| Citation |
AWM.737.003
6-13 Jan 1737:11, 12 (889)
From a late Magazine.
An Odd Kind of Vanity exposed.
There is a set of persons, who have been good for
something formerly, tho' they are of no manner of use at
present. I know a person, who was an excellent
mathematician formerly, and now does not so much as know
what a line, or an angle is. There is a very ingenious
musician of my acquaintance, who could play all Correlli at
sight formerly, that can't distinguish a jig from one of
Handell's airs. One can hardly go into any mixed company,
but one will find the one half composed of this kind of
creature: mention any science, any art, any game, and they
understood it perfectly well formerly; . . .
[essay continues in this vein for another column, and then:]
I have known one, who, at present, is little better than
an aetheist, who was an excellent divine formerly, merely
because it was mentioned in his company: Half an hour
after, in another company, he was as great an atheist
formerly, as he had been a divine before, and for the same
reason. Teraminta, the other day, told Lady Tattle, she
sung excellently well formerly, but could never abide
dancing. At Lady Gad's, (the next visit she paid) she
danced formerly, as well as she had sung at Lady Tattle's
before; and hated singing, as much as the minute before she
had dancing.
A person that goes into company with a previous knowledge
of this odd species of present blanks, may make himself
extreamly merry. . . [6 lines] I can reckon in the small
circle of my Coffee-house acquaintances, ten Quandam
Raphaels, as many Phidias's, five Archimedes's, three
Homers, and two Amphions, who have unhappily outlived their
respective knowledge, and, at present, know nothing. either
of painting, sculpture, geometry, poetry, or musick.
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