happy, the colouring fo beautiful, that one might truly fay of it, to make it alive, fpeech alone is wanted; nor would you think even that wanting, were you to truft wholly to your eyes. Here the admired the fkilful diftribution of light and fhade: there the perfpective was fo wonderfully exact, that in the great number of objects prefented to the eye, it could fix on none but what had its proper place, and juft dimenfions. How free is that drapery? what a variety is there in it, yet how well adjusted is the whole to the feveral figures in the piece? Does not that group extremely please your ladyfhip? the difpofition is quite fine, the affociation of the figures admirable; I know not which you could pitch upon to have absent or altered. Leonora purfuing this ftrain, Emilia interrupted her: Have we nothing, child, but exactness here? Is every thing before us quite finished and faultlefs? You will be pleafed, Madam, to reflect on what you have fo often inculcated, That one would always chufe to be fparing in cenfure, and liberal of praise That commendation, freely beftowed on what deferves it, credits alike our temper and our understanding.

This I would have you never forget. But I'm here a learner; in that light you are now to confider me; and as your French mafter taught you pronunciation, not only by using a right, but by imitating your wrong one; making you by that means more fenfible where the difference lay; fo to qualify me for a judge in painting, it will not fuffice to tell me where the artift has fucceeded, if you obferve not, likewise, where he has mifcarried.

Leonora then proceeded to fhew where the drawing was incorrect the attitude ungraceful the cuftume ill preserved-the ordonnance irregular-the contours harsh -the light too ftrong the fhade too deep; extending her remarks in this way to a great number of pieces in the collection. You have been thus far, interpofed Emilia, my instructor, let me now be yours. Suppofe your own portrait here. In the fame manner that you would examine it, judge of the original. This you ought to do, fince it will be done by others; and the more blemishes you difcover, the fewer you will probably leave for them to reproach you with. The faults in the picture may be known to him who drew it, and yet be fuffered to appear, from his inability to correct them; but when you difcern what is faulty in yourself, if you cannot amend,

you can, often, conceal it. Here you have the advantage of the painter; in another respect he has it greatly of you. Not one in a thousand is a judge of the failures in his performance; and therefore even when many may be objected to him, he fhall pafs, in common esteem, for an excellent artist. But let the woman, unconscious of her imperfections, be at no pains to remedy or hide them, all who converse with her are judges of them; when fhe permits them to be feen, they are certain to be cenfured.

You have fufficiently convinced me, to how many things the painter must attend against what various mistakes. he has to guard: each of your criticifms on him may be a leffon to yourself; every blemish or beauty in any part of his works has fomething correfpondent to it in human life.

The defign is faulty, not only when the end we propose to ourselves is confeffedly criminal, but when it is low and mean; when, likewife, we let our time pass at random, without any concern for what reafon and duty require, but as caprice, or humour, or paffion fuggefts.

We offend against proportion, when we arrogate to ourfelves the defert we want, or over-rate what may be allowed uswhen we hate not what is really evil; or when our affections are placed on what is not our proper good. You remember the diffection of a female heart in the Spectator; I refer you to it, that I may fpare my own reflections, on what would furnish copious matter for no very pleafing ones.

Your ladyship will pardon me for interrupting you; but I can't help thinking, that the head and heart of a beau or country 'fquire would furnish as much folly and corruption, as the head and heart of any woman in the kingdom.

We shall never, child, become better, by thinking who are worse than ourselves. If the charge upon us be just, we should confider how to get clear of it, and not who are liable to one equally reproachful. Were I to bid you wash your face, would you think yourself juftified in not doing it, because you could fhew me a woman of rank with a dirtier? But to the purpose.

That expreffion, any failure in which you would, as a judge of painting, treat without mercy, is, in morals, violated by whatever is out of character. All inconfiftency in practice-in profeffion and practice; every thing unbecoming your fex

your

Skill in the diftribution of light and fhade, or the clair-obfcure, as, I think, the term of art is, I fhould apprehend refembled by prudence; which teaches us to fhew ourfelves in the most advantageous point of view-brings forward and brightens our good qualities, but throws back and obfcures our defects-fuffers nothing to diftinguish itself that will be to our difparagement, nor fhades any thing that will credit us.

By ordonnance is meant, I apprehend, the manner of placing the feveral objects in a piece, or the difpofition of them with refpect to the whole compofure. And what can be fitter for us, than to confider where we are, and to appear accordingly? The civilities that are lefs decently fhewn in the church, it would be a great indecorum to neglect in the drawing-room. The freedom that will gain you the hearts of your inferiors, fhall, if used towards thofe of a higher rank, make you be thought the worst-bred woman in the world. Let the feafon for it be difregarded, your chearfulness fhall be offenfive, your gravity feem ridiculous-your wit bring your fenfe into question, and your very friendlieft interpofition be thought not fo much a proof of your affection as of your impertinence. 'Tis the right placing of things that fhews our difcretion-that keeps us clear of difficulties that raifes our credit-that principally contributes to give any of our defigns fuccefs.

