"Quis fcit, quin felis hæc (proh facinus !)
"Si putat, putat quòd fum afinus."
Sed quid mehercule cenferet,
Thrafonem noftrum fi videret,
(Nam fic fe nofter appellavit,
In martem fiquis provocavit)
Sed fic qui putant, putant malè,
Nam nofter erat nihil tale.
Quid, fi ingenio fuit lautus,
De ufu fuit perquam cautus.
Perrarò quidem fecum ferat,
Nam metuit, ne forfan terat,
Sic multi pictas induunt vestes,
Nonnifi in diebus feftis.

The CHOICE DIVERS at the Cyder-Cellar in MaidenLane are defired to tranflate the following lines for the bene◄ fit of the WIDOW."

SU

EPIGRAM MA.

Urripui teneræ ludens duo bafia * nymphæ :
Non impune tuli; me mihi furripuit.
Nec lufiffe piget, fed talem incidere ludum ;
Plus lufiffe juvat, quàm periiffe piget.

* Mifs GUMMING.

END of the ninth number.

WIT and BEAUTY. An ALLEGORY. Humbly addrefs'd to the LADIES of Great Britain.

An allegory fhould be like a veil over a beautiful face, fo fine and transparent as to fhew the very charms it covers.

I

POPE.

N that infancy of the world, which the poets have ftyled the golden age; when every meadow wore a perpetual verdure, and honey dropped from every oak; when the language of each fwain was conftancy and love, and the eyes of his fhepherdefs fpoke nothing but compliance; when, like the trees under which they fat, the blossoms of benevolence budded in all their looks, and at the fame time the fruits of it ripened in all their actions; the Gods themselves would often condefcend

Z z

condescend to vifit the earth, and hare with mankind that happiness which they gave them. APOLLO then would have thought it no punishment to tend the herds of ADMETUS, nor would VULCAN, tho' banifh'd from heaven, have regretted any thing but his lamenefs. One evening, as the former of these deities was wandering thro' Cyprus, he met by chance with the Goddess of the place; when, the season and the country inspiring him with love, he eloquently urged his amorous fuit. She, being under no engagements to the latter, heard him not undelighted; and, as fhe was utterly unacquainted with the artful coyness and reluctant delays of the moderns,

to a myrtle bower

He led her nothing loth.

MILTON.

The fruits of this interview were two girls; the eldest of whom, inheriting the vivacity, fprightlinefs and fenfe of APOLLO, was called WIT. When the youngest grew up, the resemblance fhe bore to VENUS was fo ftriking, that it was difficult to distinguish them; and her bloom was so fresh, her complexion fo clear, and all her features fo completely regular, that in a full affembly of the Gods it was unanimously agreed to call her BEAUTY. After what has been said, it may be needless to add, that WIT was the father's favourite, and BEAUTY the mother's. WIT by her ready jokes and innocent pleasantry would frequently extort a smile from JUPITER himself; not but that she would sometimes carelessly play with her father's arrows, to the no fmall hazard of wounding herself and those that were near her. This joined to a mischievous difpofition, made her narrowly watched by her parents, and VENUS was often obliged to confine her to her own dreffing room; which however was no great punishment to her, as fhe there enjoyed the company of BEAUTY, these fifters being no less twins by inclination than by birth: for it was observed that BEAUTY was always moft agreeable

and

and fhone to greatest advantage, when WIT was by; and WIT herself found her pleasantry much more relished, when it was uttered in the prefence of BEAUTY. The latter (as we hinted before) was always in waiting at her mothers toilet, as none of her attendants were so skill'd in the fashions, or knew fo well what head-drefs fuited her beft, or where a patch would be moft becoming. WIT, on the contrary, was fo entirely ignorant of all these effentials, as fometimes to appear in a gown of her great-grandmother CYBELE'S; was in fhort a very sloven, and had fo little regard to the female minutia or delicacies of drefs, that VENUS used often to tell her, NATURE had mistaken her sex.

Thus BEAUTY and WIT led for many years a life of tranquillity and happiness among the God's; not but that fometimes the charms of a mortal would induce them to visit the earth. But at laft BEAUTY grew fo vain and conceited of her own charms, as openly to jeer at the other Goddesses, and once proceeded fo far as to call DIANA a homely prude. WIT too was fo flippant with her tongue, as to tranfgrefs the bounds which PALLAS (who had taken a fort of fancy to the girl) had often prescribed her; nor was fhe a fcrupulous ob ferver of truth, being prevailed on by a female friend called SLANDER, to infinuate to JUPITER an unlikely ftory of a blind GRECIAN (in reality a gallant of her own) who, she told him, was intimate with all the MUSES. Many other complaints of this kind being daily made, he at length banifhed them both from Olympus.

Being fentenced to dwell for ever on the earth, long they wandered about, uncertain where they should fettle. At laft, thro' some misunderstanding, the fifters parted. WIT lived for some time very happily in Greece, till the fruitfulness of the foil and mildness of the climate invited her over to Italy. There too fhe dwelt, ftill pleased and pleafing, 'till the irruption of the Goths and the defire of feeing her fifter obliged her to remove. After travelling long in fearch of Beauty, Z z 2

The

fhe arrived at an ISLAND IN THE NORTH, where, agree, ably to her wishes, at length fhe found her. She found her indeed, but in a fituation fhe by no means approved of, furrounded by a crowd of admirers; and being taken with a fplendid outfide, of all the addreffes fhe feemed moft to encourage thofe of a glittering coxcomb, called WEALTH. In fpite of her fifter's remonftrances, fhe married him.

tho' they were as unhappy as WIT had foreseen they would be, yet, as they had a numerous progeny, fhe consented to undertake the care of the fons, while BEAUTY had an eye to the education of the daughters. But fhe, being defirous of marrying them to fome fons that WEALTH had by his former wife VANITY, attended only to their dress, their fhape, and their air, and withal grew fo fond of them that they would certainly have been spoil'd, if she had not prevailed on her fifter to undertake their management too. She, leaving to BEAUTY their outward accomplishments, applied herself to the improvement of their minds; to BEAUTY they owed their natural endowments, to WIT their acquired ones; to the former they were indebted for the fymmetry of their features, to the latter (affifted by PALLAS) for the delicacy of their taftes. And even in their old age, when their mother had entirely abandoned them, WIT ftill continued to render them amiable by the help of her handmaid, GOODHUMOUR, who smoothed every wrinkle, diffused over their faces a youthful bloom, and made them beloved, even in the decline of life, for sweetness of temper and affability of man ners, enlivened with eafy chearfulness and innocent mirth.

GRANTICOLĄ.

LETTER.