ger of being overpowered, to have fired into his own powder-room, and thereby have blown up his fhip.-To crown all, he was an excellent husband, and an indulgent father, in which laft character alone he fhewed

THE

HERE is a propenfity in most people to communicate their thoughts without any proper view: The more fanguine employ the prefs; the lefs lively are contented with being impertinent in converfa

tion.

Satire gratifies felf-love, and is a fource of popularity: This the fatirift is fo confcious to himself of, that he ftigmatifes many inoffenfive characters.

Schemes infinitely various feem intended for our purfuit and pleasure, so that some find their account in heading a cry of hounds, as much as others in the dignity of Lord Chancellor.

The Bishop's lawn; the Marshal's truncheon; the Baron's robe; and the Judge's peruke fhould be confidered only as neceffary fubftitutes, where genuine purity, real courage, native dignity, and fuitable penetration are wanting to complete the characters of thofe to whom they are affigned.

Nothing difplays quickness of genius more than a difpute; as two diamonds, encountering, contribute to each other's luftre. But perhaps the odds is much against the man of taste in this particular.

Bashfulness is more frequently connected with good fenfe, than we find affurance; and impudence, on the other hand, is often the mere effect of downright ftupidity.

. Trifles will burst one man's fides, which will not disturb the features of another; and a laugh one cannot join in is almost as irkfome as a lamentation.

A Courtier's dependent is a beggar's dog. A Government is inexcufable for employing foolish Minifters; because they may examine a man's head, though they cannot his heart.

I fancy the proper means of increafing the love we bear our native country is to refide fome time in a foreign one.

The love of popularity feems little elfe than the love of being beloved; and is only blameable when a perfon aims at the affections of a people by means in appearance honeft, but in their end pernicious and deftructive.

Refftance to the reigning powers is jufti

fiable, upon a conviction that their governa ment is inconfiftent with the good of the fubject; that our interpofition tends to estab lifh better measures; and this without a probability of occafioning evils that may overbalance them. But thefe confiderations muft never be separated.

People are, perhaps, more vicious in towns than villages, becauíe one vicious character tends to encourage and keep another in coun→ tenance.

Laws are generally found to be nets of fuch a texture, as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middlefized are alone intangled in.

If a perfon ought heartily to ftickle for any caule, it fhould be that of moderation. Moderation should be his party.

Inanimates, toys, utenlils, feem to merit a kind of affection from us, when they have been our companions through various vicif fitudes.

Circumlocutory, pitilofophical obscenity appears to be the most naufeous of all stuff. It may be obferved that the quarrels of friends, in the latter part of life, are never truly reconciled. The reafon of this may be accountable from the decline of the focial paffions, and the prevalence of spleen, fufpicion, and rancour, towards the latter part of life.

There is nothing more irksome than to hear weak and fervile people repeat with admiration every filly fpeech that falls from a mere perfon of rank and fortune. The nonfenfe grows more naufeous through the medium of their admiration, and thews the vena'ity of vulgar tempers, which can confider fortune as the goddess of wit.

What pleasure is it to pay one's debts! In the first place, it removes that uneafinefs, which a true fpirit feels from dependence and obligation. It affords pleafure to the creditor and therefore gratifies our focial affection., It promotes that future confidence, which is fo very interefting to an hon mind: It opens a profpect of being readily fupplied with what we want on future occafions: It leaves a confcioufnefs of our own virtue; and it is a measure we know to be

Fight, both in point of justice and of found economy. Finally, it is a main fupport of fumple reputation.

People's characters are to be chiefly collected from their education and place in life: Birth itself does but little. Kings, in gene

ral, are born with the fame propenfities as other men, but yet it is probable from the licence and flattery that attend their education, that they will be more haughty, more luxurious, and more fubjected to their paffions, than any men befides.