go

To beauty in .colouring correfponds, perhaps, good nature improved by good breeding. And, certainly, as the canvafs could furnish no defign fo well fancied, no draught fo correct, but what would yet fail to pleafe, and would even difgult you, were the colours of it ill-united-nct fuftained by each other-void of their due harmony; fo both fenfe and virtue but a little way in our recommendation, if they appear not to their proper advantage in an eafinefs of behaviour-in foft and gentle manners, and with all the graces of affability, courtefy and complaifance. I fee, by your fmiling, you are fatisfed you cannot be accused of being a bad colourist. Believe me, you have then gained a very material point; and the more concerns you have in the world, the more proofs you will find of its importance. I'll drop this fubject when

7

I have faid to you, That if to make a good picture is fuch a complicated tafk, requires fo much attention, fuch extensive obfervation-if an error in any of the principal parts of painting fo offends, takes off fo greatly from the merit of the piece if he, who is truly an artift, overlocks nothing that would be at all a blemish to his performance, and would call each trivial indecorum a fault: think, child, what care about the original ought to equal this for the portrait of what infinitely greater confequence it must be, to have every thing right within ourselves, than to give a juft appearance to the things without us; and how much lefs pardonably any violation of decorum would be charged on your life, than on your pencil.

The most finished reprefentation only pleases by its correfpondence to what it. reprefents, as nature well imitated; and if juftnefs in mere reprefentation and imitation can have the charms you find in it, you may eafily conceive the ftill greater delight that must arife from beholding the beauties of nature itfelf; fuch, particularly, as the pencil cannot imitate the beauties of rational nature, those which the poffeffor gives herfelf-which are of ten thousand times the moment of any in her outward fymmetry-which, how highly foever they may adorn her, profit her ftill more; and are not only to her own advantage, but to that of the age in which the lives, and poffibly, of remoteit generations.

My concern to fee you this fair unblemithed original makes me ftrangely unmindful on what topic I am got. There, furely, can be no proof wanting, how much a wife and good woman excels any portrait, or any woman, who has but the merit of a portrait, a fine appearance.

In this way Emilia takes each opportunity to form the manners of her daughter

to give her throughout juft and reafonable fentiments, and difpofe her to the exact difcharge of her duty in every relation.

Leonora, thus educated, has the fools and the follies of the age in their due contempt-judges wifely-acts prudently—is ever ufefully or innocently employed-can pafs her evenings very chearfully without a card in her hand-can be perfectly in hu

mour when she is at home, and all her acquaintance at the affembly; and feems likely to borrow no credit from her family, which the will not fully repay.

We will difmifs the daughter, and reprefent Emilia parting with her fon in

terms

terms like thefe. I am now to take my leave of you, for one campaign at leaft. It is the first you ever ferved; let me advise, and do you act, as if it would be your last: the dangers, to which you will be expofed, give both of us reafon to fear it: if it please God that it fhould be fo, may you not be found unprepared, nor I unrefigned! This I am the less likely to be, when you have had my beft counfel, and I your promife to reflect upon it. He bowing, and affuring her, that whatever fhe fhould be pleafed to fay to him, it would be carefully remembered; fhe proceeded-I could never conceive, what induced the foldier to think that he might take greater liberties than the rest of mankind. He is, 'tis true, occafionally fubjected to greater hardships, and he runs greater hazards; but by a lewd and vicious life, he makes thefe hardships abundantly more grievous than they otherwife would be-he difqualifies himself to bear them. What would you think of his wits, who, because he is to be much in the cold, fits, as often as he can, close to the fire? An habitual fobriety and regularity of manners is, certainly, the best prefervative of that vigorous conflitution, which makes it leaft uneafy to endure fatigue and cold, hunger and thirst.

The dangers to which the foldier is expofed, are so far from excufing his licentiousness, when he has no enemy near him, that they ought to be confidered as the ftrongest motive to conform himself, at all times, to the rules of reafon and religion. A practice agreeable to them is the beft fupport of his fpirits, and the fureft provifion for his fafety-It will effectually remove his fears, and can alone encourage his hopes: nothing but it can give him any comfortable expectation, if what threatens, him fhould befal him. He who is fo much in danger, ought to be properly armed against it, and this he can never be by reflecting on the women he has corrupted -on his hours of intemperance, or on any other of his extravagancies. You won't, perhaps, allow that he wants the armour I would provide him, because he never knows the apprehenfions that require it. But I am confidering what his apprehenfions ought to be, not what they are. The nature of things will not be altered by our opinion about them.

It is granted, that a foldier's life is, frequently, in the utmost hazard; and the queftion is not, how a thoughtlefs, ftupid, abfurd creature fhould behave in fuch a

fituation; but, what should be done in it by a man of prudence and fenfe? I fay, he will attend to the value of what he hazards

to the confequence of its lofs; and, if found of very great, he will fo act, that the lofs thereof may be, if poffible, fome or other way made up to him, or accompanied with the fewest inconveniences. Infenfibility of danger is the merit of a bulldog. True courage fees danger, but defpifes it only from rational motives from the confiderations of duty. There can be no virtue in expofing life, where there is no notion of its value; you are a brave man, when you fully understand its worth, and yet in a good caufe difregard death.

