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ATTENTION.

A man is fit for neither business nor pleasure, who either cannot, or does not, command and direct his attention to the present object, and in some degree banish, for that time, all other objects from his thoughts. If at a ball, a supper, or a party of pleasure, a man were to be solving in his own mind a problem in Euclid, he would be a very bad companion, and make a poor figure in that company; or if, in studying a problem in his closet, he

appears sick of the conversation and amusements of the present company.

And, certainly, let a man be ever so much inclined to gaping, yet, if he is intent upon any agreeable amusement, or engaged in any serious meditation, he easily gets rid of this propensity: but he who is idle and disengaged from all business, this habit is extremely apt to creep upon him. Hence it comes to pass, that if any one person happens to gape in company, who have nothing else to engage their attention, all the rest usually follow. his example; as if he had put them in mind of doing what, if they had thought of it, they otherwise intended to have done. Now, as in the Latin and other languages a yawning fellow is synonymous or equivalent to a negligent and sluggish fellow, this idle custom ought certainly to be avoided; being (as was observed) disagreeable to the sight, offensive to the ear, and contrary also to that natural claim which every one has to respect. For when we indulge ourselves in this listless behaviour, we not only intimate that the company we are in does not greatly please us, but also make a discovery not very advantageous to ourselves; I mean, that we are of a drowsy, lethargic disposition; which must render us by no means amiable or pleasing to those with whom we have converse-Galateo.

were to think of a minuet, I am apt to believe that he would make a very poor mathematician.

There is time enough for every thing in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once: but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.

This steady and undissipated attention to one object is a sure mark of a superior genius; as hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind.

Indeed, without attention, nothing is to be done : want of attention, which is really want of thought, is either folly or madness. You should not only have attention to every thing, but a quickness of attention, so as to observe at once all the people in the room, their motions, their looks, and their words; and yet without staring at them, and seeming to be an observer. This quick and unobserved observation is of infinite advantage in life, and is to be acquired with care; and, on the contrary, what is called absence, which is a thoughtlessness and want of attention about what is doing, makes a man so like either a fool or madman, that, for my part, I see no real difference. A fool never has thought; a madman has lost it; and an absent man is, for the time, without it.

In short, the most material knowledge of all, I mean the knowledge of the world, is never to be acquired without great attention; aud I know many old people, who, though they have lived long in the world, are but children still as to the knowledge of it, from their levity and inattention. Certain forms, which ali people comply with, and certain arts, which all people aim at, hide in some degree the truth, and give a general exterior resemblance to

almost every body. Attention and sagacity must see through that veil, and discover the natural cha

racter.

Add to this, there are little attentions which are infinitely engaging, and which sensibly affect that degree of pride and self-love which is inseparable from human nature; as they are unquestionable proofs of the regard and consideration which we have for the persons to whom we pay them. As for example: Suppose you invited any body to dine or sup with you, you ought to recollect if you had observed that they had any favourite dish, and take care to provide it for them: and when it came, you should say, 'You seemed to me, at such and such a place, to give this dish a preference, and therefore I ordered it. This is the wine that I observed you liked, and therefore I procured some.'— Again; Most people have their weaknesses: they have their aversions or their likings to such or such things. If we were to laugh at a man for his aversion to a cat or cheese (which are common antipathies,) or by inattention or negligence to let them come in his way, where we could prevent it, he would, in the first case, think himself insulted, and, in the second, slighted; and would remember both. But, on the other hand, our care to procure for him what he likes, and to remove from him what he dislikes, shows him that he is at least an object of our attention, flatters his vanity, and perhaps makes him more your friend than a more important service would have done. The more trifling these things are, the more they prove your attention for the person, and are consequently the more engaging. Consult your own breast, and recollect how these little attentions, when shown you by others, fi

that degree of self-love and vanity, from which no man living is free. Reflect how they incline and attract you to that person, and how you are propitiated afterward to all which that person says or The same causes will have the same effect in your favour.

does.

AWKWARDNESS OF DIFFERENT KINDS.

Many very worthy and sensible people have certain odd tricks, ill habits, and awkwardness in their behaviour, which excite a disgust to and dislike of

*A gentleman ought not to run or walk in too great a hurry along the streets; for it is beneath the dignity of a person of any rank, and more becoming a running footman or a post-boy; besides that, in running, a man appears fatigued, perspires freely, and puffs and blows; all which are misbecoming a man of any consequence.

Nor yet ought our pace to be so very slow and tortoiselike, nor so stately and affected, like that of some lady of quality or a bride.

To stagger, likewise, or to totter about as we walk, and to stretch ourselves out, as it were, with monstrous strides, is foolish and ridiculous.

Neither ought your hands to hang dangling down; nor yet your arms to be projected or tossed backwards and forwards, like a ploughman that is sowing his corn.

Neither should you stare a man in the face whom you meet, with your eyes fixed upon him, as if you saw something to wonder at in his appearance.

There are some people, likewise, who walk like a timorous or blind horse, lifting up their leg so high, as if they were drawing them out of a bushel; and some who stamp their feet with great violence against the ground, and with a noise hardly exceeded by the rumbling of a wagon. One man throws his feet out obliquely, as if he were kicking at you; this man knocks one knee against er, or, perhaps, stoops down at every step to pull

their persons, that cannot be removed or overcome by any other valuable endowment or merit which they may possess.

Now, awkwardness can proceed but from two causes: either from not having kept good company, or from not having attended to it.

up his stockings. There are some who, by an indecent motion of their rumps, have an unequal kind of gait like the waddling of a duck; all which things, though not of much consequence, yet, being somewhat awkward and ungenteel, usually displease.

There are others who have a habit of distending their jaws every moment, twisting in their eyes, inflating their cheeks, puffing, blowing, and many other inelegant ways of disfiguring their faces; from which, if they at all studied what was becoming, they would entirely abstain. For Pallas herself, as the poets feign, used sometimes te amuse herself with playing upon the pipe, in which she was arrived at no common degree of excellence: but as she was one day very intent upon her amusement, she strolled to a fountain, where, surveying herself in the liquid mirror, and observing the strange and monstrous appearance of her countenance, she blushed, and immediately threw away her pipe; nor indeed without very good reason; for these kind of wind-instruments are not fit for a lady, nor indeed for a gentleman, but for the lower sort of people; who, through necessity, are obliged to practise it as a profession.

What is here said of this inelegant distortion of the face, is applicable to every other part of the human body. It is ungenteel to be continually thrusting out your tongue, or stroking up your beard, as many do; to smack your fingere or rub your hands; 'to elaborate a sigh' with a peculiarly doleful sound (like people in a fever,) which many people are guilty of; or to affect a sudden shivering over your whole body; or to bawl out when you are gaping, like a country-fellow that has been sleeping i hay-loft-Galateo.

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