consequences; like a sword without a scabbard it wounds the wearer, and provokes assailants. I am sorry to say the generality of women who have excelled in wit have failed in chastity; perhaps it inspires too much confidence in the possessor, and raises an inclination in the men towards them, without inspiring an esteem; so that they are more attacked and less guarded than other women. Mrs. Pilkington is very severe on the clergy; but I hope they look on her spite as an encomium. She is very saucy about some Bishops and some Bishops' ladies; but I dare say they are above being mortified by her. The charge of jealousy is a little provoking; it is as much as to say a lady wants charms and a prelate chastity; whereas, by courtesy, all ladies have the first, and all prelates the latter. You must excuse me if I own I could not help laughing at that passage. I thought I saw the lady armed in the terrors of severe virtue, and the good-humoured Bishop smiling with soft and gentle courtesy; and from the good qualities of

both, the saucy author has drawn matter of criticism. I am impatient for the second volume, which she promises shall be more entertaining than the first. By the by, what a ridiculous light she makes Mr. Worsdale appear in! A beau dressed from Monmouth-street would not make so absurd a figure as a man setting up for a wit with purchased poetry. Wit and sense are a sort of stock that cannot be transferred; we may purchase another man's house, land, apparel, or furniture, and it becomes our own to wear and use; but the riches, and furniture, and dress of the mind, are not to be so appropriated. I have sent you some small feathers, that you may at your convenient leisure finish me a rose and send it down; it will be honour enough to me if I can imitate. It is now grown the fashion to borrow ornaments for cabinets and dressing-rooms of birds and fishes, and vanity and virtuosoship go hand in hand. You are very good in thinking of my brothers; I grow impatient for their arrival; I propose to come to town to see them, and I imagine

by that time you will have left Kensington. I must leave you to dress for dinner, though I prefer your company to eating and dressing. How few of our employments are regulated by inclination ! I am, dear Madam,

your very sincere and affectionate friend, and humble servant,

E. MONTAGU.

To the Same.

DEAR MADAM,

Two days before I received your kind and agreeable letter, I had prepared my pen, ink, and paper, to write to you; but some domestic affairs prevented me; I did not design to mortify myself so far with a penance enjoined me by a lay doctor, as not to write to my dear Mrs. Donnellan, of whom I think often, and with great desire to know how she does, what she does, and if she remembers me.

I

agree with you

that Miss Clarissa Harlow is a melancholy companion; her story is very affecting; and though it wants two of the greatest merits of a narration, elegance and brevity, yet it is interesting and natural; her virtue is exalted to the highest degree human nature is capable of, with all the assistance of piety, goodness of disposition, the best education, and constant practice of what is right; her virtue is as amiable as severe, which shews art in the writer, for it is difficult for the same thing to be the object of love and reverence; and a strict character, like regular features, is apt not to please from its too great exactness. Lovelace is a detestable wretch, constant in nothing but mischief; his good resolutions soon laid aside, and his repentance very short; a shocking levity in the most affecting instances; a character of pride without its usual mixture, generosity; great captiousness without delicacy; a nice sense of blame without an intention of being innocent; the most injurious, and at the same time the most revengeful

of men; in short, I think his character unnatural, and that he might have brought about the mischief without so many inconsistencies as are put into his composition. There is a certain connection of vices and virtues, and there is no creature in whom they are not in some degree blended; some shadow of virtue in the worst, some allay of vice in the best. There is a great uniformity in the character of Clarissa; she is always the same, rising in virtue and dignity to the occasion. Miss Howe's character is very natural, and well kept up; but Hickman and she are not well matched. Mrs. Howe, with her parental authority, is a representative of many good mothers; always in the right because she is old; always to be obeyed because she is a parent; very good motherly logic. Madam Howe was a petulant wife as well as an imperious mother; why did not Miss let her and Mr. Anthony Harlow join their obstinacy, covetousness, and infirmities together? I approved the party. Our screen goes on well. I wish you would be so good as to