away with contempt, and left me le second salutation should be ret friend was better treated, for I must purchase by civility that reexpected to enforce by insolence. no smoke of bonfires, no harmony of crowds, nor riot of joy; the buwent forward as before; and, after splendid supper, which no man and which my chagrin hindered me vent to bed, where the vexation of verpowered the fatigue of my jourfrom sleep.

eh humbled by those mortifications, er the present state of the town, and I been absent too long to obtain the had flattered my expectation. Of e compliments I expected, some had to distant provinces, some had lost

e.

I am, Sir, &c.

SEROTINUS.

le or pleasing qu view, when they are of been long observed, t power to charm withou bestows, and that to often sufficient to hinde Every day discovers convinced of their err is without power to i poverty still continue still obstructs, the cla The eye of wealth is tions, and seldom des of those who are placed and who in distant reg struggling with distres the multitudes overw mity, it is common to assistance would enabl decency, and who y

are obscured by indigence. It has ed, that native beauty has little ithout the ornaments which fortune

to want the favour of others is hinder us from obtaining it. covers that mankind are not yet r errour, or that their conviction to influence their conduct; for tinues to produce contempt, and ne claims of kindred and of virtue. th is elevated towards higher stam descends to examine the actions placed below the level of its notice, nt regions and lower situations are Mistress, or toiling for bread. Among overwhelmed with insuperable calaon to find those whom a very little enable to support themselves with ho yet cannot obtain from near

2

relations, what they see hourly lavished in ostentation, luxury, or frolick.

There are natural reasons why poverty does not easily conciliate affection. He that has been confined from his infancy to the conversation of the lowest classes of mankind, must necessarily want those accomplishments which are the usual means of attracting favour; and though truth, fortitude, and probity, give an indisputable right to reverence and kindness, they will not be distinguished by common eyes, unless they are brightened by elegance of manners, but are cast aside like unpolished gems, of which none but the artist knows the intrinsick value, till their asperities are smoothed, and their incrustations rubbed away.

The grossness of vulgar habits obstructs the efficacy of virtue, as impurity and harshness of style impair the force of reason, and rugged numbers turn off the mind from artifice of disposition, and fertility of invention. Few have strength of reason to overrule the perceptions of sense; and yet fewer have curiosity or benevolence to struggle long against the first impression; he therefore who fails to please in his salutation and address, is at once rejected, and never obtains an opportunity of shewing his latent excellencies, or essential qualities.

It is, indeed, not easy to prescribe a successful manner of approach to the distressed or necessitous, whose condition subjects every kind of behaviour equally to miscarriage. He whose confidence of merit incites him to meet, without any apparent sense of inferiority, the eyes of those who flattered

enerally reciprocal; we are desirous , because we receive pleasure from at means can the man please, whose ssed by his distresses, and who has licious; whose will is restrained by ad who has no power to confer beneer is perhaps vitiated by misery, standing is impeded by ignorance? more offensive discouragement, that performed by different hands proFects, and, instead of rating the man aces, we rate too frequently the perman. It sometimes happens in the f life, that important services are feriours; but though their zeal and e paid by pecuniary rewards, they hat flow of gratitude, or obtain that recompence, with which all think it