"till every body prefent wifhes him dumb, "and looks grave in proportion as he laughs.

"That wit and beauty fhould be defirous of "making a figure is not to be wondered at, "admiration being the very province they " contend for. That folly and ugliness should "thruft themfelves forward to public notice, "" might be matter of furprife, did we not re"collect that their owners moft probaby think "themfelves witty and handfome. In thefe, "indeed, as in many other inftances, it un"fortunately happens, that people are strange"ly bent upon making a figure in those very "departments where they have leaft chance " of fucceeding.

"But there is a fpecies of animal, feveral "of whom must have fallen under the notice "of every body prefent, which it is difficult to clafs either among the witty or the foolish, the clever or the dull, the wife or the ་ mad, who, of all others, have the greatest propenfity to figure-making. Nature feems 66 to have made them up in hafte, and to have put the different ingredients, above referred

to, into their compofition at random. They are more common in fuch a place as this, "than in a more extenfive sphere, like some "vermin,

"vermin, that breed in ponds and rivulets, "which a larger ftream or lake would de"ftroy. Our circle is juft large enough to

give their talents room, and fmall enough "to be affected by their exertion. Here, "therefore, there is never wanting a junto "of them of both fexes, who are liked or ha"ted, admired or defpifed, who make people "laugh, or fet them afleep, according to the "fashion of the time, or the humour of their "audience, but who have always the fatisfac"tion of talking themfelves, and of being "talked of by others. With us, indeed, a "very moderate degree of genius is fufficient "for this purpofe; in fmall focieties, folks "are fet agape by fmall circumftances. I "have known a lady here contrive to make a "figure for half the winter, on the strength "of a plume of feathers, or the trimming of << a petticoat; and a gentleman make shift to "be thought a fine fellow, only by outdoing "" every body elfe in the thickness of his queue, "or the height of his foretop.

"But people will not only make themselves "fools; I have known inftances of their becoming knaves, or, at least, boasting of "their being fo, from this defire of figure

"making,

"making. You fhall hear a fellow, who has "once got the character of being a fharp man, "tell things of himfelf, for which, if they "had been true, he deferved to be hanged, "merely because his line of figure-making "lies in trick and chicane; hence, too, pro"ceed all thofe hiftories of their own profli

gacy and vice, which fome young men of "spirit are perpetually relating, who are will"ing to record themfelves villains,' rather "than not be recorded at all.

"In the arts, as well as in the characters of

men, this fame propenfity is productive of "ftrange disorders. Hence proceed the bom"baft of poetry, the tumor of profe, the ga"rifh light of fome paintings, the unnatural "chiarofcuro of others; hence, in mufic, the "abfurd mixture of difcordant movements, and "the fqueak of high-ftrained cadences; in "short, all those fins against nature and fimplicity, which artists of inferior merit are "glad to practise, in order to extort the no"tice of the public, and to make a figure, by "furprife and fingularity."

The accidental interruption of a new vifitor now stopped the current of my friend's dif course;

course; he had, indeed, begun to tire mot of the company, who were not all difpofed to liften quite fo long as he feemed inclined to speak. In truth, he had forgot that the very reproof he meant to give his neighbours, applied pretty ftrongly to himself, and that, though he might fuppofe he was lecturing from the defire of reformation, he was, in reality, haranguing in the spirit of figure-making.

I

N° 93.

N° 93.

TUESDAY, March 28. 1780.

Parva leves capiunt animos. OVID.

HAT life confifts, in a great measure,

of trifling occurrences and little occupations, there needs no uncommon fagacity or attention to difcover. Notwithstanding the importance we are apt to afcribe to the employments and the time, even of the greatest and most illuftrious, were we to trace fuch perfons to the end of their labours and the clofe of their purfuits, we should frequently discover, that trifles were the folace of the one, and the purpose of the other. Public bufinefs and political arrangement, are often only the constrained employments to which accident or education has devoted their hours, while their willing moments are deftined, perhaps, to light amufements and to careless mirth.

It is not, then, furprising, that trifles should form the chief gratification of ordinary men, on whom the public has no claim, and indiviVOL. III,

duals