"There is a spot of earth supremely blest, "A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest; "Where man, creation's tyrant casts aside "His sword and sceptre, pagantry and pride, "While in his softened looks benignly blend "The sire, the son, the husband, father, friend : "Here woman reigns, the mother, daughter, wife, "Strews with fresh flowers the narrow way of life, "In the clear heaven of her delightful eye, "An angel guard of loves and graces lie; "Around her knees, domestic duties meet, "And fire-side pleasures gambol at her feet."

I was ready to hope I had secured this bliss, but now I am compelled to exclaim

"Where shall that place, that spot of earth be

found?

"I'm man, a patriot too! and look around;

But cannot find, howe'er my footsteps roam, "That wife so kind, nor that sweet spot my home.

Though all without looks dark, and my lot presents a forbidding aspect, yet I feel a conviction that marriage is a duty, where there is a probability of support. A duty that we owe to nature, to our country, to society,

1

and to the direction of our Maker. I lay down no certain and fixed rule for happiness on earth, or to or to judge with any precision of the happiness of others by any external circumstances. Though I assert it is an equal duty to marry only a virtuous woman; and for this purpose I ought to have availed myself of the counsel of the wise to direct my choice.

Admitting this principle, observe J have learnt, that if neither the man nor the woman has any more discernment than to know where the church stands on the bridal day; if no genius, no taste, but they have money, and that senseless thing must go first, they must hobble after it. For what affection can they have for each other, what a stupid, insipid, useless life, when neither benevolence nor kindness can be felt or scen.

"Call not that pair bless'd,

Whose wisdom is not found at home.",

I have noticed also that if the gentleman is going down the hill, when

the lady is coming up, it is impossible that they should be companions, when the hill is between them. Or if one

is passionate, and the other revengeful, or both are passionate, and neither have any forbearance, reproach, bitter invectives, vipers will arise!

Still working when they seem opprest,
A most tenacious stubborn guest.

I have observed also, when they choose each other, their is no strife for mastery; because neither avarice, nor craft, nor parents have made the bargain while they stood by.

"Happier she, who in love's tranquil bow'r, "Clasps the sweet prize of conquest, not the pow'r, "Who while one gaze her charms to all prefers, "And one warm heart returns the warmth of hers, "They please but one and seek but one to please."

I had been told, that nature has given us an index in the face of what is within. Therefore it was my object to look at the sign before I made the bargain, or formed the coalition. My wife had not the large lip, which is

my

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said to favour the drone, nor had she the huge hanging under lip, the eneof all order and neatness. But "I fancied a thin pair of lips making good joints, are usually wrought of good stuff, well tempered by nature, " and honed to a razor's edge;*" but I found to touch them was to be cut, and for my sake let every man who is about to marry observe this, and

Exert his penetration's utmost force,
And trace each passion to its proper source.

For

"Some persons with themselves so disagree, "Theyr'e fix'd to nothing, but uncertainty; "They are so fickle that they cannot please, "With too much spirit e'er to be at ease, "With too much quickness ever to be taught, "With too much thinking to have

thought."

common

Beside, such was the fruit of pas

* Dr. Franklin.

sion in its first traces, that one of my younger children stood like a young rook in hot weather, with his mouth half open, his wings half extended, and so impregnated with the heat of the atmosphere, that like a rook he was incapable of defining a word.

Terrific indeed was the day to peace and hope, when the cloud of the eye, the visible curl of the nose, the awful storm of the brow in the morning, said all which the thunders of the tongue could have uttered.

Ah! frail life, the peace of which
One frail creature can destroy.

I was alway concerned to have a wife with an inventive faculty, a few oddities 1 could overlook, as a few swells in honey; but her invention was to get over every thing for the present. So the stocking must be dragged to the extremity of the toe, and again re-placed under the sole of the foot, to lower and conceal the small but growing circle behind.