finely expreffes the compofition of an object to look at than a fallow comattractive race. Another matter comes now to be confidered. Some will fay, we grant all this, but paint is ufeful in giving the appearance of a healthy and fine complexion, and that is a great advantage gained, although the countenance thould not be fo animated as you defire.This apology is partly anfwered by what has been already advanced, and it may be added, that if the countenance wants the animation of nature, no advantage is gained. What is not natural approaches to deformity. Befides, the premi.es here are not true. Paint does not give the appearance of a healthy and fine countenance. It conceals the badness of the complexion, or the ravages of difeafe, just as a patch conceals a fore, by pointing it out. In a painted countenance we do not discover health and complexion; we fee nothing but paint. Where there is a moment of time to examine it, the deception is at an end. Scarcely one in a hundred knows how to lay on the colours, fo as to conceal the hand of the artit. If it requires the fkill of a Reynolds to give the copy of a human face, are we to expect that a chambermaid has talents fumcient to improve the original? But many, I fpeak of ladies of the highest rank, and this was the cafe particularly with the French ladies, when France had a court, do not at tempt to conceal their labours. Often on a royal birth-day, when a lady is palling to court in a chair, have I heard the mob exclaim, How terribly the is painted! Now if the deception is over, we no longer fee a human face; as a mak it may be paffable, but it is no longer the human face. It is not the human face divine. If it be objected, that fill a well-painted face is a more agreeable plexion, or furrowed skin, I fay no; it is not more agreeable because it is a deception, and always reminds us of what is underneath, with which we fhould otherwile become to familiar, as not to regard it as unpleasant. It may be farther objected, that although there i, fome impropriety, and fome abiurdity in en ea ou ing to give what nature has denied, yet in to powerfully enforces the practice of punting, as order it a matter of duty. It is not for me to contend with fo powerful an adverfury, whofe commands, I am forry to say, will be obeyed by many, when thofe of every other fovereign re treated with contempt, and who is often littened to agai: ft the evidence of common fente, against the calls of neceflity, against the obligations of virtue, and against the tics of nature. But, although I am not about to encounter this adverfary, I cannot h lp thinking that the excufe is rather a lame one, and that we may find a better apology elfewhere. It is to be regretted that our fex, while they complain of the follies of the other, feldom confider whether fuch follies may not be attributed to them elves. The defire to pleafe is 1 udable and amiable in the fair fex, and I am convinced that where they mistake the means, we are often much more to blame than they. In a mixed company of ladies and gentlemen, how frequently do we fee the latter direct all their polite attentions to one lady who happens to have more beauty than any of the reft? This practice is io common, and mere beauty is fo much the idol of the men, that we are not to be furprised if thofe ladies who do not pofieis it from nature, should feel their inferiority, and endeavour to derive attractions from art. I will grant that fenfible men and fenfible women are above all this. But we are not all of this defcription, and very little pains are taken to make us wife at the age when the subject of these remarks is molt important. And un til we have arrived at the happy wifdom which dictates that the quanties of the mind only are truly valuable, we must allow things to remain as they are. Beauty is ce tainly an object of univerfal admiration. No man is wholly proof againit it. No man, at kaft very few men, can avoid giving it the preference. What is, therefore, fo debreable in our eyes, muft naturally be an object of care and anxiety to the other sex. Let us not, therefore, exercile an improper feverity on their care in this refpect, unlefs we can confcientiously acquit our felves or giving an abfurd preference to mere beauty. As a gift of heaven, beauty is to have its proper fhare of eftimation. The contemplation of a fine human face is one of the most pleating and innocent enjoyments of a rational mind, even though it may not create a more intimate affection. It ought, however, to be remembered, that it is easily affailable by difcafe, and by accident, and that it is the lot of thoufands to paf many years in the world, long after this attraction has lot its effect. That this confideration may be deprived of all its terrors, it becomes neceffary, and it is rational to fubftitute at an early period of life, thofe more lafting attractions, which arife from a well informed mild, a temperate habit, a good humoured difpofition, and the cul ivation of virtuous inclinations. To these there is no end and no variation, whereas in mere beauty, there can be no dependence, and thousands of the fex are, perhaps at this moment, deploring in agonies not to be expreffed, that their early pride has proved their lasting mifery. What heaven has not appointed, we cannot attain. All women are not poffelled of beauty; a few only poffefs it in an eminent degree, and no rational mind will ever confider it as indifpenfable to happiness or wellbeing; and if we reflect on the mifchiefs which have been occafioned by it, the dangers it is liable to, and the perplexities which it creates, we thall not be fcrupulous to pronounce that in this refpect, at leaft, the maxim is juit, Whatever is, is right.' ENGLISH INQUISITORS. OVID. To the EDITOR of the UNIVERSAL MAGAZIN E. SIR, WHILE every friend to hu manity rejoices that the Inquifitions of Spain and Portugal have, according to the beft accounts, fo far loft their terrors as to exift little more