rite mirror, that mirror which had repeated the flattery of every lover, and even added force to the compliment; expecting to see what had so often given her pleasure, she no longer beholds the cherry lip, the polished forehead, and speaking blush, but an hateful phyz, quilted into a thousand seams by the hand of deformity; grief, resentment, and rage fill her bosom by turns; she blames the fates and the stars, but most of all the unhappy glass feels her resentment. So it was with the lady in question; she had never scen her own mind before, and was now shocked at its deformity. One single look was sufficient to satisfy her curiosity; I held up the glass to her face, and she shut her entreaties could prevail upon her to gaze once more! She was even going to snatch it from my hands, and break it in a thousand pieces. I found it was time therefore to dismiss her as incorrigible, and show away to the next that offered.

eyes; no

This was an unmarried lady, who continued in a state of virginity till thirty-six, and then admitted a lover when she despaired of an husband. No woman was louder at a revel than she, perfectly freehearted, and almost in every respect a man; she understood ridicule to perfection, and was once known even to sully out in order to beat the watch. "Here, you my dear with the outlandish face, (said she addressing me) let me take a single peep. Not that I care three dams what figure I may cut in the glass of such an old fashioned creatore; if I am allowed the beauties of the face by people of fashion, I know the world will be complaisant enough to toss me the beauties of the mind into the bargain." I held my glass before her as she desired, and must confess was shocked with the reflection. The lady, however, gazed for some time with the utmost complacency; and at last turning to me,

with

with the most satisfied smile said, she never could think she had been half so handsome.

Upon her dismission a lady of distinction was reluctantly hauled along to the glass by her husband; in bringing her forward, as he came first to the glass himself, his mind appeared tinctured with inmoderate jealousy, and I was going to reproach him for using her with such severity; but when the lady came to present herself, I immediately retracted; for, alas, it was seen that he had but too muchreason for his suspicions.

The next was a lady who usually teized all her acquaintance in desiring to be told of her faults, and then never mended any. Upon approaching the glass, I could readily perceive vanity, affectation, and some other ill-looking blots on her mind; wherefore by my advice she immediately set about inending. But I could easily find she was not earnest in the work; for as she repaired them on one side, they generally broke out on another. Thus, after three or four attempts, she began to make the ordinary use of the glass in settling her hair.

The company now made room for a woman of learning, who approached with a slow pace and a solemn countenance, which for her own sake I could wish had been cleaner. "Sir," cried the lady, flourishing her hand, which held a pinch of snuff, "I shall be enraptured by having presented to my view a mind with which I have so long studied to be acquainted; but, in order to give the sex a proper example, I must insist, that all the company may be permitted to look over my shoulder. bowed assent, and presenting the glass, shewed the lady a mind by no means so fair as she had expected, to see. Ill-nature, ill-placed-pride, and spleen were too legible to be mistaken. Nothing could be more amusing than the mirth of her female con

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panions

panions who had looked over. They had hated her from the beginning, and now the apartment echoed with an universal laugh. Nothing but a fortitude like her's could have withstood their raillery she stood it however; and when the burst was exhausted, with great tranquility she assured the company, that the whole was a deceptio visus, and that she was too well acquainted with her own mind to believe any false representations from another. Thus saying, she retired with a sullen satisfaction, resolved not to mend her faults, but to write a criticism on the mental reflector.

I must own, by this time I began myself to suspect the fidelity of my mirror; for as the ladies appeared at least to have the merit of rising early, since they were up at five, I was amazed to find nothing of this good quality pictured upon their minds in the reflection; I was resolved therefore to communicate my suspicions to a lady whose intellectual countenance appeared more fair than any of the rest, not having above seventy-nine spots in all, besides slips and foibles. "I own young woman,' said "I, that there are some virtues upon that mind of your's; but there is still one which I do not see represented; I mean that of rising betimes in the morning I fancy the glass false in that particular." The young lady smiled at my simplicity; and with a blush confessed, that she and the whole company had been shut up all night gaming.

By this time all the ladies, except one, had seen themselves successively, and disliked the show or scolded the show-man; I was resolved, however, that she who seemed to neglect herself, and was neglected by the rest, should take a view; and going up to a corner of the room, where she still continued sitting, I presented my glass full in her face. Here it was that I exulted in my success; no blot,

no