In submitting to my friends the few following remarks, it will be immedately perceived how little capable I am of treating with sufficient rectitude a subject, that is at all times open to the observation of every individual, the errors and good qualities continually in exposure, and at the same time so much spoken of abstractedly, and seldom wrote of at large, yet I have no apology to offer, but on the other hand would wish, that every one who has an Argument to offer, for, or against it, will advance it as free as I do, for as it will be doubtless an elucidation, I shall be proud to see this Essay fall, either a victim of refutation, or the text of better works.

Affectation is a Word that needs no definition, it is a virtue or vice (according as it is used) to which we are all subject either more or less; it is a habit that seems so general among mankind that few if any ever escape it, and perhaps its origin was no later than the Age of our first Parents, it may also be perceived in other members of the Creation, as the artificial Grandeur of the Peacocks plumes, or the well trained speed of the Horse, it is so nearly allied to the vice of pride, and so invariably attendant on it, that it is scarcely possible to be proud without being affected.

It may appear rather paradoxical to assert that what is a Vice can also be Virtue, although I am not the first that ever advanced such an Argument, and although I have the authority of a very renowned writer, I will not pretend to determine, but by comparison and observations will endeavour to place them in such in manner, as to facilitate the decision of all who may be pleased with the practice of the one, or detest the appearance of the other.