mer about her marriage. Tho really upon fecond thought, I don't know but I ought to condole with her, for I have long been convinced he has a prodigions antipathy to you. Ifaw it the whole time I was at Delvill Castle, where the ufed to change colour at the very found of your name; a fymptom I never perceived when I talked to her of Lord Derford, who would certainly have made her a thousand times better husband. Del. If you mean on account of his title, Lady Honoria, your ladyship must be ftrangely forgetful of the connexions of your family; for Mortimer, after the death of his uncle, and myself, muft inevitably inherit a title far more honorable than any which can be offered by a new sprung up family, like my Lord Ernolt 's.

Lady Hon. Yes, Sir; but then you know he would have kept her eftate, which would have been a vaftly better thing than an old pedigree of new relations. Befides I don't find that any body cares for the noble blood of the Delvills but themselves; and if she had kept her fortune, every body, L fancy, would have cared for that.

Del. Every body then, must be highly mercenary and igno. ble, or the blood of an ancient and honorable houfe, would be thought contaminated by the most diftant hint of fo degrading a comparison.

Lady Hon. Dear Sir, what fhould we all do with birth if it was not for wealth? It would neither take us to Ranelagh nor the Opera ; nor buy us caps nor wigs, nor fupply us with dinners nor bouquets.

Del. Caps and wigs, dinners and bouquets! Your lady hips eftimate of wealth is extremely minute indeed.

Lady Hon. Why you know, Sir, as to caps and wigs, they are very ferious things, for we fhould look mighty droll figures to go about bareheaded; and as to dinners, how would the Delvills have lafted all these thousand centuries, if they had difdained eating them?

Del. Whatever may be your Ladyship's fatisfaction in depreciating a house that has the honor of being nearly allied to your own, you will not, I hope at leaft, inftruct this lady Eturning to Cecilia] to imbibe a fimilar contempt of its antiquity and dignity,

Mort. Del. This lady, by becoming one of it, will at leaft fecure us from the danger that fuch contempt will spread fur ther.

Cec. Let me only be as fecare from exciting as I am from feeling contempt, and I can with no more.

Dr. Lys. Good and excellent young lady; the first of bles fings indeed is yours in the temperance of your own mind. When you began your career in life, you appeared to us short. fighted mortals, to poffefs more than your share of good things. Such a union of riches, beauty, independence, talents, education, virtue, feemed a monopoly to raife general envy and difcontent-But mark with what exactnefs the good and the bad is ever balanced! You have had a thoufand forrows to which those who have looked up to you, have been total Arangers, and which balance all your advantages for happinefs. There is a levelling principle in the world, at war, with preeminence, which finally puts us all upon a footing.

Del. Not quite. I think an ancient and refpectable familyLady Hon. With a handfome income and high life gives one a mighty chance for happinefs. Don't you think fo Mor timer ?

Mort. Del. I do, indeed; but add, a connexion with an amiable woman, and I think the chances for happiness are more than doubled.

I.

Dr. Lys. Right Mortimer; we are well agreed.

ADDITIONAL LESSON S.
Directions how to spend our Time.

WE

E all of us complain of the fhortness of time, faith Seneca, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, fays he, are spent either in doing no. thing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpofe, or in doing no thing that we ought to do; we are always complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them. That noble philofopher has described our inconfistency with ourselves in this particular, by all those various turns of expreffion and thought which are peculiar to his writings.

2. I often confider mankind as wholly inconfiftent with itfelf in a point that bears fome affinity to the former, Though we feem grieved at the shortness of life in general, we are with ing every period of it at an end. The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of bufinefs, then to make up an estate, then to arrive at honors, then to retire. Thus, although the whole of life is allowed by every one to be short, the feveral divifions of it appear long and tedious,

3. We are for lengthening our fpan in general, but would fain contract the parts of which it is compofed. The ufurer would be very well fatisfied to have all the time annihilated that lies between the prefent moment and next quarter day. The pol itician would be contented to lofe three years in his life, could he place things in the pofture which he fancies they will ftand in

after fuch a revolution of time.

4. The lover would be glad to frike out of his exiftence all the moments that are to pass away before the happy meeting. Thus, as fast as our time runs, we should be very glad in most parts of our lives, that it ran much fafter than it does. Several hours of the day hang upon our hands, nay, we wish away whole years; and travel through time as through a country filled with many wilds and empty waftes, which we would fain hurry over, that we may arrive at thole feveral little fettlements or imaginary points of reft, which are difperfed up and

down in it.

