that we overlook the faults of fuch pieces, without making the pieces themfelves the ftandard of excellence in dramatic literature.

[To be continued in our next.]

The Mafquerade: a Moral Tale. To the EDITOR of the LONDON MAGAZINE.

SIR,

which

WHEN I Confefs to youze, that I am one of thofe unhappy wretches who are feldom or ever pitied by the most benevolent, or relieved by the moft generous, will you not feel indig nation fuitable to the general conduct of the world at my prefuming to addrefs you, and deny my letter a place in your Magazine for having fatally forfeited all claim to confideration. Yet, fir, if not for my fake, for the fake of the rifing generation, do not wholly difregard me: my complaints merit your neglect, for I have merited my fufferings; but my warning voice, can that be unworthy your attention? I write not indeed to age or experience, for fallen as I am, I need not be told, that it is indifcretion, not vice that is within the benefit of caution, or the alarms of example: if then, by a perufal of my final fetting, you should conceive that the meridian of a fingle individual may be preferved from clouds, give me to the public with all my fins upon my head, nor unbefpeak the infults I must neceffarily incur from the more happy, becaufe more fortunate daughters of the community. My father and mother were people in great affluence, though I have reafon to believe of little or no education. I do not, however, mention this in order to extenuate my conduct, but theirs, by obviating the cenfure of thofe parents, who from their enlarged ideas or just sense of life, are able to fmooth the way for their pofterity, and inftead of precipitating them upon rocks and fhoals, fecure them from every fpecies of danger. That my fortune and my accomplishments might keep pace with each other, I was early conveyed to an eminent boarding fchool, where I much apprehend, by the actual defire of those who ought to have guarded my mind from idle impreffions, I was with every poffible expedition initiated into all

5

the follies, the vanities imaginable: my connexions were of the most diffi-` pated kind, my reading contemptible, my drefs expenfive, and my taste prepofterous. I leave you, fir, to judge what could be the event.

My father and mother were neverthelefs perfectly happy to find me a girl of fpirit; fupplied me with money to figure away at the card table, and never failed to gratify my with where

fuperiority of appearance was, the queftion, to my intimates. Convinced that I was well bred, they never once dreamt I could be blameable, and delighted with the admiration I every where met with, did not once conceive that it could be productive of pernicious confequences; and yet, however ftrange it may feem, at the fame time that they could thus cherish my extravagancies, my abfurdities, their minds were peculiarly fraught with that virtuous indignation, that dooms creatures like myself to fuffer without complaint, and perish without affist

ance.

Mafquerades you well know, fir, have been for fome time the reigning tafte. I was allowed to frequent every fucceeding one, though every fucceeding indulgence was to have been the laft, from the difficulty of forming parties. However, one of our fober neighbours hinting that they were dangerous modes of diffipation, my father and mother refolved, let it coft what it would, that their daughter thould prove herfelf an exception to all rule, and falamander like remain unhurt where others would inevitably be destroyed.

In one of thefe revellings a flippancy of reply which I and my relations miftook for wit, induced a peer of the realm to be inquifitive concerning me. He was, fir, one of those right honourable gentlemen who exult in crimes the leffer villains of fociety blush but to imagine; and who, from manly refolutions of liberty, walk abroad in fearch of new objects to prey upon; in other words, though the profeffed enemy of matrimony, he was the profeffed admirer of the fex, and notwithftanding he approached only to betray, was a welcome guest with even women of reputed principle, and unimpeached virtue.

No wonder then that I became a

dupe

dupe to his artifice, or that when my relations rather precipitately queftioned him concerning his intentions, that I fhould be perfuaded it was a contempt for their proceedings, not the flighteft difrefpect for me, that incited him to difavow his love, and treat them with unpardonable neglect. But notwithftanding it was the firft inftance of their oppofing my will and pleasure, they had neither the policy nor the prudence to gain my pride over to their party; they commanded me never to fee him more with an air of defpotifin, and my heart confequently refused to obey. To temporife was nevertheless too much my intereft not to be felf-dictated; and confirmed by the folicitations, the intreaties of my lover, I determined to play off fome of the arts they had taught me, to preferve my liberty inviolate, and at length break upon them with the conviction, that if I had meanly fubmitted to their trammels I fhould never have been a woman of quality. My lover (though it only fixed him in the purfuit) was foon aware that he had no common female to deal with; my very vanity ftood me in the ftead of virtue. I must be honourably approached, or every avenue was blocked up, and I punished him fo feverely for a few freedoms of converfation, that he was in no hurry to take the grand step that was to determine our future connexion. In the courfe of our acquaintance (for I had a convenient friend to promote our interviews when excluded from my father's) he moft unfortunately discovered their foible: for I once was fo unguarded as to mention that I was confident they would never pardon an impeached reputation in their daughter, though they compelled her to proceedings that were incompatible with female delicacy. Another mafquerade was now at hand, my lover redoubled his affiduities, we fettled the articles of our drefs, the etiquette of our meeting; but he extorted an additional promife from me, that I fhould return home under his convoy, with all proper precautions to prevent my family's knowledge of my knight errant. There was fomething of an air of romance in the affair that pleafed me beyond measure; I was impatient for

the wished for evening, and acted with a fatal circumfpection according to the plan he had formed; but, how fhall I tell you, fir? he contrived fo bafely to abufe my confidence, that I was conveyed to a fashionable bagnio before I had the fmallett fufpicion of his treachery, and there detained (tho' all the time unaffronted) under various pretences, until it was impoffible to go home without either fhame, or a full confeffion of all my duplicity; at last, ready to die with apprehenfions, and hoping against all probability, I entered at noon day the house of my father.

