mitted, or their conduct procured, in any

other condition.

Rambler, v. 1, p. 272.

When we fee the avaricious and crafty taking companions to their tables, and their beds, without any enquiry but after farms and money; or the giddy and thoughtlefs uniting themselves for life, to thofe whom they have only feen by the light of tapers; when parents make articles for children without enquiring after their confent; when fome marry for heirs to difappoint their brothers; and others throw themselves into the arms of thofe whom they do not love, because they have found themselves rejected where they were more folicitous to pleafe; when fome marry because their fervants cheat them; fome because they fquander their own money; fome because their houses are pestered with company; fome because they will live like other people; and fome because they are fick of themselves, we are not fo much inclined to wonder that marriage is fometimes unhappy, as that it appears fo little loaded with calamity; and cannot but conclude, that fociety has fomething in. itself eminently agreeable to human nature, when we find its pleafures fo great, that even

the

the ill-choice of a companion can hardly over-balance them.-Thofe, therefore, of the above defcription, that fhould rail against matrimony, fhould be informed, that they are neither to wonder, or repine, that a contract begun on fuch principles, has ended in difappointment.

Ditto, ditto, p. 274 & 276.

Men generally pass the firft weeks of matrimony, like thofe who confider themselves as taking the laft draught of pleasure, and refolve not to quit the bowl without a furfeit.

Ditto, v. 4, p. 41.

Marriage fhould be confidered as the most folemn league of perpetual friendfhip; a state from which artifice and concealment are to be banifhed for ever; and in which every act of diffimulation is a breach of faith.

Ditto, ditto, p. 43.

A Poet may praife many whom he would be afraid to marry, and, perhaps, marry one whom he would have been ashamed to praise. Many qualities contribute to domestic happinefs, upon which poetry has no colours to beflow, and many airs and fallies may delight imagination, which he who flatters them, never can approve. There are charms made only for diftant admiration-no spectacle is

nobler than a blaze.

Life of Waller.

EARLY

EARLY MARRIAGES.

FROM early marriages proceeds the rivalry of parents and children. The fon is eager to enjoy the world, before the father is willing to forfake it; and there is hardly room at once for two generations. The daughter begins to bloom, before the mother can be content to fade; and neither can forbear to wish for the absence of the other.

Prince of Abyffinia, p. 173.

LATE

MARRIAGES.

THOSE who marry late in life, will find it dangerous to fufpend their fate upon each other, at a time when opinions are fixed, and habits are established; when friendships have been contracted on both fides; when life has been planned into method, and the mind has long enjoyed the contemplation of its own profpects. They will probably escape the encroachment of their children; but, in diminution of this advantage, they will be likely to leave them, ignorant and helpless, to a guardian's mercy; or if that fhould not happen, they muft, at leaft, go out of the world, before they fee those whom they love beft,

either wife or great :-From their children, if they have lefs to fear, they have also lefs to hope; and they lofe, without equivalent, the joys of early love, and the convenience of uniting with manners pliant, and minds fufceptible of new impreffions, which might wear away their diffimiltudes by long cohabitation, as soft bodies, by continual attrition, conform their furfaces to each other.

Prince of Abyffinia, p. 175 & 177.

COMPARISON BETWEEN EARLY AND LATE MARRIAGES.

IT will be generally found, that those who marry late are beft pleafed with their children; and those who marry early, with their

partners. Ditto, p. 178.

MALICE.

WE fhould not defpife the malice of the weakeft. We fhould remember, that venom fupplies the want of ftrength; and that the lion may perish by the puncture of an afp.

Rambler, v. 4, p. 163.

The natural difcontent of inferiority will feldom fail to operate, in fome degree of malice, against

against him who profeffes to fuperintend the conduct of others, efpecially if he feats himself uncalled in the chair of judicature, and exercifes authority by his own commission.

Idler, v. I. p. 97

MAN.

MAN's ftudy of himself, and the knowledge of his own ftation in the ranks of being, and his various relations to the innumerable multitudes which furround him, and with which his Maker has ordained him to be united, for the reception and communication of happiness, should begin with the first glimpse of reason, and only end with life itself. Other acquifitions are merely temporary benefits, except as they contribute to illuftrate the knowledge, and confirm the practice, of morality and piety, which extend their influence beyond the grave, and encrease our happiness through endless duration.

Preface to the Preceptor, p. 75..

MANNER S.

THE manners of a people are not to be, found in the schools of learning, or the palaces