but encourage; who find my Ardour increase in Proportion to the Obstacles I am to encounter; shall tell you in plain English, and in perfect Composure, that I am rivalled in Miss Hartley's Affections. Perhaps now you think me rather too Easy after such a Discovery. I fancy however, you will not be of that Opinion, when I let you a little into the Character of my Opponent, and the Means by which I became acquainted with the Affair. His Name is Pedant; his

Profession a College Tutor, his Age I guess at about Thirty, for I remember him well at the University about three Years longer standing than myself. He is one of that particular Species of Beings who at School gain the Imputation of something uncommonly clever, from a Kind of solitary Vanity and Affectation of Manliness which they have about them; who never join in any of the Sports of their Schoolfellows, but instead of playing at Cricket or Football on an Holiday, pretend to read Greek under a Tree for their Amusement, (in Imitation of the old Pagans I suppose in the hallowed Groves of Academe;) and are for ever puzzling their Leisure Hours with Authors that they are not required to look

into, and cannot possibly understand. With this Stock of Knowledge they are sent to the University, where they probably get a Scholarship, or some little Emolument of that Sort. Their Mind is now bewildered in all the Labyrinths of Science; and having in the Course of about seven Years sufficiently perplexed themselves with Mathematics, sophisticated themselves with Logic, and got through all the Farce and methodized Nonsense necessary for taking Degrees, the Generals, Juraments, Wall Lectures, and Examinations: they start up all at once, Masters of Arts, Tutors and Governors of their College; a Set of the most erudite, insolent, awkward, uncivilized Animals that ever honoured an University,

or disgraced all other Parts of a Kingdom. In Regard to the History of the Day, or how the World goes, as we say; their Ignorance of present Occurrences is equalled by nothing but their thorough Acquaintance with the Statesmen, Warriours, and Demireps of Antiquity. They are all a thousand Years behind Hand; and I dare say would give a much better Account of the Bellum Peloponnesiacum, the Pestilence that raged among the Athenians, or the Burning of Rome by Nero the Emperor, than they could possibly do of the present Contest with America, the dreadful Effects of the late terrible Influenza, or the firing Portsmouth Dock-yard by John the Painter. Strip their Gowns from their

Shoulders, and lock them out of their Library