to our benefit. The only uses that the exuvia of the horse can be applied to, are for traces, collars, and other parts of the harness: And thus, even after death, he preferves fome analogy with his former employ. The hair of the name is of use in making wigs; of the tail in making the bottom of chairs, floor-cloths, and cords, and to the angler in making lines. From the LONDON MAGAZINE. Of Diftinctions, Orders, and Dignities. them more excufably fond of fuch pe culiarities. That in favour of the ladies, he fhould efteem himself fufficiently happy in the honour of inventing one order, which fhould be stiled The most power'ful order of beauties. That their number in Great Britain fhould be limited to five thousand; the dignity for ever to be conferred by the. queen alone, who fhould be filed fovereign of the order, and the reft the companions. That the inftallment fhould be ren dered a thousand times more ceremo nious, the dreffes more fuperb, and the plumes more enormous than those al HE fubject turned upon the na-ready in ufe among the companions of ture of focieties, ranks, orders, the garter. TH and distinctions amongst men. A gentleman of fpirit, and of the popular faction, had been long declaiming against any kind of honours that tended to elevate a body of people into a distinct fpecies from the rest of the nation. Particularly titles and blue ribbands were the object of his indignation. "They were, as he pretended, too invidious an oftentation of fuperiority, to be allowed in any nation that ftiled it Telf free. Much was faid upon the fubject of appearances, fo far as they were countenanced by law or cuftom. The "bishop's lawn; the marshal's truncheon; the baron's robe; and the judge's peruke; were confidered only as neceffary fub. ftitutes, where genuine purity, real courage, native dignity, and fuitable penetration, were wanting to complete the characters of thofe to whom they were affigned. It was urged that policy had often effectually made it a point to dazzle in order to enflave; and inftances were brought of groundlefs diftinctions borne about in the glare of day by certain perfons, who being ftripped of them, would be lefs efteemed than the mean eft plebeian. He acknowledged, indeed, that kings, the fountain of all political honour, had hitherto fhewn no complaisance to that fex, whole fofter difpofitions rendered VOL. III. That the diftinguishing badge of this order fhould be an artificial nofegay, to be worn on the left breaft, confifting of a lilly and a rofe, the proper emblems of complexion, and intermixed with a branch of myrtle, the tree facred to Venus. That inftead of their shields being af fixed to the ftalls appointed for this order, there fhould be a gallery erected to receive their pictures at full length. Their portraits to be taken by four painters of the greatest eminence, and he whofe painting was preferred, to be ftiled a knight of the rofe and lilly. That when any perfon addreffed a letter to a lady of this order, the style fhould always be To the Right beautiful Mifs or Lady fuch-a-one. He feemed for fome time undetermined whether they should forfeit their title upon marriage; but at length, for many reafons, proposed it fhould be continued to them, And thus far the gentleman proceeded in his harangue; when it was objected, that the queen, unless the un accountably chose to mark out game for her husband, could take no fort of pleafure in conferring this honour where it was most due: That as ladies grew in years, this epithet of beautiful would burlefque them; and, in short, that, confidering the frailty of beauty," thefe lafting compliment that could be Upon it. hat lusitib At this the brator fmiled; and ac knowledged it was true: but afked at The Tame time, why it was more abfurd to flyle a lady right beautiful, in the days of her deformity, than to term a peer right honourable when he grew fcandal to mankind ,was fometimes the cafe, he id, was not to be disputed, because titles have been fometimes granted to a worthlefs fon, in confequence of a father's enormous wealth, moft unjustly acquired. And few had ever furpaffed in villainy the right honourable the earl of A. The company was a little furprized at the sophistry of our declaimant. However, it was replied to, by a perfon perfent, that Lord A's title being fictitious, no one ought to in ftance him to the disadvantage of the Prage, who had, ftrictly speaking, never been of that number. The declaimant, I before mentioned, continued his harangue. There are, faid he,, certain epithets which fo frequently occur, that they are the lefs confidered; and which are feldom or never examined, on account of the many opportunities of examination that prefent themselves. Of this kind is the word gentleman. This word, on its first introduction, was given, I fuppofe, to freemen in oppofition, to vaffals; thefe being the two claffes into which the nation was once divided. The freeman was he, who was poffeffed of land, and could therefore fubfift without manual labour, the vaffal, he, who tenanted the land, and was obliged to his thane for the neceffaries of life. The different manners we may prefume, that fprung from, their different fituations and connexions, occafioned the one to be denominated a civilized or gentle perfonage; and the other to obtain the name of a mere ruftic or villain. But upont the publication of cru fades, the state of things was confiderably altered, it was then that every 3 freeman diftinguished the mi the field whic he wore with some painted emblem or device; and this, in order that his fellow combatants might attribute