FEMA'LE CONVERSATION. 199 
tend to exalt and cultivate the focial affedtions ; and the more 
thefe are improved, the more delightful life will be; not only 
from the mere pleafure of fociety, but as it leads us to make 
deeper difcoveries of ourfelves, and to adore the great maker 
who endowed us with fuch capacities.. 
Men are not angels, nor women neither, tho’ we are both, 
nearly related to thefe meflengers of heaven when we do not 
debafe ourfelves. We complain of the inftability of life, and of 
the imperfe&ion of all things ; but it is from the frame and 
habit of the mind, that obje&s derive their pleafing or difplea- 
Eng appearances ; and the truer light we fee things in, the 
more we fhall admire them, if we are contented to be what 
god has made us, and make reason, and our natural love of 
virtue, the umpires. 
We may do ourfelves juftice by oblerving, that our company 
was not vociferoufly merry : extravagant mirth is sad mirth ; 
it is mirth run mad, it waftes the fpirits, and diflipates thole 
powers from whence the beauty of fentiments arife. “ The 
“ furnace proveth the potter’s veflel ; fo the trial of a man is 
“ in his reasoning.” Not that it is effential our ideas fhould 
flow extremely brifk ; but good stnse is neceflary, and fo is, 
good-humor, but much depends on habit of mind and experience 
of the world, and particularly on the degree of efteem which 
thofe, who affociate, have for each other. The turn of mind,, 
which we emphatically call good-nature, and the delire of 
pleasing, with very lively people, is apt to degenerate into 
wit : and how dangerous a weapon is wit' in moil hands ! 
Flow 
