329 of ferious maturity, and which are referred to the day of marriage, as the fupreme qualification for connubial life. She makes an orange pudding, which is the envy of all the neighbourhood, and which he has hitherto found means of mixing and baking with fuch fecrecy, that the ingredient to which it owes its flavour has never been discovered. She, indeed, conducts this great affair with all the caution that human policy can fuggeft. It is never known before-hand when this pudding will be produced; he takes the ingredients privately into her own closet, employs her maids and daughters in different parts of the house, orders the oven to be heated for a pie, and places the pudding in it with her own hands, the mouth of the oven is then ftopped, and all enquiries are vain. The compofition of the pudding fhe has, however, promised Clarinda, that if she pleases her in marriage, she shall be told without referve. But the art of making English capers fhe has not yet perfuaded herself to discover, but feems refolved that fecret fhall perish with her, as fome alchymifts have obftinately fuppreffed the art of tranfmuting metals. I once ventured to lay my fingers on her book of receipts, which fhe left upon the table, having intelligence that a veffel of goofeberry wine had burft the hoops. But though the importance of the event fufficiently engroffed her care, to prevent any recollection of the danger to which her fecrets were expofed, I was not able to make use of the golden moments; for this treasure of hereditary knowledge was fo well concealed by the manner of fpelling used by her grandmother, her mother, and herself, that Į was was totally unable to underftand it, and loft the opportunity of confulting the oracle, for want of knowing the language in which its anfwers were returned. It is, indeed, neceffary, if I have any regard to her ladyfhip's esteem, that I fhould apply myself to fome of these economical accomplishments; for I overheard her, two days ago, warning her daughters, by my mournful example, againft negligence of pastry, and ignorance in carving: for you faw, faid fhe, that, with all her pretenfions to knowledge, fhe turned the partridge the wrong way when the attempted to cut it, and, I believe, fcarcely knows the difference between paste raised, and paste in a difh. The reason, Mr. Rambler, why I have laid Lady Buftle's character before you, is a defire to be informed whether, in your opinion, it is worthy of imitation, and whether I fhall throw away the books which I have hitherto thought it my duty to read, for the lady's closet opened, the complete fervant maid, and the court cook, and refign all curiofity after right and wrong, for the art of fcalding damefcenes without bursting them, and preferving the whiteness of pickled mushrooms. Lady Buftle has, indeed, by this inceffant application to fruits and flowers, contracted her cares into a narrow space, and set herself free from many perplexities with which other minds are disturbed. She has no curiofity after the events of a war, or the fate of heroes in diftrefs; fhe can hear, without the leaft emotion, the ravage of a fire, or devastations of a ftorm; her neighbours grow rich or poor, come into the world or go out of it, without regard, while fhe is preffing the gelly-bag, or airing the ftore-room; but I cannot perceive that she is more free from difquiets than thofe whofe understandings take a wider range. Her marigolds, when they are almost cured, are often fcattered by the wind, the rain fometimes falls upon fruit, when it ought to be gathered dry. While her artificial wines are fermenting, her whole life is reftleffness and anxiety. Her sweetmeats are not always bright, and the maid fometimes forgets the juft proportions of falt and pepper, when venifon is to be baked. Her conferves mould, her wines four, and pickles mother; and, like all the rest of mankind, fhe is every day mortified with the defeat of her schemes, and the difappointment of her hopes. With regard to vice and virtue fhe feems a kind of neutral being. She has no crime but luxury, nor any virtue but chastity; fhe has no defire to be praised but for her cookery, nor wishes any ill to the rest of mankind, but that whenever they aspire to a feast, their custards may be wheyish, and their pie-crufts tough. I am now very impatient to know whether I am to look on thefe ladies as the great patterns of our fex, and to confider conferves and pickles as the business of my life; whether the cenfures which I now fuffer be just, and whether the brewers of wines, and the distillers of wafhes, have a right to look with infolence on the weakness of CORNELIA. NUMB. 52. SATURDAY, Sept. 15, 1750, Quoties flenti Thefeius beros Sifte modum, dixit, neque enim fortuna querénda Sola tua eft, fimiles aliorum refpice cafus, Mitius ifta feres. How oft in vain the fon of Thefeus said, The ftormy forrows be with patience laid; OVIDA Weigh other's woes, and learn to bear thy own. A CATCOTT MONG the various methods of confolation, to which the miseries infeparable from our present ftate have given occafion, it has been, as I have already remarked, recommended by fome writers to put the fufferer in mind of heavier preffures, and more excruciating calamities, than those of which he has himself reason to complain. This has, in all ages, been directed and practised; and, in conformity to this custom, Lipfius, the great modern mafter of the Stoick philosophy, has, in his celebrated treatise on fteadiness of mind, endeavoured to fortify the breast against too much fenfibility of misfortune, by enumerating the evils which have in former ages fallen upon the world, the devastation of wide-extended regions, the fack of cities, and maffacre of nations. And the common voice of the multitude uninftructed by precept, and unprejudiced by authority, which, in queftions that relate to the heart of man, is, in my opinion, more more decifive than the learning of Lipfius, feems to juftify the efficacy of this procedure; for one of the firft comforts which one neighbour adminifters to another, is a relation of the like infelicity, combined with circumstances of greater bitterness. But this medicine of the mind is like many remedies applied to the body, of which, though we fee the effects, we are unacquainted with the manner of operation, and of which, therefore, fome, who are unwilling to fuppofe any thing out of the reach of their own fagacity, have been inclined to doubt whether they have really thofe virtues for which they are celebrated, and whether their reputation is not the mere gift of fancy, prejudice, and credulity. Confolation, or comfort, are words which, in their proper acceptation, fignify fome alleviation of that pain to which it is not in our power to afford the proper and adequate remedy; they imply rather an augmentation of the power of bearing, than a diminution of the burthen. A prifoner is relieved by him that fets him at liberty, but receives comfort from fuch as fuggeft confiderations by which he is made patient under the inconvenience of confinement. To that grief which arifes from a great lofs, he only brings the true remedy, who makes his friend's condition the fame as before but he may be properly termed a comforter, who by perfuafion extenuates the pain of poverty, and fhews, in the ftyle of Hefiod, that half is more than the whole. It is, perhaps, not immediately obvious, how it can lull the memory of misfortune, or appeafe the throbbings |