to him his proper applaufe, which, upon account of fimilar accoutrements, might be otherwife fubject to mifapplication. betwixt freeman and freemans All which had ferved in thofe religious wars continued the ufe of their heft devices, but alludevices were not illuftrated by the fame pretentions to milltary glory, mai non sw jule Upon this there arose a diftinétion However chele campaigns were dif continued: Freth families fprung up; who, without any pretension to mark themselves with fuch devices as thefe holy combatants, were yet as defirous of respect, of eftimation, of diftinction. It would be tedious enough to trace the steps by which money Jeltablithes even abfurdity. A courts of heraldry fprung up to fupply the place of crufade exploits, to grant imaginary fhields and trophies to families that never wore real armour, and oit dis but of late that it has been difcovered to have no real jurisdiction, vi digal N 307 The Beauties of all the M'AGAZINES selected. BEAUTIES hnit Put bisin gards/morale as well as family and that antegrity politenefsingenerofisy, and affability, have the trueft claim to as distinction of this kind. Whence then hall we fuppofe was derived this contradiction@Shall we say that the plebeians, having the virtues on their fide, by degrees bremoved this appellation from the bags of family to that of merit, which they esteemed, and not unjustly, to be the true and proper pedeltab This the gentry will scarce allow. Shall we then infift that every thing great and god-like was heretofore the achievement of the gentry ? But this perhaps, will not obtain the ap>probation of the commoners. difficult task; at least we may daily dif cover crowds, acquire, fufficient, wealth to buy gentility, but very few that pof fefs the virtues which enoble human nature, and (in the belt fenfe of the word) constitute a GENTLEMAN, 200 To reconcile the difference, let us suppose the denomination may belong equally to two forts of men, The one, what may be filed a gentleman de jure, viz, a man of generofity, politeneis, idearning, tafte, genius, or affability; in fhort, accomplished in all that is fplendid, or endeared to us by all that is amiable on the one fide; and on the oother, a gentleman de facto, or what to English readers, I would term a gentle -man as by law established. As to the latter appellation, what is really effential, or as logicians would fay, quarto modo proprium, is a real, or - atslealt afpecious claim to the inheritance of certain coat-armour from a fecond or more diftant ancestor; and this unstained by any mechanical or illiberal employment. We may discover, on this ftate of the cafe, that, however material a dif. ference this, diftinction supposes, yet it is not only impracticable for a gentlemande jure, to render himself in fome fort a gentleman de facto. A certain funt of money, depofited in the hands of my good friends Norroy or Rouge dragon, will convey to him a coat of arms defcending from as many ancestors as he pleases. On the other From the LONDON MAGAZINE. TA เ On Referee. By the fame. AKING an evening's walk with a friend in the country, among many grave remarks, he was making the following obfervation. There is not, fays he, any one quality fo incon fiftent with refpect, as what is commonly called familiarity. You do not find one in fifty whofe regard is proof against it. At the fame time it is hardly poni ble to infift upon fuch a deference as will render you ridiculous, if it be fup ported by common fenfe. Thus much at leaft is evident, that your demands will be fo fuccefsful, as to procure a greater fhare than if you had made ho fuch demand. Imay frankly own to you, Leander, that I frequently derived uneafinefs from a familiarity with fuch perfons as defpifed every thing they could obtain with eafe. Were it not better, therefore, to be fomewhat frugal of our affability, at least to allot it only to the few perfons of difcern ment who can make the proper distinction betwixt real dignity and pretended... to neglect thofe characters, which, be ing impatient to grow familiar, are, at the fame time, very far from familiarity-proof: to have polthumous fame in view, which affords us the most pleas ing landskip to enjoy the amulement of reading, and the confcfoufnefs that reading paves the way to general esteem. To preferve a constant regularity' of temper, and also of conftitution, for the most part but little hand, the gentleman de facto may be promiscuous interco with come a gentleman alfo dejure by the acquifition of certain virtues, which are rarely all of them unattainable. The Batter, I must acknowledge, as the more men to though ever to jovial hun all illiterate, thou aflemblies, infipid, perhaps, when prefent, and won reflexion painful tol meditate on thofe absent and departed Rr 2 friends, friends, who value or valued us for thofe qualities with which they were which they were best acquainted; to partake with fuch a friend as you, the delights of a studious and rational retirement Are not thefe the paths that lead to happiness A A.. In antwer to this (for he feemed to fee! fome late mortification). I obferved, that what we loft by familiarity in refpect, was generally made up to us by the affection it procured; and that an abfolute, folitude was fo very contrary to our natures, that were he excluded from fociety, but for a fiugle fortnight, he would be exhilerated at the fight of the first beggar that he faw. What follows were thoughts thrown out in our further difcourfe upon the fubject; without order or connexion, as they occur to my remembrance. Some referve is a debt to