le in a roar with
flashes of merriment: but wit and humour were not his only excellencies;
he possessed a keenness of satire, that made Folly hide her head in the
highest places, and Vice tremble in the bosoms of the great: but now,
blessed with that affluence which genius and prudence are sure to
acquire in England, the liberal patroness of the fine arts, he now
enjoys that ease his talents {3}have earned, whilst Fame, like an
evening sun, gilds the winter of his life with mild, but cheerful beams.
With respect, but honest ambition, I have undertaken to fill his place,
and hope my attention and zeal to please, will speak in behalf of
conscious inferiority.

A HEAD, to speak in the gardener's style, is a mere _bulbous
excrescence_, growing out from between the shoulders like a wen; it is
supposed to be a mere expletive, just to wear a hat on, to fill up the
hollow of a wig, to take snuff with, or have your hair dressed upon.

Some of these heads are manufactured in _wood_, some in _pasteboard_;
which is a hint to shew there may not only be _block-heads_, but also
_paper-skulls_.

{4}Physicians acquaint us that, upon any fright or alarm, the spirits
fly up into the _head_, and the blood rushes violently back to the
_heart_. Hence it is, politicians compare the human constitution and
the nation's constitution together: they supposing the head to be the
_court_ end of the town, and the heart the _country_; for people in the
country seem to be taking things to heart, and people at court seem to
wish to be at the head of things.

We make a mighty bustle about the twenty-four letters; how many changes
they can ring, and how many volumes they have composed; yet, let us look
upon the many millions of mankind, and see if any two faces are alike.
Nature never designed several faces which we see; it is the odd exercise
they give the muscles belonging to their visages occasions such looks:
as, for example; we meet in the streets with several people talking to
themselves, and seem much pleased with such conversation. [_Here take
them off._] Some people we see staring at every thing, and wondering
with a foolish face of praise, [_make a face here_]; some laughing,
some crying. Now crying and laughing are contrary effects, the least
alteration of features occasions the difference; it is turning _up_ the
muscles to laugh [_do so here_], and _down_ to cry.

{5}Yet laughter is much mistook, no person being capable of laughing,
who