aial service a burthen, that it will be my utmost pleasure. With Florio how joyfully shall I pursue the same studies, partake of all his pleasures, and share, or rather monopolize, all his griefs! As in my choice of him I am determined by nothing but himself, no outward circumstances, no situa tions, no opinions besides my own, will have any influence on my mind.

But it would be endless to exhibit the various pictures of delight which my imagination has formed on the thought of being his wife. Very justly does an ingenious poet say, that to a reflecting mind,

"On every thorn delightful wisdom grows,
In every rill a sweet instruction flows."

And with such a companion as my Florio, every shrub, every bush, every flower of the field, must all become objects of the highest pleasure. With my principal wish thus fully gratified, what an inexpressible lustre must be thrown on every outward object, while I place my delight in my husband's friendship; esteem his understanding, make his will a law of liberty, and spend my whole life in giving him every moment fresh instances of what, in my opinion, only deserves the name of love!

LETTER LX.-From one Friend to Another, advising him to marry.

Dear Charles,

I AM sorry to hear that you have absolutely declared against matrimony, and for no other reason, as I can learn. but because you are not acquainted with its sweets. Have not both Providence and religion enjoined this sacred union? Would we be now in existence, were it not for it? But without confining ourselves to general reflections, let us see if you could not live more comfortably with a woman, than in the single state you are at present resolved to make choice of; for my part, I must think if you find yourself capable of regulating a family, or living upon good terms with an honest person, and of giving good education to your children, you would find that there is nothing more agreeable than to live with a woman who has made a tender of herself to you, and who is inclined to discharge faithfully all the duties incumbent on that union. If you examine every thing that passes in a family under proper regulations, you will see that a good vi tuous wife shares with her husband in all the pleasure or sor now that may happen-his joy she increases by adding her

own, and his afflictions she alleviates by the part she bears in them. Conjugal affection, when it is sincere, seldom de creases; but, supposing the first transports of love to suffer an abatement, still a virtuous woman is the best friend a man can have. They concert together the measures they judge conformable to what they design to undertake and put in exe cution. They never act but by agreement; their thoughts and sentiments rest on the foundation of mutual confidence, and the good understanding that subsists between them adds unspeakable charms to the union. A husband may leave home and enjoy uninterrupted tranquillity, because he leaves the care of his family concerns to a careful and good housewife. If he have children-how sweet are the effects of his iove, who will be hereafter the support of his old age! Single life in men can nowhere find the consolation and assist ance that are met with in the society of women. Providence nas given this help to man as a sort of help-mate: therefore as the scripture says, "it is not good for man to be alone."

The Romans (as appears in history) expelled from their city those who persisted to live in a state of celibacy, as being useless to the public. There is something unnatural in a man desiring to remain a bachelor all the days of his life! it is contradictory to the laws of reason and nature! I hope, then, my friend will change his opinion of a single life, and lay upon himself the injunction of matrimony, which no doubt will be more agreeable than he has hitherto thought it. He will, I hope, take in good part, the advice I here presume to give, and believe that I am

His sincere friend.

LETTER LXI.—From a Lady, with an extract from the Spectator.

Dear Miss,

WHATEVER that rude, unthinking mortal, said against matrimony last night, (and indeed it was not the only discourse from him that I perceived caused blushes to glow in every modest cheek,) we have this comfort, that the wisest and best men have always held it to be a most excellent and amiable institution: I send you inclosed the sentiments of the Spectator on this head, as I casually hit upon them in turning over those excellent volumes, my usual custom at breakfast und if any thing strike me, my husband, who is one of the most kind and obliging of men, adds to my pleasure, by rending it in a manner, that, if possible, gives new gracca

to the diction. Pray, dear Miss, read them and see how differently men of sense talk, in this respect, from coxcombs and fools.

I am, dear Miss, your affectionate friend.

'I HAVE long entertained an ambition to make the wife the most agreeable and delightful name in nature. If it be not so in itself, all the wiser part of mankind, from the be ginning of the world, has consented in an error; but our anhappiness in England has been, that a few loose men of genius, for pleasure, have turned it all to the gratification of ungoverned desires, in spite of good sense, form, and order; when, in truth, any satisfaction beyond the boundaries of reason, is but a step towards madness and folly. But is the sense of joy, and accomplishment of desire, no way to be indulged or attained? and have we appetites given us, not to be at all gratified? Yes, certainly. Marriage is an institution calculated for a constant scene of as much delight as our being is capable of. Two persons who have chosen each other out of all the species, with a design to be each other's mutual comfort and entertainment, have, in that action, bound themselves to be good-humored, affable, discreet, forgiving, joyful, and patient, with respect to each other's frailties and imperfections, to the end of their lives. The wiser of the two (and it generally happens one of them is such) will, for her or his own sake, keep things from outrage with the ut most sanctity. When this union is thus preserved, the mos indifferent circumstance administers delight. Their conditior. is an endless urce of new gratifications. The married man can say: If I am unacceptable to all the world besides, there is one hom I entirely love, that will receive me with joy and transport, and think herself obliged to double her kindness and caresses of me from the gloom with which she sees me overcast. I need not dissemble the sorrow of my heart to be agreeable there; that every sorrow quickens her affection.

