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my reward has been folitude, poverty, and reproach; while a fellow, poffeffed of even the fmalleft fhare of fidling merit, or who has perhaps learned to whistle double, is rewarded, applauded, and careffed! Prythee, young man, fays I to him, are you ignorant, that in fo large a city as this, it is better to be an amufing than an useful member of fociety? Can you leap up, and touch your feet four times before you come to the ground? No, Sir. Can you pimp for a man of quality? No, Sir. Can you stand upon two horfes at full fpeed? No, Sir. Can you fwallow a pen-knife? I can do none of those tricks. Why then, cried I, there is no other prudent means of fubfiftence left but to apprize the town that you speedily intend to eat up your own nofe, by fubfcription.

I have frequently regretted that none of our Eaftern pofture-mafters or fhew-men have ever ventured to England. I fhould be pleafed to fee that money circulate in Afia, which is now fent to Italy and France, in order to bring their vagabonds hither. Several of our tricks would undoubtedly give the English high fatisfaction. Men of fashion would be greatly pleased with the poftures as well as the condefcenfion of our dancing girls; and ladies would equally admire the conductors of our fireworks. What an agreeable furprize would it be to fee a huge fellow with whiskers flash a charged blun· derbufs full in a lady's face, without finging her hair, or melting her pomatum. Perhaps when the firft furprize was over, the might then grow familiar with danger; and the ladies might vie with each other in ftanding fire with intrepidity.

But of all the wonders of the Eaft, the most useful, and I should fancy the moft pleafing, would be the looking-glafs of Lao, which reflects the mind as well as the body. It is faid that the emperor Chufi ufed to make his concubines drefs their

heads

heads and their hearts in one of thefe glaffes every morning; while the lady was at her toilet, he would frequently look over her shoulder; and it is recorded, that among the three hundred which composed his feraglio, not one was found whofe mind was not even more beautiful than her perfon,

I make no doubt but a glass in this country would have the very fame effect. The English ladies, concubines and all would undoubtedly cut very pretty figures in fo faithful a monitor. There, hould we happen to peep over a lady's fhoulder while dreffing, we mght be able to fee neither gaming or ill-nature; neither pride, debauchery, nor a love of gadding. We fhould find her, if any fenfible defect appeared in the mind, more careful in rectifying it, than plastering up their reparable decays of the perfon; nay, I am even apt to fancy, that ladies would find more real pleasure in this utenfil in private, than in any other bauble imported from China, though never fo expenfive or amufing.

LETTER XLV.

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TO THE SAME.

UPON finifhing my last letter I retired to reft, reflecting upon the wonders of the glafs of Lao, wifhing to be poffeffed of one here, and refolved in fuch a cafe to oblige every lady with a fight of it for nothing. What fortune denied me waking, fancy fupplied in a dream; the glass, I know not how, was put into my poffeffion, and I could perceive fe

veral

veral ladies approaching, fome voluntarily, others driven forward against their wills by a fet of difcontented genii, whom by intuition I knew were their hufbands.

The apartment in which I was to fhow away was filled with feveral gaming tables, as if just forfaken; the candles were burnt to the focket, and the hour was five o'clock in the morning. Placed at one end of the room, which was of prodigious length, I could more eafily diftinguifh every female figure as The marched up from the door; but guefs my furprize, when I could fcarcely perceive one blooming or agreeable face among the number. This, however, I attributed to the early hour, and kindly confidered that the face of a lady juft rifen from bed ought always to find a compaffionate advocate.

The first person who came up in order to view her intellectual face was a commoner's wife, who, as I afterwards found, being bred up during her virginity in a pawn-broker's fhop, now attempted to make up the defects of breeding and fentiment by the magnificence of her drefs, and the expenfiveness of her amufements. Mr. Showman, cried fhe, approaching, I am told you has fomething to fhew in that there fort of magic lanthorn, by which folks can fee themselves on the infide; I proteft, as my lord Beetle fays, I am fure it will be vaftly pretty, for I have never feen any thing like it before. But how; are we to ftrip off our cloaths and be turned infide out? if fo, as lord Beetle fays, I abfolutely declare off; for I would not ftrip for the world before a man's face, and fo I tells his lordship almost every night of his life. I informed the lady that I would difpenfe with the ceremony of ftripping, and immediately prefented my glafs to her view.

As when a first-rate beauty, after having with difficulty efcaped the fmall pox, revifits her favou

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rite mirror, that mirror which had repeated the flattery of every lover, and even added force to the compliment; expecting to fee what had fo often given her pleasure, the no longer beholds the cherry lip, the polished forehead, and speaking blush, but an hateful phyz, quilted into a thousand feams by the hand of deformity; grief, refentment, and rage fill her bosom by turns; fhe blames the fates and the ftars, but most of all the unhappy glass feels her refentment. So it was with the lady in queftion; fhe had never seen her own mind before, and was now fhocked at its deformity. One fingle look was fufficient to fatisfy her curiofity; I held up the glafs to her face, and she shut her eyes; no entreaties could prevail upon her to gaze once more! fhe was even going to fnatch it from my hands, and break it in a thoufand pieces. I found it was time therefore to difmifs her as incorrigible, and fhew away to the next that offered.

This was an unmarried lady, who continued in a ftate of virginity till thirty-fix, and then admitted a lover when the defpaired of an husband. No woman was louder at a revel than fhe, perfectly freehearted, and almoft in every refpect a man; she understood ridicule to perfection, and was once known even to fally out in order to beat the watch. "Here, you my dear with the outlandish face, (faid the addreffing me) let me take a fingle peep. Not that I care three dams what figure I may cut in the glafs of fuch an old fashioned creature; if I am allowed the beauties of the face by people of fashion, I know the world will be complaisant enough to tofs me the beauties of the mind into the bargain." I held my glafs before her as fhe defired, and muft confefs was fhocked with the reflection. The lady, however, gazed for fome time with the utmoft complacency; and at laft turning to me

with the moft fatisfied fmile faid, fhe never could think fhe had been half fo handfome.

Upon her difmiffion a lady of diftinction was reluctantly hawled along to the glass by her husband; in bringing her forward, as he came firft to the glafs himself, his mind appeared tinctured with immoderate jealoufy, and I was going to reproach him. for ufing her with fuch feverity; but when the lady came to present herfelf, I immediately retracted; for, alas, it was feen that he had but too much reason for his fufpicions.

The next was a lady who ufually teized all her acquaintance in defiring to be told of her faults, and then never mended any. Upon approaching the glafs, I could readily perceive vanity, affectation, and fome other ill-looking blots on her mind; wherefore by my advice fhe immediately fet about mending. But I could eafily find fhe was not earneft in the work; for as fhe repaired them on one fide, they generally broke out on another. Thus, after three or four attempts, fhe began to make the ordinary use of the glass in fettling her hair.

The company now made room for a woman of learning, who approached with a flow pace and a folemn countenance, which for her own fake I could with had been cleaner. "Sir, cried the lady, flourishing her hand, which held a pinch of fnuff, I fhall be enraptured by having prefented to my view a mind with which I have fo long ftudied to be acquainted; but, in order to give the fex a proper example, I muft infift, that all the company may be permitted to look over my fhoulder." bowed affent, and prefenting the glafs, fhewed the lady a mind by no means fo fair as the had expected to fee. Ill-nature, ill-placed pride, and fpleen were too legible to be mistaken. Nothing could be more amufing than the mirth of her female companions

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