"thing which thou canst not use; and how are thy "wants greater than the wants of Hamet?" Rafchid repeated his defire, and pleafed himself with the mean appearance that Hamet would make in the prefence of the proprietor of the Ganges. The Genius then retired towards the river, and the two fhepherds ftood waiting the event. As Rafchid was

looking with contempt upon his neighbour, on a fudden was heard the roar of torrents, and they found by the mighty ftream that the mounds of the Ganges were broken. The flood rolled forward into the lands of Rafchid, his plantations were torn up, his flocks overwhelmed, he was fwept away before it, and a crocodile devoured him,

NUMB. 39. TUESDAY, July 31, 1750.

Infelix

nulli bene nupta marito.

AVSONIUS,

Unbleft, still doom'd to wed with mifery.

HE condition of the female fex has been fre

Tquently the fubject of compaffion to medical

writers, because their conftitution of body is fuch, that every state of life brings its peculiar difeafes: they are placed, according to the proverb, between Scylla and Charybdis, with no other choice than of dangers equally formidable; and whether they embrace marriage, or determine upon a single life, are expofed, in confequence of their choice, to fickness, mifery, and death.

It were to be wifhed that fo great a degree of natural infelicity might not be increafed by adventitious and artificial miferies; and that beings whose beauty we cannot behold without admiration, and whofe delicacy we cannot contemplate without ten

derness

derness, might be fuffered to enjoy every alleviation of their forrows. But, however it has happened, the cuftom of the world feems 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 whomfoever they were begun, are now of long continuance, and by confequence of great authority, feem to have almoft excluded them from content, in whatfoever condition they fhall pafs their lives.

If they refuse the fociety of men, and continue in that state which is reafonably fuppofed to place happiness moft in their own power, they feldom give thofe that frequent their converfation, any exalted notions of the bleffing of liberty; for whether it be that they are angry to fee with what inconfiderate eagerness other heedlefs females rufh into flavery, or with what abfurd vanity the married ladies boaft the change. of their condition, and condemn the heroines who endeavour to affert the natural dignity of their fex; whether they are confcious that like barren countries they are free, only because they were never thought to deserve the trouble of a conqueft, or ima→ gine that their fincerity is not always unfuspected, when they declare their contempt of men; it is certain, that they generally appear to have fome great and inceffant caufe of uneafinefs, and that many of them have at last been perfuaded, by powerful rhetoricians, to try the life which they had fo long contemned, and put on the bridal ornaments at a time when they leaft became them.

What are the real caufes of the impatience which the ladies difcover in a virgin ftate, I fhall perhaps take fome other occafion to examine, That it is not to be envied for its happiness, appears from the folicitude with which it is avoided; from the opinion univerfally prevalent among the fex, that no woman continues long in it but becaufe fhe is not invited

to

to forfake it; from the difpofition always fhewn to treat old maids as the refuse of the world; and from the willingness with which it is often quitted at last, by thofe whofe experience has enabled them to judge at leifure, and decide with authority.

Yet fuch is life, that whatever is propofed, it is much easier to find reafons for rejecting than embracing. Marriage, though a certain fecurity from the reproach and folitude of antiquated virginity, has yet, as it is ufually conducted, many difadvantages, that take away much from the pleafure which fociety promises, and might afford, if pleasures and. pains were honeftly fhared, and mutual confidence inviolably preserved.

The miferies, indeed, which many ladies fuffer under conjugal vexations, are to be confidered 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 perfuafion and importunity, equally refiftlefs when urged by thofe whom they have been always accuftomed to reverence and obey; and it very feldom appears, that those who are thus defpotick in the difpofal of their children, pay any regard to their domeftick and perfonal felicity, or think it fo 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 refpect to be numbered with robbers and affaffins, frequently commit, that, in their eftimation, riches and happiness are equivalent terms. They have paffed their lives with no other wish than that of adding acre to acre, and filling one bag after another, and imagine the advantage of a daughter fufficiently confidered, when they have fecured her a large jointure, and given her reafonable expectations of living in the midft of those pleasures,

pleasures, with which fhe had feen her father and mother folacing their age.

There is an oeconomical oracle received among the prudential part of the world, which advises fathers to marry their daughters left they fhould marry themfelves; by which I suppose it is implied that women left to their own conduct, generally unite themfelves with fuch partners as can contribute very little to their felicity. Who was the author of this maxim, or with what intention it was originally uttered, I have not yet discovered; but imagine that however folemnly it may be transmitted, or however implicitly received, it can confer no authority which nature has denied, it cannot license Titius to be unjust, left Caia fhould be imprudent; nor give right to imprifon for life, left liberty fhould be ill employed.

That the ladies have fometimes incurred imputations which might naturally produce edicts not much in their favour, muft be confeffed by their warmest advocates; and I have indeed feldom obferved, that when the tenderness or virtue of their parents has preferved them from forced marriage, and left them at large to chufe their own path in the labyrinth of life, they have made any great advantage of their liberty: They commonly take the opportunity of independence to trifle away youth and lofe their bloom in a hurry of diverfions, recurring in a fucceffion too quick to leave room for any fettled reflection; they see the world without gaining experience, and at laft regulate their choice by motives trifling as thofe of a girl, or mercenary as those of a miser.

Melanthia came to town upon the death of her father, with a very large fortune, and with the reputation of a much larger; fhe was therefore followed and careffed by many men of rank, and by fome of understanding; but having an infatiable defire of pleasure, he was not at leifure, from the park, the gardens, the theatres, vifits, affemblies, and

maf

mafquerades, to attend seriously to any propofal, but was still impatient for a new flatterer, and neglected marriage as always in her power; till in time her admirers fell away, wearied with expence, difgufted at her folly, or offended by her inconftancy; fhe heard of concerts to which she was not invited, and was more than once forced to fit ftill at an affembly, for want of a partner. In this distress, chance threw in her way Philotryphus, a man vain, glittering, and thoughtless as herself, who had spent a fmall fortune in equipage and drefs, and was fhining in the last suit for which his taylor would give him credit. He had been long endeavouring to retrieve his extravagance by marriage, and therefore foon paid his court to Melanthia, who after fome weeks of infenfibility faw him at a ball, and was wholly overcome by his performance in a minuet. They married; but a man cannot always dance, and Philotryphus had no other method of pleasing: however, as neither was in any great degree vitious, they live together with no other unhappiness, than vacuity of mind, and that taftelesness of life, which proceeds from a fatiety of juvenile pleasures, and an utter inability to fill their place by nobler employments. As they have known the fashionable world at the fame time, they agree in their notions of all those subjects on which they ever speak, and being able to add nothing to the ideas of each other, are not much inclined to converfation, but very often join in one wifh, That they could fleep more, and think ❝lefs."

Argyris, after having refused a thousand offers, at laft confented to marry Cotylus, the younger brother of a duke, a man without elegance of mien, beauty of perfon, or force of understanding; who, while he courted her, could not always forbear allufions to her birth, and hints how cheaply fhe would purchase an alliance to fo illuftrious a family. His

conduct