'or reflexion, but by fome turn of wit unexpected and 'furprising, ended always in a compliment, and to the ' advantage of the perfon it was addreffed to. And furely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to fay a thing which any of the company can reafonably with we had rather left unfaid; nor can there any thing be well more contrary to the ends for which ⚫ people meet together, than to part unfatisfied with • each other or themselves.

There are two faults in converfation, which appear very different, yet arise from the fame root, and are · equally blameable; I mean, an impatience to interrupt others, and the uneasiness of being interrupted ourfelves. The two chief ends of conversation, are to entertain and improve thofe we are among, or to receive those benefits ourselves; which whoever will confider, cannot easily run into either of those two • errors; because when any man fpeaketh in company, it is to be supposed he doth it for his hearers fake, and not his own; fo that common discretion will teach us not to force their attention, if they are not willing to lend it; nor, on the other fide, to interrupt him who is in poffeffion, because that is in the groffest manner to give the preference to our own good sense.

"There are some people, whose good manners will ⚫ not suffer them to interrupt you; but what is almost as bad, will discover abundance of impatience, and lie upon the watch until you have done, because they have started something in their own thoughts, which 6 they long to be delivered of. Mean time, they are fo ⚫ far from regarding what passes, that their imaginations are wholly turned upon what they have in referve, for fear it should flip out of their memory; and thus 6 they confine their invention, which might otherwise f range over a hundred things full as good, and that 'might be much more naturally introduced.

'There is a fort of rude familiarity, which some people, by practising among their intimates, have introduced

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troduced into their general conversation, and would have it pass for innocent freedom or humour, which is a dangerous experiment in our northern climate, where all the little decorum and politeness we have, are purely forced by art, and are fo ready to lapfe into barbarity. This, among the Romans, was the raillery of flaves, of which we have many inftances in Plautus. It feemeth to have been introduced among us by Cromwell, who, by preferring the fcum of the people, made it a court-entertainment, of which I have heard many particulars; and, confidering all things were turned upfide down, it was reasonable and judicious: Although it was a piece of policy found out to ridicule 'a point of honour in the other extreme, when the <fmalleft word misplaced among gentlemen, ended in ❝ a duel.

There are some men excellent at telling a ftory, and provided with a plentiful ftock of them, which they can draw out upon occafion in all companies ; ⚫ and, confidering how low converfation runs now among us, it is not altogether a contemptible talent; however, it is fubject to two unavoidable defects; frequent repetition, and being foon exhausted; fo that • whoever valueth this gift in himself, hath need of a good memory, and ought frequently to fhift his company, that he may not difcover the weakness of his fund; for those who are thus endowed, have feldom any other revenue, but live upon the main • stock.

Great speakers in public, are feldom agreeable in * private conversation, whether their faculty be natural, or acquired by practice and often venturing. Natural • elocution, although it may feem a paradox, ufually 'fpringeth from a barrenness of invention and of words, by which men, who have only one ftock of notions upon every subject, and one fet of phrafes to exprefs them in, they fwim upon the fuperficies, and offer ⚫ themselves on every occafion; therefore, men of • much

much learning, and who know the compass of a language, are generally the worst talkers on a fudden, ⚫ until much practice hath inured and emboldened them, because they are confounded with plenty of ⚫ matter, variety of notions, and of words, which they cannot readily chufe, but are perplexed and entangled by too great a choice; which is no difadvantage in ' private converfation; where, on the other fide, the ' talent of haranguing is, of all others, moft infup⚫ portable.

Nothing hath fpoiled men more for converfation, than the character of being wits, to fupport which, "they never fail of encouraging a number of followers

and admirers, who lift themselves in their fervice, wherein they find their accounts on both fides, by 'pleafing their mutual vanity. This hath given the ⚫ former such an air of fuperiority, and made the latter fo pragmatical, that neither of them are well to be endured. I fay nothing here of the itch of dispute ⚫ and contradiction, telling of lyes, or of those who are ⚫ troubled with the difeafe called the wandering of the 'thoughts, that they are never present in mind at what 'paffeth in difcourfe; for whoever labours under any of these poffeffions, is as unfit for conversation, as à madman in Bedlam.

