feeing Mr. Hume's pofthumous works introduced in it. A fhort fquat man, with a carbuncled face, maintained, that it was defigned to propagate Methodism; and faid, he believed it to be the production of a disciple of Mr. John Wesley. A gentleman in a gold chain differed from both; and told us he had been informed, from very good authority, that the paper was intended for political purposes.

A fmart-looking young man, in green, faid, he was fure it would be very fatirical his companion, in fcarlet, was equally certain that it would be very stupid. But with this laft prediction I was not much offended, when I dif covered that its author had not read the First Number, but only enquired of Mr. Creech where it was published.

A plump round figure, near the fire, who had just put on his fpectacles to examine the paper, clofed the debate, by obferving, with a grave afpect, that as the author was anonymous, it was proper to be very cautious in talking of the performance. After glancing over the pages,. he faid, he could have wifhed they had fet apart a corner for intelligence from America; but, having taken off his fpectacles, wiped, and put them into their cafe, he faid, with a tone of discovery, he had found out the reafon. B 6

why

why there was nothing of that fort in the MIRROR; it was in order to fave the tax upon newspapers.

Upon getting home to my lodgings, and reflecting on what I had heard, I was for fome time in doubt, whether I fhould not put an end to these questions at once, by openly publishing my name and intentions to the world. But I am prevented from discovering the first by a certain bashfulness, of which even my travels have not been able to cure me; from de claring the laft, by being really unable to declare them. The complexion of my paper will depend on a thoufand circumftances which it is impoffible to forefee. Befides these little changes, to which every one is liable from external circumstances, I must fairly acknow ledge, that my mind is naturally much more various than my fituation. The difpofition of the author will not always correspond with the temper of the man in the first character I may fometimes indulge a sportiveness to which I am a ftranger in the latter, and escape from a train of very different thoughts, into the occafional gaiety of the MIRROR.

The general tendency of my lucubrations, however, I have fignified in my First Number,

in allufion to my title: I mean to fhew the world what it is, and will fometimes endea vour to point out what it should be.

Somebody has compared the publisher of a periodical. paper of this kind to the owner of a ftage-coach, who is obliged to run his vehicle with or without paffengers. One might carry on the allufion through various points of fimi larity. I must confefs to my cuftomers, that the road we are to pafs together is not a new one; that it has been travelled again and again, and that too in much better carriages than mine. 1 I would only infinuate, that, though the great objects are ftill the fame,, there are certain little edificès, fome beautiful, fome grotesque, and fome ridiculous, which people, on every fide of the road, are daily building, in the profpect of which we may find some amusement. Their fellow-paffengers will fometimes be perfons of high, and fometimes of low rank, as in other ftage-coaches; like them, too, sometimes grave, fometimes facetious; but that ladies, and men of delicacy, may not be afraid to take places, they may be affured, that no fcurrilous or indecent company will ever be admitted.

N° 3.

TUESDAY, February 2, 1779.

Formam quidem ipfam et faciem honefti vides, quæ, fi oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores excitaret fapientiæ. CIC. DE OFFIC.

HE philofopher, and the mere man of

THE

tafte, differ from each other chiefly in this, that the latter is fatisfied with the pleafure he receives from objects, without inquir ing into the principles or caufes from which that pleasure proceeds; but the philofophical inquirer, not fatisfied with the effect which objects viewed by him produce, endeavours to difcover the reafons why fome of thofe objects give pleafure, and others difguft; why one compofition is agreeable, and another the reverfe. Hence have arifen the various fyftems with regard to the principles of beauty; and hence the rules, which, deduced from thofe principles, have been eftablished by the crític.

In the course of thefe inveftigations, various theories have been invented to explain the different qualities, which, when affembled toge ther, conftitute beauty, and produce that feeling which arifes in the mind from the fight of a beautiful

2.

a beautiful object. Some philofophers have faid, that this feeling arifes from the fight or examination of an object in which there is a proper mixture of uniformity and variety; others. have thought, that, befide uniformity and variety, a number of other qualities enter into the compofition of an object that is termed beautiful.

To engage in an examination of thofe different fyftems, or to give any opinion of my own with regard to them, would involve me in a difcuffion too abftrufe for a paper of this kind. I fhall, however, beg leave to prefent my readers with a quotation from a treatise, intitled, An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue. Speaking of the effect which the beauty of the human figure has upon our minds, the author expreffes him felf in the following words:

"There is a further confideration, which "must not be paffed over, concerning the ex"ternal beauty of perfons, which all allow to "have great power over human minds. Now, "it is fome apprehended morality, fome na"tural or imagined indication of concomitant

By Dr. Hutchefon.

❝ virtue,