"

If, thus to be ready to die is commendable, wholly from the caufe that makes us fo, which is, unquestionably, the cafe; I don't fee how fuch an indifference to life, when honour calls you to risk it, can confift with paffing it, at any feafon, immorally and diffolutely.

Here is a gallant officer who will rather be killed than quit his poft-than be wanting in the defence of his country! Is not this a fine refolution in one who, by his exceffes, makes himself every day less able to ferve his country; or who fets an example, which, if followed, would do his country as much mischief as it could have to fear from its moft determined enemy?

The inconfiderate and thoughtless may laugh at vice-may give foft terms to very bad actions, or fpeak of them, as if they were rather matter of jeft than abhorrence: but whoever will reflect whence all the mifery of mankind arifes-what the fource is of all the evils we lament; he cannot but own, that if any thing ought to make us ferious-if we ought to deteft any thing, it fhould be that; from which fuch terrible effects are derived.

For the very fame reason that we prefer health to sickness-eafe to pain, we must prefer virtue to vice. Moral evil feems to me to have a neceffary connection with natural. According to my notion of things, there is no crime but what creates pain, or has a tendency to create it to others or ourselves: every criminal is fuch, by doing. fomething that is directly, or in its confe quences, hurtful to himself, or to a fellowcreature.

Is not here a foundation of religion that no objections can affect? Deprive us of it, you deprive us of the only effectual reftraint from thofe practices, which are moft detrimental to the world-you deprive us

of

of virtue, and thereby of all the true happiness we have here to expect.

To charge religion with the mischief occafioned by mistakes about it, I think full as impertinent, as to decry reason for the wrong ufe that has been made of it; or government, for the bad administration of every kind of it, in every part of the world. What shall prove to the advantage of mankind, will, in all cafes, depend upon themselves: that which is, confeffedly, most for it, in every inftance you can think of, you fee, occafionally, abused; and by that abuse becoming as hurtful, as it would, otherwife, have been beneficial. Controverfy I hate; and to read books of it as ill fuits my leifure as my inclination: yet I do not profefs a religion, the grounds of which I have never confidered. And upon the very fame grounds that I am convinced of the truth of religion in general, I am fo of the truth of christianity. The good of the world is greatly promoted by it. If we would take chriftianity for our guide throughout, we could not have a betterwe could not have a furer to all the happinefs of which our prefent ftate admits. Its fimplicity may have been difguifed its intention perverted-its doctrines mifreprefented, and conclufions drawn, fuiting rather the intereft or ambition of the expofitor, than the directions of the text: but when I refort to the rule itself ;—when I find it afferting, that the whole of my duty is to love God above all things, and my neighbour as myself-to live always mindful by whom I am fent into, and preferved in, the world, and always difpofed to do in it the utmost good in my power; I can no more doubt, whether this is the voice of my Creator, than I can doubt, whether it must be his will, that, when he has made me a reasonable creature, I should act like one. But I will drop a topic, on which I am fure your father muft have fufficiently enlarged: I can only speak to it more generally difficulties and objections I muft leave him to obviate; yet thus much confidently affirming, that if you won't adopt an irreligious fcheme, till you find one clear of them, you will continue as good a chriftian, as it has been our joint care to make you. I pray God you may do fo. He that would corrupt your principles, is have moft to fear; an enemy who means you worfe, than any you will draw your sword againft.

the

enemy you

When you are told, that the foldier's religion is his honour, obferve the practice of

them from whom you hear it; you'll foon then have proof enough, they mean little more by honour, than what is requifite to keep or advance their commiffions-that they are still in their own opinion men of nice honour, though abandoned to the groffeft fenfuality and excefs-though chargeable with acts of the fouleft perfidy and injuftice that the honour by which they govern themselves differs as widely from what is truly fuch, as humour from reafon. True honour is to virtue what good breeding is to good nature, the polishing, the refinement of it. And the more you think of chriftianity, the more firmly you will be perfuaded, that in its precepts the ftri&teft rules of honour are contained. By thefe I, certainly, would have you always guided, and, on that very account, have reminded you of the religion, which not only fhews you them, but proposes the reward likelieft to attach you to them. I have done. Take care of yourfelf. You won't fly danger, don't court it. If the one would bring your courage into question, the other will your fenfe. The rafh is as ill qualified for command, as the coward. May every bleffing attend you! And to fecure your happiness, live always attentive to your duty; reverence and obey Him to whom you owe your being, and from whom must come whatever good you can hope for in it. Adieu. I can't fay it would fufficiently comfort me for your lofs, that you died with honour; but it would infinitely lefs afflict me to hear of you among the dead, than among the profligate.

What has been the iffue of instructions like these from both parents? Scipio, for fo we will call the worthy man, from the time he received his commiffion, has alike diftinguished himself by his courage andconduct. The greatest dangers have not terrified, the worst examples have not corrupted him. He has approved himself difdaining by cowardice to keep life, and abhorring to fhorten it by excefs: the bravery with which he has hazarded it, is equalled by the prudence with which he paffes it.

§ 149. On the Employment of Time.