OCR
upon FOLLY. 3% Publick Affairs, if they were not as bad or worfe in the Management of their Ordinary and Domeftick Concerns; but alas, here the are much to feck : For place a formal Wile Man at a Feaſt, and he ſhall, either by his morofe Silence put the whole Table out of Humour, or by his frivolous Queftions difoblige and tire out all that fit near him. Call him out to Dance, and he ſhall move no more nimbly than a Camel : Invite himto any Publick Performance, and by his very Looks he fhall damp the Mirth of all the Speëtators, and at laft be forced, like Cato, to leave the Theatre, becaufe he cannot unftarch his Gravity, nor put on a more pleaſant Countenancé. If he be engaged in any Difcourfe, he either breaks off abruptly, or tires out the Patience of the whole Company if he goes on : If he have any Contraét, Sale, or Purchafe to make, or any other Worldly Bufinefs to tranfa@, he behaves himfelf more like a Senfelefs Stock than a Rational Man; fo as he can be of no Ufe nor Advantage to himfelf, to his Friends, or to his Country, becaufe he knows nothing how the World goes, and is wholly unacquainted with the Humour of the Vulgar, who cannot but hate a Perfon fo difagreeing in Temper from themfelves. A wp indeed the whole Proceedings of the World are nothing but one continued Scene of Folly, all the Aétors being equally Fools and Mad-men ; and therefore if any be fo Pragmatically Wife as to be Singular, he muft e’en turn a Second 777207, or Man-hater, and by retiring