During the confufion of my affairs, and the daily neceffity of vifiting farms, adjusting contracts, letting leases, and fuperintending repairs, I found very little vacuity in my life, and therefore had not many thoughts of marriage; but, in a little while, the tumult of business fubfided, and the exact method which I had established, enabled me to difpatch my accounts with great facility. I had, therefore, now upon my hands the task of finding means to spend my time, without falling back into the poor amusements which I had hitherto indulged, or changing them for the fports of the field, which I faw purfued with fo much eagerness by the gentlemen of the country, that they were indeed the only pleasures in which I could promise myself any par taker. The inconvenience of this fituation naturally difpofed me to wifh for a companion, and the known value of my eftate, with my reputation for frugality and prudence, eafily gained me admiffion into every family; for I foon found that no enquiry was made after any other virtue, nor any testimonial neceffary, but of my freedom from incumbrances, and my care of what they termed the main chance. I faw not without indignation, the eagerness with which the daughters, wherever I came, were fet out to fhow; nor could I confider them in a state much different from proftitution, when I found them ordered to play their airs before me, and to exhibit, by fome feeming chance, fpecimens of their mufick, -their work, or their housewifery. No fooner was I placed at table, than the young lady was called upon to pay me fome civility or other; nor could I find means of escaping from either father or mother, fome account of their daughter's excellencies, with a declaration that they were now leaving the world, and had no bufinefs on this fide the grave, but to fee their children happily difpofed of; that fhe whom I had been pleafed to compliment at table, was indeed the chief pleasure of their age, fo good, fo dutiful, fo great a relief to her mamma in the care of the house, and fo much her papa's favourite for her chearfulness and wit, that it would be with the laft reluctance that they should part; but to a worthy gentleman in the neighbourhood, whom they might often vifit, they would not so far confult their own gratification as to refufe her; and their tenderness fhould be fhewn in her fortune, whenever a fuitable fettlement was propofed. As I knew these overtures not to proceed from any preference of me before another equally rich, I could not but look with pity on young perfons condemned to be fet to auction, and made cheap by injudicious commendations; for how could they know themselves offered and rejected a hundred times, without fome lofs of that foft elevation, and maiden dignity, fo neceffary to the completion of female excellence? I fhall not trouble you with a history of the ftratagems practifed upon my judgment, or the allurements tried upon my heart, which, if you have, in any part of your life, been acquainted with rural politicks, you will eafily conceive. Their arts have no great variety, they think nothing worth their care but money, and fuppofing its influence the fame upon all the world, feldom endeavour to deceive by any other means than falfe computations. I will not deny that, by hearing myself loudly commended for my difcretion, I began to fet fome value upon my character, and was unwilling to lose my credit by marrying for love. I therefore refolved to know the fortune of the lady whom I fhould addrefs, before I enquired after her wit, delicacy, or beauty. This determination led me to Mitiffa, the daughter of Chryfophilus, whofe perfon was at leaft with out 193 out deformity, and whofe manners were free from reproach, as he had been bred up at a distance from all common temptations. To Mitiffa, therefore, I obtained leave from her parents to pay my court, and was referred by her again to her father, whofe direction fhe was refolved to follow. The queftion then was, only, what should be fettled? The old gentleman made an enormous demand, with which I refused to comply. Mitiffa was ordered to exert her power; fhe told me, that if I could refuse her papa, I had no love for her; that fhe was an unhappy creature, and that I was a perfidious man then fhe burst into tears, and fell into fits. All this, as I was no paffionate lover, had little effect. She next refused to fee me, and because I thought myself obliged to write in terms of diftrefs, they had once hopes of ftarving me into measures; but finding me inflexible, the father complied with my propofal, and told me he liked me the more for being fo good at a bargain. on I was now married to Mitiffa, and was to experience the happiness of a match made without paffion. Mitiffa foon difcovered, that fhe was equally. prudent with myself, and had taken a husband only to be at her own command, and to have a chariot at her own call. She brought with her an old maid recommended by her mother, who taught her all the arts of domeftick management, and was, every occafion, her chief agent and directrefs. They foon invented one reafon or other, to quarrel with all my fervants, and either prevailed on me to turn them away, or treated them fo ill, that they left me of themselves, and always fupplied their places with fome brought from my wife's relations. Thus they established a family, over which I had no authority, and which was in a perpetual confpiracy against me; for Mitiffa confidered herself as having VOL. I. K a fe a separate intereft, and thought nothing her own, but what the laid up without my knowledge. For this reason fhe brought me falfe accounts of the expences of the house, joined with my tenants in complaints of hard times, and by means of a fteward of her own, took rewards for foliciting abatements of the rent. Her great hope is to outlive me, that The may enjoy what fhe has thus accumulated, and therefore fhe is always contriving fome improvements of her jointure land, and once tried to procure an injunction to hinder me from felling timber upon it for repairs. Her father and mother affift her in her projects, and are frequently hinting that fhe is ill ufed, and reproaching me with the prefents that other ladies receive from their husbands. Such, Sir, was my fituation for feven years, till at last my patience was exhaufted, and having one day invited her father to my house, I laid the ftate of my affairs before him, detected my wife in feveral of her frauds, turned out her fteward, charged a conftable with her maid, took my business in my own hands, reduced her to a fettled allowance, and now write this account to warn others against marrying those whom they have no reason to esteem, I am, &c. NUMB NUMB. 36. SATURDAY, July 21, 1750. *Αμ ̓ ἕποιο νομῆες Τερπόμενοι σύριγξι δόλον δ' ότι προνόησαν. -Piping on their reeds, the fhepherds go, TH HOMER. POPE. HERE is fcarcely any fpecies of poetry, that has allured more readers, or excited more writers, than the paftoral. It is generally pleafing, because it entertains the mind with reprefentations of fcenes familiar to almost every imagination, and of which all can equally judge whether they are well defcribed. It exhibits a life, to which we have been always accustomed to affociate peace, and leifure, and innocence: and therefore we readily fet open the heart, for the admiffion of its images, which contribute to drive away cares and perturbations, and fuffer ourselves, without refiftance, to be transported to elyfian regions, where we are to meet with nothing but joy, and plenty, and contentment; where every gale whispers pleasure, and every fhade promises repose. It has been maintained by fome, who love to talk of what they do not know, that paftoral is the most ancient poetry; and, indeed, fince it is probable, that poetry is nearly of the fame antiquity with rational nature, and fince the life of the first men was certainly rural, we may reasonably conjecture, that, as their ideas would neceffarily be borrowed from thofe objects with which they were acquainted, their compofures, being filled chiefly with fuch thoughts on the visible creation as must occur to the first observers, were paftoral hymns like those which Milton introduces the original pair finging, in the day of innocence, to the praife of their Maker. |