as that of being our own executioners. We know the worst that can happen in supporting life under all its most wretched circum→ ftances and if we should be mistaken in thinking itour duty to endure aload, which in truth we may fecurely lay down; it is an error extremely limited in its confequences. They cannot extend beyond this prefent existence, and poffibly may end much earlier: whereas no mortal can, with the leaft degree of affurance, pronounce what may not be the effects of acting agre→ ably to the contrary opinion. I am, &c.

I

LETTER XXIII.

To CLYTAN de r.

Sept. 23, 1733. AM by no means in the fentiments of that Grecian of your acquaintance, who as often as he was preffed to marry, replied either that it was too foon or too late; and I think my favorite author, the fenfible Montaigne, a little too fevere when he obferves upon this story, qu'il faut refufer l'opportunité à toute action importune: for,

higher

3

bigber of the genial bed by far, And with mysterious reverence I deem.

MILTON.

However, I am not adventurous enough to join with thofe friends you mention, who are foliciting you, it feems, to look out for an engagement of this kind. It is an union which requires fo much delicacy in the cementing it is a commerce where fo many nice circumstances must concur to render it fuccefsful, that I would not venture to pronounce of any two perfons, that they are qualified for each other.

I Do not know a woman in the world who seems more formed to render a man of fenfe and generofity happy in this state, than Amafia: yet I fhould fcarcely have courage to recommend even Amafia to my friend: You have seen her, I dare fay, a thousand times; but I am perfuaded the never attracted your particular obfervation: for she is in the number of thofe who are ever overlooked in a crowd. As often as I converfe with her, fhe puts me in mind of the golden age: there is an innocency and fimplicity in all her words and actions, that equals any thing the poets have defcribed of thofe pure and artlefs

H 4

artless times. Indeed the greateft part of her life has been spent much in the fame way as the early inhabitants of the world, in that blameless period of it, ufed, we are told, to dispose of theirs; under the shade and shelter of her own venerable oaks, and in those rural amusements which are fure to produce a confirmed habit both of health and chearfulness. Amafia never faid, or attempted to fay, a fprightly thing in all her life; but fhe has done ten thousand generous ones: and if fhe is not the most confpicuous figure at an affembly, she never envied or maligned thofe who are. Her heart is all tenderness and benevolence: no success ever attended any of her acquaintance, which did not fill her bofom with the most difinterested complacency; as no misfortune ever reached her knowledge, that she did not relieve or participate by her generofity. If ever the fhould fall into the hands of a man she loves (and I am perfuaded the would esteem it the worst kind of prostitution to refign herself into any other) her whole life would be one continued feries of kindness and compliance. The humble opinion she has of her own

uncommon

uncommon merit, would make her fo much the more fenfible of her husband's; and thofe little fubmiffions on his fide, which a woman of more pride and spirit would confider only as a claim of right, would be esteemed by Amafia as so many additional motives to her love and gratitudè.

But if I dwell any longer upon this amiable picture, I may be in danger, perhaps, of refembling that ancient artist who grew enamored of the production of his own pencil: for my fecurity, therefore, as well as to put an end to your trouble, it will be beft, I believe, to stop here. I am, &c.

I

LETTER XXIV.

To ORONTES.

WAS apprehenfive my laft had given you but too much occafion of recollecting the remark of one of your admired antients, that "the art of eloquence is taught "by man, but it is the gods alone that infpire the wisdom of filence." That wifdom, however, you are not willing I fhould

yet

yet practice; and you must needs, it seems, have my farther, fentiments upon the fubject of Oratory, Be it then as my friend requires; but let him remember, it is a hazardous thing to put fome men' upon talking on a favorite topic.

ONE of the moft pleafing exercises of the imagination, is that wherein the is ployed in comparing diftinct ideas, and difcovering their various refemblances. There is no fingle perception of the mind that is not capable of an infinite number of confiderations in reference to other objects; and it is in the novelty and variety of these unexpected connections, that the richness of a writer's genius is chiefly displayed. A vigorous and lively fancy does not tamely confine itself to the idea which lies before it, but looks beyond the immediate object of its contemplation, and obferves how it ftands in conformity with numberless others. It is the prerogative of the human mind thus to bring its images together, and compare the several circumftances of fimilitude that attend them. By this means eloquence exercises a kind of magic power; fhe can raife innumerable beauties from the most barren fubjects, and