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ters may best reprefent the faults I would now point at, and the answer to it the temper of mind in a contrary character.

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F thou art the, but oh how fallen, how changed, what an apoftate! how loft to all that is gay and agreeable! To be married I find is to be buried alive; I cannot conceive it more dismal to be shut up in a vault to converse with the fhades of my ancestors, than to be carried down to an old manor-houfe in the country, and confined to the conversation of a sober husband and an aukward chamber-maid. For variety I fuppofe you may entertain yourself with madam in her grogram gown, the spouse of your parish vicar, who has by this time I am fure well furnished you with receipts for making falves and poffets, diftilling cordial-waters, making fyrups, and applying poultices.

Bleft folitude! I with thee joy, my dear, of thy loved ⚫ retirement, which indeed you would perfuade me is very agreeable, and different enough from what I have here defcribed but, child, I am afraid thy brains are a little ⚫ difordered with romances and novels: after fix months marriage to hear thee talk of love, and paint the country fcenes fo foftly, is a little extravagant; one would ⚫ think you lived the lives of fylvan deities, or roved among the walks of paradife, like the first happy pair. But pr'ythee leave these whimfies, and come to town in order to live and talk like other mortals. However, as I am extremely interested in your reputation, I would willingly give you a little good advice at your first appearance under the character of a married woman: it is a ⚫ little infolent in me perhaps, to advise a matron; but I am fo afraid you will make fo filly a figure as a fond wife, that I cannot help warning you not to appear in any public places with your husband, and never to faunter about St. James's Park together: if you prefume to enter the ring at Hyde-Park together, you are ruined for ever; nor muft you take the leaft notice of one another at the play-houfe or opera, unless you would be laughed at for a very loving couple moft happily paired in the yoke of wedlock. I would recommend the example of an

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'acquaintance of ours to your imitation; fhe is the most ⚫ negligent and fashionable wife in the world; fhe is hardly ever seen in the fame place with her husband, and if they happen to meet, you would think them perfect ftrangers: fhe never was heard to name him in his abfence, and takes care he shall never be the subject of any dif• course she has a fhare in. I hope you will propose this lady as a pattern, though I am very much afraid you will be fo filly to think Portia, &c. Sabine and Roman ⚫ wives much brighter examples. I wish it may never come into your head to imitate those antiquated creatures fo far, as to come into public in the habit as well as air ' of a Roman matron. You make already the entertainment at Mrs. Modifh's tea-table; the fays, fhe always thought you a difcreet perfon, and qualified to manage a family with admirable prudence: the dies to fee what demure and ferious airs wedlock has given you, but she says she shall never forgive your choice of fo gallant a · man as Bellamour to transform him to a mere fober ⚫ husband; it was unpardonable: you fee, my dear, we ← all envy your happiness, and no perfon more than • Your humble fervant,

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BE not in pain, good madam, for my appearance in town; I fhall frequent no public places, or ⚫ make any vifits where the character of a modeft wife is ridiculous. As for your wild raillery on matrimony, it is all hypocrify; you, and all the handfome young woyour acquaintance, fhew yourselves to no other purpose than to gain a conqueft over fome man of worth, in order to beltow your charms and fortune on him. There is no indecency in the confeffion, the defign is modeft and honourable, and all your affectation cannot disguise it..

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I am married, and have no other concern but to please the man I love; he is the end of every care I have; if I drefs it is for him; if I read a poem or a play, it is to qualify myself for a conversation agreeable to his taste : he is almost the end of my devotions; half my prayers. are for his happiness-I love to talk of him, and never hear him named but with pleasure and emotion. L

am.

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am your friend, and wish you happiness, but am forry to fee by the air of your letter that there are a set of women who are got into the common-place raillery of every thing that is fober, decent, and proper: matrimony and the clergy are the topics of people of little wit and no understanding. I own to you, I have ⚫ learned of the vicar's wife all you tax me with: fhe is a difcreet, ingenious, pleasant, pious woman; I wish fhe had the handling of you and Mrs. Modifh; you ' would find, if you were too free with her, she would ⚫ foon make you as charming as ever you were, fhe would make you blush as much as if you never had been fine ladies. The vicar, madam, is fo kind as to vifit my husband, and his agreeable conversation has brought ⚫ him to enjoy many fober happy hours when even I am fhut out, and my dear mafter is entertained only with his own thoughts. These things, dear madam, will be lafting fatisfactions, when the fine ladies, and the coxcombs by whom they form themselves, are irreparably ridiculous, ridiculous in old age. I am, madam, Your moft humble fervant,

