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is passing off and that which is coming forward, make this comparison calmly and frankly-and pronounce upon the characters of the two. The question is not which is the most showy-but which is the most solid :—which of them excels in the virtues of sincerity-integrity-disinterested generosity-and public spirit. The question is not which of them can make the best pun or turn the most melodious period; but which of them will talk the most sense, and give you the soundest opinion. The question is not which of them can best string together a set of pretty -words-which of them can declaim with the finest cadence, and promptest volubility-nor which of them can most dexterously launch into the heart of an adversary, an Indian arrow with a poisoned head ;-but, it is, which of them displays the most of that frankness and benevolence that draws near to your bosom and your affections-and raises your own virtues by the touch of sympathy; which of them is the most successful in unsealing the sources of confidence and harmless pleasure in your breast-which of them puts you most at your ease by the plainness and nature of his manners—which of them mingles the most happily innocent amusement with sound and practical sense-the useful, with the agreeable.

Look from the tinkling symbals of the present day to such a character as Dr. Franklin! Never have I known such a fireside companion as he was !-Great as he was, both as a statesman and a philosopher, he never shone in a light more winning than when he was seen in a domestic circle. It was once my good fortune to pass two or three weeks with him-at the house of a private gentleman in the back part of Pennsylvania; and we were confined to the house during the whole of that time by the unintermitting constancy and depth of snows. But confinement could never be felt where Dr. Franklin was an inmate. His cheerfulness and his colloquial powers spread

around him a perpetual spring. When I speak however of his colloquial powers, I do not mean to awaken any notion analogous to that which Boswell has given us, when he so frequently mentions the colloquial powers of Dr. Johnson. The conversation of the latter continually reminds one of "the pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war." It was, indeed, a perpetual contest for victory or an arbitrary and despotic exaction of homage to his superior talents. It was strong-acute-prompt— splendid and vociferous :—as loud, stormy and sublime, as those winds which he represents as shaking the Hebrides, and rocking the old castles that frowned upon the dark rolling sea beneath. But one gets tired of storms, however sublime they may be; and longs for the more orderly current of nature.-Of Franklin no one ever became tired. There was no ambition of eloquence, no effort to shine in any thing which came from him. There was nothing which made any demand either upon your allegiance or your admiration.

It was

His manner was as unaffected as infancy. nature's self. He talked like an old patriarch; and his plainness and simplicity put you, at once, at your ease, and gave you the full and free possession and use of all your faculties.

Whether in the company of commons or nobles, he was always the same plain man; always most perfectly at his ease, his faculties in full play, and the vast orbit of his genius, forever clear and unclouded. And then the stores of his mind were inexhaustible. He had commenced life with an attention so vigilant, that nothing escaped his observation, and a judgment so solid, that every incident was turned to advantage. His youth had not been wasted in idleness, nor overcast by intemperance. He had been all his life a close and deep reader, as well as thinker ; and by the force of his own powers had wrought up the

raw materials which he had gathered from books, with such exquisite skill and felicity, that had added an hundred fold to their original value, and justly made them his

own.

Such is the man whom I would hold up to our youth as a model of colloquial excellence. And to all young men, whose taste has not been depraved by the vicious examples of the age, the appeal may be successfully made. Such will always prefer the strong and sterling worth of that intellect, whose constant propensity and aim it was, to turn the mind "from sound to sense; from fancy to the heart."

LESSON XIII.

Modern Affectation.

IN these days of modern refinement and illumination, we have become a set of artificial and made-up characters; compounded of affectations and imitations-borrowing an ogle from one-and a step from another-an atti tude from a third-a gesture from a fourth-a mimicking pronunciation from a fifth—a favourite phrase from a sixth

-a tone and modulation of voice from a seventh, &c. &c. and are thus the poor creatures of borrowed shreds and patches. The artless simplicity and innocence is gone! Every thing now is preconcert and design. Our killing attitudes have all the guilt of premeditation.

Our looks

of delight, and even of distress, are studied. Our airs of state exhibit the strutting ostentation of a German baron, stiff with gold, and haughtiness, instead of the enchanting ease and grace of genuine dignity. Our vivacity is all precipitation and unthinking flutter; instead of that

native gaiety of heart which charms so much when sporting in its natural gait and escorted by the mind. Our wit is continually under the spur, and seeks and even forces the occasion, instead of waiting for and rising naturally out of it. We are perpetually striving to feel what we do not, and to seem to be what we are not. With this view we practice ten thousand anticks and grimaces of look and gesture, by which we mutually disgust while we are trying to cheat each other. Why has Musidora, whether she is holding a circle of beaux in chat or warbling to her piano, so much of that tortuous and excessively graceful action of the head, arms and body? One censorious by-stander will whisper, that it is all necessary to keep her awake, or at least from relapsing into her constitutional torpor and lethargy; another will say, that it is to give the enkindling idea of irrepressible animation and overflowing ecstacy. In truth, Musidora is unpardonable for putting this force upon herself: I can, indeed, forgive her excessive desire to please; for notwithstanding that there is something of a selfish scheme of conquest in the case, there is at least, an implied compliment to the gentlemen, which is obliging: but she does herself great injustice in supposing it necessary to her views to strain her spirits to an unusual or unnatural pitch.-Were she to obey only the impulse of nature, her sensibility would display itself in a much more touching manner by the trembling tones of her voice, the alternate rose and lilly on her cheek, the smile and tear in her eye, and those gentle movements of the figure which her heart would prompt, and which no one would mistake. Without effort, Musidora has life and feeling enough to warm even the winter of age. Under all the disadvantages of an affected manner, she is still a sweet girl; and were she under the guidance of nature only, she would be irresistible.

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Look now at the smiling animation of Sir Fopling Flutter: Look at the sparkling lustre of his fine dark eyes, and then their languishing roll and “ dying, dying fall!" How distressing it is to the retiring modesty of his disposition, to be forced to take so conspicuous a stand, where the eyes of all the belles and all the assembly are, of necessity, cast upon him every twenty minutes! How gracefully negligent his attitudes and the management of his gold headed ratan! See again, with what quick and electric vivacity he looks towards the music, and what a sudden gleam of silly rapture overspreads his fine face !-To be sure there was nothing in that particular passage to excite such a feeling in truth, it was rather flat than otherwise; and even if it had been ever so fine, Sir Fopling has no more ear than a satyr. But we are supposed not to know all this; and his hope is that we shall give him credit for his Æolian nerves, and all the taste as well as the grace and beauty of Apollo.

How do those ridiculous and odious affectations defeat their own purpose, and offend and disgust, instead of pleasing us! Men and women of sense despise them. They know that a natural manner is, in society, what naiveté* is in literary composition-That it gives the finest scope for superior parts; exhibits them to the very best advantage, and commands the respect while it conciliates the love of the beholder.

Let us return to the walks of pure and simple nature. That benignant divinity which will give us a fair and stable basis on which we may safely erect the grandest moral and literary structures. Under her tutelage no virtuous and intelligent character ever yet failed to pleaseand that, not for a day nor a year, like the transient empire of affectation and trick :-But for Life.

Simplicity of expression.

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