A regard to decency and the common punc tilios of life, has often been serviceable to society. It has kept many a married couple unseparated, and frequently preserved a neighborly intercourse, where love and friendship both have been wanting.

It is providential that our affection diminishes in proportion as our friend's power increases. Affection is of less importance, whenever a person can support himself. It is on this account, that younger brothers are oft beloved more than their elders; and that Benjamin is the favorite.

"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor," therefore, if we have true benevolence, we will never do any thing injurious to individuals, or to society. Those very comprehensive moral precepts our Saviour has graciously left with us, which can never fail to direct us aright, if fairly and honestly applied, such as, "whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them." There is no occasion, great or small, on which you may not safely apply this rule, for the direction of your conduct; and whilst our hearts honestly adhere to it, we can never be guilty of any sort of injustice or unkindness,

MARRIAGE.

MARRIAGE is certainly a condition, up

on which the happiness or misery of life does very much depend; more indeed than most people think before hand. To be confined to live with one perpetually, for whom we have no liking or esteem, must certainly be an uneasy state. There had need be a great many good qualities to recommend a constant conversation with one, where there is some share of kindness; but without love, the very best of all good qualities will never make a constant conversation easy and delightful. And whence proceed those innumerable domestic miseries, that plague and utterly confound so many families, but from want of love and kindness in the wife or husband: from these come their neglect and careless management of affairs at home, and their profuse extravagant expenses abroad. In a word, it is not easy, as it is not needful, to recount the evils that arise abundantly, from the want of conjugal affection only. And since this is so certain, a man or woman runs the most fearful hazard that can be, who marries without this affection in themselves, and without good assurances of it in the other.

Re

Let your love advise before you choose, and your choice be fixed before you marry. member the happiness or misery of your life depends upon this one act, and that nothing but death can dissolve the knot.

A single life is doubtless preferable to a married one, where prudence and affection do not accompany the choice; but where they do, there is no terrestrial happiness equal to the married state.

There cannot be too near an equality, too exact a harmony betwixt a married couple ; it is a step of such weight as calls for all our foresight and penetration; and, especially, the temper and education must be attended to. In unequal matches, the men are generally more in fault than the women, who can seldom be choosers.

Wisdom to gold prefer, for 'tis much less
To make your fortune than your happiness.

Marriages founded on affection are the most happy. Love (says Addison) ought to have shot its roots deep, and to be well grown before we enter into that state. There is nothing which more nearly concerns the peace of mankind-it is his choice in this respect, on which his happiness or misery in life depends.

Though Solomon's description of a wise and good woman, may be thought too mean and

mechenical for this refined generation, yet certain it is, that the business of a family is the most profitable and honorable study they can employ themselves in.

The best dowry to advance the marriage of a young lady is, when she has in her countenance, mildness; in her speech, wisdom; in her behavior, modesty; and in her life, virtue.

Better is a portion in a wife, than with a wife.

An inviolable fidelity, good humor, and complacency of temper, in a wife, outlive all the charms of a fine face, and make the decays of it invisible.

The surest way of governing both a private family and a kingdom, is, for a husband and prince to yield at certain times something of their prerogative.

A good wife, says Solomon, is a good portion; and there is nothing of so much worth as a mind well instructed.

Sweetness of temper, affection to her husband, and attention to his interests, constitute the duties of a wife, and form the basis of matrimonial felicity. The idea of power on either side, should be totally banished. It is not sufficicnt that the husband should never have occasion to regret the want of it; the wife must so behave, that he may never be conscious of possessing it.

L

MEDIOCRITY.

PLACE me, ye powers, in some obscure retreat;

Oh, keep me innocent ! make others great!
In quiet shades, content with rural sports,
Give me a life remote from guilty courts,
Where free from hopes or fears, in humble

ease,

Unheard of, I may live and die in peace!
Happy the man, who, thus retir'd from sight,
Studies himself, and seeks no other light :
But most unhappy he, who's plac'd on high,
Expos'd to every tongue and every eye;
Whose follies, blaz'd about, to all are known,
And are a secret to himself alone :

Worse is an evil name, much worse than

none.

When a man has got such a great and exalted soul, as that he can look upon life and death, riches and poverty, with indifference ; and closely adhere to probity and truth, in whatever shapes they may appear, then it is that virtue appears with such a brightness, as that all the world must admire her beauties.

If e'er ambition did my fancy cheat,
With any wish so mean as to be great;
Continue, heaven, still from me to remove
The humble blessings of the life I love.