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THE

Lady's Magazine;

For JUL Y, 1790.

THE INDE X.

No XVI.

IN

row, compaffion, fellow-feeling, and many more of that stamp are all now fupplied by fenfibility.

I know not, gentle reader, whe

the fact is certain-that when a word becomes very common it lofes its meaning and its value, and as a fine woman who makes herfelf cheap is liable to the infuits of every vulgar fellow, fo a word that is often used without meaning comes in time to have no meaning at all. Quickness of perception is the utmost that senfibility was understood to impart, until within thefe few years that fentimental writings became in vogue, when every man who relished fuch writings was called a man of fenfibility, and whoever difliked them was confidered as hard-hearted and devoid of fenfibility.

'N that large volume whereof Ither thou haft ever observed-but have been attempting to compile the Index, and among fome of the best pages of it, will be found a word of large and comprehenfive fignificat on, which, nevertheless, for want of true apprehenfion, we fometimes apply very improperly; I mean SENSIBILITY. This word it is very neceffary to explain, because of late years it has ftept out of its own place, and has become of fo very gadding a difpofition, that we find it in every public place, and in many private parties, where, to fay the leaft, it really has no manner of business. It has also taken a literary turn, in fo great a degree that our books are filled with it. Among other-incroachments it has made, I cannot help mentioning one very remarkable, which is, its ufurping the place of words which are much older and better understood.-The man, who in my younger days would have been called, a man of a compaffionate turn, or charitable difpofition, is faid to be a man of fen fibility-and all the village lady Bountifull, or charitable and benevolent ladies, are now women of great fenfibility. Hence pity, for

But it fo happens, that as words cannot alter things, fo the finest and moft faflionable words cannot confer honour where they really mean nothing at all. It is not the agreement among a few perfons of a par ticular tafte that can make white appear black, or alter that old eftablthed propofition, that two added to two will make four and no more. Nor will the countenance of this fociety of fathionable perfons ferve to make us believe a man one whit more compathionate, merely becaufe Xx a

they

they call him a man of fenfibility, for I am afraid that if we look into the great book of human nature, we fhall find it written in very legible characters, that we often deceive ourfelves by mistaking names for things, and give ourselves credit for virtues which we are only faid to poffefs.

If to weep at a tragedy, and refufe fuftenance to a poor beggar-if to figh at the fictitious forrows of novel-heroes and heroines, and laugh at the calamities of family. diftrefs-it to nurfe cats and neglect children-to weep for a monkey, and not pity a man-if to give bread to dogs and apes, and refufe it to the humble poor, and to the innocantly diftreff d-if these be the marks of fenfibility, then

If thefe be the marks of fenfibility! -Pray, Mr. Maftix, what realon have you to think they are?

we are, however endued with fens fibility, but paying a tribute to the artificial pathetic of language-in the other we fee real anguish, we feel real fympathy, and the man whofe heart leads him to relieve fuch diftrefs, who lives to behold the good he has done to hear "the bleffings of them that were ready to perish come upon him"what is he? He is, and muft be happy, if fuch a word as fenfibility had never been coined, nor a novel compofed.

"Affectation," fays a beautiful writer, is my most perfect abhor rence"-and of all affectation what fo useless, fo unbecoming, fo proud, and generally fe unfeeling, is the affectation of fenfibility? But is it really affectation? No-the deceit we put upon others we are at length caught by ourselves-and are ready to believe that to produce a tear and to administer relief are one and the fame meritorious action. "Phaw," fays Mrs. Maftix, who is now looking over my elbow, "they are as different as the nerves and the

Softly, fir-do you fee yonder lady stepping into her coach from the play? You perceive her eyes are fwollen with weeping-the fate of Belvidera has interested ber-pocket-and compofed of as different within these few days he ordered materials." And true it is, the one her own fifter's fon to be turned out may answer for show, but the other of doors, because he folicited affift- must administer to use.-Is that perance for his mother, a helpless and fon compaffionate who is now wiping deferted widow, low in the world his eyes? No-he is attentive to the but her weeping at the forrows of play, and fees others do the fame ? Belvidera was a proof of her fenfibi-Is that other poffefsed of fenfibility, lity-no-Mrs. Siddons's voice thril-he feems to cry very much led through her nerves, and tears were but the natural discharge-a mere bodily affection-the heart had nothing to do in the bufinefs. Which would you prefer: her who with dry eyes gives charity-or her who weeps from fenfibility, and gives -nothing?

