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seem to have got tolerably far from the first question; we began with a disquisition on taste, and are ending with a disquisition on rats:" and, forgetting the reserve she had assumed towards Lord Mowbray, she asked-" Pray, my Lord, what is your opinion of modern improvements? for I think we should end one subject before we begin another. Emily and her rats can wait. What do What do you think?"

"Think!" said Lord Mowbray, half starting from a reverie into which he had fallen,

"about what ?"

"About taste."

"What a question! Do you expect me to discuss, in a word, a subject which has filled volumes? I know what pleases myself—that is, I believe I do-sometimes."

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'Well," interrupted the General, "before you go farther, Frances, in questioning Lord Mowbray on this subject, I think you are yourself bound to give us a definition of taste. I have my suspicions, however, that you confound it with fashion, though they are two very different things; and therefore, before you enter

the lists, I will read you a little disquisition on these two words. It pleased me extremely yesterday, when I met with it in one of the Magazines; I have it in my pocket."

The party having reached the General's bower, and having arranged themselves beneath its shady roof, he read to them as follows:

FASHION AND TASTE.

Fashion and Taste were sisters, but so very opposite in their characters, appearance, and manners, that few persons could suppose them to bear any relationship to each other.

Fashion was light, airy, agreeable; but changeable as the cameleon. Taste was grave, gentle, unobtrusive, and required to be courted and drawn out in order to be understood and appreciated. Fashion swayed like a capricious tyrant where she obtained rule. Taste maintained her power by gentle but convincing arguments; the more she was known the better she was loved; invariable in her modes and

expressions, she had recourse to no extraneous allurements from novelty, but held on the even tenour of her way: from the most sublime to the most humble topic which came under her cognizance, she reasoned alike with a noble simplicity, and formed her own judgment without arrogance, yet without any subserviency to the trivial opinions of the day.

It is strange, however, to say, that notwithstanding the acknowledged and established precedence of Taste-(for nobody would be supposed incapable of paying her all manner of deference ;)—notwithstanding this, when the two sisters, Taste and Fashion, appeared in public, Fashion would almost always take the lead, while Taste was frequently seen to be abstracted from the busy scene, musing alone, in quiet, graceful contemplation, on the passing throng. At times, Fashion, struck by the native charm which played around her sister, would fly to her arms, and walk by her side. When this was the case, she caught, in despite of herself, a reflection from the graces

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of Taste, and for the moment became irresistible; but, as it was merely caprice which induced her to seek this companionship, so it ended as quickly on her part in wearisomeness and disgust; and from her sickly appetite, which was ever in quest of change, she would hasten indiscriminately from better to worse in pursuit of novelty, sacrificing every thing to the gratification of that, her ruling passion. Taste, on the contrary, with a few judicious exceptions, generally leaned to whatever had been sanctioned by Time; not that she was a servile imitator, even of the ancients, but that she defended her deference to them upon their being followers of Nature, and because concurrent opinion and the judgment of mankind had strengthened and confirmed their choice.

Fashion, on her part, laughed openly, or sneered maliciously, at every thing which was more than nine days old; and though sometimes, as if in mockery, she approached the shrine of antiquity, she never did so without putting on the mask of her sister Taste-a

device which failed in deceiving long, and which terminated invariably in her own exposure. Nevertheless, Fashion succeeded, at last, in putting her sister in the background, and gained complete rule over the multitude.

Taste, however, showed no ill-temper at this defeat; neither did she envy her sister's success: she did not forsake the world altogether in disgust, because she was frequently eclipsed in it; neither did she lose her own identity by a too constant admixture therewith, but would occasionally retire to scenes of perfect seclusion, to cultivate and indulge her own pure and noble pursuits.

In fine, with that true spirit of gentleness and humility which particularly characterises her, she never quarrelled with Fashion, though her sister was constantly at variance with her; but was ever ready to receive and to accompany her, whenever her countenance and sup port were solicited.

This, however, occurred so very rarely, and the union proved always of such brief duration,

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