juster expression of one of the most delightful, wise, virtuous, accomplished, and superior, of created beings. The eulogists, who do not use this phrase, so much more balmy to selflove than the other, run the risk of calling forth the jealous feelings of all whom they address, and expose their idol to the risk of being instantly assailed. I have always considered. such encomiasts as wholly deficient in that knowledge of the human heart, which is so necessary to keep our own hearts free from sin, and to prevent us from laying snares for the hearts of others. Such extravagant encomiasts appear to me the nursing mothers of

DETRACTORS.

I shall now recapitulate what has been said in the present chapter.

I have stated that detraction is of two kinds, spoken and acted; that though all scandal is detraction, detraction is not always scandal, that scandal or defamation can not be as common as detraction, because the law in some measure defends reputation: that when education becomes so general, that women may venture to talk of books, and things of general utility, without the fear of being called blue stockings, the tone of conversation will be necessarily raised, and detracting discourses abolished.

That evil speaking has injurious effects on the utterer and the hearer, as well as the subject of it, and wherefore.

That the only means by which to secure un

alterable regard towards our friends, is never to talk of their failings.

That nothing is so likely to provoke detracting observations, as exaggerated eulogy.

That some persons indulge in extravagant praises of those whom they secretly envy, in order to enjoy the detraction which they are well aware their praises will excite.

That such is the obliquity of some individuals, they never praise but with a view to mortify the person whom they address, particularly when they know their auditor to be in rivalship with the person so eulogized.

Lastly, that extravagant eulogists are the nursing mothers of detractors.

H 2

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF DETRACTORS.

I SHALL now proceed to enumerate the different classes of detractors.

Detractors may be divided under the following heads:

Gossips.

Talkers-over.

Laughers-at.

Banterers.

Nicknamers.

Stingers.

Scorners.

Sneerers.

Eye-inflictors.

Mimicks.

Caricaturists.
Epigrammatists.

Gossips are first on my list, and I begin with them the more willingly, because I believe that all my readers will think of gossips when I first mention detractors.

Still there are worse detractors. than professed gossips, though there are none more incorrigible.

Gossips are not always malevolent, but they

are always idle, and it is their idleness that makes them gossips.

Gossips are usually those who have nothing to do, or who can or will do nothing. They know there are twenty-four hours in the day to get aid of, not to improve; for of mental improvement the thorough-bred gossip never thinks. How then can gossips get rid of that burden, called time? How are they "to kill the enemy?" (to use a common phrase. The enemy indeed, though they see him not as he really is, for time is hurrying them on unconsciously but surely, with all their sins of omission on their heads, to an awful eternity.

It is so, but what does that signify, to the gossip, so as the day be but gotten through? The gossip may pass the early hours of it in bed, and in sleep, and not only awful eternity but troublesome time itself be forgotten in morning slumbers. But even gossips must get up at last, and then what is before them? A vacuum, which must be filled up, with what? not with reading; the true gossip can not read. I doubt whether a thorough-bred one ever read a book entirely through, for gossips let their minds down so completely by gossiping habits, that like ground, left long uncultivated, they become incapable of cultivation, and barren they remain; bearing no vegetation of their own, but stuck full of news, reports, scandal, and the lies of the day, which they have gathered from others, and with which they decorate their conversation, when on their round of calls. A male gossip, who used

frequently to visit at my house in London, said to me in a pompous tone of voice, and with a contemptuous sneer, when I asked him if he had read such and such books, " Books! no I never read books, I only read men;" and perhaps other gossips would reply in the same manner. I shall here observe, that male gossips are full as numerous as female ones; all men as well as all women, who have empty minds, must be gossips: if they do not fill their minds, by the exertions of their eyes, with wholesome and necessary knowledge, they must feed them, by means of their ears, or life would stagnate, with unwholesome and unnecessary knowledge, the knowledge of tittle-tattle, and other people's affairs. And at a certain hour they commonly sally forth on their daily round, either to the coffee-room, or the clubroom, to a certain walk in a certain street, or on a certain road, or to make a certain succession of calls. But male gossips alone can frequent the clubs or coffee-room, the females are confined to morning visits, or shopping and the promenade: Let me not be supposed to confound gossip-calls with morning visits of friendship and kind inquiry; they are usually acceptable, and commonly well received. But gossips by profession do not call to amuse others, but to get rid of themselves. In short, gossips are time-killers, and unhappily for those whom they frequent, they can not commit the murder alone, they must have accomplices; nor does the guilt always stop there. Common chit-chat concerning dress, and mar