cute righteousness.-And ye shal have rest rounde aboute from all your enemies.

Your complaints we will prefer to the throne, and, in establishing your rights, and your happiness, we will forgoe oure own.-And in the morning, and in the evening, when we rise up, and when we lie downe, we will think on you for good. And oure fortunes and oure lives shall be in your handes, and we will pledge oure honours to become your faithfull servants and slaves: Soe Godde be witness betweene you and us !

And the people shal sette up a loude shoute, and say-" Long live these menne, for they are goode menne, and true; and, verily, wee will choose none other to reign over us!"

Then shall the nobles, and the lordes, and the elders, rise up, and goe their waie, well satisfied.-And beholde! they shall forgett all that they have promised!—And even those, from whose favour and loveing kindness they rose, shal be thought upon no more! And they shall return to their former abominations !-And seven yeares more shall the lande mourn!

IDLE HOURS.

NUMBER IV.

"She who builds her hopes i' th' air of men's fair looks,

Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,

Ready with ev'ry nod to tumble down,

Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

Shakespeare.

HAVING been honoured with the following letter from a lady, I have taken the liberty of inserting it, and have subjoined a few remarks by way of reply.

"SIR,

"TO THE AUTHOR OF IDLE HOURS.

"I hope you will excuse the impatience of a female, who is besieged by a crowd of admirers, and whose choice is bandied about from one object to another, as the novelty of address, or charm of persuasion may prevail; and as the general modes of wooing are but refinements on the art of idling, I hope you will not think it foreign to your purpose, to give us, in some future number, a few strictures on the art that may direct our choice, when the ascendancy of fortune

poises the grace of accomplishments, or when our opinion is held in the balance of contending virtues, where, as either preponderates, pity throws her mite to the unsuccessful, and the equilibrium is restored.

"Yours, with much respect,

"MELISSA,"

I am no adept in the doux yeux, and am esteemed by the ladies to be a most graceless figure in a ball room, and intolerable in picking up a fan, or tendering my assistance at a gutter. But all this may be for want of proper discipline, and sufficient practice. The clown, in his first imitation of a bow, has no other notion of bending his body, than making the trunk form a right angle with the subjacent parts. The graceful curvatures, and slight inflexions, are the qualifications of more eminent wooers, who have nothing else to do, and who often can do nothing else!

But to the purpose of my paper. Wooers may be divided into four classes, viz. those who want women, those who want wives, those who want neither, and those who don't know what they want! To describe the various methods that these would set about making love, is too elaborate an undertaking for an idler. I shall therefore content myself with particularizing those lovers who give cause for suspicion, and leave Melissa, and all ladies in her distressing circumstances, with an assurance, that in rivalry there is often more pride than love at stake, and that it is difficult to estimate a man's attachment from the hyperbolical professions of love and adoration, that are expressed in the heat of opposing passions, which are untrue if they are uttered, and absurd if they are true. Love may be considered in two points—as a disease, and as a passion; as a disease it is the best antidote to itself, and as a passion, it ought with the other passions to be subject to the control of reason; when it is not, it is no longer a passion, but a disease. The first thing therefore that a lady has to determine upon, is, which of these her admirer is affected with, which requires no very eminent powers of discrimination, and which is quickly decided, unless both parties labour under the former complaint, and that, to bring them together, is the best, and perhaps the only way of bringing them to their senses. This, doubtless, is rank heterodoxy to the established modes of faith in the wooing tribe, but they will please to recollect, that this is an age of revolutions, and that Cupid's system, with all others, religious and political, is exposed to the probe of reason, and the shafts of scepticism. There were always infidels in love as well as religion, and true votaries of each in the present day are very scarce. Perhaps

the true art of wooing lies, (to use the words of the ingenious author of Hermsprong) in knowing how to "make love without talking about it." Among those who mean nothing by their addresses, is the smirking smooth-faced fribble, who is always poking his nose into your face, that you may perceive he has sweet breath, and whose features wear one perpetual grin, that you may conclude he is good humoured; who talks incessantly, which he supposes must be extremely entertaining, and after having screwed himself into twenty different attitudes, displaying the gracefulness of his movements, and the symmetry of his shape, leaves you to sigh in secret for his graces, and retires too much enamoured with himself, ever properly to estimate the worth of any body else. Beware of the man of business, who marries for the sake of getting a good house-keeper, instead of a companion; who wants a person to superintend his wardrobe, to smooth his linen, and to make his bed; the prime of whose life is prostituted to the accumulation of wealth, and whose decline glides silently away in a calm and peaceful stupidity. Suspect the man who talks much about the tenderness and attention due to the female character, and doubt him who vaunts his muscular strength, and sound constitution. Of all plagues, shun the pedant, who wooes you in flowery sentences, bores you with his opinion of books, and threatens to attack every work he reads. He is often the shade of an author, and the shadow of a man. Never marry a poet, unless you can bribe the reviewers to speak well of his verses; if you can do this, you need not wish for a pleasanter companion. Do not conclude the man to be generous, who is lavish in his presents. We are all of us best acquainted with our own weaknesses, and, like a skilful general, make up a shew of strength, where we are most vulnerable. Doubt the man's intellects as well as integrity, who is an open slanderer, that has neither the virtue to reform, nor the policy to disguise a bad taste; and believe not him who, with an affectation of candour, would extenuate all faults, in consideration of the weakness of human nature.

