The fullest and most systematic of these social delineations is found in
the sketch of _The Club_ and _Sir Roger de Coverley_. The creation of
character is excellent. Each member, individual and distinct, is also the
type of a class.
THE CLUB.--There is Will Honeycomb, the old beau, "a gentleman who,
according to his years, should be in the decline of his life, but having
ever been careful of his person, and always had an easy fortune, time has
made but very little impression, either by wrinkles on his forehead or
traces on his brain." He knew from what French woman this manner of
curling the hair came, who invented hoops, and whose vanity to show her
foot brought in short dresses. He is a woman-killer, sceptical about
marriage; and at length he gives the fair sex ample satisfaction for his
cruelty and egotism by marrying, unknown to his friends, a farmer's
daughter, whose face and virtues are her only fortune.
Captain Sentry, the nephew of Sir Roger, is, it may be supposed, the
essayist's ideal of what an English officer should be--a courageous
soldier and a modest gentleman.
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