I think I have gone over most of the errors in con' verfation, that have fallen under my notice or me'mory, except fame that are merely perfonal, and

others too grofs to need exploding; fuch as lewd or 'prophane talk; but, I pretend only to treat the errors ' of converfation in general, and not the feveral fubjects ' of discourse, which would be infinite. Thus we fee how human nature is moft debafed, by the abuse of that faculty, which is held the great diftinction between men and brutes; and how little advantage we make of that which might be the greateft, the most lafting, and the most innocent, as well as ufeful pleafure of life: In default of which, we are forced to • take

take up with thofe poor amufements of drefs and • vifiting, or the more pernicious ones of play, drink, • and vicious amours, whereby the nobility and gentry

of both fexes are entirely corrupted both in body • and mind, and have loft all notions of love, honour, 'friendship, and generofity; which, under the name of fopperies, have been for fome time laughed out of ⚫ doors.

This degeneracy of converfation, with the per• nicious confequences thereof upon our humours and difpofitions, hath been owing, among other causes, ⚫ to the custom arifen, for fome time paft, of excluding women from any share in our society, further than in parties at play, or dancing, or in the purfuit of an amour. I take the highest period of politeness in England (and it is of the fame date in France) to have been the peaceable part of king Charles the Firft's reign; and from what we read of those times, as well ⚫ as from the accounts I have formerly met with from fome who lived in that court, the methods then • used for raifing and cultivating conversation, were altogether different from ours; feveral ladies, whom ♦ we find celebrated by the poets of that age, had affemblies at their houfes, where perfons of the beft understanding, and of both fexes, met to pass the evenings in difcourfing upon whatever agreeable fub'jects were occafionally started; and although we are apt to ridicule the fublime platonic notions they had, or perfonated, in love and friendship, I conceive their ⚫ refinements were grounded upon reason, and that a ⚫ little grain of the romance is no ill ingredient to preferve and exalt the dignity of human nature, without ⚫ which it is apt to degenerate into every thing that is fordid, vicious and low. If there were no other use in the converfation of ladies, it is fufficient that it would ♦ lay a restraint upon those odious topics of immodesty ' and indecencies, into which the rudeness of our • northern genius is so apt to fall; And, therefore, it

is obferveable in those sprightly gentlemen about the town, who are fo very dextrous at entertaining a 'vizard mask in the park or the playhouse, that, in the company of ladies of virtue and honour, they are ⚫ filent and difconcerted, and out of their element.

There are fome people who think they fufficiently • acquit themselves, and entertain their company, with ' relating of facts of no confequence, nor at all out of • the road of fuch common incidents as happen every day; and this I have obfeved more frequently among the Scots than any other nation, who are very careful not to omit the minuteft circumstances of time or <place; which kind of discourse, if it were not a little ◄ relieved by the uncouth terms and phrases, as well * as accent and gesture peculiar to that country, would be hardly tolerable. It is not a fault in company to 'talk much; but to continue it long is certainly one; for, if the majority of those who are got together, •be naturally filent or cautious, the converfation will flag, unless it be often renewed by one among them, ◄ who can start new fubjects, provided he doth not ' dwell upon them, but leaveth room for answers and < replies.'

The Third Book of the GHOST.

4to. Price 2s. 6d. Flexney.

HE publick have expected this third book of the

TH

Ghoft, with that impatience, which the easy flow of wit, and strong vein of fatyre, fo eminently dif played in the two firft, could not fail to excite in the minds of every intelligent reader. Nor indeed, as is too often the case, are our appetites, which have been fo agreeably raised, in any danger of being disappointed. Our author's Mufe, which digreffes in the luxuriance of fancy, opens with a defcription of the morning, both