myfelf a perpetual fource of happinefs in wit never exhaufted, and spirit never depreffed; looked with veneration on her readiness of expedients, contempt of difficulty, affurance of addrefs, and promptitude of reply; confidered her as exempt by fome prerogative of nature from the weakness and timidity of female minds; and congratulated myself upon a companion fuperior to all common troubles and embarrassments. I was, indeed, fomewhat disturbed by the unfhaken perfeverance with which the enforced her demands of an unreasonable fettlement; yet I should have confented to pass my life in union with her, had not my curiofity led me to a crowd gathered in the street, where I found Ferocula, in the presence of hundreds, difputing for fix-pence with a chairman. I faw her in fo little need of affiftance, that it was no breach of the laws of chivalry to forbear interpofition, and I fpared myself the fhame of owning her acquaintance. I forgot fome point of ceremony at our next interview, and foon provoked her to forbid me her prefence.

My next attempt was upon a lady of great eminence for learning and philofophy. I had frequently obferved the barrennefs and uniformity of connubial converfation, and therefore thought highly of my own prudence and difcernment, when I felected from a multitude of wealthy beauties, the deep-read Mifothea, who declared herself the inexorable enemy of ignorant pertnefs, and puerile levity; and fearcely condefcended to make tea, but for the linguift, the geometrician, the aftronomer, or the poet. The queen of the Amazons was only to be gained by the hero who could conquer her in fingle combat; and Mifothea's heart was only to blefs the fcholar who could overpower her by difputation. Amidit the fondet tranfports of courtship the could call for a definition of terms, and treated every argument with contempt that could not be reduced to regular fyllogifin. You may eafily imagine, that I wished this courtship at an end; but when I defired her to fhorten my torments, and fix the day of my felicity, we were led into a long converfation, in which Mifothea endeavoured to demonftrate the folly of attributing choice and felf-direction to any human being. It was not difficult to discover the danger of committing my

felf for ever to the arms of one who might at any time mistake the dictates of paffion, or the calls of appetite, for the decree of fate; or confider cuckoldom as neceffary to the general fyftem, as a link in the everlasting chain of fucceffive caufes. I therefore told her, that destiny had ordained us to part, and that nothing should have torn me from her but the talons of neceffity.

I then folicited the regard of the calm, the prudent, the economical Sophronia, a lady who confidered wit as dangerous, and learning as fuperfluous, and thought that the woman who kept her houfe clean, and her accounts exact, took receipts for every payment, "and could find them at a fudden call, enquired nicely after the condition of the tenants, read the price of stocks once a week, and purchafed every thing at the beft market, could want. no accomplishments neceffary to the happiness of a wife man. She difcourfed with great folemnity on the care and vigilance which the fuperintendence of a family demands; obferved how many were ruined by confidence in fervants; and told me that the never expected honefty but from a ftrong cheft, and that the beft ftorekeeper was the miftrefs's eye. Many fuch oracles of generofity the uttered, and made every day new improvements in her schemes for the regulation of her fervants, and the diftribution of her time. I was convinced, that whatever I might fuffer from Sophronia, I should escape poverty; and we therefore proceeded to adjust the fettlements according to her own rule, fair and foftly. But one morning her maid came to me in tears to intreat my interest for a reconciliation to her miftrefs, who had turned her out at night for breaking fix teeth in a tortoife-fhell comb: the had attended her lady from a diftant province, and having not lived long enough to fave much money, was deftitute among ftrangers, and though of a good family, in danger of perithing in the ftreets, or of being compelled by hunger to proftitution. I made no fcruple of promifing to reftore her; but upon my first application to Sophronia, was anfwered with an air which called for approbation, that if the neglected her own affairs, I might fufpect her of neglecting mine; that the comb ftood her in three half-crowns; that no fervant should

wrong

wrong her twice; and that indeed fhe took the first opportunity of parting with Phillida, becaufe, though the was honest, her constitution was bad, and fhe thought her very likely to fall fick. Of our conference I need not tell you the effect; it furely may be forgiven me, if on this occafion I forgot the decency of common forms.

