a quickning of his Pace to an Home, where he fhall be better provided for than in his prefent Apartment,. Instead of the melancholly Views which others are apt to give themselves, he will tell you that he has forgot he is mortal, nor will he think of himfelf as fuch. He thinks at the Time of his Birth he entered into an eternal Being; and the fhort Article of Death he will not allow an Interruption of Life, fince that Moment is not of half the Duration as is his ordinary Sleep. Thus is his Being one uniform and confiftent Series of chearful Diversions and moderate Cares, without Fear or Hope of Futurity. Health to him is more than Pleasure to another Man, and Sickness lefs affecting to him than Indifpofition is to others.

I must confefs, if one does not regard Life after this manner, none but Ideots can pafs it away with any tolerable Patience. Take a fine Lady who is of a delicate Frame, and you may obferve from the Hour fhe rifes a certain Weariness of all that paffes about her. I know more than one who is much too nice to be quite alive. They are fick of fuch ftrange frightful People that they meet; one is fo aukward, and another fo difagreeable, that it looks like a Penance to breathe the fame Air with them. You fee this is fo very true, that a great Part of Ceremony and Good-breeding among the Ladies turns upon their Uneafinefs; and I'll undertake, if the How d'ye Servants of our Women were to make a Weekly Bill of Sickness, as the Parifh-Clerks do of Mortality, you would not find in an Account of feven Days, one in thirty that was not downright fick or indifpofed, or but a very little better than fhe was, and fo forth.

IT is certain, that to enjoy Life and Health as a conftant Feaft, we fhould not think Pleafure neceffary; but, if poffible, to arrive at an Equality of Mind. It is as mean to be overjoyed upon Occafions of good Fortune, as to be dejected in Circumftances of Diftrefs. Laughter in One Condition, is as unmanly as Weeping in the other.

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We fhould not form our Minds to expect Tranfport ón every Occafion, but know how to make it Enjoyment to be out of Pain. Ambition, Envy, vagrant Defire, or impertinent Mirth will take up our Minds, without we can poffefs our felves in that Sobriety of Heart which is above all Pleafures, and can be felt much better than defcribed. But the ready Way, I believe, to the right Enjoyment of Life, is by a Profpect towards another to have but a very mean Opinion of it. A great Author of our Time has fet this in an excellent Light, when with a Philofophick Pity of Human Life, he fpoke of it in his Theory of the Earth in the following

manner.

FOR what is this Life but a Circulation of little mean Actions? We lie down and rife again, drefs and undress, feed and wax hungry, work or play, and are weary, and then we lie down again, and the Circle returns. We Spend the Day in Trifles, and when the Night comes we throw oar felves into the Bed of Folly, amongst Dreams and briken Thoughts and wild Imaginations. Our Reafon lies afleep by us, and we are for the Time as arrant Brutes as thofe that fleep in the Stalls or in the Field. Are not the Capacities of Man higher than these? And ought not his Ambition and Expectations to be greater? Let us be Adventurers for another World: 'Tis at least a fair and noble Chance; and there is nothing in this worth our Thoughts or our Paffions. If we should be disappointed, we are still no worse than the rest of our Fellow Mortals; and if we fucceed in our Expectations, we are eternally happy. H

Wednesday

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N° 144. Wednesday, August 15.

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Niros quam elegans formarum
Spectator fiem.

Ter.

EAUTY has been the Delight and Torment of the World ever fince it began. The Philofophers have felt its Influence fo fenfibly, that almost every one of them has left us fome Saying or other, which intimated that he too well knew the Power of it. One has told us, that a graceful Perfon is a more powerful Recommen. dation, than the beft Letter that can be writ in your Favour. Another defires the Poffeffor of it to confider it as a mere Gift of Nature, and not any Perfection of his own. A Third calls it a fhort-liv'd Tyranny; a Fourth, a filent Fraud, because it impofes upon us without the Help of Language; but, I think Carneades fpoke as much like a Philofopher as any of them, tho' more like a Lover, when he called it Royalty without Force. It is not indeed to be denied, that there is fomething ir refiftible in a Beauteous Form; the moft Severe will not pretend, that they do not feel an immediate Prepoffefhon in Favour of the Handsome. No one denies them the Privilege of being firft heard, and being regarded before others in Matters of ordinary Confideration. At the fame time the Handsome should confider that it is a Poffeffion, as it were, foreign to them. No one can give it himself, or preferve it when they have it. Yet fo it is, that People cam bear any Quality in the World better than Beauty. It is the Confolation of all who are naturally too much affected with the Force of it, that a little Attention, ifa Man can attend with Judgment, will cure them. Handfome People ufually are so phantastically pleas'd with themfelves, that if they do not kill at first Sight, as the Phrafe is, a fecond Interview difarms them of all their Power. But I fhall make this Paper rather a Warning-Piece to give Notice where the Danger

is, than to propofe Inftructions how to avoid it when you have fallen in the Way of it. Handsome Men fhall be the Subjects of another Chapter, the Women fhall take up the prefent Discoufe,

AMARYLLIS, who has been in Town but one Winter, is extreamly improved with the Arts of Good-Breeding, without leaving Nature. She has not loft the Native Simplicity of her Afpect, to fubftitue that Patience of being ftared at, which is the ufual Triumph and Distinction of a Town Lady. In Publick Affemblies you meet her careless Eye diverting it felf with the Objects around her, infenfible that the herself is one of the brightest in the Place.

DULCISSA is quite of another Make, she is almost a Beauty by Nature, but more than one by Art. If it were poffible for her to let her Fan or any Limb about her rest, The would do fome Part of the Execution fhe meditates; but tho' fhe defigns her felf a Prey, fhe will not ftay to be taken. No Painter can give you Words for the different Afpects of Dulciffa in half a Moment, where-ever fhe appears: So little does he accomplish what she takes fo much Pains for, to be gay and careless.

: MERAB is attended with all the Charms of Woman and Accomplishments of Man. It is not to be doubted but he has a great deal of Wit, if fhe were not such a Beauty; and he would have more Beauty had she not fo much Wit. Affectation prevents her Excellencies from Walking together. If fhe has a Mind to fpeak fuch a Thing, it must be done with fuch an Air of her Body; and if he has an Inclination to look very careless, there is fuch a smart Thing to be faid at the fame Time, that the Defign of deing admired deftroys it felf. Thus the unhappy Merab, tho' a Wit and Beauty, is allowed to be neither, becaule fhe will always be both.

ALBACINDA has the Skill as well as Power of Pleafing. Her Form is majestick, but her Aspect humble, All good Men should beware of the Deftroyer. She will fpeak to you like your Sifter till he has you fure; but is the most vexatious of Tyrants when you are fo. Her Familiarity of Behaviour, her indifferent Queftions, and general Converfation, make the filly Part of her Votataries full of Hopes, while the wife fly from her Power.

She

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