More - PR3605 .M6 M5 1820

62 ENGLISH OPINION performers in the scene - chiefly from a woman whose uncontrollable openness prevents her concealing her own vices. We see, not without pain, her exposure of the faults of some of the associates whom she so sedulously courts, and so constantly abuses ; we see the malignity which forces itself through all her en- deavours to appear amiable in the eyes of the distinguished person to whom she writes ; we see the corroding envy, the gnawing jealousy, and sometimes the obvious aversion to the individuals of a society, without which she cannot exist ; which society probably entertained a re- ciprocal hatred of their flatteringhostess, and yet could not exist without her. All this factitious fondness exhibits a scene, from which an unsophisticated English heart turns away, sickening with disgust. This unhappy woman, old, deaf, blind, repining, and impious, yet drew this accomplished society about her by their mutual fondness for conversation. They met without affection, they parted with-

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