Never weigh money with merit, and be not too hasty in accepting of either, where there is nothing else. If you hesitate between virtues, decide in favour of the social ones. Of all lovers repel the

officious one, who watches you like a lynx, haunts your favourite walks, and blockades your doors; his love is a thin, subtle fluid, that evaporates as it warms. Listen not to him for a second, he will fall in love three hundred and sixty five times in a year.

Wolverhampton, Jan 20.

CIVIS.

SELECT SENTENCES.

No. VI.

THERE would not be any absolute necessity for reserve, if the world were honest: yet even then it would prove expedient. For, in order to attain any degree of deference, it is necessary that people should imagine you have more accomplishments than you discover.

VIRTUES, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed, They are sensitive plants that will not bear too familiar approaches.

LET us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent. A man is hated sometimes for pride, when it was an excess of humility that gave the occasion.

It is a miserable thing to love where one hates-and yet this is not inconsistent.

THE reserved man should bring a certificate of his honesty into company before he is admitted to take his chair.

THE highest character a person supports, the more he should regard his minutest actions.

HAPPY those, who can shun all illiterate, though ever so jovial assemblies, insipid, perhaps, when present,-and, upon reflection, painful. Happy, to meditate on those absent or departed friends, who value, or valued us for those qualities with which they were best acquainted. Happy, to partake of the delights of studious and rational retirement, with one amiable friend. Yet an eminent writer and moralist tells us, that were we so to be excluded from general society but for a fortnight, we should be exhilarated at the sight of the first beggar we saw !

'Tis true that nothing displays a genius, I mean a quickness of genius, more than a dispute: as two diamonds, encountering, contribute to each other's lustre.-But the odds are much against the man of taste, in this particular.

In all contests the guilty have the superiority, in one respect, over the innocent-for the guilty will make use of base means to attack, of which the innocent cannot avail themselves to repel.

A LARGE, branching, aged oak, is, perhaps, the most venerable of all inanimate objects. As a brave man is not suddenly either

elevated by prosperity, or depressed by adversity, so the oak displays not its verdure on the sun's first approach; nor drops it on his first departure. Add to this its majestic appearance, the rough grandeur of its bark, and the wide protection of its branches, and it presents to you the finest image of the manly character.

Ir is a miserable thing to be sensible of the value of one's time, and yet restrained by circumstances from making a proper use of it. One feels one's self somewhat in the situation of Admiral Hosier.

Ir is with me, in regard to the earth itself, as it is in regard to those who walk upon its surface. I love to pass by crowds, and to catch distant views of the country as I walk along. But-I, insensibly, chuse to sit, where I cannot see two yards before me.

THERE are many people to whom one would allot good wishes, and perform friendly offices; but they are, sometimes, those with whom one would by no means wish to share one's time.

Ir is some loss of liberty to have a distant engagement. Every employment in the intervenient time seems to have manacles upon it.

Ir is a maxim with me to admit of an easy reconciliation with a person where offence proceeded from no depravity of heart? But where I was convinced it did so, to forego, for my own sake, all opportunities of revenge; to forget the persons of my enemies as much as I was able, and to call to remembrance, in their place, the more pleasing idea of my friends. I am convinced that I have derived no small share of happiness from this principle.

MEN of quality never appear more amiable than when their dress is plain. Their birth, rank, title, and its appendages, are at best invidious, and as they do not need the assistance of dress, so, by their disclaiming the advantage of it, they make their superiority sit more easy. It is otherwise with such as depend alone on personal merit ;-and it may be presumed it was from hence that Quin asserted that he could not afford to go plain.

THE lowest people are generally the first to find fault with shew and equipage, belonging to a person lately emerged from his obscurity. They never once consider that he is breaking the ice for themselves.

SUPERFICIAL writers, like the mole, often fancy themselves deep when they are exceedingly near the surface !—

Q. Z.