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dine. He fell most furiously on the broil'd relics of a fhoulder of mutton, commonly call'd a bladebone: he profeffed he never tafted fo exquifite a thing! begged me to tell him what joint it was; wondered he had never heard the name of this joint, or feen it at other tables; and defir'd to know how he might direct his butcher to cut out the fame for the future? And yet this man, fo ignorant in modern butchery, has cut up half an hundred heroes, and quartered five or fix miferable lovers in every tragedy he has written. I have nothing more to tell you to-day.

LETTER V.

The Anfwer.

YOU fhould have my Day too, Sir, but indeed

I flept it out, and fo I'll give you all that was left, my laft Night's entertainment. You know the company.. I went in late, in order to be better receiv'd; but unluckily came in, as Deuce-ace was flinging (Lord H. would fay I came in the Nick.) The Lady colour'd, and the men took the name of the Lord in vain: No body spoke to me, and I fat down disappointed; then affecting a careless air, gap'd, and cried seven or eight times, D'ye win or lofe? I could fafely fay at that moment I had no temptation to any one of the feven, lively fins; and

in the innocent way I was, happy had it been for 'me if I had died! Moralizing fat I by the hazardtable; I looked upon the uncertainty of riches, the decay of beauty, and the crash of worlds with as much contempt as ever Plato did. But ah! the frailty of human nature! fome ridiculous thought came into my head, wakened my paffions, which burst forth into a violent laughter: I rose from my seat, and not confidering the just resentments of the lofing gamefters, hurl'd a ball of paper cross the table, which ftop'd the dice, and turn'd up seven instead of five. Curs'd on all fides, and not knowing were to fly, I threw myself into a chair, which I demolish'd and never spoke a word after. We went to supper, and a lady faid, Mifs G. looks prodigiously like a Tree. Every body agreed to it, and I had not curiofity to afk the meaning of that fprightly fancy: Find it out, and let me know. Adieu, 'tis time to dress, and begin the business of the day.

LETTER VI.

In the Style of a Lady.

RAY what is your opinion of Fate? for I muft

PRAS

confefs I am one of thofe that believe in Fate and Predeftination.-No, I can't go fo far as that, but I own I am of opinion one's ftars may incline, tho' not compel one; and that is a fort of free will;

for we may be able to refift inclination, but not

compulfion.

Don't you think they have got in the most prepofterous fashion this winter that ever was, of flouncing the petticoat fo very deep, that it looks like an entire coat of luteftring?

It is a little cool indeed for this time of year, but then, my dear, you'll allow it has an extreme clean pretty look.

Ay, fo has my muslin apron; but I would not chuse to make it a winter fuit of cloaths.

Well now I'll fwear, child, you have put me in mind of a very pretty drefs; let me die if I don't think a muslin flounce, made very full, would give one a very agreeable Flirtation-air.

Well, I fwear it would be charming! and I should like it of all things-Do you think there are any fuch things as Spirits?

Do you believe there is any fuch place as the Elyfian Fields? O Gad, that would be charming! I wish I were to go to the Elyfian Fields when I die! and then I should not care if I were to leave the world to-morrow: But is one to meet there with what one has lov'd moft in this world?

Now you must tell me this pofitively. To be fure you can, or what do I correfpond with you for, if you won't tell me all? You know I abominate Referve.

LETTER VII.

Bath 1714.

YOU

YOU are to understand, Madam, that my paffion for your fair felf and your fifter, has been divided with the moft wonderful regularity in the world. Even from my infancy I have been in love with one after the other of you, week by week, and my jour, ney to Bath fell out in the three hundred seventyfixth week of the reign of my fovereign lady Sylvia. At the prefent writing hereof it is the three hundred eighty ninth week of the reign of your most serene majefty, in whofe fervice I was lifted fome weeks before I beheld your fifter. This information will account for my writing to either of you hereafter, as either shall happen to be Queen-regent at that time.

Pray tell your fifter, all the good qualities and virtuous inclinations she has, never gave me so much pleasure in her converfation, as that one vice of her obstinacy will give me mortification this month. Ratcliffe commands her to Bath, and fhe refuses! indeed if I were in Berkshire I should honour her for this obftinacy, and magnify her no lefs for difobedience than we do the Barcelonians. But people change with the change of places (as we fee of late) and virtues become vices when they ceafe to be for one's intereft, with me as with others.

Yet let me tell her, she will never look so finely while the is upon earth, as fhe would here in the

water. It is not here as in moft other inftances, for thofe ladies that would please extremely, muft go out of their own element. She does not make half fo good a figure on horseback as Chriftina Queen of Sweden; but were fhe once feen in the Bath, no man would part with her for the best mermaid in Christendom. You know I have feen you often, I perfectly know how you look in black and in white, I have experienced the utmost you can do in colours; but all your movements, all your graceful steps, deserve not half the glory you 'might here attain of a moving and easy behaviour in buckram: Something between fwimming and walking, free enough, and more modeftly-half-naked than you can appear any where else. You have conquer'd enough already by land; fhow your ambition, and vanquish alfo by water. The buckram I mention is a dress particularly useful at this time, when, we are told, they are bringing over the fashion of German ruffs: You ought to use yourselves to fome degrees of stiffness beforehand; and when our ladies chins have been tickled a-while with ftarched muflin and wire, they may poffibly bear the brush of a German beard and whisker.

I could tell you a delightful ftory of Doctor P. but want room to difplay it in all its fhining circumftances. He had heard it was an excellent cure for love, to kiss the Aunt of the perfon beloved, who is generally of years and experience enough to damp the fierceft flame: he try'd this courfe in his paffion,

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