NOTAIN, a French Gentleman, was rich and of a good family; and, if jealoufy had not expofed him to ridicule, he would have deserved the reputation of a man of fenfe. He had ferved ten years in Italy, and had the character of a brave foldier. His converfation was agreeable and folid. He was fcarce thirty, when he retired into the country, defigning to fettle himself there for life. Among the different matches propofed to him, he thought it advisable to give the preference to a young Lady, equally beautiful and difcreet, whofe wit and fweet temper promised him happy and peaceful days, if he had known how to enjoy his bappiness.

He asked her in marriage and foon obtained her. He had the fecret of making himself beloved by her, and no union was at first more happy than theirs. The two firft years of their marriage paffed away as a dream; and two children as beautiful as can be imagined, were in this fhort time the precious pledges of their mutual love. They were every-where characterised as the model of perfect matrimonial union: Their tendernefs feemed each day to receive a new increafe. In fhort, they were happy, and, if the jealousy of the husband had not brought diforder into that refpectable family, peace, feLicity, and love would have fhed their pleafang influence on every moment of their life. But the ferenity, fprightly difpofition, and confidence of Sotain, abandoned him all of fudden. He became fufpicious, dull, and lent. His melancholy made him feek after folitude; and, if at times he appeared in fociety, it was to taunt at his fweet companion with all the little reproaches his dark humour fuggefted to him.

The poor Lady oppofed nothing to her husband's peevishnets but endearments and tears; and the barbarous man accused her of diffimulation and perfidy. She thinks at length that fome internal malady must have difordered her husband's brain, whom the ftil fondly loves. She would have phyficians confulted, but her tender anxiety irritates him, and he ridicules it with contempt. No longer able to bear with his unworthy treatment, the falls dangeroully ill,

and Sotain feems alarmed by it. He is lavifh of all his cares on her, and spares nothing to call her back to life, yet without renouncing his gloomy difpofition, which he now cannot conquer.

The cruel paffion that belaboured him was far from weakening his love; it may be even faid that the more he tormented his fpoufe, the more he loved her. He therefore no fooner faw her in danger, but his desperation betrayed the most shocking symptoms. His reafon was fo bewildered, that, one having imprudently cried out the was just dead, he ran to fall upon his fword, and would have done it, was he not that instant hurried into his fick wife's chamber. He heaped upon her the most tender careffes, and made to her a thousand proteftations of love and confidence. She, to whom nothing more was wanting for recovering her health, than the certainty of being beloved by her hufband, foon began to get the better of her ailment; but the foon had to fuffer the fame perfecutions; Sotain became more fretful than ever. Unable to suspect the true motives of his ill-humour, fhe at laft refolved to ask him what they were. He still diffembled more than three months, and it was not without the moft earnest intreaties that the at laft got out of him his fatal fecret. He confefied to her his apprehenfions that another fhared with him the happiness of her love, and that this fear poifoned all the comforts of his life. This virtuous woman, far from upbraiding him with his diftruft of her, thanked him for this new proof of his love. She contented herself with mildly asking him, if he had obferved in her behaviour any indifcretion that might juftify thofe injurious fufpicions; and, to pacify him, fhe promised to be ftill more referved, if poffible, in all fhe did. She concluded by her embraces, conjuring him to preferibe to her the company he should be pleafed fhe might fee:

All the wishes of my heart, added the, are confined to love and pleafe you, and to fubje&t myself to the leaft injunction of your will.'

By this explication the husband's mind was a little more at eafe. He affured ber, that he would make no alteration in the regimen

confoled Celenia as well as the could, or, rather, he fympathifed in her diftrefs, and, propofed feparation from a man fo unworthy of her; but fhe, who ftill loved her hufband, rejected thefe offers, and took no other refolution than lamenting and fuffering, in private, her affliction.

