perception of a more refined and extenfive nature ver to him as inconceivable, as to us those are which will one day be adapted to perceive thofe things which ee bath not feen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. And it would be just as rafonable in him to conclude, that the lofs of those three fenfes could not poffibly be fucceeded by any new inlets of perception; as in a modern free-thinker to imagine there can be no ftate of life and preception without the fenfes he enjoys as prefent. Let us farther fuppofe the fame perfon's eyes, at their first opening, to be ftruck with a great variety of the most gay and pleafing objects, and his ears with a melodious concert of vocal and inftrumental mufic. Be-holding him amazed, ravifhed, tranfported; and you have fome diftant representation, fome faint and glimmering idea of the ecstatic ftate of the foul in that article in which the emerges from this fepulchre of flesh into life and immortality.

GUARDIAN, Vol. I. No. 27.

GAMING.

SIR,

As

Sfoon as you have fet up your Unicorn, there is no question but the ladies will make him pufh very furiously at the men; for which reafon I think it is good to be before-hand with them, and make the lion roar aloud at female irregularities. Among thefe, I wonder how their gaming has fo long efcaped your notice. You who converfe with the fober family of the Lizards, are perhaps a ftranger to thefe viragoes; but what would you fay, fhould you fee the Sparkler fhaking her elbow for a whole night together, and thumping the table with a dice-box? Or how would you like to hear the good widow-lady herfelf returning to her houfe at midnight, and alarming the whole ftreet with a moft enormous rap, after having fat up till that time at crimp or ombre? Sir, I am the hufband of one of thofe female gamefters, and a great lo VOL. II...

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fer by it both in my reft and my pocket. As my wife reads your papers, one upon this fubject might be of ufe both to her, and Your humble Servant."

I fhould ill deferve the name of Guardian, did I not caution all my fair wards against a practice which, when it runs to excefs, is the most fhameful, but one, that the female world can fall into. The ill confequences of it are more than can be contained in this paper. However, that I may proceed in method, I fhall confider them, firft, as they relate to the mind. Secondly, as they relate to the body.

Could we look into the mind of a female gamester, we should fee it full of nothing but trumps and ́mattadores. Her flumbers are haunted with kings, queens, and knaves. The day lies heavy upon her till playfeafon returns, when for half a dozen hours together, all her faculties are employed in fhuffling, cutting, dealing, and forting out a pack of cards, and no ideas to be difcovered in a foul which calls itself rational, excepting little fquare figures of painted and fpotted paper. Was the understanding, that divine part in our compofition, given for fuch a ufe? Is it thus that we improve the greatest talent human nature is endowed with? What would a fuperior being think, were he fhewn this intellectual faculty in a female gamefter, and at the fame time told that it was by this fhe was diftinguifhed from brutes, and allied to angels?

When our women thus fill their imagination with pipes and counters, I cannot wonder at the story I have lately heard of a new born child that was marked with the five of clubs.

Their paffions fuffer no lefs by this practice than their understandings and imaginations. What hope and fear, joy and anger, forrow and difcontent break out all at once in a fair affembly upon fo noble an occafion as that of turning up a card? Who can confider without a fecret indignation that all thofe affec tions of the mind which fhould be confecrated to their children, hufbands and parents, are thus vilely profti

tuted and thrown away upon a hand at loo? For my own part, I cannot but be grieved when I fee a fine woman fretting and bleeding inwardly from fuch trivial motives: When I behold the face of an angel agitated and difcompofed by the heat of a fury.

Our minds are of fuch a make that they naturally give themfelves up to every diverfion which they are much accustomed to, and we always find that play, when followed with affiduity, engroffes the whole woman. She quickly grows uneafy in her own family, takes but little pleasure in all the domestic innocent endearments of life, and grows more fond of pam than of her husband. My friend Theophraftus, the best of hufbands and of fathers, has often complained to me, with tears in his eyes, of the late hours he is forced to keep if he would enjoy his wife's converfation. When the returns to me with joy in her face, it does not arife, fays he, from the fight of her, husband, but from the good ick the had at cards. On the contrary, fays he, if he has been a lofer, I am doubly a fufferer by it. She comes home out of humour, is angry with every body, difpleased with all I can do or fay, and in reality for no other reafon but because he has been throwing away my eftate. What charming bed-fellows and companions for life are men likely to meet with, who chufe their wives out of fuch women of vogue and fashion? What a race of worthies, what patriots, what heroes must we expect from mothers of this make?