I

5. If we may divide the life of most men into twenty parts, we fhall find, that at least nineteen of them are mere gaps and chafms, which are neither filled with pleasure nor business, do not however include in this calculation the life of thofe men who are in a perpetual hurry of affairs, but of thofe only who are not alway engaged in fcenes of action; and I hope I fhall not do an unexceptionable piece of fervice to thefe perfons, if I point out to them certain methods for the filling up their empty spaces of life. The methods I fhall propofe to them are as follow:

6. The firft is the exercife of virtue, in the moft general acceptation of the word. That particular scheme which comprehends, the focial virtues, may give employment to the moft induftrious temper, and find a man in bufinefs more than the moft active ftation of life. To advife the ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost every day of our lives.

7. A man has frequent opportunities of mitigating the fiercenefs of a party; of doing juftice to the character of a deferving man; of foftening the envious, quieting the angry, and reci fying the prejudiced; which are all of them employments fuited to a reasonable nature, and bring great fatisfaction to the person who can bufy himfelf in them with discretion.

8. There is another kind of virtue that may find employment for thofe retired hours in which we are altogether left

to ourselves, and deftitute of company and conversation: I mean that intercourfe and communication which every rea fonable creature ought to maintain with the great Author of his being.

9. The man who lives under an habitual sense of the divine prefence, keeps up a perpetual cheerfulness of temper, and enjoys every moment the fatisfaction of thinking himself in company with his dearest and bett of friends. The time never lies heavy upon him; it is impoffible for him to be alone.

10. His thoughts and paffions are the most bufied at fuch hours when thofe of other men are the most inactive; he no fooner steps out of the world, but his heart burns with devotion, fwells with hope, and triumphs in the confcioufnefs of that prefence which every where furrounds him; or on the contrary, pours out its fears, its forrows, its apprehenfion to the great Supporter of its existence.

11. I have here only confidered the neceffity of a man's being virtuous, that he may have fomething to do ; but if we confider further, that the exercife of virtue is not only an amufement for the time it lafts, but that its influence extends to thofe parts of our existence which lie beyond the grave, and that our whole eternity is to take its colour from thole hours which we here employ in virtue or in vice, the argument redoubles upon us, for putting in practice this method of paffing away our time. 12. When a man has but little flock to improve, and his opportunities of turning it all to good account, what shall we think of him if he fuffers nineteen parts of it to lie dead, and perhaps employ's even the twentieth to his ruin or difadvantage? But because the mind cannot be always in its fervor, nor ftrained up to a pitch of virtue, it is neceffary to find out proper ema ployments for it in its relaxations.

13. The next method, therefore, that I would propofe to fill up cur time, fhould be useful and innocent diverfion. I must confefs I think it is below reasonable creatures to be alto gether converfant in fuch diverfions as are merely innocent, and have nothing elfe to recommend them, but that there is no hurt

in them.

14. Whether any kind of gaming has even thus much to fay tfelf, I fhall not determine; but I think it is very won l to fee perfons of the best fenfe, paffing away a dozen s together in fhuffling and dividing a pack of cards, with other converfation but what is made up of a few game

phrafes, and no other ideas but those of black or red fpots, ranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of his fpecies complaining that life is fhort? 15. The tage might be made a perpetual fource of the moft noble and useful entertainments, were it under proper regulations.

16. But the mind never unbends itself fo agreeably as in the converfation of a well chofen friend. There is indeed no bleffing of life that is in any way comparable to the enjoyment of a difcreet and virtuous friend. It cafes and unloads the mind, clears and improves the understanding, engenders thots and knowledge, animates virtue and good refolution, foothes and gallays the paffions, and finds employment for most of the vacant hours of life.

17. Next to fuch an intimacy with a particular perfon, one fhould endeavor after a more general converfation with fuch as are able to entertain and improve thofe with whom they converfe, which are qualifications that feldom go afunder.

18. There are may other ufeful amufements of life, which one should endeavor to multiply, that one might on all occa fions have recourfe to fomething, rather than fuffer the mind to lie idle, or run a drift with any paffion that chances to rise in it. 19. A man that has a tafte in mufic, painting or architecture, is like one that has another fenfe, when compared with fuch as have no relish of thofe arts. The florift, the planter, the gar dener, the hufbandman, when they are only as accomplishments to the man of fortune, are great reliefs to a country life, and many ways useful to those who are poffeffed of thetn. Spectator, No. 93.

-I.

MODESTY.

"ODESTY is the citadel of beauty and virtue. The first of all virtues is innocence ; the fecond is modesty. 2. Modeity is both in its fource, and in its confequence, a very great happinefs to the fair poffeffor of it; it arifes from a fear of difhonor, and a good confcience, and is followed immediately, upon its first appearance, with the reward of honor and efteem, paid by all those who difcover it in any body living,

3. It is indeed, a virtue in a woman (that might otherwife be very difagreeable to one) fo exquifitely delicate, that it ex cites in any beholder, of a generous and manly difpofition, almost all the paffions, that he would be apt to conceive for the miftrefs of his beart, in a variety of circumstances.