her furniture. Sir ROGER has entertained me an hour together with a description of her country-feat, which is fituated in a kind of wildernefs, about an hundred miles diftant from London, and looks like a little enchanted palace. The rocks about her are fhaped into artifical grottos covered with woodbines and jeffamines. The woods are cut into fhady walks, twisted into bowers, and filled with cages of turtles. The fprings are made to run among pebbles, and by that means taught to murmur very agreeably. They are likewife collected into a beautiful lake that is inhabited by a couple of fwans, and empties itself by a little rivulet which runs through a green meadow, and is known in the family by the name of The Purling Stream. The Knight likewife tells me, that this lady preferves her better than of the gengame tlemen in the country, not (fays Sir ROGER) that fhe fets fo great a value upon her partridges and pheasants, as upon her larks and nightingales. For the fays that every bird which is killed in her ground, will spoil a concert, and that fhe fhall certainly miss him the next year.

any

When I think how oddly this lady is improved by learning, I look upon her with a mixture of admiration and pity. Amidst these innocent entertainments which fhe has formed to herself, how much more valuable does she appear than those of her sex, who employ themselves in diverfions that are lefs reasonable, though more in fashion? What improvements would a woman have made, who is fo fufceptible of impreffions

from

from what he reads, had he been guided to fuch books as have a tendency to enlighten the understanding and rectify the paffions, as well as to those which are of little more ufe than to divert the imagination?

But the manner of a lady's employing herself ufefully in reading, fhall be the fubject of another Paper, in which I design to recommend fuch particular books as may be proper for the improvement of the fex. And as this is a fubject of a very nice nature, I fhall defire my correfpondents to give me their thoughts upon it.

N° 38. Friday, April 13, 1711

C*.

Cupias non placuiffe nimis. MART.

One would not please too much.

A

LATE converfation which I fell into, gave me an opportunity of obferving a great deal of beauty in a very handsome woman, and as much wit in an ingenious man, turned into deformity in the one, and abfurdity in the other, by the mere force of AFFECTATION. The fair one had fomething in her perfon upon which her thoughts were fixed, that he attempted to fhew to advantage in every look, word, and gef

By ADDISON, dated, it is fuppofed, from Chelsea. See final Note to N° 7, N° 221, and penult NOTE.

ture.

The gentleman was as diligent to do juftice to his fine parts, as the lady to her beauteous form. You might fee his imagination on the ftretch to find out fomething uncommon, and what they call bright, to entertain her; while fhe writhed herself into as many different poftures to engage him. When he laughed, her lips were to fever at a greater diftance than ordinary to fhew her teeth; her fan was to point to fomewhat at a distance, that in the reach the may discover the roundness of her arm; then fhe is utterly mistaken in what she saw, falls back, finiles at her own folly, and is fo wholly difcompofed, that her tucker is to be adjusted, her bofom expofed, and the whole woman put into new airs and graces. While he was doing all this, the gallant had time to think of fomething very pleasant to say next to her, or make fome unkind obfervation on fome other lady to feed her vanity. These unhappy effects of Affectation, naturally led me to look into that ftrange ftate of mind which fo generally discolours the behaviour of moft people we meet with.

The learned Dr. Burnet, in his Theory of the Earth, takes occafion to obferve, That every thought is attended with confcioufnefs and reprefentativeness; the mind has nothing prefented to it but what is immediately followed by a reflection or confcience, which tells you whether that which was fo prefented is graceful or unbecoming. This act of the mind difcovers itfelf in the gefture, by a proper behaviour in

thofe

those whofe confcioufnefs goes no farther than to direct them in the juft progress of their present state or action; but betrays an interruption in every fecond thought, when the confcioufnefs is employed in too fondly approving a man's own conceptions; which fort of consciousness is what we call Affectation.

As the Love of PRAISE is implanted in our bosoms as a strong incentive to worthy actions, it is a very difficult task to get above a defire of it for things that fhould be wholly indifferent. Women, whofe hearts are fixed upon the pleafure they have in the consciousness that they are the objects of love and admiration, are ever changing the air of their countenances, and altering the attitude of their bodies, to strike the hearts of their beholders with new sense of their beauty. The dreffing part of our fex, whose minds are the fame with the fillier part of the other, are exactly in the like uneafy condition to be regarded for a well-tied cravat, an hat cocked with an uncommon brifknefs, a very well-chofen coat, or other inftances of merit, which they are impatient to fee unobferved.

This apparent Affectation, arifing from an illgoverned confcioufnefs, is not fo much to be wondered at in fuch loofe and trivial minds as thefe but when you fee it reign in characters of worth and diftinction, it is what you cannot but lament, not without fome indignation. It creeps into the heart of the wife man as well as that of the coxcomb. When you fee a man of fense look about for applause, and discover an itching

itching inclination to be commended; lay traps for a little incenfe, even from thofe whofe opinion he values in nothing but his own favour; who is fafe against this weakness? Or who knows whether he is guilty of it or not? The best way to get clear of fuch a light fondness for Applause, is to take all poffible care to throw off the love of it upon occafions that are not in themselves laudable, but as it appears we hope for no praise from them. Of this nature are all graces in men's perfons, drefs, and bodily deportment, which will naturally be winning and attractive if we think not of them, but lofe their force in proportion to our endeavour to make them fuch.

When our confcioufnefs turns upon the main defign of life, and our thoughts are employed upon the chief purpofe either in bufinefs or pleasure, we shall never betray an Affectation, for we cannot be guilty of it: but when we give the paffion for Praise an unbridled liberty, our pleafure in little perfections, robs us of what is due to us for great virtues, and worthy qualities. How many excellent fpecches and honeft actions, are loft, for want of being indifferent where we ought? Men are oppreffed with regard to their way of fpeaking and acting, instead of having their thoughts bent upon what they should do or fay; and by that means bury a capacity for great things, by their fear of failing in indifferent things. This perhaps, cannot be called Affectation; but it has fome tincture of it, at least so far, as that their fear of erring in a thing of no confequence,