Prayers, but short ones; yet they have their Efficacy, in that they are not pauled with insuing idle Cogitations.  Lastly, her Dreames are so chaste, that shee dare tell them; onely a Fridaies Dreame is all her Superstition; that she conceales for feare of Anger.  Thus lives shee, and all her Care is shee may die in the Spring-Time, to have Store of Flowers stucke upon her winding Sheet.

What makes me wonder that no English Writer has ever attempted a profess’d Performance in the Characteristic-Way is, that we are, certainly, more able to undertake a Work of this Nature than any other Nation; because our Countrymen afford a greater Variety of Subject Matter than any other People.—­Human Nature, as I observ’d before, in its various Forms and Affections, is the Subject of Characteristic-Writings:  And from this Diversity of Manners arises that, which is properly call’d Humour, and which, upon a double Account, seems to be peculiar to our Nation; not only because there is no Word in any other Language so expressive, but also because there is no Nation, in which we can find a greater Variety of original Humour, than amongst the English.  Sir William Temple, speaking of the Dramatic Performances of the Stage, expresses himself after the following Manner.—­[Z]

  [Z:  Essay on Poetry, p. 355, _&c_.]

In this the Italian, the Spanish, and the French, have all had their different Merit, and receiv’d their just Applauses.  Yet I am deceiv’d, if our English has not in some Kind excell’d both the Modern and the Antient; which has been by Force of a Vein, natural perhaps to our Country, and which with us is call’d Humour, a Word peculiar to our Language too, and hard to be express’d in any other; nor is it (that I know of) found in any Foreign Writers, unless it be Moliere, and yet his it self has too much of the Farce, to pass for the same with ours. Shakespear was the first that opened this Vein upon our Stage, which has run so freely and so pleasantly ever since, that I have often wonder’d to find it appear so little upon any others; being a Subject so proper for them, since Humour is but a Picture of particular Life, as Comedy is of general; and tho’ it represents Dispositions and Customs less common, yet they are not less natural than those that are more frequent among Men.

Humour is the only genuine Source of all that agreeable Variety of original Characters, which is so entertaining to a Spectator and Reader:  And Sir William Temple proceeds to observe, that in this Point the Moderns in general, and the English in particular, have far excell’d the Antients.  This Observation is very just, however partial it may seem to a Foreigner, and the Reason of it is very obvious.  I shall represent ’em both in Sir William’s own Words.  The Passage is somewhat long, but the Goodness of it will amply pay the Reader for his Trouble in perusing it.