I have often wonder’d that no _English_ Writer has ever professedly attempted a Performance in the Characteristic-Way. I mean, such a profess’d Performance, as wou’d extend it self to the different Conditions of Men, and describe the various Ends which they propose to themselves in Life; as wou’d take in the chief Branches of Morality and Behaviour, and, in some Measure, make a compleat Work: For as to loose Attempts and Sketches in this Kind, there are many Years since we had some; the most considerable of which, I mean of those that bear the Title of Characters, are printed together with Sir _Thomas Overbury_’s Wife. These are said to have been written, partly by that unfortunate Knight, and partly by some of his Friends. And if the Editor had not taken Care to give us this Notice, yet still that great Disparity which appears but too visibly in them, wou’d manifestly prove that they were compos’d by very different Hands.--There are, I confess, many good Things to be met with in these Characters, but they are very far from making a compleat Work: And really this was not intended. Besides, nothing can possibly be more contrary to the Nature of _Characteristic-Writings_, than the corrupted Taste which prevail’d in the Age. A continued Affectation of far-fetch’d and quaint Simile’s, which runs thro’ almost all these Characters, makes ’em appear like so many Pieces of mere Grotesque; and the Reader must not expect to find Persons describ’d as they really are, but rather according to what they are thought to be like. This Censure may be thought hard; but yet it leaves Room for some Exceptions: And that I may do Justice to Merit, where it is really due, I shall here set down one of those Characters, which seem’d to me to be exquisite in its Kind. And this I shall the rather do, because the Book it self is not in every body’s Hands. The Image is taken from low Life; ’tis a beautiful Description of Nature in its greatest Simplicity, and ’tis the more beautiful because ’tis natural. A fayre and happy MILKE MAID.