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see a man absent in mind, I choose to be absent in body; for it is almost impossible for me to stay in the room, as I cannot stand inattention and awkwardness.

I would rather be in company with a dead man, than with an absent one; for if the dead man affords me no pleasure, at least he shows me no contempt; whereas the absent man very plainly, though silently, tells me that he does not think me worth his attention. Besides, an absent man can never make any observations upon the characters, customs, and manners of the company. He may be in the best companies all his lifetime (if they would admit him), and never become the wiser:-we may as well conver.e with a deaf man, as an absent one. It is indeed a practical blunder to address ourselves to a man who, we plainly perceive, neither bears, minds, nor understands us.*

*It is very unpolite to appear melancholy and thoughtful, and, as it were, absent from the company where you are, and wrapt up in your own reflections; and though, perhaps, this may be allo vable in those who for many years have been entirely immersed in the study and contemplation of the liberal arts and sciences, yet, in other people, this is by no means to be tolerated. Nay, such persons would act but prudently, if at those seasons when they are disposed to indulge their own private meditations, they would sequester themselves entirely from the company of other people.

To this it may be added (by the way), that a well-bred an ought to check a disposition to gaping frequently, because this yawning propensity seems to arise from a certain weakness and disgust; when the porson, who is thus disposed to be gaping continually, wants to be somewhere else rather than where he now is; and therefore

3 ATTENTION.

A man is fit for neither business nor pleasure, who either cannot, or does not, command and direct his attention to the present object, and in some degree banish, for that time, all other objects from his thoughts. If at a ball, a supper, or a party of pleasure, a man were to be solving in his own mind a problem in Euclid, he would be a very bad companion, and make a poor figure in that company; or if, in studying a problem in his closet, he

appears sick of the conversation and amusements of the present company.

ary one

And, certainly, let a man be ever so much inclined to gaping, yet, if he is intent upon any agreeable amusement, or engaged in any serious meditation, he easily gets rid of this propensity: but he who is idle and disengaged from all business, this habit is extremely apt to creep upon him. Hence it comes to pass, that? person happens to gape in company, who have nothing elsc to engage their attention, all the rest usually follow his example; as if he had put them in mind of doing what, if they had thought of it, they otherwise intended to have done. Now, as in the Latin and other languages a yawning fellow is synonymous or equivalent to a negligent and sluggish fellow, this idle custom ought certainly to be avoided; being (as was observed) disagreeable to the right, ofensive to the ear, and comtrary also to that natural claim which every one has to respect. For when we indulge ourselves in this listless behaviour, we t only intimate that the company we are in does not greatly plase us, but also make a discovery not very adve: tageous to ourselves; I mean, that we are of a drowsy', lethargic disposition, which must render us by no means amiable or pleasing to those with whom we have ce iverse.--Gel.K.

were to think of a minuet, I am apt to believe that he would make a very poor mathematician.

There is time enough for every thing in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once: but there not time enough in the year, if you will

do two things at a time.

This steady and undissipated attention to one object is a sure mark of a superior genius; as hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind.

Indeed, without attention, nothing is to be done : want of attention, which is really want of thought, is either folly or madness. You should not only have attention to every thing, but a quickness of attention, so as to observe at once all the people in the room, their motions, their looks, and their words; and yet without staring at them, and seeming to be an observer. This quick and unobserved observation is of infinite advantage in life, and is to be acquired with care; and, on the contrary, what is called absence, which is a thoughtlessness and want of attention about what is doing, makes a man so like either a fool or madman, that, for my part, I sse no real difference. A fool never has thought; a madman has lost it; and an absent man iz, for the time, without it.

In short, the most material knowledge of all, I mean the knowledge of the world, is never to be acquised without great attention; and I know many oid people, who, though they have lived long in the world, are but children still as to the knowledge of it, from their levity and inattention. Certain forms, which ail people comply with, and certain arts, which all people aim at, hide in some degree tha truth, and give a geacral exterior resemblance to

almost every body. Attention and sagacity must see through that veil, and discover the natural cha

racter.

Add to this, there are little attentions which are infinitely engaging, and which sensibly affect that degree of pride and self-love which is inseparable from human nature; as they are unquestionable proofs of the regard and consideration which we have for the persons to whom we pay them. As for example: Suppose you invited any body to dine or sup with you, you ought to recollect if you had observed that they had any favourite dish, and take care to provide it for them: and when it came, you should say, 'You seemed to me, at such and such a place, to give this dish a preference, and therefore I ordered it. This is the wine that I observed you liked, and therefore I procured some.'Again; Most people have their weaknesscs: they have their aversions or their likings to such or such things. If we were to laugh at a man for his aversion to a cat or cheese (which are common antipathies,) or by inattention or negligence to let them come in bis way, where we could prevent it, he would, in the first case, think himself insulted, and, in the second, slighted; and would remember both. But, on the other hand, our care to procure for him what he likes, and to remove from him what he dislikes, shows him that he is at least an chject of our attention, flatters his vanity, and perhaps makes him more your friend then a moze important service would have done. The more tiding these things are, the more they prove your attention for the person, and are consequently the morce gaging. Consult your own breast, and recollect hc these little attentions, when shown you by others, flatter

that degree of self-love and vanity, from which no man living is free. Reflect how they incline and attract you to that person, and how you are propitiated afterward to all which that person says or The same causes will have the same effect in your favour.

does.

AWKWARDNESS OF DIFFERENT KINDS.

Many very worthy and sensible people have certain odd tricks, ill habits, and awkwardness in their behaviour, which excite a disgust to and dislike of

*A gentleman ought not to run or walk in too great a hurry along the streets; for it is beneath the dignity of a person of any rank, and more becoming a running footman or a post-boy; besides that, in running, a man appears fatigued, perspires freely, and puffs and blows; all which are misbecoming a man of any consequence.

Nor yot ought our pace to be so very slow and tortoiselike, nor so stately and affected, liko that of some lady of quality or a bride.

To stagger, likewise, or to totter about as we walk, and to stretch ourselves out, as it were, with monstrous strides, is foclish and ridiculous.

Neither ought your hands to hang dangling down; nor yet your arms to be projected or tossed backwards and forwards, like a ploughman that is sowing his corn.

Neither should you stare a man in the face whom you meet, with your eyes fixed upon him, as if yɔu saw something to wonder at in his appearance.

There are some peopls, bevise, who walk like a timorous or blind horse, lifting up their leg so high, as if they were drawing thera cut of a bushel; and some who stamp their feet with great violence against the ground, and with a noise hardly exceeded by the rambling of a wagen. One man throws his feet out obiisiy, as if he were kicking at you; this man knocks cno knee against the ther, or perhaps, stoops down at every step to pull

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