From two more ladies I was difengaged by finding, that they entertained my rivals at the fame time, and deter. mined their choice by the liberality of our fettlements. Another I thought myfelf juftified in forfaking, becaufe the

gave my attorney a bribe to favour her in the bargain; another becaufe I could never foften her to tendernefs, till fhe heard that most of my family had died young; and another, because, to increase her fortune by expectations, the reprefented her fifter as languishing and confumptive.

I fhall in another letter give the remaining part of my hiftory of courtship. I prefume that I fhould hitherto have injured the majesty of female virtue, had I not hoped to transfer my affection to higher merit. I am, &c. HYMENUS.

POWER

OWER and fuperiority are fo flattering and delightful, that fraught with temptation and expofed to danger as they are, fcarcely any virtue is fo cautious, or any prudence fo timorous, as to decline them. Even thofe that have moft reverence for the laws of right, are pleafed with fhewing that not fear, but choice, regulates their behaviour; and would be thought to comply, rather than obey. We look to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to país; and, as the Roman fatirift remarks

He that has no design to take the life of another, is yet glad to have it in ⚫ his hands.'

From the fame principle, tending yet more to degeneracy and corruption, proceeds the defire of investing lawful authority with terror, and governing by force rather than perfuafion. Pride is unwilling to believe the neceflity of affigning any other reason than her own will; and would rather maintain the moft equitable claims by violence and penalties, than defcend from the dignity of command to difpute and expoftulation.

It may, I think, be fufpected, that this political arrogance has fometimes found it's way into legiflative affemblies, and mingled with deliberations upon property and life. A flight perufal of

DRYDEN.

Juv.

the laws by which the meafures of vindictive and coercive justice, are established, will difcover fo many difproportions between crimes and punishments, fuch capricious diftinctions of guilt, and fuch confufion of remiffnefs and feverity, as can fcarcely be believed to have been produced by publick wifdom, fincerely and calmly ftudious of public happinefs.

The learned, the judicious, the pious Boerhaave, relates, that he never faw a criminal dragged to execution without asking himself— Who knows

whether this man is not lefs culpable than me?' On the days when the prifons of this city are emptied into the grave, let every spectator of the dreadful proceffion put the fame queftion to his own heart. Few among thofe that crowd in thoufands to the legal maffacre, and look with careleffness, perhaps with triumph, on the utmoft exacerbations of human mifery, would then be able to return without horror or dejection. For who can congratulate himself upon a life paffed without fome act more mifchievous to the peace or profperity of others, than the theft of a piece of money?

It has been always the practice, when any particular fpecies of robbery be comes prevalent and common, to enKla deavour

deavour it's fuppreffion by capital denunciations. Thus, one generation of malefactors is commonly cut off, and their fucceffors are frighted into new expedients; the art of thievery is aug mented with greater variety of fraud, and fubtilized to higher degrees of dexterity, and more occult methods of conveyance. The law then renews the purfuit in the heat of anger, and overtakes the offender again with death. By this practice, capital inflictions are multiplied, and crines very different in their degrees of enormity, are equally fubjected to the feverest punishment that man has the power of exercifing upon

man.

The lawgiver is undoubtedly allow ed to eftimate the malignity of an offence, not merely by the lofs or pain which fingle acts may produce, but by the general alarm and anxiety arifing from the fear of mischief, and infecurity of poffeffion: he therefore exercifes the right which focieties are fuppofed to have over the lives of thofe that compofe them, not fimply to punish a tranfgreffion, but to maintain order, and preferve quiet; he enforces thofe laws with feverity that are moft in danger of violation, as the commander of a garrifon doubles the guard on that fide which is threatened with the enemy.

This method has been long tried, but tried with fo little fuccefs, that rapine and violence are hourly increafing: yet few feem willing to defpair of it's efficacy; and of those who employ their fpeculations upon the prefent corruption of the people, fome propofe the introduction of more horrid, lingering, and terrifick punishments; fome are inclined to accelerate the executions; fome to difcourage pardons; and all feem to think that lenity has given confidence to wickedness, and that we can only be refcued from the talons of robbery by inflexible rigour, and fanguinary juftice.

Yet fince the right of fetting an uncertain and arbitrary value upon life has been difputed, and fince experience of paft times gives us little reafon to hope that any reformation will be effected by a periodical havock of our fellow-beings, perhaps it will not be ufelefs to confider what confequences might arife from reJaxations of the law, and a more rational and equitable adoption of penalties to offences.

