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Show The Recruiting Officer. $j Wor. You fee, Sir* how little he values your Daughter's Difdain. Ball. I like htm the better; I was juft fuch another Fellow at his Age : I never fet m y Heart upon any W o m a n fo much as to make m y felf uneafie at the Difappointment; but what was very furprizing both to m y felf, and Friends, I chang'd o'th' fudden, from the moft fickle Lover to the moft conftant Husband in the World. But how goes your Affair with Me-linda t Wor. Very flowly. Cupid had formerly Wings, but I think, in this Age, he goes upon Crutches; or, I fancy Venus had been dallying with her Cripple Vulcan when m y Amour com-menc'd, which has made it go on fo lamely; m y Miftrefs has got a Captain too, but fuch a Captain! As I live, yonder he comes. • Ball. W h o ? that bluff Fellow in the Safh ! I don't know him. Wor. But I engage he knows you, and every body at firft fight; his Impudence were a Prodigy, were not his Ignorance proportionable ; he has the moft univerfal Acquaintance of any M a n living, for he wo'n't be alone, and no body will keep him company twice; then he's a C&far among the W o men, Vera, Vidi, Vici, that's all. If he has but talk'd with the Maid, he fwears he has lain with the Miftrefs; but the moft furprizing part of his Character is his Memory, which is the moft prodigious, and the moft trifling in the World. Ball. 1 have met with fuch Men, and I take this good-for-nothing Memory to proceed from a certain contexture of the Brain, which is purely adapted to Impertinencies, and there tbey lodge fecure, the Owner having no thoughts of his o wn to difturb them. I have known a M a n as perfect as a Chro-nologer, as to the Day and Year of moft important Transactions, but be altogether ignorant in the Caufes, or Confe-quences of any one thing of moment; I have known another acquire fo much by Travel, as to tell you the Names of moft places in Europe, with their diftances of Miles, Leagues or Hours, as punctually as a Poft-Boy; but for any thing elfe, as ignorant as the Horfe that carries the Mail. Wor. This is your Man, Sir, add but the Traveller's Privilege of Lying, and even that he abufes; this is the Picture, behold the Life. Enter Brazen. Braz. Mr. Worthy, I a m your Servant, and fo forth Hark'e, m y Dear. 4 Wor. |