their work, or their housewifery. No fooner was I placed at table, than the young lady was called upon to pay me fome civility or other; nor could I find means of escaping, from either father or mother, some account of their daughters excellencies, with a declaration that they were now leaving the world, and had no bufinefs on this fide the grave, but to fee their children happily difpofed of; that fhe whom I had been pleased to compliment at table was indeed the chief pleasure of their age, fo good, fo dutiful, fo great a relief to her mamma in the care of the house, and so much her papa's favourite for her cheerfulness and wit, that it would be with the last reluctance that they fhould part; but to a worthy gentleman in the neighbourhood, whom they might often vifit, they would not fo far confult their own gratification, as to refuse her; and their tenderness should be fhewn in her fortune, whenever a fuitable fettlement was propofed. As I knew thefe overtures not to proceed from any preference of me before another equally rich, I could not but look with pity on young perfons condemned to be fet to auction, and made cheap by injudicious commendations; for how could they know themselves offered and rejected a hundred times, without fome lofs of that foft elevation, and maiden dignity, fo neceffary to the completion of female excellence? I fhall not trouble you with a hiftory of the ftratagems practised upon my judgment, or the allurements tried upon my heart, which, if you have, in any part of your life, been acquainted with rural Q3 politicks, politicks, you will eafily conceive. Their arts have no great variety, they think nothing worth their care but money, and fuppofing its influence the fame upon all the world, feldom endeavour to deceive by any other means than falfe computations. I will not deny that, by hearing myfelf loudly commended for my difcretion, I began to fet fome value upon my character, and was unwilling to lofe my credit by marrying for love. I therefore refolved to know the fortune of the lady whom I should addrefs, before I enquired after her wit, delicacy, or beauty. This determination led me to Mitiffa, the daughter of Chryfophilus, whofe perfon was at leaft without deformity, and whofe manners were free from reproach, as he had been bred up at a distance from all common temptations. To Mitiffa therefore I obtained leave from her parents to pay my court, and was referred by her again to her father, whose direction fhe was refolved to follow. The question then was, only, what should be fettled. The old gentleman made an enormous demand, with which I refufed to comply. Mitiffa was ordered to exert her power; fhe told me, that if I could refuse her papa, I had no love for her; that he was an unhappy creature, and that I was a perfidious man ; then the burst into tears, and fell into fits. All this, as I was no paffionate lover, had little effect. She next refused to fee me, and becaufe I thought myfelf obliged to write in terms of diftrefs, they had once hopes of starving me into measures; but finding me inflexible, the father complied with my pro pofal, pofal, and told me he liked me the more for being fo good at a bargain. I was now married to Mitiffa, and was to experience the happiness of a match made without paffion. Mitiffa foon difcovered, that fhe was equally prudent with myself, and had taken a husband only to be at her own command, and to have a chariot at her own call. She brought with her an old maid recommended by her mother, who taught her all the arts of domestick management, and was, on every occafion, her chief agent and directrefs. They foon invented one reafon or other, to quarrel with all my fervants, and either prevailed on me to turn them away, or treated them fo ill, that they left me of themselves, and always fupplied their places with fome brought from my wife's relations. Thus they established a family, over which I had no authority, and which was in a perpetual confpiracy against me; for Mitiffa confidered herself as having a feparate intereft, and thought nothing her own, but what she laid up without my knowledge. For this reafon fhe brought me falfe accounts of the expences of the house, joined with my tenants in complaints of hard times, and by means of a steward of her own, took rewards for foliciting abatements of the rent. Her great hope is to outlive me, that she may enjoy what she has thus accumulated, and therefore she is always contriving fome improvements of her jointure land, and once tried to procure an injunction to hinder me from felling timber upon it for repairs. Her father and mother affift her in her projects, and are frequently hinting that she is ill used, and reproaching Q4 proaching me with the presents that other ladies receive from their husbands. Such, Sir, was my fituation for seven years, till at last my patience was exhausted, and having one day invited her father to my house, I laid the state of my affairs before him, detected my wife in feveral of her frauds, turned out her fteward, charged a conftable with her maid, took my bufinefs in my own hands, reduced her to a fettled allowance, and now write this account to warn others against marrying those whom they have no reason to esteem. I am, &c. NUMB. 36. SATURDAY, July 21, 1750. "Αμ ̓ ἔποιο νομῆες Τερπόμενοι σύριγξι. δόλον δ ̓ ἔτι προνόησαν HOMER, -Piping on their reeds, the fhepherds go, POPE HERE is fcarcely any fpecies of poetry that THE has allured more readers, or excited more writers, than the paftoral. It is generally pleafing, because it entertains the mind with reprefentations of scenes familiar to almost every imagination, and of which all can equally judge whether they are well defcribed. It exhibits a life, to which we have been always accustomed to affociate peace, and leifure, and innocence: and therefore we readily fet open the heart for the admiffion of its images, which con tribute tribute to drive away cares and perturbations, and fuffer ourselves, without refiftance, to be transported to elyfian regions, where we are to meet with nothing but joy, and plenty, and contentment; where every gale whispers pleasure, and every fhade promifes repose. It has been maintained by fome, who love to talk of what they do not know, that paftoral is the most ancient poetry; and indeed, fince it is probable that poetry is nearly of the fame antiquity with rational nature, and fince the life of the firft men was certainly rural, we may reasonably conjecture, that, as their ideas would neceffarily be borrowed from those objects with which they were acquainted, their compofures, being filled chiefly with fuch thoughts on the vifible creation as muft occur to the firft observers, were paftoral hymns, like those which Milton introduces the original pair finging, in the day of innocence, to the praise of their Maker. For the fame reason that paftoral poetry was the first employment of the human imagination, it is generally the first literary amusement of our minds. We have seen fields, and meadows, and groves, from the time that our eyes opened upon life; and are pleased with birds, and brooks, and breezes, much earlier than we engage among the actions and pasfions of mankind. We are therefore delighted with rural pictures, because we know the original at an age when our curiofity can be very little awakened, by defcriptions of courts which we never beheld, or representations of paffion which we never felt. The fatisfaction received from this kind of writing not only begins early, but lafts long; we do not, |