than in name, it mult create no fmall uneafiness in the minds of all confiderate perfons, to think that an Inquifition has for fome time been eftablished in various parts of this king doin, and that it meets with great encouragement. It has spread, indeed, fo univerfally, that I doubt much whether any place, the metropolis only excepted, be entirely free from a numerous gang of tormenting Inquifitors, who harafs and vex fome of the moft quiet and peaceable of his majefty's liege fubjects. Health, and other motives for retirement, have compelled me for fome years to take up my refidence in a village fouthwelt of London, the peculiar fine air of wh ch was recommended by the faculty, and, truth to fay, has done no difcredit to their good word; and I fhould have lived in this place quietly and comfortably, had I not very foon been marked out as a devoted victim to the Inquifuors of the place, who have never ince ceafed to torment me and my family with a truly perfecuting fpirit. No action of our lives, no motion, even the most innocent, efcapes the obfervation and inquifitorial vigilance of thefe disturbers of domeftic peace. I have acquired fince I came here a confe quence quence, which if I had been defirous of it, I fhould have longed for in vain in London. if ride out, it furnities conteration for haf a dozen tea-tabies; if my wie a pears in a new gown, it is published all over the parith, and if I give a dinner, it is canva red for a week together. I had not been here long before my fortune was akcertained to a penny, a piece of Kur wledge i never was able inyful to acquire; my own and my wife's age have been fettled without the help of the parish register; and my daughters' expellations have been arranged in a man er perfectly unknown to me, although I think I may without vanity fly, that I o ght to have been confulted.-Being, as I have hiated, of a re ired turn, both from health and inclination, it was very long before the Inquifitor could learn to i was. The fervants were jumped one by one, but they knew little, as they did not live with ine before I came to this neighbou hood. I now experienced that a itate of uncertainty is the most favourable that can be conceived for pofitive affertion. I have paiï'd through as many charges of lot as ever fell to any one man's fhare. I have been a grocer retired from bufinefs, upon the authority of mifs Letitia Dupple, a maiden lady, who depofes that he has oiten bought tea at my flop in the Poultry.I have, upon equa ly good authority, been a decayed broker, a bailiff turned gentleman, a juftice of the peace, and a clergyman, who left off preaching the moment he came to his brother's fortune. Twice I was the coufin of a lord, an eminent dealer in indigo, a tobacco-merchant, and a ufurer, and once I narrowly efcap d being a bank director, the prefence of one of that body having dipelled the charm. Foiled at all th fguefies, for nont of them kept its ground above a week, I dwindled down to the character of a private gentiman whom nobody knew, and that fituation I believe I at prefent hol in the opinion of nine tenths of the parith. 5 It was a matter of more difficulty yet to acertain what I was worth. Yet nothing is fo difficult to village inquifitors, and as every one's affertion on this fubject was not eafy to be refuted, I have pailed from five hundr.d to five thou and a year by imperc ptible gradations. My prefent value I am not able to ascertain, but from a whifper I overheard among fome fervants on the outer fide of my garden paling, I am inclined to think that they have reduced me to about fifteen hundred a year, wi h a chariot, two fade horfes, a c achman, footman, and three maid fervants. How long I am to be bleft with affluence in this proportion, is act for me to say. I thall endeavou. to be content with what I have, and fhall bear any addition or diminution of my property with cale, på lofophic ferenity. fe hundreds, more or le ́s, make little difference to a man at my die of fie, and f a crange in my fortune plates the Inquisitors, they are heartily welcome to make it in their wa,. A What kind of houfe I kept, was a quellion of too much importance to be loag neglected.-some alerted, that as I faw little company, they could not fuppofe my table was of the firit rate; while others, with profound fagacity remarked that there were fome people who tas little company, merely that they might indulge them! les in thofe luxuries, which their niggardly difpofition refuted to others. Some oblerved that i received, they did not know from whom, great prefents of fill and game, and it was easy to keep a good table upon gratis provifions; while others, penetrated with a fenfe of generolity, remarked, that as great quantities of game were fent from my houfe, where the d-1 could they be going to ? They all knew that in my predeceffor's time, the cellar was well supplied with the richest wines, and the beft ale, but for their parts, they had feen no cartloads landed fince I came there. A few, indeed, allowed that three or four pipes of wine came down down in the waggon, or cart, but could not conceive what ufe they could be of to fo fmall a family she faw nobody, and very charitably hinted, that perhaps the gentleman meant to deal in that article, and to be fure the bamper trade, would be very productive in that part of the world. To refolve difficulties of fo high importance, the butcirer, the baker, the poulterer, and the fruiterer were respectively appled to; but to very litthe purpofe; the butcher was fure I killed my own mutton, as I had not above four or five joints in a week from him; the baker offered to fwear that my custom was not worth having, and the poulterer knew that I bred fowls; as to the fruiterer, he had little to expect, as my garden was one of the finest in the country. From what I have faid, fir, you will perceive that the uncomfortable nature of any fituation arifes from the fole caufe, that my inquifitorial neighbours, without