sleep in tranquillity when it roared the loudest. If ever then you give way to the transports of anger, let it be extremely rare, and never but upon the highest provocation.

SERVANTS TO BE USED WITH LENITY.

If your domestics fall sick in your service, remember you are their patron, as well as their master; and let your humanity flow freely for their preservation; not only remit their labors, but let them have all the assistance of food and physic which the malady requires.

Again, never let your ear be too curious in listening to their conversation. Passages will sometimes occur amongst the best servants, that will argue much levity and little respect; yet are void of rancor; and, as not expected to be overheard, are not fit for your notice or resentment.

In one word, rather exceed your contract with them, than make the least abatement; what is a trifle to you, is of importance to them; and nothing is more reasonable, than to let them be gainers, in proportion to the time they have spent in your service. As we would advise you to keep them close to their business, so we recommend it to you likewise to indulge them, now and then, in certain hours of recreation. Their lives, as well as ours, ought to have their intervals of sunshine; it keeps them in temper, health, and spirits; and is really their due in equity, though you may, politically, bestow it as an act of grace. To conclude on this head, if they have any peculiar whims in their devotions, leave their consciences free; you may take what care you please of their moral conduct; but, in their opinions, they are accountable to none but God themselves.

CHOICE OF A WIFE.

First, with regard to marriage itself. If you incline to venture on this critical state, we charge you to look upon it as a point on which your whole happiness and prosperity depend, and make your choice with a becoming gravity and concern. We charge you, likewise, with equal earnestness, if, by ill fortune or ill conduct, your affairs should be in ruins, not to make marriage an expedient to repair them. We do not know a worse kind of hypocrisy than to draw in the innocent and unsuspecting, by false appearances, to make but one step from ease and affluence, to all the disappointment, shame, and misery of a broken fortune. If, therefore, you must sink, sink alone; nor load yourself with the intolerable reflection, that you have undone a woman who trusted you, and entailed misery on your offspring, who may have reason to look on you with abhorrence, for having cursed them with being.

Till, therefore, you are not only in a thriving way yourself, but have a fair prospect that wed lock will, at least, be no encumbrance to your fortune, never suffer yourself to think of it at all. The portions received with wives, pay so large an interest, by the increase of family expenses, that, in the end, the husband can hardly be said to be a gainer. Do not be deceived, therefore, with that bait; but build on your own bottom; and calculate your charge, as if there was no such thing as a fortune to be depended upon at all.

Which done, proceed in your choice on the following rational principles.

Let her be of a family not vain of their name, or wealth, or connexions; those additions on her side, being certain matter of insult to defects on yours; but remarkable for their simplicity of manners, and integrity of life. Let her own character be clear and spotless, and all her pride be founded on her innocence.

BEAUTY.

Let her also be alike free from deformity and hereditary diseases; the one being always, and the other often entailed on the breed, and witnessing the father's indiscretion from generation to generation. Neither fix your eyes on a celebrated beauty it is a property hard to possess, and harder to secure. To such a one a husband is but an appendix: she will not only rule, but tyrannize; and the least demur to the most capricious of her humors, will be attended with the keenest upbraidings and invectives, the most cordial repentance that she threw herself away on one so insensible of the honor he had received, and the most sincere resolutions to make herself amends by the first opportunity.

But do not, for these reasons, wholly despise harmony of shape, or elegance of features. Women are called the fair sex, and, therefore, some degree of beauty is supposed almost indispensable. No doubt, it is the first object of desire, and what greatly contributes to continue it fresh and undecaying. It is, likewise, often seen to be derived from the mother to the child; and, therefore, as an accomplishment universally admired and coveted, to be esteemed worthy the caresses of the wise, as well as the pursuit of the libertine for a prey.

M

GOOD NATURE.

What we call good nature, is another ingredient of such importance in a matrimonial state, that, without it, the concord can never be complete, or the enjoyment sincere. On which account, it is both allowable, and even expedient, to make some experiments beforehand, on the temper that is to blend or ferment for life with your own. If you find it fickle and wavering, she will sometimes storm like March, and sometimes weep like April, not only with cause, but for want of it; if sluggish and insensible, her whole life will be a dead calm of insipidity, without joy for your prosperity, concern for your misfortunes, or spirit to assist in preventing the one, or forwarding the other; if testy and quarrelsome, you will cherish a hornet in your bosom, and feel its sting every other moment in your heart; or, if morose and sullen, your dwelling will be melancholy as a charnel-house; and you will be impatient for a funeral, though almost indifferent whether hers or your own. But you must not be too scrupulously exact in this scrutiny; there are none of these jewels without flaws, and the very best method of enduring their faults, is to remove your own.

A GOOD MANAGER.

This, however, bear always in mind, that, if she is not frugal, if she is not what is called a good manager, if she does not pique herself on her knowledge of family affairs, and laying out money to the best advantage, let her be ever so sweetly tempered, gracefully made, or elegantly accomplished,

she is no wife for a man of business; and all those otherwise amiable talents, will but open just as many ways to ruin. We remember, on the wedding night of an acquaintance, where we were guests, a motion was made, to pass an hour at an old game called Pictures and Mottoes; the manner of which, is for every person in turn, as he is called, to furnish out a device for the painter, with a short sentence, by way of explanation. The bride began it, and addressed herself first to her husband; who readily gave for his conceit, "A yoke of oxen," and for his motto, "Let us draw equally." This is the only true condition of matrimony; and nothing is more reasonable than that, as one has the whole burden of getting money, the other should make economy her principal study, in order to preserve it.

PORTION.

In the affair of portion, as, on the one hand, your conduct ought to be provident and wary; so, on the other, it ought to be genteel and noble. Nothing can be more sordid, than to bargain for a wife, as you would for a horse, and advance or demur in your suit, as interest rose or fell; and if she you solicit should betray too strong an attachment to the like mercenary motives, be assured she is too selfish to make either a fast friend, a decent wife, or a tender parent. Fly from such, therefore, the moment the bargaining spirit displays itself. But do not fly to one who has nothing but beauty, or, if you please, affection, to recommend her! A fair wife with empty pockets, is like a noble house without furniture, showy, but useless; as an odious one with abundance, resembles fat land in the