What are all the combined forrows, the griefs, the calamities of all the heroes and heroines that ever appeared in romance, compared to the diftrefs of one poor family that has lost its head and fupport ?-compared to the dying parent and the weeping orphan? In the one cafe

No

he has been engaged in a drunken quarrel, and his paffion would have choaked him but for these tears.

It is, however, the affectation of fenfibility which I condemn. Do you think that lady poffeffed of fenfibility? Examine her actions-if they do not accord to that appearaace, fhe is at beft but a fashionable deceiver of others, and in time will deceive herfelf. But the frequent· application of this word fenfibility, and the great latitude allowed to its meaning has a worse effect than any yet mentioned..

IT CORRUPTS THE HEART!—
You

:

The Index. A Periodical Paper.

You ftartle but the fact is fo. When a young girl by a long courfe of reading novels has acquired all that fenfibility which they teach, the learns to defpife the forms and modes of regular life, and in following her own inclinations, in giving a full bent to the addrefs of love, the perfuades herself she is actuated by Sen fibility. In contemning the advice of her parents, of the prudent and experienced, he does no more than the Louifas and Marias of romance, who were all perfons of "exquifite fenfibility."-İn afpiring to grandeur and rank fhe follows the example of fome heroize whose fenfibility led her through a maze of dangers from a cottage to a palace. In liftening to the bewitching tongue of the feducer, in agreeing to ftolen interviews, in carrying on a clandeftine correfpondence he is ftill guided by her fenfibility.-And, finally, when the bafenefs of her undoer has opened her eyes, fhe confoles herfelf that she has been the victim of too great "fenfibility"— a word very frequently ufed in fuch cafes, and which includes in it other words with which I fhall not at prefent trouble my readers, but which may be at leaft as cafily gueffed as expreffed. Let us not, therefore, be deceived by words. Senfibility, if it means more than tenderness of heart, more than compaffion or pity, more than that ready perception which discovers the beauties of a performance of tafte-if, I fay, it means more than thefe, it means too much-and as in logic, "that which proves too much proves nothing at all;" fo fenfibility, if we do not advert to its proper fenfe, when applied to the perfons mentioned above, may truly be faid to mean nothing at all-or-which is worse, to mean fomething which ought not to be expreffed.

When free from affectation, we may fay with an eminent author, "graceful is the tear of fympathy, and the heart that melts at another's

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woe." And fuch fenfibility is honourable in any age, and beautifully adorns the character of the female fex. Such a difpofition ought to be encouraged in youth, but never checked by parental authority, or, what is more likely to destroy it, the fneers of the unfeeling. Nor to indulge this tenderness need we traverfe the regions of romance.-T'he real world abound: with diftrefs and poverty, forrow and shame, and the charitable heart may derive ample gratification from its fuccefsful ftruggles in the relief of thofe calamities.

The rough and manly character muft not be fuppofed void of true fenfibility. The heart is often at variance with temper, and is not always regulated by the habits of life. At the theatre, during the performance of Ifabella in the Fatal Marriage, the most pathetic tragedy on the stage, I once fat by a gentleman who appeared to be a fea officer. His face and mein bespoke nothing of the tender or fympathetic-but happening to lock towards him during the fourth act, I perceived him weeping, as we term it, like a child"-as at that moment there happened not to be a scene perform-> ing which called forth the greatest fympathy, I was led to believe there was fomething in the ftory which had a relation to his own history-I may be wrong but I honoured the rough and manly afpect when bedewed with tea's, and faid to my companion" that man is incapable of doing a cruel action."-There was no room in this cafe for the fufpicion of affectation.

After all, it is not fo much our appearance, it is not what we think, or feel, that is, pretend to teel, or fay, which conflitutes the character. One action outweighs a world of profeffions, and there are thoufands who do the most charitable actions, exert the kindeft fympathy, without apparently

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A Vindication of Female Excellence from the unjust Cenjures of Mr. Pope

By WILLIAM EDWY.

HE fwor being drawn, I am

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their ruling paou." It plainly-ap. pears by this affertion that the commentator doubts the truth of what

Pope has afferted. In another place, remarking on the aforementioned line, be adds, "that the general characteristic of the fex as to the ruling paffion is more uniform than men. Here an inference may be drawn from the commentator's obfervation, who confidently afferts the poet followed nature," and yet doubts whether the "account (or accufation be true,") though he allows the uniformity of the ruling paffion! If the poet gathered his obler

Tbound, with the editor's per- vations from human nature, why

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miffion, to defend what has already does he doubt, when at the fame been advanced but before I do tha', time the power of the ruling p‹ffion I fhall first eximi e M. Pope's ines is acknowledged? It cannot be or with more minuteness than was in alioned partly by their nature” tended. In the first and fecond lines more than ours; but is, as I obferv. of his epiftle refpecting women, willed in my firft effay, page 188, (when be found the followi. g, addreffed to an imaginary lady:

"Nothing fo true as what you once let fall,

Maft women have no characters at all."