This passion towards each other, when once well fixed enters into the very constitution, and the kindness flows as easily and silently as the blood in the veins. When this affection is enjoyed in the most sublime degree, unskilful eyes see nothing of it but when it is subject to be changed and has an alloy in it that makes it end in distaste, it is apt tc Dreak into rage, or overflow into fondness, before the rest of .he world.

'Uxander and Virimira are amorous and young and nave

been married these two years; yet do they so much distin guish each other in company, that in your conversation with the dear things, you are put to a sort of cross-purposes. Whenever you address yourself in ordinary discourse to Viri. mira, she turns her head another way, and the answer is made to the dear Uxander; if you tell a merry tale, the application is still directed to her dear, and when she should commend you, she says to him, as if he had spoke it, That is, my dear, so pretty. This puts me in mind of what I have somewhere read in the admired memoirs of the famous Cervantes, where while honest Sancho Panza is putting some necessarily hum ble questions concerning Rozinante, his supper, or his lodg ings the knight of the sorrowful countenance is ever improv ing the harmless lowly hints of the Squire to the poetical conceit, rapture, and flight, in contemplation of the dear dulcinea of his affections.

'On the other side, Dictamus and Maria are for ever squabbling, and you may observe them, all the time they are in company, in a state of impatience. As Uxander and Virimira wish you all gone, that they may be at freedom for dalliance; Dictamus and Maria wait your absence, that they may speak their harsh interpretation on each other's words and actions during the time you were with them.

It is certain that the greater part of the evils attending this condition of life, arises fi on fashion. Prejudice in this case is turned the wrong way, nd instead of expecting more happiness than we shall meet w th in it, we are laughed into a prepossession that we shall be greatly disappointed if we hope for lasting satisfaction.

'With all persons who have made good sense the rule of action, marriage is described as the state capable of the highest human felicity.

Spenser speaks of each kind of love with great justice and attributes the highest praise to friendship; and indeed there is no disputing that point, but by making that friend. ship take place between two married persons.

"Hard is the doubt, and difficult to deem,

When all three kinds of love together mee、
And to dispart the heart with power extreme,
Whether shall weight the balance down; to wit,
The dear affection unto kindred sweet,

Or raging fire of love to womankind,

Or zeal of friends, combin'd by virtues meet;

But of them all, the band of virtuous mind,

Methinks the gentle heart should most assured bind,

For natural affection soon doth cease,

And quenched is by Cupid's greatest flame;
But faithful friendship doth them both suppress,

to the diction. Pray, dear Miss, read them and see how differently men of sense talk, in this respect, from coxcombs and fools.

I am, dear Miss, your affectionate friend.

'I HAVE long entertained an ambition to make the wife the most agreeable and delightful name in nature. If it be not so in itself, all the wiser part of mankind, from the beginning of the world, has consented in an error; but our anhappiness in England has been, that a few loose men of genius, for pleasure, have turned it all to the gratification of ungoverned desires, in spite of good sense, form, and order; when, in truth, any satisfaction beyond the boundaries of reason, is but a step towards madness and folly. But is the sense of joy, and accomplishment of desire, no way to be indulged or attained? and have we appetites given us, not to be at all gratified? Yes, certainly. Marriage is an institution calculated for a constant scene of as much delight as our being is capable of. Two persons who have chosen each other out of all the species, with a design to be each other's mutual comfort and entertainment, have, in that action, bound themselves to be good-humored, affable, discreet, forgiving, joyful, and patient, with respect to each other's frailties and imperfections, to the end of their lives. The wiser of the two (and it generally happens one of them is such) will, for her or his own sake, keep things from outrage with the ut most sanctity. When this union is thus preserved, the mos indifferent circumstance administers delight. Their conditior. is an endless urce of new gratifications. The married man can say: If I am unacceptable to all the world besides, there is one hom I entirely love, that will receive me with joy and transport, and think herself obliged to double her kindness and caresses of me from the gloom with which she sees me overcast. I need not dissemble the sorrow of my heart to be agreeable there; that every sorrow quickens her affection.

This passion towards each other, when once well fixed enters into the very constitution, and the kindness flows as easily and silently as the blood in the veins. When this affection is enjoyed in the most sublime degree, unskilful eyes see nothing of it but when it is subject to be changed and has an alloy in it that makes it end in distaste, it is apt tc Dreak into rage, or overflow into fondness, before the rest of .he world.

'Uxander and Virimira are amorous and young and nave