'took me out at the age of two and twenty, and dodged with me above thirty years. I have lov'ed her till fhe is grown as grey as a cat, and am with much ado become the master of her person, fuch as it is at prefent. She is, however, in my < eye a very charming old woman. We often lament that we did not marry fooner, but the has < nobody to blame for it but herfelf: You know very well that fhe would never think of me whilst 'fhe had a tooth in her head. I have put the date of my paffion (Anno amoris trigeffimo primo) inftead of a pofy on my wedding-ring. I expect you should fend me a congratulatory letter, or, if you pleafe, an epithalamium upon this occafion. Mrs Martha's and yours eternally,

'SAM HOPEWELL.'

In order to banish an evil out of the world, that does not only produce great uneafiness to private perfons, but has also a very bad influence on the publick, I fhall endeavour to fhew the folly of de-. murrage from two or three reflections which I earneftly recommend to the thoughts of my fair read

ers.

First of all, I would have them seriously think on the shortness of their time. Life is not long enough for a coquette to play all her tricks in. A timorous woman drops into her grave before the has done deliberating. Were the age of man the fame that it was before the flood, a lady might facrifice half a century to a fcruple, and be two or three ages in demurring. Had the nine hundred years good, the might hold out to the conversion of the Jews before the thought fit to be prevailed upon. But alas! the ought to play her part in hafte, when the confiders that the is fuddenly to quite the ftage, and make room for others.

In the fecond place, I would defire my female readers to confider, that as the term of life is fhort,

that

that of beauty is much thorter. The finest skin wrinkles in a few years, and lofes the strength of its colourings fo foon, that we have fcarce time to admire it. I might embellish this fubject with rofes and rainbows, and feveral other ingenious conceits, which I may poffibly referve for another opportunity.

There is a third confideration which I would likewife recommend to a demurrer, and that is the great danger of her falling in love when the is about threefcore, if the cannot fatisfy her doubts and fcruples before that time. There is a kind of letter fpring, that fometimes gets into the blood of an old woman and turns her into a very odd fort of an animal. I would therefore have the demurrer confider what a ftrange figure fhe will make, if fhe chances to get over all difficulties, and comes to a final refolution in that unseasonable part of her life.

I would not however be understood, by any thing I have here faid, to discourage that natural modefty in the fex, which renders a retreat from the first approaches of a lover both fashionable and graceful: All that I intend, is, to advise them, when they are prompted by reafon and inclination, to demur only out of form, and fo far as decency requires. A virtuous woman fhould reject the first offer of marriage, as a good man does that of a bithoprick; but I would advife neither the one nor the other to perfift in refufing what they fecretly. approve. I would in this particular propofe the example of Eve to all her daughters, as Milton has represented her in the following paffage, which I cannot forbear tranfcribing intire, though only the twelve last lines are to my present purpose.

The rib he form'd and fashion'd with his hands ; Under his forming hands a creature grew, Man-like, but diff'rent fex; fo lovely fair, That what feem'd fair in all the world, feem'd now VOL. II.

D

Mean,

Mean, or in her fumm'd up, in her contain'd,
And in her looks; which from that time infus'd
Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before:
And into all things from her air infpir'd
The fpirit of love and amorous delight.

She difappear'd, and left me dark! I wak'd
To find her, or for ever to deplore
Her lofs, and other pleasures all abjure;
When out of hope, behold her, not far off,
Such as Ijaw her in my dream, adorn'd
With what all earth or heaven could beftow
To make her amiable. On fhe came,
Led by her heav'nly Maker, tho' unseen,
And guided by his voice, nor uninform❜d
Of nuptial fanctity and marriage rites:
Grace was in all her steps, heav'n in her eye,
In every gefture dignity and love.

I, overjoy'd, could not forbear aloud.

This turn hath made amends; thou haft fulfill'd
Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign!
Giver of all things fair; but fairest this
Of all thy gifts, nor envieft. I now fee
Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself....
She heard me thus, and tho' divinely brought,
Yet innocence and virgin modefty,

Her virtue, and the confcience of her worth,
That would be woo'd, and not unfought be won,
Not obvious, not obtrufive, but retir'd
The more defireable; or, to fay all,
Nature herself, tho' pure of finful thought,
Wrought in her fo, that feeing me fe turn'd.
I follow'd her: She what was honour knew,
And with obfequious majefiy approv'd
My pleaded reafon. To the nuptial bow'r
I led her blufhing like the morn

WEDNESDAY,

HERE is not in my opinion, a confideration

more effectual to extinguith inordinate defires in the foul of man, than the notions of Plato and his followers upon that fubject. They tell us, that every paffion which has been contracted by the foul during her refidence in the body, remains with her in a separate state; and that the foul in the body, or out of the body, differs no more than the man does from himself when he is in his houfe, or in open air. When therefore the obfcene paffions in particular have once taken root, and fpread themfelves in the foul, they cleave to her infeparably, and remain in her for ever, after the body is caft off and thrown afide. As an argument to confirm this their doctrine they obferve, that a lewd youth who goes on in a continued courfe of voluptuoufnefs, advances by degrees into a libidinous old man; and that the paffion furvives in the mind when it is altogether dead in the body; nay, that the defire grows more violent, and (like all other habits) ga. thers ftrength by age, at the fame time that it has no power of executing its own purposes. If, fay they, the foul is the moft fubject to these paffions at a time when it has the leaft infligations from the body, we may well fuppofe fhe will still retain them when she is intirely divefted of it. The very fubftance of the foul is feftered with them, the gangrene is gone too far to be ever cured; the inflammation will rage to all eternity.

In this therefore (fay the Platonists) confifts the punishment of a voluptuous man after death: He is tormented with defires which it is impoffible for him to gratify, folicited by a paffion that has neither objects nor organs adapted to it: He lives in a ftate of invincible defire and impotence, and always burns in the purfuit of what he always defpairs to poffefs. It is for this reafon (fays Plato) that the fouls of the dead appear frequently in cœmiteries, and hover about the places where their bodies are buried, as ftill hankering after their old brutal pleasures, and defiring again to enter the body that gave them an opportunity of fulfilling them.

Some of our moft eminent divines have made ufe of this Platonick notion, fo far as it regards the fubfiftence of our paffions after death, with great beauty and ftrength of reafon. Plato indeed carries the thought very far, when he grafts upon it his opinion of ghofts appearing in places of burial. Though, 1 muft confefs, if one did believe that the departed fouls of men and women wandered up and down thefe lower regions, and entertained themselves with the fight of their fpecies, one could not devise a more proper hell for an impure fpirit than that which Plato has touched upon.

The ancients feem to have drawn fuch a state of torments in the defcription of Tantalus, who was punished with the rage of an eternal thirft, and fet up to the chin in water that fled from his lips whenever he attempted to drink it.

Virgil, who has caft the whole system of Platonick philofophy, fo far as it relates to the foul of man, in beautiful allegories, in the fixth book of his Anied, gives us the punishment of a voluptuary after death, not unlike that which we are here fpeaking of.

-Lucent