PRINTED BY AND FOR J. NICHOLS, SON, AND BENTLEY, SOLD ALSO AT THEIR OLD OFFICE IN RED LION PASSAGE, FLEET STREET, LONDON. Selections FROM THE MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF JOHN DUNTON. CHAPTER XI. DUNTON'S JOURNAL, PART II. OR, A PANEGYRICK ON THE MOST EMINENT PER- I SHALL begin the "Second Part of my Journal” with this assurance, that I will praise no person (whether And the first person I intend to characterize is the *This and the Twelfth Chapter are selected from a small and "SIR, Manchester, April 6, 1706. "I thought myself obliged, though at this distance, to make some return for the pleasure which the niceness and curiosity of your Living History has given me in effigy. I would have you begin your History with the Character of a Lady in these parts, commonly called The divine Sabina.' The accomplishments of this lady have sufficiently signalized her, though the bashfulness of her residence has done all that in it lay to shroud her from applause. I am very sensible she is like to suffer, as your most racy and generous liquors do, in the transfusion. She flourishes in her own soil, but will look faint and withering in comparison of the primitive piece. However, I hope it may provoke a hand as celebrated as her own to ravish the pencil from such a Dauber as I am about to shew myself. I confess, too, I were better have initiated my hand with an inferior draught; yet suppose me in the best circumstances, and I am only like to give it you in shade and miniature, and therefore ascribe none of the unfinished strokes to the original. I shall further add, that, if this first Character meets with encouragement, I shall send you the Characters of Dr. Row, Mr. Cunningham, Dr. Lee, &c. and of other eminent persons in Manchester. "But to return to the Character of the divine Sabina.' She is a Lady by birth and fortune, and is not only an ornament to her own illustrious family, but to the age she lives in. She hath wit, not only above most of her sex, but even of that too which pretends so much to it, and values itself so much upon it; to which is joined a judgment very correct and solid-two things seldom found together in the Fair Sex. This is the reason that she never runs into those little extravagances, or commits those witty fooleries, which many of them who possess the first are guilty of for want of the latter (Wit in Women being often a very ungovernable thing); but she bears her advantages with less ostentation and more temper than those of her sex who have any excellency above the rest usually do; which is a virtue by which she is as much distinguished from them, as they are from the ordinary rank of women. She is a very good judge of persons; and as there is nobody more competently qualified to give their opinion of another, so there is none who does it with a more severe exactness, or with less partiality; for she always speaks her mind, and spares nobody; but then (I know not how) she orders it so well, that it may be understood as an obligation; and her severest reproofs have something in them so sweet, so gentle, and so allaying of their own gall, that there is hardly any of the bitter to be found; like pills wrapt up in sweetmeats, you swallow them with a pleasing relish. And as dextrous Executioners perform their office with such a sleight, that it is with little pain, and almost insensible to the sufferers-so she manages her most killing reflections with such admirable art and softness, that the persons concerned are never offended at it; for she does it in terins very ambiguous, like antient Oracles, that inight be interpreted either way; it requires some consideration to find out which it is she intends; and what she designs as a reflection, without a very strict examination, may pass for a panegyrick. She is extremely critical, and likes or dislikes upon great niceties. The last is much more frequent to her than the first, for she seldom finds any body to her mind her friendship, therefore, is obtained with great difficulty, and very easily lost; for, to the keeping of it up, it is necessary one should have all that in the same degree which was the cause of her contracting it; for, upon the first discovery of any failure, her kindness fails too; that is, she cannot pass by the little errors and miscarriages of her Friends. So that it is in her Friendship as it is in Musick, where, if the instruments are not kept up to the same key and pitch, it disturbs the harmony; though, if she always continues to proceed by this rule, she will hardly ever have any very durable friendship, it being difficult for her to make it upon equal terms. She is very scrupulous in all the little and indifferent actions of her life; and a most rigorous observer of that which they call Decency, even to the smallest punctilios; and makes herself a great slave to Custom and Opinion: that is, she will never do any thing till she hath first very well considered with herself what other people may think of it. Her conversation is very agreeable, and she hath complaisance enough, yet loves you should oppose her, |