knowing any thing, pretend to know every thing: and I am well affured that if I were to anfwer all their interrogatories upon oath, they would fill be defirous to find out fome part of my conduct on which to exercife their powers of invention, that is, conjecture. It is very hard, fir, that in a free country like this, pofitively the freeft now in Europe, a man fhall not have the privilege of living as fuits beft his conveniency or his difpofition, especially when neither interferes with the privileges or rights of other men. I fay, fir, this is a hardship, and it is a hardship peculiar only to villages. In the metropolis, and perhaps in fome of the largest provincial cities or towns, a man may live in obfcurity, and yet in the very botom of fociety. For in great towns, every one has fo much to do of his own, that he can fpare no time to attend to the affairs of others. fubjects of real utility, becomes the Curiofity, unlefs when exercised on most unpleasant fpecies of impertinence, and I wonder that fo many people exercise it in foolish enquiries after the conduct and manners of their neighbours, because I never knew a perfon of this difpofition who did not fuffer far more from the exercife of it, than him or her, who happened to be the fubject of their anxiety, and who, to fay the truth, are generally other people are as indifferent to their ignorant of the matter, and fancy that conduct, as they are to the conduct of other people. You will, therefore, oblige me by inferting this letter in your next Magazine, where I know it will meet the eyes of fome of my neighbours, and with this affurance, that if they will candidly inform me who I am, what I am, and what [ ought to be to please them, I will endeavour as well as I can to comply with their humour; but, as at present I do not find that any two of them agree in the fame point concerning me, i muft continue for fome time longer to enjoy the freedom which L brought with me when I fat down in my prefent refidence. H Dec. 2, 1793. I am, fir, yours, On SINGULARITY of MANNERS. INCOGNITO. [From The Reveries of Solitude,' by the Editor of Columella, &c.] entirely overlooked, and loft in ob- any they will endeavour to gain it by fome Many Many perfons may remember a little foreigner, (Des Cafeaux, I think, was his name) who appeared daily in the Mall, dreffed in black, with an hat of an enormous diameter, and a long roll of paper in his hand. His picturefque appearance tempted fome artifts to make an etching of him, which was exhibited in every fhop. I mention this gentleman, because his profeffed intention was, he faid, to attract the notice of the king, as he had done that of his fubjects.' But we fee daily intances of the fame kind. One man fports a paradoxical walking-flick; another rifes to fame by the thortnefs of his coat, or the length of his trowiers, or the multiplicity of capes on his houlders, and the like efforts of genius and invention. I remember a young divine, fome years fince, not otherwife eminent either for learning or ingenuity, who wore his own thort hair, when every one elle wore long wigs, • in imitation, as he faid, of Gregory Nazianzen.' It would be cruel, to deprive thefe gentlemen of their flender gratification in thefe harmlefs particulars; but when we affume any thing peculiar in our appearance, in order to difguife our real character; when we effect an uncommon fanctity and folemnity of countenance to impofe upon the world; we then become more than ridiculous, and are highly immoral. A Tartufle indeed, or a pretender to extraordinary devotion, is not a prevailing character in this age; too many are in the contrary extreme; and, like colonel Chartres, are guilty of every human vice-except hypocrify. Even our young divines, though doubtless much given to falling and prayer in private, yet appear not to men to faft; but anoint their hair, and exhibit their roiy faces; and, by their drefs, are not to be distinguished from prophane fportfmen or country 'fquires. I do not exempt the orators of the tabernacle from this defcription; who, inftead of the primitive locks of John Wesley, feem now to make female converts by their welldrenied hair, and dapper appearance. Yet, in every profeffion, there are ftill pretenders; who, by grimace or affected folemnity, endeavour to gain the confidence of the vulgar; and to exalt themselves above their equals in fkill, and affume more importance than is their due. However, if we must diflinguish ourselves from the reft of mankind, let it be by our intrinfic virtue, our temperance and fobriety, and a confcientious regard to every relative duty; but, as we ought to think with the wife, and talk with the vulgar,' let us alfo act differently from a great part of the world in matters of importance, but conform to them in tries. This is what Seneca fo forcibly inculcates in his fifth epiftle to his friend Lucilius. 1 both approve of your conduct, and fincerely rejoice that you refolutely exert yourfelf; and, laying afide every other purfuit, make it your whole fludy to improve yourself in wifdom and virtue. And I not only exhort, but earnestly intreat you to perfevere in this course.' Give me leave, however, to caution you not to imitate thofe pretended philofophers, who are more folic tous to attract the notice of the world, than to make a progreis in wisdom; nor to affect any thing fingular in your drefs, or in your manner of life. Avoid that preposterous ambition of gaining applaufe, by your uncouth appearance, your hair uncombed, and your beard neglected; nor be always declaiming against the ufe of plate, of foft beds, or any thing of that kind. The very name of a philofopher is fufficiently invidious, though managed with the greatest modefty and difcretion. 6 Suppofe we have entered upon our ftoical plan, and begun to fequetter ourielves from the converfation and customs of the vulgar; let every thing within be diffimilar; but let our outward appearance, be comformable to |