their work, or their housewisery. No sooner was I placed at table, than the young lady was called upon to pay me some civility or other; nor" could I find means of escaping, from either sather or mother, some account of their daughters excellencies, with a declaration that they were now leaving the world, and had no business on this fide the grave, but to see their children happily dispofed of; that she whom I had been pleased to compliment at table, was indeed the chief pleasure of their age, so good, so dutisul, so great a relief to her mamma in the care of the house, and so much her papa's savourite for her cheersulness and wit, that it would be with the last reluctance that they should part; but to a worthy gentleman in the neighbourhood, whom they might often visit, they would not so sar consult their own gratification, as to resuse her; and their tenderness should be shewn in her fortune, whenever a suitable settlement was propofed.

As I knew these overtures not to proceed from any preserence of me before another equally rich, I could not but look with pity on young persons condemned to be set to auction, and made cheap by injudicious commendations; for how could they know themselves osfered and rejected a hundred times, without some lofs of that soft elevation, and maiden dignity, so necessary to the completion of semale excellence?

I shall not trouble you with a history of the stratagems practised upon my judgment, or the allurements tried upon my heart, which, if you have, in any part of your lise, been acquainted with rural Q^3 Doliticks,

politicks, you will easily conceive. Their arts hare no great variety, they think nothing worth their care but money, and supposing its influence the fame upon all the world, seldom endeavour to deceive by any other means than false computations.

I will not deny that, by hearing myself loudly commended for my discretion, I began to set some value upon my character, and was unwilling to lose my credit by marrying for love. I theresore resolved to know the fortune of the lady whom I should address, besore I enquired aster her wit, delicacy, or beauty.

This determination led me to Mitiffa, the daughter of Chryfophilus, whofe person was at least without desormity, and whofe manners were free from reproach, as she had been bred up at a distance from all common temptations. To Mitiffa theresore I obtained leave from her parents to pay my court, and was reserred by her again to her father, whole direction she was resolved to follow. The question then was, only, what should be settled. The old gentleman made an enormous demand, with which I resused to comply. Mitisfa was ordered to exert her power; she told me, that is I could resuse her papa, I had no love for her; that she was an unhappy creature, and that I was a perfidious man; then she burst into tears, and sell into sits. All this, as I was no passionate lover, had little effect. She next resused to see me, and because 1 thought myself obliged to write in terms of distress, they had once hopes of starving me into measures; but finding me inflexible, the father complied with my propofal,

pofal, and told me he liked me the more for being so good at a bargain.

I was now married to Mitissa, and was to experience the happiness of a match made without passion. Mitissa soon discovered, that she was equally prudent with myself, and had taken a husoand 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 occasion, her chief agent and directress. They soon invented one reason or other, to quarrel with all my servants, and either prevailed on me to turn them away, or treated them so ill, that they left me of themselves, and always supplied their places with some brought from my wise's relations. Thus they established a samily, over which I had no authority, and which was in a perpetual conspiracy against me; for Mitissa considered herself as having a separate interest, and thought nothing her own, but what ihe laid up without my knowledge. For this reason she brought me salse 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 soliciting 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 some improvements of her jointure land, and once tried to procure an injunction to hinder me from selling timber upon it for repairs. Her sather and mother assist her in her projects, and are frequently hinting that she is ill used, and re

Q^4 proaching

proaching me with the presents that other ladies receive from their husbands.

Such, Sir, was my situation for seven years, rill at last my patience was exhausted, and having one day invited her father to my house, I laid the st^te of my affairs besore him, detected my wise in several of her frauds, turned out her steward, charged a constable with her maid, took my business in my own hands, reduced her to a settled allowance, and now write this account to warn others against marrying thofe whom they have no reason to esteem.

I am, &c.

Numb. $6. Saturday, July ai, 1750.

"As* ivtWo "finis

. Piping on their reeds, the shepherds go,

Nor sear an ambufli, nor suspect a foe. Port.

THERE is scarcely any species of poetry that has allured more readers, or excited more writers, than the pastoral. It is generally pleasing, because it entertains the mind with representations of scenes familiar to almost every imagination, and of which all can equally judge whether they are well described. It exhibits a lise, to which we have been always accustomed to associate peace, and leisure, and innocence: and theresore we readily set open the heart, for the admission of its images, which contribute

tribute to drive away cares and perturbations, and sufser ourselves, without resistance, to be transported to elysian regions, where we are to meet with nothing but joy, and plenty, and contentment; where every gale whispers pleasure, and every shade promises repofe.

It has been maintained by some, who love to talk of what they do not know, that pastoral is the most ancient poetry; and indeed, since it is probable that poetry is nearly of the same antiquity with rational nature, and since the lise of the first men was certainly rural, we may reasonably conjecture, that, as their ideas would necessarily be borrowed from those objects with which they were acquainted, their compofures, being filled chiefly with such thoughts on the visible creation as must occur to the first observers, were pastoral hymns, like thofe which Milton introduces the original pair singing, in the day of innocence, to the praise of their Maker.

For the same reason that pastoral 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 lise; and are pleased with birds, and brooks, and breezes, much earlier than we engage among the actions and passions of mankind. We are therefore delighted with rural pictures, because we know the original at an age when our curiosity can be very little awakened, by descriptions of courts which we never beheld, or representations of passion which we- never selt.

The satissaction received from this kind of writing not only begins early, but lasts long; we do 5 not,