and one of those shocking sort of truths, which as they
can scarcely be pardoned even in private, ought never to be uttered in
public, he does not laugh because he is pleased, but because he wishes
to conceal how much he is hurt. As the sarcasm was uttered by a lady, so
far from seeming to resent it, he will be the first to commend it; but
notwithstanding that, he will remember it as a trait of malice, when the
whole company shall have forgotten it as a stroke of wit. Women are so
far from being privileged by their sex to say unhandsome or cruel
things, that it is this very circumstance which renders them more
intolerable. When the arrow is lodged in the heart, it is no relief to
him who is wounded to reflect, that the hand which shot it was a fair
one.

MANY women, when they have a favourite point to gain, or an earnest wish
to bring any one over to their opinion, often use a very disingenuous
method: they will state a case ambiguously, and then avail themselves of
it, in whatever manner shall best answer their purpose; leaving your
mind in a state of indecision as to their real meaning, while they
triumph in the perplexity they have given you by the unfair conclusions
they draw, from premises equivocally stated. They will also frequently
argue from exceptions instead of rules, and are astonished when you are
not willing to be contented with a prejudice, instead of a reason.

IN a sensible company of both sexes, where women are not restrained by
any other reserve than what their natural modesty imposes; and where the
intimacy of all parties authorises the utmost freedom of communication;
should any one inquire what were the general sentiments on some
particular subject, it will, I believe, commonly happen, that the
ladies, whose imaginations have kept pace with the narration, have
anticipated its end, and are ready to deliver their sentiments on it as
soon as it is finished. While some of the male hearers, whose minds were
busied in settling the propriety, comparing the circumstances, and
examining the consistencies of what was said, are obliged to pause and
discriminate, before they think of answering. Nothing is so
embarrassing as a variety of matter, and the conversation of women is
often more perspicuous, because it is less laboured.

A MAN of deep reflection, if he does not keep up an intimate commerce
with the world, will be sometimes so entangled in the intricacies of
intense thought, that he will have the app