as being equally against it; but it is by no means proper the young ladies should observe we ever dis sent; therefore I turned the discourse by saying, It was time enough to think of marrying a young lady who was but three-and-twenty, ten years hence. The whole table was alarmed at the assertion, and the Sparkler scalded her fingers by leaning suddenly for ward to look in my face: but my business at present was to make my court to the mother; therefore, without regarding the resentment in the looks of the children, Madam, said I, there is a petulant and hasty manner practised in this age, in hurrying away the life of woman, and confining the grace and principal action of it to those years wherein reason and discretion are most feeble, humour and passion most powerful. From the time a young woman of quality has first appeared in the drawing-room, raised a whisper and curiosity of the men about her, had her health drank in gay companies, and been distinguished in public assemblies; I say, Madam, if within three or four years of her first appearance in town, she is not disposed of, her beauty is grown familiar, her eyes are disarmed, and we seldom after hear her mentioned but with indifference. What doubles my grief on this occasion is, that the more discreetly the lady behaves herself, the sooner is her glory extinguished. Now, Madam, if merit had a greater weight in our thoughts when we form to ourselves agreeable characters of women, men would think, in making their choices, of such as would take care of as well as supply children for the nursery. It was not thus in the illustrious days of good Queen Elizabeth. I was this morning turning over a folio, called "The Complete Ambassador," consisting chiefly of letters from Lord Burleigh, Earl of Leicester, and Sir Thomas Smith. Sir Thomas writes a letter to Sir Francis Walsingham, full of learned gallantry; wherein you may observe he promises himself the French King's brother (who it seems was but a cold lover) would be quickened by seeing the queen in person, who was then in the thirty-ninth year of her age. A certain sobriety in thoughts, words, and action, which was the praise of that age, kept the fire of love alive; and it burnt so equally, that it warmed and preserved, without tormenting and consuming our beings. The letter I mention is as follows: To the Right Worshipful Mr. Francis Walsingham, Ambassador, Resident in France. • SIR, I AM sorry that so good a matter should, " upon so nice a point, be deferred. We may say that the lover will do little, if he will not take the 'pains once to see his love; but she must first say Yes, before he sees her or she him. Twenty ways 'might be devised why he might come over, and be welcome, and possibly do more in an hour than he may in two years. "Cupido ille qui vincit omnia, in oculos insidet, et ex oculis ejaculatur, et in oculos utriusque videndo non solum, ut ait poeta, fœmina virum, sed vir fœminam." That powerful being Cupid, who conquers all things, resides in the eyes; he sends out all his darts from the eyes. By throwing glances at the eyes (according to the poet) not only the woman captivates the man, but also the man the woman. What force, I pray you can hearsay (and I think and I trust) do in comparison of that, "cum præsens præsentem tuetur et alloquitur, et furore forsitan amoris ductus amplectitur," when they face to face see and converse with each other, and the lover in an ectasy, not to be commanded, snatches an embrace, and saith to ( himself, and openly that she may hear, "Teneone 'te, an etiamnum somno volunt fœminæ videri cogi ad id quod maximum capiunt?" Are you in my < arms, my fair one, or do we both dream, and will ( women, even in their sleep, seem forced to what they most desire? If we be cold, it is our part, besides the person, the sex requireth it. Why are 6 you cold? Is it not a young man's part to be bold, courageous, and to adventure? If he should have, he should have but "honorificam repulsam ;” even a repulse here is glorious. The worst than can be said of him is but as of Phaeton; "Quam si non tenuit magnis tamen excidit ausis:" Though he 'could not command the chariot of the sun, his fall 'from it would be illustrious. So far as I conceive, "Hæc est sola nostra anchora, hæc jacenda est in nobis alea;" this is our only anchor; this dye must be thrown. In our instability," Unum momentum 'est uno momento perfectum factum, ac dictam sta⚫bilitatem facere potest:" one lucky moment would crown and fix all. This, or else nothing is to be 'looked for but continual dalliance and doubtfulness, so far as I can see. From Killingworth, Your assured friend, THOMAS SMITH.' Though my lady was in very good humour upon the insinuation that, according to the Elizabeth scheme, she was but just advanced above the character of a girl; I found the rest of the company as much disheartened, that they were still but mere girls. I went on, therefore, to attribute the immature marriages which are solemnized in our days to the importunity of the men; which made it impossible for young ladies to remain virgins so long as they wished from their own inclinations, and the freedom of a single life. There is no time of our life, under what character soever, in which men can wholly divest themselves of an ambition to be in the favour of women. Cardan, a great philosopher and physician, confesses in one of his chapters, that though he had sufficient poverty, repulses, calumnies, and a long series of afflictions, he never was thoroughly dejected and impatient of life itself, but under a calamity which he suffered from the beginning of his twenty-first to the end of his thirtieth year. He tells us, that the raillery he suffered from others, and the contempt which he had of himself, were afflictions beyond expression. I mention this only as an argument extorted from this good and grave man, to support my opinion of the irresistible power of women. He adds, in the same chapter, that there are ten thousand afflictions and disasters attending the passion itself; that an idle word imprudently repeated by a fair woman, and vast expences to support her folly and vanity, every day reduce men to poverty and death; but he makes them of little consideration to the miserable and insignificant condition of being incapable of their fa vour. I make no manner of difficulty of professing I am not surprised that the author has expressed himself after this manner, with relation to love: the heroic chastity so frequently professed by humourists of the fair sex, generally ends in an unworthy choice, after having overlooked overtures to their advantage. It is for this reason that I would endeavour to direct, and not pretend to eradicate the inclinations of the sexes to each other. Daily experience shews us, that the most rude rustic grows humane as soon as he is inspired by this passion; it gives a new grace to our manners, a new dignity to our minds, a new visage to our persons. Whether we are inclined to liberal arts, to arms, or address in our exercise, our improvement is hastened by a particular object whom we would please. Cheerfulness, gentleness, fortitude liberality, magnificence, and all the virtues which adorn ren, which inspire heroes, are most conspicu ous in lovers. I speak of love as when such as are i this company are the objects of it, who can bestow upon their husbands (if they follow their excellen: mother) all its joys without any of its anxieties. No. VIII. FRIDAY, MARCH 20. ..Animum rege... Govern the mind. HOR. A GUARDIAN cannot bestow his time in any office more suitable to his character, than in repre senting the disasters to which we are exposed by the irregularity of our passions. I think I speak of this matter in a way not yet taken notice of when I observe that they make men do things unworthy of those very passions. I shall illustrate this by a story I! have read in the Royal Commentaries of Peru, where in you behold an oppressor a most contemptible creature after his power is at an end; and a person he oppressed so wholly intent upon revenge till he had obtained it, that in the pursuit of it he utterly neglect ed his own safety; but when that motive of revenge was at an end, returned to a sense of danger, in such a manner as to be unable to lay hold of occasions which offered themselves for certain security, and |