much business made him negligent in his habit, but now there is no young lover so nice in the care of his person. One who asked him why he was so long washing his mouth, and so delicate in the choice and wearing of his linen, was answered, "Because there is a woman of merit obliged to receive me kindly, and I think it incumbent on me to make her inclination go along with her duty."

If a man would give himself leave to think, he would not be so unreasonable as to expect debauchery and innocence could live in commerce together; or hope that flesh and blood is capable of so strict an alliance, as that a fine woman must go on to improve herself, till she is as good as an angel, only to preserve a fidelity to a brute and a satyr.

Tom Whiffle married a wife by the command of his father, because the match was on some particular accounts convenient to the family affairs. The lady was then very young, and as her choice was not in the least consulted, she did not think much about it. She knew that her new husband was not the object of her love, but did not immediately know how much he deserved to be hated. As her education had been carefully virtuous and her principles untainted, she considered assiduously the merits of her spouse, and endeavoured to find something amiable in a man, to whom virtue did not permit her to be any longer indifferent. She mistook, so great was her simplicity and inexperience, the transports of the first enjoyment for the pledges of mutual tenderness and future happiness. He begins very soon to consider her as an incumbrance, and is easily disgusted at her person, which novelty at first only recommended; and from thence begins to quarrel with her fondness and esteem for him, because they take from him all pretence of hating her. She is frightened and alarmed at so strange and unreasonable a sourness of temper; she is loth to believe or understand it; but his inhumanity grows too plain to be mistaken any longer. She contents herself, however, in the midst of her distresses, with the consciousness of her

own virtue; a sublime and noble satisfaction! She is grieved for her husband, but does not hate him; she is less seen abroad and less visited at home; applies herself to the concerns of her family, and a stricter guard over her actions; still meets her husband even with a smile, and suffers her. self to be hourly insulted by the follies which he brings home with him, without breaking out into the justest rage and reproaches. With what words can I sufficiently applaud such charming discretion, or how exclaim against the ill-discerning world, who are silent in her praise, whilst they extol the husband as the mirror of modern gallantry, and the perfect model of a fine gentleman!

I doubt not but the frequent reflections upon marriage and innocent love, with which the theatre has long abounded, have been the great cause of corrupt sentiments in this respect. It is not every youth that can behold the fine gentleman of the comedy represented with a peculiar good grace, leading a loose and profligate life, and condemning virtuous affection as insipid, and not be secretly emulous of what appears so amiable to a whole audience. These gay pictures make lasting impressions on the imaginations of youth; and are hardly to be erased in riper years, unless a commerce between virtuous and innocent lovers be painted with the same advantage, and in as lively colours, by the most masterly hands.