was indeed the greatest Beau, and the greateft Favourite of the Ladies, at the End of the Town where he lived. As we take Dress to be the Characteristic or efficient Quality of a Beau, we fhall, inftead of giving any Character of this young Gentleman, content ourselves with defcribing his Drefs only to our Readers. He wore, then, a Pair of white Stockings on his Legs, and Pumps on his Feet; his Buckles were a large Piece of Pinchbeck Plate, which almoft covered his whole Foot. His Breeches were of red Plush, which hardly reached his Knees; his Waftecoat was a white Dimity richly embroidered with yellow Silk, over which he wore a blue Plush coat with Metal Buttons, a fmart Sleeve, and a Cape reaching half way down his Back. His Wig was of a brown Colour, covering almoft half his Pate, on which was hung on one side a little laced Hat, but cocked with great Smartness. Such was the accomplished Smirk, who, at his iffuing forth from the Clofet, was received with open Arms by the amiable Lætitia. She addreffed him by the tender Name of Dear Tommy; and told him she had dismist the odious odious Creature whom her Father intended for her Husband, and had now nothing to interrupt her Happiness with him. HERE, Reader, thou must pardon us if we stop a while to lament the Capricioufness of Nature in forming this charming Part of the Creation, defigned to complete the Happiness of Man; with their soft Innocence to allay his Ferocity, with their Sprightliness to footh his Cares, and with their conftant Friendship to relieve all the Troubles and Disappointments which can happen to him. Seeing, then, that this is univerfally certain, that these are the Bleffings chiefly fought after, and generally found in every Wife, how must we lament that Difpofition in these lovely Creatures, which leads them to prefer in their Favour those Individuals of the other Sex, who do not seem intended by Nature as her greatest Mafter-piece. For furely, however useful they may be in the Creation, as we are taught, that nothing, not even a Louse, is made in vain; yet thefe Beaus, even that moft fplendid and honoured Part, which, in this our Ifland, Nature loves to diftinguish guish in Red, are not, as fome think, the nobleft Part of the Creation. For my own Part, let any Man chufe to himself two Beaus, let them be Captains or Colonels, as well dreffed Men as ever lived, really as fine Men, I would venture to oppofe a fingle Sir Ifaac Newton, a ShakeSpear, a Milton, or perhaps fome few others to both these Beaus; nay, and I very much doubt, whether it had not been better for the World in general, that neither of these Beaus had ever been born, than that it should have wanted the Benefit arifing to it from the Labour of any one of those Perfons. If this be true, how melancholy must be the Confideration, that any single Beau, efpecially if he have but half a Yard of Ribbon in his Hat, fhall weigh heavier, in the Scales of female Affection, than twenty Sir Ifaac Newtons. How muft our Reader, who perhaps had wifely accounted for the Refiftance which the chafte Lætitia had made to the violent Addreffes of the ravifhed (or rather ravishing) Wild from that Lady's impregnable Virtue, how must he he blush, I fay, to perceive her quit the Strictness of her Carriage, and abandon herself to thofe loofe Freedoms which fhe indulged to Smirk. But, alas! when we discover all, as, to preserve the Fidelity of our History, we muft, when we relate that every Familiarity had paft between them, and that the FAIR Lætitia (for we muft, in this fingle Instance, imitate Virgil, where he drops the pius and the pater, and drop our favourite Epithet of chafte) the FAIR Lætitia had, I fay, made Smirk as happy as Wild defired to be, what must then be our Reader's Confufion? We will, therefore, draw a Curtain over this Scene, from that Philogyny which is in us, and proceed to Matters, which, instead of dishonouring the human Species, will greatly raise and ennoble it. : СНАР. CHA P. XI. Containing as great and as noble Infances of human Greatness as are to be met with in ancient or mo dern Hiftory. Concluding with Some wholefome Hints to the gay WIL ILD no fooner parted from the chafte Lætitia, than recollecting that his Friend the Count was returned to his Lodgings in the fame House, he resolved to vifit him; for he was none of those half-bred Fellows, who are ashamed to fee their Friends when they have plundered and betrayed them: From which base and pitiful Temper many monftrous Cruelties have been transacted by Men, who have fometimes carried their Modesty so far as to the Murther, or utter Ruin of those against whom their Consciences have fuggested to them, that they have committed fome small Trespass |