It was not difficult to discover the danger of committing myself for ever to the arms of one who might at any time mistake the dictates of paffion, or the calls of appetite, for the decree of fate; or confider cuckoldom as neceffary to the general fyftem, as a link in the everlafting chain of fucceffive causes. I therefore told her, that deftiny had ordained us to part, and that nothing fhould have torn me from her but the talons of neceflity.

I then folicited the regard of the calm, the prudent, the economical Sophronia, a lady who confidered wit as dangerous, and learning as fuperfluous, and thought that the woman who kept her house clean, and her accounts exact, took receipts for every payment, and could find them at a fudden call, inquired nicely after the condition of the tenants, read the price of flocks once a-week, and purchased every thing at the best market, could want no accomplishments neceffary to the happiness of a wife man. She difcourfed with great folemnity on the care and vigilance which the fuperintendance of a family demands; obferved how many were ruined by confidence in fervants; and told me, that fhe never expected honesty but from a strong cheft, and that the best storekeeper was the miftrefs's eye. Many fuch oracles of generofity fhe uttered, and made every day new improvements in her fchemes for the regulation of her fervants, and the diftribution of her time. I was convinced that, whatever I might fuffer from Sophronia, I fhould efcape poverty; and we therefore proceeded to adjust the fettlements according to her own rule, fair and fofty. But one morning her maid came to me in tears to intreat my in

terest

tereft for a reconciliation to her mistress, who had turned her out at night for breaking fix teeth in a tortoiseshell comb; fhe had attended her lady from a distant province, and having not lived long enough to fave much money, was deftitute among strangers, and, though of a good family, in danger of perishing in the streets, or of being compelled by hunger to prostitution. I made no fcruple of promifing to reftore her; but upon my first application to Sophronia, was answered with an air which called for approbation, that if the neglected her own affairs, I might fufpect her of neglecting mine; that the comb ftood her in three half-crowns; that no fervant fhould wrong her twice; and that indeed fhe took the first opportu nity of parting with Phillida, because, though fhe was honeft, her conftitution was bad, and fhe thought her very likely to fall fick. Of our conference I need not tell you the effect; it furely may be forgiven me, if on this occasion I forgot the decency of common forms.

From two more ladies I was difengaged by find- : ing, that they entertained my rivals at the fame time, and determined their choice by the liberality of our settlements. Another I thought myself juftified in forfaking, becaufe fhe gave my attorney a bribe to favour her in the bargain; another becaufe I could never foften her to tenderness, till fhe heard that most of my family had died young; and another, because, to increase her fortune by expectations, fhe represented her fifter as languishing and confumptive.

I fhall in another letter give the remaining part of my hiftory of courtship. I prefume that I fhould

hitherto

hitherto have injured the majesty of female virtue, had I not hoped to transfer my affection to higher

merit.

I am, &c.

HYMENÆUS.

NUMB. 114. SATURDAY, April 20, 1751.

-Audi,

Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa eft. Juv.

-When man's life is in debate,

The judge can ne'er too long deliberate.

DRYDEN.

POWER and fuperiority are fo flattering and delightful, that, fraught with temptation and exposed to danger as they are, fcarcely any virtue is fo cautious, or any prudence fo timorous, as to decline them. Even thofe that have most reverence for the laws of right, are pleafed with fhewing that not fear, but choice, regulates their behaviour; and would be thought to comply, rather than obey. We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass; and, as the Roman satirist remarks, he that has no defign to take the life of another, is yet glad to have it in his hands.

From the fame principle, tending yet more to degeneracy and corruption, proceeds the defire of investing lawful authority with terrour, and governing by force rather than perfuafion. Pride is unwilling to believe the neceffity of affigning any other

reafon

reason than her own will; and would rather maintain the most equitable claims by violence and penalties, than defcend from the dignity of command to dif pute and expoftulation.

It may, I think, be suspected, that this political arrogance has fometimes found its way into legiflative affemblies, and mingled with deliberations upon property and life. A flight perufal of the laws by which the measures of vindictive and coërcive juftice are established, will discover fo many difproportions between crimes and punishments, fuch capricious distinctions of guilt, and fuch confufion of remiffness and severity, as can fcarcely be believed to have been produced by publick wifdom, fincerely and calmly ftudious of publick happiness.

The learned, the judicious, the pious Boerhaave relates, that he never faw a criminal dragged to execution without asking himself, "Who knows "whether this man is not lefs culpable than me?" On the days when the prifons of this city are emptied into the grave, let every fpectator of the dreadful proceffion put the fame queftion to his own heart. Few among thofe that crowd in thousands to the legal maffacre, and look with careleffnefs, perhaps with triumph, on the utmost exacerbations of human mifery, would then be able to return without horrour and dejection. For, who can congratulate himself upon a life paffed without fome act more mischievous to the peace or prosperity of others, than the theft of a piece of money?

It has been always the practice, when any particular fpecies of robbery becomes prevalent and common, to endeavour its fuppreffion by capital denunciations.

nunciations. Thus, one generation of malefactors is commonly cut off, and their fucceffors are frighted into new expedients; the art of thievery is augmented with greater variety of fraud, and fubtilized to higher degrees of dexterity, and more occult methods of conveyance. The law then renews the pursuit in the heat of anger, and overtakes the offender again with death. By this practice, capital inflictions are multiplied, and crimes, very different in their degrees of enormity, are equally fubjected to the feverest punishment that man has the power of exercifing upon man.

The lawgiver is undoubtedly allowed to estimate the malignity of an offence, not merely by the lofs or pain which fingle acts may produce, but by the general alarm and anxiety arifing from the fear of mischief, and infecurity of poffeffion: he therefore exercises the right which focieties are fuppofed to have over the lives of thofe that compofe them, not fimply to punifh a tranfgreffion, but to maintain order, and preferve quiet; he enforces thofe laws with feverity that are most in danger of violation, as the commander of a garrifon doubles the guard on that fide which is threatened by the enemy.

This method has been long tried, but tried with fo little fuccefs, that rapine and violence are hourly increasing, yet few feem willing to defpair of its efficacy, and of those who employ their fpeculations upon the prefent corruption of the people, fome propose the introduction of more horrid, lingering, and terrifick punishments; fome are inclined to accelerate the executions; fome to difcourage pardons; and all feem to think that lenity has given VOL. V. confi.

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