away as water under a bridge. Afk him what he has done with his morning, he knows nothing about it; for he has lived without one reflection upon his existence. He fleeps as long as it is poffible to fleep, dreffes flowly, amufes himfelf in chat with the first person who calls upon him, and takes feveral turns in his room 'till dinner; dinner is ferved up; and the evening will be spent as unprofitable as the morning, and his whole life as this day. Such a wretch is good for nothing: it is only pride that can fupport him in a life fo worthlefs, and fo much beneath the character of a man.

A

ORIGIN

OF THE

Grey Mare's being the better Horse.

Gentleman of a certain county in England

having married a young lady of confiderable fortune, and with many other charms, yet finding, in a very fhort time, that she was of a high domineering fpirit, and always contending to be mistress of him and his family, he was refolved to part with her. Accordingly, he went to her father, and told him, he found his daughter of fuch a temper,

D

a temper, and fo heartily tired of her, that if he would take her home again, he would return every penny of her fortune.

The old gentleman having enquired into the cause of his complaint, asked him, "why he should be more difquieted at it than any other married man, fince it was the common cafe with them all, and confequently no more than he ought to have expected when he entered into the married ftate?" The young gentleman defired to be excufed, if he faid he was so far from giving his afsent to this afsertion, that he thought himself more unhappy than any other man, as his wife had a spirit no way to be quelled; and as most certainly no man, who had a sense of right and wrong, could ever submit to be governed by his wife." "Son, (faid the old man) you are but little acquainted with the world, if you do not know that all women govern their hufbands, though not all, indeed, by the fame method: however, to end all difputes between us, I will put what I have faid on this proof, if you are willing to try it: I have five horses in my ftable; you fhall harness these to a cart, in which I fhall put a basket containing one hundred eggs; and if, in paffing through the county, and making a ftri&t enquiry into the truth or falfhood of my affertion, and leaving a horfe at the house of

every man who is mafter of his family himself, and an egg only where the wife governs, you will find your eggs gone before your horfes; I hope you will then think your own cafe not uncommon, but will be contented to go home, and look upon your own wife as no worse than her neighbours. If, on the other hand, your horfes are gone first, I will take my daughter home again, and you fhall keep her fortune."

This propofal was too advantageous to be rejected; our young married man, therefore, set out with great eagerness to get rid, as he thought, of his horfes and his wife.

At the first house he came to, he heard a woman with a fhrill and angry voice, call to her husband to go to the door. Here he left an egg, you may be fure, without making any further enquiry; at the next he met with fomething of the fame kind; and at every house, in fhort, until his eggs were almoft gone, when he arrived at the feat of a gentleman of family and figure in the county he knocked at the door, and enquiring for the master of the house, was told, by a fervant, that his master was not yet ftirring, but, if he pleased to walk in, his lady was in the parlour. The lady, with great complaifance, defired him to feat himself, and faid,

1

if his bufinefs was very urgent, fhe would wake her husband to let him know it, but had much rather not disturb him. "Why, really, Madam, (faid he) my bufinefs is only to afk a queftion, which, you can refolve as well as your husband, if you will be ingenuous with me: you will, doubtlefs, think it odd, and it may be deemed impolite for any one, much more a stranger, to ask fuch a queftion; but as a very confiderable wager depends upon it, and it may be fome advantage to yourself to declare the truth to me, I hope these confiderations will plead my excufe.--It is, Madam, to defire to be informed, whether you govern your husband, or he rules over you?" "Indeed, Sir, (replied the lady) this question is fomewhat odd; but, as I think no one ought to be afhamed of doing their duty, I fhall make no fcruple to fay, that I have been always proud to obey my husband in all things; but, if a woman's own word is to be fufpected, in fuch a cafe, let him answer for me: for here he comes..

The gentleman at that moment entering the room, and, after fome apologies, being made acquainted with the bufinefs, confirmed every word his obedient wife had reported in her own favour; upon which he was invited to choose which horfe in the team he liked beft, and to accept of it as a prefent.

A black gelding ftruck the fancy of the gentle-. man moft; but the lady defired he would choose

the grey mare, which, fhe thought, would be very fit for her fide-faddle; her hufband gave fubftantial reafons why the black horfe would be moft ufeful to them; but Madam ftill prefifted in her claim to the grey mare. "What (faid fhe) and

will

you not take her then? But I fay you fhall; for I am fure the grey mare is much the better horfe." "Well, my dear, (replied the husband). if it must be fo"-" You must take an egg (replied. the gentleman carter) and I must take all my horfes back again, and endeavour to live happy with my wife."

A SINGULAR CATASTROPHE

OF A

Genoefe Nobleman and his Lady.

THE

HERE lived not long fince, in Genoa, a young Nobleman, named Marini, who had a large eftate in the ifland of Corfica, whither he went every five or fix years, to regulate his affairs. At the age of five and twenty he was married to a beautiful lady, the daughter of a Venetian Senator, called Monimia, who had refused the greatest matches in Italy, to prefer the fortunate Marini.

As