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Dear Mr. Spectator,

You

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YOU have no goodness in the world, and are not in earnest in any thing you fay that is ferious, if you do not fend me a plain anfwer to this: I happened fome days paft to be at the play, where during the time of performance, I could not keep my eyes off from a beautiful young creature who fat juft before me, and who I have been fince informed has no fortune. It would utterly ruin my reputation for discretion to marry fuch a one, and by what I can learn she has a character of great modefty, fo that there is nothing to be thought on any other way. My mind has ever fince been fo wholly bent on her, that I am much in danger of doing fomething very extravagant without your speedy advice ← to, Sir,

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Your most humble fervant.'

I am forry I cannot anfwer this impatient gentleman, but by another question.

• Dear

Dear Correfpondent,

Would you marry to please other people, or your

felf?'

T.

N° 255

Saturday, December 22.

Laudis amore tumes ? funt certa piacula, quæ te
Ter purè lecto poterunt recreare libello.

Hor. Ep. 1. lib. 1. ver. 36.

IMITATED.

Know, there are rhymes, which (fresh and fresh apply'd) Will cure the arrant'st puppy of his pride.

РОРЕ.

HE foul, confidered abftractedly from its paffions,

folves, and languifhing in its executions. The ufe therefore of the paffions is to ftir it up, and to put it upon action, to awaken the understanding, to enforce the will, and to make the whole man more vigorous and attentive in the prosecution of his defigns. As this is the end of the paffions in general, fo it is particularly of ambition, which pushes the foul to fuch actions as are apt to procure honour and reputation to the actor. But if we carry our reflexions higher, we may difcover farther ends of Providence in implanting this paffion in mankind.

It was neceffary for the world, that arts fhould be invented and improved, books written and transmitted to pofterity, nations conquered and civilized: now fince the proper and genuine motives to thefe and the like great actions, would only influence virtuous minds; there would be but small improvements in the world, were there not fome common principle of action working equally with all men. And fuch a principle is ambition or a defire of fame, by which great endowments are not fuffered to lie idle and useless to the public, and many vicious men, over-reached, as it were, and engaged contrary to their natural inclinations in a glorious nd laudable course of action. For we may farther ob

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ferve, that men of the greatest abilities are most fired with ambition and that on the contrary, mean and narrow minds are the leaft actuated by it; whether it be that a man's fenfe of his own incapacities makes him defpair of coming at fame, or that he has not enough range of thought to look out for any good which does not more immediately relate to his intereft or convenience, or that Providence, in the very frame of his foul, would not fubject him to fuch a paffion as would be useless to the world, and a torment to himself.

Were not this defire of fame very ftrong, the diffi culty of obtaining it, and the danger of lofing it when obtained, would be fufficient to deter a man from fo vain a purfuit.

How few are there who are furnished with abilities fufficient to recommend their actions to the admiration. of the world, and to diftinguish themselves from the reft of mankind? Providence for the moft part fets us upon a level, and obferves a kind of proportion in its difpenfation towards us. If it renders us perfect in one accomplishment, it generally leaves us defective in another, and feems careful rather of preferving every perfon from being mean and deficient in his qualifications, than of making any fingle one eminent or extraordinary.

And among thofe who are the moft richly endowed by nature, and accomplished by their own induftry, how few are there whofe virtues are not obfcured by the ignorance, prejudice or envy of their beholders? Somet men cannot difcern between a noble and a mean action: others are apt to attribute them to fome falfe end or intention; or others purpofely mifreprefent, or put a wrong interpretation on them.

But the more to enforce this confideration, we may obferve that thofe are generally moft unfuccefsful in their purfuit after fame, who are moft defirous of obtaining it. It is Salluft's remark upon Cato, that the lefs he coveted glory the more he acquired it.

Men take an ill-natured pleasure in crofing our inclinations, and difappointing us in what our hearts are moft fet upon. When therefore they have discovered the paffionate defire of fame in the ambitious man, as no temper of mind is more apt to fhew itfelf, they be

come

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