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self have given, if the fools had been but wise enough to delay the bargain."

Thus at once delighted with the superiority of his parts, and the augmentation of his fortune, he caarried Furia to his own house, in which he never afterwards enjoyed one hour of happiness. For Furia was a wretch of mean intellects, violent passions, a strong voice, and low education, without any sense of happiness but that which consisted in eating and counting money. Furia was a scold. They agreed in the desire of wealth, but, with this difference, that Prudentius was for growing rich by gain, Furia by parsimony. Prudentius would venture his money with chances very much in his favour; but Furia very wisely observing that what they had was, while they had it, their own, thought all traffick too great a hazard, and was for putting it out at low interest, upon good security. Prudentius ventured, however, to insure a ship, at a very unreasonable price; but happening to lose his money, was so tormented with the clamours of his wife, that he never durst try a second experiment. He has now grovelled seven and forty years under Furia's directions, who never once mentioned him, since his bad luck, by any other name than that of the insurer.

The next that married from our society was Florentius. He happened to see Zephyretta in a chariot at a horse race, danced with her at night, was confirmed in his first ardour, waited on her next morning, and declared himself her lover. Florentius had not knowledge enough of the world, to distinguish between the flutter of co

quetry, and the sprightliness of wit, or between the smile of allurement, and that of cheerfulness. He was soon waked from his rapture by conviction, that his pleasure was but the pleasure of a day. Zephyretta had in four and twenty hours spent her stock of repartee, gone round the circle of her airs, and had nothing remaining for him but childish insipidity, or for herself, but the practice of the same artifices upon new men.

Melissus was a man of parts, capable of enjoying and of improving life. He had passed through the various scenes of gaiety with that indifference and possession of himself, natural to men who have • something higher and nobler in their prospect. Retiring to spend the summer in a village little frequented, he happened to lodge in the same house with Ianthe, and was unavoidably drawn to some acquaintance, which her wit and politeness soon invited him to improve. Having no opportunity of any other company, they were always together; and as they owed their pleasures to each other, they began to forget that any pleasure was enjoyed before their meeting. Melissus, from being delighted with her company, quickly began to be uneasy in her absence, and being sufficiently convinced of the force of her understanding, and finding, as he imagined, such a conformity of temper as declared them formed for each other, addressed her as a lover; after no very long courtship obtained her for his wife, and brought her next winter to town in triumph.

Now began their infelicity. Melissus had only seen her in one scene, where there was no variety of objects to produce the proper excitements to

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contrary desires. They had both loved solitude and reflection, where there was nothing but solitude and reflection to be loved; but when they came into public life, Ianthe discovered those passions, which accident rather than hypocrisy had hitherto concealed. She was, indeed,, not without the power of thinking, but was wholly without the exertion of that power, when either gaiety or splendour played on her imagination. She was cxpensive in her diversions, vehement in her passions, insatiate of pleasure however dangerous to her reputation, and eager of applause by whomsoever it might be given. This was the wife which Melissus the philosopher found in his retirement, and from whom he expected an associate in his studies, and an assistant to his virtues.

Prosapius, upon the death of his younger brother, that the family might not be extinct, married his house-keeper, and has ever since been complaining to his friends that mean notions are instilled into his children, that he is ashamed to sit at his own table, and that his house is uneasy to him for want of suitable companions.

Avaro, master of a very large estate, took a woman of bad reputation, recommended to him by a rich uncle, who made that marriage the condition on which he should be his heir. Avaro now wonders to perceive his own fortune, his wife's and his uncle's insufficient to give him that happiness which is to be found only with a woman of

virtue.

I intend to treat in more papers on this important article of life, and shall therefore, make no reflection upon these histories, except that all

whom I have mentioned failed to obtain happiness, for want of considering that marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship; that there can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity; and that he must expect to be wretched, who pays to beauty, riches, or polite-, ness, that regard which only virtue and piety. can claim.

N° 19. TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1750.,

Dum te causidicum, dum te modo rhetora fingis,
Et non decernis, Taure, quid esse velis,
Peleos&Priami transit, vel Nestoris etas,
Et serum fuerat jam tibi desinere
Eja. age, rumpe moras quo te spectabimus usque ?
Dum quid sis dubitas, jam potes esse nihil.

MART.

To rhetorick now, and now to law inclin'd,
Uncertain where to fix thy changing mind;
Old Priam's age or Nestor's may be out,
And thou, O Taurus, still go on in doubt.
Come then, how long such wavering shall we see?
Thou may'st doubt on; thou now can'st nothing be."

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Ir is never without very melancholy reflections, that we can observe the misconduct or miscarriage of those men who seem, by the force of understanding, or extent of knowledge, exempted from the general frailties of human nature, and privileged from the common infelicities of life.

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Though the world is crowded with scenes of calamity, we look upon the general mass of wretchedness with very little regard, and fix our eyes upon the state of particular persons whom the eminence of their qualities marks out from the multitude as in reading an account of a battle, we seldom reflect on the vulgar heaps of slaughter, but follow the hero with our whole attention, through all the varieties of his fortune, without a thought of the thousands that are falling round him.

;

With the same kind of anxious veneration I have for many years been making observations on the life of Polyphilus, a man whom all his acquaintances have, from his first appearance in the world, feared for the quickness of his discernment, and admired for the multiplicity of his attainments, but whose progress in life, and usefulness to man kind, have been hindered by the superfluity of his knowledge and the celerity of his mind.

Polyphilus was remarkable at the school for surpassing all his companions, without any visible, application, and at the university was distinguished equally for his successful progress as well through the thorny mazes of science, as the flowery path of politer literature, without any strict confinement to hours of study, or remarkable forbearance of the common amusements of young men. When Polyphilus was at the in which men usually chuse their profession, and prepare to enter into a public character, every academical eye was fixed upon him; all were curious to enquire what this universal genius would fix upon for the employment of his life; and no doubt was made but that he would leave all his contemporaries behind

age

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