Conclusion. for her brother, whilst the Duchess, leaning on the arm of the Marquis's fauteuil à l'Egyptienne, listened with eagerness to the following character. THE REVEREND SIR WM. FEATHERINGTON. "Speak of me as I am nothing extenuate, SHAKESP. THIS IIS paragon of plausibility and meekness, of purity and principle, is the ve. riest hypocrite that walks the earth: he is well-versed in assimilation and dissimulation; and all his apparent qualities of virtue, benevolence, gentleness, and forbearance, are but a cover for his vices. By the female sex he should be held in abhorrence; for he is to them a greater foe than the most bare-faced libertine: neither old nor young women escape his aim, where either passion or interest direct his motive. He possesses such a specious and va Playing at hide-and-seek. ried suavity, and suits, with such a masterly subtlety, his conversation and manners to those persons he wishes to impress in his favour, that there are samples of old maids and widows, wives and virgins, who have been, in a great degree, captivated with his apparent amiability, and who have unanimously declared Sir William Featherington a most mild, gentlemanly, and worthy man. Amongst the male sex he is not so much to be feared as shunned; for there is in his conduct, establishment, and deportment, such an impenetrable mystery, as must ever lead to distrust and suspicion. Sometimes he is seen with a wellappointed equipage, house, and servants, with other convenient appendages: in the space of a few weeks, he is met on an old broken-winded horse, and found in a common lodging in some obscure street; and, in a little time, he is walking on foot, without one seven-shilling-piece to Outlines of a Picture. rub against another running about to get a bill done, or playing at hide-andseek, for fear of being dished-up! Shortly after he is heard of in a shop, asking for letters, directed in a fictitious name, and producing a note of considerable amount in order to discharge a small debt of two pounds. It is equally mysterious by what means he has obtained his preferment; for before he was presented with the living of Bryarsfeldt, he scarce ever visited his parishioners at Wingfield and Derwater, but was a constant resident in the metropolis, where he shone" the gayest of the gay!" sporting it, alternately, with that titled demirep, Lady Backswarden, or joining the easy parties of ci-devant mistresses; paying his court to the principled old, and his addresses to the unsuspecting young; endeavouring, by a shew of generous sympathy, to seduce the unfortunate wife; indulging irregular and promiscuous inclinations, and treating with harsh and The Portrait continued. cruel indignity the unfortunate who held the distinguished place of his private or household mistress. Such are the outlines of the picture! and vera city may pledge herself of its being a faithful representation. We could wish, for the honour of human nature, that the portrait were exaggerated, for certainly there seems not a little of the demon in the present sketch; but this is an unprejudiced, and we are sorry to add, a moderate statement: to descend to some particulars would bring Sir William low indeed! yet, to withhold all, is to suffer the just and amiable to be deluded by a specious exterior-they who are unwil ling, from their own purity of mind, to admit the possibility, that a character like Sir William Featherington's can be in existence. Rank and fortune, the protectors of exalted relatives, happily exclude those who |