Death is, as one of the ancients ob

ferves Tav posepät pohsenvalor of dreadful things the most dreadful; an evil, beyond which nothing can be threa tened by fublunary power, or feared from human enmity or vengeance. This ter ror fhould, therefore, be reserved as the laft refort of authority, as the strongest and moft operative of prohibitory fanctions, and placed before the treasure of life, to guard from invafion what cannot be rettored. To equal robbery with murder is to reduce murder to robbery, to confound in common minds the gra dations of iniquity, and incite the commiffion of a greater crime to prevent the detection of a lefs. If only murder were punished with death, very few robbers would ftain their hands in blood; but when, by the laft act of cruelty no new danger is incurred, and greater fecurity may be obtained, upon what principle fhall we bid them forbear?

It may be urged, that the fentence is often mitigated to fimple robbery; but furely this is to confefs that our laws are unreasonable in our own opinion; and, indeed, it may be observed, that all but murderers have, at their last hour, the common fenfations of mankind pleading in their favour.

From this conviction of the inequality of the punishment to the offence, proceeds the frequent folicitation of pardons. They who would rejoice at the correction of a thief, are yet fhocked at the thought of deftroying him. crime fhrinks to nothing, compared with his mifery; and feverity defeats itself by exciting pity.

His

The gibbet, indeed, certainly difables thofe who die upon it from infefting the community; but their death feems not to contribute more to the reformation of their affociates, than any other method of feparation. A thief feldom paffes much of his time in recollection or anticipation, but from robbery haftens to riot, and from riot to robbery; nor, when the grave clofes upon his companion, has any other care than to find another.

The frequency of capital punishments, therefore, rarely hinders the commiffion of a crime, but naturally and commonly prevents it's detection, and is, if we proceed only upon prudential principles, chiefly for that reason to be avoided. Whatever may be urged by cafuifts or politicians, the greater part of mankind, as they can never think

that

that to pick the pocket and to pierce the heart is equally criminal, will fcarcely believe that two malefactors fo different in guilt can be juftly doomed to the fame punishment: nor is the neceffity of submitting the confcience to human laws fo plainly evinced, fo clearly stated, or fo generally allowed, but that the pious, the tender, and the juft, will always feruple to concur with the community in an act which their private judginent cannot approve.

He who knows not how often rigorous laws produce total impunity, and how many crimes are concealed and forgotten for fear of hurrying the offender to that ftate in which there is no repentance, has converfed very little with mankind. And whatever epithets of reproach or contempt this compaffion may incur from thofe who confound cruelty with firmness, I know not whether any wife man would wish it less powerful, or lefs extenfive.

If those whom the wisdom of our laws has condemned to die, had been detected in their rudiments of robbery, they might, by proper difcipline and ufeful labour, have been difentangled from their habits, they might have efcaped all the temptations to fubfequent crimes, and paffed their days in reparation and penitence; and detected they might all have been, had the profecutors been certain that their lives would have been spared. I believe, every thief. will confefs, that he has been more than once feized and difmiffed; and that he has fometimes ventured upon capital

crimes, because he knew that thofe whom he injured would rather connive at his efcape, than cloud their minds with the horrors of his death.

All laws against wickedness are in effectual, unlefs fome will inform, and fome will profecute; but till we mitigate the penalties for mere violations of property, information will always be hated and profecution dreaded. The heart of a good man cannot but recoil at the thought of punishing a flight injury with death; efpecially when he remem bers, that the thief might have procured fafety by another crime, from which he was reftrained only by his remaining virtue.

The obligations to affift the exercise of publick justice are indeed ftrong; but they will certainly be overpowered by tenderness for life. What is punished with feverity contrary to our ideas of adequate retribution, will be feldom difcovered; and multitudes will be fuffered to advance from crime to crime, till they deferve death, because, if they had been fooner profecuted they would have fuffered death before they deferved it.

This fcheme of invigorating the laws by relaxation, and extirpating wickednefs by lenity, is fo remote from common practice, that I might reafonably fear to expofe it to the publick, could it be fupported only by my own obfervations: I fhall, therefore, by afcribing it to it's author, Sir Thomas More, endeavour to procure it that attention which I with always paid to prudence to justice, and to mercy.

Juv.

DRYDEN.

