N° 92.

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SATURDAY, March 25. 1780.

OOKING from the window of a houfe where I was vifiting fome mornings ago, I obferved, on the oppofite fide of the street, a fign-post, indicating a person to live there, by trade a Figure-maker. On remarking to a gentleman who stood near me, that this was a profeffion I did not recollect having heard of before, my friend, who has a knack of drawing obfervations from trifles, and, I muft confefs, is a little inclined to take things on their weak fide, replied, with a farcaftic fmile, that it was one of the most common in life. While he spoke, a smart young man, who has lately fet up a very showy equipage, paffed by in his carriage at a brifk trot, and bowed to me, who have the honour of a flight acquaintance with him, with that air of civil confequence which puts one in mind of the notice a man thinks himfelf intitled to. "That young gentleman," faid my friend," is a "Figure-maker, and the chariot he drives in is his fign-poft. You might trace the bre

"thren.

"thren of this rade through every ftreet,. "fquare, and houfe in town. Figure-ma

king is common to all ranks, ages, tempers, and fituations: there are rich and poor, extravagant and narrow, wife and "foolish, witty and ridiculous, eloquent and "filent, beautiful and ugly Figure-makers. In "fhort, there is fcarce any body fuch a cy

pher from Nature, as not to form fome "pretenfions to making a figure in spite of "her."

"The young man who bowed to you is an

extravagant Figure-maker, more remarkable "from being fucceffor to a narrow one I "knew his father well, and have often vifited. "him, in the courfe of money-tranfactions,

at his office, as it was called, in the garret<< ftory of a dark airless house, where he fat,, "like the genius of lucre, brooding, in his ¢ hole, over the wealth his parfimony had ac<< quired him. The very ink with which he 66 wrote was adulterated with water, and he delayed mending his pen till the characters "it formed were almost illegible. Yet he too "had great part of his enjoyment from the opinion of others, and was not infenfible to "the pleasures of Figure-making. I have of

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"ten feen him in his thread-bare brown coat, "ftop on the street to wait the paffing of "fome of his well dreffed debtors, that he "might have the pleasure of infulting them. "with the intimacy to which their fituations "intitled him; and I once knew him actualર ly lend a large fum on terms lefs advanta CC. geous than it was his cuftom to infift upon, "merely because it was a Peer who wanted "to borrow, and that he had applied in vain "to two right honourable relations of im"menfe fortune.

"His fon has just the fame defire of fhew ❝ing his wealth that the father had; but he "takes a very different method of displaying. "it. Both, however, difplay, not enjoy, "their wealth, and draw equal fatisfaction "from the confequence derived from it in the

opinion of others. The father kept guineas"in his coffers which he never ufed; the fom "changes, indeed, the fpecies of property, "but has juft as little the power of ufing it. "He keeps horfes in his ftable, miftreffes in. "lodgings, and fervants in livery, to no better purpose than his father did guineas. He

gives dinners, at which he eats made dishes that he detefts, and drinks Champaigne and

Burgundy, instead of his old beverage of port and punch, till he is fick, because they " are the dishes and drink of great and rich men. The fon's fituation has the advantage "of brillancy, but the father's was more like❝ly to be permanent; he was daily growing "richer with the aspect of poverty; his fon "is daily growing poorer with the appear66 ance of wealth..

"It is impoflible to enumerate the pranks which the fudden acquifition of riches, join"ed to this defire of Figure-making, fets people

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a playing. There is nothing fo abfurd or 66 extravagant, which riches, in the hands of

a weak man, will not tempt him to commit "from the mere idea of enjoying his money "in the way of exhibition. Nay, this will happen to perfons of whofe fenfe and dif"cretion the world had formerly a high opi

nion, even where that opinion was a juft " one; for wealth often makes fools where "it does not find them."-My friend happen ing to caft his eye towards me at that mo ment, difcovered a fiile on my countenance, "You are thinking now," said he, "that "you and I could endure being left twenty or thirty thousand pounds, notwithstanding

"the

"the truth of my obfervation."-" It would "fpoil your lecture, I replied; but you may 66 go on in the mean time."-He took the pinch of fnuff which my remark had stopped in its progrefs towards his nose, and went on,

"From this motive of Figure-making," con tinued he, turning to the ladies of the company, "beauty puts on her airs, and wit la "bours for a Bon-Mot, till the first becomes "ugly, and the latter tirefome. You may "have frequently obferved Betfey Ogle, in a "company of her ordinary acquaintance, look "charmingly, because she did not care how "fhe looked, till the appearance of a gentle

man, with a fine coat or a title, has fet her "a-toffing her head, rolling her eyes, biting "her lips, twifting her neck, and bringing "her whole figure to bear upon him, till the "expreffion of her countenance became per"fect folly, and her attitudes downright dif"tortion. In the fame way, our friend Ned "Glib, (who has more wit than any man I "know, could he but learn the economy of "it), when fome happy ftrokes of humour "have given him credit with himfelf and the

company, will fet out full tilt, mimicking, "caricaturing, punning, and ftory-telling,