tion; and the disguise each is under,. not only gives power fafely to drive on the bargain, but too often tempts to carry it into execution too.

This finning under difguife, I own, feems to carry fome appearance of a fecret homage to virtue and decorum, and might be acknowledged as fuch, was it not the only public inftance the world feems to give of it. In other cafes, a juft fenfe of fhame seems a matter of fo little concern, that instead of any regularity of behaviour, you fee thousands who are tired with the very form of it, and who at length have even thrown the mask of it afide, as a ufelefs piece of incumbrance.This I believe will need no evidence, it is too evidently

Teen in the open liberties taken every day, in defiance (not to say of religion) but of decency and common good manners;-fo that it is no uncommon thing to behold vices, which heretofore were committed only in dark corners, now openly fhew their face in broad day, and oft times with fuch an air of triumph, as if the party thought he was doing himself honour,—or that he thought the deluding an unhappy creature, and the keeping her in a ftate of guilt, was as neceffary a piece of grandeur as the keeping an equipage,and did him as much credit as any other appendage of his fortune.

If we pass on from the vices to the indecorums of the age (which is

a fofter name for vices) you will fcarce fee any thing, in what is called higher life, but what befpeaks a general relaxation of all order and dif., cipline, in which our opinions as well as manners feem to be fet loofe from all restraints ;-and, in truth, from all ferious reflections too: and one may venture to fay, that, gaming and extravagance, to the utter. ruin of the greatest estates,-minds diffipated with diverfions, and heads. giddy with a perpetual rotation of them, are the most general characters to be met with; and though one would expect, that at least the more folemn feafons of the year, fet apart for the contemplation of Chrift's fufferings, fhould give fome check and VOL. V. C

interruption to them, yet what appearance is there ever amongst us, that it is fo;-what one alteration does it make in the courfe of things? Is not the doctrine of mortification infulted by the fame luxury of entertainments at our tables;is not the fame order of diverfions perpetually returning, and scarce any thing elfe thought of?-does not the fame levity in drefs, as well as difcourfe, fhew itself in perfons of all ages? F fay of all ages, for it is no fmall aggravation of the corruption of our morals, that age, which by its authority was once able to frown youth into fobriety and better manners, and keep them within bounds, feems

but too often to lead the way,

way,-and

by their unfeasonable example give a countenance to follies and weakness, which youth is but too apt to run into without fuch a recommendation.

-Surely age,-which is but one remove from death, fhould have nothing about it, but what looks like a decent preparation for it.In purer times it was the cafe, but now,grey hairs themselves scarce ever appear, but in the high mode and Banting garb of youth, with heads as full of pleafure, and clothes as ridiculou@y, and as much in the fashion, as the person who wears them is ufually grown out of it:-upon which article give me leave to make a fhort reflection; which is this, that whenever the eldest equal the youngest,