should try to keep up conversation like a ball bandied to and fro from
one to the other, rather than seize it all to ourselves, and drive it
before us like a football. We should likewise be cautious to adapt the
matter of our discourse to our company, and not talk Greek before
ladies, or of the last new furbelow to a meeting of country justices.

But nothing throws a more ridiculous air over our whole conversation
than certain peculiarities easily acquired, but very difficultly
conquered and discarded. In order to display these absurdities in a
truer light, it is my present purpose to enumerate such of them as are
most commonly to be met with; and first to take notice of those buffons
in society, the Attitudinarians and Face-makers. These accompany every
word with a peculiar grimace or gesture; they assent with a shrug, and
contradict with a twisting of the neck; are angry by a wry mouth, and
pleased in a caper or minuet step. They may be considered as speaking
harlequins; and their rules of eloquence are taken from the
posture-master. These should be condemned to converse only in dumb show
with their own persons in the looking-glass, as well as the Smirkers and
Smilers, who so prettily set off their faces, together with their words,
by a _je-ne-sais-quoi_ between a grin and a dimple. With these we may
likewise rank the affected tribe of mimics, who are constantly taking
off the peculiar tone of voice or gesture of their acquaintance, tho
they are such wretched imitators, that (like bad painters) they are
frequently forced to write the name under the picture before we can
discover any likeness.

Next to these whose elocution is absorbed in action, and who converse
chiefly with their arms and legs, we may consider the Profest Speakers.
And first, the Emphatical, who squeeze, and press, and ram down every
syllable with excessive vehemence and energy. These orators are