The mother and daughter were still together, when Sotain arrived. He took umbrage at it, and his ill-humour broke out against both. The mother feemed, at firft, as if he did not understand him, and fiepped out, taking leave; but, dreading fome mishap to her daughter, fhe immediately returned, and food for a moment behind the

door of her chamber. She heard Sotain utter horrible oaths, afking Celenia, if her mother had properly inftructed her to clofe the eyes of a husband; at what time, with whom, and in what place, they had agreed to be at the rendezvous? The wife answered him, That her mother was too prudent to give her fuch advice, and too virtuous to entertain the leaft criminal thought. His anger was now wound up to its highest pitch; and the wife, who had borne, without murmuring, all the ill-treatment of her husband, had not the fame patience, when he found her mother abused; and the brute, meeting now with contradiction, forgot himself fo far as to ftrike her.

The poor Lady began to weep bitterly; but her mother, lofing all patience, entered precipitately the room, and took the part of her unfortunate daughter. Her prefence ir ritated Sotain's anger, who wanted to turn her out. She ftood her ground refolutely, and made fo much noife that the brought up all the women-fervants to their Miftrefs's apartment, where they heard a full detail of the injuries of the fon-in-law, and the reproaches of the mother-in-law, Whilft they remained in the house, nothing tranfpired; but, Sotain having imprudently expelled them, the whole affair took wind, and was in every one's mouth.

In the mean time, Celenia's mother fent for her husband, whose presence difconcerted Sotain's fury. He brought home with him his wife and daughter, not chufing to leave the latter at the difcretion of a inadman. But, the next day, this enraged husband came to throw himself at his wife's feet, and conjured her to pardon him what had happened the evening before. After embracing her tenderly, the confented to follow him, Love pardons every thing, and, notwithstanding the cruelties of Sotain, the heart of Celenia ftill fided with the barbarian. She

continued to fuffer the indignities of her huf

band, yet her virtue remained unfhaken in the height of all her perfecutions.

A young Officer, whofe winter-quarters were in Sotain's neighbourhood, happening to hear, from one of his difcarded fervants, of his wife's ill-treatment and distress, refolved to be her Deliverer. He asked, If it was poffible to fee her? And, being told. that the never quitted her apartment, but to go to Mafs, which was faid in a chapel of the Citle, he ftudied with himself how to furmount all obstacles, which ferved but to animate him the more in his enterprife. He difguifed himself in the drets of an Abbe, and, the Sunday following, he repaired to the road that led from the parish to Sotain's Caftle. As foon as he perceived the pricft, who was going to fay Mafs for Celenia, he made up to, and afked him for an alms, telling him he was a poor Ecclefiaftic, newly come from Rome. The priest propofed his going along with him to ferve his Mafs, and promifed at his return to give him a breakfaft, and fomething to bear his charges further. This was exactly what the Cavalier wanted. He had the pleasure of feeing the Lady, whom he found charming; but he could attempt nothing that day, and faw himself obliged to withdraw with the priest, yet without renouncing the project of introducing himself into Sotain's Castle.

He learned that Sotain had ferved for a long time in Italy, and that he understood perfectly the language of that country. He did not doubt but that his jealousy was a difcafe he had contracted there, and, as he had already deceived fome jealous husbands of that nation, he hoped to outwit a trenchman, attacked with the fame diforder, tho unnatural to him. The whole difficulty confifted in having access to his houfe. He devised several means, which ail failed; this at laft fucceeded. He plucked out what little beard he had, and, dreffing himself as an Italian woman, took his station on one of the Christmas holidays at the church-door, where he knew Sotain was to come to the service. He came accordingly, and, this pretended Italian woman having asked him for an alms in the Italian tongue, he put feveral queftions to her. She answered him, that the came from Florence, and that the was going in queft of a Lady of Quality at Paris, whom he had accompanied as far as the Alps, where robbers had forced her to a feparation from her. She added, that the hoped that this Lady would take care of her, because her husband died in her defence. 'You are therefore a widow,' faid Sotain to her." Yes Sir, anfwered the, and the

widow

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1

widow of a Frenchman, whofe memory will be ever dear to me, because it is to his care that I owe the prefervation of my honour, which these banditti would have ravished from me, if he had not fecured it from their violence. It was then in defending you that he was killed, replied Sotain. No, Sir, anfwered the, he was killed before victory declared for the banditti. How then, faid he, could you owe to him the prefervation of your honour? Pray excufe my telling you, replied the; thofe forts of fecrets fhould always be kept by man and wife.

