lantry and Gaity is to be seen. Let us not flatter our selves with our judgment: a brisk buffoonry will run it down; and the false glittering of a youthful fancy, will turn to ridicule, the most delicate of our Conversations. If we have wit, let us make a better use of it in private Companies; for in a croud the qualities of the mind maintain themselves but ill, against the advantages of the body.
This justice which we are oblig'd to do our selves, ought not to make us unjust to the young men. We ought not superciliously to cry up our own times, or with moroseness perpetually run down the present, which is favourable to them. Let us not rail at Pleasures when we are past them, or censure Diversions, whose only crime is our incapacity to enjoy them.
Our Judgments ought to be always the same. We may live, but must not judge by humour. There is in mine something singular, which makes me attend more the trouble, than the pomp of Magnificence. Shows, Feasts, and great Assemblies, invite me to the sight of them: but the inconveniencies I must suffer deter me. The elegant Harmony of Consorts, engages not me so much, as the difficulty of adjusting them tires me. Plenty disgusts me at meals; and Rarities seem to be an affected curiosity. My fancy cannot recommend any thing to my palate by the scarcity. But I am for the choice of things easily to be had, that I may preserve a Delicacy independent upon Fancy.
