it was, that if he could be divorced from his dame, he would settle the money designed for her, as well as all the rest of his estate, on a young minx whom he had an intention to marry. The old man denied not the charge, and the old dame said it was no lawful objection; but both urged for their divorce, as they both came by mutual consent, and were both ready to give sufficient reasons for their claiming it. As such reasons were thought to be pretty extraordinary, the priest inquired what they might be. They both unanimously insisted they were never lawfully and truly married; therefore, as there had been a material error in the ceremony, the whole marriage ought to be set aside. On being asked what the defect might be, they both eagerly replied, that the priest omitted the necessary and material form, where he should have wished them to increase and multiply. So unexpected a plea raised a general laugh; however, as they insisted on it, it was allowed, on condition the old man should pay his grand-daughter's portion. He consented: the gaffer and his dame were turned north and south; and the one went chuckling away with his young minx, and the other hobbled smirking up to a young country lad, put a bag of money in his hand, and trotted off with much consolation.

To these succeeded another couple, who, having always maintained an exemplary character for conjugal prudence and affection, drew on them the eyes and admiration of all. As soon as they approached the altar, there appeared some reluctance in the woman: she looked on the man with an earnestness which betrayed she had too much love to think of separating herself from him. "Behold there (says my interpreter) an instance of jealousy; that woman is distractedly fond of her husband, yet for some unjust suspicions that he is engaged in an amour, she has lately made his life entirely uneasy; for notwithstanding she has prudence enough to conceal this violent passion from the observation of the world, she is in private continually tormenting him with false accusations. This procedure has occasioned a coldness on his part, which still aggravates her surmises: mutual bickerings have caused frequent wishes on both sides, that there could be a possibility of being unmarried: their wishes. are at last granted, and we shall now see in what manner they will behave." He had no sooner spoke, than the priest was just beginning the ceremonial. They both seemed dissatisfied, and viewed one another as if they repented of their rashness, yet were too obstinate to make such

a confession. They were no sooner separated according to the form prescribed, but they met again at the lower end of the temple; and after a little conversation, the woman was heard to repeat this couplet with much tenderness and pas

sion:

you

Such oddities and charms
have about you,
I cannot live nor with you, nor without you.

The man kissed her with much fondness, and they withdrew together to have the marriage knot again tied, which in the height of passion they had so often wished to have been dissolved.

I was reflecting on the scene which had just passed before my eyes; and observing to my companion that the desire in married persons of dissolving the sacred knot, oftener arose from imaginary causes, or irregular passions, than from any admiration of a single life; at which instant some one knocking at my chamber door, the temple vanished, and I found myself in my elbow-chair.

UNIVERSAL SPECTATOR, vol. iv. p. 51.

No. 38 of the Lounger, a paper by Mr. Mackenzie, seems founded on this lucubration of the Universal Spectator: both are conducted with humour and spirit.

VOL. I.

No. XXV.

But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt, amidst the war of elements,

The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds.

ADD. CATO.

Sir,

I AM an old man, as you are; and when I reflect on the fantastic vicissitude of human affairs; when I consider the shortness of life, and the small pretensions I have to any longer share in it, it fills my mind with something grave, solemn, and, I must own, melancholy: but when I give my thoughts a more unbounded scope, and pass over that short intermission of life, into the contemplation of an eternal being, my mind recovers from that gloom which the first reflection filled me with, and grows gay in proportion to the influence which this latter has upon it.

I was last night reading that celebrated speech of Cato, whence I have taken the motto with which I head this letter; and whether it was from the serious thoughts which that soliloquy inspired, or the last strong glimpses of a mind almost expiring, and habituated to such speculations, I am not able to

determine; but I was no sooner fallen asleep, than the following dream (or rather vision) grew into form, and filled my fancy.

Methought the dreadful hour was come, in which I was to resign this life: my bed was surrounded by a silent company of weeping friends, whose sorrows touched me more than my own approaching dissolution, which happened in less time than human nature can conceive; and therefore (though at that period I felt it sensibly) it is impossible I should now describe it. I was no sooner freed from the incumbrance and obscurity of matter, but my soul became refined to such an infinite degree of conception, that my eyes, having nothing to interrupt or confine their view, were strengthened with such piercing beams, that they darted every glance through an innumerable progression of worlds, and illuminated me with a particular and perfect knowledge of the harmony and fabric of each extended system.

Whilst I was thus lost in contemplation (for infinite space, like an endless source, still afforded me new objects to nourish that inextinguishable thirst of knowledge which is the employment of eternal life), I felt a heavenly transport, which diffused itself swifter than thought through the frame of my new being;