prudence; as freedom and fimplicity of converfation is a debt to good-nature. There would not be any abfolute neceffity for referve, if the world were Honest yet, even then, it would prove expedient, For in order to attain any degree of deference, it feems neceffary that people fhould imagine you have more accomplishments than you discover. It is on this depends one of the excellencies of the judicious Virgil. He' leaves you fomething ever to imagine and fuch is the conftitution of the human mind, that we think so highly of nothing, as of that whereof we do not fee the bounds. This, as Mr. Bourke ingeniously obferves, affords the pleasure when we furvey a cylinder". And Şir John Suckling fays, They who know all the wealth they A perfon that would fecure to himfelf great deference, will, perhaps, gain his point by filence, as effectually as by any thing he can say, To be however niggard of one's obfervations, is fo much worse than to board up one's money, as the former 2 may be both imparted and retained at the fame times hom sat set Men oftentimes pretend to propors tion their respect to real defert but fupercilious referve and diftance wearies them into a compliance with more. This appears so very manifest to many per fons of the lofty character, that they ufe no better means to acquire respect, thanlike highwaymen to make a demand of it. They will, like Empedocles, jump into the fire rather than betray the mor- © tal part of their character, dechi za te It is from the fame principle of dif tance that nations are brought to believe that their great duke knoweth all things, as is the cafe in fome countries. Men, while no human form or fault they fee, piz'd. We want comets, not ordinary planets Tædet quotidianarum barum formarúm. Terence. Hunc cælum & ftellas, decedentia certis Tempora momentis, funt qui formidine nulla, imbuti jpectent." pisida Virtues, like effences, lofe their fragrance when expofed. They are fenfi tive plants, which will not bear too familiar approaches.. Let us be careful to diftinguish modefty, which is ever amiable, from referve, which is only prudent. A man is hated fometimes for pride, when it was an excess of humility gave the occafion./ What is often termed fhyness, is no~~ thing more than refined sense, and ant indifference to common obfervations, ma The Treatife of the Sublime and Beautiful. ༔་ན The referved man's intimate acquain tance are, for the most party fonder of him, than the persons of a more affable character, steb he pays them a greater complimenty than the other can do his, as he diftinguishes them more of i The many of thew is vain: the refervedimana is proud amore properly. The one has greater depth, the other a more lively imaginationThe one is more frequently refpected; the other is more generally beloved. The one a Catob The other a Cæfar, Vide Salluft. What Cæfar faid of Rubicundos; amos pallido timeo may be applied to familiarity, and to referve. A referved man often makes it a rule to leave company with a good fpeech: and I believe fometimes proceeds fo far as to leave company, because he has madecone. Yet it is his fate often, like the mole, to imagine himself deep when he is near the furface. Were it prudent to decline this referve, and this horror of disclosing foibles; to give up a part of character to fecure the reft; the world will certainly insist upon having fome part to pull to pieces. Let us throw out fome follies to the envious: as we give up counters to an highwayman, or a barrel to a whale, in order to fave one's money and one's hip: to let it make exceptions to one's head of air: if one can' escape being stabbed in the heart. The referved man should drink double glaffes. Prudent men lock up their motives, letting familiars have a key to their heart, or to their garden. A referved man is in continual conAlict with the focial part of his nature; and even grudges himfelt the laugh in to which he fometimes is betrayed. Himself that could be moved to fmile at any thing. "A fool and his words are foon parted;" for fo should the proverb run. Common understandings, like cifs in gardening, allow no fhades to their picture. Modefty often paffes for errant haughtiness; as what is deemed fpirit in an horse proceeds from fear, The higher character a perfon fupports, the more he should regard his minutest actions. The referved man fhould bring certificate of his honesty, before he be admitted into company. Referve is no more effentially con nected with understanding, than a church-organ with devotion, or wine with good-nature. **X*XXXX From the UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE, Effay on the Importance of an Enquiry T into the human Mind. HE fabric of the human mind is curious and wonderful, as well as that of the human body. The fa-! culties of the one are with no lefs wif dom adapted to their several ends, than the organs of the other. Nay, it is reafonable to think, that as the mind is a nobler work, and of a higher order than the body, even more of the wifeder dom and kill of the Divine architec hath been employed in its structure, isis therefore a fubject highly worthy of inquiry on its own account, but still more worthy on account of the extenfive influence which the knowledge of it hath over every other branch of science. In the arts and fciences which have leaft connection with the mind, its faculties are the engines which we must employ; and, the better we understand their nature and ufe, their defects and Megano, ediforders, 1402 * These were no other than a colle Aion of hints, when I proposed to write a poetical effay on Referve, |