200 
FEMALE CONVERSATION, 
How much oftner it didurbs the peace, than promotes the 
harmony of fociety ! Mr. pope fays, 
“ Curs' d be the verfe , haw fmooth fo e'er it flow, 
u Which tends to make one honejl man my foe” 
This perhaps was di&ated by the genius of the poet, rather 
than the true spirit of the man. He was upon fome occa- 
Eons wittily fatyrical perhaps beyond the bounds which huma- 
nity preferibes : I think he lafh’d fometimes more severely 
than usefully ' 3 yet it is plain he adopted it as a principle, to 
abandon his charming mufe, charming when die taught or 
Tooth’d, rather than hurt one honed heart. 
But, madam, tho’ a man has wit, virtue, and good fenfe, 
his friend may grow tired of his company. Will it argue mod 
my want of wit, or underdanding, if I fay, this may happen 
where there are women alfo ? But not fo often under the fame 
circumdances : and the reafon is plain : let proud stoics, or 
ill-natured cynical philofophers, fay what they pleafe, female 
converfation, when it is condu&ed with delicacy, tho ? it fhould 
be with a lefs portion of fenfe, has the greated power to im- 
prove the underdanding, and mod afluredly to mend the man- 
ners, and delight the imagination of men : you will judge 
the belt how the cafe ftands with regard to women. I hope 
you will both be the better for what you have seen, if not for 
what you have heard, at lead: for that part which is now upon 
record. You will believe me, when I fay, that in the courfe 
of my life, I have been more than once sick of a party, in a 
quarter part of eight hours : and that I now pafled my time, 
£ without 
