This cumbrous load of things. On, quicker on, And rid me of the bus'ness of the Term. Then in reward for all thy service past (Tho' gratitude be held a crime) thy plume With gold shall blazon. Safe in silver case Shalt thou recline, from vulgar ken remote, Nor ever visit more the sons of care, Unless to win respect, and be admir'd." The conduct of both sexes, when mixed in what are generally termed parties, can only be known by the person who actually views it. How then am I (who had not received the breath of life in 1758) to draw a faithful picture of the manners of that period? There is but one way, quotation from contemporary moralists. The Craftsman says, "A Frenchman has no more idea of a party of pleasure without ladies, than an Englishman can entertain the least conception of enjoying himself until they retreat. From those opposite dispositions it arises, that the first introduces himself with a becoming unconcern into company, and master of that _bienseance_ which distinguishes the gentleman, and performs all offices of life without the least embarrassment; whereas nothing is more common among us, than to find gentlemen of family and fortune, who know nothing of the fair sex but what they have collected from the most abandoned part of it, and can scarce reckon a virtuous family within the scope of their whole acquaintance. It is not unpleasant to observe one of this class, when chance or necessity has brought him in a room with ladies of reputation. An awkward restraint hangs about him, and he is almost afraid to speak, lest he should inadvertently bolt out something, which, though extremely suitable to the dialect of Covent-garden, would be grossly offensive to those females who had not received their rudiments of education in that seminary. The gloom that hangs over an English company while the ladies remain, and the reciprocal restraint that each sex seems to be upon the other, has been frequently a subject of ludicrous observation to foreigners; and, indeed, the fair-ones themselves, _though natives, and to the manner born_, frequently express astonishment, what mysteries the men can have to celebrate, so opposite to those of the _bona dea_, that no female must be present at the ceremony.