nce, while the trader kept his eye upon his
uncle. My nephew Will had a thousand secret resolutions to break in upon
the discourse of his younger brother, who gave my fair companion a full
account of the fashion, and what was reckoned most becoming to this
complexion, and what sort of habit appeared best upon the other shape.
He proceeded to acquaint her, who of quality was well or sick within
the bills of mortality, and named very familiarly all his lady's
acquaintance, not forgetting her very words when he spoke of their
characters. Besides all this he had a load of flattery; and upon her
inquiring what sort of woman Lady Lovely was in her person, "Really,
madam," says the jackanapes, "she is exactly of your height and shape;
but as you are fair, she is a brown woman." There was no enduring that
this fop should outshine us all at this unmerciful rate; therefore I
thought fit to talk to my young scholar concerning his studies; and,
because I would throw his learning into present service, I desired him
to repeat to me the translation he had made of some tender verses in
Theocritus. He did so, with an air of elegance peculiar to the college
to which I sent him. I made some exceptions to the turn of the phrases;
which he defended with much modesty, as believing in that place the
matter was rather to consult the softness of a swain's passion than the
strength of his expressions. It soon appeared that Will had outstripped
his brother in the opinion of our young lady. A little poetry, to one
who is bred a scholar, has the same effect that a good carriage of his
person has on one who is to live in courts. The favour of women is so
natural a passion, that I envied both the boys their success in the
approbation of my guest; and I thought the only person invulnerable was
my young trader. During the whole meal, I could observe in the children
a mutual contempt and scorn of each other, arising from their different
way of life and education, and took that occasion to advertise them of
such growing distastes, which might mislead them in their future life,
and disappoint their friends, as well as themselves, of the advantages
which might be expected from the diversity of their professions and
interests.

The prejudices which are growing up between these brothers from
the different ways of education are what create the most fatal
misunderstandings in life. But all distinctions of disparagement, merely
from our circumstances, are such