wife; away with your projects, let us go on in my own way, for I cannot do in any other, and I am sure it will do for the present.

Alas! man oft projects in vain!

And my trouble is to see the whole house against me. They cry put off, away with reformation, and so says the sinner. I confess it tries my spirits to the utmost, when I see we are to brew and wash, and "have company in one week, "to fetch coals in seed time or in har"vest, and to be thrashing old grain, to "make room for new; or merely to kill "the rats and mice, when we should be "reaping; to set off on a journey, when it "is about time to prepare for returning." I cannot think who dared to invent the galling sentence, it will do for the present. Surely the inventor had forgot that

Many acrid drops make a calamitous flood.

The inventor would certainly have done less injury to Britain, if he had left it to sit astride the Alps. For my children up with one doll, and down with another, one naked and another

dressed for the present; just as my wife shuffles on her shoes for the present, or the wrong petticoat uppermost, and her hair dishevelled for the present. Or for the present Russel must run for a washtray, Marjery for a mash, and John for scales to weigh sugar or fruit. Thus for the present wearing other people's utensils, losing the time of our servants by a gossip on the way, or at the end of the journey; and neglecting to encourage tradesmen until our servants bring a message from the proprietor, that we had better keep the scales, for we are sure to want them first. But then for the present, if there was a shower of these necessaries, we cannot keep a compleat set of them clean and dry, that no time may be lost, nor can we keep them in their places, that we may readily find them.

"All below is short lived ease, or tiresome pain."

To-day I drew on a pair of stockings, one black and the other brown, I soon perceived that the mending began was not finished, therefore, the first half of the work was totally lost, for the want of the last; nay, the whole was made worse: larger and wider for the present.

What can I do? If the inventor of it will do for the present, was astride the highest weathercock in Britain, he might be safely taken down, but I am afraid I never shall be rid of this tormentor. To turn away all my servants would be to bring a new class under the same discipline to their ruin. Sometimes I could almost wish for my sake, the old British rule was renewed, to give up all our wives at an appointed period, and husbands blindfold to take the first female he met with

I found the evils of life vary, for say and think what I could, many evils infested my private life; as sometimes I was the perfect slave to servants, with whom I had trusted my affairs; at other times I was left in continual anxiety by the caprice of my own, and especially of my wife's rich relations, whom for my life I could not please, and dare not offend. And as old Moore's Almanack foretells daily changes, so I found my wife sometimes imperious, then equally perverse. Sometimes I hoped so many and such frequent changes would lead her to stumble upon something good.

But I found she was

"Stiff in opinion, mostly in the wrong, Be every thing by starts, but nothing long."

As it is always more easy to do evil than good, so the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, and the folly and vice of one can make many miserable. Here again I stopped to think; for a man that is run hard must have is winding-place.-Now I thought the folly of woman kind is the cause of general complaint. But then have I no follies of my own? yes, oh yes! far too many; and experience says what can be expected but disappointment and keen repentance, from a choice made in the immaturity of youth, or the perverseness of age, in the ardour of desire, without judgment, without foresight, without inquiry, at least, for some degree of conformity of opinions, similarity of manners, rectitude of judgment, or purity of sentiment.

Here was the perplexing riddle; vice, and mental uneasiness shorten human life and I am persuaded moral affec

tions are of such extensive influence with respect to man, that there is not one evil in the whole catalogue of diseases, but what owes its origin, or derives affecting advantages from them. But then how is it that the man who lost his wives in rapid succession, should account for the protracted continuance of a neighbour's wife on the ground of perpetual irritation. I pleased my wives to excess in every thing, and contradicted them in nothing, and they soon expired, for woman (said he) cannot live without scolding, but you cross and tease your wife, and irritability prolongs female existence, says the Rambler.

As it must be admitted that all men and women have their faults, I shall feel happy if these lines should be a caution to any person while they are innocent, it may happily prevent the shame and pain, if not anguish, of being reproved, or upbraided, after they are guilty.

My wife never cared for that part of happiness which depends upon the good opinions and actions of others; therefore she never sought the good will of any whom she ought to esteem,