diftance be entertain'd. Tis done as foon as propofed; we fit extremely at eafe, and in a proper Capacity for Obfervation; they begin to affemble. I will first make you act quainted with their Perfons andi History, before I fpeak of their Conftitution; but do not believe one Quarter of them are worthy your Excellencies Notice; many are as much below the Dignity of Satyr as Encomium, even not knowing themfelves what Bufi nefs they have here, or indeed in any in dividual Scene of their whole Lives; who open their Mouths with Ay and No, but as the leading Man, upon whom they do pend, gives his Affent or Diffent; eminent neither in Vertue nor Vice; a tastelefs Mediocrity is in their Compofition. There's an early Lord! he comes out betimes to fave any Body's Breakfafting with him at home; when Youth was his, he was reckoned handfome; yet does he not stoop fo much with Age as Cuftom. Contemplation has made his Blood aduft, and given him to look perpetually below, but what think you are his Contemplations? Not the Stu dy of Letters or Humanity, that would have taught him better; but how to weigh out his Provifions to his Family, to feal up his Oven, that the hungry Domefticks may not pinch wherewith to appeafe the Cravings of Nature, from his number'd Loaves. He would have found it much to his Humour to have been a Royal Favourite; he might then have had Opportunity of getting; whereas

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whereas he has now no Hopes or Ways to increase his Store, but by faving, and that he is Eminent in to the laft Doit. Even his being a Party-Man can't make him generous, tho' to the Unfortunate and Biftrefs'd of his Party. Nothing of Human Occurrences has amus'd me fo much, as giving my felf a Reafon how this noble Count came to be of the Side oppofite to the Court; the Court! a Heaven to the Lucky! where a moment's Grant, often enriches the numerous Years of their whole Lives; and where, though he was not fure of fucceeding, his Defire of getting might have made him undergo the Application. His Brother was truly a Heroe, and fhall for ever be renown'd in my Miftrefs's Court; all that is greatly brave and glorious was in his Compofition; yet emulated and travers'd from above, he was fent upon a defperate Attempt, with unequal Numbers, to lofe his Life upon a Foreign Shore, Never upon any Incident that brings thee to my Remembrance, fhall I forbear to celebrate thy Vertue, O mighty Shade! was it not poffible for thee to have remitted fome of thy exuberant Excellencies to fo near a Breaft as a Brother's? Impart to him, from thy Elyfian Glory, one Ray of thy Humanity and Generous Love of Mankind! yet forting to his Humour, we will not ask thee to give him too diffufive a Brightness! Let his Mercy and Compaffion fhine only upon himself, and part of himself, his fuffering Heir. I et

him eat, let him wear, let him permit his own Name and Perfon to live, if not according to his Estate, yet fomething nearer to his Dignity, that he may seem to remember that That has given the Unhappy, a fort of Claim to his Charity. But if it be too much, O impartial Shade! favour his Children and Domefticks fo far, as that the former may not feem to wifh, as they do now, that they had been fo happy to have been born, though of Ignoble Parents, yet in rural Plenty; and the latter, that they may have their Neceffities of Life relieved, and their hungry Bellies appeafed by fome-thing more fubftantial, than the airy Honour of being Attendants upon an Atalantick Lord, without the Expence of their Wits, in contriving how to deceive his Diligence. in a careful Watch of the deftin'd Food, or of having even what is allow'd begrutch'd them.

Let me defcend from this Ejaculatory Di greffion, to inform your Mightineffes, that this fordid Count has befides a prodigious Bank of ready Money, near Fifty Thoufand Crowns of annual Rent; yet is there neither Plenty at his Board, Fire in his Kitchin,. nor Provifions in the Larder: His Wardrobe has nothing to boast of but Antiquity; fo far indeed a Patriot, that he lengthens out the Old Modes of his own Time; and is an Enemy profefs'd to the new, fafhionable, expensive Taste of Variety. A Stran ger that came to fee his Gardens, and had L 5 fore

fomething of an Awe at the Name of an Atalantick Nobleman, feeing him ftand at the Gate in an obfolete Garment, ask'd the Count himself, Whether the Count were at home? His Lordship anfwer'd in the Negative, trembling at the Interrogatory, Jeft it should threaten him with the Expence of fome petty Entertainment. The Gentleman had only his Curiofity to gratify as to the Walks, and was very well pleafed to hear of his being abroad, that he might with greater Liberty indulge the Pleafure he propos'd, in an agreeable Solitude. I am credibly affur'd, that feeing the great Concourfe which his Villa draws_thither, during one Seafon, to enjoy the Conveni ency of Air in a beautiful Walk and fhade of Trees; he debated with his Lady, and a niggardly Confidant or two, upon setting a Capitation- Tax upon all Strangers who fhould refort thither; and was over-fway'd, but with much Difficulty, and an Abundance of Regret. It was pity indeed fo elevated a Project fhould happen to drop, without any Benefit to the most Noble, moft Ingenious Projector !

He fuffers his Daughters, like Rofes, to fade ungather'd, because he can't find in his Heart, whilft he lives, to give them a Fortune worthy of their Birth; not confidering Youth and Beauty are but for a Seafon, and any Lady whatfoever, that thall happen to out-live thofe Attractives, can't, with any Affurance, propofe to marry with near the

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Advantage: Befides, a Husband muft not, in good Senfe, be fuppofed to fet half that Value upon a Wife, whofe Bloom he never enjoy'd. That Charms will fade, if they live to a certain Point of Time, is certain; but then the Poffeffor and the Poffeffed decay together, juft like our own Faces in a Looking-Glafs, which being every Day the Object of Sight, perfect Habitude permits us not to difcern the frightful Difference there is between Age and Youth. If any one were but for ten Years for bid that View, and then to have the Reflective brought; I do not doubt but they would be as much at a Lofs to know their own outward Form, as many are to know the Inward, and be infinitely more mortify'd at the Alteration, than they are by any other Change. The Charms of the Perfon being obvious, and in which we are the easiest flatter'd, and fondeft of that Flat tery; all Mankind defire perfonal outward Charms before thofe of the Mind, which they feldom take up a Merit upon, but in default of the other. Hence if a Lady wants Features, the refers to ther Shape; if both, then her Wit comes in to fecure her from the Arms of Contempt. There was fcarce ever any fo defpicable but had fomething to recommend them, if not to the general, yet to a particular; according to the Maxim That Nature has made nothing in vain. But to apply to the Count, and his fading Daughters; Youth may do without any

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