THE

MIRROR.

No 1. SATURDAY, January 23, 1779.

Quis novus hic hofpes? VIRG.

WHEN a ftranger is introduced into

a numerous company, he is scarcely

feated before every body present begins to form fome notion of his character. The gay, the sprightly, and the inconfiderate, judge of him by the cut of his coat, the fashion of his periwig, and the ease or aukwardness of his bow. The cautious citizen, and the proud countrygentleman, value him according to the opinion they chance to adopt, the one, of the extent of his rent-roll, the other, of the length of his pedigree; and all eftimate his merit, in proportion as he seems to poffefs, or to want, thofe qualities for which themfelves wish to be admired. If, in the courfe of converfation, they chance to discover, that he is in use to make VOL. I.

B

onc

one in the polite circles of the metropolis; that he is familiar with the great, and fometimes clofeted with the minifter; whatever contempt or indifference they may at first have shown, or felt themselves difpofed to fhow, they at once give up their own judgment; every one pays a compliment to his own fagacity, by affuming the merit of having discovered that this ftranger had the air of a man of fashion; and all vie in their attention and civility, in hopes of establishing a more intimate acquaint

ance.

An anonymous periodical writer, when he first gives his works to the public, is pretty much in the fituation of the ftranger. If he endeavour to amufe the young, and the lively, by the fprightlinefs of his wit, or the fallies of his imagination, the grave and the fedate throw afide his works as trifling and contemptible. The reader of romance and fentiment finds no pleafure but in fome eventful story, fuited to his taste and difpofition; while,' with him who aims at inftruction in politics, religion, or morality, nothing is relifhed that has not a relation to the object he purfues. But, no fooner is the public informed, that this unknown author has already figured in

the

the world as a poet, hiftorian, or effayist; that his writings are read and admired by the Shaftefburies, the Addifons, and the Chefterfields of the age, than beauties are discovered in every line ; he is extolled as a man of univerfal talents, who can laugh with the merry, and be serious with the grave; who, at one time, can animate his reader with the glowing fentiments of virtue and compaffion, and at another, carry him through the calm difquifitions of science and philofophy.

Nor is the world to be blamed for this general mode of judging. Before an individual can form an opinion for himfelf, he is under a neceffity of reading with attention, of examining whether the ftyle and manner of the author be fuited to his fubject, if his thoughts and images be natural, his obfervations juft, his arguments conclufive; and though all this may be done with moderate talents, and without any extraordinary fhare of what is commonly called learning; yet it is a much more compendicus method, and faves much time, and labour, and reflection, to follow the crowd, and to re-echo the opinions of the critics.

There is, however, one fubject, on which every man thinks himself qualified to decide, namely, the reprefentation of his own character, of the characters of thofe around him, and of the age in which he lives; and as I propose, in the following papers, "to hold, as it were, "the MIRROR up to Nature, to fhow Virtue "her own features, Vice her own image, and "the very age and body of the Time his form "and preffure," my readers will judge for themselves, independent of names and authority, whether the picture be a juft one. This is a field, which, however extenfively and judiciously cultivated by my predeceffors, may ftill produce fomething new. The follies, the fafhions, and the vices of mankind, are in conftant fluctuation; and these, in their turn, bring to light new virtues, or modifications of virtues, which formerly lay hid in the human foul, for want of opportunities to exert them. Time alone can fhow whether I be qualified for the task I have undertaken. No man, without a trial, can judge of his ability to please the public; and prudence forbids him to truft the applaufes of partial friendship.

It may be proper, however, without meaning to anticipate the opinion of the reader, to give him fome of the outlines of my past life and education.

I am the only son of a gentleman of moderate fortune. My parents died when I was an infant, leaving me under the guardianship of an eminent counfellor, who came annually to vifit an eftate he had in the neighbourhood of my father's, and of the clergyman of the parish, both of them men of diftinguished probity and honour. They took particular care of my education, intending me for one of the learned profeffions. At the age of twenty I had completed my ftudies, and was preparing to enter upon the theatre of the world, when the death of a diftant relation in the metropolis left me poffeffed of a handfome fortune. I foon after fet out on the tour of Europe; and, having paffed five years in vifiting the different courts on the continent, and examining the manners, with, at leaft, as much attention as the pictures and buildings of the kingdoms. through which I paffed, I returned to my native country; where a misfortune of the tendereft kind threw me, for fome time, into retirement.