I

NUMB. 39. TUESDAY, July 31, 1750.

Infelix――nulli bene nupta marito.

Unbleft, fill doom'd to wed with misery.

THE

AUSONIUS.

HE condition of the female fex has been frequently the fubject of compaffion to medical writers, because their conftitution of body is fuch, that every state of life brings its peculiar difeafes: they are placed, according to the proverb, between Scylla and Charybdis, with no other choice than : of dangers equally formidable; and whether they - embrace marriage, or determine upon a fingle life, are exposed, in confequence of their choice, to fickness, misery, and death.

It were to be wished that fo great a degree of natural infelicity might not be increased by adventitious and artificial miferies; and that beings whofe beauty we cannot behold without admiration, and whofe delicacy we cannot contemplate without tenderness, might be fuffered to enjoy every alleviation of their forrows. But, however it has happened, the cuftom of the world feems to have been formed in a kind of conspiracy against them, though it does not appear but they had themselves an equal fhare in its eftablishment; and prescriptions which, by whomfoever they were begun, are now of long continuance, and by confequence of great authority, feem to have alinoft excluded them from content, in whatsoever condition they shall pass their lives.

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If they refuse the fociety of men, and continue in that ftate which is reafonably fuppofed to place happiness moft in their own power, they feldom give thofe that frequent their conversation, any

exalted

!

exalted notions of the bleffing of liberty; for whether it be that they are angry to fee with what inconfiderate eagernefs other heedlefs females rush into flavery, or with what abfurd vanity the married ladies boäft the change of their condition, and condemn the heroines who endeavour to affert the natural dignity of their fex; whether they are confcious that like barren countries they are free, only because they were never thought to deserve the trouble of a conqueft, or imagine that their fincerity is not always unfufpected, when they declare their contempt of men; it is certain, that they generally appear to have fome great and inceffant cause of uneasiness, and that many of them have at last been perfuaded, by powerful rhetoricians, to try the life which they had fo long contemned, and put on the bridal ornaments at a time when they leaft became them.

What are the real caufes of the impatience which the ladies difcover in a virgin ftate, Ifhall perhaps take fome other occafion to examine. That it is not to be envied for its happiness, appears from the folicitude with which it is avoided; from the opinion universally prevalent among the >sex, that no woman continues long in it but because she is not invited to forfake it; from the difpofition always fhewn to treat old maids as the -refufe of the world; and from the willingness with which it is often quitted at last, by those whose -experience has enabled them to judge at leisure, and decide with authority.

Yet fuch is life, that whatever is proposed, it is >much easier to find reafons for rejecting than em"bracing. Marriage, though a certain security from "the reproach and folitude of antiquated virginity,

has

has yet, as it is usually conducted, many disadvantages, that take away much from the pleasure which fociety promises, and might afford, if pleafures and pains were honeftly shared, and mutual confidence inviolably preserved.

The miseries, indeed, which many ladies fuffer under conjugal vexations, are to be confidered with great pity, because their husbands are often not taken by them as objects of affection, but forced upon them by authority and violence, or by perfuafion and importunity, equally refiftless when urged by those whom they have been always accuftomed to reverence and obey; and it very feldom appears, that those who are thus defpotick in the difpofal of their children, pay any regard to their domestick and perfonal felicity, or think it fo much to be enquired whether they will be happy, as whether they will be rich.

It may be urged, in extenuation of this crime, which parents, not in any other refpect to be numbered with robbers and affaffins, frequently commit, that, in their eftimation, riches and happiness are equivalent terms. They have paffed their lives with no other with than that of adding acre to acre, and filling one bag after another, and imagine the advantage of a daughter fufficiently confidered, when they have secured her a large jointure, and given her reasonable expectations of living in the midft of those pleafures, with which fhe had feen her father and mother folacing their age,

There is an economical oracle received among the prudential part of the world, which advifes fathers to marry their daughters left they should marry themfelves; by which I fuppofe it is implied, that women left to their own conduct, generally unite

themselves

themselves with fuch partners as can contribute very little to their felicity. Who was the author of this maxim, or with what intention it was originally uttered, I have not yet difcovered; but imagine that however folemnly it may be transmitted, or however implicitly received, it can confer no authority which nature has denied, it cannot license Titius to be unjust, lest Caia should be imprudent; nor give right to imprison for life, left liberty fhould be ill employed.

That the ladies have fometimes incurred imputations which might naturally produce edicts not much in their favour, must be confeffed by their warmeft advocates; and I have indeed feldom obferved, than when the tenderness or virtue of their parents has preferved them from forced marriage, and left them at large to chuse their own path in the labyrinth of life, they have made any great advantage of their liberty: They commonly take the opportunity of independence to trifle away youth and lofe their bloom in a hurry of diverfions, recurring in a fucceffion too quick to leave room for any fettled reflection; they see the world without gaining experience, and at laft regulate their choice by motives trifling as thofe of a girl, or mercenary as those of a miser.

Melanthia came to town upon the death of her father, with a very large fortune, and with the reputation of a much larger; fhe was therefore followed and careffed by many men of rank, and by fome of understanding; but having an infatiable defire of pleasure, fhe was not at leifure, from the park, the gardens, the theatres, vifits, affemblies, and masquerades, to attend seriously to any propofal, but was ftill impatient for a new flatterer,

flatterer, and neglected marriage as always in her, power; till in time her admirers fell away, wearied. with expence, difgufted at her folly, or offended · by her inconftancy; fhe heard of concerts to which he was not invited, and was more than once forced to fit fill at an assembly for want of a partner. In this diftrefs, chance threw in her way Philotryphus, a man vain, glittering, and thoughtlefs as herself, who had spent a fmall fortune in equipage and drefs, and was shining in the laft fuit 'for which his tailor would give him credit. He had been long endeavouring to retrieve his extravagance by marriage, and therefore foon aid his court to Melanthia, who after some weeks of infenfibility faw him at a ball, and was wholly wercome by his performance in a minuet. They narried; but a man cannot always dance, and Phiotryphus had no other method of pleafing: howver, as neither was in any great degree vicious, they ve together with no other unhappiness, than vauity of mind, and that tafteleffness of life, which roceeds from a fatiety of juvenile pleasures, and an tter inability to fill their place by nobler employents. As they have known the fashionable world tthe fame time, they agree in their notions of all hose subjects on which they ever speak, and being ble to add nothing to the ideas of each other, are ot much inclined to converfation, but very often in in one with, "That they could fleep more, and think lefs."

Argyris, after having refufed a thoufand offers, laft confented to marry Cotylus, the younger other of a duke, a man without elegance of mien, auty of perfon, or force of understanding; who, ile he courted her, could not always forbear

allufions