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be used as the vehicle of a system of Scepticism, and that he had very little doubt of seeing Mr. Hume's posthumous works introduced in it. A short squat man, with a carbuncled face, maintained, that it was designed to propagate Methodism; and said, he believed it to be the production of a disciple of Mr. John Wesley. A gentleman in a gold chain differed from both; and told us he had been informed, from very good authority, that the paper was intended for political purposes.

A smart looking young man, in green, said he was sure it would be very satirical: his companion, in scarlet, was equally certain that it would be very stupid. But with this last prediction I was not much offended, when I discovered that its author had not read the First Number, but only inquired of Mr. Creech where it was published.

A plump round figure, near the fire, who had just put on his spectacles to examine the paper, closed the debate, by observing, with a grave aspect, that as the author was anonymous, it was proper to be very cautious in talking of the performance. After glancing over the pages, he said, he could have wished they had set apart a corner for intelligence from America: but, having taken off his spectacles, wiped, and put them into their case, he said, with a tone of discovery, he had found out the reason why there was nothing of that sort in the Mirror; it was in order to save the tax upon newspapers.

Upon getting home to my lodgings, and reflecting on what I had heard, I was for some time in doubt, whether I should not put an end to these questions at once, by openly publishing my name and intentions to the world. But I am prevented from discovering the first by a certain bashfulness, of which even my travels have not been able to cure me; from declaring the last, by being really unable to declare

them. The complexion of my paper will depend on a thousand circumstances, which it is impossible to foresee. Besides these little changes, to which every one is liable from external circumstances, I must fairly acknowledge, that my mind is naturally much more various than my situation. The disposition of the author will not always correspond with the temper of a man: in the first character I may sometimes indulge a sportiveness to which I am a stranger in the latter, and escape from a train of very different thoughts, into the occasional gaiety of the Mirror.

The general tendency of my lucubrations, however, I have signified in my First Number, in allusion to my title: I mean to shew the world what it is, and will sometimes endeavour to point out what it should be.

Somebody has compared the publisher of a periodical paper of this kind, to the owner of a stagecoach, who is obliged to run his vehicle with or without passengers. One might carry on the allusion through various points of similarity. I must confess to my customers, that the road we are to pass together is not a new one; that it has been travelled again and again, and that too in much better carriages than mine. I would only insinuate, that, though the great objects are still the same, there are certain little edifices, some beautiful, some grotesque, and some ridiculous, which people on every side of the road are daily building, in the prospect of which we may find some amusement. Their fellow-passengers will sometimes be persons of high, and sometimes of low rank, as in other stage-coaches; like them too, sometimes grave, sometimes facetious; but that ladies, and men of delicacy, may not be afraid to take places, they may be assured that no scurrilous or indecent company will ever be admitted.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1779.

Formam quidem ipsam et faciem honesti vides, quæ, si oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores excitaret sapientiæ.

CIC. De Offic.

differ

THE philosopher, and the mere man of taste, from each other chiefly in this, that the latter is satisfied with the pleasure he receives from objects, without inquiring into the principles or causes from which that pleasure proceeds; but the philosophical inquirer, not satisfied with the effect which objects viewed by him produce, endeavours to discover the reasons why some of those objects give pleasure, and others disgust; why one composition is agreeable, and another the reverse. Hence have arisen the various systems with regard to the principles of beauty; and hence the rules, which, deduced from those principles, have been established by the critic.

In the course of these investigations, various theories have been invented to explain the different qualities, which, when assembled together, constitute beauty, and produce that feeling which arises in the mind from the sight of a beautiful object. Some philosophers have said, that this feeling arises from the sight or examination of an object in which there is a proper mixture of uniformity and variety; others have thought, that besides uniformity and variety, a number of other qualities enter into the composition of an object that is termed beautiful.

To engage in an examination of those different systems, or to give any opinion of my own with regard to them, would involve me in a discussion too abstruse for a paper of this kind. I shall, however, beg leave to present my reader with a quotation from

a treatise, entitled, An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue*. Speaking of the effect which the beauty of the human figure has upon our minds, the author expresses himself in the following words:

'There is a farther consideration, which must not be passed over, concerning the external beauty of persons, which all allow to have great power over human minds. Now it is some apprehended morality, some natural or imagined indication of concomitant virtue, which gives it this powerful charm above all other kinds of beauty. Let us consider the characters of beauty which are commonly admired in countenances, and we shall find them to be sweetness, mildness, majesty, dignity, vivacity, humility, tenderness, good-nature: that is, certain airs, proportions, je ne sçai quoi's, are natural indications of such virtues, or of abilities or dispositions towards them. As we observed above of misery or distress appearing in countenances; so it is certain, almost all habitual dispositions of mind form the countenance, in such a manner as to give some indications to the spectator. Our violent passions are obvious, at first view, in the countenance, so that sometimes no art can conceal them; and smaller degrees of them give some less obvious turns to the face which an accurate eye will observe.'

What an important lesson may be drawn by my fair countrywomen from the observations contained in this passage! Nature has given to their sex beauty of external form greatly superior to that of the other: the power which this gives them over our hearts they well know, and they need no instructor how to exercise it: but whoever can give any prescription by which that beauty may be increased, or

*By Dr. Hutcheson.

its decay retarded, is a useful monitor, and a benevolent friend.

Now I am inclined to think, that a prescription may be extracted from the unfashionable philosopher above quoted, which will be more effectual in heightening and preserving the beauty of the ladies, than all the pearl powder or other cosmetics of the perfumer's shop. I hope I shall not be misunderstood, and I beg my fair readers may not think me so ill-bred, or so ignorant of the world, as to recommend the qualities mentioned in the above passage, on account of their having any intrinsic value. To recommend to the world to embrace virtue for its own sake, should be left to such antiquated fellows as the heathen philosopher from whom I have taken the motto of this Number, or the modern philosopher I have quoted, who has borrowed much from his writings; but I would not wish to sully my paper, or to prevent its currency in the fashionable circles, by such obsolete doctrines.

Far be it from me, therefore, so much as to hint to a fine lady, that she should sometimes stay at home, or retire to the country, with that dullest of all dull companions, a husband, because it is the duty of a wife to pay attention to her spouse; that she should speak civilly to her servants, because it is agreeable to the fitness of things, that people under us should be well treated; that she should give up play or late hours upon Sunday, because the parson says Sunday should be devoted to religion. I know well that nothing is so unfashionable as for a husband and wife to be often together; that it is beneath a fine lady to give attention to domestic economy, or to demean herself so far as to consider servants to be of the same species with their mistresses; and that going to church is fit only for fools and old women. But though I do not recommend the above, or the

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