fone can purchase that, which I propose to enjoy; and I do not see, that the chance of winning other people's money, can compensate for the pain I must suffer in being deprived of my own. I have resolved therefore that I will not Be a gamester; there is not common sense in the thought.

But if I give up gaming, I am determined to take my swing of pleasure. I must therefore ask myself the question, what is pleasure? Is it high living and hard drinking? There is nothing very elegant in it, I confess; a glutton is but a sorry fellow, and a drunkard is a beast ; besides, I am not sure my constitution will bear

excess. I shall get the gout, and grow out of all shape; I shall have a red face, full of blotches, a foul breath, and be loathsome to the wo men. I cannot bear to think of that, for I doar upon them. I prefer the favours of the fair, to the company of soakers, so farewell to drink ing; I will be sober, because I love pleasure.

But if I give up wine, I will repay myself for the sacrifice; I will have the finest girls that money can purchase: money did I say? What a sound has that. Am I to buy beauty with money, and cannot I buy love too? for there is no pleasure even in beauty, without love; this unlucky question gravels me.

Mercenary love is nonsense; it is flat hypoc risy, and disgusting; I should loath the fawning caresses of a dissembling harlot, whom pay for false fondness. It is impossible to feelX...VOL. 4.

the genuine passion of love for a harlot ; she must be a modest woman; and when that befalls me, what then? Why then, if I am violently in love, and cannot be happy without her, there is no choice-I must marry her; for pleasure is my object, and marriage is my lot; I am determined therefore to marry, because I love pleasure.

As I have quitted all other women for a wife, I am resolved to taste this first of pleasures without alloy; I must be cautious therefore that nobody else takes the same pleasure too; for, otherwise, how have I bettered myself? I might as well have remained upon the common.

I should be a fool, indeed, to pay extravagantly for an article, and let others share it with me; I am therefore determined to keep her to myself, for pleasure is my only object;. and this, I take it, is of a kind that will not admit of participation.

The next question is, how I must contrive to keep her to myself? Not by force, not by locking her up; there is no pleasure in that notion ;. compulsion is out of the case; inclination is the only thing; I must make it her interést, and her wish, to be faithful.

I will be kind and attentive to her, because I will not destroy my own pleasure; and I will be very careful of the temptations I expose her to, for the same reason. She shall not lead the life of your town ladies. I have a charming place in the country, where we will pass most.

of our time; there she will be safe, and I shall be happy. I love pleasure, and therefore I will have little to do with that intriguing town, London. I am determined to make my house in the country as pleasant as possible.

But if I give up the gaieties of a town life, and the club, and the gaming-table, and the girls, for a wife and the country, I will have the sports of the country in perfection; I will keep the best pack of hounds in England, and hunt every day in the week.-But hold a moment there; what will become of my wife, all the while I am following the hounds? Will she follow nobody? Will nobody follow her? A pretty figure I shall make, to be chasing a stag, and come home with horns on my own head. At least, I will not risk the experiment: I shall not like to leave her at home, and I cannot take her with me, for that would spoil my pleasure; and I hate a whipper-in in petticoats. I perceive, therefore, I must give up the hounds, for I am determined nothing shall stand in the way of my pleasure.

Why, then, I must find out some amusements that my wife can partake in; we must ride about the park in fine weather; we must visit the grounds and the gardens, and plan out improvements, and make plantations; it will be rare employment for the poor people.

That is a thought that never struck me before; methinks there must be a great deal of pleasure in providing employment for, and ad

ministering to the comforts and instruction of our poor neighbours. I shall like a farm for the same reason, and my wife will take pleasure in a dairy; she shall have the most elegant one in England. I will also build a conservatory, and she shall have the choicest collection of plants and flowers in the country. I have a notion I shall take pleasure in them myself.

Then, there are a thousand things to do with in doors; it is a fine old mansion; I will give it an entire repair; it wants new furniture that will be pleasant work for my wife; I perceive, I could not afford to keep hounds, and do this into the bargain; but this will give most pleasure, and my wife shall partake of it.

:

I have an excellent library; so that with mu sick, books, gardening, a few friends, and a young family, for we probably shall have children, I find there are a vast many pleasures in a county life and what a fool should I be, to throw away my money at the gaming-table, or my health at any table; or my affections upon harlots; or my time upon hounds and horses or employ either money, health, affections, or time, in any other pleasures or pursuits than these, which I now perceive will lead me to sol. id happiness in this life, and secure a good chance for it hereafter." Mon. Mirror.

SELECT SENTENCES.

WHAT a strange compound is this frail being of ours! the sport of every passion, the slave of every opinion; governed not only by the events of life, but subject to the air we breathe, and the climate beneath which we live ; sometimes elevated, as it were, above our nature, and sometimes depressed into an imbecility which is as far beneath it; now inflamed with rage, and then trembling with fear; alternately the object of praise and condemnation, of envy and of pity, of admiration and contempt,

Ir should be a rule to suspect persons who insinuate any thing against the reputation of others, of that vice or errour with which they charge their neighbours; for it is very unlikely that their insinuations should flow from a love of virtue. The resentment of the virtuous toward those who are fallen, is that of pityand pity is best discovered on such occasions by silence.

CONTEMPLATION generates what action diffuses--without the last the first is abortive, and without the first the last is defective.-St. Barnard compares contemplation to Rachel, who was the more fair; but action to Leah, who was the more fruitful.