attle which passed between her
and persons of distinction, who, through the abundance of their
idleness, thought proper to trifle an hour with her.

Her virtue seems now to have been in a declining state; at least, her
behaviour was such, that a man, must have extraordinary faith, who can
think her innocent. She has told us, in the second volume of her
Memoirs, that she received from a noble person a present of fifty
pounds. This, she says, was the ordeal, or fiery trial; youth, beauty,
nobility of birth, attacking at once the most desolate person in the
world. However, we find her soon after this thrown into great distress,
and making various applications to persons of distinction for
subscriptions to her poems. Such as favoured her by subscribing, she has
repaid with most lavish encomiums, and those that withheld that proof of
their bounty, she has sacrificed to her resentment, by exhibiting them
in the most hideous light her imagination could form.

From the general account of her characters, this observation results,
That such as she has stigmatized for want of charity, ought rather to be
censured for want of decency. There might be many reasons, why a person
benevolent in his nature, might yet refuse to subscribe to her; but, in
general, such as refused, did it (as she says) in a rude manner, and she
was more piqued at their deficiency in complaisance to her, than their
want of generosity. Complaisance is easily shewn; it may be done without
expence; it often procures admirers, and can never make an enemy. On the
other hand, benevolence itself, accompanied with a bad grace, may lay us
under obligations, but can never command our affection. It is said of
King Charles I. that he bestowed his bounty with so bad a grace, that he
disobliged more by giving, than his son by refusing; and we have heard
of a gentleman of great parts, who went to Newgate with a greater
satisfaction, as the judge who committed him accompanied the sentence
with an apology and a compliment, than he received from his releasment
by another, who, in extending the King's mercy to him, allayed the Royal
clemency by severe invectives against the gentleman's conduct.

We must avoid entering into a detail of the many addresses,
disappointments and encouragements, which she met with in her attendance
upon the great: her characters are naturally, sometimes justly, and
often strikingly, exhibited. The incidents of her life while she
remained in London w