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replies my lady,' Madam,' says he, 'I have lost an excellent stomach.' At this, his son and heir laughs immoderately, and winks upon Mrs. Annabella. This is the thirty-third time that sir Harry hath been thus arch, and I can bear it no longer.

As the telling of stories is a great help and life to conversation, I always encourage them, if they are pertinent and innocent; in opposition to those gloomy mortals, who disdain every thing but matter of fact. Those grave fellows are my aversion, who sift every thing with the utmost nicety, and find the malignity of a lie in a piece of humour, pushed a little beyond exact truth. I likewise have a poor opinion of those, who have got a trick of keeping a steady countenance, that cock their hats, and look glum when a pleasant thing is said, and ask,

Well! and what then?' Men of wit and parts should treat one another with benevolence and I will lay it down as a maxim, that if you seem to have a good opinion of another man's wit, he will allow you to have judgment *.

The bishop of Bangor was at a whig-feaft, where John Sly of facetious memory, being mellow, came into the room on his knees, with a frothing quart tankard in his hand, which he drank off to the immortal memory,' and retired in like manner. Hoadly was observing this with great gravity, when the author of this paper, No 42, who sat next his lordship, whispered him in the ear, laugh my good lord, it is humanity to laugh.'

This anecdote of Steele is given on the written authority of the bishop's son, Dr. John Hoadly.

N° 43. THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1713.

Effutire leves indigna Tragedia versus,

Ut festis Matrona moveri jussa diebus.

HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 231.

Tragedy shou'd blush as much to stoop

To the low mimic follies of a farce,

As a grave matron would to dance with girls.

ROSCOMMON.

I HAD for some days observed something in agitation, which was carried by smiles and whispers, between my lady Lizard and her daughters, with a professed declaration that Mr. Ironside should not be in the secret. I would not trespass upon the integrity of the Sparkler so much as to solicit her to break her word even in a trifle; but I take it for an instance of her kindness to me, that as soon as she was at liberty, she was impatient to let me know it, and this morning sent me the following billet.

SIR,

My brother Tom waited upon us all last night to Cato; we sat in the first seats in the box of the eighteen-penny gallery. You must come hither this morning, for we shall be full of debates about the characters. I was for Marcia last night, but find that partiality was owing to the awe I was under in her father's presence; but this morning Lucia is my woman. You will tell me

whether I am right or no when I see you; but I
think it is a more difficult virtue to forbear going
into a family, though she was in love with the heir
of it, for no other reason but because her happi-
ness was inconsistent with the tranquillity of the
whole house to which she should be allied. I
say, I think it a more generous virtue in Lucia to
conquer her love from this motive, than in Marcia
to suspend hers in the present circumstances of
her father and her country: but pray be here to
settle these matters.
I am,

your most obliged and
obedient humble servant,
MARY LIZARD.'

I made all the haste imaginable to the family, where I found Tom with the play in his hand, and the whole company with a sublime chearfulness in their countenance, all ready to speak to me at once; and before I could draw my chair, my lady herself repeated:

'Tis not a set of features, or complexion,
The tincture of a skin that I admire;
Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover,
Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense.
The virtuous Marcia towers above her sex ;
True, she is fair; (oh, how divinely fair!)
But still the lovely maid improves her charms
With inward greatness, unaffected wisdom,
And sanctity of manners.'

I was going to speak, when Mrs. Cornelia stood up, and with the most gentle accent and sweetest tone of voice succeeded her mother:

* Whole' ought to have been left out here, and the reason surely is a very strong one.

A.

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So the pure limpid stream, when foul with stains

Of rushing torrents and descending rains,

Works itself clear, and as it runs refines,

Till by degrees the floating mirror shines,
Reflects each flower that on the border grows,
And a new heaven in its fair bosom shows.'

I thought now they would have given me time to draw a chair; but the Sparkler took hold of me, and I heard her with the utmost delight pursue her admiration of Lucia in the words of Portius:

Athwart the terrors that thy vow

Has planted round thee, thou appear'st more fair,
More amiable, and risest in thy charms,
Loveliest of women! Heaven is in thy soul,
Beauty and virtue shine for ever round thee,
Bright'ning each other; thou art all divine !'

When the ladies had done speaking, I took the liberty to take my place; while Tom, who, like a just courtier, thinks the interest of his prince and country the same, dwelt upon these lines:

Remember, O my friends, the laws, the rights,
The generous plan of power deliver'd down
From age to age, by your renown'd fore-fathers,
(So dearly bought, the price of so much blood.)
O let it never perish in your hands!

But piously transmit it to your children.'

Though I would not take notice of it at that time, it went to my heart that Annabella, for whom I have long had some apprehensions, said nothing on this occasion, but indulged herself in the sneer of a little mind, to see the rest so much affected. Mrs. Betty also, who knows forsooth more than us all, overlooked the whole drama, but acknowledged the dresses of Syphax and Juba were prettily imagined. The love of virtue, which has been so warmly roused by this admirable piece in all parts

of the theatre, is an unanswerable instance of how great force the stage might be towards the improvement of the world, were it regarded and encouraged as much as it ought. There is no medium in this case, for the advantage of action, and the representation of vice and virtue in an agreeable or odious manner before our eyes, are so irresistably prevalent, that the theatre ought to be shut up, or carefully governed, in any nation that values the promotion of virtue or guard of innocence among its people. Speeches or sermons will ever suffer, in some degree, from the characters of those that make them; and mankind are so unwilling to reflect on what makes for their own mortification, that they are ever cavilling against the lives of those who speak in the cause of goodness, to keep themselves in countenance, and continue in beloved infirmities. But in the case of the stage, envy and detraction are baffled, and none are offended, but all insensibly won by personated characters, which they neither look upon as their rivals, or superiors; every man that has any degree of what is laudable in a theatrical character, is secretly pleased, and encouraged, in the prosecution of that virtue, without fancying any man about him has more of it. To this purpose I fell a talking at the tea-table, when my lady Lizard, with a look of some severity towards Annabella and Mrs, Betty, was pleased to say, that it must be from some trifling prepossession of mind that any one could be unmoved with the characters of this tragedy; nor do I yet understand to what circumstance in the family her ladyship alluded, when she made all the company look serious, and rehearsed, with a tone more exalted, those words of the heroine,

In spite of all the virtues we can boast,
The woman that deliberates is lost,'

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