I come in the next place to confider the ill confequences which gaming has on the bodies of our fe- · male adventurers. It is fo ordered that almost every thing which corrupts the foul decays the body. The beauties of the face and mind are generally deftroyed by the fame means. This confideration fhould have a particular weight with the female world, who were defigned to pleafe the eye and attract the regards of the other half of the fpecies. Now there is nothing that wears out a fine face like the vigils of the cardtable, and thofe cutting paffions which naturally attend them. Hollow eyes, haggard locks, and pale

complexions, are the natural indications of a female gamefter. Her morning fleeps are not able to repair her midnight watchings. I have known a woman carried off half dead from baffette, and have been many a time grieved to fee a perfon of quality gliding by me in her chair at two o'clock in the morning, and looking like a spectre amidft a glare of flambeaux: In fhort, I never knew a thorough-paced female gamefter hold her beauty two winters together.

But there is ftill another cafe in which the body is more endangered than in the former. All play debts must be paid in fpecié, or by an equivalent. The man who plays beyond his income pawns his eftate; the woman muft find out fomething elfe to mortgage when her pin-money is gone: The husband has his lands to difpofe of, the wife her perfon. Now when the female body is once dipp'd, if the creditor be very importunate, I leave my reader to confider the confe quences. GUARDIAN, Vol. II. No. 120.

GENTLEMAN.

A Gentleman has writ to me out of the country a

very civil letter, and faid things which I fupprefs with great violence to my vanity. There are many terms in my narratives which he complains want explaining; and has therefore defired, that for the benefit of my country readers, I would let him know what I mean by a gentleman, a pretty fellow, a toast, a coquette, a critic, a wit, and all other appellations of thofe now in the gayer world, who are in poffeffion of thefe characters; together with an account of thofe who unfortunately pretend to them. I fhall begin with him we ufually call a gentleman, or a man of converfation.

It is generally thought that warmth of imagination, quick relish of pleasure, and a manner of becoming it, are the moft effential qualities for forming this fort of man. But any one who is much in company, obferve, that the height of good breeding is fhewn rather in never giving offence, than in doing obliging

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things. Thus he who never fhocks you, though he is feldom entertaining, is more likely to keep your favour, than he who often entertains, and fometimes difpleafes you. The most neceflary talent therefore in a man of converfation, which is what we ordinarily intend by a fine gentleman, is a good judgment. He who has this in perfection, is matter of his companion, without letting him fee it; and has the fame advantages over men of any other qualifications what foever, as one who can fee would have over a blind man of ten times his ftrength.

This is what makes Sophronius the darling of all who converfe with him, and the most powerful with his acquaintance of any man in town. By the light of this faculty he acts with great eafe, and freedom among the men of pleafure, and acquits himself with fkill and difpatch among the men of bufinefs. All which he performs with fuch fuccefs, that, with as much difcretion in life as any man ever had, he neither is, nor appears cunning. But if he does a good office, as he ever does it with readiness and alacrity, so he denies what he does not care to engage in, with a manner that convinces you, that you ought not to have asked it. His judgment is fo good and unerring, and accompa nied with fo cheerful a fpirit, that his converfation is a continual feast, at which he helps fome, and is helped by others, in fuch a manner, that the equality of fociety is perfectly kept up, and every man obliges as much as he is obliged: For it is the greatest and justeft kill in a man of fuperior understanding, to know how to be on a level with his companions. This fweet difpofition runs through all the actions of Sophronius, and makes his company defired by women, without being envied by men. Sophronius would be as juft as he is, if there were no law, and would be as difcreet as he is, if there was no fuch thing as calumny. In imitation of this agreeable being, is made that animal we call a pretty fellow; who being juft able to find out, that what makes Sophronius acceptable, is a natural behaviour, in order to the fame reputation, makes his own an artificial one. Jack Dimple is his

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