a little rouge, and to concentrate the rays of her affections upon some youthful 'squire, ensign, or merchant's apprentice; whose attractions are com prised in a pair of white hands, a portion of skill in dancing, and the Christian-name of Charles, or Henry.

Now it is that the poison begins to work; and several destinies await the lady; some of which she must choose; and the least formidable of them is not to be envied!

Let us imagine that, contrary to

probability, she escapes infamy, deser

.

tion, and despair; and, like another

Lydia Languish, lives to be called spinster in church, and to become honourably a mother and then see what has been her preparation for this momentous calling, and what is likely to be the consequence.

For two or three years previous to marriage, she has moved amidst imaginary circles of heroes, nobility, and even of angels; in an ideal Elysium; where she has breathed none but vernal airs, and dwelt only in groves of immortal foliage; where all her nights glistened with moon-light, and all her days were sunny; where she has conversed

with personages who, instead of resembling the inhabitants of this world, resemble nothing, except the silly fancies of the foolish or vicious authors of the novels she has been reading; and who sometimes know as little of the realities of life as she does; or knowing, designedly conceal or misrepresent them.

It is, therefore, not wonderful that she should believe intrigue to be natural, falsehood and filial disobedience venial, and the passion of love absolutely invincible; that a consumption is interesting; and a fever, not a misfortune,

chanting weakness, and prepossessing languor; and that youth, and its conco

mitants of blooming cheeks, auburn

ringlets, pearly teeth, and odoriferous breath, are perpetuities, not only to her but to her favoured lover; who is, like herself, an assemblage of perfections. He, we must suppose, in his turn, has received similar impressions by similar means; and having arrived at the experienced and sagacious age of one or two and twenty (when by the laws he is styled a man, though in truth at that period nine out of ten are sucklings as to knowledge of the world),

makes formal proposals; and these two wiseacres are united by the indissoluble tie of marriage, without affluence, without erudition, without a capability of looking into the future, without knowing the characters and tempers of each other, without one correct notion of the important step they are taking, or of any other important step in short, without a single rational inducement, and inspired solely by inclinations congenial to the young of opposite sexes; and these inclinations exasperated into frenzy by the perusal of novels.