s;--and it does not seldom happen, as Your Grace very
well knows, that a Modern Man of Fashion serves his Company both as
their _Host_ and their _Buffoon_. I cannot therefore, in justice, be
considered as guilty of any impropriety in addressing this work to Your
Grace, as it relates to a Personage, who has heretofore possessed, as it
were, a domestic union with the Great, by furnishing, from among her
Children, the _chief Wits_ of their noble Houses.

Tho' it has changed its appearance, the connection has not ceased to
subsist; and FOLLY, though she extends her influence over all ranks and
professions, still seems more particularly attached to the higher Orders
of Life.

FOLLY loves the Toilette of a Woman of Fashion!--It is her Altar.--The
enormity of its expences,--the frivolousness, to say no worse, of its
conversation,--and the time which is lost in attending its duties, are
so many offerings to her honour. The love of display is inherent in her
nature:--every place of public amusement is, more or less, her
delight;--but an _Opera_ is her favourite entertainment.--There, she not
only presides, but triumphs.--There, Sense, Taste, and Reason, lie
beneath her Feet.

As she is now become your intimate companion, I will not mortify Your
Grace with the history of her origin, and an account of her genealogy,
which I am sure would greatly distress you. Believe me, Madam, I should
be sorry to give you a moment's mortification. My sincere desire is to
do you good, by warning you of the danger which awaits such a
disgraceful connection.

At your time of life it is not wholly unnatural that you should find
something pleasant in the frolic gaiety of your Friend; and the
Flatterers, who are alike under her influence, may find something
graceful in the manners which she might communicate to you: but in the
Mirror of Wisdom, the highest beauties of FOLLY appear but as foul
deformities; and she is there seen in her natural appearance, attended
by Vice, Contempt, and Misery.

_The Prosperity of Fools_, says the Wise Man, _shall destroy them_. The
influence of FOLLY is more dangerous, as the station it possesses is
more exalted; and as the means of doing good are more enlarged among the
Rich and Great, that time is the more to be lamented which they consume
in frivolous pursuits and empty pleasures.

Without intruding upon your recollection the more awful obligations
attendant upon your station in the world, you will forgive me