TO THE RAMBLER,

my late en

difappointments any abatement of my hope, or repreffion of my activity.

part of the adventures that befel me in my long queft of conjugal felicity, which, though I have not yet been fo Happy as to obtain it, I have at leaft endeavoured to deferve by unwearied diligence, without fuffering from repeated

felves in promoting matrimony, and, without any vifible motive of intereft or vanity, without any discoverable im pulfe of malice or benevolence, without any reafon, but that they want objects of attention and topicks of converfation,

are

are inceffantly bufy in procuring wives and hufbands. They fill the ears of every fingle man and woman with fome convenient match, and when they are informed of your age and fortune, offer a partner of life with the fame readiness, and the fame indifference, as a falefman, when he has taken measure by his eye, fits his cuftomer with a coat.

It might be expected that they should foon be difcouraged from this officious interpofition by refentment or contempt; and that every man should determine the choice on which fo much of his happinefs muft depend, by his own judgment and obfervation: yet it happens, that as thefe propofals are generally made with a fhew of kindnefs, they feldom provoke anger, but are at worft heard with patience, and forgotten. They influence weak minds to approbation; for many are fure to find in a new acquaintance whatever qualities report has taught them to expect; and in more powerful and active understandings they excite curiofity, and fometimes, by a lucky chance, bring perfons of fimilar tempers within the attraction of each other.

I was known to poffefs a fortune, and to want a wife; and therefore was frequently attended by thefe hymeneal folicitors, with whole importunity I was fometimes diverted, and fometimes perplexed; for they contended for me as vultures for a carcafe; each employing all his eloquence, and all his artifices, to enforce and promote his own scheme, from the fuccefs of which he was to receive no other advantage than the pleafure of defeating others equally eager, and equally induftrious.

An invitation to fitp with one of thofe hufy friends, made me by a concerted chance acquainted with Camilla, by whom it was expected that I should be fuddenly and irrefiftibly enflaved. The lady, whom the fame kindnefs had brought without her own concurrence into the lifts of love, feemed to think me at least worthy of the honour of captivity; and exerted the power, both of her eyes and wit, with fo much art and fpirit, that though I had been too often deceived by appearances to devote myself irrevocably at the firft interview, yet I could not fupprefs fome raptures of admiration, and flutters of defire. I was eafily perfuaded to make nearer approaches; but foon difcovered, that an

union with Camilla was not much to be wifhed. Camilla profeffed a boundless contempt for the folly, levity, ignorance, and impertinence of her own fex; and very frequently expreffed her wonder that men of learning or experience could fubmit to trifle away life with beings incapable of folid thought. In mixed companies, the always affociated with the men, and declared her fatisfaction when the ladies retired. If any fhort excurfon into the country was propofed, the commonly infifted upon the exclusion of women from the party; because, where they were admitted, the time was wasted in frothy compliments, weak indulgences, and idle ceremonies. To few the greatnefs of her mind, the avoided all compliance with the fashion; and to boast the profundity of her knowledge, mistook the various textures of filk, confounded tabbies with damasks, and fent for ribbands by wrong names. She defpifed the commerce of ftated vifits, a farce of empty form without inftruction; and congratulated herself, that the never learned to write meffage- cards. She often applauded the noble fentiment of Plato, who rejoiced that he was born a man rather than a woman; proclaimed her approbation of Swift's opinion, that women are only a higher fpecies of monkies; and confeffed, that when she confidered the behaviour, or heard the converfation, of her fex, fhe could not but forgive the Turks for fufpecting them to want fouls.

It was the joy and pride of Camilla to have provoked, by this infolence, all the rage and hatred, and all the perfecutions of calumny; nor was the ever more elevated with her own fuperiority, than when she talked of female anger and female cunning. Well, fays the, has Nature provided that fuch virulence fhould be difabled by folly, and fuch cruelty be restrained by impotence.

Camilla doubtless expected, that what the loft on one fide, the fhould gain on the other; and imagined that every male heart would be open to a lady who made fuch generous advances to the borders of virility. But man, ungrateful man, inftead of fpringing forward to meet her, fhrunk back at her approach. She was perfecuted by the ladies as a deferter, and at beft received by the men only as a fugitive. I, for my part, amufed myfelf a while with her fopperies, but novelty foon gave way to deteftation