good education, character, and connexions; but I perceived Miss B resolved not to marry him, no, not she, for her resolution was to have a man of superior understanding, and until then a train of admirers to bear her up.

But I forbear to call him blest,

"Who only boasts a large estate."

One beau after another were overlooked. She knew not how to choose a man that was in the way to be useful in society and respectable, though she could understand when a man is called rich. Many wondered how it was that Miss B above all other ladies could not select one to suit herself out of many admirers. But they had forgotten, or could not understand, that it is impossible to collect the heart divided into so many particles. Deterred, I stood gently breathing at a distance, under the oppressive conviction, that decayed teeth form a great evil, a blighted character, worse, and coquetry the essence of them all, not to be remedied or borne, for who can concentrate scattered affections.

I began to grow old, and had not yet found a lady to my mind. Still I was nice; for I had not seen the woman I could truly love, and thought it better to live single, than to marry the lady I could not fancy. Fancy I considered a standing and necessary friend, to suport me through life, having the faculty of compounding ideas by the senses; call it a liking or fondness; mere humour, whim, or caprice; something, nothing, or invention, which pleases. I am sure it is frequently master and mistress in the journey of life. For what is a man without his senses, but a creature without understanding, or destitute of a capacity of being affected by good or ill, by arguments or pity, reason or justice; but as the senses are pleased or of fended, so they transmit their notices or perceptions to the mind; and what is man without mind? I began to fret over the loss of time, and tease myself, by daily supposing I was more difficult than wise. But one day when passing over two roads, I stumbled upon the gayest lady and the largest trial ever man met with. A fine polish, a fine mould, a good, glass, a fine work of nature, and every

thing to satisfy every engagement I could make. I imagined I saw inconceivable dignity in the folds of her garment.

If I determined to be rich and happy, it was now, or never! I threw down, and with the utmost facility, stepped over a thousand pros and cons, hurried to the lovely female. A fortune, a fortune! My head and heart were so full of the good choice, and so enraptured with the kind fortune, that I could scarcely sleep. So enamoured was my foolish soul, that I could not stop to take my breath, unless I was sure of success; and in a few months the whole business was brought about. My mind was brought to its stay, a hundred men could not move it, for I should have stamped the dolt in the dust that dared to suggest I should be ruined by making a fortune!

If, for a moment, a mere peradventure dared to leap into my head, it was stifled by the grappling argument, and the anticipated comforts that at all events, I should be as well off as my neighbours, for I saw half the town was taken in, on one side the question or the other.

A step lost here, I thought, would be as fatal as in a mathematical demonstration. Yet I cannot forget the hint in the World Without Souls, though unfortunate for me, for me, the author wrote a few years too late for the Troubled Husband, to avail himself of the doctrine, "That, though there is a contrast of voice, manner, and character, displayed by two combatants in the war of words," yet these two things are obvious concerning them; they are man and wife, and that one is under the influence of religion, and the other unacquainted with it. "Marriage is like some exquisite instrument which can be tuned only by the hand of heaven." God who made

the hearts alone can harmonize them, by the infusion of common views, hopes, and joys.

"To give retired home a zest peculiar,
"And the vast sum of intercourse enlarge."

Think ye that all of conjugal delights
Concentre in the limitable span

Of sensitive enjoyments, or the round
Of modish or of fashionable vice?

The joys of love from other sources spring;

T'embrace reciprocally dear, friendship,
And amity, and peace, with love of home.
Taste they domestic happiness who roam
With ever-restless feet from scene to scene,
And live if life be not a prostituted term,
In other dwellings, rather than their own;
Or made the jaunting tour, impress some friend
Or friends to cheer their solitary home?
Know they the matchless joys of wedded love
Who dread each other's presence, and rejoice
When the blest hour of separation comes,
That unrestricted either may pursue
What interest or pleasure may recline;
Who forced by sheer convenience, customs, law,
And fear of shame, brook every galling chain.

Though it is true, my hands had often been clasped in the attitude of devotion, before it was possible for me to know the object of worship; yet having arrived at an age, when our opinion is too apt to sit loosely upon us, I found that though the earliest feelings seem to take a deeper hold, still mine were ready to give way for any new. object.

My passions were strong, my imaginations warm, and my energy ever awake, every day gave birth for some