ple, and you immediately hear whether they keep their
coach and six, or eat in plate. Mention the name of an absent lady, and
it is ten to one but you learn something of her gown and petticoat. A
ball is a great help to discourse, and a birthday furnishes conversation
for a twelvemonth after. A furbelow of precious stones, a hat buttoned
with a diamond, a brocade waistcoat or petticoat, are standing topics. In
short, they consider only the drapery of the species, and never cast away
a thought on those ornaments of the mind that make persons illustrious in
themselves and useful to others. When women are thus perpetually
dazzling one another's imaginations, and filling their heads with nothing
but colours, it is no wonder that they are more attentive to the
superficial parts of life than the solid and substantial blessings of it.
A girl who has been trained up in this kind of conversation is in danger
of every embroidered coat that comes in her way. A pair of fringed
gloves may be her ruin. In a word, lace and ribands, silver and gold
galloons, with the like glittering gewgaws, are so many lures to women of
weak minds or low educations, and, when artificially displayed, are able
to fetch down the most airy coquette from the wildest of her flights and
rambles.

True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it
arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and, in the
next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions; it
loves shade and solitude, and naturally haunts groves and fountains,
fields and meadows; in short, it feels everything it wants within itself,
and receives no addition from multitudes of witnesses and spectators. On
the contrary, false happiness loves to be in a crowd, and to draw the
eyes of the world upon her. She does not receive any satisfaction from
the applauses which she gives herself, but from the admiration she raises
in others. She flourishes in courts and palaces, theatres and
assemblies, and has no existence but when she is looked upon.

Aurelia, though a woman of great quality, delights in the privacy of a
country life, and passes away a great part of her time in her own walks
and gardens. Her husband, who is her bosom friend and companion in her
solitudes, has been in love with her ever since he knew her. They both
abound with good sense, consummate virtue, and a mutual esteem; and are a
perpetual entertainment to one anot