Sotain, who was not ignorant of the precautions of fome Italian and Spanish hufbands, guessed fhrewdly at what the meant; asking her, if her husband had made her a prefent of a girdle of chastity. She feemed abafhed, as it were, at these words, and, with modeft and downcaft eyes, made him no answer; fo that this jealous Gentleman was delighted to know, that he should not be the first Frenchman that had given into the extravagant infult, which from that moment he projected against his chafte wife. He made this pretended Italian widow a prefent, and defired her to wait till Mafs was over; which the Officer was very glad of, promifing himself all poffible fuccefs from fo fortunate a beginning.

After making her eat and drink in his prefence, Sotain conducted her to the bottom of the garden, where they could not be overheard by any one, and offered to make a provifion for her in his family. With an hypocritical air fhe thanked him for his benevolent intentions, and praifed God for finding fo charitable a Gentleman, who faved her the fhame of begging in a country where fhe could not make herself understood. Sotain afterwards confefled to her the difeafe he was troubled with, and ufed his belt endeavours to obtain from her the girdle fhe had in wearing. She readily confented, but raifed a thousand difficulties on the manner of getting rid of it, alledging the alarms of her modefty, which would never confent that any man fhould approach her for performing the operation. Notwithstanding the caths of Sotain, who fwore he would make no attempt on her virtue, the was two long hours, before the determined what the should belt do. At length they retired into a very dark place, where he asked him for a file, and, the help of this inftrument, they worked down the catch or fpring of the padlock. Their only embarrassinent, now, was to find a padluck for replacing that which they had juft filed through. Sotain faid he could not have the face to apply to a lockfinith on this occasion, and seemed quite difconcerted, till

the fuppofed widow charged herself with the commiffion. She was two days abfent, and procured a new padlock, with two keys to it. One of these keys the delivered to Sotain, the other the carefully kept herself. She was prefented to Celenia, who received her without oppofition.

Sotain, fancying that the pretended Italian woman understood very little French, laid himself under no restraint before her, in his, converfations with his wife; and therefore did not defige her to go out of the room, when he communicated to Celenia the fecret he had found for curing himself of his fufpicions. The virtuous wife confented to all his defires, in hopes that this new injury would free her from worfe behaviour for the future. But jealousy can truft to nothing, and Sotain's fingular precaution could keep him only a few days quiet.

In the mean time, Julia (this was the name the Officer had taken) infinuated herfelf, by different means, into the good graces of the Mafter and Miltrefs. He never fpoke a word of French befre him, and feemed only to thew coldness and indifference to her. But, fo foon as Sotain was out of the way, the fondeft care and strictest attention prevented Celenia in favour of the young Gentleman, whofe fex fhe had not yet the leaft fufpicion of. He could have wished to difcover it, but could not do it without running great rifques. The jealous husband, at length, facilitated the means to him.

By unrelenting perfecution, the barbarian had alienated from himself the heart of Celenia. His endearments became loathfome to her, and the had not the conftancy to dif femble it. He pretended, that he was in the wrong, and that nothing proved better the love of a husband, than thofe pretended indignities which fhe was pleafed to exaggerate. This moral difgufted Celenia; the dared to turn it into ridicule, and, for the first time of her life, fhe fhewed fome tartnefs in the reproaches the made the tyrant. Sotain imagined that his wife regretted the liberty which the girdle had deprived her of, and, believing himself to be vulcanifed in idea, if he was not in fact, he rudely fell upon her with many blows; and, if it were not for Julia, he would, perhaps, have proceeded farther in his ruffian-treatment. When he was gone, Celenia fhut herself up in her clofet, where she shed a torrent of tears.

This was a fine opportunity for the Officer. He followed his Mistress into the clo fet, and, throwing himself on his knees, and embracing her's with an ardor that furprifed her, offered to take vengeance for her on her unworthy husband. Seeing Celenia