Aftonishment, parental folicitude, and difpleafure agitated my father and mother by turns; but at length the last was predominant. The tale I told was vague and unfatisfactory, and to complete my misfortune, a whisper reached them that my lord and I had been obferved in clofe converfation the whole preceding evening. Shocked, petrified at the formidable brows I encountered, though the child of indifcretion, I was fuch a novice at deceiving, that I fell at their feet and made an ample confeffion of every circumftance. Words, fir, are too weak to give you an idea of the ftorm that burit upon my head; I was pronounced the most profligate of the profligate; and driven with ignominy from the roof where till that moment I had found an unceafing thelter both for my perfon and my follies, into a wide, an unpitying world, wholly deftitute of friends, nay wholly deftitute of fubfiftence. My lover, indeed, or more properly the author of my misfortunes, foon prevailed upon me to communi cate the conflict I had encountered, and with an appearance of honour, difinterefteducfs and compaffion, which I hall never forget, offered to fupply to me every lofs I had fuftained. What could I do? I knew not where to hide my head; befides to be alarmed without a caufe, was to teach him an evil leffon against myself; he therefore foon engaged a place for my reception, where I was accommodated to my utmot fatisfaction for feveral days: this calm was however only the prelude to a new tempeft; he dared to tell me, that I had authorized him to take the groffeft liberties by throwing myfelf into his arms; and fneeringly asked

me

Obfervations concerning the Alteration of the Perpetual Tide-Table mentioned in our laft.

T

HE year 1769 having intervened between the time of the invention of the table and its being finished, and new year's day of the week that year being upon a Sunday, and the year being the first after leap year, it was most proper to begin the new year's day circle upon that year; confequently Mr. Lyle not only began the new year's day circle, but all the reft of the circles on the year 1769. Confidering however that in the year 1752 the style was altered, and that therefore it is the exacteft date for bringing all others to the new ftyle, the author, after the rules were fent to the printer, inferted in a proof of the engraver all the numbers beginning upon new year's day at twelve o'clock in the morning on the year 1753, confequently the table, where the numbers have relation to years, begins on the year 1753 instead of 1769. Obferve that none of the author's examples to the rules that extend beyond 130 years of 1753 are reduced to the new style, except the first, viz. new-year's day of the week, as this may be an exercise to to the learner. A day, and confequently a day's motion, is therefore always to be added, or omitted, every 130, from the beginning of the table. Mr. Lyle's rule to find the intereft of money, inferted at the end of the example, may be very use

ful.

D. LYLE.

To the AUTHOR of the LONDON MAGAZINE.

SIR,

THE

HE prefent age is an age of fcriblers. I am not, therefore, furprifed, when I fce the mechanic feated in the chair of the critic; or the petty tradelman rolling in the extafies of imagination on the fopha of the poet.

A friend of mine put into my hands, very lately, a thing called a poem; the production of one who feems originally to have followed the refpectable occupation of an husbandman, but which he has now relinquifhed (in my opinion not very wifely) for the joint profeffions of poet and paper

ftainer.

As a paper-ftainer, indeed, he might, for ought I know, have met with tolerable fuccefs, had not his materials been of fo extraordinary a

nature.

The paper which he stains, is it feems envenomed. But in what manner the poisonous qualities were communicated he does not fay. I fea however, that this circumftance will be but a poor recommendation of his manufacture. As a poet, he appears to be still more unfortunate. He h parted with the folid pudding, and fear it will be fome time before he re ceives the empty praise, in return.

His poem is entitled HONESTY But in this inftance, Mr. Mitchel (for that is the author's name) feem to have had his eye on the celebrated chapter of boots; for there is not a word of honesty in all the poem. L the opening of this curious work we are told that the world is turned upfidi down. This is his firft propofition. And how do you imagine, fir, that fo furprifing a revolution has been brought about?-Why, fools, he fays, would fain be politicians; and quacks, coblers, and dunces, are endeavouring to get the management of state-affairs into their own hands. When their schemes fhall have taken place, what department, think you, will our author fill?

The parfon falls next under his confideration. A fling at the parfen, you know is always well received.

I am much afraid, fays he, "in this

degen rate age

"That parfons con but rare the
fcripture page.

"The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
tongues, which crown
"A learn'd divine, are out of

fashion grown. Inftead of thefe unfashionable studies, what employment does the priest purfue? According to Mr. Mitchell, he fpends his time in fwearing at his diocefan, and in cheating good old la dies at the card table. With the help of thefe accomplishments, and the additional embellishment of a decent pair of shoes, the priest makes a shift to fteal through life with fome applaufè.

Now for the lawyer :- The lawyer, fays he, is a rogue. A brazen, inveigling, cozening, wriggling know, who loves to fleece a good fat chen,

And