Now I hall fe what fays his commeutator. Why, that all the quaint ftrokes in the feveral characters of women are not only infinitely perplexed and difcordant like thofe in men, but ABSOLUTELY INCONSISTENT, and in a MUCH HIGHER DEGREE CONTRADICTORY.As frange as this may appear, he will fee that the poet ALL THE WHILE FOLLOWED NATURE." And then he proceeds to quote four lines, fignifying that men have warious ruling paffions," but women only true," the love of pleasure, and the love of fway." No reafons are given to prove the juftness of the poet's remark, or why their characters are drawn fo inconfifient and contradictory! He only, after his quotations obferves, "if this account be true, we fee the perpetual neceffity (which is not the cafe in men) that women lie under of difguifing

exifting) the effects of imitation, or bad example."-Coming to the difputed lines in queftion, the commentator a ds the following note: "fome men (fays he poet) take to bufinefs, fome to pleafure, but EVERY Woman would willingly make pleasure her business; which being

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peculiar character of a rake, we muft needs think that he includes in the ufe of the word here no more of the rakes ILL qualities than are implied in this definition of one who makes pleasure his bufinefs. It may be feen here how willing the com. mentator is to palliate the poer, by fuppofing no ill qualitics were meant, though he allows, very properly, the word rake to fo fignity; but, however, upon attentively reading his lines, it is very apparent that the poet allows men to purfue bufiness or pleasure, but as for women they are ALL at heart (naturally) diffipated or corrupted. I can affix no other fenfe to the difputed line: however, in a fubfequent one he allows "Pleafures the fex, as children birds, -purfue?

And

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"Fair to no purpose, artful to no end,
Young without lovers, old without a
friend;

A fop their paffion, but a prize their lot,
Alive, ridiculous, and dead, forgot!"
And a little farther will be found the
following:

"And yet, believe me, good as well as
ill,

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Going on with his obfervations, he remarks, that the author "feems to e fo much out of temper with he tex, that he cannot long keep within the bounds of decorum, which he again breaks through in the following

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"Women and fools are two hard things to hit,

For true, no meaning puzzles more than

wit."

This is downright rudeness, without one fpark of wit. More inftances might be felected of harm and indelicate fatire in this epinle."

(To be continued.)

ESSAY on BEAUTY.

"Thus was beauty fent from heaven, The lovely ministress of truth and good, In this dark world."

AKENSIDE.

Tis, and always was a great plea

Women's at beft a contradiction fill.” The above lines I should thus read; "the generality of women, though they are by nature made fair and artful, cannot engage men of worth for lovers; nor can they, when old fure to me to reflect on the age overtakes them, by their want of beauties of nature, but more efpemerit, obtain a friend! For i they cally the beauties of the fair-fex.have a regard for a lover, it is only Permit me, my fair readers, to dea fop that is their ambition, who dicate this effay on beauty to you, can never make them happy; in- confcious, at the fame time, that deed, their character is fo ridicu your charms furpafs half the encolous whilft living, that when they miums my pen is able to bestow die no one laments a woman whofe upon it. Authors have wrote many principles are fuch, that the best treatifes upon this fubject, but,-peramongst them are but a contradic-haps, not with the fame feeling as tion." Ruffbead, in his Life of Pope, accompanies my ideas upon it. when speaking of the Effay on Woman, allows it great merit, and fays, "the poet has herein fhewn himself a man of the world, and intimately acquainted with the motly groupes of female caprices, which he has, indeed, expofed with a great deal of wit and pointed fatire; but furely the strokes are here and there much too harsh and fevere." After comparing Mr. P. with Dr. Young, whom Mr. R. prefers for the liberality of his fentiments, is added: "that the former chaftifes their lewities with fa fevere a lash, that the lively glow of refentment prevails over the fuffufion of a modeft blush.”

Still, let my fong fing
The infufive force of beauty upon man."

To give the love of beauty its
proper force, it must be connected
with fentiment and efteem. Beauty was
bestowed on the fair-fex to be their
protector. And who could injure
elegance and beauty united? No one
but a monster.
but a monfter. Thefe angelic forms
were defigned to foften our hearts
and polifli our manners. To fit us
for a happier clime; to give us a
tafte for elegance, grace, and fer-
timent; fenfibility of heart, fweet-
nefs of temper, and gentleness of
manners, are the characteristics of
many of the fair-fex. A man of

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