no voice but that of neceffity; all thofe who imagine themselves too important to regard him, and confider the mention of his name as an ufurpation of their time; all who are too much or too little pleafed with themselves, to attend to any thing external; all who are attracted by pleasure, or chained down by pain, to unvaried ideas; all who are withheld from attending his triumph by different purfuits; and all who flumber in univerfal negligence; he will find his renown straitened by nearer bounds than the rocks of Caucafus, and perceive that no man can be venerable or formidable, but to a fmall part of his fellow-crea

tures.

That we may not languish in our endeavours after. excellence, it is neceffary, that, as Africanus counfels his defcendant, "we raife our eyes to higher pro"fpects, and contemplate our future and eternal "ftate, without giving up our hearts to the praise "of crowds, or fixing our hopes on fuch rewards as human power can beftow."

NUMB. 119. TUESDAY, May 7, 1751.

AS, notwithstanding all that wit, or malice, or

pride, or prudence, will be able to fuggeft, men and women muft at last pass their lives together, I have never therefore thought thofe writers friends to human happiness, who endeavour to excite in either fex a general contempt or fufpicion of the other. To perfuade them who are entering the world, and looking abroad for a fuitable afsociate, that all are equally vicious, or equally ridiculous; that they who truft are certainly betrayed, and they who esteem are always difappointed; is not to awaken judgment, but to inflame temerity. Without hope there can be no caution. Those who are convinced, that no reafon for preference can be found, will never harass their thoughts with doubt and deliberation; they will refolve, fince they are doomed to misery, that no needlefs anxiety fhall difturb their quiet; they will plunge at hazard into the crowd, and fnatch the first hand that shall be held toward them.

That the world is overrun with vice, cannot be denied; but vice, however predominant, has not

yet

Simple and

yet gained an unlimited dominion. unmingled good is not in our power, but we may generally escape a greater evil by fuffering a lefs; and therefore, those who undertake to initiate the young and ignorant in the knowledge of life, fhould be careful to inculcate the poffibility of virtue and happiness, and to encourage endeavours by prospects of fuccefs.

You, perhaps, do not fufpect, that these are the fentiments of one who has been fubject for many years to all the hardships of antiquated virginity; has been long accustomed to the coldness of neglect, and the petulance of infult; has been mortified in full af femblies by enquiries after forgotten fashions, games long difufed, and wits and beauties of ancient renown; has been invited, with malicious importunity, to the fecond wedding of many acquaintances; has been ridiculed by two generations of coquets in whispers intended to be heard; and been long confidered by the airy and gay, as too venerable for familiarity, and too wife for pleasure. It is indeed natural for injury to provoke anger, and by continual repetition to produce an habitual afperity; yet I have hitherto ftruggled with fo much vigilance against my pride and my refentment, that I have preserved my temper uncorrupted. I have not yet made it any part of my employment to collect fentences against marriage; nor am inclined to leffen the number of the few friends whom time has left me, by obftructing that happinefs which I cannot partake, and venting my vexation in cenfures of the forwardness and indiscretion of girls, or the incon stancy, tastelessness, and perfidy of men.

It is, indeed, not very difficult to bear that condition to which we are not condemned by neceffity, but induced by obfervation and choice; and therefore I, perhaps, have never yet felt all the malignity with which a reproach, edged with the appellation of old maid, fwells fome of thofe hearts in which it is infixed. I was not condemned in my youth to folitude, either by indigence or de formity, nor paffed the earlier part of life without the flattery of courtship, and the joys of triumph. I have danced the round of gaiety amidst the murmurs of envy, and gratulations of applaufe; been attended from pleasure to pleasure by the great, the fprightly, and the vain; and feen my regard folicited by the obfequioufnefs of gallantry, the gaiety of wit, and the timidity of love. If, therefore, I am yet a stranger to nuptial happiness, I fuffer only the confequences of my own refolves, and can look back upon the fucceffion of lovers, whose addreffes I have rejected without grief, and without malice.

When my name first began to be inscribed upon glaffes, I was honoured with the amorous profeffions of the gay Venuftulus, a gentleman, who, being the only fon of a wealthy family, had been educated in all the wantonnefs of expence, and foftnefs of effeminacy. He was beautiful in his perfon, and easy in his addrefs, and, therefore, foon gained upon my eye at an age when the fight is very little over-ruled by the underftanding. He had not any power in himself of gladdening or amufing; but fupplied his want of con. verfation by treats and diverfions; and his chief

art

art of courtship was to fill the mind of his miftrefs with parties, rambles, musick, and fhews. We were often engaged in fhort excurfions to gardens and feats, and I was for a while pleased with the care which Venuftulus difcovered in fecuring me from any appearance of danger, or poffibility of mifchance. He never failed to recommend caution to his coachman, or to promise the waterman a reward if he landed us fafe; and always contrived to return by day-light for fear of robbers. This extraordinary folicitude was represented for a time as the effect of his tenderness for me; but fear is too ftrong for continued hypocrify. I foon difcovered, that Venuftulus had the cowardice as well as elegance of a female. His imagination was perpetually clouded with terrors, and he could fcarcely refrain from screams and outcries at any accidental furprise. He durft not enter a room if a rat was heard behind the wainscot, nor crofs a field where the cattle were frisking in the funfhine; the leaft breeze that waved upon the river was a ftorm, and every clamour in the street was a cry of fire. I have feen him lose his colour when my fquirrel had broke his chain ; and was forced to throw water in his face on the fudden entrance of a black cat. Compaffion once obliged me to drive away with my fan, a beetle that kept him in diftrefs, and chide off a dog that yelped at his heels, to which he would gladly have given up me to facilitate his own escape. Women naturally expect defence and protection from a lover or a husband, and therefore you will not think me culpable in refufing a wretch, who would have burdened life with unneceffary fears, and flown to