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easily sinks into neglect of his affairs; and he that thinks he can afford to be negligent, is not sar from being poor. He will soon be involved in perplexities, which his inexperience will render unsurmountable; he will fly for help to thofe whofe interest it is that he should be more disteflfed, and will be at last torn to pieces by the vultures that always hover over fortunes in decay.

When the plains of India were burnt up by a long continuance, of drought, Hamet and Raschid, two neighbouring shepherds, saint with thirst, stood at the common boundary of their grounds, with their flocks and herds panting round them, and in extremity of distress prayed for water. On a sudden the air was becalmed, the birds ceased to chirp, and the flocks to bleat. They turned their eyes eyery way, and saw a being of mighty stature advancing through the valley, whom they knew upon his nearer approach to be the Genius of distribution. In one hand he held the sheaves of plenty, and in the other the sabre of destruction. The shepherds stood trembling, and would have retired before him; but he called to them with a voice gentle as the breeze that plays in the evening among the spices of Sabæa; '* Fly not from your benesactor, children of the "dust! I am come to offer you gifts, which only "your own folly can make vain. You here pray "for water, and water I will bestow; let me know "with how much you will be satisfied: spe ak not "rashly; consider, that of whatever can be enjoyed M by the body, excess is no less dangerous than "scarcity. When you remember the pain of thirst, "do not forget the danger of suffocation. Now, "Hamet, tell me your request."

"O Being,

"O Being, kind and benesicent," says Harriet, "let thine eye pardon my consusion. I entreat a "little brook, which in summer shall never be dry, "and in winter never overflow." " It is granted," replies the Genius; and immediately he opened the ground with his sabre, and a fountain bubbling up under their seet scattered its rills over the meadows; the flowers renewed their fragrance, the trees spread a greener foliage, and the flocks and herds quenched their thirst.

Then turning to Raschid, the Genius invited him likewise to offer his petition. "I request," says Raschid, " that thou wilt turn the Ganges through "my grounds, with all his waters, and all their in"habitants." Hamet was struck with the greatness of his neighbour's sentiments, and secretly repined in his heart, that he had not made the same petition before him; when the Genius spoke, " Rash "man, be not insatiable! remember, to thee that "is nothing which thou canst not use; and how are "thy wants greater than the wants of Hamet?" Raschid repeated his desire, and pleased himself with the mean appearance that Hamet would make in the presence of the proprietor of the Ganges. The Genius then retired towards the river, and the two shepherds stood waiting the event. As Raschid was looking with contempt upon his neighbour, on a sudden was heard the roar of torrents, and they found by the mighty stream that the mounds of the Gangeswere broken. Tiie flood rolled forward into the lands of Raschid, his plantations were torn up, his flocks overwhelmed, he was swept away before it, and a crocodile devoured him.

Numb. 39. Tuesday, July 31, 1750.

Infilix nulli line nupta marilo. Ar Son:us.

Unblcst, still doom'J to wed with misery.

^~^ H E condition of the semale sex has been frequently the subject of compassion to medical . writers, because their constitution of body is such, that every state of lise brings its peculiar diseases: they are placed according to the proverb between . Scylla and Charybdis, with no other choice than of dangers equally formidable; and whether they em- • brace marriage, or determine upon a single lise, are expofed, in consequence of their choice, to sickness, misery, and death.

It were to be wished that so great a degree of natural inselicity might not be increased by adventitious and artificial miseries; and that beings whofe beauty we cannot behold without admiration^ and whofe delicacy we cannot contemplate without tenderness, might be suffered to enjoy every alleviation of their sorrows. But, however it has happened, the custom of the world seems to have been formed in a kind of conspiracy against them, though it does not appear but they had themselves an equal share in its establishment; and prescriptions which by whomsoever they were begun, are now of long continuance, and by consequence of great authority, seem to have almost excluded them from content,

in whatsoever condition they shall pass their lives.

If

If they resuse the society of men, and continue in that state which is reasonably suppofed to place happiness most in their own power, they seldom give thofe that frequent their conversation, any eKalted notions of the blessing of liberty; for whether it be that they are angry to see with what inconsiderate eagerness other heedless semales rush into slavery, or with what absurd vanity the married ladies boast the change of their condition, and condemn the heroines who endeavour to assert the natural dignity of their lex; whether they are conscious that like barren countries they are free, only because they were never thought to deserve the trouble of a conquest, or imagine that their sincerity is not always unsuspected, when they declare their contempt of men; it is certain, that they generally appear to have some great and incessant cause os uneasiness, and that many of them have at lalt been persuaded, by powerful rhetoricians, to try the lise which they had so long contemned, and put on the biidal ornaments at a time when they least berime them.

What are the real causes of the impatience which the ladies discover in a virgin state, I hhall perhaps take some other occasion to examine. That it is not to be envied for its happiness, appears from the solicitude with which it is avoided; from the opinion universally prevalent among the sex, that no woman continues long in it but because she is not invited to forsake it; from the disposition always shewn to treat old maids as the resuse of the world; and from the willingness with which it is often quitted at last, by thofe whofe experience has enabled

abled them to judge at leisure, and decide with authority.

Yet such is lise, that whatever is propofed, it is much easier to find reasons for rejecting than embracing. Marriage, though a certain security from the reproach and solitude of antiquated virginity, has yet, as it is usually conducted, many difadvantages, that take away much from the pleasure which society promises, and might afford, is pleasures and pains were honestly shared, and mutual confidence inviolably preserved.

The miseries, indeed, which many ladies suffer under conjugal vexations, are to be considered with great pity, because their husbands are often not taken by them as objects of affection, but forced upon them by authority and violence, or by persuasion and importunity, equally resistless when urged by thofe whom they have been always accustomed to reverence and obey; and it very seldom appears, that thofe who are thus despotick in the disposal of their children, pay any regard to their domestick and personal selicity, or think it so much to be enquired whether they will be happy, as whether they will be rich.

It may be urged, in extenuation of this crime, which parents, not in any other respect to be numbered with robbers and assassins, frequently commit, that, in their estimation, riches and happiness are equivalent terms. They have passed their lives with no other wish than that of adding acre to acre, and silling one bag aster another, and imagine the advantage of a daughter sufficiently considered, when they have secured her a large jointure, and given her 6 reasonable

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